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As a busy mom myself, I realize it’s not always easy to sit and read. For that reason, I have fallen madly in love with the podcast format and have been a podcast junkie for about 4 years now. I listen while I’m cleaning, or driving or folding laundry. It puts “me time” in my day when I wouldn’t normally have it. And for this reason, I have decided to do the same for you. Here is the very first episode of The Growing in Goodness Podcast.
Show Notes:
(Blog format for all those who like to read below)
Rest, hope, joy, freedom.
Seems like these words are so hard to grasp these days. We reach for them and when it feels like we can almost touch them with our fingertips another wave knocks us down with the next bit of bad news. Trust me, I get it. I was living everyday like this. But these words- they are ours already and somehow I forgot that. I forgot that rest, hope, joy and freedom is mine. And they are yours too!
Have you been letting headlines become your outlook? I’m not saying this to condemn you. I am saying this because I have and I’m guessing I’m not the only one. I have been looking through the wrong lens too much and too often.
Ok. Let me explain what I mean…. I’ll never forget the way it felt when I first became a Christian. I had literally received the best news ever! The news that my sin was gone! I just couldn’t fathom it but I knew it and believed it. The news that I would live forever in the presence of God and that my Father in heaven had an amazing plan for my life. Before I felt so lost but now I had a purpose and understanding that there was more. The world looked brighter and absolutely nothing could steal my joy. Every morning I opened my eyes with so much hope knowing I had God on my side now and nothing was impossible. All my dreams, hopes and life was in His hands and it was a cloud I never wanted to come down from.
But since then, time has passed and though I say “my joy is in the Lord”, I have to be honest, I don’t always act like it. Though I still find my joy in the Lord, my day doesn’t reflect that at every moment. Our human minds forget so easily. And guys, if we don’t live in this Truth, we will fall for any lie. Satan is good like that. Yes, I get out my Bible every morning and pray to Him daily. I’m constantly pursuing Him. But if we aren’t holding fast to the simple gospel, that Jesus died on a cross so that we could live in the hope of what’s to come, then we’ve missed it! And I have missed it lately!
I have missed remembering that I can REST! I can rest because when Jesus was on the cross he said “it is finished!” It is already done! All this fighting going on and yet the battle has already been won! We can rest in his finished work of redemption. We don’t have to fight for it or work for it or pay for it. Up on that cross, I received grace for all my sins of yesterday, today and forever. I am not getting what I deserve.
I have missed remembering that I can HOPE! I can live in expectancy and look forward to the future because Christ is coming to restore everything that has been broken! I told my boys this during homeschool this morning. They asked about their old dog Roxy and their Grandpa that passed and my sons words were “I hope he comes tomorrow!” Are we living like that? No wonder Jesus says we should have a childlike faith! We want to hold onto this world and children don’t think twice about wanting what’s waiting for us.
And lastly, I missed remembering that I can have joy and freedom, no matter my circumstances. The joy in knowing that I will be relishing in His presence forever, frees me from feeling like I am in any kind of bondage on here earth.
Those are the eyes I need to be seeing out of. Not out of the eyes of the worlds headlines. That news is nothing compared to the best news we have.
I told my kids today that no matter what bad news they get, it will always look so small since we know the Good News! I told them if they have a bad day, remember the good days that will be coming! Here I am teaching them and yet preaching really to myself.
This way of life is what sets us apart. It’s not that believers won’t sin, or will have more in life. It’s that our outlook looks different then the rest of the world’s. And at the end of the day, that is exactly what brings people to wanting to know more about our Jesus.
My prayer today is that you live with the Truth. I pray that whenever bad news come you remember the best news ever.
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