God – Page 3 – Grow Anyway

GATHER WITH GRATEFUL HEARTS

November 24, 2021November 23, 2021by Liz GossLeave a Comment

Thanksgiving Day is arguably the best holiday of the year because… FOOD. Here is a glimpse of what I cooked last year:

But menu aside, this November holiday is deeply rooted in spending time with family, and above all else, gratitude, making this special day the perfect opportunity to tap into a more reflective mindset. So after you’ve said a Thanksgiving prayer over the bounty of food, consider capping off your meal with a few meaningful Thanksgiving Bible verses to share around the table.

NOTE: Even if you are not surrounded by food and family on Thanksgiving Day, you ARE surrounded by the love of your Heavenly Father. Paul assures us of this in Romans 8:39, saying, “No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And that’s worth being thankful for!

I have compiled a bunch of verses from the Bible on gratitude, Thanksgiving, and praise. In case you don’t have time to make a list of your own during the hustle & bustle, feel free to use mine. Adding Thanksgiving to God into the mix of holiday traditions may just be your NEW favorite reason for loving Thanksgiving.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.
1 Chronicles 16:34

And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.
Colossians 3:15

Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.
Colossians 4:2

I always thank my God for you and for the gracious gifts he has given you, now that you belong to Christ Jesus.
1 Corinthians 1:4

Since everything God created is good, we should not reject any of it but receive it with thanks. For we know it is made acceptable by the word of God and prayer.
1 Timothy 4:4-5

Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7

But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows. For my salvation comes from the Lord alone.
Jonah 2:9

Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God, and keep the vows you made to the Most High.
Psalm 50:14

You have given me greater joy than those who have abundant harvests of grain and new wine.
Psalm 4:7

Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.
Colossians 3:16

Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe.
Hebrews 12:28

Let the whole earth sing to the Lord! Each day proclaim the good news that he saves. Publish his glorious deeds among the nations. Tell everyone about the amazing things he does. Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! He is to be feared above all gods. The gods of other nations are mere idols, but the Lord made the heavens!
1 Chronicles 16:23-26

O our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name!
1 Chronicles 29:13

Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name.
Hebrews 13:15

The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.
Psalm 28:7

I praise God for what he has promised. I trust in God, so why should I be afraid? What can mere mortals do to me?
Psalm 56:4

Then I will praise God’s name with singing, and I will honor him with thanksgiving.
Psalm 69:30

I will sing of the Lord’s unfailing love forever! Young and old will hear of your faithfulness. Your unfailing love will last forever. Your faithfulness is as enduring as the heavens.
Psalm 89:1-2

Come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to him. For the Lord is a great God, a great King above all gods.
Psalm 95:1-3

It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to the Most High. It is good to proclaim your unfailing love in the morning, your faithfulness in the evening, accompanied by a ten-stringed instrument, a harp, and the melody of a lyre.
Psalm 92:1-3

Let them praise the Lord for his great love and for the wonderful things he has done for them. For he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.
Psalm 107:8-9

amy oberg

Be a Weeble!

November 3, 2021November 2, 2021by amyoberg1 Comment

Life is quite “interesting” sometimes. I say that a bit sarcastically because I have not found a better word than “interesting” to describe some of the seasons I have been through in the last couple of decades. There are ebbs and flows coming and going all the time. What I learned in 2020 is that everything is only for a season. This means no matter where we are, it will really only be a season of life, even if it feels like it’s never-ending. Days feel like years, and years feel like they pass quickly. So weird because it feels as if the dust does not ever settle. The moment one area of life calms down, three more areas get put in motion, and dust begins to fly again! Every time I feel like I have a handle on life, something changes. The only consistent thing is inconsistency. (eye-rolling) (lol)

During all of this, a piece of me waits for the settling of everything: emotional balance, personal security, calm/rest, peace in all ways, earthly understanding, and boundless confidence. That sounds like a Miss America pageant answer, huh?!?? Lol. I believe God puts in each of us a longing for a relationship with our Creator without the distance between earth and heaven. Our humanity really must be accepted for all that humanity entails. Unfortunately, our world will probably worsen before we meet God, so we may want to settle in. Come quickly, Jesus…but in the meantime, I trust you, Lord!

