Shining the light of God's word into our confused world.

Category: Ministry (Page 1 of 5)

How a Rock Helped My Depression

I have a history of depression.

There, I said it.

Admitting this hasn’t always been easy for me. In fact, for a long time I was in flat-out denial. I wasn’t depressed, I was just tired, or stressed, or just dealing with a lot. Or it was hormones, or Seasonal Affective Disorder. Or all of the above. But I was never the D-word. How could I be? I had Jesus. You can’t have Jesus and still be depressed.

Except that you actually can. And — hear me now — it doesn’t make you a bad Christian.

I didn’t finally acknowledge my depression until after my two miscarriages and the unexpected loss of both of my in-laws happened in fairly rapid succession. It wasn’t until then that I finally acknowledged I was dealing with something more than just grief and exhaustion. I was ready to call the sense of joyless numbness and hopelessness I’d been carrying around for months what it was. I admitted that I was depressed, and that I needed to deal with it. And that’s when I started to heal.

That’s also when I learned that you can’t confront something that you’re not willing to acknowledge, and you can’t claim victory over something you’re not willing to name.

Since then, God’s brought me a long way in my battle against depression. So far that I can stand up and proclaim myself healed. But that doesn’t mean it still doesn’t try to creep up on me from time to time, and that it’s not a real battle when it does.

But before I can do battle, I have to acknowledge the true nature of my enemy.

Recently, it started creeping back in, and instead of naming and confronting it, I denied it and hoped it would go away, even though I knew better. On top of feeling depressed, I also felt guilty. God has answered prayer for us this year in a big and positive way! We’re right where I spent years praying to be! How could I be depressed? How could I be anything other than full of joy and gratitude?

But it went on long enough that I knew I had to look it in the face. Just to be sure, one night a couple of weeks ago I took an online assessment, expecting it to say that I was mildly depressed. Instead it said that I was showing signs of moderate to severe depression. I knew I needed to deal with it before it got worse–because that’s all it ever does if you try to ignore it.

I started praying about it immediately. I confessed my depression, and all of my negative thoughts and fears, and the things I was feeling hopeless about. And I confessed my guilt over feeling depressed when He’s been so good to me this year.

That’s when He helped me realize what was already plain to Him: that we are complicated creations with complex brains and emotions, and we are perfectly capable of being sad and depressed about some things while still being grateful about something else. I went to sleep that night, feeling a little more at peace.

The next morning I was still struggling, though. Now, I’ve learned that God is the best therapist out there. Not only does He listen, but He can change my thinking. He can even change my circumstances, but if He doesn’t, He can still change my outlook on my circumstances.

So I got out my journal, and I wrote down everything in my life that I felt was contributing to my depression. And I prayed and gave each of them to God. And as I did, I looked deeper. The things I’d written down were circumstantial, but they all spoke to a deeper longing that was still unmet in my life, one that I’d started to believe would never be met.

By now I felt like I needed to go walk so I could really pour my heart out to God. So I walked, and I prayed, and I confessed and asked questions, and when I was done walking I went up to the bluff and just sat there, looking out at the lake and the hills beyond, and I just let God love on me for a little while. And I realized then that I had been looking in the wrong place to fulfill that deeper longing. That it already had its perfect fulfillment in Him.

I also realized that I’d been carrying burdens and responsibilities that didn’t belong to me. So I repented for trying to do God’s job, and admitted that I was far, far too weak to carry these things, and that I needed Him to take them from me.

And as I prayed and cast my cares on Him, I picked up a rock that lay at my feet and threw it off the cliff as hard and as far as I could.

Y’all, I know how hokey that sounds. But that tangible feeling of casting something heavy far away from me made it feel more real, and when I was done I felt so much lighter and full of peace.

It took a few more days of staying in prayer and in the Word, closely guarding my heart and mind and refusing to pick any of those weights back up off of His altar, but I’m doing better. My hope and my joy have been restored, and I’m enjoying life again.

