We have all heard 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. Likely, we’ve heard it in sermons, or quoted by a friend, or read on a coffee mug your grandma has from Cracker Barrel. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not seek to dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” I think sometimes, because we have seen it so much, this verse can become less revolutionary in our minds than it actually is. But in my junior year of undergrad, I realized that I had never truly understood love— and from that, understood God— because I didn’t fully take this verse as fact. It was always an ideal, and I didn’t realize what it meant for me that it is true. I didn’t even realize which parts I was disbelieving and struggling with, because love has come to symbolize so many levels of attraction and affection other than this simple, powerful definition.

“Love is patient, love is kind.”

When I think of patience, I think of forgiveness and waiting, and having hope that the best is yet to come. The idea of love being patient has always made me think of me being patient with another person, but what I’m also realizing is love is patient to grow in our lives. There can be so much pressure to date someone or have a best friend or perhaps a group of friends that we wish we could rush the process. However, the idea of love being patient gives me hope, because it’s like God is saying, “love is patient… so it is growing.”

“It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.”

I think we have all been in the place where we have felt jealous of friends getting close to one another, or of another person receiving more affection than you. I get anxious every time we make Valentine’s or Christmas cards because I always feel like I won’t get many, and that will somehow mean I am doing something wrong. Loving others without involving envy feels like a release from that temptation to compare, and to not be grateful for the Valentine’s you do receive, for example. Love is inclusive; it seeks to recognize your part of something greater than you, rather than envying because of your lack or boasting and then emphasizing another’s lack.

“It does not seek to dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.”

Loving others sometimes can feel so… transactional. You may build up all of these good things you’ve done in a relationship, only to hurt their feelings and feel like the scale has completely tipped the other way. Or maybe you have had a family member who seems to treat love as a genuine transaction— you spend time with me, for example, and I will give you more presents, words of affirmation, and maybe even money. It’s heavy and heartbreaking. It’s tough to think I have to earn the love of the people around me, to fear that they are angry with me, and to worry that they remember every wrong thing I’ve done. Or, on the other side, it’s tough when you feel like you remember every wrong thing another person has done against you. 

It is life-changing to think of God being love and realizing that He does not seek to dishonor us, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, and keeps no record of wrongs. I think sometimes, whether we realize it or not, God’s anger towards injustice and evil in scripture can be misinterpreted in our hearts as Him being angry at us. But if God keeps no record of wrongs, then maybe we do not have to either. Maybe there is a difference between remembering hurt and processing it, and keeping a record against another person as if it is a debt they have to repay.

“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.”

As we love others, and talk about having no records of wrongs, it makes me feel so encouraged that God also seeks to protect our hearts and our boundaries. We do not have to pretend evil is okay, or rude actions, anger, and mistreatment is okay. In fact— love itself and God Himself does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. To me, that says loving others involves accountability and communication and honesty. It involves respect. 

“It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. God always protects you, always trusts you, always hopes for you, and always perseveres for you. This is emboldening to think the same Spirit who lives inside of us is the God that gives us the strength to raise our hopes again, persevere again, and trust again. We get to love others with the freedom of knowing that our love for them will prevail, despite it being hard to protect, trust, hope, and persevere on our own.

“Love never fails.”

Finally, one of the best parts of loving others is the hope and promise that there are also others loving you. And as God never fails, love will never fail. It is the joy, strength, and inheritance we have as His sons and daughters. 

This doesn’t mean our relationships won’t fail, or our dating relationships will all last forever, but that we get to hope that loving others and being loved in return is something that we can trust in. It won’t fail, and it’s worth it. 

I pray as you love others, you are reminded of God being love and feel inspired that you have the power, through Him, to be patient, kind, satisfied, humble, honoring, selfless, calm, forgiving, respectful, and hopeful, too.

Author | Madison McManners

Simplicity is a way of life into which I feel like Jesus is inviting our body. Given the name, you would think simplicity would be just that: simple. However, in the hurried chaos of our world, it can easily seem complicated. I would propose a life of simplicity is in fact simple, but that does not mean it is easy. A life of simplicity is countercultural, so there are barriers to cross and sacrifices that must be made. I encourage you to spend some time thinking about what comes to your mind when you hear the word “simplicity” and then ask God what He thinks about it. 

I think simplicity definitely has implications on our material possessions - Jesus was not nearly as concerned with belongings as we are (Mark 6:8-9). Therefore, we should consider if God might be asking us to give up any possessions or be more generous. What God has been bringing to mind when I think about simplicity, however, is the deeper tone and pace of our lives. 

We can easily separate concepts that seem different in our minds, like God’s love and His wrath or simplicity and busyness. Jesus, on the other hand, was able to fully hold two seemingly different things at once, like grace and truth (John 1:14). I believe the Father is inviting us to hold simplicity in the depths of our hearts so that it may flow into our lives no matter how busy or uneventful they look. The simplicity of the Kingdom is far greater than the restrictions of our schedules.

I think one of the best ways to begin incorporating simplicity in our lives is to establish sacred rhythms which set our gaze on Jesus because if anyone is a master of simplicity, it is Him. Whether you are the kind of person who plans everything or takes going with the flow to the greatest extreme, we all form rhythms of life, and those rhythms are often what form us. So, if we are all being formed by rhythms, then sacred rhythms lead to sanctification - the process of being formed more into the holy image of Jesus.

