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.
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.
by Freddie Amos | Jun 8, 2022 | Life Advice, Wisdom
As I sit and write to you about grief, I am experiencing the emotions of grief alongside you, walking through this journey trying to find God in it. To only talk about the aftermath of grief would do a disservice to those mourning and belittle the pain that grief requires us to feel. Its complex and there is no one way to express or experience grief and pain. Throughout this blog I ask you to allow yourself to grief in the way you need and invite God into the pain.
Grief is defined as the deep sorrow that is caused by someone’s death. There are a multitude of emotions that are birthed out of hurt. Anguish, hopelessness, despair, and sadness are commonly felt during the grieving process. Below the surface of grief, we can feel overwhelmed, anxious, fearful, stressed, heartbroken, angry, and maybe even some guilt. In the therapy world, we categorize grief into stages to better understand it. Denial & isolation, anger, bargaining or pushing off reality, depression, and acceptance. The most recent stage added is the stage of meaning. These stages are non-linear, meaning that they are not necessarily experienced in order (Ross & Kessler, 2014). The question then becomes “how do you hurt well”? I believe the best way to properly grieve is to let yourself experience each stage as it comes. Be gentle towards yourself as you navigate these emotions. When we ignore and avoid the pain of grief, we take away the gift God wants to give us, Him.
There is something so beautiful about mourning in the presence of Jesus. In the midst of broken heartedness, if you are still you can feel the peace that surpasses all understanding. I’ve always clung to Philippians 4:6 during pain. It reminds me that regardless of the situation I’m in my soul longs to praise God in some capacity. When the ability to praise is overcome by pain, allow yourself to deeply feel the pain. Let me tell you friend, it is not a sin to feel emotions. If you don’t feel it, you can’t heal it.
As humans we want to avoid pain altogether, it feels uncomfortable to experience the realness of pain. We want to go from the gaping wound to the healed scar in a matter of seconds but its impossible. Maybe the Christian desire to do this is because it seems like a sin to feel emotions that are seen as bad. I want to remind you that Jesus experienced every emotion while on Earth. If the perfect man can experience every emotion that comes with a hurting soul, you can too. Grief disrupts the normalcy of life while the rest of the world keeps going. When it finally feels like you can breathe again you notice the whole world hasn’t stopped, just yours. Picking back the pieces of your crushed spirit to go on in life futile. Be patient with your grief and recognize that God the healer, the provider, and the giver of peace wants to meet you in your grief. When we ignore the feelings that arise in us, we take away the comfort God wants to give us in the midst of our suffering. Avoiding the pain in the suffering removes the ability to experience great joy on the other side of the pain. Romans 8:18
We falsely belief that God promises to take away the emotions of grief on this side of heaven, rather God promises to be close to us in our grief. We do have hope that when we are with Jesus, he will wipe away every tear and death shall be no more. There will be no mourning, nor crying, no pain.” Paraphrased Revelation 21:4. In the midst of your mourning draw closer to God; wrestle with him in your pain and do not let go. Like Jacob who wrestled with God and did not let him go until he was blessed, do not let go of God. But don’t let go of God after you wrestle with him, stay close to him. From experience I can say that there is no closeness to God like there is during a season of mourning. As you navigate this path remember that you are allowed to feel every emotion. Your anger, hurt and sadness are understood by Jesus he too felt those things. Give yourself permission to feel and let God in on the emotions to heal you. As a society we often say time heals all wounds, rather I believe that God alone can heal our wounds and uses time to do so.
Lord, I cover my friend in your peace, knowing that her pain is severe, and her hurt is deep. I know that you are creator of peace but that doesn’t mean that you will take away our pain but rather give us incomprehensible peace in the middle of mourning. Let the pain inside be an avenue to feel your love even more. You are able and willing to bring beauty from the ashes, you bring gladness instead of mourning (Isaiah 61:3). Thank you that you want to give us joy and peace and that while we must experience pain you are with us in it. Thank you that you can relate to us in our pain and mourning, I pray that that pain forces her to come to you with her raw emotions. Thank you that you have defeated death and we have eternal life in you, thank you that our pain and suffering is not the end. You give life and will bring her back to joy in due season.