I’m not saying that this is a simple thing. It’s certainly not as simple as picking up a rock and throwing it off a cliff. I know that sometimes depression keeps you from even being able to pray, let alone hike up to a cliff to start tossing rocks around. But God does care for you and you can claim victory over and healing from depression. I’m not saying it won’t be a battle, and that it won’t involve a lot of steps. But the first step is to acknowledge it and call it what it is. The second is to call on Him for help. And He will help you. Even if all you have the strength to do at first is to whisper his name. 

What’s True About You

If we were having coffee together and I could encourage you face to face, I would lean forward and look you in the eye and tell you these truths:

You have nothing to prove.

You don’t have to earn your place.

You don’t have to be perfect or have it all together.

You are worthy right now, right here, just as you are, no matter how big your mess.

You are not required to hustle.

You are allowed to rest.

You are allowed to dream.

You don’t have to be all the things to all the people.

You don’t have to listen to the mean boss in your head.

You are allowed to be your truest self and to be true to that person.

You might now know who that person is. You might have been striving to be what other people think or say you are or should be for so long that you have no idea who you actually are. You may need to give yourself space and time to figure that out. But here’s a starting place: If you are in Christ, then you are…

Loved.

Beloved.

A royal daughter.

Holy.

Forgiven.

Chosen.

Called.

Cared for.

You are fearfully and wonderfully made.

You are God’s masterpiece, created on purpose for a purpose, intentionally made and molded to carry out work that was specially prepared for you when you were just an idea–and even then, you were already loved.

You are His, and He wants you to know that you can lay down your burdens and give it all to Him. You can depend on Him.

You are highly capable.

You are more than conqueror.

You are not a victim, but a victor.

You are a warrior.

You are the light of the world.

The Meaning of Grace

The Meaning of Grace

 

Note: I’m still sharing posts from the archives while I work on my book and take time to enjoy summer. This post originally appeared March 30, 2016. I’m sharing it today because as summer winds down and we head into the back-to-school season (some of us, anyway), we can’t have too many reminders about God’s grace.

***

While reading A Million Little Ways by Emily P. Freeman, at one point she mentions that she stumbled across a Bible verse about grace and was filled with questions about what, exactly, grace means. Naturally, this prompted me to ask the same question. It’s easy to think we know the answer, but it’s equally easy to get all mixed up about it and misunderstand its meaning.

After some thought and prayer, here’s what I think grace means–or at least, what it means to me.

I think grace means being released from focusing on our own goodness (or lack thereof) and focusing instead on God’s goodness. Or as Mary Ingalls put it:

“I mean I don’t believe we ought to think so much about ourselves, about whether we are bad or good,” Mary explained.

“But, my goodness!  How can anybody be good without thinking about it?”  Laura demanded.

“I don’t know, I guess we couldn’t,” Mary admitted.  “I don’t know how to say what I mean very well.  But – it isn’t so much thinking, as – as just knowing.  Just being sure of the goodness of God.

–Laura Ingalls Wilder,  Little Town on the Prairie (emphasis added)

Grace means moving toward righteousness and sanctification as best we can, but accepting that we can’t get there on our own, that we’ll never fully get there in this life, and resting in the knowledge that grace fills the gap for us.

It means accepting our humanity and frailty and weakness and knowing that that’s when He’s best able to manifest His strength and power within us.

It means freedom — not to sin, not to do whatever we want, but to not beat ourselves up when we stumble and fall. To know He’s there to catch us, set us back on our feet, and keep on loving us anyway.

It means that every single morning is a fresh start. Every time we sincerely repent is a clean slate and a new beginning.

Grace means we can relax. We don’t have to overthink this whole salvation thing. We don’t have to work our butts off to earn it. We don’t have to constantly examine ourselves to make sure we’re doing it right. We can be confident that the Holy Spirit will be sure to let us know when we’re doing it wrong and we need to course correct — and He’ll give us what we need to do so.

It means we don’t have to be perfect, because Jesus was perfect for us.

It means we have everything we need to be pleasing to God, and to be satisfied in Him.

May we all go forth in His grace today.

Love,
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PS – Linking up this week with Holley Gerth’s Coffee For Your Heart, Missional Women’s Faith Filled Friday, and the Faith Barista.