So what are sacred rhythms? While I could give you a list of practices (and I will give a few examples), I think there is way more space to build a life of sacred rhythms with God than me just listing off ideas. What makes a rhythm sacred is God’s presence within what you are doing. You can do all the spiritual disciplines but still lack sacredness within them because sacred means connected with God. We see Jesus show us this in Matthew 6 when he speaks on fasting. So, while rhythms of worship, Scripture, prayer, fasting, meals with community, solitude, etc. can be sacred, they only are to the degree that the presence of Jesus saturates them. It is Jesus’ presence in our rhythms which makes them holy - not the activity itself. I cannot think of a better way to create sacred rhythms, then, than to invite Jesus into the process with you. Rather than giving you limited ideas of what rhythms to implement in your life, I invite you to sit at the feet of Jesus and ask Him what sacred rhythms should mold your life. In His presence, you can dream with God and ask Him to help you design the details of your day. Ask Him what to do with you mornings, afternoons, and evenings and then listen. When you ask the Father what to do with your time, do it obediently, and then do it repeatedly with Him, you have found yourself a sacred rhythm. My hope and prayer is that the Holy Spirit would minister to you in the space you give Him and lead you into new and refreshing rhythms that lead to a life of simplicity and fullness.

Author | Michael Weidner

Every new year, people all across our campus, country, and even world will write down resolutions for what they want their new year to look like. Some of the most popular ones are about things such as exercising more, eating healthier, saving money, or spending more time with friends and family. And while all of these new years resolutions are great, most of them end up not happening the way you originally expected or even hoped. You miss a day, fall behind, skipped a couple, forgot, then all of a sudden it's been a few months and Planet Fitness hasn’t seen you since January but you’re still paying them every month!

What if this year could look different? Actually different- not the same different as last year or the year before? What if the goals looked different and your approach to them was completely changed? I started spending time thinking about my new year's resolutions and the thought hit me- would Jesus have made New Year's resolutions? Then I realized, I hate to admit, I don’t know enough about history to even understand New Years in biblical times but I jumped into scripture to see what I could find about New Years, Jesus, and me - and now, you!

1. The Bible has a lot to say about new things.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. . ” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

The age-old saying of New Year, New Me, may not be all that off after all. What if this year you and I started with the idea that we truly are new creations in Christ? Because Jesus came down, died, and then rose for our sins - we are able to be new creations, and our old selves are now gone.

With that, maybe some bad habits of last year need to be revised or totally kicked out, maybe a stronghold of self-doubt, anxiety, sin, or just ‘not good things’ needs to stay in 2022 - not in the new creation that you are because of Christ. For me, I want this year to look different in the ways that I am anxious about my future. With graduation running rapidly at me from May, the uncertainty of post-grad plans continues to shoot up and find its way into my heart and mind almost daily - for parts of last semester I was really worried and struggled to trust God with my future, what if this year I practiced a different mindset though? I believe what 2nd Corinthians 5:17 says, that my old being that was bent into anxiety is passed away and I am a new creation, one that can trust God more, be kinder to myself in worry, and lean into community this next year when I do get worried. I’d love for you to join me in this idea as well. How can you live like you believe you are a new creation in Christ? This year and every year after?

2. It’s okay if your new year's resolutions turn out differently than expected.

“The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)

Earlier we touched on the idea that most New Year’s resolutions don’t work out. The Washington Post reported that in 2022, 80% of New Year’s resolutions had been abandoned by February! I’d venture to say that most of the time it’s because of how people approach their goals and what the goals are even about.

With all of that being said, I wanted to see what the Bible had to say about plans not working, and whew(!) it says a lotttt! One verse that stood out to me was Proverbs 16:9, a verse I often find myself reading back on but haven’t ever applied to this same idea of a new years resolution before. So, what if we applied it? I believe it is saying that while it is important for us to establish goals and plans, ultimately it is God who establishes where we step. Two big things with this: first, breathe - the weight is not all on you and it is okay if your year looks different than the resolutions you may write out or already have written. Secondly, breathe again, God’s got this and you can trust Him.

This year, I would encourage you to write out goals with God, not just by yourself (even if they are about God). For me, that looks like praying before I write my goals and brainstorming and praying as I actively try to accomplish them (such as asking for the strength and disciple to wake up early to read scripture, and honestly also asking for grace on Monday mornings when that may not always happen). God wants to be a part of your planning, execution, and fulfillment of your resolutions - and I promise that your plans will turn out far better if you lean into Him during the whole process, even if your plans look different than expected.

3. Focus on the day in front of you first and be present in it.

“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—  yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:13-15)

New Year’s Resolutions are great, they help us establish goals and plans for how we hope to grow personally, spiritually, relationally, and so many other ways over the course of the next year - but they cannot be bigger than focusing on the day in front of us.

If every day we wake up and ask God what He wants our day to look like, that will take us farther than any plans or resolutions ever could. It’s like the idea that if you are 1% better every single day, in the course of the year you’ll be 37x better than you were on January 1st - big buildings are built with small pieces, one at a time. You and I are the same - faith that moves mountains is a faith that shovels parts of it away every day, a deep-rooted community is built by pursuing new friends and deeper connections every day, a better understanding of scripture is learned by reading a verse a day - and so many more.