Recently, I have found heightened angst in our world for God to fix our world, heal our land and mend our hearts…He does promise to do so but not yet. This creates typical human angst we all have to live with. This seems to be a “life question” and one we all have to ask ourselves. How can I accept the inconsistent human life with the goal of eternity with God? The short answer is that the only thing consistent in our world is God. In every situation, up or down, ebb or flow, balance or wobble, security or insecurity, calm or struggle, peace or tragedy, knowing or not knowing, confidence or uncertainty…God is with us! Resilience, coping, and getting back up when you get knocked down for the 100th time is imperative. Do you remember Weebles? If you do, then you are saying or singing this right now… “Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down.” Be a Weeble! It is okay to wobble around the world of humanity with inconsistency, heartache, drama, etc., etc., etc.… but don’t fall down. God has you! Trust anyway, pray anyway, love always, and serve God nevertheless! Be a Weeble!

Psalm 33:18-22

¹⁸ But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him,
on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,
¹⁹to deliver them from death
and keep them alive in famine.

²⁰We wait in hope for the Lord;
    he is our help and our shield.
²¹In him our hearts rejoice,
    for we trust in his holy name.
²²May your unfailing love be with us, Lord,
    even as we put our hope in you.

If you don’t know what a Weeble is, here is the vintage commercial for Weebles. https://youtu.be/qq0OQBdIhsc

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Godly Sorrow: The Distress that Drives us to God

September 15, 2021by Guest Blogger1 Comment

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. [2 Corinthians 7:10]

I will never forget the year I outlawed the use of the word, “sorry” in my sixth-grade classroom. For some reason, the majority of my students thought that simply saying the word, “sorry” gave them a free pass from any consequence or any need to change their behavior. Saying, “sorry” was the magic word that would stop any authority figure from holding them accountable for their slip-ups and misdeeds and would relieve any feelings of badness and sadness they felt, especially when they were “sorry” about being caught. “Sorry” became the word that could hide them from judgment for breaking the rules, but their version of “sorry” had no power to change their hearts or help them recognize the wounds in relationships they were causing.

So, to move my precious charges from a position of self-centeredness and complete self-absorption, I outlawed the word “sorry” and gave them other phrases to use instead. All year we worked on empathy for others, so that saying, “I have hurt you,” and “This offense is my responsibility,” had a real impact on their hearts. We worked on forgiving and the giving of grace by saying to a classmate dealing with a misstep, “That’s okay, you are still a good person.”

I borrowed a page from the Apostle Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians as I asked God for help with this tough-hearted little crew He had given me to love. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians had really scorched their hides, demanding accountability for the sin and divisions that had turned their church into a shipwreck. Then, worrying that he had been too harsh, Paul wrote in his second letter to them, that he wanted them to feel the Godly sorrow that would lead to real change.

He wanted them to recognize how truly destructive this current sin-cycle was to their relationship with God, with one another, and within themselves. He didn’t want them to concentrate on outward behavior, but on letting the grace of God and His love penetrate their hearts. Paul wanted the Corinthians to love well, the way Jesus loves, and that meant measuring their behavior by how well they were maintaining loving, healthy relationships. He didn’t want their lives defined by hiding, regret, or being driven away from God and each other by an angry, condemning conscience.

Paul’s Holy Spirit-inspired approach inspired me to help my students move from trying harder to be good and nice and less snarky, to training their hearts to value loving well. Instead of making vows to do better and throwing out a quick, “sorry,” we worked on creating a safe environment where behavior could be evaluated without threat and tools for true change could be discovered and used. I have to admit, that the more deeply we explored this approach, the more of my own “me-sickness” surfaced. God lovingly and gracefully dealt with me, the biggest sinner in that classroom!

