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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Laura Story
Am I going to let my circumstances determine my view of God, or am I going to let God determine how I view my circumstances?
Thank you for hearing my prayer. I prayed for a change, and you have given it to us. Thank you, God, for a diagnosis. For this diagnosis.
I was God’s child, and he wanted me to stop running so he could love me.
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Eph. 2:10)
Paul said we were created by God, for God. We are his “handiwork”—his masterpiece.
God preparing good works in advance for us. All we have to do is follow him, our feet stepping where his feet have already made a path.
Trials are an opportunity. They are an invitation to do good works to glorify our Father in heaven, to
transform our lives from the inside out, and to drive us into the arms and footsteps of Jesus.
Our desire is for God to fix broken things. But God’s desire for us is to fix our relationship with him.
But while we’re focused on the unhealed sickness, hurt, and pain in our lives, God is focused on a bigger picture. Something else is broken, and it has eternal consequences if it doesn’t get fixed.
Though he loves us, he’ll allow us to feel the pain of this world’s unhealed hurts if it brings us closer to him.
Jesus came to heal, but he doesn’t always fix the broken things I want fixed. But if I allow him to, God will always heal my broken relationship with him.
A God who leaves physically sick people to preach the good news to spiritually sick people is a God who cares more about our soul than our body. That is who our God is.
It’s tempting to think that what we do for God will bring the favor of God.
despite our lack of goodness, God is always good and is always good to us.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (vv. 2–4)
James is saying that when the trials of life happen, we need to hold on to God. It’s an opportunity for us to look in the dark for the less obvious blessings and mercies of God that we might overlook in the light. When we do, God shows us things that we otherwise might miss. God’s light is brightest in the dark.
During our trials we can feel like a garden overrun with weeds—as if life is being choked out of us.
Even during the darkest days of our trials, my joy came when I took tentative steps in God’s direction. There, I was rewarded by seeing him and his love for me in never-before-experienced ways. Even during your darkest trials God is waiting with outstretched arms for you to come into his presence. Take a step in his direction and let his light lead you to the joy that can only be found in him.
held captive by situations you never wanted to be in and can’t seem to get out of by yourself.
Fortunately, God is faithful to us even when we are disobedient to him.
just because God’s plan differed from mine didn’t mean that God’s plan wasn’t good, or that he wasn’t
When we trust that God is for us and not against us, we can see our future as he sees it. It
never realized how much I needed the help of
people from my church. There had been so many opportunities to serve us and they availed themselves of each one. As a staff member, I felt as if I should have been the one serving them. It was both humbling and humiliating to me. Until I learned, it wasn’t about me.
TRUTH: THE CHURCH IS THE PEOPLE OF GOD AS THEY SERVE ONE ANOTHER.
MYTH: THE STRENGTH OF MY FAITH IS BASED ON HOW STRONGLY I BELIEVE. TRUTH: THE STRENGTH OF MY FAITH IS BASED ON THE STRENGTH OF MY GOD.
We often think about worship as the songs we sing in church, but the truth is that worshipping God is about surrender. Surrendering to God’s
will when it doesn’t match ours or when we’re too impatient to wait for him. Surrendering that which is most important to us. And surrendering our personal story to live out our part in God’s greater story. Worship is surrendering everything for God, valuing God so much that we’re willing to let everything else go.
worshipping the Giver was greater than worshipping the gift he’d been given. His most faith-filled moment involved letting something go.
We don’t gain God’s blessings by hanging on. We gain them by letting go.
And when we gain them, that’s when we can use them to bless others.
MYTH: I GAIN BY HOLDING ON. TRUTH: I GAIN BY LETTING GO.
this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him,”
So just as Jesus came to heal our broken relationship with God, he also came to heal the consequences of the broken world we live in.
You should read the rest of John 9 and the beginning of chapter 10.
Go back and research
For those of us with why questions, we can stop the story here with the comfort of knowing that Jesus wasn’t accusing anyone of the blind man’s physical defect. Instead, he was all about healing it. Jesus came to restore both physically and relationally what had been lost in the fall. This gives me great peace about Martin’s condition, and it should give
you peace about your situation too.
Questions can be a great help in mourning our loss, communicating our frustration, and expressing our feelings.
Then I want you to write down all your why questions. Start with “Why did
God’s glory can be displayed, even in the brokenness of our lives, gives us hope despite our circumstances. I promise you will find more purpose and joy in your life if you set aside the why and begin to ask how. How does my story fit into God’s
the trials had brought them closer. God uses even cancer to strengthen marriages and to remind us how precious our families are.
Take a moment and ask God for wisdom in writing your own how list. Refer back to your why questions for inspiration if necessary, but know that your questions and answers may be incomplete or even unsatisfying. I’ll be right here when you finish.
As I prayed, I began to remember the role worship songs had played in my life. As a child,
Singing your old songs of Zion in a new land
Psalm 40 where David spilled his secret—David wasn’t doing it at all.
I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. (Ps. 40:1–2)
In Psalm 30:5, David wrote, “Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” In some cases, weeping is only for a night, though often it remains for a season.
Joy will come.
His psalms are testaments not only to the authentic grief he experienced but also to his authentic joy after God put a new song in his mouth.
Many, LORD my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you; were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare. (v. 5)