Let this year be different for you, for me, and for our campus and community. Let us be people marked by a new creation, leaving behind the weights, sins, and strongholds of 2022 in the tomb and rising with Jesus as people devoted to serving God every day. If our resolutions don’t turn out exactly as expected, that’s okay - we want to where God is wanting us as that is far better than wherever our plans could ever be. And we will be people present in the moment, becoming better students, friends, and followers of Jesus day by day.

So, Happy New Year! I pray this year is full of joy, healing, community, depth, and new creation for you. And that you (and I) are able to better trust God with our plans and resolutions, focusing on His will being done in our lives and the lives of those around us. :)

Author | Ben Gill

This blog is for any and every believer, whether you care about Sabbath already or have never heard of it before. As I’ve learned more about Sabbath the past few years, I have learned so much about God and His plans for our lives. That His goodness is bigger and better than we can fathom. And yes, He has big plans and expectations for us, but not without everlasting grace and mercy as our source.

Basically, Sabbath is one of the commands God gave to the Israelites after their exodus from Egypt. It is a day of rest every week where work is not allowed and the people spend time with God and their community. It’s based on God’s day of rest after 6 days of creating the universe. The Jews were still practicing it when Jesus entered the picture, but it had been heavily distorted by the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders to be full of rules and restrictions. But Jesus redefined and re-established the Sabbath day by showing how God intended it to be. And while we as Christians don’t live under the Old Testament laws, I believe the Sabbath is still relevant and essential for our spiritual health. So here is a collection of my thoughts, convictions and challenges related to the practice of Sabbath that I hope God speaks to you through. It’s not my exhaustive thoughts, but I pray that they get you and God talking about what this could look like and how it might change your relationship with Him, others, and yourself.

Thoughts:

• Sabbath is a gift, not a burden. It’s meant to serve us and not be draining or confining
• Sabbath reminds us that God knows what’s best for us, and we usually don’t
• It will look different for every person and family. And it will change for each person and family in every season of life; comparison won’t usually be helpful in this instance
• Rest is productive. Especially rest from and with God. It produces peace, connection, endurance, self-awareness, humility, gratitude and health.
• Sabbath takes planning; it won’t happen naturally/accidentally. Your Sabbath is not “less than” because it takes more planning and accountability. 
• Always ask God what your Sabbath should look like each week- you may not be able to predict what will be restorative and worshipful but He can
• Don’t forget to worship- it realigns our priorities and resets our life with God as the focus, the way it’s meant to be. Sabbath is really about God, not you.
• Sabbath is not simply a “self care day” where you take a nice bath and do your full skincare routine. It is about true rest on every level of your being- body, soul & spirit. 
• Sabbath is a sacrifice, an offering of your time unto God. It’s probably never going to be “convenient” or easy. But that’s the point. Similar to tithing, the practice of sabbath reminds us that our lives are God’s and that all the time we have is a gift from God who deserves our dedication to Him, including our time. 
• Sabbath is a command and an invitation; treat it as such.
• Yes, Sabbath was part of the old covenant and law, which we aren’t bound to because Jesus fulfilled it. But Jesus also practiced the Sabbath and never abolished it. As His disciple, I try to do what He did, which includes a weekly Sabbath.
• Consistency can be helpful for Sabbath. Try to have your Sabbath on the same day each week as often as possible because you’ll get the most out of it when it’s a part of your schedule. Don’t ignore it over breaks and trips, sometimes we need it most during those times.
• Use this advice I’ve heard when deciding what is restful: “If you work with your mind, rest with your body. If you work with your body, rest with your mind.” So if you “work” by doing school work, then “rest” by going on a walk or playing your favorite sport with friends.
• Simply saying yes to the practice of Sabbath is saying yes to God and no to the enemy’s pull towards busyness and chaos. Therefore, the enemy will try and make Sabbath difficult, but keep pressing in!
• We don’t have to earn a sabbath by overworking ourselves to justify rest.
• Practicing Sabbath is not an excuse to not rest or take care of ourselves the other six days of the week. Sabbath is for soul-deep rest, not desperate recovery from a chaotic lifestyle.
• If choosing to Sabbath and truly rest is difficult for you, that doesn’t mean it’s “not for you.” It just means there are things God wants to help you work through so you can accept and enjoy rest. Doing this work will make Sabbath much more effective and enjoyable for you, but it takes time.
• Sabbath is proof of God’s patience. If God wanted for us to do more faster, to advance His kingdom quicker, He wouldn’t ask us to take a day off work every week. But God’s not worried about the timing, He knows that this way is better for us
• Don’t get caught up in trying to do the Sabbath “perfectly” because that’s beside the point. It’s called a “practice” for a reason. And I think part of what the Sabbath offers us rest from is striving and perfectionism because it’s about simply existing with God.
• Sabbath isn’t escaping from your life and the world for a day to ignore the issues and just relax. It’s a day of refocusing our lives around God and putting our struggles and situations in God’s perspective by choosing rest, peace, worship and connection.

