Abide

Sometimes I settle……. for less.
A few months ago I was challenged by a picture of Oliver Twist leaving his inconspicuous place at the dining table with his empty bowl in hand, asking for “more”.
I was challenged about my own hunger for God, about how easy it is to slip into the busyness of life and forget my true need, how often I’m just content with how things are when God has so much more for me. I’m so good at seeing a million things that need my time and attention and so slow to see the longings of my own soul…(until I’m worn out and empty).
I want to come hungry, I want more! I want my desire for Jesus to match my need of Jesus!
There are so many verses in the bible that speak about our desire for God being a catalyst for experiencing more of God.
‘For He satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul He fills with good things.’ (Psalm 107:9 ESV)
‘For the eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.’ (2 Chronicles 16:9 NLT)
‘As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God.’ (Psalm 42:1-2)
I want to be filled. I want to come hungry for God to fill my bowl, that it will overflow to those around me. I want to carry the very essence of God’s presence so that instead of giving the tired leftovers of ‘doing and striving’, I give the heart and love of God to others.
In John 4 we meet a woman with an empty jar, a woman who came to a well thirsty. She was looking for physical water but needing the ‘Living water’ that could refresh her soul.
And Jesus is waiting to meet her need.
He speaks into her ongoing search for love and connection. He says in verse 10, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water”.
Jesus comes to her in her need and offers her living water that goes beyond her physical need to satisfy the deepest longings of her heart and soul.
And He comes to us too. He doesn’t always wait for us to come hungry… sometimes He’s waiting in obscure places where we wouldn’t expect to meet Him, when we’re unaware of the deep longings of our heart, where we’re weary from the physical and emotional demands of life, where we’ve given the best of ourselves to love others and we’re tired and weary…. and He is there…waiting to meet us… waiting to fill our empty jar.
And often times, I come with my little bowl when the gift of God is so outrageously generous that it is more like a waterfall saturating and soaking the deep longings of my heart!
If only we knew the gift of God and who it is that asks! Because unlike Oliver’s task master, we have a God who loves us extravagantly. If only we knew the deep love of God available to us. If only we knew the beautiful Jesus that is waiting to meet us in our weariness. The one who left heaven for you, who endured abuse and mocking, who was tortured on a cross to bring you back to the Father who loves you with the fiercest love possible.
We would not hesitate but to come with our empty bowls and cups and jars and ask Him for more… more love, more grace, more forgiveness, more peace, more joy, more of His presence!
Is there an emptiness that you need filled?
Jesus tells us, just as He did the Samaritan woman, to ask Him. To come boldly to the well and drink deeply, to outstretch our jars and ask for more.
If we knew the gift of God and the one who waits for us, we would ask Him and He would fill the ache in our soul with living water….deep rich, refreshing, life-giving water. Let’s leave the noise of the table and seek Him out to fill the deep longings of our soul.
Jesus waits for you at the well. He sees your longing and He invites you to come, to ask, to seek.
Don’t settle. There is so much more!

Blessings!

Tammy

Does your life ever feel out of control? Chaotic, overloaded, maybe even messy?

Mine often does. But lately no matter how hard I work at making things ordered and calm, it just isn’t!!!! Have you ever done everything you know to do and nothing changes? Me too!

Apparently I don’t have it all together! (This makes me laugh and cry at the same time!)

Many times I feel overwhelmed, stretched, crazy and life just feels messy!

God is reminding me that in the midst of the mess, the chaotic, the process….He is there. And He is creating beauty.

Anyone who has ever done a pottery class knows that to create something beautiful involves a very messy process. A piece of clay running through your hands… there is nothing beautiful about the process. You can’t escape without getting, at the very least, your hands dirty (and probably a whole lot more!). And yet this is the very picture of who we are to be in the hands of God. A piece of clay that is willing to be molded and shaped into His beautiful creation.

‘Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
    We are the clay, you are the potter;
    we are all the work of your hand’. (Isaiah 64:8)

If I’m really honest with you….I don’t like the process!!!! I want the finished product! I want the beautiful pot at the end, but the truth is, the mess is where beauty is created. One day I will be changed in an instant but for now it’s an ongoing process of placing myself in the Potter’s hands, trusting Him as He molds, waters, turns the wheel and fires the pot.

Perhaps the most beautiful part of this story is that God is willing to step into the mess, to get His hands dirty as He tenderly molds and shapes me into a new creation. He’s not afraid of mess and He actually does His best work in the mess:

• The living bible describes the earth in the beginning as ‘a shapeless chaotic mass’ (Genesis 1:2-5), that is until God spoke and created beauty!
• He breathed into dust of the earth to form life.
• Jesus left the beauty of heaven and entered earth in a dirty stable.
• He bore the wounds and scars of a bloody cross to pay the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

And He continues to step into our mess…daily! He sees our pain, our need for Him and in the messy process, He continues to work all things for good. I don’t understand the process, I can’t see what He’s creating and as much as I want Him to hurry up and get to the all together, fully formed, beautiful pot, I have to trust that my life is in the hands of the Potter who is creating something beautiful in spite of the mess.

The twists and turns of the wheel, the places He waters, the places He presses His finger into, the places He strengthens through the fire…. all of it is creating beauty.

Can I encourage you…embrace the process, trust the Potter, give Him full access to the mess and be assured that He is not scared to get His hands dirty. He is not put off by the mess but He actually creates beauty out of it.

Love and blessings!

Tammy

It’s that time of year…where we bundle the family into the car in search of houses covered in flashing lights. Where we oooo and aaahh over these masterpieces and marvel at the handiwork of the owner/designer.

But lately I’ve been on a new quest. A quest to see God in the everyday, to seek Him, to find Him, to see Him.

