When you go on a journey, do you under pack? Over pack? Or pack exactly what you need? Admittedly, I am an overpacker. Oftentimes, I don’t know what our plans will be, and because I want to be prepared for everything, I pack every potential item that might be necessary for any possible activity. Oh, and don’t forget to factor in the weather changes - that leads to additional wardrobe options. Can you relate

Recently, my husband and I returned from a getaway. After putting away all of the unused clothes, shoes and other items, I promised myself that next time, I would NOT overpack. Shortly after making that promise, I was reminded that the Lord has a sense of humor. I read when Jesus sent His disciples out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick, He told them, “Take nothing with you for the journey - no staff, no bag, no bread, no money no extra tunic” (Luke 9:3, NIV). Did Jesus really say “take nothing”? How can you go on a journey without taking everything you might need? They took no walking sticks to help them walk, no bags to carry their necessities, no road-trip snacks; no money for lodging or food and no extra tunics - what if they got cold or one tunic got dirty? Really, take nothing? That is a mystery for overpackers!

The Lord wanted His disciples to depend on Him and not themselves in every situation. They needed nothing because He would provide everything! They took the Word of the Lord and the experiences they had with Jesus and nothing else. Later, “Jesus asked them, ‘When I sent you out … did you lack anything?’ ‘Nothing,’ they answered” (Luke 22:35, NIV). The Lord WILL provide. When we depend on Him we can trust that He will provide and we will lack NOTHING!

When I need to make a decision and over analyze every possible outcome before making a decision, I am definitely overpacking my mind. Recently, after being unable to make some decisions and running out of time for a deadline, I finally cried out, “Lord, I am a hot mess, I need You! I need direction!” When I surrendered, I felt as though the Lord smiled at me and lovingly said that He knew me (and all of my imperfections), He created me, He loved me and He would provide. No condemnation, just a loving response to my honest cry for help and a reminder that in Him, I will lack nothing.

​Each day, I need to remember that sometimes I am called to “to take nothing.” To stop packing burdens from yesterday to today and not try to plan for every future activity. Whatever we face, we may totally depend on the Lord and trust that He will meet all of our needs and we will lack nothing.

​If you are a mom, you may feel as though you never get a break! You spend everyday taking care of your family.  Although you love them with all your heart, you wonder will this ever get easier? Will I ever get a full night’s sleep? Will my girls ever stop fighting and be friends? Will I ever have a minute alone in a bathroom? Will my boys ever learn how to pee in the toilet and not all over the bathroom wall? Will I ever stop feeling like a taxi driver? Will I ever get to enjoy a piece of “good” chocolate without having to hide it on the top self of the pantry behind the flour, so every time I want a piece I have to make sure no one is awake, find my step stool with all the lights off in the kitchen, just in case they are not really asleep and discover my hidden stash? (I have some experience with this, one can you tell?)
 
Several years ago, while my boys were still in high school, one played hockey and the other played football. Keeping everyone’s schedule straight was extremely challenging. One particularly crazy night, I came home from work to quickly cook dinner before rushing out to practice. The kitchen was loud, everyone was talking and asking me questions at the same time and looking for things they needed. It felt like a tornado was going through my house. I just wanted some peace and quiet for a little bit.


I was getting very annoyed and the tone of my voice was becoming rude. Just when I was about to snap, I heard the Lord whisper to my heart, “Thank me for your full life.” Tears swelled in my eyes as I realized the Lord had given me an incredible husband and two terrific boys and I was treating them like a burden.
 
In Mark 10:36-42, the disciples were arguing about who would be the greatest in His Kingdom. In verse 43-44 Jesus said, “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be a slave to all.”
 
The night before Jesus died, he demonstrated His most loving act of service. John 13:3-5 tells us, “Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God.  So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.” Jesus’ position and authority did not keep him from serving, rather it caused Him to do whatever he needed to demonstrate how He wanted his disciples to love and serve each other. As moms, we have been given an opportunity to demonstrate to our children how to serve like Jesus.
 
Psalm 100:2a says. “Serve the Lord with gladness….” This Psalm is part of a larger Psalm that carries the title “A Psalm for Giving Thanks.”  How do we serve the Lord with gladness? By serving those He has placed in our lives with thanksgiving; this leads to gladness instead of seeing our blessings as burdens.
 
