by Sadie Robertson Huff | Dec 25, 2017 | Relationships, Testimonies |
It’s Christmas morning.
Imagine there’s a special gift waiting for you by the fireplace, or perhaps near the tree. The gift appears to be a box, wrapped in a simple layer of red paper. Your name is beautifully written on a wooden tag. You sit down, preparing your heart for what’s inside. Wondering who this is from.
Slowly, you open the box to find a book. The cover is a bit worn, a few marks. And written inside are words that you recognize. The author is “Your Father”. It’s called the “greatest love.”
And it’s your story.
One of our favorite authors, Paul David Tripp, writes it best:
“The Christmas story is the world’s best love story. It’s about the God of love sending the Son of love to live a life of love and die a death of love, so that all who believe in him would be welcomed into his arms forever and ever.”
How do you feel when you read that? Maybe you have tears or chills.
This is one beautiful promise. That’s your promise. That’s your story. You are loved abundantly.
In moments when you don’t feel capable of giving for receiving love, consider the box of the greatest love story, sitting beneath the tree. In 1 John 4, Paul writes about this ultimate love story of the Father sending his Son to be the Savior of the world, to reveal his great love for us. Because God is love. The greatest gift we will ever receive is life. This was only made possible by Jesus.
So today as you open gifts or share a meal, just remember to pause and image opening the book. Take a few moment to reflect how God has shaped your story, and the ultimate gift that is life. Your story is written by the same author of the greatest love story.
Father, we are in awe of the gift you gave us today. Thank you for your son, Jesus. Your love for us beyond anything we could have asked, so we come to you with thankful hearts. We are in awe of the story you’ve written for our lives. May our stories reflect your love, and compel us to love others well today and every day.
by Sadie Robertson Huff | Nov 17, 2017 | Life Advice |
His love heals.
I was in the car with my support team and greatest friends on an exciting trip to Atlanta, to speak at passion city church college night on May 31st. We were just a mile away from where we needed to be and stuck in a little traffic, when I looked over and locked eyes with a homeless man. Immediately when I locked eyes with this older African American gentleman, I felt the Lord say in my Spirit, “go put my word in His reach and then you will understand how I feel.” I asked the guy who was driving to turn the car around and drop me off where the man was sitting. All I had to give was my bible, so I began to walk up to this man and I knelt down on his level. When our eyes locked, I realized something. Physically you can be worlds apart from someone, but spiritually you can be in the exact same place.
I feel like many of us can relate to the image and posture of shame that this man embodied on that day. I have enough sense to know that man did not just wake up one day on the ground homeless. Feeling lifeless. Feeling hopeless. Alone. Unworthy of love. A series of events had to of taken place for him to be where he is. Maybe today you woke up to a home and a family, and you look like your standing – but you actually feel like you are sinking, and have an overwhelming feeling of isolation. The posture of your heart may feel similar to the image of this man, on the heat of a Georgia day who did not feel worthy of change.
I walked up to this man and simply put my bible out in his reach and said, “hi, I’m Sadie. I know this is probably not what you are wanting, but I want to give you this. It means everything to me and I would really like it if you would have it.” He looked at me a little shocked at first and kindly said, “no ma’am I’m so sorry, but I cannot take that.” I said, “oh sure you can! I would love for you to have it.” tears began to swell up in his eyes and he said, “I’m really sorry ma’am I just cannot take it.” once again I pressed on and began to tell him how It has all my notes in it, and how it has changed my life, but he cut me off and very harshly with a stern voice said, “NO! I cannot take that, because I am an atheist.” I said I would respect that, but again stated to him how badly I wish he would just take it from me.
Tears swelled for both of us and he shook his head no. I started walking back to the car, and I was honestly very confused by the response and the feeling I had. Right before I got back in the car, I turned around and set my bible on the curb and said, “I’m just going to leave it here.” He began to get up and yelled, “NO! Don’t leave it on the ground! Please don’t leave it on the ground!” I said, “oh do you want it?” he said, “no but just don’t leave it on the ground.” I looked at him so confused and said, “tell me why you don’t want me to leave this book on the ground, because if you were an atheist you really would not care what I did with this book.” He began to cry and said, ‘because someone needs that. It just cannot be me. Give it to someone who will take it.”
That is when my heart broke and I began to sob, because I felt the Lord breathe in my spirit… “This is how I feel.” We believe that there is hope for everyone else, but we could not possible to worthy of accepting belonging, and shame isolates us from the feeling of love. We allow the worldly cycle of sin in our life produce a load of shame, and that brings us to the state of isolation, homeless, hopeless and lifelessness. Jesus came and defeated death, and gave us the gift of life – and an invitation into an eternal heaven, invited out of the darkness of the world and into an eternal wonderful light. In an instance, by accepting Him in and receiving His great love, we go from being homeless to having a forever home. We go from being hopeless to having a hope for a future. We go from being lifeless to having life abundantly and eternally. We go from being isolated and feeling alone, to belonging to a heavenly family and a good good father.
