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Wilderness Day 3 Job’s Wilderness & My Own

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Read His Words Before Ours!

Job 19:25-27
Job 23:10-17
Job 42:5-17
Psalm 18:25-36
1 Peter 1:3-9

Wilderness, Day 3

Life is like embroidery work.

A piece of embroidery has two sides, two stories stitched simultaneously. The back is often a tangle of knots and strings, giving only a faint suggestion of the front image. Our life on earth is like the back of that piece, while God is creating a magnificent work of art on the other side; a stunning, eternal masterpiece.

Tucked away in the Old Testament lies a remarkable story that mirrors this sort of heavenly embroidery: the story of our brother Job and his staggering loss. His struggles challenge his understanding of God and leave him with more questions than answers.

Before we reach the end of chapter one, we find him stunned and grief-stricken. (Job 1) Job had recently placed the lifeless bodies of all 10 of his children in their graves. In the space of a few hours, he became a dweller of the surreal Land of Loss all grievers know well. In this land, nothing matters but the gaping wound and the ever-present pain.

The dust settles and Job’s questions arise.

“Why was I not stillborn;
Why didn’t I die as I came from the womb? [. . .]
Why is light given to one burdened with grief,
And life to those whose existence is bitter,
Who waits for death, but it does not come [. . .]
I have no rest, for turmoil has come.” (Job 3:11, 20-21, 26)

Wealth can be rebuilt, illness treated. Children cannot be replaced. Yet these priceless treasures were unceremoniously ripped away in a freak accident.

Job had no explanation. He was not privy to the conversations between God and Satan relayed in the text. (Job 1:6-12, Job 2:1-7) His confusion is warranted; His understanding of God and His ways were just body-slammed.

Like Job, our finite minds conclude our all-powerful, compassionate God can and should stop all suffering; yet, He doesn’t. We all have scars to prove it. Any notion suggesting God miraculously delivers His own from painful trials is patently false. (John 16:33)

So, in the quiet back channels of our soul, the unending “why” rises like a mist. Our suffering doesn’t make sense; He doesn’t make sense.

We’re reminded of the back of the embroidery work, where life is mostly a confusion of outlines, knots, and strings. Truthfully, Job never received answers to the questions haunting his sleepless nights, and we may not, either. Still, truth remains; God acts for His holy and eternal purposes. (Isaiah 40:12-14, 21-26)

I have spent ample time in the ash-heap of grief. Our brother Job buried ten children; I buried one. During my sojourn into loss, several stabilizing mindsets emerged, anchoring my soul with solid hope. Solid hope, I found, resides in solid truth—the truth of Scripture. As I began the practice of marinating my soul in Scripture, I came to know God as my Companion and Friend. The more deeply I knew Him, the more I trusted Him, which empowered tenacious devotion, gritty faith, and audacious obedience. (Jeremiah 17:7-8)

Frankly, were it not for my solid foundation of truth, I would not have survived Matthew’s long-term illness and death with my faith intact.

Though my anchor held fast, I too, wrestled through puzzling contradictions and unanswered questions. However, through the pain and confusion, this truth rose in an ever-present whisper: life on earth is not our only. Eternity awaits just beyond, through the veil of time and space.

As I await eternity, I find encouragement in Apostle Paul’s words:

“Therefore, we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

This truth gave perspective and purpose for the pain, while infusing a deeply-abiding, grounded hope and true joy for the reality of eternity.

This solid relationship with God empowered me to face life with unanswered questions, much like our brother Job. In the dark night of my soul, He whispered, “I see you; I am with you. I’m doing something deep and beautiful. Trust Me.” His words were mostly about trust and relationship; very little was said about changing circumstances in my favor.

Through the loneliness and desperation rose quiet, peaceful intimacy. He became my treasure and joy. I became fruitful, even in the place of pain. Knowing my Jesus was in control, holding my boys and I in His arms, became enough for me. I could maneuver through the knots and strings, knowing Who was creating a masterpiece on the flip-side.