Here are some verses & passages I recommend reading to learn about the Sabbath:

• Exodus 16: 11-30  See what happens when the Israelites try to gather food (work) on the sabbath- it’s unfruitful. God prepares them for the sabbath the day before
• Exodus 23:3  Sabbath is a command from God that is still relevant to us
• Psalm 23  What resting in God is like, and how it prepares us for holding on to God in times of trouble
• Isaiah 58: 13-14
• Matthew 11: 28-30 (Passion Translation hits different)  God wants us to run to him when we are weary and to depend on him
• Matthew 20: 1-15  Work isn’t about earning or competing against others, so we can enjoy rest because rest is not “weak” or causing us to fall behind
• Mark 2: 23-28  Don’t get weighed down by burdensome Sabbath rules; God is a god of mercy more than rules
• Luke 10: 38-42  We don’t have to worry about preparations and getting things right when we have Jesus with us, when he’s our treasure
• Hebrews 4: 9-11 (Passion Translation)

Author | Caroline Barnes

Sabbath has become one of the most healing and life-changing spiritual disciplines for me. There is so much circulation about what sabbath is, and how to do it, that it becomes difficult to know where to start. This is especially true for a college student whose schedule seems to always be piling up. But if I have learned anything from sabbath, it is that it is the most productivity, joy, and balance filled weeks start with sabbath. One of the most valuable notes on sabbath that I’ve heard is that it is much more productive and healthy to work from a place of rest rather than resting because of your work. 

So, what is Sabbath? And what does it look like to practice it? As many of us know, the first example of Sabbath is in Genesis 2:2-3, “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it Holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”
 
God intended for us to set aside a day to rest from all of our work and devote it to the Lord. To be Holy is to be set apart, and we are called to be Holy people. If we are to trust God in this calling, we should surely follow one of the first spiritual disciples described in the entire Bible. Even the Lord rested. 

Rest and sabbath continue to be described throughout the rest of the Bible, even into the New Testament. Jesus often went to lonely and quiet places to pray, and He says in Matthew, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” God has always and will always seek to have intimacy and communication with us. Spending time with God during our Sabbath allows us to give Him our full, undivided attention with a slow and quiet heart. It is from this place and during these moments that I feel He gives us exactly what our hearts might need. If your heart needs fun, sabbath might look like spending quality time with people who refresh your soul. If your heart needs rest, it might be just sitting on your couch and listening to worship music. It is during sabbath that we allow God to move and stir our hearts in whatever way He sees fit. A book I am reading called Keeping a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliot says this, “Was Jesus indolent? No, never lazy, never sluggish, or slothful, but He knew when to take action and when to leave things up to His father.” At the end of the day, Sabbath is about obeying God’s spiritual command of rest and spending time connected to Him and your own heart. 

If you have never practiced sabbath before, it can feel intimidating to know where to start. One of Wesley’s prayer leaders, Sierra Jarrell, gives some valuable advice about sabbath. She says to plan for it, prepare for it, protect it, and preserve it. Pick one day in your week that you can devote, and plan what you will do that day to connect with God and rest your heart. 

The Father is close and always eager to spend time with us, but this day is especially Holy to give Him. 

Author | Fernanda Lima

Hi Wesley! I hope you enjoyed our study of Luke during the advent season! In the beginning of Luke, we studied the birth of Jesus and the beginning of his ministry. I will be focusing on the section of Luke from chapter 7-12. In this section, Jesus is very busy! He is healing many people, setting people free, and teaching everywhere he goes. There is story after story of his miracle-working power changing people’s lives! One story that stands out to me in particular is in Luke 8:40-48. It’s the story of Jesus healing the bleeding woman. In the story, Jesus is on his way to heal the daughter of Jairus, who was a ruler in the synagogue, when a woman suffering from chronic bleeding reaches out to touch his cloak, believing that even touching the hem of his cloak will be enough to heal her. Her bleeding ceases immediately! I specifically love the way Jesus reacts to this action. He stops and asks who touched him. Keep in mind that he is walking through a crowd. There are people all around him! Of course, someone touched him! But this is different. He goes on and says, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” He felt this specific woman’s touch and he felt his healing power leave him! He cared about this woman’s pain in the midst of a crowd while on his way to heal someone else. He saw her in her pain and desperation and met her there with compassion and healing. The woman was acting out of desperate faith in order to be healed, and Jesus responded to her desperation.

Have you ever been in a position of desperate faith, where you needed God to move in your life so badly because you had no idea what to do? I’ve been there. Last semester, I found myself in a place of desperate faith. I had just been rejected from all the graduate schools that I had applied to, and I had no idea where my life was going. I was doubting myself and I was honestly mad at God for allowing this to happen. But at the same time, I had no idea what to do next. I was supposed to graduate in May and after that I would be jumping into the absolute void of the unknown! My anxiety was very bad at that time because I don’t do well with the unknown. I was riddled with fear and anxious thoughts worse than I had ever experienced in my life! Needless to say, I was desperate. I needed God to make a way where there was no way. I continued to go to Wesley every Wednesday during this time because I needed a touch from God. This was my way of reaching out like the bleeding woman, hoping to just get even the smallest touch from heaven. During one of these services, I was led to read another passage from the section of Luke that I am focusing on: Luke 12: 24-27. It says, “Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” 

This was the reminder I needed at the time: that God was taking care of me and that I was worthy and loved! I clung to this passage. Anytime I needed to be reminded of God’s love for me and his provision, I went to this passage. It carried me through this time. This passage was my first touch from God in this situation. But of course, He was not done moving in my life. In the weeks following the service that led me to this passage, God made it abundantly clear that the Wesley internship was my next step. I extended my graduation to this fall, and I signed up to intern at Wesley. This semester as an intern has been the most life-giving season of my college career so far and I am walking in more freedom from anxiety today than ever before! The internship has been a clear example of God’s provision in my life. It all stemmed from a time when I was brought to my most desperate position before God. My story and the story of the bleeding woman are examples of Jesus’ response to desperate faith. He meets us in our pain, our disappointment, and our anxieties. He responds to us with love, grace, and peace. He makes a way where there is no way. How would your life change if you reached out in desperate faith?