I know being a mom can be a thankless job, and often times it seems like no one notices the ways you serve. But you have a Heavenly Father who sees you. When you serve your family you look like Jesus and He loves to see His Son in you. I challenge you, next time things get crazy and you don’t want to serve one more person, stop and thank Him for your full life. When I choose to do this it always changes my outlook and helps me to “Serve Lord with gladness.”

When I was a little girl (six years old, to be exact), a dear family friend gave my sister and me a book. It was entitled, “If Jesus Came to My House,” and was written by Joan Gale Thomas. There are delightful illustrations on each page and the text of the book was a poem.
 
We kept this book on a particular bookshelf, not with the books that my sister and I could look at any time we wanted. This was a special book and I loved it when my mother read this story to me. The story begins,
 
“If Jesus came to my house
and knocked upon the door
I’m sure I’d be more happy
Than I’ve ever been before.
 
If Jesus came to my house
I’d like Him best to be
About the age that I am
And about the height of me.
 
I’d run downstairs to meet Him,
The door I’d open wide,
And I would say to Jesus,
‘Oh, won’t you come inside?”
 
That story impressed upon me at a young age, that Jesus wanted to be with me and wanted to be my friend.  I could totally relate to the little boy in the story who played host to Jesus on that day. He showed Jesus the most special places in his home and garden, picking flowers for Him and apples from the family tree. The little boy even showed Jesus the places that frightened him in the darker parts of the house, realizing that with Jesus there, those places weren’t so scary any more. He shared his toys with Jesus and let the little Lord Jesus pick out one to take home with him. It seemed like a perfect day to my little imagination.
 
The story goes on to explain that while Jesus cannot physically come to visit us in our homes, we can gather with others to pray and learn about Him and worship Him. And we can be kind to those around us, sharing what we have and giving our best to them.
 
Fifty years later, I still have that little book and I keep it on a particular bookshelf. There are days when I still imagine how it would be if my friend, Jesus, came for a visit. We would share a cup of coffee and I would show Him all of my favorite things and places in my home. We would talk and laugh and I would probably even tell Him about my worries and my fears. We would have a lovely day together and I would be sad when it was time for Him to leave. But the happiness we shared that day would linger after I closed the front door as He walked away, and I would smile throughout that evening, thinking of all the sweet time we shared together.
 
Jesus is always willing to spend time with us. No, He doesn’t physically come over, but He is with us just the same. And He would love nothing more than for us to sit with Him, and tell Him all that is on our minds and in our hearts.
 

​Here in sunny Southwest Florida, we don’t experience the Fall in the same way as they do up north. Up north it’s obvious, the colors change, the trees shed their leaves and the weather becomes noticeably cooler. In Florida not much changes in September; it is still hot, humid and we are on hurricane watch. If you’re not paying attention, it is easy to miss the fact that a new season has begun.

For nearly 10 years after being saved, I was very much like the Fall in Florida; I was changed, (saved through faith in Jesus Christ), but I was still experiencing the weather conditions from the previous season of my life. I continued to carry around my shame and regrets, unwilling to release them to the Lord. I thought that somehow if I kept lugging them around that I could make up for the wickedness of my youth. You see, I was a saved Christian, but I was not experiencing my salvation as God intended. I was in a new season, but I was missing out on the fullness of its beauty, because I was too focused on the ugliness of my past.

The Bible says in Psalm 146:8 that, “the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous.”

We serve a God who loves us so much that He refuses to idly watch as His children stay bowed down, cowering in the shadow of what used to be. Instead, He mercifully reaches down and draws us out of the darkness of yesteryear, so that our eyes may be opened to the beauty of a new day lived for Jesus Christ.

Last year in September 2019, God made an obvious change in my spirit as He lifted me out of a season of lingering despair and opened my eyes to a new era of joy. He had given me healing from hurt that I never thought I could get over. Until that moment, I was unaware of what it truly felt like to live as a new creation in Jesus Christ. I learned that God does not just want us to be saved, but that He truly wants us to thrive in our salvation.

The Lord has ushered me into a new season and He has plans for me. When I was still carrying around the burdens of my past, my hands were not free to do His work, but now I live with my palms open wide, without shame and ready to serve Him. I may not be able to see what the future seasons of life will hold, but I know the God who holds the seasons. I know that He is faithful and that He will make all things beautiful in His timing.