Ross, E.K & Kessler, D. (2014) On grief and grieving: finding meaning of grief through the five stages of loss. Simon & Schuster.
Freddie is a recent grad from Auburn University with her masters in clinical mental health counseling and is on staff with LO as a counselor. She loves long walks, spending time with friends and family, and helping people find their confidence in who God made them to be!
Follow Freddie on Instagram: @yourfriend_Freddie
by Heather Savonne | Apr 21, 2022 | Life Advice, Perspective, Wisdom
Have you ever felt like your time was wasted? Whether it’s your own doing or the line at your favorite coffee shop is super long and you think to yourself, “what is taking so long?” But you keep your cool and wait anyway because you know once you get your order, you’ll be sipping on a nice frothy latte. Well, you’re already in your car, late for work, and the first sip you take of your drink, you figure out it’s the completely wrong order. Yuck! You feel like your time was wasted. For what? A drink that wasn’t even yours? In situations like these, my mind always ponders, “God, what possibly was the lesson here?” Is there a lesson at all? Maybe this scenario was totally out of your control like many scenarios we face in life. What about working relentlessly for something you really wanted, insert whatever you wanted really badly, and all that hard work seemed to not pay off, a health condition got in the way, or you made excuses and long story short, it didn’t happen. You can’t help but feel the very human feeling of “my time was wasted”. What else happens when we think our time is wasted? We think the time was lost! Technically, the time has passed but it is anything but lost.
Thankfully, we serve a God that is really good at finding things. After all, He did make the universe. I’m sure an all knowing God knows where everything is. We were never misplaced. We are often the one’s trailing off into the woods. Throughout scripture God is referred to as a Redeemer. Father Abraham, the prophet Isaiah, and Job all foretell God to be this way. But, there’s been many times in my life where I’ve looked at past mistakes, or things that happened to me and thought, “how could this ever be redeemed?” With that mindset, I was certainly not living in the good news of my redemptive Father, even though I had been redeemed through Christ. Our salvation is secured but the renewal process, I believe, is ongoing. Like the famous hymn quotes, we were once lost and now we are found, the same can be applied to anything in your life that you feel is “lost”. A dream, a person, relationship, or even time! What was considered lost can be found in Him.
As a worship leader and singer/songwriter, I always write what I feel and write from experience. I wrote a song called “Found In You” about everything I am being found in God. The chorus says,
“All my hope is found in You
All my worth is found by knowing Your truth
All my treasure found in You
You know my every step
I’m woven in the web of salvation”
Pre-Christ, my hope was lost and felt like a lot of time and dreams were gone with the wind. I didn’t have hope for my life the way God did but He had hope for me and my future. ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ (Jeremiah 29:11) My worth was completely dependent on what others thought of me or said about me which drifted with the ever changing ways of the world. Now my never-changing worth and value is found in Christ and always has been, but I wasn’t aware of that truth. “For you created my innermost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” (Psalm 139:13–14) My treasure had been abandoned like an old pirate movie and I was constantly searching and searching in all the wrong places. Luke 12:34 tells us, “where your treasure is your heart is also”. My heart was stone, my heart was in the world, my heart was previously dead and needed reviving.
The good surgeon, the One who made me, gifted me the greatest treasure; salvation. Now, woven in that unbreakable web, any security I thought I needed and sought after riches are in Him. He redeemed you and I, which means He also redeemed our baggage. To redeem means to get something back by paying a price. So God redeemed us by purchasing us with the cost of His perfect son Jesus who paid for our sins on the cross. This is good news! Redeeming news! Many of us keep holding on to our baggage that was never meant to be carried for so long. I’m truly surprised my biceps don’t show more because of all the heavy junk I trudged along for years, but it does explain an achy back and what was once an achy soul. We desperately attempt holding the heavy weights when it was all meant to be laid as His feet. The bible tells us His yoke is easy and His burden is light. If you’re like me, you try to carry in every grocery bag into the house at the same time no matter how heavy they are even if your pinky is getting its blood supply cut off. This is a rare case where the good cannot outweigh the bad. You cannot firmly hold on to both Jesus and the world; it must be one or the other. You cannot fully follow freedom if you’re still following fear. You cannot carry peace if you’re latched on to worry. Hold both hands open and surrender it to God. Be ready to catch an abundance of redemption that has been waiting for your “yes”.