Chosen

We are All Chosen Ones in Christ

 

Note: I’m still sharing Golden Oldies from the archives while I take time off to enjoy the summer and write my next book. Here’s one from last September. It feels relevent, and not just because of the picture (aside: I saw Wonder Woman a couple of weeks ago and I have to confess that I hold the extremely unpopular opinion that it’s not actually a very good movie. There, I said it). ANyway… we’re all Wonder Women in Christ.

***

Harry Potter.

Buffy Summers.

Luke Skywalker.

The Pevensie children.

Frodo Baggins.

What do these characters all have in common? They’re all Chosen Ones, heroes with a special destiny to drive back the darkness and swing the scales of Good and Evil back to Good’s favor. Fiction, especially the Fantasy and YA genres, are rife with Chosen Ones. If they didn’t step up and accept their Chosen status and face their fate head on, apparently we’d all be in big trouble.

I love a good Chosen One story. Some of the characters listed above are some of my favorite in all literature. But as I was pondering this particular trope this weekend, something occurred to me:

We are ALL Chosen Ones in Christ.

If you are in Christ, you have a special destiny. You were chosen and called for a purpose, to play a specific and unique role in God’s plan to bring light to the world and vanquish the enemy’s hold on it. Not only that, but you were fearfully and wonderfully made–lovingly and purposefully created, designed and built specifically to carry out that purpose, right down to your DNA.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you don’t have flaws, weaknesses and failings. All the best heroes do. That even goes for all the best Bible heroes. Just look at Moses. Noah. King David. The apostles Peter and Paul. The enemy wants us to believe that those failings make us unworthy and unable to carry out the purpose for which we were made. But that is a lie.

The truth is that God designed you for His purpose. Flaws and all. He can use your failings and weaknesses as much as He can use your strengths and talents. He knew what He was doing when He made you.

But you have to be willing.

The amazing thing is, that’s all you have to be. You don’t have to be strong, or fearless, or have magical powers, or be able to kick bad guy butt six ways to Sunday. Because our strength and courage and ability to carry out our purpose doesn’t come from within us. It comes from Him.

We only have to be willing.

If you’re doubting today whether you’re good enough or worthy enough or able enough to make a difference for God’s Kingdom, remember this, dear one: the almighty Creator of the Universe loves you and thinks so much of you that He didn’t want to carry off His plan without giving you a part in it.

You are Chosen.

You are able.

You are loved.

Love,
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PS – Find more encouragement at the following linkups:

Holley Gerth’s Coffee For Your Heart

Missional Women’s Faith Filled Fridays

#DreamTogether at God-Sized Dreams

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When You’re Ready to Throw In the Towel

God knows how to God

 

Note: I’m still doling out posts from the archives while I enjoy my summer break. This post originally appeared March 24, 2016. As I write this note and prepare to load this post into the publishing queue, it’s the Monday following my latest book launch and this message is one I really needed today. I’m sure there’s someone else out there who could use this reminder. If that’s you, hang in there, friend.

***

“If this is my calling, why is it so hard?”

“If this is really what God wants me to do, why is there so much opposition?”

“Is this dream really from God? Is He trying to tell me I should just give up and stop wanting it?”

I’ve been in a place of asking these questions. Sometimes, I’m still there. But when I do, I’m reminded of the following:

We’re called to trust, to persevere, and to be patient. Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to trust and submit, and then He’ll make our paths straight–not the other way around.

Trust isn’t really trust if the way is clear and easy.

Perseverance isn’t really perseverance if there’s no opposition.

Patience isn’t patience if the outcomes happen when and how I want them to.

Quick and easy is wonderful in the moment but then it’s over and it does nothing to strengthen our faith, sanctify us or grow us in our daily walk. And when the results come easily, we don’t appreciate them nearly as much as when we work hard and fight for them.

If you’re facing hard, if it seems like everything in the universe is trying to keep you from even trying, let alone achieving that thing you know deep in your bones you were put here to do — consider that you’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to, and the enemy is pulling out all the stops in an attempt to get you to give up, because he’s terrified of what will happen if you don’t.

So don’t.

Don’t give up.

Persevere. Keep going. One day at a time. One little hard-fought step at a time.

Be patient. Be flexible. Surrender the outcomes to God.

Trust with your WHOLE heart. Trust in His goodness and His complete love for you.