I hope you and your family had a joyful advent season, that you had time over break to connect with God and rest in His peace, and I hope you enjoyed our Luke study. Happy New Year!

Author | Savannah Hill

“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” - Luke 2:10-11

In the Christmas season, the word “joy” is scattered all over wrapping paper, on cards, in Christmas songs, and on ornaments. Even Christmas characters, such as the Grinch or Ebenezer Scrooge, are seemingly transformed by letting the joy of Christmas penetrate their hearts. Joy is inevitably tied to the Christmas season, but why? And how do we actually experience it?

Have you ever been to a celebration where the host is so caught up in putting on the event that they forget to spend time with their guests? I don’t want to go through the Christmas season in a hurry and forget to slow down and spend time with the person I am making an effort to celebrate. I think it’s the moments where we spend time with our Savior, where we experience his joy, that we are actually preparing for the Christmas season. God desires for us to receive his complete joy and we find it by abiding in him.

Psalm 16:11 - “There is fullness of joy in his Presence.” 

C.S. Lewis states this another way, writing, “If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them.”

To find joy we must draw close to God, but I don’t think joy is meant to stop there. There’s something communal about the gift of joy.

If you’ve been reading through Luke with us then you’ve probably read Mary’s song (Luke 1:46-55). I think that we can learn a lot from Mary about how to live in the joy of the Lord. To begin, Mary’s joyous praise is a response to her cousin, inviting Elizabeth into the joy God has given her. I think there’s an invitation to share our joy with those around us, especially during this season. There’s a quote from an old hymn that goes something like this, “joy is the flag flown high from the castle of our hearts that shows the King is in residence.” Joy, especially when chosen in difficult circumstances, shows that we trust God with our life and it becomes a testimony to those around us of God’s faithfulness. I think Mary’s trust in the Lord is apparent because of the way she expresses her praise.

“Mary says,
My soul glorifies the Lord
    and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
    of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
    for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
    holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
    from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
    he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
    but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
    but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
    remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
    just as he promised our ancestors.” 

Mary chooses to praise God even though her whole world has been turned upside down. There are so many unknowns that are out of Mary’s control, yet she is drawn into a place of praise as she turns her thoughts towards God, singing of his character, and recognizing that this is ultimately his story. Her words echo that of her ancestors as she remembers all the times that God has been faithful to his people. Her thanksgiving begets joy and her joy begets praise.

I think that as we fix our thoughts on God, Mary’s song gets to echo from our hearts as well.  Our souls get to glorify the Lord and our spirits get to rejoice in God our Savior. The Mighty One has done great things for us. We get to praise his holy name. He has been merciful to us, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds in the past and will perform mighty deeds in the future. He is the God that lifts up the humble, fills the hungry, and keeps all of his promises.

It’s my hope that in this  season we choose to spend time with Jesus and follow after Mary’s heart by focusing, remembering, thanking, and praising God.  When we do, great joy will flow out of us no matter our circumstances. There is always a reason to praise.

Author | Marlena Sculac

“Act in a manner consistent with your values, not in a manner consistent with your feelings.” - Tommy Newberry 

Feelings are a tricky thing. They are a reactionary mental state and fluctuate based upon what we see, hear, or think. Feelings are not steady or reliable. Since feelings are untrustworthy, they can lead us to act in an ungodly way. Feelings are not going to lead us down the path of righteousness. We are not always going to feel like reading our Bible. We are not always going to feel like praying. We are not always going to feel like celebrating others. We are not always going to feel like fasting. If this is the case, what can we possibly rely on to act in a more Godly way?

Discipline. 

You either love this word or you hate it. Discipline either rules your life or crushes it. Discipline has always been an intimidating word for me. I’ve always felt there is a pressure that comes with it. The pressure to live in such a perfect, structured manner with no room for mistakes. For the longest time discipline was crushing my life. I believed I had to wake up at a certain time, read my Bible, pray for X number of minutes and this would be my routine every day. If I didn’t stick to this routine I would be disappointed and upset with myself. The problem was that I was putting an expectation on myself that God never did. God never said I had to read my Bible at exactly 8 o’clock every day. I did. 

I was also putting God in a box. I thought that if I didn’t have my quiet time one morning then I had just missed out on God for the day. God is not confined to my quiet time. He is not even confined to a church service. God is everywhere and can work through anything. 

There is beauty and importance in practicing the disciplines in our daily lives. They allow us to connect with God in deeper, more intimate ways. It’s important to remember though that God expects effort, not perfection. We are never going to achieve perfection through practicing the disciplines, but only through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. 

“Jesus expects his followers to give their fullest effort to obey his commandments, yet He knows they will fall short. He gives them his spirit to empower them whenever they ask.” (The Jesus Bible)

We can partner with God through the disciplines. We wake up each day with a choice to practice gratitude. Or the choice to read our Bible. We go to bed at night with a choice to pray. We have a choice to slow down in the midst of a hustle-minded culture. We are not always going to feel like practicing these disciplines, but imagine going through life only doing the things you felt like doing. Imagine missing out on the peace of God because you didn’t feel like praying in a moment of anxiety. Imagine missing out on what the Lord has to say because you didn't feel like opening up His word.