You may be like the homeless man, not feeling worthy of accepting His love – but the thing is, He gave His life and gives us mercy not because of anything we have done or could have done to deserve it, but because of His great love and ridiculous grace. If you are the one sitting in the pit of shame, it is time to rise up and pursue Jesus.
In Mark chapter 5, we find an example of what can happen when you change your posture from shame to pursuit – all from a woman who was struggling from a long-term issue. She had suffered from bleeding for 12 years. It says that this woman went to see many doctors, and spent all that she had yet instead of getting better her issue just got worse. Some of you may feel like this. You have struggled with the same thing for years and years to come, and tried many options, but instead of getting better it has just gotten worse. Now you’re at a point where you have almost given up, because the suffering has become unbearable. I want to tell you right now…no matter what it is you are suffering from or how many options you have tried that didn’t work, or how many years you have been in the thick of it – there is an option left and His name is Jesus, and He has never lost a battle.
He responds to a pursuit of faith. It took this woman breaking through the cycle of shame, and pushing through pain. She had to boldly go into a public place with her condition, but to her…it was all worth it. She thought to herself, “If I could just touch His clothes, then maybe I would be healed.” It says, “Immediately when she touched His clothes she was healed.”
Priscilla Shier says, “all Gods promises are yes and amen, but God doesn’t just put them in your way, but He will put them in your reach.”
Maybe it is time for you to take off the weight of fear, addiction, pain, guilt and shame. Rise up and go out of your normal, worldly way to pursue your heavenly father. This woman was the first woman in the four gospels that Jesus ever called daughter. A woman who was isolated from her community, who felt lifeless, hopeless, and unloved. In an instant, she was healed and redeemed, and her life was restored. She belonged to a Father. She walked away that day in peace – free from her suffering, because that is how Jesus sent her off. It may be time for a posture change. The only thing stopping you from going to the homeless man, to the healed woman is a pursuit and an ounce of faith. It was by hher faith that she was healed.
by Sadie Robertson Huff | Oct 3, 2017 | Life Advice |
You don’t have to look like a champion to become a legend
I was at Pepperdine University last fall visiting my friend Sterling. Earlier that day, she had been telling me about one of her good friends who had been struggling with faith and fear. She invited him to come hang with out with us one night in hopes we would get into a conversation about faith. So, we went out one night and sat on a beautiful hill on campus – with the Malibu fall weather absolutely perfect and the sound of the ocean waves in the background.
As we started to talk, I just began to pray that Holy Spirit would lead the conversation. This guy in particular was one of the smartest guys I have ever had a conversation with. He was just an incredibly intelligent dude, and he was using words that were probably in my vocabulary book at some point in life that I couldn’t remember for the test, and you better believe I can not remember now. Our conversation took a turn when he began to tell his story. He started to share with me how he was deaf for a long portion of his life. An accident had taken place when he was a young boy and it took away his hearing. Recently, he was able to have surgery that allowed him to hear again. He thought this was the answer to his prayer, but when he began to hear the way his voice sounded when he spoke, which sounded a little different than the “normal”, he became very mad God and extremely insecure.
He said every conversation he has, he is afraid of what people are thinking of him and he can’t even live a normal life. His heart was so heavy and the pain he felt was very deep. I asked him why he feels he cannot live a normal life, and he said, “Well it’s really hard when your speech is your weakness.” This answer blew me away, because the whole time we had been having this conversation I had been thinking his words were his strength. I said to him, “What if the thing that the enemy and the world has been throwing in your face and calling your weakness, is the very thing that God intends to create as your weapon of strength? You just have to take authority over it in the name of Jesus. It’s like the cross. A cross that was meant to kill is now our victory.”
His next answer was a little shocking. He said, “Sadie you don’t understand. I have literally come to the point that I am an atheist. I’ve just decided that I’m not going to continue to believe in a God I can not see.” I paused for a minute, a little shocked at the reality of how deep this went…but then an interesting thought came to me; “didn’t you say that you have been living in a lot of fear lately?” He replied, “Yes?” I asked him if he knew what the definition of fear was and he could not answer.
The definition of fear is this – an unpleasant emotion caused by the BELIEF that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.
So, fear is literally believing the worst thing is going to happen. I asked him, “Can you see fear, have you heard people make fun of you, have you actually seen the things you are scared of?” He just kind of sat there and thought about that one for a minute. Then he laughed and said, “No. You’re right.” I finished with this, “You have a choice. You can choose to believe in fear, or you can choose to believe in the faith of God. Both things you cannot see. One ends in death and one will end in life. One ends in defeat and one will end in victory. You have a choice to wake up every morning and see your imperfections as a weakness or to see your “imperfections” as what makes you original, and as an opportunity to reflect the glory of God as a strength for the kingdom of heaven.”
