abundance

Ready Day 12 Unlikely Abundance: Digging Deeper

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Digging Deeper Days

Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!

Yesterday’s Journey Study connects with today’s!
Check out Unlikely Abundance!

The Questions

1) According to this passage, what should our attitude be during suffering?

 

2) What gifts does suffering bring?

 

3) What does it truly mean to have biblical hope?

Romans 5:2-5

We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, 4 endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. 5 This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Original Intent

1) According to this passage, what should our attitude be during suffering?

Shockingly, believers in Jesus are encouraged to rejoice during suffering. In Romans 5:2-5 Paul declares two unshakeable things in which we can continually rejoice. The first is the hope of the glory of God. (verse 2) The second is our suffering. (verse 3) When Paul writes about rejoicing, he uses the Greek word, kauchaomai, which means to “elevate” or “boast”. We are literally boasting, or bragging, that God will be “shown off” through our suffering. That His glory will be revealed is the first aspect of our rejoicing. Then we “rejoice” or, “elevate” our mindset by putting our hope beyond the sufferings themselves and onto Hope in the person of Jesus Christ. This is not to say, however, we rejoice in the actual suffering. For example, a woman diagnosed with cancer doesn’t rejoice that she has a disease. Her rejoicing, or the shifting of her perspective to orient to a biblical viewpoint, would reflect viewing her cancer as the means by which God will be glorified and she will build endurance. In turn, this endurance will be used by God to develop her character, which will strengthen her confident expectation of the goodness to come both in her present reality and in eternity with Jesus. We rejoice that our suffering will show off God’s goodness, and we rejoice, or look beyond our suffering, to know the purposes it will achieve as God works through every detail.

 

2) What gifts does suffering bring?

Paul lays out three specific gifts in Romans 5:2-5 regarding suffering. The first is endurance, which is the ability to withstand, persevere, and “hang in” when things are hard. This unique blessing is received as we walk through suffering. We don’t gain endurance when life is easy and comfortable. Only suffering redeemed by a loving God can deliver the gift of endurance. The second gift of suffering is character. This may be an even greater gift than endurance because the person I become is one who is more like Jesus, and more like the person He created me to be before I was marred by sin. Through hardship, God not only redeems our suffering through endurance, He reveals who we were designed to be in Him. Suffering is the refining fire that burns off the un-useful and sin-wrecked harmful habits in me so our character becomes more Christlike. Thirdly, we receive the blessing of hope, which is a gift like no other. Like a crowning jewel, God uses suffering to produce His unshakeable hope within us. Hope that will not disappoint because it isn’t placed on an event or a set of circumstances, but on the unchanging person of God Himself. As we surrender our suffering to Jesus, He is faithful to redeem our brokenness, reveal our true identity, and then crown us with “real life” through incorruptible hope.

 

3) What does it truly mean to have biblical hope?

The original Greek word Paul used here that is translated “hope” in English means “confident assurance”. These days, if we use the term hope, we are often implying we “wish” for something we aren’t at all certain we will obtain. This definition doesn’t help us at all when we consider biblical hope! Paul’s Greek word, “ἐλπίς”, isn’t pie-in-the sky wishful thinking like, “I hope I get to go to Europe someday,” or, “I hope I win the giveaway I entered.” Hope, from a biblical perspective, is absolutely certain. When people in Jesus’ time spoke of hope, they meant something you could count on and build upon without doubt. Suffering gives us the capacity to hope deeply. As we suffer, enduring through trial, our character matures, and we develop the kind of trust in God that is absolutely certain of His love and our future with Him. If we choose to walk through the storms of life with Jesus, we come out personally knowing His goodness more fully than we did before we ever encountered difficulty. This is a work only God can accomplish even in the most difficult of sufferings! The blessings He provides through suffering are gifts we could never gain any other way. 

