patience

Sketched VIII Day 2 Hagar And Ishmael: 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 Hagar And Ishmael!

The Questions

1) Why did Sarai and Abraham try to fulfill the promises of God in their own power?

2) Why would God ask Hagar to submit to the mistreatment of Sarai?

3) Why did it mean so much to Hagar to be seen and heard by God?

Genesis 16

Abram’s wife, Sarai, had not borne any children for him, but she owned an Egyptian slave named Hagar. 2 Sarai said to Abram, “Since the Lord has prevented me from bearing children, go to my slave; perhaps through her I can build a family.” And Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So Abram’s wife, Sarai, took Hagar, her Egyptian slave, and gave her to her husband, Abram, as a wife for him. This happened after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan ten years. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When she saw that she was pregnant, her mistress became contemptible to her. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for my suffering! I put my slave in your arms, and when she saw that she was pregnant, I became contemptible to her. May the Lord judge between me and you.”

6 Abram replied to Sarai, “Here, your slave is in your power; do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai mistreated her so much that she ran away from her.

7 The angel of the Lord found her by a spring in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8 He said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?”

She replied, “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai.”

9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her authority.” 10 The angel of the Lord said to her, “I will greatly multiply your offspring, and they will be too many to count.”

11 The angel of the Lord said to her, “You have conceived and will have a son. You will name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard your cry of affliction. 12 This man will be like a wild donkey. His hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand will be against him; he will settle near all his relatives.”

13 So she named the Lord who spoke to her: “You are El-roi,” for she said, “In this place, have I actually seen the one who sees me?”  14 That is why the well is called Beer-lahai-roi. It is between Kadesh and Bered.

15 So Hagar gave birth to Abram’s son, and Abram named his son (whom Hagar bore) Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.

Original Intent

1) Why did Sarai and Abraham try to fulfill the promises of God in their own power?
In Genesis 12:2, God told Abram He would bless him with many descendants. Abram and Sarai waited ten years for God to give them a child and fulfill His promise. They were already very old, so Sarai figured God must want them to use a surrogate woman to start a family. (Genesis 16:2) While the exact circumstances of the surrogate arrangement are not known, author David Guzik explains, “According to customs of the day, Hagar would actually sit on the lap of Sarai as Abram inseminated her, to show that the child would legally belong to Sarai, as Hagar was merely a substitute for Sarai.” Abram and Sarai believed God’s promise, but they took it upon themselves to fulfill it since it seemed as if God wasn’t coming through. If they had waited for God to fulfill His word (which He did over a decade later,) they would have saved themselves much suffering. By using Sarai’s slave, Hagar, to give Abram a son, Ishmael, they caused strife and heartbreak for everyone, including our own world as Islam came through Ishmael. The preacher Charles Spurgeon notes that, “Very likely Hagar was one of the slaves given to him by Pharaoh when he dismissed him and Sarah; and you know what trouble Hagar brought into the family. If Abraham had lived the separated life, and hadn’t fallen into the customs of those around him, he would not have had that sin and sorrow concerning Hagar; nor would he have had that righteous rebuke from Abimelech, the king of Gerar, when again he had acted deceitfully with regard to his wife.” (Genesis 20:1) Sarai and Abram were desperate to make God’s promises come true, but their intervention was not part of God’s plan.  John Piper notes, “God will not settle for anything less than the path of impossibility: He aims to show that nothing is too difficult for the Lord. (Luke 1:37) His purpose in all He does is to magnify His sovereign grace and keep us in our humble place.”  May we all cling to God’s promises while patiently trusting in His plan to bring the best results.