That night his life changed. He chose to take on the belief of faith. He is now the president of a fraternity, a job that requires a lot of speaking. He decided to walk in victory. When I think of this, I often think of the story of David and Goliath. When David went up to this giant, he didn’t carry any weapons because he was too weak. All he physically carried was a slingshot, but he spiritually carried the presence of the Lord. He understood which side of victory he was fighting from. He said, “YOU come with a sword, a spear and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of heavens armies, whom which you have defied and today the LORD WILL conquer you.” As we know, David conquered Goliath that day. My mentor pointed out to me one day how David knocked Goliath down with the sling shot, but he killed him with the sword. The very thing that was once held in his face as a weakness, a disadvantage and something that would defeat him, David held up and conquered the giant with.
When I was reading this chapter back again, it stuck out to me that at the beginning of 1st Samuel chapter 17, they call goliath a champion. The word champion stuck out to me, because I think a lot of times in our life we get so stuck on wanting to look like the champion of the story, and when someone else in the room is bigger, stronger, prettier, smarter, bolder, braver, or more well known, we coward down and our comparison has shut us up for too long. We say things like, “GOD I wish I could do something for your kingdom, but I’m not good enough, I don’t look good enough, I don’t sound smart enough, I have gone too far, I have a disability, I feel so ashamed, I’m not worthy, I don’t have what the others have. I don’t have the schooling that the others have. I don’t look how the others look. I’m not the best.” We focus so much on what we don’t have in comparison to others, instead of focusing on what He gave us when we created us as individual humans who have certain gifts and authority over the enemy to walk boldly and confident in the freedom Jesus died for. We have to stop hiding our strengths under our weaknesses and allowing the world to steal the power of victory we have the opportunity to walk in.
He never called us to be the best. Goliath was the champion of this story, but here is the thing about champions – a champion is only a champion until the next person wins, but a legend will last forever. David was a legend. The important thing is that you don’t have to look like a champion to become a legend. Most of the time, legends will not look like a champion. Look at the most legendary person of all time, Jesus Christ. He doesn’t have rings on his finger to represent his victory, He has holes in his hands. Friends, you have a choice today to not take away the meaning of the cross, and to take that thing you have been calling your weakness straight to the cross to allow it to become a strength for the kingdom.
by Sadie Robertson Huff | Sep 15, 2017 | Life Advice |
I’m a dreamer. I guess I was born that way, because I can’t remember ever not having a dream. My mom’s mother, whom I call Two-Mama, tells me that remembering little quotes and sayings is important. Although I can’t remember where I heard it, one of my favorite quotes is: “Dream big and tomorrow make your dreams reality.”
Thankfully, I have lots of family and friends who not only encourage me to dream big, but who also totally believe in me and are always there to help my dreams come true with God’s help. I believe everything starts with a dream. Every great thing definitely starts with a dream. The things that change the world start as little ideas or as little projects, and they become something big. If you do not have a dream, you do not know where you want to go or what you want to do. Without a dream, you miss out on the adventure of trusting God and giving your faith a chance to work. I want to spend the rest of my life giving my faith a chance to work. I want to spend every day dreaming the biggest dreams I can think of and then praying about them and working toward them. I hope that’s true for you too.
I want to share with you one of my favorite “dreaming” scriptures from the Bible: This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us— whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. —1 John 5:14–15, NIV This scripture really assures us that God hears us and that we can have complete confidence in Him. But it tells us another thing too: our dreams need to be “according to his will.”
So whatever you dream, make sure it lines up with the kind of life God wants us to live. With that said, I want to encourage you to dream big. It does not matter whether or not a lot of people know about you. For a long time, I was just a praying little girl in a small town in Louisiana. I did not know how God was going to make my dream come true and answer my prayers, but I did know I had to trust Him with it. Now, of course, I have more dreams, and I am trusting God with those too. When you dream, don’t just think about a few things you might like to do someday if they work out. Get a real dream. Make it a big dream. Make it something you could never do by yourself, something that will stretch your faith, a dream that will give God a chance to do something huge for you.
Excerpted from Live Original by Sadie Robertson, copyright Sadie Robertson.
by Sadie Robertson Huff | Sep 8, 2017 | Testimonies |
Someone once asked me what changing the world means to me. I have always thought of it as something that happens one step at a time, by one person at a time. No one changes the world overnight or all alone. But if we all do what we can do, eventually it happens. Things become different. Sometimes people think they cannot do anything to change the world. They think they’re nobodies, or they decide they do not have the brains, the experience, the skills, the money, or the creativity to make a difference. But that’s just not true. Everybody can do something. If that something does not seem like very much, that’s okay; do it anyway. I remember when I wanted so much to share Jesus with someone and I could not find anyone who needed to know about Him. So, I prayed and asked God to give me opportunities. He did.
If you don’t think you can do anything to make a difference, start praying. Pray that God will give you the chance you need. Especially if you are a Christian, ask God for a way to share His love with someone. If you can tell one person about the hope of Jesus and they tell another person, eventually you can bring a lot of change. Not everyone will believe what you say about Him. Not everyone will take it well. But if you can help one person change and that one can help someone else, you can make a huge impact. Just do what you can do, even if it seems very small—because it might just turn into something really big.
Excerpted from Live Original by Sadie Robertson, copyright Sadie Robertson.
