The GT Weekend! ~ Sacrifice Week 1

April 2, 2022 by Rebecca Leave a Comment

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

1) As Michelle reflected on Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for her own sin, she was bold enough to share some personal examples from her own recent life. There is nothing that brings the sacrifice of Jesus into sharper perspective than spending time in prayer, asking the Spirit to show us our own sin. It’s for these sins, these offenses against a holy God, that Christ was crucified, scorned, and rejected both by the ones He came to save and the Father who sent Him to the cross. There is no greater loss. When was the last time your prayer life reflected confession of your very specific sins? When did you last feel gut-reaching sorrow for your sin because you knew the weight of how it mocked the God who came to rescue you? As you go into this weekend, be mindful of the cross and the Savior who was slain there. Ponder your sin and ask the Lord to show you kindness in bringing you to repentance. Perhaps you’ll even follow Michelle’s example and confess some sins to a friend as well.

2) We don’t normally include Jesus’ story of a tax collector and a Pharisee praying in our reflections on Easter, but the idea of Christ “flipping tables” on our world view perfectly marries with absolutely everything about Easter. The eternal God of the Universe dying on a manmade cross of wood? The infinite Creator submitting to the constraints of human flesh for the purpose of dying in place of sinful man? The only perfectly righteous, all-powerful Being choosing to die a gruesome death instead of the ones who slaughtered and mocked Him? The righteous for the unrighteous. The eternal for the finite. The sovereign for the impotent. The holy for the wretched. Still, we foolishly think we can somehow attain a good enough status before this God! How quickly we minimize the Almighty! How much easier might it be to choose to surrender in the small things of our everyday lives, as well as the big things, if we remember to glimpse even a sliver of the majestic vastness of the God who chose to sacrifice Himself in our place! Accepting this reality, taking it into our souls, brings true, humble worship from contrite hearts.

3) We might read the narrative of Noah’s ark, see the mass destruction of land, animals, and especially humanity, and naturally ask how God could be so cruel. Obliterate humanity? Decimate the land? Drown land animals? How do these statements reconcile with the Bible’s authoritative declaration that God is good and gracious? Shifting the lens, where can you ask similar questions about your life? Loss of income, illness, death, broken relationships, children gone astray, abusive past, mental or emotional instability, divorce, and pain of all types assault the premise that God is good. Oh, how our perspective is narrow! How the “God” in our mind is so small and confined! Mankind was so horribly sinful that God sent the flood as an act of mercy to halt the onslaught of evil. I don’t pretend to know the answers to the deep pains we experience, but still, we can each either choose to cling to the truth of Scripture and God’s view point, or we can stubbornly insist our perspective is accurate and complete. In my pain, I’ve found that God becomes all the more precious and beautiful as I study His word and hold out my hands to accept His mercy, even if it doesn’t look as I expect. Ask the Lord to open your eyes to His mercies this weekend and choose to worship the God of all Goodness!

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 Joal 2:12-13 back to the Lord and
let His Spirit speak to you through it!

Even now–
This is the Lord’s declaration–
Turn to me with all your heart,
With fasting, weeping, and mourning.
Tear your hearts,
and not just your clothes,
And return to the Lord your God.
For He is gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger and abounding in faithful love,
And He relents from sending disaster.

Prayer Journal
Lord God, I confess that I do not choose to worship You as the good, gracious God You constantly are towards me. I have become angry with You. I have doubted You. I have insisted on my views instead of Yours. Lord, I know You are gracious, and I know You stand ready to forgive this even now. Teach my heart to hold more tightly to truth than to lies. Root out the lie that I can somehow earn Your favor, win Your smile of approval, or worse, that You “owe me” because of what I’ve done for You.

Remind me of my sin, Lord Jesus, keep it before me. Not to shame or mock me, as I know that is not Your heart, but to remind me I too was once enslaved by worldly passions, by jealousy, anger, and yes, self-righteous success.

How I praise You for coming near to me! How I praise You for choosing the cross of crucifixion and the pain of bearing the weight of the world’s sin that I might come near to You! Give me opportunity to share this glorious gift with others, and make my words bold and my actions loving as I share!

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

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Share how God spoke to you today!
Comment Here or in our Facebook Community Group!

