Tag Archives: Christianity

Truth: Day 8—I Can Trust God

What I have said, that I will bring about;
    what I have planned, that I will do.

Isaiah 46:11

He will do what He says He will do. Always.

No broken promises, no empty words.

There is none truer than Him.

Not soft. Not weak. True.

He doesn’t leave. Doesn’t give up. Never takes His love away.

He holds nothing over me. Fully forgives.

No shadows, no darkness. Only light.

I had learned to never trust. To keep my distance. My wall was rather high. But little by little He took away the bricks and loved me. One promise at a time He was faithful to me. Not hurried. No impatience. Just steady presence, steady love.

And it healed me. Delivered me. Changed me. Rescued me.

So I declare truth and it helps me live truth.

No matter what comes. No matter what it looks like or feels like. No matter how much I want to run.

I can trust God.

Truth: Day 6—I Am A Witness

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Acts 1:8

I have a testimony. A story to tell.

The story of my rescue, of the way He reached into the darkness and pulled a wretch into the light. It remains a spectacular mystery to me.

The many ways He saved me, mostly from my own self-destructive ways, but from cards dealt from a stacked deck too.

The grace that never got winded from chasing me down.

The love that healed a heart that was in pieces.

The mercy that brought my rebellion to its knees in surrender because He didn’t deal with me as my sins deserved.

I could tell of how nothing made sense until He let my blind eyes see Him. Then it all made sense and nothing would ever be the same.

His Word set me free. His love healed me. His grace let me stand. His mercy brought me low.

His death gave me life that will never end.

In a thousand ways He changed everything and became everything and now everything I am is His.

But I forget the story. Forget to tell it. To let it fall on someone else and give them hope.

So I declare truth because I want to live the truth.

He has given me a story to tell about Him.

Where ever I am, I am His witness.

Truth: Day 5—I Am A Servant

 “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them. It must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

Matthew 20:25-28

It’s part of who I am now. Servant. Like Jesus.

Even when. No, especially when, it rubs my flesh the wrong way.

When it feels like all I do is serve.

When noone seems to notice.

When it goes unappreciated.

When I’m tired and when I’m ready for someone else to do the serving.

Even when serving others isn’t serving me. (sit with that one for a minute. it will start to sting.)

I am a servant of Christ and that just rolls off my tongue easy like, until I’m treated like a servant. I don’t mind the title of servant, I just don’t want the duty of a servant. The title lets me keep my pride but the duty forces me to lay it down.

But the truth is the truth and there isn’t some secret meaning to the word servant. It is what it sounds like it is, and Jesus declared it over Himself.

So I declare the truth to help me live the truth.

I am here to lay down my life for others. And when I live this way, I am most like the One who layed down His life for me.

I am a servant.

Truth: Day 4—His Yoke Is Easy

 “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30

We make following Jesus hard.

Because we think freedom doesn’t come with a yoke.

Hard is trying to follow our own dreams and follow Jesus at the same time. They are rarely ever going in the same direction.

I think following Jesus would be so much easier if we could just stop following us.

It feels hard to love people we don’t want to love.

To forgive people we don’t feel we can forgive.

To say no when saying yes feels so much better.

Following Jesus doesn’t always feel easy, but we all know that if our feelings had pants, they’d be on fire most of the time.

That’s why we need a yoke, not a feeling.

His yoke is risky. Dangerous, even. But it isn’t hard.

Because He’s in the yoke with us. Close. Presence.

So on the days when it feels so hard, I will declare the truth.

His yoke is easy.

Truth: Day 3—Alone Is Not Good

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.“

Genesis 2:18

Two were created because man alone was the very first thing God declared to be not good. So He made a woman.

{And a woman alone is also not good. That’s implied, don’t you think?}

Humans were not created for isolation or aloneness. We were made for togetherness.

It is a truth to declare because otherwise we will fall for the lie that we are better off on our own.

That being an introvert means my desire to be alone is God given.

When what is actually God given the most is a need for others.

I don’t think He meant that times of being alone are not good. Those, I think we can all agree, are absolutely necessary for our mental health. And the health of the others. At least my others.

He meant a life alone. An existence spent isolated. Separated.

Not just a life without people around, but a life disconnected.

We can be in a room full of others but still have a heart that keeps itself alone.

That is part of the not good.

We can be surrounded, but still insist on doing it ourself. Not asking for help. Needing no one. Being the strong one so that we don’t look like the weak one. Or the one who imposes on others. Bothersome. Needy.

And I am prone to the not good. I am drawn to that which is not good because I prefer alone, where the expectations are really quite low. Alone feels safe to me.

But I was not made to be that kind of safe. I was designed for the risk. Literally designed to make what was not good, good. To end the aloneness of someone else, and keep me from what is not good for me.

So I must declare truth because it reminds me to live truth. To let others in. To press past what feels safe, and into the risk. To move toward when I want to step away. To open my heart even when it wishes to be left alone.

To embrace the truth that it is not good be alone.

Truth: Day 2—New Life

I have a new life

We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

Romans 6:4

So I don’t have to live the old life.

I don’t have to do things just because that’s the way we’ve always done them.

I don’t have to live according to what anyone spoke over me when I was young.

I don’t have to live according to what the world’s culture says about me.

I don’t have to live holding onto old wounds.

I don’t have to live with generational issues and sins.

I don’t have to continue going the way I’ve always gone, thinking the way I’ve always thought, believing what I’ve always believed.

Because Jesus died and rose from the grave and I now get to live new life. His way, not mine, not theirs. His.

I can live in new freedom. New ways of thinking and believing and seeing.

I can live a new life.

Thank You, Jesus.

Truth: Day 1—I Am His Friend

I am His friend

I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father. 

John 15:15

I have a best (human) friend. I can tell her anything, trust her with any secret. When I need to laugh or cry or vent about the way people drive or the growing shadow of evil in our land, she’s there for it. I never feel the need to impress her, because I know she loves me at both my best and my worst. It’s an easy relationship she and I have together. Friendships like that aren’t all that common, and I am thankful to have her.

It’s harder to be friends with Jesus.

He is God. Holy. Perfect in every way. I know He sees me at my worst and still loves me, but that doesn’t make me feel comfortable, it just makes me want to hide my worst parts. I only want Him to see me in my most put togetherness (which means He would hardly ever see me). And I know that He knows all the secrets, but still, I don’t speak of them with Him. I just know that He knows and He knows that I know He knows, so we leave it at that. I leave it at that. This silliness is not a “we” thing with me and God. It’s all me.

But I would like to be done with all of that now, and start declaring the truth. When I am tempted to hold back. When I want to turn away because I feel ugly on the inside. When I start to relax in the shallows of faith, rather than push through the resistence of going deeper, because going deeper means more expsoure of what I don’t want to see, or be seen. When I fall back on performing for Him instead of just sitting with Him.

I am His friend, and He is mine.

Think about it—

What a friend we have in Jesus! Do you believe that? Do you experience it? What does it look like for you to be a friend of Jesus? What does it look like to receive His friendship with you?