Set Free

by Darcy Clark | Jul 5, 2022 | Life Advice, Wisdom

Jesus has set us free, to stay free. We have full access available to us to soar on eagles’ wings and live a truly free life, but grace welcomes us back every single time when our race is hindered.

“But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31 (NLT)

God lets us navigate life in sharp turns, narrow paths, curvy roads, and gut-wrenching drives because if He only allowed us to navigate life on one straight path, our affection for Him may be lessened. 

So, we are given a choice. A choice to love. A choice to choose what turn we make. These choices are what make life a journey. Some drives aren’t fun, some you are used to, some will take your breath away, and some will make your heart break.

I am thankful we are not left alone to navigate our way back from the paths we take that perhaps were not the right turn. It is through our lack of understanding in which road to take that God uses to boost our dependence on Him. Navigating life with God in the driver seat is a life maximized and joy and freedom.

This is the freedom we have access to live in. It is not an easy journey, but may we choose this every day. And, for the times that we don’t, or the times that we stray away, there’s an unending grace from Jesus. Won’t you come back?

Despite there not being an exacting guide on what decisions to make at the proper time, we have Jesus as our guiding light if we invite Him in. He is our shepherd guiding us along the pastures and rolling hills of life, not for the sake of experiencing less freedom, but experiencing more freedom. Freedom from hurt, heartache, and despair. Freedom from worldly things that will leave us broken. Freedom from the fear of missing out because the reality is that with God, we will never miss out on what our Creator has for us. With God, the Author and Omega, we will never miss out on His perfect plan.

Our abundance of choices is a measure of God’s love for us along the venture between earth and Heaven. He loves us so much, that He has freely given us the ability to make decisions. So, make a decision and put Him first in the process. He places people in our lives to help guide us. He places opportunities in front of us, but He doesn’t limit us to a list of multiple choices. Suppose we were on earth with an exacting itinerary. That wouldn’t be freedom, would it? Better yet, God has given us free will. The free will to choose, so yes, we have some lofty seeming decisions here on earth. Let’s not mistake this freedom as frightening, but a grand measure of the greatest love story we will ever know. There is no greater love than this. 

“At last we have freedom, for Christ has set us free! We must always cherish this truth and firmly refuse to go back into the bondage of our past.” Galatians 5:1 (TPT)

This is the freedom we have been invited into, living life inside of God’s divine design.

Darcy Clark is a member of Team LO! She is a Jesus follower and friend to many. She enjoys coffee sipping, exploring, and writing. She is an aspiring author, current dreamer. Darcy attended Texas A&M University and has since moved to Louisiana to be a part of Team LO. 

To The Girl Still Waiting

by Tori Masters | Jun 28, 2022 | Life Advice, Wisdom

To the girl still waiting…

First and foremost, You are not alone. The reality is, we have all found ourselves in seasons of “waiting”.

Whether you’re the college girl waiting on your dream job while everyone else is getting hired, the single girl celebrating all of your friends getting engaged, or the married girl who is desperately waiting for a baby while everyone else is getting pregnant. I want you to know that every tear you’ve cried has been seen by God and every prayer you’ve prayed has been heard.

I have walked through each of these seasons personally, and the most recent was the journey of trying to conceive. Something I realized is that in these seasons of waiting it is easy to fall victim to the lies of the enemy, who seeks to steal our hope for the future as well as our joy in the now. That is why I want to encourage you with 5 powerful truths that really helped me.

1. We don’t serve a God who makes mistakes.

During our season of trying to conceive, month after month, negative test after negative test, I remember hitting the one year mark and looking at my husband completely devastated… But then he responded with complete confidence, “God is not making a mistake.” It was exactly what I needed to hear at that moment. It grounded me and reminded me of the God that I serve.

I often find myself trying to author my own story & forget that The Lord is a much better writer than I am! At that moment I knew I needed to surrender & hand him back the pen.

