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The GT Weekend! ~ Focus Week 1

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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)  Brianna noted on Monday, “God’s wisdom, while promoting His peace, does not promote a pain free life.” So we are left with the lingering question over our hearts, “do we really want to follow Jesus?”. This isn’t a one-time answer and finished for life. When the relationships get complicated and messy, will we follow? When it’s much easier to twist the truth and save ourselves, will we still follow? What are you walking through right now where you are need to ask, “Do I really want to follow Jesus?”. Remember, Sister, what’s at stake is for eternity. There is only One sure-footed place to walk the ups and downs of this life, and that’s following Jesus! Saying yes to Him will always be worth it, guaranteed.

2)  Quick, Slow, Slow. Three wise words waving like a white flag on repeat in my mind when I find myself in a scenario where my relational temperature is quickly on the rise. God’s wisdom, intended for everyday life application in big ways and small ones, will always bring life that causes flourishing. Quick to listen. Slow to speak. Slow to become angry. Listening brings life. Speaking should be only a small percentage of our relationships and anger…well, James says our anger does not accomplish the righteous purposes of God. Plain. Simple. Straight up wisdom. Practice raising the white flag in your relationships with those three words. Quick. Slow. Slow. Begin this weekend! As you slow, take those seconds, or minutes, to pray for the one you’re in conflict with.

3) We all have difficult seasons of our lives where we feel like the ground beneath us is swaying, shaking, and we aren’t sure we will make it to the other side. Pause for a few minutes and recall one or two of those times for you. What were the feelings you wrestled with?  What sustained you? When we feel like we are drowning, we need an anchor we can trust, no matter what. Relationships are amazing gifts, but they will always let us down in one fashion or another. What are your anchors? How do you know they will sustain you in your storms?

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 James 1:22-25 back to the Lord and
let His Spirit speak to you through it!

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Prayer Journal
Lord, Your presence is everywhere at every moment, just as You are incessantly pursuing each of us that we might turn to You and discover the love we’ve longed for. In the same way, Your wisdom never ceases, and You urgently desire for us to walk in it. Not because You’re a dictator, but because You are love and You know we will have the richest, most fulfilling life when we walk wisely.
As we study You, Lord, make us wise. May we not just accumulate good sayings and nice thoughts, but teach us to live out Your wisdom daily. Spirit, this is impossible without Your power. May we surrender more of ourselves to You every day!

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Focus Day 1 Do I Really Want To Follow Jesus?

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Read His Words Before Ours!

I Kings 3:3-15
Proverbs 1
James 1:1-18

Focus, Day 1

If you could be granted one wish,
for what would you ask?

King Solomon was given such an opportunity.
He encountered God in a dream where the Lord asks, “What should I give you?”

We don’t know if Solomon pondered this for some time, or if he just came out with it, but we know he asked God for wisdom. Of all the things Solomon could have requested, he asked for wisdom: something intangible and internal versus a thing of earthly value and external form. 

The Lord granted his humble (and wise!) request and Solomon went on to wisely rule God’s people while increasing in wealth and fame, he then penned Proverbs, taking truths given him by the grace gift of God and making them available to everyone. In the opening chapter of Proverbs, Solomon directs us to both the Source of wisdom and the path on which to find it: “the fear of the Lord.”

God is the Source of wisdom;
fearing Him is the path on which we find it. 

Fearing God can be a biblical concept with much confusion surrounding it. I appreciate the way R.C. Sproul draws from Martin Luther’s explanation of biblical fear of God when he quotes Luther:

[The one who fears God] has a fear or an anxiety of offending the one he loves, not because he’s afraid of torture or even of punishment, but rather because he’s afraid of displeasing the one who is, in that child’s world, the source of security and love.

Fear of God is a grasp of both God’s love AND His power that informs the kind of respectful, awe-filled fear we are to hold for Him. This posture toward God is the starting line on the path of wisdom.

The book of James, which we will be studying for the next several weeks, fills in the proverbial skeleton Solomon sketched for us on what wisdom from God looks like in the everyday life of the believer.

In the first chapter, James describes how the quest for wisdom begins by asking for it, just like Solomon did. And, just as God gave to Solomon, so He will give wisdom to us.
Only here in James, God provides qualifiers on how He will give wisdom: generously and without finding fault to the one who asks in faith, without doubting.  (James 1:5)

If you’re anything like me, you are pumped when you read God’s promise to give you wisdom generously, but nearly immediately sink, crestfallen, when immediately following, you read how the one asking must not waver in faith.

I tend to expect the worst while hoping for the best with fingers crossed for extra, superstitious good measure. Not exactly the poster-child for God honoring faith. 

I think part of my finger crossing comes from my own double mindedness as James references in verse 8. I have divided loyalties. God’s wisdom vs mine.

You see, the goal of the world’s wisdom is to avoid pain and be promised prosperity.
The goal of God’s wisdom is a steadfast abiding with Him no matter what our lot holds.

When James exhorts wisdom seekers not to be “double-minded,” he is telling us not to vacillate between the world’s wisdom and God’s wisdom.

Later in the book of James, we will see how peace accompanies God’s wisdom.
One of the qualities of a peace-maker, something God calls all His children to be, is wisdom. The two work in tandem. 

Many know James to be a book of “to-do’s.” If that’s the case, I make the case that here in the first 18 verses, he is essentially saying,
“In all that you do, do wisely that which promotes peace.
And, as you seek to apply God’s wisdom to pursue peace,
it is going to take you through trials, in which you’re going to need a
whole lot of endurance!”