What about you? Would you be interested in living a life that leaves no regret, a life defined by true change and healing? Do you want out of the living death of a continuous sin cycle? Embracing Godly sorrow, rather than worldly sorrow is the key. You and I can pray for God to help us turn our perspectives outward so that we have the big picture our sin and mess are creating. The distress we feel at getting caught can be changed to a distress that drives us to a loving Father who is ready to forgive, grant us a do-over, and over time, equip us to love better. We can pray for a more sensitive heart that cares deeplywhen we hurt God, hurt others, and hurt ourselves. That is Godly sorrow. What would it look like in your life?

BY: Stephanie Murillo

For Further Study
2 Corinthians 7: 8-10
2 Samuel 12:13
1 Kings 8:47-50
Matthew 21:32
Matthew 26:75
2 Timothy 2:25-26

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Smelling Like Jesus

September 8, 2021September 8, 2021by Guest Blogger1 Comment

Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. [2 Corinthians 2:14]

What is your favorite scent? What aroma do you find most tantalizing? The smell of baking bread? The way the air is perfumed after a rain? What perfume really pleases you? The apostle Paul spoke of his favorite scent in 2 Corinthians 2:14. To understand the context, you have to attend a once-in-a-lifetime Roman parade!

In Paul’s day, after a hard-fought, long and arduous campaign, the victorious Roman general would return home in a triumphant, loud, colorful, parade. What a spectacle! The procession would be led by state officials followed by trumpeters filling the city with ear-splitting blasts. Then large drawings and of the conquered lands and models of fallen citadels would be carried in to the cheers of the crowd. A white bull, destined to be sacrificed, was also a part of spectacle. Chained captive princes, leaders, and generals came next, knowing that prison and execution awaited them at the parade’s conclusion. Officers in charge of punishment, called lictors, brandished their rods as they followed the prisoners. Then came the musicians with lyres followed by priests swinging their censers with sweet smelling incense burning in them. Finally, the general and his army paraded in, wearing all their decorations and garlands, shouting, “lo triumphe!” a cry of triumph. What sights! What sounds! What sweet aromas! Feast your eyes, indulge your nose, for you may never see or smell another one of these parades in your lifetime!

This is the picture Paul has in mind in 2 Corinthians 2:14. He sees Jesus, God’s Christ, marching in triumph throughout the world in a victorious, fragrant parade. You and I, as believers, are part of that magnificent profession! The loving, Christ-like way in which we live our lives is the perfume that wafts over the onlookers, drawing them to Jesus. All the sweetness, tenderness, courtesy, unselfishness, and desire to build others up combine to make the “fragrance of Christ” a scent of selfless love that invites others to join the parade.

Realizing that you and I leave a spiritual scent-trail as we move through each day, perhaps we should ask ourselves, “What kind of aroma or odor does my behavior and attitude release into the world?” I have to confess that my times of selfishness or anger have released some pretty noxious clouds of “Stephanie-stink” into the room. The “fragrance of Christ” was nowhere to be found! No wonder people ran for their lives!

The key to perfuming the world with the love of Christ begins the moment we awaken in the morning. We can pray, “Holy Spirit, help me choose the right scent today. I want to smell like Jesus.” As believers, we can ask our divine Coach to energize our desire to wear Eau de Love instead of going out into the world reeking of self-pity, self-righteousness, or any of the other stenches that come from our smelly, unwashed flesh. We can pray for help because our Daddy-God, our Abba receives us with such grace and mercy. When he sniffs the stink of self, He tells us that we don’t smell good, then offers to wash us with the healing soap of His Word. Our job is to admit we stink, jump in the tub, then, in gratitude for Jesus’ love for us, carry His perfume out into the world.

BY: Stephanie Murillo

Scripture Soap:

2 Corinthians 2:14-16
Ezekiel 20:41
Ephesians 4:2, 15
Ephesians 5: 2
Psalm 51

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Twenty Critical Minutes

August 25, 2021by Guest Blogger1 Comment

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. – 2 Corinthians 10:5 [NIV]

We have all heard about counting to ten when we are angry. Now neuroscientists are telling us that a twenty-minute period after strong emotions wash over us is a critical period. Why is this? The amygdala, a walnut-shaped organ in the mid-brain, whose job it is to detect threat, needs twenty minutes after it “alerts” to calm down. During that time this little organ is hijacking electrical energy from the front of the brain where we think and plan, to the brain stem where we either fight or flee.