2. Don’t lose hope.

“How long Lord”, “I thought by now” … the questions we all start asking when our own timelines don’t align with God’s. I remember specifically getting to a point where I felt like I no longer knew how to pray. In moments of deep pain, I didn’t know if I was supposed to pray for a miracle or patience in the waiting. The Holy Spirit brought me to the verse in Romans 8:26-27 that says,

“And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.”

When I read that verse, I was brought to tears. I had a vision of the throne room. God the Father, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus were having a conversation on my behalf. I knew they had me and I was able to rest knowing that. It then became less about me getting what I wanted and more about aligning my heart with Gods.

What He has said, WILL come to pass. In HIS perfect timing.

I want to remind you that even though you might not understand now that is fully okay. You are allowed to sit in that. You are allowed to grieve. Just don’t stay in that place too long or you will lose vision for all the things He is doing in your NOW.

3. Don’t forget all the answered prayers you are currently walking in.

Don’t let the lack of the thing you are waiting for stop you from enjoying the gifts you currently have.

I remember the morning the Lord convicted me of this. I had just started my period the night before so I knew my joy was at stake that day. I sat up in my bed and all I could hear was Psalm 118: 24, “ This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” I looked around and started counting my blessings. I thanked him for my sweet husband that I had prayed over for years, the home we were currently building together, & for the work we get to do each day. It was amazing how quickly my perspective started to shift when I turned my focus to God’s faithfulness in my life.

So I encourage you today to write down all the answered prayers you are currently walking in. Not only will it increase your faith but it will bring you contentment and joy for your here and now.

4. How you wait matters, so don’t waste it.

I am sure you have heard this before but if God answered all your prayers tomorrow, would you even be ready? I grew up a competitive dancer & I cannot even tell you how many hours were spent in practice before we hit that competition stage. We need to look at our season of waiting as the preparation zone. What can we be doing now that will best prepare us for the season to come. If you are waiting for your person to come along, how can you be preparing your heart to be a wife? If it is for your dream job, how can you be preparing to be the best employee? If it is for your baby to come, how can you be preparing for motherhood? We need to be active inside our waiting, knowing full well God is preparing us for what He has prepared for us. Let’s live in a way that is fully convinced that the Lord will fulfill his promises to us, and just like Abraham, we will bring glory to God before the promise even arrives.

“Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises.”

Romans 4:20-21

5. You are not alone.

Sometimes when we start to lose hope, we need people who can be our hope carriers. Those friends who lift us up when we are down and remind us of His truth. I am not sure how I would have walked through my season of waiting without my prayer warriors beside me. There were so many days I had to text my girls and ask them to lift me up in prayer because I was starting to spiral. Minutes later I would receive a voice memo or a song that felt like it was sent straight from heaven to encourage my soul. That is the power of Christian community. When our faith starts to get weak, we can rely on the faith of others to pull us through. And because we have experienced this kind of comfort, we will then know how to extend it to others as well.

If you are reading this and saying to yourself, dang I really wish I had people like that in my life, I encourage you to start praying for it. Get involved in your local church, join the LO sister community, or find an organization whose cause is dear to your heart & start volunteering! Community is out there, but we can’t expect it to come to our house and greet us while we Netflix and chill.

So as you process these times of waiting, don’t waste them. Don’t let the enemy make you feel less than. Write these truths on your heart and resist the temptation to compare yourself to others. Fight the urge to steal God’s pen, and don’t lose hope! Wait eagerly & expectantly for Him to show himself faithful. Come on, go ahead and praise Him for what you cannot yet see!

Blessings,

Tori Masters

a girl who understands the wait

Made to Be Present

by Allie Marie Smith | Jun 23, 2022 | Life Advice, Wisdom

She’s trading a distracted life for her actual life.