If we aren’t thriving in our salvation, then we are missing out on the glory of what the Lord has done for us. He has given us new life. He has said that, the old is gone and the new has come. Oh, sweet friends, like a northern Fall, let the change that we experience through faith in Jesus Christ be beautiful and obvious.

​As I write this, I am currently 40 weeks pregnant. In this last month or so, I have gone through many different emotions. Some days, I am so excited to hold our sweet boy soon. Then there are also some days that I have been worried about all the details involved in pregnancy, labor, and the days thereafter. If I let myself fixate on any particular worry about the future, it can consume my thoughts and rob me of joy.

As I have been sitting before the Lord in my quiet time with Him, I’ve attempted to surrender these various worries. He has given me peace in such gracious ways as I pray and read His Word, but as I have been going about my day, the worries worm their way back into my mind. I have been getting defeated because the peace and Scriptures that He has been lavishing on me in the morning would “go out the window” throughout the day and I would quickly choose to focus on the potential bad things that could happen, instead of His truth.

I remember a few weeks ago feeling like every morning I would begin my prayer time with a new worry that I was frantic about and needed to bring before Him. I was disappointed in myself because I thought that even though He has been faithful to listen to and guide me each day, I kept failing to consistently apply it. I knew what His word says about worry, yet sometimes it felt like worrying was an easier option and I chose to not heed what it said. It reminds me of how Paul describes himself in Romans 7:17, “’For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.’” The enemy would whisper to me that God was frustrated with me for my failures and worries, so much so that I shouldn’t talk to Him about them. But in His still small voice, God reminded me that those were all lies.
​
Although it is very important for us, as believers, to strive to be holy as God is holy (1 Peter 1:16), God is a gracious, faithful, and forgiving God. Prayer is about relationship with Him and that means bringing all our needs, desires, failures, praises, and thanks to Him, knowing He will always love us. During this time, God has continued to show me of His amazing faithfulness. No matter how many times I get consumed by the “what if’s” and fail to apply the truths of His word to my life, He will never leave and is always there to listen when I talk to Him. He reminds us of this in Exodus 15:13, “With Your faithful love, You will lead the people You have redeemed; You will guide them to Your holy dwelling with Your strength.” Once again, this is another reminder that His faithfulness and love towards us is not based on what we do or what we bring to Him, but is solely based on His strength and redemption through His Son Jesus Christ.

​It's 10:30pm, the night before this WOE is due, and I am stumped. So, like any good writer, I began searching for a topic to discuss. I clicked on Pinterest and began scrolling through, and waited for revelation to strike. And strike this revelation did. "Sarah, why are you looking for Me on Pinterest?" Insert emoji girl slapping her forehead here, because that is exactly how I felt. Not in a condemning way, but in an understanding way that I was looking for Jesus to speak to me in the wrong place. Now, I am fully aware that God can speak to us through whatever means He chooses, but the best way He speaks to us is through His word. 
 
God tells us in Jeremiah 33:3, "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know" (NIV). Did you catch that? God says that He will answer us and tell us the things that we do not know. But, our job is to call to Him. Jeremiah 29:13 echos this truth, "You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart" (NIV).  
 
So what does it look like to seek God with all our hearts? In his book, Teach Me to Pray, Andrew Murray shares this thought: "But He still sees it as important that each one choose a location where he can daily meet with Him. That inner room, that solitary place, is Jesus's schoolroom. That spot could be anywhere. It may even change from day-to-day if we have to move for the sake of family or schedules, but there must be a secret place and a quiet time in which the student places himself in the Master's presence to be prepared by him to worship the Father."  It is imperative that we find a time and a place to meet with Jesus daily. We need to sit still before Him as we dive into His word allowing Him to speak to our hearts and revive our souls. It is in these moments, in Jesus's schoolroom, that He reveals the plans that He has for us. It is the place that He answers the questions of our hearts and tells us the great and unsearchable things we do not know. As we spend time searching the pages of the Bible, longing to get to know the heart of our Father, our sweet Savior reveals Himself to us. But we must first come and seek for Him in the proper place...His word. 