2) Why would God ask Hagar to submit to the mistreatment of Sarai?
When Abram and Sarai decide to use the slave woman, Hagar, as a surrogate so they can have a son, tensions rise. (Genesis 16:3)  Hagar is proud of carrying Abram’s child, and Sarai is enraged by her attitude.  Encouraged by Abram, Sarai mistreats Hagar and causes her to run away. (Genesis 16:5-6) God stops Hagar in her desert flight and urges her to return and once again submit herself to Sarai. (Genesis 16:9) While it may seem harsh for the Lord to send Hagar back to where she had been mistreated, God instructed her to return, not for harm, but for a blessing. According to the Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, “The counsel was given in kindness as well as wisdom; for, by continuing to penetrate further into the wilderness, she must inevitably have perished, and all her prospects of maternity been blasted.” God had plans for Hagar and her baby, even though she was not carrying the child of promise. Every life is important to the Lord, regardless of the circumstances surrounding conception! The angel of the Lord, which was “Jesus pre-incarnate,” according to Dr. Tony Evans, told her she would have a son and he too would be the beginning of many descendants. Scholar Elizabeth Tracy emphasizes “God focuses on Hagar’s future; she won’t return defenseless or with the same status.  She will return with strong promises received directly and personally from God.” As David Guzik explains, “The Angel of the Lord told her to repent. If she changed her direction, there was an inherent promise – obey Me and I will protect you. Jesus didn’t tell Hagar to return to abuse; He made an implied promise of protection.” After encountering Jesus, Hagar calls the Lord “El Roi,” which translates to “the God who sees”. (Genesis 16:3) Hagar does not fear returning to live with Abram and Sarai because she knows God has heard her, seen her, and promised her blessing through her son.

3) Why did it mean so much to Hagar to be seen and heard by God?
When the angel of the Lord, Jesus in the flesh before He came as a baby, appeared to Hagar, He told her some remarkable things as well as some hard things. (Genesis 16:7) One of those hard things was for her to return to living with Abram and Sarai, the place she had just escaped. According to author Beth Moore,  “Hagar is a name that means stranger — that she’s a stranger. Now I want you to please note that the angel of the Lord has sought out the stranger. This is making me think of Ephesians 2 which says you are ‘no longer foreigners and strangers, but you are citizens with the saints of God, members of the household of God, that he seeks out strangers.’” Because her very name means stranger, the fact that God would seek her out was meaningful to Hagar. Not only did God seek her out, but she is the first person in Scripture to whom the angel of the Lord appears. David Guzik notes how God “didn’t first appear to Noah or Enoch or Abram. The Angel of the LORD first appeared to a single mother-to-be who had a pride problem and was mistreated by the woman who put her into the whole mess.” Because she was a stranger, far from home with no resources or support, she had nowhere to turn. The fact that God heard her anguish and saw her situation was life-changing. Author Joni Eareckson Tada observes, “Her circumstances didn’t miraculously change, but she had experienced the miracle of a changed perspective. Knowing that God is real, and He was really involved in her life story, gave Hagar renewed vision for what otherwise looked like a desperate situation.” Knowing she had been seen and heard by God meant Hagar could keep going. She could return to the household of Sarai and wait for the birth of her son without fear, because she knew God was protecting her, watching over her, and had promised her the blessing of many descendants.

Everyday Application

1) Why did Sarai and Abraham try to fulfill the promises of God in their own power?
I have ruined many things because I couldn’t wait. I have served under-baked cookies and smudged my finger nail polish on more than one occasion because I was too hasty. Impatience proved to be even costlier for Abram and Sarai when they decided to fulfill God’s promises in their own way by having a son born of Sarai’s Egyptian slave, Hagar. (Genesis 16:3) They thought that since they had waited 10 years for God to provide with no results, God must want them to take the initiative. Surely their solution to make God’s promise come true would work, they reasoned. As quickly as Hagar discovered her pregnancy, problems with their scheme became evident. Hagar soon felt pride in giving Abram what Sarai could not, which made Sarai angry. Soon Sarai began mistreating Hagar so badly that Hagar ran away. (Genesis 16:6) Even after Hagar’s return, when her son, Ishmael, was born, there was still tension and strife. Eventually Sarai, now Sarah, would have the pair sent far away from Isaac, the actual son of promise. (Genesis 21:10) We do this, too!  We get tired of waiting on God. We figure He has forgotten us or that He must want us to take matters into our own hands since He hasn’t made a move to fulfill His promises to us in the way we think best. We become good at reasoning and rationalizing. We even grow angry that God hasn’t acted in the ways we assume He should.  Sometimes we figure the ends will justify the means. If God wants something for us, then it doesn’t matter how we get it.  This is not God’s way! We may not understand His ways or His timing, but His ways are always perfect. (Psalm 18:30) If we wait for Him and trust in His promise, we will see God do what only God can do. (Isaiah 30:18) If we attempt to muster up a way to make His promises happen, we miss out on His perfect plan, or we make a huge mess of everything. Instead, we can trust that God is a promise keeper. (Deuteronomy 7:9) When God promises to do something for us or in us or through us, He will make it happen. (Philippians 1:6) Though He sometimes uses us to fulfill His plans and purposes, He does not need us to come up with plan B when we feel His plan is off track.  His plans, and His ways, can be trusted! (Proverbs 3:5)