I believe the more we make the choice to act according to the disciplines, the more we will want to follow through with them. “In fact this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). His commands are not restricting, but instead bring freedom. This freedom will stoke the embers of desire to please your Heavenly Father and do what is right in His eyes. Yet, if we do choose our feelings over our faith there is grace. There is always grace (just remember Romans 6:1-2). 

I pray you invite God into the practice of the disciplines and that He will stir up a fresh desire in your heart to pursue Him and His ways.

Author | Riley Orr

“We talk glibly about forgiving when we have never been injured; when we are injured, we know that it is not possible, apart from God’s grace, for one human being to forgive another.” - Oswald Chambers

“For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” - Matthew 6:14-15

I think God wants to change the way we view forgiveness radically. What if the phrase “forgive but never forget” is actually wrong? Disclaimer: I am not saying that we shouldn’t have healthy boundaries with people that abused their proximity and relationship with you or that were detrimental with their actions or words toward you. I don’t think that’s what that phrase refers to in this current culture. Forgive but don’t forget allows you to hold a grudge, resentment and bitterness toward your offender and that is not holy, godly, loving or biblical. 

The forgiveness that Jesus talks about and demonstrates in the gospel does not reflect “forgive but don’t forget”. Jesus is the perfect image of the Father. On the cross, Jesus prays to Our Father and says, “And Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’” (Luke 23: 34). Jesus demonstrates love for us as selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional. God, who is the Creator of the universe, the Almighty God, does not remember our past sins or hold grudges whenever we fail to obey or keep His instruction. He loves us with holy conviction and calls us higher. We are called to be holy, blameless and set apart. If the world is quick to anger, we should be like Our Father who is slow to anger and slow to speak. Forgiveness is not an easy process, but we are called to it. Those of us who walk on the narrow way will learn that forgiveness is part of the walk.

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” - Ephesians 4:31-32

“To forgive is to make a decision to cancel a debt that you are owed and not to hold it against your offender. There is no forgiveness without a debt.” - John M. Perkins 

We are the least deserving of forgiveness. Yet, God loves us so much to send His son to cancel a debt we owed. Forgiveness is how we love our neighbor like we love ourselves. If it is a sacrifice to forgive someone, then maybe ask God if you are being called to love them by releasing yourself and them. Maybe you need to forgive yourself. We are called to live a life worthy of the call (Ephesians 4:1); however, that does not mean that we place pressure and unfair performance expectations. God does not hold a record of your wrongs; therefore, you should also not hold a record of your past or wrongs. Confess. Repent and come in agreement with who God made you to be. 

I pray that any bitterness or contempt that has settled in your Spirit would be uprooted and that any forgiveness that you feel is impossible would be possible by the grace of God. May God give you grace to forgive yourself. I pray that the fear of man be broken off and that any habit of people- pleasing would be redeemed by knowing your identity in God. May you be able to release yourself from unforgiveness in the name of Jesus.

Author | Karla Sanchez Tavera

For the past few months, God has been teaching me about the importance of the condition of our hearts. For most of my life, when I have noticed a sin or behavior I want out of my life, I have focused on eliminating the action itself. I do not think this is necessarily a bad thing, but I have realized it is incomplete. It is similar to cutting a weed versus uprooting it. If you trim or cut a weed, it will grow back. However, if you pull a weed out by its roots and toss it away, it will no longer grow there. 

Our thoughts and behaviors are a reflection of something that exists in our hearts: “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of (Luke 6:45).” Check out Matthew 15:17-20 and Proverbs 4:23, too! Looking at these truths, we can see a pursuit of solely addressing our behavior fails to deal with the origin of it. I have spent too much time trying to deal with specific thoughts and actions, just for my heart’s condition to remain unchanged and display itself in another way. Our heart’s condition will always find ways to express itself.

I think the enemy can use the external component of our sin to distract us from the deeper issue: our hearts. We can get caught in a cycle which leads to a life spent cutting off bad, unfruitful branches, rather than tending to our roots and soil so that we may produce fruitful branches (John 15). God desires a life of fruitfulness, not one consumed by the maintenance of dead branches. To break out of this cycle, we must be willing to be honest with ourselves and look deep within our hearts. This is a challenging and uncomfortable process because we may realize we do not believe certain truths to the extent we think we do. We may even find that we do not believe some truths at all. 

Understandably, it can be much easier to deal with external issues because they seem more detached from our identity. Behavior modification gives us a sense of control, and while we do have some control, maybe we do not have as much as we think when it comes to our hearts. The reason we need Jesus is because we are unable to make ourselves right before God. Our need for Jesus to transform our hearts is not just in a moment of salvation but a need in every breath. I am not proposing we disregard our actions or fail to take responsibility for them. Our actions should be signposts which turn our gaze inward to inspect the condition of our hearts. When we discover things in our hearts which do not align with Jesus, we should repent and ask the Father to heal the condition within our heart. No matter how disciplined we are, our efforts to modify our behavior with human willpower are pretty weak. Thankfully, God wants to partner with us and for us to partner with Him in the transformation of our hearts. Let us surrender to and invite Him who is able to have His way in our hearts.