Everyday Application

1) According to this passage, what should our attitude be during suffering?
Our rejoicing attitude reflects a perspective shift in our minds. (Romans 12:2) In Colossians 3:1-4, God tells us to lift our eyes above the things of this world because our “real life” is hidden with Christ Jesus. In 2 Corinthians 4:17, Paul reminds us our trials are “light and momentary”. They don’t feel light and momentary, so how can he say this? Paul suffered more than most. He had physical ailments, imprisonment, threats of death, beatings, shipwreck, opposition, rejection, betrayal, and more. Like Paul, we can say our troubles are light and momentary when we gain an eternal perspective. What if I choose to look at each situation with a magnifying glass, bent down near to the problems? In that stance, I only see the difficulty and pain I am experiencing. In contrast, when I take an eternal perspective, it’s like I toss aside the magnifying glass and stand up so my problem is seen in the context of a much bigger picture. Even though I don’t rejoice in having the problems I face and the pain they cause, I can see the purpose they are being used for in my life and rejoice in that. In a similar way, I don’t rejoice when my personal trainer tells me to do ten more repetitions of a difficult exercise while my whole body screams out during that exertion. But I do rejoice in the fruit of that suffering and can look past the pain to see the reason I’m enduring. I know the more I exercise, the stronger I will be and the more fit to live the life I desire. Suffering is like exercise that pains us, but in the long run, makes us stronger and more prepared to enjoy the rich presence of God in heaven.

2) What gifts does suffering bring?
The famous author and student of Scripture, C. S. Lewis, said, “We want not so much a Father but a grandfather in heaven, a God who said of anything we happened to like doing, ‘What does it matter so long as they are contented?” And yet, (according to C. S. Lewis again) we have a God who does not, “love us because we are good, but a God who will make us good because He loves us.” The way He often makes us good, re-shaping us into His image, is through what we consider suffering. As a constantly good and gracious Father God, He allows hardship and suffering to come into our lives and then uses it for His divinely good purposes, “producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.” (2 Corinthians 4:17) In a fallen world where selfishness and sin abound, both around us and in us, suffering is an inevitable byproduct. However, we can be confident our good God uses that suffering, and the endurance He builds in us, to bring about the growth needed to make us more like Himself. Amazingly, here in the heartache of suffering that is surrendered to Jesus, we become free people, alive with radical love which He has lavished upon us. (1 John 3:1-3)

3) What does it truly mean to have biblical hope?
As Christians, we always have hope amidst our suffering because we know our suffering will absolutely lead to fruit within our character. Not because we are amazing at self-perseverance, but because our good God is powerful enough to build our endurance in us, even in the midst of suffering. We know our sufferings are light and momentary when we hold them up to the measuring stick of eternity; this perspective is the gift of faith. When we have biblical hope, we are putting our trust in God, knowing for certain He is with us through even the darkest valley. He will not leave us nor forsake us. (Deuteronomy 31:6) He will use each and every drop of what we endure to bless us and to show Himself off. As we think on these things, lifting our eyes above the things of the world and placing them where our real life is hidden with Jesus, we gain a broader perspective which helps us remain patiently still while we allow suffering to have its way with us. God is always at work during trials. Remembering this gives us the greatest hope of all.

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Digging Deeper is for Everyone!

1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read it, and the verses around it,
several times
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!

Digging Deeper Community

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Why Dig Deeper?

Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.

In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!

Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.

Study Tools

We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.

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. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!

Want more background? 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 :-))

Memorize It!

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Ready Day 11 Unlikely Abundance

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Read His Words Before Ours!

2 Thessalonians 1:3-8
James 1:2-4
Romans 5:1-5
1 Peter 4:12-19

Ready, Day 11

Never one to shy away from an uncomfortable topic, Paul begins his second letter to the Thessalonians by writing about the persecutions and tribulations we will endure in this life. His choice is not terribly shocking; in fact, trials and tribulations are common topics throughout the New Testament. As we’ve seen in Read His Words Before Ours, believers are repeatedly instructed to delight in these hardships, for they produce godliness in us and are a part of our sanctification process.

What is a bit shocking, perhaps, are Paul’s words in 2 Thessalonians 1 regarding these sufferings. He asserts our hardships are “clear evidence of God’s righteous judgement that you will be counted worthy of God’s kingdom, for which you are also suffering.” (verse 5)

Did you catch that? Our trials, tribulations, persecutions, and sufferings in this life are direct evidence of the righteous judgment of God.
They are evidence He is considering us worthy of the kingdom of God!
That’s a big deal!

Similarly, in 1 Peter 4:13, Peter urges,
“Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ, that you may also rejoice with great joy when His glory is revealed.”

Amazingly, there is a direct connection between the suffering we experience in this world and the abundant level of glory and rejoicing we will experience in the next.

Recently, I wrote a social media post reflecting this idea of life’s hardship leading to a deeper walk with Christ, and how this serves as a precursor to our coming glory.

The concept of the hardships in this life leading to a deepening of our walk with the Lord and serving as a precursor to coming glory inspired a post I recently wrote on social media.

