Day One
Desperate for Significance

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Click & Read!Desperate-Week1-Day1
Genesis 13:14-17, 15:1-6
Genesis 16:1-3
Genesis 17:15-21, 21:1-7
Isaiah 55:10-11
1 Peter 2

I have a confession.  

Sometimes, in the midst of this beautiful, amazing life, I find myself feeling sort of…

Aimless.

Not in the “Whatever-will-I-do-with-all-this-free-time?” kind of way, but in the “Isn’t-there-something-bigger-I-could-be-doing-or-at-least-working-toward?” kind of way.

Don’t be misled; I am joyful!  I love where we are in this season.  My husband is amazing, he’s my best friend and I love that we get to do life together. Our babes fill my life with love, laughter, and craziness and are a constant reminder that I have so very much to learn.

It’s just that if I had to choose a word that would encompass where we are in this season, the first one that comes to mind is…

Routine.

And that’s not a bad thing.  Routine is a good and necessary thing, and children thrive from it.  It’s how we set boundaries, create daily habits and life rhythms, instill values and teach good behaviors.  Routine helps us to become responsible individuals and contributing members to society.

But.

As a thirty-something year old mama that derives inspiration from the unexpected, loves adventure and travel, and yearns to create, design, write and tell stories through music and photography…

The day to day sameness begins to feel…  Little, sometimes.
Small.
Insignificant.  

I love my children, and I am so thankful that we are charged with raising them to love Jesus.  It is no small task, and I pray daily that I will rise to the challenge and that their hearts will be won from a young age.  That being said (and all-the-mom-blogs will agree), I also know that this season of dirty diapers, constant questions, bedtime stories and eskimo kisses will be over before I even know what happened, and I think that the root of my seeming discontent is that it scares me.

Right now, my daily purpose seems confined to the titles of “wife” and “mama”. Both of which are such incredible roles, and I love them, but…
in the wee hours of the morning, questions sometimes surface about my significance.

What happens when my Littles aren’t so little anymore?
What will I work toward when I’m not teaching, training, helping them grow?
What do You have for me then?
I wonder if Sarai felt something similar.  

The situations are different, I know.
But I have a feeling that my desire for purpose echoes her own.

I would imagine Abram told her of God’s promise to him of the many descendants to come.  And when Abram doubted, God reiterated that promise. Abram believed Him and I have to think that Sarai did too.  Anyone that has struggled with infertility will understand the desperation she must have felt at hoping and praying that children were to come, but never seeing that come to fruition. She waited years. Decades for God’s promise.

In desperation, she offered an alternative option. An acceptable one in that culture, but not the option God purposed.  The ensuing relational chaos and conflict have echoed throughout generations of descendants… and the ramifications are still apparent today in the tension we see from the Middle East, Ishmael’s legacy, the product of Sarai’s attempt at self-given significance.

Thankfully, so thankfully, we serve a redeeming God.
A God who does not bless His people based on their performance, choices or actions.

The God that called Sarai “Blessed” – even after her actions were not in line with His will for her.
The God that spoke life into a barren woman’s womb.
The God that gives purposeful significance, not by what we do, but by calling us His.

Share Your Thoughts with the GT Community!

Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Tap and hold from your mobile device to download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!

Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Desperate! Don’t miss out on the discussion below – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Looking for other journeys from this theme? Check out all Journey Studies in Desperate!

 

The GT Weekend!

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At Gracefully Truthful, weekends aren’t for “checking out”, rather we see weekends as a tool to invite the Almighty’s fullness into our lives in a deeper way. Saturdays and Sundays are a chance to reflect, rest, and re-center our lives onto Christ. Don’t miss the chance to connect with other women in prayer, rest your soul in reflective journaling, and spend time worshiping the Creator who longs for intimacy with each of us!

Join In, Friend! The Father is waiting!

Journaling our thoughts and prayers can lead to clarity and allow the Holy Spirit space in our hearts to breath truth and direction into us. Slowing down long enough to pour out our hearts to the Father will bring depth and richness in your journey with Jesus. Whether you journal regularly, or this is your first attempt, Dive In! You’ll be amazed at the treasure you discover along the way!

Weekend Journal Prompts!

Prayer Circles is something the GT Partners are so excited to share with you as you share with each other! Coming before the Father God who is both sovereign Lord and intimate Abba, is a priceless gift. Joining together, linking arms as sisters in Christ, bringing our needs and our praise before the Throne of Grace is an unfathomable beauty. Share your needs, pray for one another, carry each other’s burdens, and lay them at the feet of Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith!