So, the moment we become anxious, what we do with that twenty-minute period immediately afterward is critical. We can send up a 9-1-1 prayer, recite Scripture we have memorized, drink a glass of water, or take a quick walk before letting ourselves react. Immediately moving to a worst-case scenario may become our go-to strategy without a steady diet of prayer, Scripture, and reminding ourselves that God can handle even this tsunami of strong emotion.

A theologian from Proverbs 31 Ministries recently pointed out that when we react instead of respond, our actions become “historical and hysterical.” Without training, we will default to old and often ineffective strategies when we are triggered by our amygdala.

You do have a choice.

The amazing part of all this “brain stuff” is that we do have a choice about where those impulses travel when we are angry, afraid, or experiencing any strong emotion, especially during that critical twenty-minute period. But the brain must be re-trained over a fairly long period of time to “take thoughts captive” when the heat is on. When we “take a thought captive” we are literally re-routing electrical impulses down a new neural path!

The brain initially resists this because it has already created “super-highways” of connected neurons. It doesn’t want to slow down to bushwhack through a new neural tangle when learning a new strategy or response. As we pray, read the Bible, memorize Scripture and meditate on it, our brains can learn to slow down to re-tool, re-set, and restructure. When stressed, we can eventually learn to use those critical twenty minutes to pray, “Lord, calm all my fears with Your love. Help me remember Your truth.”

The key is consistent training, which includes reading, memorization, meditation on what we read, and application of truth to a specific situation, all requiring the assistance of our personal Coach, the Holy Spirit. We can also pray, “Holy Spirit, please train me and cue me and give me the energy to respond rather than react when I become triggered emotionally.”

How old are you really?

One last thought: When we react after being triggered, we go to our true emotional age rather than our chronological age. If an unresolved trauma happened between four and fourteen, we react like the age we were when we were damaged and branded by that incident. That is why people act like deranged adolescents or a toddler having a tantrum when triggered in public. So, part of emotional/spiritual development is actively seeking healing and counseling for unresolved hurts from our past. That unlocks us from our stuck places and lets us grow up to use that twenty-minute period in a healthy manner.

By the way, many of today’s Christian psychologists and counselors believe that spiritual growth and emotional growth are one and the same. When we commit to daily training with the Holy Spirit, our Coach, over time, and with God’s grace and truth, our brains can re-shape our neural thought highways so we grow up into mature strategies. God will do His part as we do our part so that fear and panic no longer hijack our healthy responses to threat and big challenges.

BY: Stephanie Murillo

FOR FURTHER STUDY

Philippians 4:8
Psalm 10:4
Psalm 13:2
Psalm 55:2
Psalm 139: 17, 23
Isaiah 55:8
Hebrews 3:1
Hebrews 4:12
Proverbs 31 podcast

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Try Rest

August 11, 2021August 10, 2021by Guest BloggerLeave a Comment

Luke 23 is about so many things, the trial, death and burial of Jesus Christ, the new beginning of friendship between Herod and Pilate, the forgiveness of a criminal, for goodness sakes it is about the salvation of the world! Lots in this passage caught my eye, but I landed on Luke 23:56 the final verse.

I have read this passage of scripture tons of times, but never caught the magnitude of this. “Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandments”. Can you believe it! The One they loved had just been falsely accused and died a brutal death. They wanted to honor Him to anoint and perfume His body as a final act of love. They wanted to give Him a proper burial and they had to rest. It was commanded of them. It’s not like Jesus didn’t know the day He would die and the fact that it would be required that these women rest. Rest was not suggested, but a must even in the face of death. While they were resting, God Almighty was at work! His plan of redemption in full swing. Ladies, why is it that we think we are in charge of saving the world and making it dinner too? No seriously, I didn’t learn to rest until my early 40’s after a serious burn out and even now still find it can be challenging. Why can’t we take the invitation/command and obey it? What are we afraid of ?

