by Stacey | Oct 31, 2013 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
The wet and heavy air banged at our back door. But the storm brewing outside was nothing compared to the storm brewing inside the little heart entrusted to me.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
I want so much more for my kids then time outs and consequences, but correction and discipline is part of my job. I am called to help them through the hard work of growing up.
I do it because I love them.
Love corrects. Love forgives. Love does what is right, not what is easy.
Sound familiar?
God corrects me because He loves me. He disciplines me because He loves me. I believe He wants so much more for me, but I settle for less because settling is easier than doing the hard work of growing up.
But, it doesn’t have to be this way.
I can do what I pray my children will do. I can grow up in my faith and accept God’s discipline and instruction as right, as a gift from a loving Father to his daughter. I can invite God’s Holy Spirit to change my heart and accomplish His will in me.
Hebrews 12:5-6
And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
Oh Lord, please teach this stubborn heart of mine to yield to Your good and perfect will.
by Stacey | Oct 24, 2013 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
I’m a mess.
Really.
I’m overflowing in sin. Scattered. Self-absorbed. Over-eager. Prideful, just to name a few things.
God has done such a tremendous work in my life, in my marriage, and in my family over these past few months that I had begun to feel like I was finally getting it. God had taught me so much about not boxing Him in, that I didn’t notice that brick by brick I had done exactly that. Again.
So God blew the walls out.
Again.
It made a mess. Really. Made me a mess.. At one point I sat in my seat at Harvest University with quiet tears rolling down my face as God freshly revealed the true state of my heart. My pride-filled, unrepentant, self-absorbed heart. My I-want-my-way toddler style tantrums. I saw my tendency to justify selfish choices, to withdrawal, to escape tension in how I parent, how I relate to family, how I handle stress.
Such.
A.
Mess.
But a beautiful mess.
Only God can take a mess like me and build something beautiful. Only God redeems regret, defeat and history. Only God. And He has given me glimpses of who He wants me to be, of who He is shaping me to become. I know I can’t do it on my own. That’s the beautiful part. It’s by His strength and His power that it is accomplished in a humble, willing and desperate heart. Day by day. Hour by hour. Minute by minute.
I am so thankful for His grace. His amazing grace. That takes the old away. The new has come. I am a new creation.
I am a Child of the One True King! I hope Matthew West’s video encourages you as much as it encourages me. What a great reminder of who we are, and WHOSE we are!
by Stacey | Oct 10, 2013 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
Dance in wonder and awe of your King
Dance in worship and with abandonment
Dance freely, offering all of you
Don’t see the mess, the mundane, or the mountain
See the creativity, the productivity, and the miracle
Dive deep
Submerged in the Word
Be real, flaws and all
Share your story
Show your scars
Tell of the Savior who rescued you
Live in the messiness of life
which brings you to your knees –
where you’re meant to be
Live dangerously transparent
Close to God
Trudging through
Anchored in His Word
Be real
Be honest
Be ever-seeking
Be on your knees
Always
Always
Always
on your knees
Dance
*First printed August, 2011
by Stacey | Oct 3, 2013 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
Today I attended chapel with my children at school and was blessed by their expressive and pure worship. They clapped and danced, raised their hands and sang of their love for God with more enthusiasm than many adults. How I pray that growing older will not stifle their expressive love for their Lord!
My spirit rejoiced in God my Saviour. My impossible and difficult problems are easy for Him because my Sovereign LORD has made the heavens and the earth by his great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for Him. He is stronger than the stalking disease. He is stronger than the enslaving addiction. He is able to take millions of seemingly random events and weave them together for a single purpose. I praise God for all that He is!
Remember this song? A compilation of the many words that describe God and co-written my readers and me back in 2011.
Glorious and constant, merciful and holy, gracious, oh so gracious, magnificent One.
Prevailing and loving, enduring and sacred, faithful, oh so faithful, undeniable One.
Capable and lovely, intimate and willing, righteous, oh so righteous, compassionate One.
You are true. You are good. You are just. You are right. You are grace. You are pure. You are life. You are light.
Marvelous and complex, generous and jealous, patient, oh so patient, immeasurable One.
Infinite and awesome, deliberate and truthful, worthy, oh so worthy, victorious One.
Sustaining and lavish, abiding and living, saving, oh so saving, irresistible One.