Author | Michael Weidner

I have been dwelling on the idea of “hustle” for a while now. In our culture, especially at the University of Georgia, hustle is a word that brings people pride. ‘If you want to be successful, you have to hustle.’ In the past year or two, I have started to deeply wonder if this could be true. To me, when I seem to live a fast-paced, productivity-driven life, there is very little room left for the peace and refreshing of God’s presence. John Mark Comer, an author and pastor, often says that joy is incompatible with hurry. The joy of God and the peace of His presence can be found anywhere, but we have to be in tune enough to His spirit to feel it. The joy of God is all around us, but when hustle and hurry are the definition of our lives, we tend to rush right past what God has for us. If we don’t slow down enough to hear Him, how will we ever slow down enough to know Him?

As a student and someone who is awful at saying no, I am a chronic hurrier. I’ve noticed that this pattern of life has caused me deep anxiety, loneliness, and a confusion in who I really am. I become so focused on my tasks, grades, and truthfully, myself. This causes me to lose sight and recognition of the One who knows me. It seems all good and fine to talk about slowing down, but how do I actually do that? It feels impossible with demanding tasks and constant expectations. Jesus is the most beautiful example of someone who tremendously helps us learn how to live in His peaceful presence. I often look to a short verse, but one that has been immensely beautiful for me.
 
Luke 5:15 “Yet the news spread about him all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sickness. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to pray.”  Out of anyone in the world, Jesus knew what it was like to have impossible and endless demands. He had the ability to fulfill all of these and more during His life on Earth if he really wanted to, but instead, He chose to model a life of slowness for us. His life was built on not only patience, but also fast-paced action. He waited 30 years to even begin the ministry He knew He was called for, and during those 3 years of active ministry, it was quite hurried. Even then, He somehow lived a life of simplicity and contentment in His father. As His name spread, all the more He spent intentional time alone with God.

The more time alone, and truly alone, with the Lord, the more we know Him. Knowing the Lord deeply and intimately reveals who we are in many ways, too. The more I lean into Jesus and the way He lived His life, the more I notice that I don’t want the hustle that brings temporary gratification. Our walk with God is meant to be a slow and steady one that gives us more than enough time to get to know Him, and for Him to know us. Jehovah Shalom, the prince of Peace, came to walk with us- not run. I pray that we let go of the idea and so-called virtue of hustle and lean into the endless, forever kind of love that we will get to experience when we go into the secret place with God.

Author | Fernanda Lima 

We live in an age where hope is scarce and fear is our dominant posture. I want us to get our hopes up again. What would it look like if we partnered with God and took 1 Peter 1:3-8 seriously, that Jesus is our living hope and now we get to live in inexpressible joy. Last year and honestly, just this month, has been incredibly difficult to live in that truth that I get to have inexpressible, glorious joy. It’s because I was defining joy incorrectly. Joy is not temporary like happiness. Joy isn’t an emotion; it’s a state of being; a fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22). If we have been born again, then we get to live in and through the fruits of the Spirit. 

In the Greek, Joy is chara, which means joy, delight, gladness and is used biblically to mean “joy because of grace” or “awareness of God’s grace”. I was praying for restoration from this past year and losing a loved one this month and everything that I had lost; however, God reminded me of everything I have to hope for and the truth that I get to live out because I can trust in Him and know that He is good. Hope is knowing that God has already won and that we get to partner with Him in praying for his kingdom to come so that more people receive the gift of salvation and our Living Hope. In order to be restored we need to first become aware of what was broken or what led to a need for restoration. In my own walk, I have noticed that when I come to my father in a posture of surrender, my brokenness doesn’t feel like condemnation anymore.

2 Corinthians 10:5 commands us: “[to] demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and [to] take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
 
Surrendering my thoughts and laying them at the feet of Jesus and taking up His word because it’s truth. Surrendering means emptying myself of everything not of God to prepare myself to receive from Him. It means to be thirsty for more of Him. My restoration process is still ongoing just like my healing process is still ongoing. If we want to live in fullness and receive restoration we need to confess our sins, repent of the lies we have believed and the sins we have committed and come to God with our conviction. 

Not only do we want restoration but God WANTS to restore our hope and our joy. Live in the prophecy of Isaiah 35. Isaiah 35 is titled Joy of the Redeemed in the NIV :“The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.” Isaiah 35:1-2 NIV . One of my favorite ways to pray this Word over my life is listening to “Isaiah Song” by Maverick City Music.

He is the God who makes all things new. The restorer of our souls (Psalm 23). Shub is the Hebrew word for restore and it means to turn back, return, bring back, repay, restitution, restoration. He is the God of more/abundance. Not only will He restore and make things new but it will be BETTER than before. Remember Job’s story and all he lost. We can still grieve what we lost and wrestle with God but keeping our faith and trust in Him will bring restoration of all we lost, hope and joy. There’s freedom in surrender.

Author | Karla Sanchez Tavera

Many of us know the story of Ruth. It’s been held up as a testimony of hope. Out of suffering and tragedy, comes redemption and restoration. In particular, we focus on Ruth’s faithfulness to Naomi and God. But Ruth’s story is not just a love story of Ruth and Boaz. If you read it again you’ll notice it actually starts and ends with Naomi. With that in mind, we begin to see that Ruth is actually a story about suffering and hardship and seeing God in the midst of it.
 