“We have to stop being so myopic and quit looking just at the US. We need to zoom out and look at the world as a whole, both now and down through history.

When we do that, what we see is that the church has repeatedly been strengthened in the hard times. In fact, the church has always proven to be stronger, more faithful, and more able to lean on Christ when times are hard and persecution is rampant than when everything is easy, earthly freedom abounds, and we all become complacent.

It’s not that I’m over here begging God for hardship so that the church would wake up and stand firm and learn what it means to be strong in the faith. But, as I’ve said before, God is always on the move, not the least of which being in those times when the church is persecuted or facing hardship.

While we don’t yearn for hardship and freedom infringement, we can be a little excited about seeing God strengthen, build, and grow His church in amazing ways – and prove Himself the faithful sustainer of that church!- if the church does begin to lose some of its freedoms.

So, brothers and sisters in Christ, please do not lose heart!
Please do not fret or wring your hands or get worried and worked up.

No. Rely on your faith.
Live it out.
Test it.
Prove that it can withstand hardship. And excitedly watch God work!”

We will undoubtedly face hardships in this life. They are promised to us.
Yet, those hardships are never an indictment against God, grounds for disproving the Bible, or trials that render God weak or useless.

Far from it, friends!

While we don’t yearn for hardships, trials, and sufferings, we are able to rejoice when they come because we know they will produce abundant fruit in our lives,
both now and in eternity.

No pain we suffer in this life is purposeless. Rather, it serves a great purpose and provides us with an opportunity to watch Romans 8:28 come true right in front of our eyes.

“We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God,
who are called according to His purpose.”

Take heart, my friends! The sufferings of this present life are leading to an abundance of glory unlike anything we can presently imagine.

Hold on. Hold fast. Look up. And keep the faith!

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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!

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The GT Weekend! ~ Enough Week 3

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The GT Weekend!

At Gracefully Truthful, weekends aren’t for “checking out”.
Use this time to invite the Almighty’s fullness into you life in a deeper way!
Saturdays and Sundays are a chance to
reflect, rest, and re-center our lives onto Christ.
Don’t miss the opportunity 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!

Worship Through Journaling

Worship Through Journaling

1) Mandy shared on Monday about a piece that is missing from each of our lives. Take a few minutes and write down the “missing pieces” you long to be filled. What shape do they take on in your life? Making my list are a stronger marriage, knowing where to serve in ministry, and the ever-present ache for the little boy I never held. Wounds from the past, longings for what I felt should have been, and sadness over opportunities I’ve missed are all missing pieces I feel would make me more whole, happier, or satisfied. Mandy’s words challenge us to not only identify our missing pieces, but then to realize every jagged edge is meant to point us to our need for Jesus. Only One King can satisfy with abundance all the empty, wounded, lonely places of our hearts. This King is for us! If Christ is the ocean, what would it look like for you to intentionally leave those empty pieces behind you on the shore, trusting Jesus to satisfy you as you swim in His sea of abundance and fullness?

2) God intentionally, lovingly, gave His people, ancient Israel, a picture of His extravagant love for them in the sacrificial system He instituted. Yes, it was messy. Bloody. Animal sacrifices on the daily; visually repulsive. Yet, every single day, with every single sacrifice, God was turning their eyes to the innocent animal who gave its life that Israelite men, women, and children would be forgiven. Innocence slaughtered right in front of them that their sins might be paid for through the shedding of blameless blood. Every. Day. Sacrifice. Each Jew knew their sin carried a price, and every Jew knew it required a payment they could never muster on their own behalf for they were already stained with sin. Then, one day, outside of Jerusalem, the perfect Lamb of God offered Himself as the once and for all sacrifice to cover every sin and bind back every shame. God Himself lay slain on the altar of sacrifice. Whether you’ve long walked with Jesus, you’ve just begun, or you have lots of questions about faith, we must each decide what we will do today with such an immense sacrifice from such a lavishly loving God. Will we give Him our sin? Will we surrender the shame we carry? What will you surrender to the Slain, Resurrected Lamb of God?