Halfway on the drive to one of our favorite surfing beaches our phones lose connection. Before we drop service, my fingers are often glued to my phone as I find various ways to keep my mind and thumb occupied. But as we reach the entrance to the windy coastal canyon framed with golden hills and expansive oak trees, I surrender my device and begin to soak in the wonder right in front of me. Gidget, who still manages to sit on my lap, sticks her head out our van’s window, her pink tongue dangling in the wind. As we round that final bend, the deep blue ocean makes its appearance and I feel instantly refreshed. For a day it’s just us, the salty air, and the beauty of the sea. In a noisy and distracting world, God politely whispers, inviting us to live fully present and engaged with the life He has given us before it passes us by. It’s a much-awaited invitation our souls crave to accept. The question is, will we get quiet enough to hear it? Will we show up for our life? Busyness, constant pings, and phone addiction make us strangers to our own lives. All the noise prevents us from hearing God’s whisper inviting us to a better life.

Living distracted and detached from our actual life takes a toll on our happiness and mental health. I’m sure it’s not news to you that much research overwhelmingly links social media use to heightened levels of anxiety and depression. Skyrocketing rates of suicide among teen girls are correlated with the onset of smartphones and social media Even with this knowledge, we keep returning to the time-sucking digital places that make us anxious and sad. I don’t know a single girl or woman who has an emotionally healthy relationship with social media. I’m no exception.

As we constantly refresh our screens seeking new “likes” to things we have posted, and as we watch the filtered high- light reels of friends, celebrities, and strangers unfold before us, we experience envy and comparison and it steals our joy. Meanwhile, our own life goes neglected. These thieves rob us of contentment: “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones” (Proverbs 14:30). Living immersed in the online lives of others is making us sick while keeping us from the true connection we crave.

We live in a culture where it seems everyone is producing their own filtered reality show on their phones, competing for attention. FOMO or “fear of missing out” on what other people are doing is real and it’s what keeps us coming back for what’s making us sick. We’re afraid to miss out on other people’s lives, but are we afraid of missing out on our own life? I believe the more we know about the daily ins and outs of other peoples’ lives, the more asleep we are to our own lives. We are called to live spiritually awake: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead” (Ephesians 5:14).

How do we find the path back to peace in a loud world that never slows down? How do we find a sense of value in a world where the noisiest girls online get all the attention? It’s in the stillness, in the calming of our minds, that we find respite. As we shut out the distractions, we wake up to the life in front of us. As the Dutch professor and theologian Henri Nouwen said, “God is always where we are. Not in the past (with its disappointments) nor in the future (with its worries) but in the present where love can touch us.”

While God can use significant events to get our attention, He doesn’t shout or fight to make Himself heard amidst the unnecessary chatter of our lives. God is always speaking, and it’s only when we’re present that we can hear Him. He is that still, small voice kindly beckoning us to be quiet in His presence so we can be filled with peace and joy.

Living in the moment means living without escaping into the past, avoiding the distractions of the present and not fearing the future. It means we are then awake to the gifts right in front of us. As my dear friend Kate Merrick says in her book Here, Now, “We are meant to breathe in today, and only today.”

You are made to live wide-awake to the story God is writing in your life. The psalmist writes, “You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand” (Psalm 16:11). Ultimately, living in the present is an ongoing journey of abiding in God through His Spirit, moment by moment, breath by breath. To be present is to be fully engaged in the ordinary, mundane, difficult, and beautiful moments of your life.

Presence is a spiritual discipline. Living present means leaning in and investing in your dreams and desires. Presence is also sitting with uncomfortable feelings. It forces us to hear the lies we’ve been believing and search for the truth. It’s immersing yourself in both the good and hard parts of the season you are in. It’s giving the people you are with your full attention because you see their worth. It’s setting boundaries with technology and even deleting those addictive apps for a while or forever. It can look like being mysterious online so you can be spiritually alive and live awake offline. It’s unplugging and getting outside in creation. It’s savoring a day of rest each week. It’s quieting all the noise so your thoughts can wander uninterrupted. It’s learning to gain strength from the practice of solitude. The path to peace is paved with presence. Presence births contentment and contentment cultivates joy. You were made for both.

