More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
March 31 - April 10, 2023
Feeling the pain is the first step toward healing the pain. The longer we avoid the feeling, the more we delay our healing. We can numb it, ignore it, or pretend it doesn’t exist, but all those options lead to an eventual breakdown, not a breakthrough.
It’s the pain we feel that finally demands we slow down enough to address what’s really going on below the surface.
C. S. Lewis wrote, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”1
God, this really doesn’t add up. How do I see all this senseless suffering and still sing about You being a good, good Father? It adds so much fuel to the fire of skeptics. And quite honestly makes me cry. I don’t want to question You. But it’s hard when I’m so utterly disappointed. It feels like You’re not showing up here.
God loves me too much to answer my prayers at any other time than the right time and in any other way than the right way.
“Don’t deny My wounds, the healing I died to give you. Eve turned to the wrong tree and received death. I hung on a tree to bring you back to life. I am the fulfillment of your longing. I am your Tree of Life.”
Charles Spurgeon once preached, “My dear friends, you will never see the tree of life aright unless you first look at the cross. . . . Thus then, Jesus Christ hanging on the cross is the tree of life in its wintertime.”2
God’s Word is the Truth. And His Truth says you are a holy and dearly loved child of your heavenly Father. You are wonderfully made. You are a treasure. You are beautiful. You are fully known by Him and lavishly loved by Him. You are chosen. You are special. You are set apart. No matter what you’ve done or what’s been done to you, these words of God are true about you. May we carefully choose what we remember and what we forget.
Remember, while God converts with truth, the enemy perverts the truth.
This paralyzing lie is one of his favorite tactics to keep you disillusioned by disappointments. Walls go up, emotions run high, we get guarded, defensive, demotivated, and paralyzed by the endless ways we feel doomed to fail. This is when we quit. This is when we put the kids in front of the TV because nothing in the parenting books seems to be working. This is when we settle for the ease of Facebook instead of the more challenging work of digging into God’s book of transformation. This is when we get a job to simply make money instead of pursuing our calling to make a difference. This is
...more
Understand that no time showing up and bringing compassion to another human is ever a waste of time. Rather, it’s our chance to bring context, purpose, and meaning to all of life. Quiet moments of compassion are epic moments of battle. They happen when we hush the chaos and shame of Satan with the truth of Revelation 12:11: “They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” Jesus has brought the blood. We must bring the word of our testimony.
Show up. People need you. People need me. People need to know God’s compassion is alive and well and winning the epic battle of good versus evil. People need to know redemption is more than just a word.
I’ve learned one more important fact: my hope isn’t tied to my expectations finally being met in my way and in my timing. No. My hope isn’t tied to whether or not a circumstance or another person changes. My hope is tied to the unchanging promise of God. I hope for the good I know God will ultimately bring from this, whether the good turns out to match my desires or not.
The process isn’t a cruel way to keep you from the promise; it’s the exact preparation you’ll need to handle the promise.
God isn’t picking on me. God is picking me to personally live out one of His promises.
The process isn’t a cruel way to keep you from the promise; it’s the exact preparation you’ll need to handle the promise.
God doesn’t expect us to handle this. He wants us to hand this over to Him.
He doesn’t want us to rally more of our own strength. He wants us to rely solely on His strength.
It’s our choice whether we stay stuck in our hurt or get renewed in our hearts.
When we seek God, we see God. We don’t see His physical form, but we see Him at work and can start to see more of what He sees. Trust grows. If our hearts are willing to trust Him, He will entrust to us more and more of His perspective.
Weak moments don’t make weak faith. Weak moments make us even more aware of our need to press in to faith. A faith in God that helps us know that what we see isn’t all there is. Weak moments are also clues telling us what needs to be addressed right now in this part of the journey. Don’t beat yourself up for weak moments. But don’t ignore them either.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
sometimes hardship happens not because of what you’ve done but because of something God is doing and will eventually make right.
What if the worst parts of your life are actually gateways to the very best parts you’d never want to do without?
“Because [Jesus] never lost sight of where he was headed . . . he could put up with anything along the way.” That’s why we must keep our eyes on Him and go over His story—the Bible—again and again.
• When you are chosen for suffering, you are chosen for the blessing of displaying the works of God.
You are not a God who picks on me. You are a God who has handpicked me.
“Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.”5
Let’s take a closer look at what the enemy wants to do to you and my friend and to me this very day: • Tempt • Deceive • Accuse
You will devour this sin without realizing it’s devouring you.
You don’t have to be a scholar. You just have to be created by God. And you are that. Therefore, you can receive God’s Word, and His Word will achieve all the wonderful purposes meant for you.
“When God says ‘don’t’ we should read it as ‘Don’t hurt yourself.’”
The enemy may be vicious, but he is not victorious.
“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” (1 Peter 4:12–13)
Comfort isn’t a solution to seek; rather, it’s a by-product we’ll reap when we stay close to the Lord.
Settling into complacency might seem to be comfortable for today, but in the long run we, like the Moabites, may suffer more if we go untouched by God for too long.
If we have a misunderstanding of God, we will most certainly have a wrong understanding of our circumstances. But when we see that God’s purpose is good, we can trust His process is good.
Using God’s truth as your fighting words will not change what you see, but it absolutely will change how you see.
Feelings don’t have the final say; Truth absolutely does.
Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. (James 1:12)
People are the masterpieces, and you are creative because you are God’s best creation and His fingerprints and brush strokes dance all inside of you.
No human should have to carry the weight of being their own god, but so many do.
“She’ll be a learner and a lover of truth.
She will be: ~ a curator of curiosity ~ an image bearer of imagination ~ a tender truth-teller ~ a bold gospel-bringer ~ the wonder-full part of why “Those are the things she’ll discover as she journeys through life, dancing and falling and getting back up again.
“Tell her I gave her the words upside down because she’ll give the world permission once again to see the wonderful in the why. Her whys have made her wise. “Upside down are the perfect words for a girl who will eventually land right side up, messy and marvelous and so very alive.”
• There’s someone else in the world who would drown in their own tears if not for seeing yours.
• When you make one other human simply see they aren’t alone, you make the world a better place. • Your whys have made you wise.