One of my favorite scriptures is Genesis 50:20, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” God intends to use your past for good. How could that possibly happen? What good could come from bad? God’s sovereign power is the only good that can right a wrong. It’s for His glory – not our own. It is so that lives can be saved. How beautiful the redemptive nature of God is. That He would take our rags and make them riches. “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28. We don’t always know that purpose but when our heart starts to align with His, we can almost be certain it is for the advancement of the Kingdom. The Father’s heart is always for His children.
So, just when you begin to think your time is being wasted, there’s always a bigger purpose and a bigger picture. A picture that is sometimes too big, too divine, too mysterious for us to see right away or see at all. Even the tried and tested Old Testament servant Job cries, “Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty?” Even in the midst of suffering, grief, and questioning the circumstances happening around him, Job still declares, “Though He slay me, yet I will trust Him.” (Job 13:15) And later proclaims,“Yet my Redeemer lives, and he shall stand at last on the earth.” (Job 19:25)
Is there anything in your life today that you desire to be reclaimed and redeemed in Christ? Your mind, your children, your finances? Whatever it is, it can be submitted under the feet of Christ and be found new in Him. Pray the prayer of psalmist David, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.” (Psalm 51:12)
Allow the words of the final verse of “Found in You” to wash over you today,
“All my strength is found in You
All my peace is found by living in You
All my joy is found in You
You know my every breath
You never leave a heart that is broken.”
Nothing is wasted for surely our redeemer lives!
Heather Savonne is a worship leader and singer/songwriter living in Houston, TX. She attended Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, TX where she got a B.S. in psychology and English minor. Heather is working on her first solo worship album and loves to encourage women in their daily walk with God on all of her social media platforms. Heather is married to her husband of 2 years, Lea, who has a ministry called Childish Faith Ministries where they both serve as worship leaders, kingdom creators, and partner with local ministries to highlight Christian creatives.
by Darcy Clark | Apr 14, 2022 | Life Advice, Wisdom
Growing up it always puzzled me to hear the words, “you have so much potential.”
I got this from my parents, mentors, close friends, and an occasional stranger in the midst of conversation. Maybe you can relate to hearing this. Maybe you can relate to the feeling of wanting that person who spoke those words to elaborate even more to maybe answer the thoughts of: ‘okay I have this potential, so what’s next, what do I do?’.
Maybe you can’t relate though, so if you fall into this category there is one thing I want you to know which is the honest truth: You have potential. You were made on purpose and for a purpose by God – the same God who made the heavens and the earth. The same God who sent His son to die on a cross and raise to life all to be in a relationship with you. In order to fulfill your potential, you have to recognize that you possess it. Potential, that is. Lots of it.
The defintion for potential is: something that can develop or become actual.
And the part where you come is the choice; the choice to believe you have potential and want to fulfill it. For my life and countless others, this desire to fulfill our potential is driven by the realization that we have a perfect, Heavenly Father who created us in His image and placed us here on earth for a purpose.
My prayer is that this truth never becomes cliche to you or me. I pray that every time you read this, or even myself, that we would be left in awestruck wonder. Genesis 1:27 says this, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” In the image of God, you were created! Jeremiah 29:11 says this, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Maybe you’re now in the category of feeling: ‘okay well I have potential, but I am too young!’
Friend, Jeremiah 29:11 were words spoken by Jeremiah, who was only 17 when God called upon him to be used in His story! You are not too old and you are not too young to step into what God is calling you to do. The God of the universe took a moment in time to form your life. You are not here by accident. You are not reading this by accident.