Let's Pray Together!

Memorize God's Word With Us!

From your mobile device, tap and hold on our beautiful lockscreen to download it and remind you to memorize the weekly Gracefully Truthful verse!

Day Five
Embracing Fullness

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Click and Read!
Haggai 1
Haggai 2Fullness-Week1-Day3

You have sown much,
and harvested little.
You eat,
but you never have enough;
you drink,
but you never have your fill.
You clothe yourselves,
but no one is warm.
And he who earns wages does so
to put them into a bag with holes.

Words penned centuries ago, but oh don’t they echo a piece of your life like they do mine sometimes? So much doing, hoping, living, working hard, and it just…doesn’t….cut it. All this striving seems like we are investing our “everything” into a “bag with holes.”

Friend, lean in, this is not the abundant life Jesus offers.
Struggles in following Jesus? Oh yes.
Pain in the doing? Definitely.
Costly sacrifice in giving God your all? It’s a guarantee.
But never feeling full or satisfied? Big Fat No Way!

These words were those of Haggai, the prophet; and his ancient message hits me hard today in the 21st century.

Let me set the stage a bit….
The Jews were exiled to Babylon for continued disobedience and worshipping false gods decade after decade. Roughly 70 years passed and God, through an incredibly miraculous string of events, opened the door for His people to leave captivity and go home to Jerusalem. He commanded them to rebuild His temple that all nations might know that He was the one true God.

Simple enough, right?
One couldn’t ask for clearer direction from God (something most of us have probably wished for at one point or another). But the newly freed Jewish captives, those few that actually decided to take God’s offer of freedom and return home, found not only a destroyed Temple, but also discovered that they would be housing their families in makeshift tents and rough hewn abodes because so much desolation had happened at the hand of the Babylonians 70 years prior.
The Jews set to work, but focused on the wrong task and spent almost 20 years trying to build “paneled houses” for their families. They worked the hard ground vigorously, only to reap meager crops. All of their labors emptied themselves into a “bag with holes in it.”

See, they had God’s truth,
they knew His directive,
….but they marched to the beat of their own drum instead.

They knew of God’s grace,
…..but they took advantage of it for almost 2 decades!
They respected neither aspect of God’s character
and the result was pitiful emptiness instead of abundant fullness.

And so the mirror of God’s word turns towards my life….
Sometimes the truth I know my God is calling me to just seems too difficult and so much “other” seems far more important. Sharing the gospel (and actually talking!), loving my husband when I don’t feel like it, parenting with intentionality, prioritizing consistent quiet time with God, loving the unlovable, living generously. Is there grace for disobedience? Of course! But as Paul exhorts, “shall sin increase that grace might increase? NO!”

Fullness is found in obedience
that flows from love, not legalism,
as we rely fully on God’s grace and sufficiency for our strength.

The Lord spoke His truth. Hag 1:7
The people feared (or stood in awe) of Him, Hag 1:12 (our response)
The Lord stirred up the spirit of the people (grace came before works!), reminding them of more truth, that He was with them. Hag 1:13
and the people were moved to whole-hearted, obedient action. Hag 1:14 (our response)

Was the task overwhelming for the Jews of Haggai’s day? Incredibly so.
But we can relate to that, can’t we?
A seemingly dead marriage.
Ruined finances.
A wayward child.
Loneliness.
Death.
Illness.
A haunting past.

But the Great God Almighty speaks into our empty places just as boldly today as He did to Haggai’s hearers,
“Be strong! Work, for the Lord is with you! My Spirit remains in your midst!”
Can there be better encouragement than to know that you are neither alone nor without strong confidence?!

Actually, there is… 🙂 The richness of these passages that follow simply astounds me!!
Haggai goes on to speak the Lord’s words,
“Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts.  The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’”

This prophecy points straight to Jesus and the rich inheritance for those who follow Christ!
Right here in the Old Testament!

I hope you will make time to click below on today’s “Digging Deeper” to see how all of that plays out, but for now, know that God longs to bring you into far more abundance and satisfaction than you’ve ever dreamed.
Stop settling for tossing your investment into “a bag with holes,”
and instead secure your soul in the hands of the One who lavishly loves you.
Embrace the fullness He’s freely offering inside His boundless grace and beautiful truth!

Don’t miss today’s Digging Deeper!     And we’d love to hear your thoughts from today’s Journey!    Comment Here!

Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Tap and hold from your mobile device to download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!

Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Fullness! Don’t miss out on the discussion below – we’d love to hear your thoughts!
Click the above image for today’s Digging Deeper!

