Christian encouragement for your spiritual walk with Christ.
As we approach the coming year, some of us excited, some road weary, some of us hurting- hoping that the coming year will be easier. Some of us perhaps a little apprehensive, some us ready to dig in, go further, meet those goals. We stand in a place no one has walked before, ready to journey into uncharted places. None of us know what the future holds, what joys, what heartaches, none but Him that is.
As Thanksgiving draws near and family and traditions grow further apart, the true meaning and purpose of Thanksgiving becomes foggy and even forgotten. Amongst the clutter, and bustle of the “holiday season,” it gets lost. Like an old box of ornaments in the attic, it sits gathering dust, waiting, hoping to be opened. To be…
Have you ever noticed that when God tells us to do something or calls us to a place it doesn’t always make sense? The bible is filled with these moments, from God telling Moses to strike a rock for water to holding his staff over his head so the Israelites can claim the victory, or even when Jesus tells Peter to throw his nets into the water in the heat of the day. Often times the things we are called to, the places He leads us to look ridiculous to others and even ourselves.
In the darkness of Good Friday, it’s easy to ask why God has abandoned us -in the wake of broken dreams nailed to a tree, in the face of tragedy that struck out of nowhere in the breathtaking triumph of evil that leaves us speechless- as a hammer prepares to strike a nail that will pierce the Savior. The story of the birth of Christ that we just celebrated a few months back comes to a crushing, agonizing stop.
I think for the most part when we come to Joshua 2 we tend to skip over Rahab’s profession or avoid Rahab entirely. We try to whitewash it a bit, maybe read over that bit of scripture a little faster, the wording can make us feel uncomfortable so we try to soften it.
The Lord is in this place, so often we forget this, the pain of our circumstances blind us. Our regrets, our disappointments steal our focus. We beg for validation, for hope, for someone to see our hurt and care enough to do something, to fix it- but we are looking for the answer in all the wrong places.
Names, we all have them. Some we are born to, other’s we create, others are given to us, and still others we claim. Some of them identify us, some of them signify our relationship to others, and some have the power to bring us to our knees and crumble everything we’ve worked so hard to build.
Have you ever noticed in the Bible God’s priorities aren’t always what we think is most important?A good example would be Mark 5:21-34, Jesus is on His way to Jairus’s house to heal his daughter. He was a synagog leader, he was an important member of society, he came to Jesus begging for Him to come to his house and heal his little girl.
Only He knows where to meet us, only He knows where to break through the walls imprisoning us. Only He can find us when everyone else has given up. Only He journeys out- only God stops everything to seek us out.
I’m a planner. I like lists, I have stashes of sticky notes around the office to keep track of my priorities and ensure the most important stuff gets done before the important. Have you ever noticed in the Bible His priorities aren’t always what we think is most important?