When my daughter, Allyson, was three years old, she was the flower girl in her aunt’s wedding and I was the matron of honor. On the day of the wedding, I was standing in position and my precious daughter slowly walked down the aisle, smiling and carrying the basket of rose petals. She looked so adorable! I was very proud of her! When she got to the front of the chapel, she realized she hadn’t sprinkled any flowers. She looked at me, threw out her right arm and exclaimed, “Mommy, I forgot!!” Yep, sometimes we forget things!
 
Scripture refers to situations where people forgot. In the front of my Bible, I’ve created a list of verses that I’ve entitled: “Saddest Statements.” Below are two of them:
 
Saddest Statements
Hosea 8:14 …Israel has forgotten his Maker….
Judges 8:34…(after Gideon died) they…did not remember the Lord their God who rescued
them from the hands of all their enemies….


In both of these passages, the people, the very people God created to love and worship Him, forgot all about Him. In Hosea, the Israelites were unfaithful, cursing, lying, murdering, stealing and committing adultery. They broke His covenant, rebelled against His law and were unfaithful to their God (Hosea 4:2 & 8:10; 9:1). They forgot their Maker - the very One who gave them life and wanted to heal their waywardness and love them freely (Hosea 14:4, NIV). A sad statement!


In Judges, because of the rebellion of the Israelites, the Lord allowed the Midianites to impoverish them for over 7 years. When the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help, He raised up a mighty warrior named Gideon and a small army of 300 Israelites to defeat the powerful Midianites. AFTER this tremendous victory, AFTER the relief from the hardships they endured and AFTER the death of Gideon, their mighty leader, the Israelites “did not remember the Lord their God who rescued them….” They did not remember the Lord, the One who heard their cry and rescued them. Another sad statement!


Even though the Israelites forgot their Maker, their Maker NEVER forgot them; He will not reject His people or forsake His inheritance (Psalm 94:14, NIV). This same Maker will never forget us!  He will keep his promises even when and if we forget. The Lord asked, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you” (Isaiah 49:15, NIV).


These comforting words of the Lord remind us that He will never forget or forsake us. In fact, He is El Roi, He is the God who sees (Genesis 16:13). He sees you where you are right now, whatever you are facing. He knows you. He loves you. You are not forgotten. He will not forget you.

​My son, Logan, and I spent several days in Rome, Italy last July.  As you walk through the city streets, you are surrounded by ancient architectural beauty. From the ornate detail of the Trevi Fountain, to the wonder of the ceiling of the Pantheon, to the towering history of the Coliseum, it is almost too much to take in. But the beauty of Rome is not my favorite thing about the city and I would have missed it if a friend had not told me about this beforehand.
 
Under the ancient city of Rome runs a freshwater spring. All over the city there are spigots constantly flowing with this spring water. They are not labeled, and most are just plain pipes that stand about three feet out of the ground. My point is, if I had not been looking for them I would have passed them by and walked into a gift shop to buy a bottle of water, missing the best, most refreshing water in the world (my judgment may be a little skewed because it is very hot in Rome in July so I was often very thirsty).
 
The Apostle Paul spent time in Rome as a prisoner of Nero, a sadistic emperor who hated Christians and brutally tortured and murdered them for sport. It was during Paul’s first Roman imprisonment he wrote a letter to the church in Philippi, which is now our New Testament book of Philippians.  The overarching theme of this letter is to encourage the Philippians to live in true joy. In fact, the word joy or rejoice occurs 16 times in this short letter!
 
In this same short letter, Paul made reference to the Lord (Jesus Christ and the Father) 91 times because He is the source of true joy. RC Sproul defines Christian joy as, “A good feeling in the soul, produced by the Holy Spirit, as he causes us to see the beauty of Christ in the Word and in the world.”
 
Paul knew that true joy is found in Christ, so despite his circumstances (living under the constant threat of death by Nero) he was able to say, “Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again rejoice.” (Phil. 4:4 ESV) Joy comes when we, “Set our minds on the things above, not on the things of the earth”(Col. 3:2).
 
This does not mean we are happy about terrible things, like a global pandemic, or a category 4 hurricane hitting Texas and Louisiana, or a family crisis, or the loss of income. It means we look at the things that are happening to us and around us and we trust that the Lord will use it for His glory and our good. It is about shifting the focus from the circumstances of this world and looking at how God is working in and through them to conform us into the image of Christ. This brings true joy.
 