And in due time He will clear the way for you to be ALL He means for you to be. He promised.

You’re not fighting this fight alone. He’s with you every step of the way, ordering your steps. You don’t have to do it all, and you don’t have to do any of it by yourself. Your Maker has a plan for you, and HE will bring it about. ALL that’s required of you is obedience. Show up and be willing. He’ll take it from there.

Remember that God knows how to God. He’s got this.

And so do you.

Love,
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PS – Linking up this week with Holley Gerth’s Coffee For Your Heart, Missional Women’s Faith Filled Friday, and the Faith Barista.

Faithfulness Doesn’t Mean Perfection

 

I thought I was done with my series on faithfulness, but there’s one more thing I think needs to be said, and it’s important:

Being faithful does not mean you have to be perfect.

It doesn’t mean you always do it right, or that you do it 100% of the time, that you never have bad days or need a break.

I’m convinced that God doesn’t look at our actions as much as He looks at our hearts. And having a faithful heart doesn’t mean you’re always consistently successful at being faithful and obedient in some area or task. Having a faithful heart means you desire to live for God more than for yourself, and being a faithful steward means that you keep doing your best to serve Him in all of your brokenness and fallen-ness. And you don’t let the bad days completely derail you from getting back up and trying your best.

Because that’s all He asks. He knows that we’re fallen, and broken, and cursed, and made out of dirt. He knows we’re not capable of being perfect or doing life perfectly. That’s why he sent His son to be perfect for us, so we could live under the protection of His grace.

Perfectionism is bondage. Jesus came to set us free.

You don’t have to be a perfect housekeeper, or employee, or wife, or mother, or anything. You don’t have to perfectly stick to your diet and never skip the gym and you don’t even have to always get dressed or comb your hair or even get out of bed.

You’re allowed to fail and to do it wrong sometimes and to sometimes not even do it at all.

Faithfulness only requires holding it–whatever your “it” is–out to God with open hands and a surrendered heart and saying, “This is the best I can do today, Lord, and I offer it up to you.”

And that’s enough.

You’re enough.

Love,

 

 

 

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PS: Find more encouragement for your soul at these linkups:

Holley Gerth’s Coffee For Your Heart

Missional Women’s Faith Filled Fridays

#DreamTogether at God-Sized Dreams

PPS: Looking for some a-MAZ-ing tools and resources to help you be more productive, write better and/or generally do life while keeping your sanity? I’ve got the goods — sign up to receive Daydreamer Dispatches, a once- or twice-a-month newsletter from yours truly, and you’ll automatically receive a super-sekrit link to My Absolute Must-Have, Can’t Live Without Tools and Resources list! Click here to get your link!

JeanA Jesus girl through and through, Jean Marie Bauhaus is on a journey of healing and rediscovering who God purposefully created her to be and figuring out how to do life within that context. She’s the wife of Matt and mom to a crew of four-legged dependents, all of whom make their home in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Jean counts coffee, dark chocolate and a yarn addiction among her vices. She’s the author of Restless Spirits, a family-friendly paranormal romance/mystery now available from Vinspire Publishing. You can learn more about her novels and short fiction at jeanmariebauhaus.com.

Cultivating Faithfulness by Building Good Habits

Last time, we looked at Psalm 37:3 and its many varying translations. One of those translations tells us to “cultivate faithfulness,” which is something I’ve been led to focus on this year.

I already talked about my own struggles with faithfulness, especially in the mundane, day-to-day tasks involved with good stewardship.  The big area where this has been particularly challenging for me is housekeeping, and I feel like this is an area where the Lord’s been nudging me to improve. So before I close out this topic, I thought I’d share what that looks like in my own life.

Basically, it comes down to two things: rhythms and habits.

I’ve talked before about establishing rhythms, so I won’t get detailed about that here. But establishing rhythms for my days and weeks is essential to my ability to get anything done, and figuring out how to fit cleaning and house work into those rhythms has gone a long way toward making me feel like an actual grownup person. And the way I’ve done that is to focus on building habits, one new habit at a time.