Looking for other journeys from this theme? Here’s a link to all past studies in Fullness!

Day Four
Truth & Grace: Digging Deeper

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Digging Deeper posts are intended to help us go farther into God’s word than a simple surface reading
and are designed to help us discover new tools in the process.
Curious as to why we Dig Deeper? Here’s Why! 

The Passage

Looking for yesterday’s Journey Post? Check out Truth & Grace

John 1:14-18

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

My Questions

1) Who is “the Word” and how do we know?

2) What does it mean that Jesus was “full of grace and truth”?

3) What is the significance of the comparison in verse 17?

The Tools

A trip to www.studylight.org is in order here.
We will get super cozy with this site as we study Scripture together!
Just type in the verse you’re looking at and Boom!
It’s right in front of you in English and Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament), which are the original languages the Bible was written in.

Want to know more about a specific word in a verse?
Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Find super awesome stuff like “origin”, “definition”, and even all the different ways that single word has been translated into English! If you want to be geeky, you can even click the word and hear its original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!

Want to get more background on a word or phrasing or passage?
Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))

The Findings for Original Intent

1) The Word is Jesus Christ. How do we know? If you zoom out to look at the whole chapter, you see in verse 1 that “the Word” was there in the beginning, was with God, and was God. Verse 14 tells us that he became flesh (that is, became human) and lived among us. Even though John used “the Word” here instead of directly using a name, we see clearly that the only one who could fit those descriptions is Jesus. Because John’s audience were excellent students of the Old Testament, he’s bringing out an even deeper truth that really hit home with them and their rhetoric. The Jewish people often spoke of God Himself as ‘the word of God’, for example in Exodus 19:17 it is often translated as, “Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet the word of God.” Amazing, huh?!

2) Doing a word study, we can see that “truth” means to us the same as it meant to John’s original audience—truth (what is true, truly, verified). “Grace” means “graciousness of manner or act.” It also means “undeserved favor.” So Jesus was full of truth, but he acted graciously. Whereas we humans tend to lean toward truth-without-grace (harshness) or grace-without-truth (being so gracious that we don’t tell the hard truth), Jesus Christ was full of both grace and truth, all the time.

3) In this verse, the law is contrasted with grace and truth. The law came through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Looking at cross-references, we are led to Romans 5. In those verses we see the law and Adam’s sin contrasted with Christ’s obedience and grace-filled sacrifice. It is clear that the gospel of grace and truth is far superior to the law!

Some Applications for Our Everyday Lives

1) If Christ is God’s Word to us, then He is the way that God communicates with us and shows us who He is. Am I looking to Christ to understand God the Father? Am I viewing my understanding of the God of the Old Testament through the lens of Jesus?

2) Do I tend to lean more toward grace or truth in the way I speak to and deal with others? How can I be more like Christ and be full of both?

3) Am I stuck in legalism, trying to earn my salvation for favor with God? How can I surrender to the freedom that is found in the truth and grace of the gospel?

Want To Try It For Yourself?!

1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read through it (always more than a verse or two).
3) Write down your questions as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers.
Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes
(click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and
embrace the fullness of God in your everyday!

Share Your Thoughts with the GT Community!

Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!
Tap and hold on your mobile device to save.

Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Fullness! Don’t miss out on the discussion – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Looking for other journeys from this theme? See all past studies in Fullness!

Day Three
Truth & Grace

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Click and Read!
Psalm 85:10-13
John 1:14-18
Romans 5:12-21Fullness-Week1-Day2

On the western coast of the state of Washington, there’s a strip of land called “Washaway Beach.” It’s named simply because of the fact that its ground is entirely composed of sand that continuously erodes and eventually washes everything on its shore into the sea.

Despite the solidarity of homes built here, their final destination will one day be the Pacific Ocean because their foundation is literally nothing but sand.
Just as awful, is the all too true reality of a poorly built home, being wiped out by horrific winds, despite its rock solid foundation.

If both home and land are not equally solid, life is swept away.

In much the same way, true fullness and abundance in our own lives cannot be found without the mutuality of both truth and grace.
All grace and we get carried away by deadly sin, leaving a shipwrecked life.
Only hard-hitting truth, and our lives become dull and meaningless with the impossible standards of legalism.

For me, it was the bounds of legalism that blinded me to grace and kept me from experiencing fullness. I had experienced deep emotional and verbal abuse as a child. Giving me wounds that bled profusely into my adult life and my marriage relationship (and every other relationship).
I held everyone at arm’s length and protected myself with a vast array of weaponry like strict rules, heavy judgment, arrogance, and pride. My definition of love and relationships was built upon the lie that love was earned by my performance.
Love looked angry.
Love could not be trusted.
Love shouted.
Love hurt.
Love was earned by good actions
……and lost through poor ones.