2) Why would God ask Hagar to submit to the mistreatment of Sarai?
It is pretty clear to me by now that God doesn’t do things the way I would. If something is hard or causes me pain, my plan is to avoid it.  Seems pretty logical, right? More often than not, however, God uses the pain I experience as an integral part of my growth process. (James 1:2-4) Scripture even tells us if our suffering is for God, it brings favor with God. (1 Peter 2:18-20) When God told Hagar to return to the household of Abram and Sarai, the thought of returning to the misery she just left must have been overwhelming. (Genesis 16:9) This is how I feel when God asks me to stay in a season of hardship, or stick with a difficult relationship. I feel overwhelmed by the thought of staying with what causes me pain, even though running away has its own perils. When Hagar encountered God in the wilderness, He gave her hope by telling her He heard her, He saw her, and He had better things in store for her. (Genesis 16:7) If she endured by His strength, she would see reward.  I have seen this same reality in my own life and the lives of others. I know a young person who has endured painful physical issues his entire childhood and now waits for a heart transplant.  He could be bitter and hopeless, but instead God has made him grateful, humble, and compassionate. Through the pain and hardship, he has learned to trust God and rely on Him for everything. My young friend understands that all things, even the painful ones, work together for our good if we love God and are called by God. (Romans 8:28) My prayer is that I don’t run from God, but rather turn towards Him when I experience hurt and pain, so He can use it to mature me and make me more like Him.

3) Why did it mean so much to Hagar to be seen and heard by God?
When Hagar ran away from Sarai and Abram’s household and fled to the wilderness, presumably heading back to Egypt, she must have felt invisible. (Genesis 16:7) She was a slave, a pregnant, unmarried woman, and a foreigner in a strange land.  She was mistreated and abused by those who chose her to be their surrogate child-bearer even though she was carrying Abram’s heir. (Genesis 16:6) She couldn’t have expected God to find her and call her name. (Genesis 16:8) She couldn’t have imagined He would see her in anguish and hear her despair.  How amazed she must have been when the angel of the Lord called her name and asked for her side of the story. She may have expected Him to chastise her for being prideful with Sarai or for running away.  (Genesis 16:4) Instead, God gave her good news that her child was a son and he would bring her many descendants. (Genesis 16:10-11) He gave her a way to safely return, be provided for, and raise her son.  After she spoke with God, she called Him El Roi, the God who sees. (Genesis 16:13) She recognized God saw her, knew her, and cared about her situation. It didn’t matter she was a runaway slave. It didn’t matter she had been mistreated or angered Sarai. God saw her, and extended mercy and love. God saw her, the woman Hagar, and not all the things she had done or had been done to her. He heard her heart and saw her need for Him, and He came through for her! He became her hope for a future.  He became her ever present help in trouble. About the story of Hagar, Ann Voskamp says,” For the women forgotten and for the women discouraged and the women lost, there is water in the wilderness and He is our well and all. is. well.” Through Hagar’s story, God is telling each of us, no matter who we are, where we are, or how we got there, He sees us, He loves us, and He has love and mercy for us, too.

What do YOU think?! Share Here!
Missing the connection to our other Journey Study?
Catch up with Hagar And Ishmael!

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

Share What You’ve Learned!
Pray Together!
Join us in the GT Facebook Community!

Our Current Study Theme!

This is Sketched VIII Week One!
Don’t miss out on the discussion!
Sign up to receive every GT Journey Study!

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!

Download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!
Tap and hold on your mobile device to save.

Gospel Day 4 So Loved: 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 So Loved!

The Questions

1) How has God loved us?

2) How does this transform the way we love others?

3) What other theme is tied into these verses of love?

1 John 4:7-16

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as the world’s Savior. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.