The key to this is to connect the new habit you want to build to an existing habit. I kind of figured this out on my own after a lot of trial and error, but apparently, it’s actual science. The old habit acts as a trigger to help you remember and launch into the new habit. For me, this looks like wiping down the bathroom sink and mirror every time I brush my teeth. I don’t have to think about brushing my teeth. I just do it. Okay, truth time–sometimes my husband has to remind me to do it. But still, I do it, and when I do, I remember (helped largely by seeing the toothpaste splatters on the mirror) that when I’m done I need to go ahead and wipe the mirror and sink.

The other key to successful habit-building is to set yourself up for success–i.e., make it as easy to do for yourself and eliminate as many barriers to actually doing the new thing as possible. In my sink/mirror cleaning example, this means I keep a spray bottle of cleaner under the sink and a roll of paper towels beside it. So once I’m done brushing, I don’t have to go hunt up the necessary cleaning supplies and risk that I’ll get distracted and forget all about it. I just put my toothbrush up, grab the bottle and a wad of paper towels and get to wipin’. The whole thing takes about two minutes.

This was my starting point, and the thing I always make a point to remain consistent in no matter how hectic my life gets and no matter what other habits fall by the wayside. Since we moved, I’m having to re-build some additional cleaning habits that I had developed in our former residence. These include things like doing the dishes once I’m finished eating and remembering to grab a baby wipe and spend five minutes dusting surfaces each day after my lunch. I’m also working on establishing a morning each week to run the vacuum and swiffer the hardwood floors–a task that takes about 20 minutes, which is a fraction of the time it took just to vacuum our old house.

Have I mentioned that I’m kind of loving living in a small apartment?

And here’s the other thing: my biggest hang up BY FAR when it came to this sort of thing was that I always built it up in my head to be a major chore that would consume so much of my time and energy that there was no way I could fit it in. This is because I would put it off for so long that once I finally got around to cleaning it WAS a major chore that ate up all my time and energy. I would go weeks without cleaning more than absolutely necessary, not really noticing that things were getting bad until they were too awful to ignore (side note: I should mention here that my husband does what he can to clean. Because of his physical limitations there are tasks that he can’t do, or that are a lot more difficult for him than they are for me, so that’s pretty much how we divide the household labor–he does what he can and I do the rest. But God bless him, he doesn’t complain when I don’t step up and do my part on a consistent basis. This man, y’all. I am richly blessed). So then I’d have to devote an entire weekend to cleaning, and be so wiped out by the experience that I wouldn’t want to  even look at a cleaning product again for weeks, if not months.

If this sounds a little too familiar, I recommend checking out A Slob Comes Clean, where Dana has all kinds of things to say about Cleaning Brain and how some people (like me) just aren’t wired that way (I still really need to check out her book).

But the thing is, you guys, that when I do these things habitually? They usually take a couple of minutes. Two minutes here, five there for the daily chores, and 20 minutes once a week or so for the bigger chores. Cleaning is not actually a big deal. I just blew it up into one in my mind, and I had to break myself of the habit of seeing it as this impossible chore and retrain my mind to see the reality. And the reality is that it just isn’t that hard.

I’ve been talking specifically about cleaning, but I think these principles have broader application to a lot of different areas of our lives. If there’s an area where you’re struggling to be a good steward, I hope this helps.

Another thing that helps is figuring out why you want to be faithful in this area. Of course, as Christians, the big one is obvious–we want to be obedient stewards of the things we’re blessed with and honor God by taking good care of them. Also, we’re promised that if we’re faithful in the little things, we’ll be entrusted with bigger things. That’s pretty motivating all by itself. But it helps to identify more personal motivating factors. For me, I want my home to be a place where my husband feels loved and cared for and anyone who comes to visit can feel welcome and relaxed. Since my home is also my workplace, I also want it to be a place where I can feel relaxed and inspired instead of distracted by messes and guilt.

Do you have anything to add? I’d love to hear from you. Tell us about how you cultivate faithfulness in your own life, or share your own tips on building good habits and staying motivated!