While our infatuation with the lives of others might keep us from living rooted in the present, we are also sometimes consumed by the past or preoccupied with the future. Understandably, unhealed hurt, trauma, abuse, and loss can make us live in the past. On the other hand, we can spend our moments in anxiety, afraid of the future. We can also fall into the trap of thinking that our lives will finally begin at some future moment. When’s the last time you thought, Once I lose that weight, I’ll be happy, or Once I meet that guy, I’ll be happy, or Once I fill-in-the- blank, I’ll be happy? We can find ourselves ruminating on the past, anxious about what’s ahead, or imagining a happier future while the present is passing us by.

Gidget is my daily teacher in the art of presence with many lessons to share. She does not multitask, dwell on the past, or worry about tomorrow. When she eats, she does so with focus and gusto. When it’s time for a good scratch, she lies on her back, kicks her four paws to the sky, and wiggles hysterically. And when it’s time to play, she gets the “zoomies,” running circles in our backyard with a smile on her face.

God is inviting you to breathe in life one day at a time. He is hoping you will wake up to the life He’s given you before it passes you by. He promises to be your provider, giving you everything you need for each moment. God will safekeep you or “hem [you] in behind and before” (Psalm 139:5), enveloping you with love and protection. He will heal your past hurts and fight your battles. You are invited to be transformed by His Spirit moment by moment as you live present and wide awake to the story He is writing for you right here, right now.

Adapted from Wonderfully Made: Discover the Identity, Love, and Worth You Were Created For: by Allie Marie Smith (©2021). Published by Moody Publishers. Used by permission.

Allie Marie Smith is the Founder and Director of Wonderfully Made®, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping young women know their God-given value. She is an award-winning author, speaker, podcast host, and certified life coach. She lives in North Santa Barbara County where she loves surfing and adventuring up and down the California coast with her husband, Paul, and Golden Retriever Gidget. 

Connect with Allie at @alliemariesmith.

Lion of Judah

by Jenita Pace | Jun 21, 2022 | Life Advice, Wisdom

Male lions are magnificent animals. Weighing as much as five hundred pounds and reaching up to ten feet in length, they are truly impressive in appearance and strength. At their top speed, lions can run in bursts up to forty miles per hour and leap thirty-six feet.

But it is not just their incredible strength that sets them apart from other animals. Lions are uniquely family oriented. While other big cats tend to live solitary lives, lions are extremely sociable and live within family units called “prides.” Prides are the definition of community, with members living together and depending on each other for survival. The lionesses are in charge of raising the young and hunting while the male lion guards the borders of the family’s territory and provide protection from predators and competing male lions, who would kill the cubs. 

Even in the darkest night, the defender of the family can secure their safety. His eyes have internal mirrors of sorts, which take the light and reflect it to maximize his eyesight and allow him to patrol day and night. With razor sharp teeth and massive claws, he is truly a terrifying defender of his family.

And he is always close at hand. The roar of a lion can carry up to five miles. It’s an intimidating sound but one that brings comfort and reassurance to the pride.

God has chosen this metaphor for himself along with the name of Judah. Judah, the brave intercessor in Genesis 44, offers to take the punishment in place of his brother, Benjamin, on account of his love for his father. How absolutely fitting: our Savior is the mighty lion who courageously fought to keep us, his family, safe. 

This is the name of Jesus that most brings me comfort when I am anxious and afraid. Afraid of other people, afraid of circumstances I can’t control in my life, afraid of something happening to me or my family, afraid the internal darkness I wrestle with will overwhelm me, afraid of all of the unknowns in my future. And research shows that fear gains ground when we feel a sense of powerlessness. The less power we feel over a situation, the more intense our fears become. Can you relate?