My foundation was poorly constructed and eventually fell apart just like those houses on Washaway Beach, leaving me ruined.
Through a painful and arduous journey, I began to tear down those lies I had based everything on and began to look for new building material.

I needed truth. Desperately.
I simply couldn’t afford any more lies.
I was bankrupt emotionally, spiritually, relationally, and even physically.

Through the process of rebuilding, my husband walked beside me, faithfully showing me love. True, gritty, down-in-the-dirt love. Not perfectly, but beautifully enough that one summer day as I sat on the front porch with him in a glorious sunset watching our children play, I suddenly turned to him and astounded even myself as I said, “I think you actually love me.”

He laughed and shook his head like I had been in a deep sleep and was just now coming around. Of course, he loved me.
Except his love was like God’s.
His love reflected Jesus’ heart.
His love was sacrificial.
His love poured out grace.
He showed me that love was patient, kind, gentle, generous,
and wasn’t the least bit based upon what I did or didn’t do.
His was a love that freed me to love him better.

But in order to live in that freedom of grace, I first needed truth.

Truth about who God really was,
A Father who passionately loved and pursued me, desiring a restored relationship.
Truth about me,
A mess without Him.
Truth about what I had been believing,
A twisted set of lies that didn’t reflect God or His character.

Those truths set me free to dance in the grace that abounded from it as I began to re-build, holding on tightly to both truth and grace.
From truth
to grace
to flourishing
in a fullness that pulls me ever deeper into seeking truth.

It’s a cycle that blossoms,
it’s a foundation that’s solid,
it’s the gospel of Jesus Christ,
held out freely, full of truth and grace in the abounding love of a Father pursuing a relationship with each of us.

Just like a house and its foundation.
Both must be solid to work.
Grace without truth is nothing, truth without grace is nothing, only both together can bring the abundant fullness God longs to give each of us.

Share Your Thoughts with the GT Community!

Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Tap and hold on your mobile device to download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!

Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Fullness! Don’t miss out on the discussion below – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Looking for other journeys from this theme? Check out all past studies in Fullness!

Day Two
Empty Spaces: Digging Deeper

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Digging Deeper posts are intended to help us go farther into God’s word than a simple surface reading
and are designed to help us discover new tools in the process.
Curious as to why we Dig Deeper? Here’s Why! 

The Passage

Looking for yesterday’s Journey Post? Check out Empty Spaces!

John 10:7-17

7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

My Questions

1) What does it mean when Jesus says He is “the door”?

2) Who are the “thieves and robbers” that Jesus refers to?

3) With whom is the good shepherd contrasted here? How are they different?

4) Who are the “other sheep” in verse 16, and what is their significance to me?

The Tools

A trip to www.studylight.org is in order here.
We will get super cozy with this site as we study Scripture together!
Just type in the verse you’re looking at and Boom!
It’s right in front of you in English and Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament), which are the original languages the Bible was written in.

Want to know more about a specific word in a verse?
Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Find super awesome stuff like “origin”, “definition”, and even all the different ways that single word has been translated into English! If you want to be geeky, you can even click the word and hear its original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!

Want to get more background on a word or phrasing or passage?
Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))

The Findings for Original Intent

1) Context answers this question. “The door” is mentioned in verse 7 and again in verse 9, where we see that anyone who enters by “the door” will be saved. Therefore, “the door” is the way to salvation. Jesus is the way to be saved.

2) Verse 8 says that “all” who came before Christ are thieves and robbers, that the sheep didn’t listen to them, and that they came to steal, kill, and destroy. We see earlier in John that what separated Moses, John the Baptist, and the God-fearing prophets from “all the others” is that they “bore witness” to the coming Jesus. Jesus is saying here that “all who do not bear witness to Jesus are like robbers and thieves.” They took power instead of giving honor and glory to God.

3) The good shepherd is contrasted with thieves and robbers, and also with a hired hand. Thieves and robbers come to steal, kill, and destroy, while Jesus came that we would have life. A hired hand doesn’t care about the sheep, the good shepherd cares enough to lay down his life for the sheep. What other contrasts do you see?

4) Although the immediate context doesn’t answer this question, if we look in the surrounding verses, we can see that Jesus is speaking to a group of Jews (10:19) which included Pharisees (9:40). These Jews would have understood that “other sheep” referred to Gentiles, or non-Jews. If you’re like me and not Jewish, then this verse is significant, because Jesus is telling us that salvation and the abundant life it brings are available to all people, of all tribes, tongues, and nations, and that together we are one fold, one body, one church. Praise God!