You are vast. You are judge. You are King. You are kind. You are peace. You are life and you’re here friend of mine.
Now to Him who is able to keep me from stumbling, and to make me stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God my Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
by Stacey | Sep 19, 2013 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
A few years back I started praying for my husband in a new way. I still prayed for his health, to feel fulfilled, for time management, and for his spiritual life, but there was also a new focus.
I prayed for God to stretch him. To challenge him. To give him an even greater desire for HIs Word. I prayed that God would shape him into a leader that glorifies God.
I prayed and watched, and watched and prayed. Every time Kevin said something about how God was working in him, a bolt of excitement zipped through me. God heard my prayers.
But then, He answered in a way I never expected.
I am ashamed to admit that I didn’t like where God was leading Kevin, who, in turn, was leading our family to follow. Negativity rushed through me.
I will not uproot our kids and move to another country.
I will not leave our wonderful church family.
I will not spend an entire year in constant transition.
I. Will. Not.
I am so ashamed.
I still remember the day I wrestled with God over submission. He so very clearly revealed His will. I cried. (Actually, I sobbed.) I voiced all my fears. I listed all the thing I loved about our current season of life, then one by one I gave them back to God.
I left that encounter both shattered and encouraged—forever changed.
And here we are, less than six months later, living in another country, having said good-bye to a wonderful church family, and in the midst of a year of transitions. All the fears I felt have dissipated and I see this season of life as a wonderful blessing.
How many people get four months off from the daily grind? Yes, I still have lunches to make, clothing to wash and meals to cook. But I have less house to maintain, none of our personal clutter distracting me, all three kids in school and entire days available to devote to knowing God better.
I left my habits at home and committed this time to learning new ways.
For example:
We are eating cleaner (I am constantly researching new recipes to aid this desire).
We are far more physically active now that the only schedule we need to work around is Kevin’s training schedule (I’m not working and the kids are not in various programs).
And most importantly, we are more focused on praising God and hearing from Him than ever before. I can feel God peeling back layers of restraint and releasing me into sweet times of worship. An increasing desire to be available and used by Him grows.
God made seemingly impossible things possible.
God blessed me through the very things I feared.
God worked in me, in spite of me, and is not only continuing to answer my prayer for Kevin, but is shaping and molding me into the woman He desires.
Thank you God for not giving up on me.
Thank you God for not allowing my stubborn heart to remain hard.
Thank you God.
What I saw as a trial, was Your mercy in disguise.
by Stacey | Sep 12, 2013 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
It has been a wonderful blessing to be in Elgin at the Harvest Training Center. We’ve met other families like ours. Families stretched beyond comfort. Rattled by God’s invitation to move stubborn feet from a false feeling of control and into the safest place ever – the center of His will.
Here, different voices tell the same story. I suspect our stories are probably much like your stories. Different locations. Different details. Similar themes.
I love how one fellow student shared:
We thought God was writing our story. Then, when we showed up, we learned God was already 30 chapters in writing a story that was never really about us.
What a thought. We are not the main character in our own life story. We are not the hero. In some ways, we are hardly a footnote at the bottom of the page that is our life.
But somehow we fall into this self-centred pattern of thinking that believes life is all about ME. Somehow I buy into the foolish notion that when I finally surrender my life to God, He begins penning chapter one. Chapter one of a new book in the series of my life.
Consider that maybe it is not chapter one of a new book, but a new chapter in an old book. A very old book that God began writing long before I breathed my first breath.
How God must shake his head and chuckle at my puffed up self-importance. That anything can start and end with me. This is God’s story and He is WAY MORE than 30 chapters in. This story started before there was time. This story has no beginning and no end.
Somewhere along the line God wove a thread of humanity into His story. Way back when God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, entwined in an intimate dance I struggle to understand, breathed life into this place I call home. For reasons I’ll never understand, the Triune God wrote me in. And if you are alive—you’re in the book too. You have a role—and it matters—but it’s not about you.
It’s humbling to acknowledge my own insignificance. Yet it’s liberating to know life is not about me. Ministry is not about me. Nor is either dependant upon me. This story centres on Jesus. And trust me, you want Him, not me, penning the ending.
My small part in a larger, much larger story, is designed to bring glory to God our Father, the creator of Heaven and Earth.
So is yours.