Original Intent

1) How has God loved us?
The author of John (believed to be a half-cousin of Jesus, and described often as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”) tells us in verse 7 how all genuine and true love begins with God. God is the first and ultimate model of love. These verses focus on His greatest act of love for people, God the Father sending God the Son “as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (verse 10). The depth of this statement is difficult to comprehend in its brevity. In fact, God used the whole Bible, years of history, and the entire nation of Israel to display what this statement is summarizing. As 1 John 2:2 states, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”
In light of this, sacrifice is a key descriptor of God’s love for His people. However, this word does not stand alone. In offering himself as a perfect, innocent sacrifice, Jesus’ years on earth are full of the fruits of the Spirit: humility, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22) Jesus, as God the Son, lived out perfect obedience and submission the plan of the triune godhead to reconcile humanity to Himself.

2) How does this transform the way we love one another?
1 John 4:11 states, “if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” This theme is actually threaded all throughout 1 John. The letter ties together loving our fellow Christians closely with walking in righteousness and loving God. 1 John 2:10 states, “The one who loves his brother or sister remains in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.”
Later in 3:18, “ Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth”, firmly reminds us that love is an action. Love does not sit idly by while someone is hurting, in need, or simply needs a friend for company. However, John tells us the importance of these actions being tied to truth, the anchoring, transforming power of the Gospel. 1 John emphasizes actions of love flowing from a heart bound to God, and therefore, flowing from a genuine concern for the overall well-being of those around us because we have been so loved!

3) What other theme is tied into these verses of love?
We have discussed how God is the beginning of love, the demonstration of His love, and how we are to mimic and reflect that love. Threaded tightly throughout the commands to love one another is the warning against being deceived by false teaching. In watching for false teaching, one must learn to recognize the Spirit of the Lord. God does not give us power to judge another’s salvation, however, recognizing whether or not we are in Christ is emphasized strongly throughout 1 John. John’s letter is full of contrasts between the one who loves his brother and the one who loves the world. The one who loves the Father most, will also love others with the same mark. The one who chases after self and the world, John clearly says the Father is not in him (2:15).
The way we love others is a litmus test of our genuine salvation, being mentioned at least 4-5 times in these few verses. This test is first for ourselves personally, assessing if we are truly tethered to Christ by confessing Jesus as the Son of God (verse 15). Secondly, the test of genuine, sacrificial love tied to the truth of Scripture, is a signpost by which we are to examine actions, teaching, and speech. If these are not in line with the truth of the gospel, proceed with awareness and a readiness to share truth of Christ with grace, realizing they may not have embraced the saving power of Christ.

Everyday Application

1) How has God loved us?
God’s love for people cannot be grasped without first understanding who people are before God. When reading in Genesis, we only get a few chapters in before we see the first created humans twisting God’s words, doubting His goodness, and lying about their disobedience. The Old Testament Law is eventually given as a mirror to remind us how we all sin and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) Who are we, as created beings, that God should suffer and die on our behalf while keeping in mind, His own righteous judgment, which declares us guilty, sentencing us to death and eternal separation from Him?! He delivered justice, pouring out our consequence upon Himself, that we might be forgiven if we trust in Him for our only salvation.
So, what is our life application since God is doing all the work on our behalf in taking our punishment and literally being righteous for us? Rest and freedom in God’s love.
First, recognize salvation is completely the work of God! Repent then, turn from your sin, and rejoice in the freedom given as a result of God bestowing His favor upon us through His gracious forgiveness!  You cannot earn something that has already been paid for by someone else. Second, as a Christian, your identity is in Christ alone. Be free to be who God made you to be. Throw yourself on Jesus who will continue to free you from your rebelling, selfish ways and from fears of this physical world. The God who created you and saved you will keep you for HIS eternal, big picture purposes.