Often when we get quiet long enough things come up, memories, unaddressed issues, the voice of God…His gentle nudge. Remember when you’ve been holding an exhausted little one and they just want to keep going and going; they are weary and crying and struggling and you’re like come on already! Just rest, you’re not going to miss all the things you think you’re gonna miss. Strangely, I can hear the Fathers saying the same thing to us. It is not that we are unaware, we KNOW we need that weekly and even daily rest. Can I just say you need no one else’s permission to rest. The God of heaven and earth has told you to rest, so you get to. 🙂 I think of Psalm 23:2, “He makes me lie down in green pastures”. Makes me. Sounds like the story of the tired child. It’s okay to rest, no as a matter of fact it is good. Each week we prepare a meal the evening before Sabbath and it is actually something we look forward to each week. Try it! At first, it may feel completely against your grain but soon you will settle down and find that much needed rest. Until we meet again, I pray you will take Him at His word and rest.

Blessings, Tiff

liz goss

Flip the Narrative

July 21, 2021by Liz Goss2 Comments

I am very ugly
so don’t try to convince me that
I’m a very beautiful person
because at the end of the day
I hate myself in every single way
And I’m not going to lie to myself by saying
There’s beauty inside of me that matters
So rest assured I will always remind myself
That I am a worthless, terrible person
And nothing you say will make me believe
I still deserve love
Because no matter what
I am not good enough to be loved
And I am in no position to believe that
Beauty does exist within me
Because whenever I look in the mirror I always think
Am I as ugly as people say?

👉🏻 NOW, read from the bottom to the top! 👈🏻

It’s all about perspective! What story are you telling yourself in the mirror every single day? Flip the narrative and change the story, it will change your life. I get it, you are saying Liz… if it was that easy we’d all be problem free. And I know changing your perspective is hard. We are usually pretty committed to our perspectives. We have invested a lot in them.

Kind of like Jonah. He was a prophet and committed to telling people to repent and be saved. He did it well. So well, that when God told him to go preach repentance to Nineveh Jonah said “no way”! When he preached people changed and Jonah didn’t want Nineveh to be saved. They were BAD NEWS. So God had to give Jonah a new perspective, being swallowed by a whale.

Inside the whale Jonah finally got the idea that God was in control and God was the one who could save. He got the narrative straightened out. And once he was seeing clearly God could use Jonah again.

Is there a narrative that you need to flip? What are you telling yourself that isn’t true. Maybe you think you are in control when you need to trust. Maybe you are calling ugly what God has called beautiful. Maybe you are running from what you know God has called you to.

Flip the narrative by praying like Jonah! (chapter 2)

Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, saying, “I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!” And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

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The Anchor Holds though the Ship is Battered

July 14, 2021by Susan Collins2 Comments

Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Hebrews 12:2

The Run Free series of sermons has REALLY been powerful. I have been encouraged, convicted, and challenged through every sermon.

This past Sunday, Pastor Rick Blickenstaff took on the monuments topic of doubt and unbelief. Two of the metaphors he used really struck a strong chord within me were: the Anchor and the Post of Honor.

THE ANCHOR

In my last post, I talked about facing the empty nest as a single parent. This is my story of how the life I had planned and the life that I have do not match up. I have wrestled with many ideas connected to this incongruity in my life. The one constant that I have never wavered on is that God is in control.

Pastor Rick told us that the physics behind the rope and anchor is that the load it can bear should be five times more than the load it carries. WOW! That’s a lot of strength. More strength that I have ever had at any point in my life. I know that as I have trudged through the quicksand of depression, confusion, and despair the load that I carried was ALL that I could bear. Fortunately, I am not the anchor in my life. Jesus is my anchor, and that load is way less than 1/5 of the load He can bear.

THE POST OF HONOR

My post of honor is multi-faceted.

I am living as a single person in a world that promotes a sinful lifestyle for singles.
I have raised two children by myself.
I am a prodigal parent.