3) Yesterday’s Journey Study begins, “A friend made a sign for me that said, “You are enough”. She meant to encourage me to not feel burdened to live up to another’s expectations. It sounds great, but not one of us is enough on our own, least of all me.” We all have areas of our lives we feel pretty great about. We’ve put in hard work and determination. We’ve made significant changes and grown in big ways. We want a stamp of approval, like the sign “You Are Enough”, emblazoned across our investment. What are those areas for you? While I strongly advocate for personal growth and I champion hard work and dedication (just ask my high schoolers J), Marietta’s words ring true, “…not one of us is enough on our own…” Perhaps you’ve also seen this at play in other areas of your life. No matter how hard you try, it still seems impossible to meet an expectation or climb that ladder of success. As you consider your experiences with this, allow these struggles to remind you we are each hopelessly far away from attaining our own righteousness, our own deep satisfaction, or our eternal salvation without Jesus Christ. He who came to sacrifice Himself and set us eternally free is the Only One Who Is Enough. The best part? He gives His own enough to each of us when we surrender to Him! Cease your striving, Sister, let His enough become your own.

Praying Scripture back to the One who wrote it in the first place is a great way to jump start our prayer-life! Pray this passage from Philippians 2:5-8 back to the Lord and
let His Spirit speak to you through it!

Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus,
6 who, existing in the form of God,
did not consider equality with God
as something to be exploited.
7 Instead He emptied Himself
by assuming the form of a servant,
taking on the likeness of humanity.
And when He had come as a man,
8 He humbled himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death—
even to death on a cross.

Prayer Journal
Oh Lord my God, how small I am often tempted to make You. Fashioning You in my mind to dwell only within a small box of my own making. How quick I am to imagine myself as able to avoid Your divine all-knowing, free to live my own life and be my own deity. Inflating myself, I make You lower. Lord, break my heart free from the folly of following myself! My chains to myself are many. Lust. Pride. Control. Self-satisfaction. Hard work. Gossip. Bitterness. Manipulation. Negativity. Self-promotion. Lord God, these are sins, every last one of them and many more. Slay them in my heart, Lord Jesus, making Yourself Lord in their space. Rule and reign with all freedom as You help me give ground where idols once rose high in my heart. Teach me full surrender here at the cross where You, the God of all, gave Your own full surrender to rescue me. Un-fathom-able LOVE. What grace. What mercy to free me from myself. Let it be so, Lord Jesus, let it be so. Amen and Amen.

Worship Through Community

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Comment Here or in our Facebook Community Group!

Worship Through Prayer

Worship Through Music

Gospel Day 15 But Have Eternal Life

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Read His Words Before Ours!

John 3:16
Romans 6:22-23
John 11:25-26
John 10:27-29
Revelation 21:3-5

Gospel, Day 15

If you’ve been tracking with us in our in-depth study of John 3:16, then you know we’ve reached the final phrase today, but have eternal life.  What exactly does eternal life refer to? Is it something that begins when we die?
How did Christ’s death purchase it?
How is it sustained?

We need to ask these questions so we have a full, robust understanding of what God gives.  In previous Journey Studies we’ve seen how those who believe in Him [Jesus], are the ones referenced here who have eternal life.  We also understood how this kind of belief is not simply agreeing to facts about who Jesus is, but it is entrusting oneself to the very Son of God.  When we believe in this way, we will not perish, (experience eternal death), but have eternal life.

In Christ
Eternal life is not a distant destination, a rank to check off a list, or a dusty chapter of a theology book.  It’s a person – Christ Himself. There’s no getting eternal life without getting Jesus; there’s no getting Jesus without eternal life. They go together because He came ushering it in.

Jesus tells us in John 10:10, “A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.” Christ’s missional focus in coming to earth was to bring abundant life to mankind. Life is found only in Him, and it is His life that brings light to all men. (John 1:4)

We see another contrast between life and death in Romans 6:23 when it tells us that the wages sin pays is death.  When we are a slave to sin, whereby it is our master, Sin will only deliver us over to Death.  Sin does not love or provide for us, but steals, kills and destroys. Yet when God is our master, He gives us an undeserved gift, eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Eternal life cannot be found through any other means, religion, person or spirit.
It is only in Christ Jesus because only He is a flawless sacrifice taking the punishment of Sin, which is Death, upon Himself.

In John 11:25-26 Jesus comforts Martha when grieving the death of Lazarus, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” Not even death puts a stop to life as Jesus gives it!  The body may die and pass away from this earth, but it is not the end.

The Substance of Life
So what IS eternal life? When Jesus spoke with the Samaritan woman he compassionately told her, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life. (John 4:13-14)

The life Jesus came to give fully satisfies our soul’s needs and lasts far beyond any physical need.  If Christ Himself is eternal life, then He has actually come to give us Himself.
Our soul’s needs are met in the very person and work of Jesus Christ.
All of who He is, is the substance of eternal life.