2) How does this transform the way we love one another?
“We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19). Christians and non-Christians alike can display deep, inspiring acts of love. Non-Christians can indeed make sacrificial loving choices that put others first. These are following the ways of the Lord without even realizing it. Anyone can be kind, even sacrificial, but to love as radically as Christ, we must first experience His love in a deep, intimate, personal way. Only His love is truly transformative to radically make every aspect of our lives and our minds bran new. Only a love rooted in the personal experience of the gospel will overflow into an entire life lived with the love by which Christ has loved.
1 John 3:16 notes, “He laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” Yes, Christ sacrificed His life at the cross, but we must not downplay the 30+ years of daily sacrifice Christ demonstrated on earth as He submitted to the Father, getting his hands dirty and building His Kingdom. Do you and I go about life according to our desires and sprinkle it with Christ’s love when it is convenient? Or do we prioritize our lives to intentionally focus on encouraging and building up others in the church.
Are you willing to sacrifice time, talent, and treasure to love the hurting? Or expose the imperfections of your home to welcome the lonely? Do we demonstrate patience and grace when a fellow servant of Christ makes ignorant statements? Do you ask God to help you cover a fellow Christian with forgiveness and mercy when they have hurt you?
Love! You have been well loved first!

3) What other theme is tied into these verses of love?
Committing to learning more about what God says in His word can feel overwhelming as there is so much to take in! But it’s not impossible, nor as difficult as it first seems. Begin simply by opening His Word, this is His revelation to us about Himself. Write down your questions and take them to a pastor, a trusted believing friend, or write us here at Gracefully Truthful! Biblical sermons, podcasts, truthful websites, and commentaries are all good resources, but nothing compares to the beautiful Word of God itself! As you study the Bible, God will reveal His character. Look for His justice, mercy, faithfulness, humility, patience, and sovereignty in each recorded event. Spend time with Him by connecting through prayer either aloud, silently, or journaling. Engage in fellowship with other Christians. Believers aren’t perfect people, just people who have been saved and are in the process of being made new in Christ.
To help you grow, no matter how long you’ve been following Jesus, read through 1 John and answer his questions for yourself. Are you walking in light and righteousness of the Lord? Or, perhaps, do you know of Him but are not tethered to him IN Christ? Then read the book again considering who you look to for spiritual leading. Do their teachings and actions reflect God’s sacrificial love while being bound to the truth of Scripture? Are they proclaiming Christ IS God? True love and life begin with first knowing God and abiding in Him through the power of His Spirit.

What do YOU think?! Share Here!
Missing the connection to our other Journey Study?
Catch up with So Loved!

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

Share What You’ve Learned!
Pray Together!
Join us in the GT Facebook Community!

Our Current Study Theme!

This is Gospel Week One!
Don’t miss out on the discussion!
Sign up to receive every GT Journey Study!

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!

Download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!
Tap and hold on your mobile device to save.

Character Day 8 A Love Like His

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Read His Words Before Ours!

1 Corinthians 13:1-8
Hosea 2:16-3:6
Hosea 11:8-9
John 3:14-21
1 John 4:7-21

Character, Day 8

Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

I think it’s safe to say that these verses are arguably some of the most well-known Scriptures in the Bible. Individuals who do not even believe in our God have committed some or all of those verses to memory. As a result, many of us may flit right through the familiar passage without allowing the Truth to sink into our hearts and minds. (Raising my hand here.)

That being said, would it be okay with you if we stop for a just a moment to go over those words together again? I’m challenging us to read the passage out loud, but this time, let’s each insert our own name every time the word “love” appears. (Merry is patient, Merry is kind. Merry does not envy…etc.)

Just between us…did you try to justify yourself?
I did.

Maybe for you, that went like…
I mean, I’m mostly patient.
I rarely envy others.
I don’t keep a record of wrongs…when I receive the apology they owed me.
I don’t boast. There’s nothing wrong with feeling proud of your work.
I’m not irritable. I’m just tired of feeling like no one listens to me.
I’m not self-seeking. I deserve this. I’ve been taking the back seat long enough.
I still love _____________. I just don’t like him/her.

We are all in that boat, Sister.
We are each absolutely incapable of that kind of love.

Truth? We cannot even fathom a love like that. Sometimes we forget that. We think we can love others through our own might or our own resolutions…then wonder why we fail miserably and relationships become even more broken than they were before we tried.
But then, He knows that, because He is love.

Perfect, flawless, abiding Love.
And He always has been.

Someone close to me once said, “I love Jesus, I really do. I believe that He is the Son of God and that He is my Savior. It’s God that I have a problem with. Look at the Old Testament. Look at all the times He allowed entire cities to be wiped out. Look at all the times He is angry and wrathful. How am I supposed to run to someone like that?”