Worship Through Prayer

Worship Through Music

Sacrifice Day 5 Don’t Miss The Boat

April 1, 2022 by Sarah Young Leave a Comment

Read His Words Before Ours!

Genesis 6
Genesis 9
Joel 2:12-13
John 3:16-17
Revelation 21:3-5

Sacrifice, Day 5

Noah and his ark are infamous from infancy onward in American culture, from infants sleeping in rainbow-decorated nurseries to preschoolers scribbling pictures of the ark.

The rainbow reminds, “God keeps His promises.”

We focus on Noah and family safe in the ark, and feel warm and cozy.

We don’t want to consider people being washed away as waters sprang up from the earth while rains rushed down.

So, we make jokes like, “Need a boat? I NOAH guy.”

What happened in Genesis 6-9 is no laughing matter, and though it’s uncomfortable to discuss, I encourage you to stick this out. I pray as we study together today, we will marvel at the gracious faithfulness of God.

Let’s view this story from a VERY different perspective, GOD’s.

“When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved.” (Genesis 6:5-6)

If we’ve ever loved someone deeply, we may understand how God felt. As a mother, my heart breaks when I see one of my children make a bad decision resulting in pain.

One of my favorite books is the Jesus Storybook Bible; I’m often moved to tears as I read to my kids. Lloyd-Jones does an EXCELLENT job of helping us see God’s heart overflowing with a “never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love” for each and every one of us.

From the moment sin first entered the world, God’s LOVE moved Him to act. Yes, He made Adam and Eve leave the garden, but not before He promised one day He would make right all that was wrong.

And from that day forward, God has been at work to restore His broken creation and redeem all that has been lost.

Noah’s cultural setting was grim, and ripe for redemption.

“God saw how corrupt the earth was, for every creature had corrupted its way on the earth. Then God said to Noah, ‘I am going to put an end to every creature, for the earth is filled with wickedness because of them[.]” (Genesis 6: 12-13)

God’s pain-filled heart knew His people would destroy themselves by their own wicked ways. Out of love, He stepped in to stop them.

Mercifully, BEFORE He carried out His just consequence of destruction, He told Noah of His rescue plan, and invited Noah to preach rescue to those around him. (2 Peter 2:5)

In the book of Joel, the prophet describes God’s unrelenting desire for His people to RETURN to Him.

“Even now–
This is the Lord’s declaration–
Turn to me with all your heart,
With fasting, weeping, and mourning.
Tear your hearts,
and not just your clothes,
And return to the Lord your God.
For he is gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger and abounding in faithful love,
And he relents from sending disaster.” (Joel 2:12-13)

God WANTS us to choose Him.
But He never forces us to do so.
As Noah obediently built the ark, those around him continued to reject God’s call to return.
It’s as if we watch Psalm 14:1 unfold before our eyes:

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There’s no God.’
They are corrupt; they do vile deeds.
There is no one who does good.”

Noah received God’s instruction to build a never-before-known ark, and he and his family spent years completing the project. (Genesis 6:14-22)

Perhaps God was giving the people more time to repent.

But no one did.

Finally, in the fullness of time, God’s final instructions came to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation.” (Genesis 7:1)

Still, for seven more days, God waited. (Genesis 7:10)

Was He aching for someone, even one, to return to Him?

Just as we cannot plumb the depths of God’s love, we cannot know the expanse of His pain at our rejection. The time had come, the Lord’s hand closed the door to the ark, and the floodgates unleashed their justice. (Genesis 7:11-16)

Amidst the destruction, the prophet Joel reminds us God always longs for restoration.

We see evidence of this as finally, the waters recede, and Noah and his family, along with allllll the animals, set foot on dry land. (Genesis 8:15-19)

NOW comes the rainbow, and God’s promise to never again destroy the earth with a flood. (Genesis 9:12-17) Each time we see a rainbow, we can remember God is faithful.

We see His faithfulness and longing for restoration again when God Himself carried out the Ultimate Rescue Plan, sending Jesus to bear the penalty for OUR sins, dying so we could live. (John 3:16-17) He then rose from the dead, conquering sin and death forever!

Jesus has provided the way of salvation, extending His grace freely to all who will accept.

The choice is ours.