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PS: Find more encouragement for your soul at these linkups:

Holley Gerth’s Coffee For Your Heart

Missional Women’s Faith Filled Fridays

#DreamTogether at God-Sized Dreams

PPS: Looking for some a-MAZ-ing tools and resources to help you be more productive, write better and/or generally do life while keeping your sanity? I’ve got the goods — sign up to receive Daydreamer Dispatches, a once- or twice-a-month newsletter from yours truly, and you’ll automatically receive a super-sekrit link to My Absolute Must-Have, Can’t Live Without Tools and Resources list! Click here to get your link!

JeanA Jesus girl through and through, Jean Marie Bauhaus is on a journey of healing and rediscovering who God purposefully created her to be and figuring out how to do life within that context. She’s the wife of Matt and mom to a crew of four-legged dependents, all of whom make their home in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Jean counts coffee, dark chocolate and a yarn addiction among her vices. She’s the author of Restless Spirits, a family-friendly paranormal romance/mystery now available from Vinspire Publishing. You can learn more about her novels and short fiction at jeanmariebauhaus.com.

Trust and Obedience: the Faithfulness Cycle

Trust in the LORD and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. — Ps. 37:3 NASB

Psalm 37 is one of my favorite passages of scripture. To loosely paraphrase and summarize, it basically says that the world is a seemingly unfair and unjust place where bad people seem to prosper at the expense of good people, but it’s not our job to worry about that. God is fully aware, and He’s in control. Nobody’s going to get away with anything, and those who are dealt with unjustly will be vindicated in due time. That’s His job.

Our job is outlined in the verse above: Trust the Lord. Do good within our own communities and spheres of influence. Dwell patiently where we’re planted and…?

The third verse of this psalm is an interesting one. Not just because of its instructiveness but because that last instruction appears to vary depending on which translation you’re reading. Take a minute and just look at all the different ways this last clause is translated. Apparently, the original Hebrew verb literally means either “feed on truth” or “be fed in truth,” and Bible translators aren’t sure exactly what that means. So we get translations like the one at the top of this post that tell us to “cultivate faithfulness,” and others, like the International Standard Version, that say to “feed on faithfulness.” Still others, like the NIV, say to “enjoy safe pasture” or something along those lines.

So which is it?

I’m no Bible scholar, but I think that they’re each right in a way. I think it’s a cycle. God is faithful. We trust in this aspect of His character and this builds our faith and enables us to be faithful and obedient. And when we’re faithful to meet the conditions of His promises, He’s faithful to keep His promises, which further builds our faith and helps us to grow in faithfulness, and so on. And throughout this cyclical process, as our faith is strengthened so is our sense of security and our belief that God is fully in control and we don’t need to worry. We can relax. And the more we’re focused on faithfully serving God and His agenda, the less worried we’ll be about what people in the world are doing or what they’re thinking or saying about us.

It’s like a never-ending loop of faithfulness. God’s faithfulness builds my faith and confidence in Him, which increases my faithfulness, which in turn increases my trust and obedience, which increases God’s faithfulness in my life, and so on. And knowing that faithfulness is part of God’s character, if the loop breaks down I know it’s because of some failure on my part–I’ve failed to be faithful in some area–and not on His. I can pray and ask Him to show me which areas of my life are lacking in faithfulness and focus on improving in those areas.

Next week I’ll share some specific examples of how I’m working to cultivate faithfulness in my own life, but in general, how can I be sure I’m being faithful?

I can do my best to be obedient to His word. To keep His commandments and live an overall life of faith, trust and obedience, staying surrendered to His will for my life. I can keep showing up to carry out the assignments He’s given me, even when I don’t feel like it, even when they seem pointless, trusting Him not only to give me the ability and strength but also entrusting Him with the outcomes.

And if I’m doing all of that, I can rest in the knowledge that He’ll take care of me, and everything will work out according to His plan.

God is faithful. Just this morning my husband and I received some good news that was an answer to a lot of prayer, reminding me yet again that He’s got this, and He’s got us, and we don’t need to worry or fret.

What are some examples of God’s faithfulness in your life, friend? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. And in case you missed it, click here to read last week’s introductory post examining what faithfulness is and why it matters!