If we’re honest, most of us have probably wrestled with reconciling the seemingly conflicting portrayal of God’s love in different spaces in the Bible at one point or another.

What my friend didn’t understand is that God has always been pursuing us.
Since the beginning of Creation, He has been in determined, intentional, passionate pursuit of us. Read His words about His people…about us. About you, Sister. I dare you to read this and not be overcome by His great love for you.
(Scripture is linked, these are my paraphrases.)

Come to Me, pour out everything in your heart. Be broken before Me, for I am gracious and compassionate. (Joel 2:12)

I will speak to her tenderly. I’ll persuade her to come with Me to a quiet place. I will erase the memory of every other idol, every other lover from her mind. I will take their names from her lips and I will seal her as mine forever, in all righteousness, justice, love and compassion. And I will make Myself known to her. (Hosea 2:14-20)

I’ve always loved you. I brought you out of slavery, out of shackles. I taught you to walk. I held your hand and kept you steady when you couldn’t stand on your own. I led you in love, never fear or condemnation. I gently healed you, like one who eases the painful bit from a worn and weary horse’s mouth. How could I give you up? How could I ever surrender you to another? (Hosea 11:1-8)

Can you read those words without weeping?
Read the Scriptures and know in your deepest parts that they are for you, Sister.
The God of the Old and New Testament feels those things for you.
Corporately for all of His people? YES!
Personally for you and me? YES!
Not because of you, or anything you can give Him or do for Him, but
because of Who He Is.

Sisters, we are so broken.
No amount of self-justification, legalism, desire, intention or trying
will ever set things right within us.

Part of that brokenness means that we are unable to comprehend the shift that happened when sin entered the world. We struggle to grasp that Jesus was not God’s knee-jerk reaction to our sin in order to rescue us.

His plan was always ever Jesus.
The God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament.
His righteous anger, His perfect justice, His passionate pursuit of us, His fullness embodied in Jesus Christ sent to defeat death, wake us to life, then returned to glory that He might send His own Spirit to be that love to us and in us and through us!

One plan, One redemption, One God whose love is on display Genesis to Revelation and in the very middle of our everyday!

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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 Character Week Two! Don’t miss out on the discussion below – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

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

Justice Day 12 Beyond My Walls: Digging Deeper

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Digging Deeper Days...are a pretty big deal at GT!

We search God's Word together, ask questions as we read, dig around to find the original intentions at the time of writing, and then make some applications to our everyday lives.
Along the way, we hope you'll pick up some new tools to study Scripture and you'll see truth in a new and accessible way!
Dig In!

The Passage

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Journey Study?
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Isaiah 30:18 English Standard Version (ESV)

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,
and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.

The Questions

1) Why does the Lord wait to be gracious?

2) How does God exalt Himself in order to show us mercy?

3) Is God just in the way that we would consider just?

The Findings for Intention

1) Why does the Lord wait to be gracious?
To understand the fullness of this word and meaning behind “wait”, we need to refer to the context prior to this verse as well as the original Hebrew. The preceding verses are God pouring out His heart over the rebellion of His beloved nation, Israel. They resist His love, pull away in every regard, exchanging worship of the One True God for bowing down to idols instead.
God is waiting for their hearts to turn back to Him.
The Hebrew for “wait” is transliterated as “châkâh” (pronounced, khaw-kaw’) and not only means “to wait”, but also carries the idea of “great longing” as well as a very specific and determined amount of time. All of this together gives us insight into God’s heart. He isn’t “just waiting”, He is longing and aching for hearts to return to Him. Also, He will not wait forever; He is not ambling in His waiting. The period of waiting is specific and designed for our best purposes.
2) How does God exalt Himself in order to show us mercy?
The wording of this in English can make understanding of it a little tricky. By the very act of exalting Himself, He is showing mercy. The mercy he gives us is itself a display of His glory (or exultation). We see “exalt Himself” and immediately think of an arrogant braggart, but that isn’t the case at all. Try reading the phrase like this, “and therefore, because He waits and longs so patiently for our hearts to return to Him, the Lord is displaying His magnificent glory to us by waiting to drape us with His mercy.” His mercy is waiting, His restoration is waiting, oh how He longs to redeem our brokenness!