Noah’s story ended with a fresh earth and a rainbow, testifying to God’s faithfulness.

For all believers, our story on earth transitions to eternity, to a new heaven and earth where Christ Himself is enthroned with an un-ending rainbow. (Revelation 4:3)

From His throne, Christ declares, “Look, I am making everything new.” (Revelation 21:5)

If you haven’t trusted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, please don’t miss the boat (pun intended). Reach out to someone TODAY and ask how you can be certain of spending eternity in God’s glorious presence.

I can’t wait to feel the warmth of His embrace!

More than anything, I would love for you to spend eternity with me, with JESUS!

Ready for more? Dig Deeper!
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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 Sacrifice Week One! 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 Sacrifice!

Ready Day 12 Unlikely Abundance: Digging Deeper

June 15, 2021 by Patty Scott Leave a Comment

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.

What do YOU think?! Share Here!
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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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Our Current Study Theme!

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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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Follow Day 15 Lydia, Spaghetti, and Waffles

January 22, 2021 by Sara Cissell Leave a Comment

Read His Words Before Ours!

Acts 16:6-15, 40
Romans 12:1-21
Mark 8:34-38

Follow, Day 15

Men’s brains work like waffles; women’s work like spaghetti.

Have you heard this analogy? While I’ve never read the book in which it’s presented, I am very aware of the concept. Men are able to compartmentalize their thinking (waffles), whereas women have several thoughts moving at once that may be under, over, in-between, wrapped around, tied in knots, etc (spaghetti).

For example, when my husband asks what I’m thinking, I need to follow one specific noodle in my mind to figure out how it connected with what we were originally talking about. In other scenarios, I will bring up a topic from a previous conversation and he will acknowledge he hasn’t considered it since because he “tucked that thought in its waffle square.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure if my brain truly existed in the “waffle-sphere,” things would end badly. I’d tuck something away safely in a square and promptly forget about it forever. Or I would ineffectively label my squares and end up with a massive, jumbled laundry pile of sorts, one with random thoughts falling away like errant socks rolling down the sides and disappearing (is this where all the missing socks go?).

The more I imagined life with a waffle-mind, my thankfulness for how the Lord wired my brain grew. With these thoughts, I began writing this Journey Study and was surprised to encounter an entirely new and challenging perspective on our dear sister in the Bible, Lydia.

Lydia’s story graces only a few verses in Scripture, but a great deal about her can be inferred from those lines. If you already read the Acts passages at the start of this study, excellent! If not, take a minute to read now. (Acts 16:6-15, 40)

Paul encountered Lydia outside the city gates of Philippi, yet Lydia was introduced as being from the city of Thyatira. Looking at the map of Paul’s missionary journeys in the back of my Bible, I discovered Thyatira and Phillippi are not neighboring towns; Lydia was a traveler.

Additionally, she was a seller of purple cloth, for which Thyatira was famous. Note the verse does not say she was married to a seller of purple cloth; no, Lydia was a business woman, defying social norms by actively working.

She is also described as God-fearing. Paul found Lydia and other women gathered in prayer outside of the city gates. These women were humble and determined enough to step outside the boundaries of the city (most definitely the physical ones, but perhaps the societal, economic, and emotional boundaries as well) in order to seek the Lord. Lydia’s presence was intentional as she denied her own convenient comfort. (Mark 8:34)

After Lydia is introduced, we are immediately told what she was doing: listening. Because she was actively engaged with Paul’s words, “the Lord opened her heart to respond.” (Acts 16:14) If I were to envision this scenario occurring today, it might look like a woman intentionally moving to a place where she can encounter the Lord. For me, that would mean leaving my phone in the other room, having my journal and a pen ready to write thoughts to and from the Lord, and time enough to be still and truly listen.

Lydia followed through on the Lord’s nudge to respond. Holding nothing back from the Lord, she and her household were baptized. Then, she served as hostess to Paul and his traveling companions on multiple occasions. She demonstrated hospitality, generosity, humility, focus, and faithfulness. (Romans 12:6)

Now, in a perfect example of my brain’s spaghetti-like wiring, let’s jump back to how Lydia’s example showed me two ways in which I am asking the Lord to help my “spaghetti-ness.” First, like Lydia, I’m learning I must carve out time to be with the Lord and listen. The compartments of church and my personal time with Him cannot be replaced by other things. Failing to prioritize those will be detrimental to myself and those the Lord is entrusting to me.