We all need a reminder that we have potential.
…potential to create something beautiful.
…potential to make someone feel loved today.
…potential to write the next best song.
…potential to inspire younger generations with words.
…potential to do something that is so beyond anything you can fathom.
Friend, you have the potential to live inside the arms of God’s love and grace. You have all that you need here, in this moment. Jesus is available to you now. Living life inside of God’s design and will for us is the beautiful and mind blowing truth that enables us to live a life maximized in joy, living out your potential. His word does not exist to be this rigid and exacting guide in life, but something we can build our life upon to live a life maximizing the potential and purpose He has placed in each of us.
I wonder what would happen if we all realized the value we have in our Heavenly Father’s eyes. I wonder what would happen if we realized that we have been invited into the greatest story of all time. The story that saves, that changes lives; the story of Jesus who stepped down from Heaven to face a death He did not deserve, conquer death, and pay the price for our sins that separated us from God. The story that saves and changes lives is the one God is inviting you into. I wonder what would happen if we allowed this to blow our mind?
If you realize anything today, I hope you realize you have potential to do immeasurably more than you can imagine in and through Christ. The greatest thing you can do now, is live out the potential you have to make Him known. I can promise you this, if you draw nearer to Him, He will align all of your steps according to His perfect will.
God has given you full access to His goodness and a life maximized in joy and purpose. “For the Lord God is brighter than the brilliance of a sunrise! Wrapping himself around me like a shield, he is so generous with his gifts of grace and glory. Those who walk along his paths with integrity will never lack one thing they need, for he provides it all!”
Psalms 84:11 (TPT). God is your biggest fan. Have you ever thought of it that way? You have purpose and potential to be a part of God sized things walking with the One who made you.
This current week is Holy week, the week leading up to Jesus on the cross, dying a death He did not deserve to bridge the gap that man created between us and God, now giving us full access to our Heavenly Father. Jesus, who defeated death for a relationship with YOU, also believes in you.
Maybe you are in a season where you feel like your life has no potential or there is no one around you who is believing in you. Can I just remind you today friend that you do not need other people to believe in you or approve of you? Jesus believes in you and is rooting for you, even when it feels like the wind is against you. Especially, then. You are chosen, called, adored, and invited into the Kingdom of Heaven. Dream and walk in lockstep with Him!
Way too often we get stuck waiting on the approval of others or the next door to fling wide open. The only approval you need, you already have from your Heavenly Father. Before you even do or say a thing, you are enough. You are enough because of what Jesus did on the cross, He is our rescue and biggest fan. He is our perfection, so we do not have to be. The pressure is completely off to be perfect or do things perfectly. You have grace accessible to you for future mess ups and a God who takes our mess ups and turns them into beautiful stories to tell to invite others in. And for the door that you are waiting on to open, what if we just knocked?
“And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you” Romans 8:11 (NIV).
Live in remembrance of what Jesus did on the cross for you to step into eternity with your Maker. Live in remembrance that you have potential and you have purpose because the same power that rose Jesus from the dead lives inside you if you would just allow Him in. Jesus is knocking at your door to make your life something beautiful and He is the only one who can fill it with purpose. Will you let him in?
Darcy Clark is a Jesus follower and friend to many. Her hometown is Houston, Tx, where you can find her coffee sipping, exploring, and writing. She is an aspiring author, current dreamer, and spends most of her time in girls ministry through her local church. She attended Texas A&M University and has taken her schooling online now, since she moved to Tennessee and back to Texas this last year.
by Sadie Robertson Huff | Apr 7, 2022 | Featured, Life Advice, Love, Wisdom
Today’s a GOOD day on the blog, because I get to share a WTG episode I recorded with one of my favorite people – my husband! Christian and I get to answer some questions about relationships, faith, life, and all the things. I’m so excited to share this one with you! Let’s dive in to the DM’s!
Question 1: What were some things you did intentionally while you were waiting for each other?