3) Is God just in the way that we would consider just?
God’s justice is the highest definition of justice. Justice itself belongs to Him. What we see as injustices happening all around us are even greater injustices to the Creator of all. We must not mistake our idea of “nothing being righted” as a character flaw on God’s part. We must remember that, while He is just, He also holds time in His hands, and is indeed waiting and longing for that fullness of time to arrive so that all injustices may be righted with the second coming of Christ, with judgement of humanity, and a new heaven and new earth where all things will be restored to be as they were originally intended and designed. Yet, in the meantime, God uses human agents in the present-day-now, to uphold justice that we might put His character on display as we are His ambassadors. He did not need to choose to use His children as agents of justice, but he chose to.

The Everyday Application

1) Why does the Lord wait to be gracious?
We look at suffering and we wonder why God is waiting. Why allow the evil to continue? Why the wildfires, the hurricanes, the countless injustices, and the devastating floods? Why not rescue Your people, God? Why wait?! In our passage, Israel is suffering, but they are looking for reprieve in things they can control and are looking for salvation from other powerful nations (namely Egypt, where they were once enslaved) rather than the God who loves to redeem them. How often this is us! Times of trial and anguish are allowed by God’s mercy to wake us from our self-focus; He is longing for our full worship and attention. It is when we fix our gaze solemnly and fully upon Him and His full satisfaction, that we find both relief and purpose as we are drawn into His redeeming love!

2) How does God exalt Himself in order to show us mercy?
Depending on your view of God’s character, you might struggle to see God as waiting to lavish you with mercy and show you His glory simply because He longs for a restored relationship with you. Especially when things feel broken or lonely or anguished in our lives, we tend to see God as being distant and un-caring, waiting for us to “get our act together”. Remember that this is not the God of the Bible! He is drawing us towards Himself, waiting with un-ending waves of mercy and love! (Read this for a beautiful perspective on the Father who WAITS!)

3) Is God just in the way that we would consider just?
God is waiting for the fullness of time that the world may know Him, that every tongue, every nation, and every language would hear of His rich grace and mercy. He is waiting for hearts to turn to Him! Mine, yours, our neighbors, the homeless man, the mama who aborted her baby, and the child who drinks dirty water. Injustice breaks His heart, but He is allowing the ugliness of sin to continue in order that more may come to Him. He’s longing for the redemption of the world! What will you do to further those purposes? Will you share? Will you stand up to right the wrongs and be His ambassador for Justice and so proclaim the gospel of the God who love to redeem?!

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I Can Do That!

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!

The Community!

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

The Tools!

We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources.  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 Why!

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.

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.

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

The GT Weekend – Repurposed Week Two

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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!

Journal With Us!

Journal Prompts

1) Comparison can be our worst enemy. You are enough. The Father has made you in His likeness. You are needed for the body of Christ. Rest in this truth today.

2) Have you experienced real community? What’s your favorite part? Most difficult part? If you haven’t joined in community yet, what is holding you back? Step out in faith and be ready to experience His love on a whole new level!

3) We all struggle with being transparent. Speaking our greatest weaknesses can be terrifying. Think for a moment on your biggest weakness. Name it. Embrace it. It gives you a place for the Father to come in and stretch you. Pray about who to share it with; we’d love to hear about it and be praying for you at prayer@gracefullytruthful.com

Worship In Song

Music Video: More Than You Can Imagine by Jason Ellsworth Band

Pour Out Your Heart

Lord, I praise Your holy name. You are perfect in all Your ways. Forgive me Lord for questioning You in Your design. I worry about being good enough in one area and then hide it from You and those around me. I choose to show my best side and to make myself look stronger. That steals all the glory from You. Accept my body as a living sacrifice, I ask it be pleasing to You!

Let me rest in knowing You have a perfect plan and use for my life. Keep revealing what that is and how I can use my giftings to further Your kingdom and make Your name great!

Pray With Us!

In everything, with praise and thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God!
Click here to comment and pray with the GT Community!
Want to connect with a GT Partner?
Send your prayer request to prayer@gracefullytruthful.com
We are committed to praying over and walking with you!

Journey With Us

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How were you drawn near to the Father and encouraged in your faith?
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Adoring Day 11
Worship In The Waiting

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Read His Words Before Ours!