Every believer has access to this joy. It is like a freshwater spring running under our lives. The refreshing Roman spring available to me was not obvious; I had to be on the lookout for it. It is the same with joy, it is not always obvious in our circumstances. We we must “set our minds on the things above” so that with Paul, we can “rejoice in the Lord always.”

​When my children were young, we played a game that I called, “The World’s Biggest Hug.” The game went like this: I would get on my knees on one side of a room in our home, while my toddler children would line up on the opposite side of the room. I would open my arms wide and tell the first child in line that I was ready for him. Then he would run as fast as his toddler legs could carry him and fling himself into my waiting open arms. Big hugs, tight squeezes and giggles would follow.  I would send that child off to get back in line while the next child ran into my open arms. We would do this over and over again, until either the kids or I were too tired to continue.

Recently, I was reminded of this game we played years ago as I was reading in the book of Romans. Romans 10:20-21 reads, “Later Isaiah spoke boldly for God, saying, ‘I was found by people who were not looking for me. I showed myself to those who were not asking for me.’ But regarding Israel, God said, ‘All day long I opened my arms to them, but they were disobedient and rebellious.’”

Author Nancy Guthrie writes of these verses: “We might expect a completely different posture from our heavenly Father. We might expect that his arms would be crossed in anger and frustration, or at his sides, waiting for us to make the first move. We might expect that he would want to keep us at a distance. But no. His arms are open, welcoming us to come near to be loved and cared for. ‘All day long’ he opens his arms to us. ‘All day long’ is a very long time.” (Nancy Guthrie, “The One Year Praying Through the Bible for Your Kids”, p. 208)

God waits for us with open arms. He waits for us to come to Him for salvation. He waits for us to come to Him for forgiveness. He waits for us to come to Him with our problems and concerns and questions and need for love. And He waits for us with His arms open wide.

Jesus took this word picture even further when he told the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32. In Jesus’ story, when the runaway son decided to return home to his father, the father saw him a long distance away. The father was filled with love and compassion. The father started running. He ran until he reached his son and then that father threw his arms around his boy, embracing him in a big fatherly bear hug, and he kissed him. His son was home! Nothing could have been better for that Dad! And nothing could have been better for that returning child.

Jesus wanted the people listening to his story to know that is how God the Father waits for us. He waits with arms open wide, waiting to give us the world’s biggest hug.

There is a scene from the movie National Treasure that has resonated with me since the first time I saw it. It is a brief conversation between the two main characters, Abigail Chase and Ben Gates. In the scene, Ben has just finished beautifully articulating to Abigail why finding the treasure is so important to him. After he finishes speaking, Abigail smiles playfully and asserts to Ben that, “People don’t really talk that way.”


He responds to her by stating, “I know, but they think that way.”
​

In the movie, Ben’s entire life is encompassed by an overwhelming desire to find the treasure that he believed to be real. This desire led him to think differently about his quest and to speak unashamedly about the object of his affection, the National Treasure.


As Christians, do we display this same kind of tenacity when we seek after the Lord? Or are there other “treasures” that we find ourselves thinking and speaking more passionately about?


The Bible says that,
“Where your treasure is, there your hearts will be also.” Matthew 6:21
And…


“From the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” Luke 6:45


So, when the Lord is the treasure that we are seeking after, it will be His goodness that fills our hearts and overflows from our mouths.

If we consider the Psalms, it quickly becomes evident that the authors viewed God as their greatest treasure. The psalmists composed and sang verses like,


“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.” Psalms 42:1
And…
“One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.” Psalms 27:4

The passion that the psalmists had for the Lord was expressed so beautifully in their poetry and to this day, their words are still captivating hearts and minds.
Yet, Satan would have us believe that,
“people don’t really talk that way”.


He hisses this lie at us in a desperate attempt to diminish our testimony. He wants us to remain silent and to be too embarrassed to say things that will glorify Christ and stir unbelievers to repentance. But, don’t ever let the enemy discourage you from singing praises to God, from declaring the Truth where there are lies, or from speaking love to the broken-hearted.

Always allow your mouth to overflow with God’s goodness. The world needs Christians whose lives are encompassed by an overwhelming desire to discover Christ and who are unashamed to proclaim His glory. Let us not be a generation of believers that merely “think” boldly about our Savior. Instead, as we draw nearer to Him each day, may there be an obvious change in the way that we “talk” with the world around us.