That is the race marked out for me at this time in my life. We all have difficulty in our personal races. It’s easy to look at other people’s social media feed and think that they have the perfect life. Remember that is the highlight reel. Most of us do not share our struggles publicly. They are reserved for the people who have earned the right to share our vulnerability.

If you’re trudging through quick sand, reach out. There is someone who has been down a similar path or paid the dues to join that awful club before you. If you don’t know anyone, contact Amy. She’ll be gentle, compassionate, and discreet. Just don’t struggle alone.

liz goss

Sunday is not for Sleeping

July 7, 2021July 6, 2021by Liz Goss5 Comments

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. Genesis 2:1-3

Anxiety and 2020 were like two sides of the same coin. One minute you were coping like a boss and the next you couldn’t concentrate because your kids are tapping on everything with chopsticks. There were so many afternoons when I would have loved a nap… and I actually did take quite a few.

But exhausted and over it, frustrated and bored longing for a nap isn’t how I picture God on the seventh day. After all, Isaiah 40:28 says “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.”

So if God wasn’t tired why didn’t he just keep on going? Well… maybe God knew that we needed to rest our hearts fully in HIM once a week. Before the fall we were constantly immersed in God’s presence. We were created for that life. And in the above verses from Genesis God has given us this instruction: yes we must work hard, but we also need to restore our souls in Him.

Mark 2:27-28 says, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” This clearly points to the idea that God rested after creation to establish what He wanted US to do.

So was God napping in Genesis 2? No. Not likely. He was finding rest in the expression of Himself as Creator. Likewise, true rest is stopping our busy lives, reflecting on God’s goodness to us and resting in the expression of who we are in God.

If you are struggling, perhaps you need to take time to rest in God. We were made for His presence! Below are a few practical ways to rest in Him. Please comment with more suggestions for us! We would love to know how you choose to rest in God.

Talk to a friend about your faith and encourage each other.
Read the Bible and find verses that comfort you.
Listen to a podcast, sermon or VeggieTales that makes you remember why you love God.
Be grateful for God’s gifts in your life.
Sing songs that worship God.
Go out in nature and enjoy the things He has made.
Sniff a kitty that has been laying in the sunshine (best smell God created).
Tell stories of God’s faithfulness in your family.

liz goss

Goodness Without Perfection

June 23, 2021June 22, 2021by Liz Goss1 Comment

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. Genesis 1:3-5

How in the world do you separate light from darkness? Can you even imagine a time where they weren’t separate? Perhaps it was light for a moment and then dark the next, like a strobe light. Or was it foggy all the time in a half light half dark mix. However the two were muddled up, God was able to separate light from darkness.

BUT… God still knew the light was good before he straightened it out. This tells me something important about the character of God. Things doesn’t have to be perfect to be good. Which is a really hard concept for humans (like me) to understand.

You can be beautiful and a work in progress.
Don’t confuse a bad day for a bad life.
One bite of cake doesn’t ruin a healthy lifestyle.
Something can be awesome and need to change.

These are all inspirational thoughts we try to remember because human brains don’t like dichotomy. Nope. Not one bit. But you absolutely can have good kids who rip up library books, a good day in which you broke your foot or a loving spouse who can’t remember to bring you flowers on your birthday. It can be good before it’s perfect.

What is God trying to tell is right here in the very first thing he does? YOU don’t have to be perfect for God to love you. You don’t. God is okay with things that are good but mixed up. Thats why Jesus came. Is there work to be done? Sure, but that’s what life is for. So keep working on separating the light from the darkness in your life. Note to self: you are not God so it’ll probably take more than one day. But you don’t have to be perfect for God to love you.

P.S. Why did I include a picture of my littlest pup? No it wasn’t just clickbait. This little guy is amazing. He is good. He is just exactly who he should be… except… he loves to pee in the house. Oh he knows how to go outside. He is put out all the time. But he takes great delight in peeing in sneaky spots. Is this trait annoying? Do I wish he stopped. Of course. But he’s no less of a good dog who we love with all our hearts. I think God feels like this about us too.