Though we live on the backside now, when we see Him, He will flip the embroidery piece. We will be stunned at the masterpiece He created from what we only knew as tangled knots and strings. How could we imagine He’s been working all along, refining gold through our painful trials, weaving glistening threads through our darkest days, and crafting delicate, priceless jewels from our deepest sorrows.

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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 Wilderness Week One! 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 Wilderness!

Ready, Day 3 Are You In?

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Read His Words Before Ours!

1 Thessalonians 1
Romans 3:21-24
Romans 6:20-23

Ready, Day 3

“Notice the small things. The rewards are inversely proportional.”
–Liz Vassey

Deep within the core of our bodies lies a muscle called the psoas. You’ve likely never heard of this muscle unless, like me, you’ve logged time with a physical therapist. This single muscle is hugely important, stabilizing our spines, connecting the two major parts of our skeletons, and allowing movement by joining our upper bodies to our lower. If this muscle becomes tight or is injured, the domino effect can lead to pain that runs all the way down one’s leg into one’s foot, numbness, weakness, and even a lack of mobility altogether if left untreated.

That single muscle packs a powerful punch when it comes to how our bodies function, and we do well to attend to its needs.

Likewise, throughout Scripture, we want to pay attention to small words that may carry great significance, helping us uncover all the goodness God has for us in His Word.
For our purposes in 1 Thessalonians 1, we want to give attention to a small word, just two letters long, “in.”

Read through the chapter again and make note of all the places you spy this little, powerful word.

Now for a grammar lesson.
(Some of you, like me, will nod your heads in staunch agreement that grammar matters when we read Scripture. Then, there are those who are chagrined that I even mentioned the word in a devotional article. Stick with me.)

Prepositions are like tendons; both connect. Tendons connect bone to muscle. Prepositions connect nouns or noun phrases to some other part of the sentence. For our purposes, it’s important to know “in” is a preposition. So, as we read 1 Thessalonians 1, whenever we see or read the word, “in,” we want to ask a few questions.

First ask, “in what?” or, “in whom?”

For example, we read, “To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”  (1 Thessalonians 1:1, emphasis mine)
In what or whom?
The answer is, “God the Father and Lord Jesus Christ.”
Putting it all together, we then have, “IN God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” That is a prepositional phrase.

Now, go through the entire first chapter of Thessalonians again and write down all the prepositional phrases you discover beginning with the preposition, “in.”

Here is what you should have found:

Most prepositions, including the word “in” are words that indicate placement or position. “In” is only one of these types of words. Other words like this could have been chosen for this text, such as beside, before, above, around, off, outside, near.

So, why use “in” versus other prepositions?
What if the text read, “Around God the Father and Lord Jesus Christ” or “Before our prayers,” or “Beside the Holy Spirit”?

IN describes a very different reality in regard to our spiritual identity.
I want to be IN Jesus, not just near Him.
Those for whom I pray want me to mention their names IN my prayers to God, not before my prayers.
I need the Holy Spirit’s power IN me, not merely around me, as I seek to live and speak as Jesus did.

Several years ago, my niece and nephew were publicly baptized, and I was able to be present for this special event. The church they attend gave them T-shirts by which to remember the occasion. The front of the shirt read, “All IN.”

That phrase, accompanied by the baptism, left a profound mark on my soul. I watched my then-13 year old nephew and 11 year old niece proclaim they were all IN with Jesus, with His kingdom rules and rights alike. I rejoiced with them for making a definitive statement at a young age. It’s no small thing to draw such a line in the sand, especially in early, formative years when the pressures to be all IN with the crowd are strong. I was not only proud of my niece and nephew; I was sobered by their commitment. It caused me to consider my own.