Each of us faces specific internal fears that maybe others do not face. For me, perfectionism is a continual battle: the feeling that I am never good enough. It is the fear that I can’t do things well enough or that I simply can’t be enough. This nightmare came true when I worked for a woman who was particularly difficult to please. She had no tolerance for errors. If I stepped away from my desk, I would return to find notes and printouts showing things I had done wrong, wanting explanations for my errors, and demanding discussions on how to avoid mistakes in the future. If I had a question, it was typical for her to refuse to answer. She wanted me to figure it out for myself. I remember being so afraid each day of making a mistake, not sure what to do if I needed help.

The situation grew more tense when I suddenly had a seizure and had to go on epilepsy medication, which made it difficult to focus. My supervisor was not shy about making it clear that she was working to develop a case to let me go. She would ask me to print out any mistakes I made and to deliver them to her office so she could file them in a drawer while I watched. It was a perfectionist’s nightmare.

I was able to get a new job in which I thrived. However, I noticed that I now had more anxiety and doubts about myself and my abilities. The anxiety surfaced every time I started a project, had to collaborate with others, took a leadership role, or started working with a new client. 

Years later, I was participating in a training program to learn a therapeutic intervention called Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR). EMDR is an excellent tool for someone plagued by a fear that is holding their mental health hostage. The process begins by having the participant return to a core memory when that fear was most realized. I know the fear of failure holds a lot of power in my life, so I decided to focus on overcoming that challenge. As the process began, my mind brought me back to a moment at my job when I had in my hand a printout of an error I had made. My supervisor took the printout from me, walked to her desk, and filed it in a drawer. 

As I processed that memory, which had filled me with fear, failure, and disappointment, it began to shift. I suddenly saw a lion standing between the supervisor and me. He was huge and calm. He looked not at her but instead kept his kind, focused eyes on me. And he had purposely placed his body directly between her and me.

In that moment, instead of seeing myself as powerless, I realized the Lion of Judah protected me. I had not been alone. I falsely assumed that my supervisor had the power to change the course of my life, but the truth was that God was in the position of power over every aspect of that experience. He knew that I would leave that position and that I was on the road to becoming a therapist. He never wanted my supervisor’s evaluation of me to become my lifelong evaluation of myself.

I still struggle at times with fears of failure. Perfectionism is a particular fear that can uniquely fuel depression, and it is gaining momentum in society. It can be difficult to pinpoint because sometimes it gets confused with having high standards. High standards aren’t harmful, but if you are intensely afraid of not being the best or of not doing well and your identity is tied to your success, let the Lion of Judah drive those feelings from your mind!

Other fears have presented themselves to me: some of them physical dangers, financial challenges, emotional hardships, and mental struggles. The intensity of my fear can feel extremely overwhelming. The pressure intensifies when I feel powerless, and sometimes the amount of control I have is limited.

But then I turn and see this great Lion of Judah: the One who can see even in the darkest of nights, who knows the borders of my mind and my heart and can guard me from the enemy. His courage can fill me up, live within me, and shine through me. He can do that for you too.

Bring It To Life

• Draw a circle and write your name inside of it. Then write traits that describe you inside the circle as well. For example, I included the words hospitable, humorous, and creative.

• Outside of the circle, write down some of the things that threaten your mental and emotional safety, such as perfectionism, fear, grief, doubt, and so on.

• Picture the Lion of Judah, walking the border of your circle. Is there one threat in particular that scares you more than the others? What is it, and why is it more threatening?

• Ntwadumela (a name that means “one who greets with fire”) was the star lion in a 2006 National Geographic documentary. He became internationally known because he exhibited so much passion in keeping his pride safe. I recommend watching videos of him on YouTube or purchasing the documentary, called Eternal Enemies: Lions and Hyenas.

Our Lion of Judah, the protector of my mental and emotional borders, please guard my mind and heart and spirit today. Keep them safe from the things that hunt me, whether something emotional, mental, or physical. Jesus, I know you long to rescue each of us, to keep us safe from the dangers of this world. Please, I pray that whatever my deepest fear is right now, confront it and bring me to a place where I really feel your protection in my heart. Lion of Judah, in my memories, show me of times when you were there, guarding me in ways I didn’t even know. 