Some Applications for Our Everyday Lives

1) Everyone must confront this question in their life: Have I trusted in Jesus Christ for my salvation? Do I believe that Jesus died to pay the penalty for my sin, that he was buried, and that he rose from the dead to defeat death and make a way for me to be reconciled to God, both now and for eternity? Jesus said, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” –John 14:6

2) Am I listening to any false Messiahs? Am I studying Scripture so that I recognize my Shepherd’s voice and so that I can discern when I hear false teaching?

3) The Good Shepherd comes that we may have life, and have it abundantly. Am I allowing Him to lead me and trusting that his way is the best way for my life, or am I listening to those who seek to destroy me?

4) God offers salvation to everyone, not just his chosen people—and that includes you and me. Am I extending on behalf of Christ that offer of salvation and abundant life to all people, or am I pre-judging whom I believe to be worthy of the message?

Want To Try It For Yourself?!

1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read through it (always more than a verse or two).
3) Write down your questions as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers.
Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes
(click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and
embrace the fullness of God in your everyday!

Share Your Thoughts with the GT Community!

Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!
Tap and hold on your mobile device to save.

Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Fullness! Don’t miss out on the discussion – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Looking for other Journeys from this theme? See all past studies in Fullness!

Day One
Empty Spaces

4 Comments

Click and Read!
Psalm 34:5-12
Matthew 11:28-30
John 10:7-17emptyspaces4

She loves her kids, loves her husband, but she’s running herself crazy trying to
maintain it all. Sometimes there’s so much frustration in her marriage, she doesn’t feel understood from her man. And as much as she adores being called mommy, the feeling of being tired seems to go much deeper than mere sleep. What purpose can be found in the relentless monotony of dishes and toys and laundry? She wonders if there must be something more; something to fill her heart in ways that her kids, career, or even her husband haven’t been able to reach.

She walks through loss like dead leaves being tossed cruelly through the winter air. It’s an ache so deep it colors everything in her life. So many questions. So many unknowns. The hurt and anger threaten daily to undo her from the inside out and she wishes for more. She wishes for the all too illusive peace. Desperately weary from the burden of grief, if only she could lay it aside for a while.

Her past haunts her like a threatening shadow. Pervasively influencing her everything. Nothing seems to be untouched by the ghostly haunts of what “was”. Her relationships, her self-image, the person she tries to be, even her future are all held tightly by the icy grip of her past. Can she be free? Is there more? Will fear forever have power over her?

Life has been full of so many good things and now she is reaping the rewards of giving her life away. Watching her kids be parents satisfies her beyond words knowing that she played a role in who they are today. Grandkids fill up her heart in ways she didn’t know existed and now she has plenty of time for her friends and all those other things she couldn’t do when her babies were young, yet, she wrestles quietly with an internal angst. They have more money now than they did a few decades back, but the shopping only half-fulfills. Her husband is harder to read these days, and she finds herself wondering if, now that the kids are gone, they will even make it to “death do us part”. The emptiness, the emotion, the depth of longing for….something. If only she could find what she was looking for.

The ragged outline of a broken body fills her thoughts so consistently now. The bold smile that once graced that precious face so easily now comes so rarely and always with eyes etched with pain. Why would sickness steal something so lovely? The endless doctor appointments, the wrongs that seem never to be righted, and the lack of answers multiply her heart’s demand for, “Why?!” She imagines what “could have been”, but tries not to as the wholeness her mind’s eye sees only intensifies the pain that she can not heal. The unfairly broken body leaves her own heart desperate for healing as well. Is there good? Where can the hope be in the middle of this bitterness? Inside, her heart seems to wither away with its own kind of disease while begging for hope and merciful healing.

The blatant truth is that we are all desperate and empty. Fighting loneliness and pain so deep that its wounds seem impossible to heal. No matter which “she” you identify with, your heart begs for more, just like mine.

The beauty is found here in this equally blaring truth, there is a healer. Hope is real. Fullness is here. Your heart’s longings can be satisfied in ways you never dreamed possible.

The Satisfier of your soul longs and aches to not only hold your hurt and carry your grief, but to give you Fullness in its place!

Come, See, Taste, He’s waiting, holding out life!

Share Your Thoughts with the GT Community!

Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!
Tap and hold on your mobile device to save.

Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Fullness! Don’t miss out on the discussion – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Looking for other journeys from this theme? Here’s a link to all past studies in Fullness!