If like Solomon, I was given the opportunity to ask for anything from God, I must admit my default is asking for a pain free life.
My divided loyalties are showing….

I ask God, but I move forward shakily NOT because God has withheld wisdom, but because
I don’t always want the wisdom HE supplies.

Because God’s wisdom, while promoting peace, does NOT always promote a pain free life.

Divided loyalties.
And I must decide….

Do I really want to follow Jesus?

Do I want my comfort more than I want to look at the cross and remember why walking in the fear of God, the beginning of wisdom, is worth it every time?

More often, I want my ease more than I want God to be glorified.
I want success as the world defines it, not a steadfast spirit.
I want escape from trial, not endurance within it.

As we delve deeper into the book of James,
I pray our minds will be renewed and our hearts transformed
to see the lasting beauty and goodness of pursuing wisdom that comes from God.

I’m praying His Spirit will gently, yet definitively, reveal where and how we are being double minded, holding onto our divided loyalties.
These divisions that steal life despite their promise of comfort, peace and ease.

Only one can give those gifts.
Jesus.

Do we really want to follow Him?

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

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Resting Day 10
Purposeful Pace

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Resting Day 10
Purposeful Pace

Bri Bailey

February 24, 2017

Brave,Busy,Design,Enough,Freedom,Help,Jesus,Life,Meaning,Peace,Purpose,Rest,Wisdom,Worship

Read His Words Before Ours!

Isaiah 43:19
John 11:1-45
Colossians 3:23-24

“If only there were 30 hours in a day, I could get everything done.”
Sound familiar, Sister?

I’ve had this conversation countless times with other women, women in every stage of adult life. I remember so clearly when the lazy days of my childhood stretched out endlessly before me, ripe with infinite possibilities. But as I stepped toward adulthood, someone hit fast forward and my life became hurried and I became harried.

How many times have we run through our mental to-do lists for the 800th time and found ourselves on the brink of tears, swallowing desperately the panicked explosion, “I can’t do EVERYTHING!”? Or perhaps, “I can’t BE everything!”
Sweet friend, this is me.
More often and more painfully than I care to admit.
And some days, the entire episode ends in a heaping helping of condemnation and shame before I rush on. But other days, when awareness penetrates the emotion and I stop and listen, I hear Him reminding me,
“I haven’t asked you to do EVERYTHING. I haven’t asked you to BE everything.”
Even good things. Even for our families, and our jobs, and our communities.
Even for the church, and the kingdom.
He hasn’t asked me, and He hasn’t asked YOU, to do ALL of them.
To BE all of them.

But we know from His word that He does have callings He’s placed on our lives.
We also know that some of these can change, as old seasons draw to a close and new ones unfurl. So when we find ourselves drowning in a sea of overwhelmed and overcommitted, let’s try something simple yet revolutionary.
Let’s talk to Him about it.

What are You calling me to do . . . who are You calling me to be . . . in this season?
We may need to gracefully step back from former roles and tasks. Or we may need to tell others, “Not yet,” with faith that when the fullness of time arrives, He will fulfill those desires and dreams.
When we are able to identify and partner with His will for the now, we find strength and passion to carry out His work wholeheartedly.

We find time to be intentional,
to give and to be our best.
We find time to rest.
We find time.

But hang on . . . could He really be showing me how to effectively work for His kingdom by slowing down and perhaps saying “not anymore” or “not yet” to good, even ministry-based opportunities? As I wrestled with this question, He brought the story of Lazarus to my mind. Lazarus was Jesus’s dear friend, and when Lazarus fell ill, his family sent word to Jesus (who was ministering elsewhere), asking Jesus to come quickly and heal Lazarus.

A request for help from a close friend – surely this is a good thing to do!
An opportunity to demonstrate the power of God through healing – surely this is a perfect avenue for ministry!
But Jesus doesn’t come.
At least, not right away.
His pace has a different focus.  

It’s two days before He journeys to Judea, and during the waiting, Lazarus dies.
So why wait?
He could have dropped everything and rushed to Lazarus. By all appearances, that was the right and good and holy thing to do. But I believe that He didn’t, for two reasons.
First, He knew there was work still to be done where He was. Departing immediately would have left the purposes of God for those people and in that place unfulfilled. However, when the fullness of time did arrive, He left. He closed the door on that season, because God had a new work for Him to do.
Second, He chose that which was most impactful in furthering the kingdom.
In John 11:4 and again in verse 42, He makes His intention clear: He is acting for the greatest glory of God, so that those around Him will believe.

Which is the more powerful testimony?
“Yeah, I heard Lazarus was a bit under the weather. But he’s doing better now, right?”
Or
“Lazarus was dead. I watched Jesus pray. And now Lazarus is alive.”

Jesus knew that hurrying to heal Lazarus from sickness would have been good. But He also knew that finishing His former work, then following God’s direction to move on to raise Lazarus from death was best.

So dear friend, rather than rushing to fight time, let’s choose to seek the Father’s guidance, step into His pace, and operate in the fullness of time. Let’s find the courage to say “not anymore” or “not yet,” leaving space for rest. Like Him, let’s choose to be intentional with our commitments, so we can give and be our best, letting Him choose what brings the greatest glory to God!

 

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example,intentional,priorities,purpose,resting,wisdom,wise
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