There are tons of people out there waiting for their person and wondering what to do in the process. So, I thought Christian would be the perfect person to answer this one since he has great advice on the topic. Christian said prayer and building a community of guys around him were the two key elements in his season of waiting. In the season before he and I started dating, he was very intentional about spending alone time with God, and having bible study groups and prayer nights. He truly believes that time in his life prepared him for our relationship.
This same idea applies to girls as well. Find good Godly community with other girls who are seeking the same purpose! During that season in Christian’s life, he wasn’t just preparing himself for our relationship. He was becoming the man he wanted to be. He was focusing on the Lord and himself which is so important. You have to have a moment in your life when you’re focusing on who God is and who you are so that when you go into a relationship, you’re a whole person.
I love what I heard said once. They said that whenever two people become one, it’s not fifty-fifty. It’s two becoming one. And so many only have fifty percent to give because they were focusing on other things the whole time and never took the time to know yourself. But whenever both people truly know themselves and are rooted in who God is, two people becoming one make such a strong one.
Question 2: What would you tell your younger self who felt like they would never find the right person for them?
I think I would tell my younger self to just rest and wait. You don’t have to try to figure out who your person is. It’s just going to happen. When you say you have to “find love,” you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself because if you have to find something, then you have to go searching for it. If I’d tried to “find” Christian, I genuinely don’t know if I would’ve found him because I wouldn’t have been looking where he was. I never would’ve thought my husband would be in Seaside, FL, the day I happened to be there on vacation with my friends. I’m so grateful we found each other, but the fact is that we didn’t have to search.
You just have to show up each day with a willing spirit, present yourself in such a way that you’re ready to meet your person, and be in relationship with someone. And when you show up each day like that, you’re positioning yourself in the place to be able to meet your person. I think God makes that intentionally happen. So, I don’t think we have to find our person. I believe God connects your steps to each other.
Question 3: What have you been learning from God recently?
Christian said a lot of times when he thinks about God, he thinks “Father,” “Redeemer,” all these amazing qualities of God. But it recently hit him that God is his Creator. When he prays, it’s to the One who physically created him. All his attributes were created by God. I remember looking out at the ocean on Christian’s and my honeymoon and thinking, “Wow. The God who created the ocean created me.”
And the crazy thing is that when God made the ocean, the stars, and moon, He said it was good. When we look at those things, we think they’re amazing. And then He made us, He said it was good. But when He made man and woman come together, He said it was very good. That is so humbling to think about. And when you look at God as the One who created you, you begin to feel much more confident and loved. It also pushes you to want to further that relationship.
Question 4: Does God speak to you in dreams?
My answer is yes. I would love to share one of these instances with you! Before I tell this story, I want to say that if you’ve never had a dream from the Lord before, that is not a bad thing. That does not mean God’s withholding something from you. There are incredibly spiritual people who have never felt like they had a dream from the Lord. I will say, though, it is something to pray for. I used to hear about this girl who had God dreams and I wanted them so badly. So, I started praying for them and they started happening. It’s not like I have one every night. I probably have one once every three years. The way I can tell that it’s a God dream is when there is a moment in the dream when I feel the Lord speak.
Years ago, my team and I really wanted to go to a conference. At this point, we were hosting tours and gatherings, and decided we wanted to get poured into. Well, we saw the Global Leadership Conference was being hosted in London. So, we bought our tickets as regular attendees. A couple months before we bought our tickets, I had a dream that I was in a green room, which is the room the speakers gather in before an event. In the dream, I was looking at a map of places in the world where revival had broken out in. These places were colored in. Then, Pastor Michael Todd, who I’d never met at that time, walked in the room and looked at the map and said, “This is a divine holy moment.” Right after that, we started singing the song “Set a Fire” and all got down on our knees because the presence of God felt so heavy. I woke up and wrote down the dream.
