God's Sovereignty Doesn't Negate Our Responsibility

Goals are my favorite. Knowing the desired end goal helps me to create a backwards plan from the future aim to today- kinda like backwards visioneering 🤗 This has been the rhythm of my life for most of my life, but there are times when the end goal seems impossible or even so big and so unclear that it feels unfathomable.

So what do we do when facing a middle moment of uncertainty?

Today in the One Year Bible, Ezra writes about the remnant of Jews who‘d returned home from years of Babylonian captivity.

The walls of their sacred city were torn down & even the foundation of The Temple was obliterated. I can almost picture the scene like a movie...melancholy music playing in the background, the Jews, who had just traveled over 800 miles, betwixt with emotion over their freedom & the poor state of affairs in their hometown.

If I were among the crowd, I would’ve had so many emotions & just as many questions...WHY Lord, WHERE do we begin, HOW do we begin, we need safety so do we start with the walls???

Well God saw fit to first send Ezra, who was not a builder but rather a teacher of the law. Even though the Jewish people feared the local residents, they first began work on rebuilding the altar on its old site.

Ezra records how they began to

👉🏽Celebrate

👉🏽Sacrifice

👉🏽 & freely give offerings

morning & night!

Ezra didn’t play - he made sure that the first & foremost thing they did as a nation was to make way to worship their God EVEN BEFORE the foundation was laid!

He knew that God sovereignly directed their steps home, so instead of trying to understand everything or make logical decisions upon arrival, he took responsibility & did the one thing he knew was vital- he trusted God with protection as he led the people to worship the One, True God.

I awakened in the middle of the night last night with a start...pondering many pending decisions that lay before me. I’m not sure where to begin because I’m not sure where I am going, so I eventually did the one thing I know is sound and true- I called on Jesus. I👇🏽

👉🏽Celebrated Him for who He is

👉🏽Sacrificed thanksgiving for the much He’s done & has yet to do

👉🏽Freely offered the only thing I had - trust in Him alone.

Sometime later, nothing changed except the rhythm of my heart & the cadence of my thoughts as they became fixed on The One I can trust with all my heart. (Psalm 28:7)

Regardless of what things we face, we need not try to understand everything along the way because we follow a Good Shepherd who directs our steps. We need only make way for His praise & trust Him with the rest as we rest in Him.

#OneYearBible

August 6 One Year Bible Readings

Ezra 3:1-4:23

1 Corinthians 2:6-3:4

Psalm 28:1-9

Proverbs 20:24-25

Becoming a Living Trophy of God’s Grace

I discovered yesterday that a person cannot cry & drink from a water bottle at the same time - or at least I can’t 😂 I was at the gym trying to figure out what to do as I am limited by a cast on my arm (see Sunday’s post for that story🙄). There was so much I wanted to do but was restrained by the silly cast & resounding ache in my arm.

This morning in the One Year Bible, Paul writes about the message of the cross and how it is the very power of God. He tells the Corinthians that he decided not to use “lofty words & impressive wisdom” to tell them about “God’s secret plan.”

He says,

“I decided...to forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified.

I came to you in weakness-timid & trembling & my message & preaching were plain.

Rather than using clever or persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit.

I did this so you would not trust in human wisdom, but in the power of God.”

It’s so tempting & easy to allow our paltry purposes to cloud the compelling purpose of God 👉🏽To become united with Him & live our lives as trophies of His grace so others might desire the same!

Most times, the limitations we face become a beautiful stage for God to reveal His grace through our face 🤗 I want to be like Paul who willingly did not rust in human wisdom & relied only on the power of God.

So many times, I allow my purposes to quicken my stride, placing me frantically running before my King.This always results in the shattering of His peace.

I quickly grabbed my water bottle to stop the tears of self pity, but they wouldn’t have been there if I had simply focused on Jesus instead of my circumstance. I want my life to become a living trophy of God’s grace & like Paul, it starts with a simple decision, “...to forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified.”

Father, when we focus on self or others, it’s so easy to become distressed or depressed. But when we fix our eyes on Jesus, we remember how we’re blessed. Holy Spirit, help us to forget everything except Jesus, our Savior, Grace-giver & King who loves us enough to die for us. Let our lives fade to the background so Yours might prevail. 🤗💕

#OneYearBible

August 5th One Year Bible Readings

💡Ezra 1:1-2:70

💡1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5

💡Psalm 27:7-14

💡Proverbs 20:22-23

Becoming a Colander for Christ

I awakened this am with a phrase running through my thoughts:

Am I willing to become a colander for Christ? Kinda random but not really...

The thought of becoming a strainer that is sloshed around until the unnecessary & even harmful falls away does not sound very appealing until we remember the purpose of a colander - to let the unessential fall away so that the essential might remain.

Ever since I was little, I’ve found immeasurable joy through organizing...whether it’s a physical space or cloud space like computer folders or processing internal feelings, I’ve always been passionate about order.

Helping others restore intention is one of my personal passions - so much so that when I launched an organizing business years ago, I wanted a name that spoke to the intention behind it.

What’s fascinating, is that my friend Suzanne, (I lovingly call her “word girl”), came up with the most perfect name: Sift

What’s even MORE fascinating is that the word, “intention” means “the state of being strained.” It literally means to sift!

In this day & age of super-speed everything, it is very difficult to slow down long enough to sift & sort, making way for intentionality in our lives.

But I wonder if the idea of becoming “holey” makes way for us to become “holy?

Paul writes in 1 Cor. 1:2 that we’ve been called by God to become His holy people by means of Jesus Christ.

If we are called to become a holy people, we cannot do so apart from Christ! What would our lives look like if we indeed became a colander for Christ? Allowing Him to slosh us around so that the unessential & even harmful might fall through the little holes in our lives & the essential, the holy & perfect Presence of Jesus, might remain?

Are there things, habits, relationships or emotions that He’d consider unessential & even detrimental to His holy calling on your life?

It seems like a tall order, but there’s no other thing I’d like to become than a colander that holds Christ alone.

How about you?

#oneyearbible

August 4th One Year Bible Readings

💡2 Chronicles 35:1-36:23

💡1 Corinthians 1:1-17

💡Psalm 27:1-6

💡Proverbs 20:20-21