Is joy found in God’s blessing or in God’s presence? The more I’ve meditated on it, the more I’ve discovered that God’s presence is the blessing.

What a relief it is— to know that there’s someone who loves me who already knows it all.

That’s the only proper response, to bow before God in reverence & proclaim, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

I want you to know, it is possible to love reading the Bible. It is possible to become disciplined, and over time discipline can transform into desire. It is possible to encounter God through all of these old stories & pages, even if you’ve never heard him speak to you like that.

It’s just like God to use the messiest, most broken people and turn us into holy & new creations, all for his glory.

It’s easy to get stuck in the growth that didn’t happen. To believe I’m not enough & don’t deserve good things. But when I listen to the soft voice calling me Beloved, drawing me back in, I’m reminded God just wants my attention & my heart. He doesn’t grade my performance or punish me for my mistakes. He has grace for me because he wants a relationship with me.

The world tells you to make yourself known. Show off. Be loud about your success and your talent. Prove that you achieved a lot.

But we’re on a silent grind. Praying behind closed doors. Giving generously & anonymously. Doing the grunt work. We’re resolved to deny the flesh’s need for recognition, because we know that our reward is eternal.

I don’t know what season you’re in right now. Maybe life feels slow, lonely, or different than you had hoped; maybe dreams are coming true, maybe it’s sweet, maybe it’s really messy. It’s so hard to not be where you want to be or planned you would be. But I know that God doesn’t waste a season. And something powerful happens when you & I resolve that no matter what our circumstances are, we’re not going to waste this moment that God has placed us in.

God knows we are people of days. We have days of inspiration and days of defeat. That’s why he says his mercies are new every morning, because he knows we need fresh grace every time we open our eyes.

I wonder if there are relationships you’ve experienced that have left you feeling unloved— can you take those and hold them next to God‘s love for you? They can’t compare to how deep, how high, how wide his love is for you.

Just popping in to remind you that growth isn’t linear. You might feel like you’re making progress & moving towards healing, then have something trigger you & reopen the wound. It makes you feel like you’re taking steps backwards. But feelings aren’t always facts. It’s important to let them matter, but don’t let them become the only voice you listen to.

If you feel alone & like nobody could possibly understand your pain, your suffering is not unfamiliar to the Son of Man. Your tears are not foreign to the Man of Sorrows. Jesus was betrayed by a friend, abandoned by his closest circle, mocked by those who once spoke well of him. Nobody has been lonelier than the Messiah— he willingly walked into excruciating pain because he loves you.

I’m finding that the more I say thank you to God and recognize his hand on every little thing in my life, the more I experience victory over the things of this world. The more encompassing the Holy Spirit’s presence becomes in me, and the more I see his light dispelling the darkness.

God’s constantly inviting us into his grace, through the miracles of every day life. A delicious meal is an invitation to be in relationship with Creator God. So is a stunning sunset. Fear is an invitation…

He invites us to taste and see his goodness, to partake in who he is— with our spirits, our minds, AND our bodies. To immerse ourselves in his glory with our physical senses. It requires all of us.

As with Moses and the Israelites, God never calls us to go to a place without him. We’re not meant to journey on our own, to figure out what God is calling us to and somehow find our own path there. Instead, the Lord himself goes before us; he leads the way for us so that we don’t have to go alone and we can be confident in our steps behind him.