Revelation 7:16-17 and 21:3-5 give us heart-bursting images of this eternal life to come, when “He will wipe away every tear” and “Death will be no more” and He will make everything new.  It’s difficult for us to imagine this world because we’ve never experienced it. We will spend eternity with God, knowing Him more, and will never bore of His beauty, love, and goodness. Why? Because it’s the world we were actually made for.
It’s the truest life there ever will be.

Yet eternal life doesn’t begin only when our bodies die.  John 5:24 says, “anyone who believes…. has eternal life”.
Do you see it?
That’s right now!
We have eternal life the moment we entrust ourselves to Jesus.
His Living Water rescues us from the bondage of sin today.
It awakens us to obey our Master today.
It compels us to love others today.
It ushers in hope and peace into our soul today.

The Securing and Sustaining Savior
This eternal life was purchased for us by Jesus, fully-God and fully-man.
Having lived a perfect, sin-less life, He offered Himself freely in death on the cross, to make atonement for the sin of mankind.  The chastisement that was put upon Him is what brought us peace with God (Isaiah 53:5, Romans 5:1-2), which is how we are offered the gift of eternal life.
Because there is nothing we’ve done to earn this gift (Ephesians 2:8-9),
we must accept the reality of Christ’s working power on our behalf.
Because there’s nothing we have done to achieve this salvation,
there’s nothing we can do to lose it. (John 10:27-29)

We praise You Jesus for coming that we may have life and have it abundantly into eternity! Fix our eyes on this true life – that we may walk in it now and have hope for a future!

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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 Gospel Week Three! 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 Gospel!

The GT Weekend! Glimmers, Week 2

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The GT Weekend!

At Gracefully Truthful, weekends aren’t for “checking out”.
Use this time to invite the Almighty’s fullness into you life in a deeper way!
Saturdays and Sundays are a chance to
reflect, rest, and re-center our lives onto Christ.
Don’t miss the opportunity 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!

Worship Through Journaling

Worship Through Journaling

1) Do you struggle with feeling like you aren’t enough, buried under a load of “shoulds”? Do you ever find yourself expecting more of others and frustrated when they don’t follow through on the “shoulds”? Think through these areas and the people who could be affected by unfair expectations. Each of us long for freedom found in unconditional love. Pray through some specific actions you can begin implementing towards others and yourself in showing grace and love that doesn’t let go.

2) Consider Sara’s words on allowing hope to grow within us, “I don’t know the full pictures of my life, but just like the prophets of old, I am to obey regardless.” How have you seen hope grow as you have intentionally chosen to trust and obey the Lord who knows you and leads you, even when it feels dark and terrifying? If you haven’t experienced that, what current circumstance are you walking in where you could desperately use some hope? Decide to seek the Lord’s wisdom and be transparent in biblical community, ask Him to show you where to trust and follow in obedience.

3) Christmas is supposed to be a wonderful time of hope and joy and delight, but when it brings pain and strong reminders of loss, the God of all comfort is eternally present in the midst of our everyday. Give yourself the freedom to identify your hurts or sadness or needs this weekend. Instead of shoving those feelings aside, instead journal and pray through surrendering those, and welcoming the comfort the God who loves you and pursues you that He might fill you with Himself!

Praying Scripture back to the One who wrote it in the first place is a great way to jump start our prayer-life! Pray this passage from Isaiah 40:1-2 back to the Lord and
let His Spirit speak to you through it!

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

Prayer Journal
Father, Your intimacies are sweet and precious, life-giving, and richly deep. Abba, I praise You for being my comforting embrace regardless of the contents of my everyday life. I surrender my sadness, my weariness, my ‘not enough’, my lack, knowing that You never intended those burdens to define me. You came to comfort. You came to carry me. The deep, solid joy that truth brings is indescribable! My heart will sing of Your goodness!

Give me the opportunity to declare Your joy to others. This joy was meant to shared and declared with boldness. Spirit, give me that boldness!

Worship Through Community

Can we pray for you? Reach Out! We’d love to pray for and with you!
Send us an email at prayer@gracefullytruthful.com

Build community, be transparent, and encourage others:
Share how God spoke to you today!
Comment Here or in our Facebook Community Group!

Worship Through Prayer

Worship Through Music

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!