Most mornings and evenings God puts on a light show of His own. I’m chasing these moments… not everyday but some mornings while everyone’s asleep I’ll slip out onto our verandah and watch the sky washed in the colours of sunrise. I want to see God!

Too often I rush through life with my to do list in hand… and I miss Him. I miss the masterpiece of His creation that is right in front of my eyes.

But tonight I stop. I turn off the noise of the TV and I sit expectantly watching the master painter set the sky ablaze in colours of gold and pink and orange. And I no longer feel the pull and push of life. And peace invades the craziness of doing.

I want to see God in the wind, in the water, in the sunset, in the bread, in the flowers and in the faces of those I love.

In the busyness, I need to stop, I need to pause and know that He is God and He is here. That His presence is here, that He invites me closer. That these glimpses of the Creator are invitations to come closer, to leave the busy and find my peace. I know these moments bring His presence closer, they restore my peace and satisfy my thirsty soul.

I linger, knowing there are jobs waiting for me, kids to put to bed, toys to tidy, clothes to fold. I linger because I don’t want to miss Him. I want to see, I want His presence, I want to seek Him and be found in His masterpiece.

2000 years ago, wise men followed a star to find Jesus. They left the busy, the comfortable, the pull and push of life, to find God-come-to-earth. They followed a light to lead them to His presence.

This Christmas I’m determined to stop, to pause, to seek, to follow, to find this Jesus, the Prince of Peace. I don’t want to get caught up in the craziness and busyness that I forget to seek. It will take intention, it will require resisting the pull and push of life. It will take a commitment to seek and it will mean stopping long enough to open my eyes and see Him living and vibrant in all Creation. I don’t want the busyness of life to crowd out being in His presence. I want to see!

So amidst the search for perfect gifts, delicious food and a parking space, I’m seeking Jesus.

How about you? How will you seek Jesus this Christmas?

Blessings!

Tammy

It’s easy to lose ourselves, the real us. We live in a busy, fast paced world… a loud, noisy world where messages collide with our subconscious constantly. Most of the time we are so busy doing life, we are ignorant to what this busyness is doing to our souls. You see, life speaks words of discontent, it corrupts our sense of self-worth, it pulls at us from all directions and sometimes it causes us to lose our way. We can live our life with little space for margin, and little space to hear from God.

But that’s exactly what we need. I’m convinced that if we want to truly become the people God created us to be we need to make time for the important things that care for our soul and spirit. We need to create space in our life for the sacred. Instead of giving God and ourselves the leftovers, we need to get intentional about setting apart time and space for God to speak. We need to put aside the things that pull us in many directions and find the sacred space that will feed our weary souls.

If I’m really honest with you, there are many moments in my life where I want to shrink back, when it’s easier to live small rather than big, where the places of disappointment and discouragement feel overwhelming and I don’t want to bring the gifts God has entrusted me with. I felt like this recently and I just wanted to shrink back into my shell of self-protection and do nothing! Have you ever told God to ask someone else?…that was me!

But during this time God was speaking to me about guarding the things He has placed on my life. Guarding the gifts, the call, the dream. Honouring what He has placed in my life to bring and protecting it. I have a gift to bring and so do you! Something God-breathed, something precious and unique, something that points others to God and adds to the body of Christ, His church.

I don’t like spending a lot of time focusing on the enemy (God is bigger!!!), but the truth is we do have an enemy. An enemy that wants to render us ineffective, that wants to quench the very things God has placed in us to bring glory to His Name, the very things that portray God’s beauty and character.

We have a gift to bring! And so God asks me to honour and protect it. So how do I guard these things?

• Stop comparing! Stop looking at what others bring and comparing your gift. We can either be consumed by pride when we do this, or insecurity, and neither is pleasing to God. You have something to bring, something unique that God has placed in you.
• Let go of fear…fear of man, fear of the cost, fear of failing, fear of not being good enough, fear of being hurt, fear of disappointing others
• KNOW what God has placed on your life. And when the enemy comes to steal, stand in the assurance that God has called you, equipped you, empowered you to live out the things He has placed in you. 2 Timothy 1:6 tells us to ‘fan into flame the gift of God’, not snuff it out!
• Keep watch against distractions! It’s easy to get consumed by the busyness of life, but God has called us into the BIG God story. A story that is bigger than us, a story of redeeming others back to Himself. He beckons us to bring our gifts to reveal Him to a broken world.
• Keep vigilant watch over my heart- There are times when we feel exhausted from giving, where what we’re bringing is no longer out of a place of gratitude and generosity. We can feel spent, and we need to shift our focus from ‘doing’ to ‘being’. When our gifts flow out of a love for God and revelation of what He has done for us, they are a beautiful gifts given wholeheartedly, freely, extravagantly. Mary had a gift to bring….a beautiful, extravagant gift. She poured out an expensive bottle of perfume (worth a year’s wages) on Jesus’ feet and wiped His feet with her hair. (John 12:1-3). I am inspired by Mary. I want to bring my gift out of a place of extravagant love, not out of striving, not out of responsibility, not out of guilt, but out of a place of being so in-love with Jesus that I can’t help but pour my love out over Him. In those moments when I want to shrink back, I am reminded of Mary and her heart to serve Jesus. I want my life to be poured out in love for my Saviour!!!

You have something to bring. Something that will touch the heart of another and point them closer to Jesus, something beautiful that portrays the very heart of God. Sometimes we are unaware of how even the small things that we do impact the heart of another. Let’s keep being faithful! Let’s not shrink back but let’s allow God to do something special through us. Let’s love Him extravagantly and bring our gift from a heart of love!

Blessings!

Tammy