Monday, September 7, 2015

Sharing is Caring

Hormones, marriage, finances, injuries, difficult personalities....

Sometimes, God gives us problems so we can develop our spiritual muscles to get through them. SO many times the Bible tells us to take joy in our trials!

Consider it great joy, my brothers, whenever you face various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work,
so that you might be mature and complete, lacking nothing. James 1:2-4

Often, after the trial is over, I've often found myself praising God for it because He taught me something new and brought me closer to Him. That's what this blog is all about, right? I learn a lesson in life and share it with the world wide web!

This is no exception...God has taught me something new: I've got to share even when I'm still ugly. 

Hang in there; I'll explain. 

What I normally do, both on this blog and in my personal life, is share my experiences when I've already processed them, when I can make them pretty and tie a bow on them and present them to the world. In other words, I present my struggles in the past tense.

Recently, however, I've really been astounded at how much MORE God can use me when I reach out even when my world is upside down...when I'm coated in tears and snot and feel like I have "hormonal nightmare" tattooed on my forehead. 

It's one thing to be entirely real and transparent in the past tense, when you already have it all figured out, but it takes true vulnerability to reach out to others in the middle of the mess. 

First, God speaks to us sometimes through other Christians. Therefore, if I seek their comfort, wisdom, and guidance IN the situation, then I am opening myself for God to speak to me through them. This is a huge blessing for me, obviously, but also a blessing for them! Believe me, being the conduit through whom God chooses to speak is such a huge deal. It doesn't happen every day, and is a gigantic blessing!

Second, it builds community. The Bible tells us we're supposed to commune with one another, confess our sins, and lift one another up. If I'm keeping all my junk to myself until I get it straight, then I'm not helping to build the community of believers. 

No one wants to open up to someone who already has everything figured out. If I've called you, crying and insecure, then when you're struggling, you'll feel like you can call me, too, right? By revealing myself to people close to me while I'm IN the mess, I can let them know that it's truly okay for them to do the same thing.

Finally, I've watched a domino effect happen in the last few weeks. As one friend gave me godly advice, God was able to build on it with another friend. Then, when I went to write the blog post about fear, it touched another friend exactly when she needed it most. As that continued to develop, I recorded a Periscope video, which changed the whole course of another friend's day. She, then, shared it with a bunch of her friends.

Do you see where I'm going here? Each time we share, both in the muck and after we've gone through it, we create a domino effect of blessings that reaches FAR beyond our sight. Who knows...maybe even into eternity.

So, today, if you're going through something, I'm going to ask it to share it with someone you trust. (That part is super important.) 

Pray about who God would have you share your burdens with. Maybe THEY can help you lay them down at the feet of the only one strong enough to carry them all, Jesus Christ.

If you don't think you have anyone, you're wrong. You have me. My email address is alissaandjosiah@yahoo.com. I would love to be there for you, just like others have been there for me!

Now...go share!

Friday, September 4, 2015

How do you "give your burdens" to God?

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, we have a MIGHTY God, and I LOVE how He works!!

A few days ago I wrote this blog post where I was just REALLY convicted by a friend: I was operating under a spirit of fear, not trust in a sovereign God.

A day or two after that, I found a reading plan on fear on YouVersion. In the first couple days, this was the verse:

Give your burdens to the Lord,
and he will take care of you.
He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.
(Psalm 55:22)

When I read that, I saw a picture in my mind:
 I saw myself walking with Josiah (my studly, friendly giant of a husband) up a hill in the dark. I was asking him to help me, but I insisted on carrying a bunch of heavy boxes by myself. I couldn't see over the boxes and I kept tripping and falling. He wanted to carry them, but I was stubborn and wanted to do it myself.  

Then, I saw how the picture changed when I gave the boxes over to Josiah. He could carry them easily with one hand, and help guide me through the dark with the other.

Now, the difference here is, Josiah doesn't necessarily know the way, and his strength has its limits. But guess whose doesn't?! MY GOD!

Everything just became so startling clear. By carrying my fears, worries, and anxieties around, I am impeding my own progress! 

Later, I was talking to my sweet sis-in-love, Jamie, about this and she asked me the best question ever. She said, I'm not trying to be funny, but we, as Christians, always say, "just give your burdens to God," but what do you think that really looks like in our Christian walk?

She's right. We say these things sometimes, just quoting away, and we haven't really thought out completely what it LOOKS like in our lives. I could probably write multiple blog posts JUST on that: what the Scriptures actually look like when we walk them out (and I might!).

So when she asked me, I really paused to think about it...what DOES it look like to give all our burdens to God.

While thinking about it, God brought this scripture to mind:

Do not conform to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -
his good, pleasing, and perfect will.
Romans 12:2

WOW!

I know this is a fairly common scripture to a lot of y'all, so I'm gonna break down how I see this as it applies to this topic.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world...
In our society, we wear business and worry like badges of honor, and apparently, I've made myself the self-proclaimed queen of that world, because I've been a SUPER busy worrier. But that's not what God wants. He doesn't want us to be busy worriers...He wants peaceful warriors. It's almost like, if we're really busy and worried, we add to our significance in this life, but that is such a hopeless perspective. As Christians, we should set our minds above the worries of this world!

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
This is SO unbelievably important! Our thoughts create pathways in our minds that get deeper and deeper based upon how frequent the thoughts are and the emotions we attach to them. So, if we're spending tons of time worrying, we're literally creating negative pathways in our brains that we will begin to traverse more and more often. 

Giving our burdens to God means renewing our minds...continuously.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing, and perfect will.
Do you see where this is going??? Only AFTER we renew our minds, are we able to properly see the perfect will of God in our lives!!

Mind. Blown.

So, what does it look like in the Christian walk? Exactly what Paul said: take every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Do you see where this is leading? We can't just hand a burden over to God once? We have to do it continually. We have to lean on God continuously...always thanking Him...praying without ceasing.

It all walks hand in hand.

Today, tomorrow, this week...as you walk through your days, try to be mindful of your thoughts. Whenever worry and anxiety creep in, RIGHT AWAY, pray. Ask God to help you hand it over.

And then...the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7).