Taken from THE HEALING NAMES OF JESUS: FIND FREEDOM FROM DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY. Copyright © 2021 by Jenita Pace. Published by BroadStreet Publishing® Group, LLC. 

Jenita Pace is a pastor’s wife and licensed professional counselor (LPC) in the state of Minnesota, and a member of the National Board of Certified Counselors helping people who battle depression after overcoming her own battle, and now runs a private practice in Minnesota. She is also an adjunct professor at Northwestern University. Find her on Twitter @threeriverspace, on Instagram @jenitapace, and visit her website at threeriversmn.com. 

Waiting on a Word

by Hallie Dye | Jun 16, 2022 | Life Advice, Wisdom

Have you ever been reading your bible and felt super stumped on one story? Or certain words Jesus spoke? Sometimes it’s because the message feels unclear, but if I’m being honest, there are some stories that just straight up bother me. I’ve come to love these moments.  

When we approach God’s Word, the tendency is for us to think that the message will be immediate. Why wouldn’t it be? If I’m making the effort to sit down with the Lord, wouldn’t He want to speak to me during this time? Yes, but perhaps we’re sitting down with the wrong mindset.  

Our culture and time in history has a lot of perks that offer immediate satisfaction—that’s not all bad. Sometimes it’s really nice, like grabbing a salad or sandwich during a busy day without having to think about it or prepare for it. The Holy Spirit just doesn’t work like that, and He is the translator of God’s word in our lives. It isn’t that God wants to continue to dangle a carrot in front of us on a wild chase (though sometimes I’ll admit it can feel this way). The Lord wants us to wait on Him, because it is in the waiting we find value. In His word—in Him. The word of God never returns void.  

It’s actually this waiting process or the initial feeling of being stumped on something in the Bible that makes me feel more seen and connected to the Word of God than even immediate understanding now. It used to feel as though when I didn’t understand something I didn’t know Him. As if I was further from Him than I thought. Now I get excited about stumbling on these passages, because it’s come to mean He wants me to specifically see something. When you’ve learned to dissect the text and wait on Him, you realize He’s preparing to speak to you.  

Such was the story in Matthew 15 about the faith of a Canaanite woman. Wedged in between multiple accounts of Jesus’s miracles, healing, and feeding over 5,000 people, is a woman who had to wait. In fact, the first thing that really bothered me was she called out and was crying to Jesus over her daughter who was “severely demon oppressed,” and the bible says, “But he did not answer her a word.” What… But this doesn’t sound like Jesus to us. Why wouldn’t he answer her—especially in her distress?? Especially since it’s for her daughter and after all she is seeking Jesus! 

When I start to feel this way as if I see discrepancies in God or Jesus’s character, I like to physically journal the line that bothers me most and then write what I know to be true both Him and of the situation. It might look like this:

“But he did not answer her a word.” 

• He does not change or cast a shifting shadow 
• He’s not leaving 
• He IS listening 
• He has compassion for us 
• He wants what’s best for her 

Now this still hasn’t given me answers. But it has given me something to cling to. I’m clinging to truth—to what I know to be true of the Lord. I’m still filing away “why” questions, but I’m moving on. Only then, it gets seemingly worse. After the disciples beg Jesus to send her away, He tells her he was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel—to the Jews. In other words, not her, because she is a Canaanite. Then something changes in her.  

After his response, she comes and kneels before Jesus saying, “Lord help me.” This story already feels like a different Jesus (emphasis on feels), but the next part really doesn’t sit well with us. He tells her, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” Ouch. Aware of all our own shortcomings and lack of Jewish heritage, we cringe with those words, because this could very well have been me. Yet she continues in her posture of humility that she began in her physical kneeling: “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”  

The implication we tend to pick up here and consequently the incongruence in Jesus’s character is: is he calling her a dog?? In short, no… and also yes. To properly answer this question, we must understand the difference between children and dogs. And yes, I’m sorry to tell some of you—there is a difference. For one, children know where their bread comes from. Two, they can appreciate (and not appreciate) the difference between different kinds of bread.  