Galatians 1:11-24
2 Peter 3:1-13
Exodus 3:13-22adobe-spark

I have 7 kids at home from newborn to teenager. Besides the obvious fact that I live in crazy town sprinkled with hilarity and wrapped in sweet love, I also live in monotony. Schedules keep us sane. Everyone has a job and each day flows pretty much like the one before it and the one before that and the one before that.

Some evenings, as I take scrub brush to dirty plate or fold that 3rd load of laundry or pick up the same toy I had already put away or repeat the same directions I’d already said 10 times, I wonder…is this all there is? Is this my big calling in life? Monotony?

Whether your days are full of mommy-moments, school classes, deadlines for work, or something else entirely, I bet we’ve both wondered the same thing.
Is this everyday-life-stuff really mattering?

I read about the apostle Paul and all that he did….and I feel kind of…lame.
Reading Acts straight through, it seems like Paul really had it all together for Jesus. Preaching, getting persecuted, risking his life for the gospel, proclaiming Jesus at every turn, writing letters to the churches, traveling abroad as a missionary.
It’s like every single day in the life of Paul was spent doing something incredible for God.

My everyday? Well, seeing as how I’m on my 10,000th diaper (yeah, that’s not an exaggeration, I calculated out an average over 7 babies), I’m not so sure I’ll ever have a day that looks like one of Paul’s.

But then I read a teeny, tiny little phrase that began changing my super-human perspective on Paul. “But I went away to Arabia and returned to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem…” He points out his calling to the Gentiles and then takes just a few words to tell us that, before he began his work of preaching in Jerusalem, there were 3 years. Three years we know nothing about. Three years of waiting. Three years of day-to-day regular life.

Then there’s Moses. Pretty big Bible character, right? Brought down plagues on the Egyptians, freed the Israelites from Egypt, parted the Red Sea, and led the entire nation through the desert. But before he became a hero, he was a fugitive for murder, which left him in another desert, shepherding stupid sheep for 40 years. Forty years of waiting, of wondering if this was it. Forty years of everyday, ordinary work and marriage.

But God wasted none of this.
Timing is huge for God. It’s exact. It’s precise. It’s His.
He sent His Son at the perfect time in history.
Jesus will come back at the perfect time, decided and known only by God the Father Himself.

Just as we are waiting here in the everyday, God is waiting also.
And He’s using the wait.

Though we don’t know what Paul did in those three years, based on his ministry later, it clearly wasn’t wasted, no matter what his everyday looked like. Paul walked away from the duties of the law, everything he was, and all he had known, and spent time being transformed and taught by Jesus.

And Moses’ forty years? The prince turned pauper, was learning how to shepherd. And when he was ready, when the Hebrew people were ready, when the time was just right, God moved him into shepherding people instead. His arrogance was gone, his head had cleared, and he probably had learned a great deal about patience. He learned about relationships when he married and lived in a tent with his father-in-law, and he had become an expert in the ways of the desert. Along the way, he discovered the holiness, the tenderness, the compassion, and the authority of God.

Even in my life of dishes and dinner and dirty laundry, I can look back and see God shaping my heart, teaching me patience, teaching me love, teaching me about Himself even here in the mundane. I’m closer in my walk with Jesus now than I was even six months ago
….because God is teaching me to worship.
See, worship is the lynch pin in life. What you worship speaks to what your life will become. It’s the deciding factor in whether the waiting will be wasted or not. We can either worship self or the Savior, the choice is ours, but it is a choice.
Moses’ life ended and the torch of leadership was passed to Joshua, who led Israel faithfully and after nearly 3 decades of conquest and leaning into God, Joshua’s final call to the people was about worship. “Choose this day whom you will worship.” (HCSB)

The same choice is ours.
Our every day moments, will be here again tomorrow and will be here as soon as you finish reading this, the choice is the same too. What will you worship in the now?
Like Paul, like Moses, like Joshua, like you, like me,
when we give Him our worship,
there’s no telling how He will build His kingdom in and through us!
He will never waste your worship, or the waiting.

Share your thoughts from today’s Journey Study!
Can we pray for you?
Sign up to receive every Journey Study!

Join the GT Community and share your thoughts!

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 Adoring Week Three! Don’t miss out on the discussion below – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

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