The day after their baptisms, my nephew was in an ATV accident that claimed his life. To say it shook our family to the core is an understatement. In our disorienting grief, one thing kept us from completely falling apart. It was the knowledge that my nephew was all IN with Jesus; we, too, were being held together IN the arms of Christ.

Friend, I pray you know the security of being all IN with Jesus. All IN means acknowledging our attempts at living a perfect life fall short (Romans 3:23). But, Christ’s perfect life can be ours by exchange! He died on a cross to take the eternal consequences for our shortcomings (Romans 6:23). He allowed His body to be broken so we could know wholeness. He came INTO our world so we could one day be ALL IN His perfect Kingdom, where righteousness and peace reign.

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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 Ready Week One! 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 Ready!

The GT Weekend! ~ Sola 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) When the work of saving our souls, and the work of giving us the gift of faith, and the work of making a Christian to grow into a clearer image of Christ begins and ends with the triune God, there is zero way we can take credit for any part of it ourselves. We submit to Him in total surrender, offering all we are, and He does the remarkable work of building His Church in and through us as we continue to surrender and follow Him. Praise God for this amazing work!! It’s when we refuse His work in our lives that we are met with discord in our relationship with Him and when we see our own relationships struggle. Human beings make very poor saviors. Where are you working hard to maintain control and be your own savior? Where is the Lord calling you into total surrender? What holds you back from doing this?

2) What if this was just a nice journey theme to study? Suppose we only learned some interesting facts about the Church during the Reformation years? If you and I choose to read and learn and then keep on walking without being challenged, we are the ones missing out. Not just us, but the ones God has crafted for us to influence with His truth. We must know this central Sola truths. We must hold them so dear to us they begin to shape how we view God, ourselves, Scripture, the Church, our purpose, and other people. The price of walking away from these Solas without a personal reformation is just too high. Where will you begin to intentionally make a shift? Which Sola was the most challenging to you as you studied? Where are you out of balance in holding tightly to some Solas, but distancing yourself from others? What will you do to make the Solas yours?

3) We need the truths represented by these Solas to color our everyday lives. Take a few minutes this weekend to sit with your Bible and a journal and pen and think through what are the most important aspects of each Sola and how you can align your real life with these truths. Scripture alone. How does this Sola impact where you seek wisdom and whose voice you listen to with final authority? Who dictates what’s right or wise?  Grace alone. Where are you tempted to bring God something in expectation of His favor being given? Is it your prayer life? Is it working hard in your relationship? We are called to follow Him, but out of a heart of love and obedience, not an attempt to win favor. Faith alone. It’s only through faith we are saved for eternity. Nothing Else. How is your faith? Is there evidence of trusting God woven into the fabric of your real, everyday life? Jesus alone. No other name can save us! Do you see Him as holding all authority? Is He the first you run toward, or your last? Where have you combined aspects of some other religions into what you believe? Is Jesus fully God and fully man? God’s glory alone. Whose glory are you living for? Yours? Your spouse? Do your kids carry a weight of performance driven expectations in order for you to feel like you’re a success? Begin asking yourself, is this for God’s glory or mine?

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 John 3:5-6 back to the Lord and
let His Spirit speak to you through it!

Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Prayer Journal
Father God, it’s by Your powerful Holy Spirit that we are made new and awakened to a new life. Remind me it isn’t by my flesh, or my agenda, or my purposes that Your kingdom is built and people come to know You. Remind me to listen for the rhythms of Your Spirit and to live in a constant state of submission of my will to Yours. How fast I forget to do this and begin living in my own strength and wisdom instead of Yours! Make my heart soft to hunger for Your ways over mine. Ground me in truth, teach my heart Your Word so I live it out in greater ways each day. May your revival shape my heart, transforming me more and more into the likeness of Your Son, Jesus.

Worship Through Community

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Worship Through Prayer

Worship Through Music

Adoring Day 12
Worship In The Waiting: 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

Looking for yesterday’s Journey Post? Check out Worship In The Waiting!

