Work through and IN

Can I get a show of hands? Have you ever clearly heard the Lord direct you some place that you didn’t want to be?

If I had 10 hands I’d raise all of them.

Ok, put your hands down. Next question- did you obey?

Now I’d probably only be able to raise 7 of those 10 imaginary hands.

Put your hands down.

If you didn’t obey, did God make you do what He was directing you to anyway?

I’m raising hands again. Not happily. But raising them.

Last question, in that (or those) circumstance(s), did God work through you or in you or both?

You might need to think about that question for a bit. And that’s ok.

I’m in a situation right now that God clearly told me to put myself into. Like writing on the wall kind of clarity. (Daniel 5:25) Initially, I thought it was because God wanted to use me in this new place to reach others. So, I obeyed, showed up, and started doing exactly what I thought He wanted me to do.

But this week I noticed I was becoming discouraged and stagnant. In fact, I felt like I maybe I was just obeying for just my kids’ benefit, not for anyone else’s, including my own.

Then yesterday I let my kids have a movie-morning, and my son wanted to watch the VeggieTales Jonah movie.

No problemo! Let’s learn about God while we’re having a chill day.

Have you ever watched it? I love how they wrap it up. “Jonah was a prophet, but he never really got it.”

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve read Jonah or listened to a sermon about him, and every time I think, “How could he NOT get it. He was swallowed by a fish and spit out for crying out loud. Wouldn’t that have shook him up???”

Not really. He still did what God wanted him to do by going to Ninevah and delivering God’s message. (Jonah 3:3-4) But, in no way was his heart softened. (Jonah 4) He was still selfish and mostly concerned with just doing what God told him to do.

It got me thinking, our desire and prayer shouldn’t only be that God will work though us in our obedience, but that God will also work IN us.

Not to bring the brimstone out, but even the demons know who Jesus is. (James 2:19) Even they obey when commanded in His name. (Acts 16:18)

Showing up and doing what God wants us to is what’s right to do. But we miss out on so much when we don’t allow Him to work inside of us at the same time.

What is God calling you to do that you’re just showing up to? Are you asking Him (or allowing Him) to work in your life through that obedience? Through the experience in which you find yourself?

If the answer is NO, I encourage you to ask Him to work IN you, not just through you. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be like Jonah, a person who just obeys with no heart change, a person who people remember as “not really getting it.” That isn’t the impact I want my life to have. What about you?

Until next time,

❤ Lindsay

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Not this year, Satan

When I was growing up, Thanksgiving was not my family’s best holiday. The week was usually pretty stressful, and the enemy sure knew how to use that to his advantage. (In case you didn’t know, the enemy hates families. Especially families who love and serve the Lord.)

In time, I think my parents learned that one of the best ways for our family to manage the stress of that week was to get out of town. So, we started traveling for many of our Thanksgivings when I was in my early teens. Something about not being in our house diffused some of the stress. When I got to “working age,” I volunteered to work on Thanksgiving if it was a year when we weren’t traveling. (I worked at a gym, and they’d open for a couple hours in the morning.) I guess I’d caught onto the “get out of the house” strategy.

When I got married I carried some of that dread surrounding Thanksgiving with me, even though my first several Thanksgivings were spent with my in-laws and some of my anxiety surrounding the day manifested itself in ways I’ve wished it hadn’t.

So, a year or so ago, I finally got the bright idea to start praying as soon as November started… Pray over Thanksgiving, pray over my spirit, pray over my attitude, pray over my mouth, pray over my husband, pray over my family, etc.

By this time I’d shared a little bit with close friends about how much I used to really dislike Thanksgiving, and to my surprise, it was not an isolated-to-Lindsay feeling. Lots of my friends (who are like-minded in many ways) also dread the day.

I started asking the question, “Why?” I listened to their answers, blogged about it, and hurt a lot of people’s feelings in the process.

I missed the mark.

I hit the target but not dead-center; I was way on the outer most circle.

The truth is Thanksgiving is complicated- I think I could write a blog series on everything I’ve learned about why this is such a hard week for people.

Fast forward to present day. This morning I realized I was irritable for no reason. “Why?” Why did I feel this way? I had no reason to be stressed or irritated. Then it donned on me… Thanksgiving is coming.

For me Thanksgiving symbolizes a humongous cacophony of feelings- complicated feelings and hopes and desires all mixed in with the reality of somehow needing to simultaneously survive AND enjoy the season WHILE maintaining the every day requirements of my life (wife, work from home mom of 2 kids, Bible study, etc).

I desperately did not want to fall into the old pattern of my stress manifesting itself in ways I would either regret or that would simply ruin the holiday for others around me.

So I prayed.

There are a lot of practical strategies for getting through the holidays successfully, whether it be financial strategies (stay within budget, don’t go into debt), emotional strategies (like my family opting to get out of town most Thanksgivings), or logistical strategies (getting all the presents purchased, parties attended to, and turkeys roasted). But, I’m finally realizing that my only hope this season that covers every single facet of it is fully and wholly in Jesus.

The older you get, the faster these holidays just blow right by us. I want every opportunity to enjoy these special times of year (which is my primary argument for decorating and listening to Christmas music as early as I do). But, I just can’t do it on my own. Because when I rely on my own strategies, they won’t overcome all the complications this time of year brings. However, when I ask Jesus to get involved, when I opt to do things His way instead of simply relying on my own good-sense, I have a much better chance at not giving the enemy a foot-hold.

He hates families. He hates gratitude. He hates giving. He hates people gathering around the table and giving thanks to God before they break bread. No duh, he hates Christmas. But, I think he hates Thanksgiving too. So, he uses everything he can to wreak havoc on the day, so he can wreak havoc on families.

Will you join me this year in telling him, “Not this year, Satan”? Because Thanksgiving may not be about Jesus, but we’re going to prepare like it does. We’re going to pray, and we’re going to keep our eyes and hearts fixed on the One for whom we are most thankful, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Until next time,

❤ Lindsay

Introducing… Lindsay

Hey y’all, Lindsay here. I’m honored and excited to be joining the GTM team as a blog contributor!

Most current pic of me with my hair and make up done!

The Lord has been speaking through my fingertips, as I like to say, for over a decade now. I found my passion for explaining truths about Him while I was just a teenager in high school serving in my church’s children’s ministry. Since then He’s used these fingers to share many messages about His character and providence through letters printed and mailed to hundreds of people, drama scripts performed for both children and adults, and blog posts on my own personal blog(s) and other ministries’.

We manage to get a picture of all four of us about every 6 months. Anybody else in this boat?

I’m married, work from home, and have two young children. My full testimony would take an entire memoire to cover, so I’ll have to share it with you in bits and pieces. But the anthem of my life is God is always faithful to make good out of the hard stuff.

One of the things that first struck me about Beth, and confirmed that hers was a wagon I would be willing to hitch mine to, was her dedication to take everything back to Scripture. That is exactly how my parents’ raised me, yet this is opposite to our learn-everything-through-social-media culture where context is irrelevant as long as it looks pretty and sounds catchy and 100k people re-post it.

When Beth shared with me that God was calling her into this ministry whose focus would be to teach women the Bible, she was speaking my language. And little did she know at that time, God had been priming my heart to join such a force in this very forum where you and I are currently meeting.

Until next time,

❤ Lindsay