Love,

 

 

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PS: Find more encouragement for your soul at these linkups:

Holley Gerth’s Coffee For Your Heart

Missional Women’s Faith Filled Fridays

#DreamTogether at God-Sized Dreams

PPS: Looking for some a-MAZ-ing tools and resources to help you be more productive, write better and/or generally do life while keeping your sanity? I’ve got the goods — sign up to receive Daydreamer Dispatches, a once- or twice-a-month newsletter from yours truly, and you’ll automatically receive a super-sekrit link to My Absolute Must-Have, Can’t Live Without Tools and Resources list! Click here to get your link!

JeanA Jesus girl through and through, Jean Marie Bauhaus is on a journey of healing and rediscovering who God purposefully created her to be and figuring out how to do life within that context. She’s the wife of Matt and mom to a crew of four-legged dependents, all of whom make their home in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Jean counts coffee, dark chocolate and a yarn addiction among her vices. She’s the author of Restless Spirits, a family-friendly paranormal romance/mystery now available from Vinspire Publishing. You can learn more about her novels and short fiction at jeanmariebauhaus.com.

What is Faithfulness and Why Does it Matter?

Back when I was choosing my One Word for 2017, I felt certain that faithfulness was going to be a big theme this year. Just as I was about to commit to it, I thought I felt a nudge to change my word to Abandon, but even so, it’s themes of God’s faithfulness and faithful obedience that keep cropping up in my devotions and Bible studies, and in my life in general. Clearly, faithfulness is something I’m supposed to pay attention to and work on this year.

But what, exactly, is faithfulness, and what does it mean to be faithful? The dictionary defines faithfulness as “the quality of being faithful; fidelity.” Okay, but then what does that mean, exactly? There are actually several dictionary definitions of the word “faithful”:

1. obsolete :  full of faith
2. steadfast in affection or allegiance :  loyal – a faithful friend
3. firm in adherence to promises or in observance of duty :  conscientious – a faithfulemployee
4. given with strong assurance :  binding – a faithful promise
5. true to the facts, to a standard, or to an original – a faithful copy

Synonyms include the words loyal, true, dependable, trustworthy, steadfast, staunch, constant and resolute.

It says that the first definition is obsolete, but I’m pretty sure there’s nothing obsolete about being full of faith when it comes to the kind of faithfulness God desires from us.

Apart from the dictionary definitions, here is what I know and understand about faithfulness:

It’s an attribute of God’s character. He is faithful, reliable, dependable, steadfast, unchanging, an unfailing keeper of His covenants and promises.

It’s a fruit of the Spirit. If the Holy Spirit dwells in me, then I am capable of exercising faithfulness and being faithful. Not just in my relationship with God and in my marriage and other earthly relationships, but in all areas of my life, every day, in every task I’m given.

Faithfulness is a quality that God desires from us. Biblical faithfulness means being obedient, following through and finishing what we start. It means faithfully and obediently carrying out our assignments, both the big, scary exciting ones and the mundane, boring, day-to-day ones.

Faithfulness is an act of faith. Our faithfulness requires believing and trusting in a faithful God.

I don’t know about you, sister friend, but I’m not always so good at exhibiting this particular spiritual fruit in my life. It seems to me that it’s easier to be faithful in the big things than in the little things. Things like being a faithful steward of my home or my money or my health. Faithful obedience tends to fly out the window when I’m too tired to clean or exercise or I’d rather splurge on some shiny thing I don’t need than save responsibly or I just really want that third (…or fourth or maybe even fifth) slice of pizza.

Thankfully, just like any fruit, this one can be cultivated, and how to do that is what I’m going to be looking at here in the coming weeks, with a more in-depth look at what the Bible says about faithfulness and some practical steps we can all take to grow this fruit.

What about you? Is this an area you need to work on, or have you got this whole faithfulness thing down (and if you do can you share some tips with the rest of us)? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Love,

 

 

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PS: Find more encouragement for your soul at these linkups:

Holley Gerth’s Coffee For Your Heart

Missional Women’s Faith Filled Fridays

#DreamTogether at God-Sized Dreams

PPS: Looking for some a-MAZ-ing tools and resources to help you be more productive, write better and/or generally do life while keeping your sanity? I’ve got the goods — sign up to receive Daydreamer Dispatches, a once- or twice-a-month newsletter from yours truly, and you’ll automatically receive a super-sekrit link to My Absolute Must-Have, Can’t Live Without Tools and Resources list! Click here to get your link!