My dog Jazz recently ate an entire loaf of my mother-in-law’s homemade sourdough with garlic and rosemary. Jazz got it off the counter, opened the bag, and ate the entire loaf with absolutely no qualms whatsoever. She didn’t know where it came from and she has zero appreciation for homemade sourdough, fresh pressed garlic, or home-grown rosemary. She was just hungry, so she ate it. She would have eaten a squirrel with just as much fervor. The reason it’s cruel to take the bread from the children and throw it to the dogs is because the children know what they’ve lost and the dog knows not what he’s gained.  

Though we’ve established this woman was Canaanite and not Jewish, we need to dig a little deeper. Canaanites as a general rule were polytheistic. They served many gods appealing to them in many capacities depending on their needs in that moment. Struggling to get well? Appeal to this god. Struggling to have a baby? Call upon that god. Demon oppressed daughter? I’ve heard Jesus can work miracles. You see the logic?  

It wasn’t that Jesus was calling this woman a dog. It was that He was calling her out from her dog-like spiritual mentality—always seeking the crumbs that would satisfy the moment, but never caring to find the source for the Bread of Life. Suddenly, making her wait makes much more sense, doesn’t it? Because had He answered her first plea and healed her daughter, He perhaps would have sent this woman and her household back into a life of pagan rituals never realizing they just walked away from the only One who could save their souls.  

Remember our truths about Jesus? He wasn’t leaving. He was listening. He did have compassion, and He did want what’s best for her. But her waiting moved her from seeing Him as “Son of David,” among a whole list of gods, to the Master of the table. A place her heart now longed to belong to even if it meant being a dog at the master’s table. She’s no longer serving her own needs to move on, she wants to remain at the table in whatever capacity she is permitted. And look at Jesus’s response. “’O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.” 

Isn’t it amazing that when she kneels before Him, a reflection of the posture of her heart, acknowledging Him not just as a lord but as THE Lord, and humbles herself, He praises her? She was the one choosing the begging life of a dog; He was setting a place for her at the table as a child. Then He answers her first request, and the healing happened “instantly.”  

I’m not saying this is what everyone’s story looks like, but I do think there’s a commonality in her waiting and our waiting. Jesus wasn’t unwilling to heal her daughter—He just wanted this woman to find true healing for her own heart. The kind that would be long-lasting. Eternal. He didn’t want her to continue through life settling for crumbs—He wanted her to have the Bread of Life so that she may have life abundantly. Through her persevering and waiting on the Lord, He wanted to give her immeasurably more than what she was asking for. 

You know, we can be a lot like this woman in terms of our faith and the way we seek Him. Though we may not appeal to many gods, we do seek many avenues for answers, wisdom, and comfort. Sometimes I think we even approach His word satisfied to get just some crumbs to sustain us. Sometimes we grow frustrated, sitting on a passage or a verse feeling like our time with Him has grown stale. It hasn’t. He’s listening. He’s not leaving. He just wants immeasurably more for you than what you’re asking. Maybe it’s time to change your heart posture. Maybe it’s time to just sit in the dissonance of not knowing the answers until He brings them so clearly, you know He sees and loves you. Because He does. The truth is, a woman who is willing to wait on the word of God is a woman of great faith just like the Canaanite woman.

Hey friends! What to tell you? (I’m never good at this)! I am married to my high school sweetheart Andrew. We just celebrated our 11-year anniversary, and we have 3 kids—Bear, Garnet, and Finn. They are the best! I am primarily a stay-at-home mom, but I am also currently working on the edits of my very first book, which has been a little over 2 years in the making. If my writing career fails, I plan to wholeheartedly pursue a career as a backup dancer and/or standup comedian. JUST kidding—while I wish I had something super fun to tell you, I’m just a girl who loves the Lord, her family, and her friends who is bringing whatever she can to the table to serve the kingdom one day at a time.