Months later, the people from the Global Leadership Conference see my name in the sign-up list and reached out asking me to do a Q&A. This was all in March. So, I get on this call with these pastors from London and Nicky and Pippa Gumbel start speaking to me. They said, “I don’t know if you know it but this is our GLOBAL Leadership Conference. So, we’ll have leaders from all over the world representing.” Then Pippa said, “That Monday night of the conference, you’ll be speaking, along with Pastor Mike Todd.” As soon as she said that, I knew it sounded familiar. Like I had lived it before. I went back to November in my book with my dreams, and read out loud to them what it said. They had chills.
Fast forward to May. We’re in the green room and they bring in a map and say, “If this is the dream you had, we’re going to pray into it.” So, we prayed over this dream that revival would happen all around the world. After Pastor Mike and I had preached, Nicky asked me to come back up and pray for an anointing on my generation like never before. The presence of God was so thick in the room and all of a sudden, Mike Todd starts singing “Set a Fire” and everyone is on their knees praising God. This was definitely one of the craziest experiences of my life, and it was undeniably because of the Lord. But when you look at the God of the Bible, God spoke in dreams all the time. So, why wouldn’t He speak to us in dreams?
Isaiah 26:9 says, “My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.”
It’s basically this prayer of longing to see God. Before I go to bed at night, I tell God that my spirit longs to see Him that night. I encourage you to keep a prayer journal by your bed and always write things down if you feel the Lord speaking, whether it be in a dream or any other time.
However, not every dream means something. Both Christian and I have crazy dreams that don’t necessarily mean anything. For instance, you might dream about your biggest fear, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to come true. I dream about losing Christian, but that doesn’t mean I actually will. I have to remind myself not to panic. I don’t think God speaks in fear. We need to have the wisdom to discern what is significant and what’s not.
Question 5: If I want to break a bad habit, where do I start and how do I do that practically?
I used to have the bad habit of being sensitive. My mom used to call me “Sensitive Sally” because it was so extreme. This habit drove me crazy. If someone looked at me wrong or said the wrong thing to me, I would be convinced that they didn’t like me. And I would get so upset about it. I feel like I grew out of that by making the conscious decision to grow thicker skin. Thank God I broke that habit because if I heard all the opinions I get from people now and was still as sensitive as I used to be, it would be terrible.
Let me say this to the person who is sensitive or anxious, you actually can control you. At the end of the day, you are the only person who can choose to change you. So, if there’s something about you that bothers you, fix it. Don’t stay in it. Ask God to help you in doing so.
As far as sinful habits go, Christian had a great take on handling them. He said that at some point, you have to lean into your conviction. And if you’re truly a follower of Christ, you should have conviction.
Hebrews 10:26 says, “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left.”
Christian went on to say that though we still struggle with things and battle sin, there’s a difference between habitually sinning and turning from sin. However, if we do sin, we have one as an advocate for us.
“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.” (1 John 2:1)
I asked Christian to address one of the biggest struggles in our generation: pornography. I know his friend group had an incredible breakthrough from this and I wanted him to share. He started by talking about his friend group in college. Week after week, we would ask for prayer over our struggle with pornography and lust. Finally, after a few months, we all asked, “What are we actually going to do about any of this?” We took the initiative to actually do something about it. We began to hold each other accountable and slowly watched each other’s struggles deteriorate. If you struggle with something and don’t make a change, you can get comfortable in it. But the moment you decide to make a change and repent, everything shifts.
For people listening, I think there’s a couple takeaways from Christian’s experience:
- They held each other accountable as a group. They didn’t try to do it alone.
- They actually did things to help them stop. It wasn’t just a weekly check-in. They were intentional about holding each other accountable. And they hung out so much as a group.
If you’re walking through something right now that is a sinful habit, I encourage you to get with someone dealing with the same thing and decide today that it will no longer be a struggle. Yes, it is going to try to fight, but y’all will be fighting back. That doesn’t mean that you won’t mess up every now and then, but it is saying that you’re not going to let it own your life. Practice the things you have to put in to play to make sure it goes away. Because when you are fighting a giant like that, you have to know how to fight back.
I pray all this advice speaks to you and meets you where you’re at, friend! xoxo, Sadie
