His Spirit Guides Trust

One day, the Holy Spirit spoke to me about exceptions. My husband and I agreed to step out in blind faith and leave a perfectly good job to follow the Lord. God’s faithfulness in the past prompted our obedience. We were excited to embark on this journey with the Holy Spirit as He guided our open hands.

Jesus tells us to come to Him. He will give us rest because His burden is light. This invitation requires us to reach for His yoke, and in doing so, He graciously reveals the exceptions we hold on to in clenched fists behind our backs, as if He could not see. My husband and I did not know, but He did.

Jesus commands us to take His yoke, and, in the process, we discover the heavy burdens we have been carrying. These exceptions unknowingly kept us from the rest He offered. This invitation carried a further purpose—to learn from Him.

My husband and I did not know that stepping out in faith would teach us that God did not design us to carry heavy loads, as they weary us. God is not a harsh taskmaster but desires closeness and nearness as we journey together. Jesus called us forward, inviting us to exchange yokes. He did this so we would encounter Him as gentle and lowly.

With Jesus, there is always an exchange. As we unburden ourselves from the heavy yokes, we pause, unsure of the exchange (Matthew 11:28). But as we receive His gentleness and lightness, understanding comes. His gift is rest as we realize that what we release to Him is safest in His Hands. This brings rest to both body and soul.

Give it all to Jesus. Reach out for the exchange. He will show you what you are holding so tightly. Release the need for control. Release your exceptions. Allow His power to dismantle pressure, fear, performance, worry, and weariness. Receive His gentle yoke of rest and freedom. As you lay it all down, He will bring new life. No exceptions.

How many times have I wanted to go back into a moment where I failed? If I’m honest, too many to count. I’ve said words I couldn’t retake. I’ve done disgraceful things that I wish I could undo. And I’ve entertained wrong thoughts long enough that I eventually played them out. Following my failure, the power-punch twins of profound regret and shame usually follow. In these times, I instinctively want to run away from God instead of toward Him.

Yet as the mother of five children, I remember the days when they would fall and skin their knees. With their sweaty, puppy-dog smell, they would run to their mama for comfort and healing. I couldn’t imagine pushing them away because they were bloody and smelly. Instead, I kissed their wet foreheads and embraced their clammy bodies until they calmed down so I could administer help.

But what if they ran away from me instead of toward me? What if they ran to someone else’s mother? That would’ve broken my heart into a million pieces. How much more is God’s love for His children? How must He hurt when we don’t run to Him following our failures?

Our united enemy, Satan, would like nothing better than for us to wallow in the prison of condemnation (Micah 7:19). If we stay there long enough, the work of God in Christ Jesus remains undone, and His calling on our lives remains dormant. This is not the will of God for us. Instead, He reminds us that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. He wants us to confess our failures because He is faithful to forgive and cleanse us from our wrongdoings.

We all fail in one way or another because there is no perfection except in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. In our failures, we are tempted to walk away as if we hadn’t committed an offense. The Spirit of God, however, will bring conviction (not condemnation) to our hearts to make it right.

Hope follows failure when we run to our loving Father with everything we have. He wants to embrace us and heal our hurts. Run to Him today.

Do you have the zoomies? Often described as a burst of energy or a state of frenzied activity, this term applies to our spiritual and daily lives. I am not necessarily talking about the energetic part because, let’s face it, who has energy? I’m referring to the activity part with no finish line. Our repetitive, mundane tasks seem stuck on replay. Our cup-of-cold-water moments hinder progress. We try frantically to focus on the greater work. Instead, the demand of unavoidable duties leaves us running in circles like a cat trying to catch its tail.

These tasks include tending to essentials that absorb time from sharing the gospel. Our plans halt and lie on a shelf for an indefinite time. Often, our lives are more about scrubbing toilets, cleaning up messes, and picking up neglected tasks that others are responsible for than leading someone to Christ. The vicious cycle of delays, interruptions, and detours required to proceed with our God-given calling is not what we signed up for.

But when we look at Jesus’s ministry, we notice He invited the zoomies into His life. He fed the multitudes during His teaching lesson, cooked a meal over a campfire for tired fishermen, called the little children to Him, and gave them the attention they needed. He washed the disciples’ dirty feet, showing how He values the mundane.

We see how Jesus’s ministry shone the brightest and made the most impact when He allowed life to happen and rolled with its demands (Matthew 10:42). He took it as an opportunity to serve others, making a difference in the small things.

Life is not in the big splash of recognition. Instead, our success results in positive changes, daily achieved goals, and knowledge that God works during the ordinary happenings of our lives. Success is the ripple effect resulting from tenacity and persistence that makes an impact. It is about the lives we touch, the hearts we inspire toward positive change, and the love we share.

Nothing goes unnoticed by our heavenly Father. Both servant moments and limelight successes are significant to God. Knowing how this works gives purpose and reason to keep up with the zoomies. Don’t resist them. 

Has God given you a dream for your life that exceeds anything you could accomplish on your own? Is your dream something that, apart from a God-sized intervention, seems impossible?  

If so, I have good news. It pleases the Father’s heart when we believe He can do great things through us. This is because He is glorified in our successes, which require radical dependence upon Him. This knowledge alone should fuel continual confidence and courage as we pursue our God-given dreams and desires.

Yet despite this truth, oftentimes the most significant obstacle standing between us and our dreams is, quite frankly, us. This results from believing that what we can accomplish depends on our ability rather than God’s superabounding ability working through us. This is faulty thinking and bad theology. 

Countless times throughout Scripture, God empowers ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things. People like Moses, Joshua, David, Esther, Mary (the mother of Jesus), Peter, Paul, and more. In his letter to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul reminds the believers of this very thing (Ephesians 3:20).

What God can and desires to accomplish in and through us is infinitely greater than we could possibly imagine. He is glorified when we trust Him to do what we cannot do on our own.

Don’t put a cap on God’s dream for you. Don’t settle for less when God invites you to believe Him for more.

We pulled into the driveway after a day full of fun. As my three-year-old hopped out of the car, she froze in fear. “Momma, it’s pooky out here.” Her little hand reached up and tightly grasped my hand. I smiled and whispered, “It’s okay. Don’t fear,” as we walked to the house under a moonless sky.  

Fear. It can stop us in our tracks. Even Peter, one of Jesus’s disciples, let fear stop him. He was walking on water, but when he took his eyes off Jesus, he began to sink. Peter looked around him and felt the wind. In that moment, he began to sink. In a matter of seconds, his thoughts went from focusing on Jesus to freezing in fear.

When we focus on fear, we make it bigger than our God. We cannot let our thoughts get tangled up in the what-ifs of every situation we face. God doesn’t want us to live in fear (Matthew 14:30-31). Instead, He wants us to trust Him. He wants us to put our hands in His and walk with Him. The hurricane-force winds of life may blow around us, but we can call out to God, knowing He will hold our hand and guide us through the storm.

If fear has you paralyzed, take the fearful thoughts captive and release them to the Lord. Write a prayer to God that expresses the fears you have about your situation. Ask Him to remove the fear and give you His peace. You can take it a step further by reading your prayer out loud. The words we speak are powerful.