Second, I do compartmentalize some areas that I shouldn’t. The phrase “separation between church and state” is not a biblical concept, yet it aptly describes a pattern of distinct boundaries between Jesus and the rest of my life. Rather than existing in separate compartments, what I learn in church and during my quiet times MUST bleed over into the other facets of my life. I must blend my heart for the Lord with my work environment and ethic, my home life, and my time in community. This does not mean I have a “Honk if you love Jesus” bumper sticker on my cubicle, but it does mean that I live to be a light to those around me.

Lydia took all she had and used it for the glory of the Lord.
As a result, her entire household met Jesus.

Paul and his companions were blessed, ministered to, and energized for their journeys.
The kingdom gained a hard-working evangelist with a broad sphere of influence.

Beloved, as we consider our lives, where might God be calling us to use what He’s already given us for His glory?

Ready for more? Dig Deeper!
Join us for every Journey Study by signing up!
Looking for yesterday’s Journey Study?
Share your thoughts from today’s Study!

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 Follow 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 Follow!

The GT Weekend! ~ Neighbor Week 2

May 2, 2020 by Rebecca Leave a Comment

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

1) Sara helps us view our work through the perspective that we each provide a service of one kind of another. Whether grandmother, neighborhood quilt lady, school bus driver, or nail salon technician, we all provide a service to others. Consider the roles you actively serve in your everyday life. When was the last time someone noticed your work and encouraged you in it? Think back through those feelings and that scenario. What made it impactful for you? Now consider who are those providing a common service around you who you may have a tendency to overlook? The trash removers? The cashier? The bank teller? The postal worker? Your spouse? Your boss? Pray over these people!! Ask the Lord to give you a heart to love them as neighbors!

2) Rebekah identifies isolation and busyness as the culprits working against her when it comes to intentionally recognizing the people who are so close to her. While she regularly sees these people, she admits to knowing very little about them. Good intentions of offers to connect and build relationship slam hard against Isolation and Busyness. Closing the garage door is easier than crossing the street. What if we decided to re-arrange our schedules to allow space to engage our neighbors, the ones we “see”, but decide aren’t worth the investment? Suppose we, collectively, chose to take off the glasses that insist our plans must be prioritized over that text message to a neighbor or the decision to walk across the lawn and ask how we can pray for someone, or maybe even ask what they are having for dinner. Pray over who the Lord wants you to connect with, then step out and fight against Isolation and Busyness for the sake of the gospel!

3) We all have a story. We all know this is true. Every person we meet, at the store, in our neighborhood, driving down the road, standing next to in the parent pick-up-line at school, or sitting beside at church. Heavy baggage. Wounds. Heartache. Triumphs. Victories won. Loss experienced. And every story matters to the Lord. He saw the bleeding woman in the crowd (who didn’t want to be seen), and wanted her to feel known and loved. This was Christ’s mission, for all to be known and accept His precious gift of love for them. It’s one thing to say we love people. It’s another to sit with someone who aches, listen to their story, and reflect the love of the Savior in that present moment. Maybe it’s your child, or your spouse, or a friend you’ve lost touch with, or maybe it’s a perfect stranger, but the Lord is calling you to lean in and love well. Who will you be a neighbor to this week?!

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 Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 back to the Lord and
let His Spirit speak to you through it!

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!

Prayer Journal
I don’t mean to indifferent, Lord. I just truly don’t see them. All the people around me; I don’t really see them. I certainly don’t see them the way You do. It’s too easy to think about my problems, my relationship dynamics, the ways I feel I’m walking in circles, my losses, or the ways my needs aren’t being met. I confess, Lord, I often don’t see those around me as being real people. Broken people. People with just as many hurts and needs and broken stuff in their lives as I do. Father, I plead with You to break my heart for them. Open my eyes, Lord Jesus. Refuse to let me stay blinded to them, because You see every person uniquely and with tender love. You know their stories; they matter to You, just as my own stories, struggles, and triumphs do. Teach my tongue to speak Your truth and love over them. I know You’re already giving me opportunity to love them, help me to step out in obedience to share hope!

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