JeanA Jesus girl through and through, Jean Marie Bauhaus is on a journey of healing and rediscovering who God purposefully created her to be and figuring out how to do life within that context. She’s the wife of Matt and mom to a crew of four-legged dependents, all of whom make their home in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Jean counts coffee, dark chocolate and a yarn addiction among her vices. She’s the author of Restless Spirits, a family-friendly paranormal romance/mystery now available from Vinspire Publishing. You can learn more about her novels and short fiction at jeanmariebauhaus.com.

 

He Is Faithful: A God-sized Dreams Guest Post

Hiya, folks! I’m still adjusting to changes and struggling to figure out rhythms. The good news: I’ve had a steady stream of freelance work coming in each week for about a month now. The bad news: between the freelancing and the book writing and the upcoming release marketing and all of the aforementioned life adjustments I have no ever-lovin’ idea where blogging fits in, so expect things to remain sporadic until either I figure that out or things settle down.

At any rate, before the upheaval I wrote and submitted a guest post over at one of my favorite devotional blogs, God-sized Dreams. And whaddaya know, they accepted it! It went live over there last week. I’m a bit behind on giving y’all the heads up. Sorry about that. At any rate, here it is:

One day last fall, I holed up by myself in my quiet place, a little bedroom nook where I could pray aloud without being heard. I had a lot of things I wanted to cry aloud to God about, and I knew there was bound to be some actual crying in the process that I didn’t want anyone to see.

I’ve been waiting a long time for some of my dreams to happen.

I have big dreams in my heart, dreams that include becoming a best-selling author and having a thriving blog ministry. I have more personal dreams, too, dreams that might be on a smaller scale but to me seemed even bigger and more impossible. Dreams like becoming a mother even though it seems like that ship has sailed and my husband and I missed the boat. Dreams like moving out of our crime-ridden neighborhood and back to the country where, if kids ever did happen, we could raise them in peace.

I was struggling with disappointment because it seemed like that first dream had been dashed. Just weeks before, I had launched my first traditionally published novel. Despite all my efforts to build excitement about it, and despite all my prayers for its success, book sales were lackluster.

Somewhere along the way I had convinced myself that this book was the key to all of my dreams coming true. That if God chose to bless it and allow it to prosper the way I hoped it would, we’d be able to move, I’d finally be able to get good insurance, and we could start trying for a baby.

When my book failed to take off out of the starting gate, it felt like all my other dreams stalled along with it. Sitting there in my nook with tears streaming down my face, I confessed all of this to God, along with my anger and frustration and hurt feelings. “When, Lord?” I cried. “When will you bring my dreams to reality?” And then I lifted my eyes and saw the stack of paperback copies of my book that my publisher had sent me, and I heard a still, small voice speak to my heart:

Daughter, I already have.

Read the rest over at God-sized Dreams.

And here’s a little addendum to that post: all of this upheaval and transitioning and adjustment and busyness is all the result of yet more of His faithfulness. God is good, y’all. Amen.

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PS: Find more encouragement for your soul at these linkups:

Holley Gerth’s Coffee For Your Heart

Missional Women’s Faith Filled Fridays

#DreamTogether at God-Sized Dreams

PPS: Looking for some a-MAZ-ing tools and resources to help you be more productive, write better and/or generally do life while keeping your sanity? I’ve got the goods — sign up to receive Daydreamer Dispatches, a once- or twice-a-month newsletter from yours truly, and you’ll automatically receive a super-sekrit link to My Absolute Must-Have, Can’t Live Without Tools and Resources list! Click here to get your link!

JeanA Jesus girl through and through, Jean Marie Bauhaus is on a journey of healing and rediscovering who God purposefully created her to be and figuring out how to do life within that context. She’s the wife of Matt and mom to a crew of four-legged dependents, all of whom make their home in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Jean counts coffee, dark chocolate and a yarn addiction among her vices. She’s the author of Restless Spirits, a family-friendly paranormal romance/mystery now available from Vinspire Publishing. You can learn more about her novels and short fiction at jeanmariebauhaus.com.

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