Exodus 3:13-22 English Standard Version (ESV)

13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel:

‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. 16 Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, 17 and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.”’ 18 And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. 21 And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, 22 but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”

The Questions

1) What’s the big deal about God’s name and why does He call Himself “I AM”?

2) What is the significance of God “observing” in v 16? Is He a casual onlooker?

3) What does this passage reveal about God’s character?

The Findings for Intention

1) What’s the big deal about God’s name and why does He call Himself “I AM”?
In biblical times, the giving of a name was meant to give a definition of that person, either by occupation or by characteristic or perhaps the circumstances they were born with. God gives Himself a name that defines Him with Himself. He simply is. He is timeless, the beginning and the end of all things. There is no other definition for God except “God”. He holds the supremacy in all matters.
He also refers to Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which is the name He had been known by since cutting the covenant with Abraham and his offspring from that covenant promise. God wanted to be known as the covenant-keeping God, for Abraham, for the new covenant that would come in Jesus, and for the fulfillment of the covenant with Christ’s return. He is trustworthy to be the same, yesterday, today, and forever! Check out these references!
John 8:58, Psalm 68:4, Psalm 83:18, Revelation 1:4, Revelation 1:8

2) What is the significance of God “observing” in v 16? Is He a casual onlooker?
“Observe” here does not have the same implication we may take in our western culture. The Hebrew meaning is much stronger being defined as, “caring for, looking after, or attending to”. We get the idea of an attentive parent caring for the needs of a child, definitely not a casual onlooker who just happened to suddenly notice the Hebrews being enslaved.

3) What does this passage reveal about God’s character?
So Much!! He promises freedom from slavery and bring them into a homeland rich with inheritance. Which we see Him act faithfully on and keep His word. He is honorable, steadfast, and completely trustworthy. God tells Moses flat out that He knows Pharaoh “will not let (the people) go without being compelled by a mighty hand” (verse 19). Which later proves true in 5:2 and 7:4. He is all-knowing, seeing past, present, and future, and able to work and intercede throughout time. He is all-powerful as He tells Moses, again in advance, that He will stretch out His hand and do wonders in order to free His people (verse 20). We also see that He is a providing God, both physically and spiritually. He allowed the Hebrews to plunder the Egyptians as they escaped slavery (verses 21-22).

The Everyday Application

1) How does God calling Himself the “I AM” impact my everyday?
God gave Moses his intimate, personal name. “I Am” was referred to as Jehovah, but was such a personal name, the Israelites would never say it or even spell it completely, out of respect and awe. In our modern Bibles, every time you see LORD with all capital letters, it indicates this personal name for God, Jehovah, the “I Am”. Back to Moses….there he stood on holy ground, with his head bowed low before the mightiness of the timeless, infinite God, and the All-Powerful told Moses to call Him by His intimate name. What an incredible picture of God’s passionate heart! He is both Almighty and intimate, personal Savior. Ruler of the universe, and yet He is the same one present with us when grief washes over us, when relationships fail, and sadness overwhelms us. The God OF all, is the same God IN all.

2) What is the significance of God “observing” in v 16? Is He a casual onlooker?
God’s observance or “attentive looking after” isn’t limited to large nations, but rather He carefully watches over each of us. Even tiny sparrows aren’t overlooked in God’s observance, how much more so the everyday lives of the beloved people He died to save?

3) What does this passage reveal about God’s character?
We aren’t slaves of cruel taskmasters in ancient Egypt, but we can easily become slaves to a myriad of other masters. Fear, shame, the past, a relationship, financial loss, failing health, anxiety, or even monotony, but the character of our God reminds us that He Is All In. He is for us and not against us. He isn’t outside our reality with hands bound, He’s present, He’s caring, He’s trustworthy, He’s powerful, and He is our great provider, whatever the situation is. Rest easy in who our God is!

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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 Adoring 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 Adoring!