The Book of Ruth is in a crazy time of history. Ruth comes right after Judges. Literally the verse before the Book of Ruth says “In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.” (Judges 21:25). Yikes. If everyone is doing whatever they want, I’m sure there must have been a lot of chaos and trouble. Especially for women. On top of the world being chaotic, Naomi loses her husband and sons. The whole reason they left Bethlehem was to not die of starvation and yet they die anyway. Life for Naomi at this time sucks. She is in a foreign land without any male relatives at a time where being a widow and childless meant you were truly forsaken by society. So when she hears there is no longer a famine in Judah, she decides to go back to her people. She isn’t going to make her daughter-in-laws come with her, because Ruth and Orpah still had families they could return to. Their chances of survival were better away from her.  

“…it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has turned against me.” -Naomi to Ruth and Orpah (Ruth 1:13 NKJV)

Naomi thought that God must have turned away from her. And yet, she refers to God as YAHWEH, the one who promised to be faithful to His people. Maybe she said this sarcastically, but maybe some part of her deep down knew this to be His true character. Yet God does indeed show His faithfulness to Naomi through Ruth. Ruth is loyal, determined to stay by Naomi’s side, and loves her dearly. It is through Ruth’s character and story, that Naomi can begin to believe that God is who He says He is. That is why it’s so important to have community. They can help provide for you like Boaz and they can minister to you by reflecting God like Ruth.

“Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
I went out full, and the LORD has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?” (Ruth 1:20-21 NKJV)

In the depths of despair, Naomi could only focus on the negatives of these fresh events and she painted the past in a positive light. Instead of remembering that her family left because of a famine, they were full. Instead of having a devoted daughter-in-law by her side, she said she was empty. So instead of being Naomi (meaning “pleasant”) she becomes Mara (meaning “bitter”). It is our perceptions that affect what we believe to be true and keep us from seeing God’s goodness beside us in the midst of tragedy.

Also in the passage above, Naomi uses the word “Shaddai”, the God that is all-sufficient, to describe God. She admits that she knows He is what she needs. In this we see a common experience. We know God’s character and who He says He is, but we don’t really believe it or know His heart. It is in suffering that we begin to see this gap of knowledge and experience for how big it really is, and that is when we need to believe God’s word the most.
 
Many people ask “why?” in the midst of these situations. We think that if it could all be explained, then we can finally rest. We equate knowledge with peace, instead of going to the Prince of Peace. As long as we are on Earth, we probably won’t know why these exact situations happened to us in particular. But it’s not about understanding. If we could understand everything and had the wisdom of the universe, then we wouldn’t need God. And then we begin to realize, we are utterly dependent. Nothing is truly in our control. That realization can be scary. So instead of admitting that we can’t do life on our own, we search for why. Because then we don’t have to admit that we are weak. This is nothing new. Ever since that fruit was plucked from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, we’ve been drawn to replacing our intimate relationship with God with knowledge instead. It’s interesting that the tree was that of the knowledge of good and evil, not the tree of “evil” or “despair” or “suffering”.

In saying that, I also want to remind you that even before Eve got the fruit, she doubted and questioned God with the serpent’s prompting. We were capable of that even before the fruit was eaten and sin entered the world. So, God is not at all surprised by our doubts or our questions. He just wants us to go to Him and tell Him about it, instead of listening to other sources. There is no shame in asking your Father questions and sharing your doubts, go to Him though instead of running away. He will cover you and redeem and restore you, like how he did in Naomi’s story.
 
So back to Ruth, it is at this point that they begin living in Bethlehem and it just so happens that Ruth is gleaning in the field owned by her kinsman-redeemer, Boaz. Coincidence, I think not! Naomi realized redemption was near and so she acted. She allowed herself to receive the opportunity God was placing in front of her. Although she was bitter, she was still looking for God. It was this reception of God’s goodness that enabled her to then help set Ruth up for success. We need to be on the lookout for God’s plan so that we can partner with Him in bringing it about, just like Naomi. Thanks to Naomi’s counsel, Boaz was prompted to redeem their family. In doing so, Naomi went from childless widow to grandmother of Obed, who would become the grandfather of David whose lineage leads to our Messiah and Redeemer.

“Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a close relative…” (Ruth 4:14 NKJV)

“And may [Obed] be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age… ” (Ruth 4:15 NKJV)

I hope that Naomi’s story can be a source of hope and comfort for you. Remember that in the midst of hardship and suffering, God can still be found if you are seeking Him wholeheartedly.

Author | Rachel Jones

“Build a man a fire and he’ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life.” - Terry Pratchett

This quote was originally used as satire by a man who went to his grave an atheist. Despite his distaste for the divine, I think he hits a core truth about revival here. It’s not good enough for us to try to “create” revival. It has to consume us from the inside and go out from there. One twentieth century pastor put it another way, “O God, send a revival. Let it begin in me”. If we ever want to see anyone or any place warmed with the fire of the Spirit, it has to happen inside of us first. We can’t set someone else on fire if we aren’t on fire ourselves. 

“Beauty will save the world.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky

The past couple of years I’ve been struck by the concept of beauty. I’ve started to think about it all the time. Jesus is beautiful. His story. His character. His sacrifice. His creation. There’s so much about him that’s beautiful. There’s so much beauty that He has created in this world, even in the mundane, that I’m just now beginning to see. I’ll spend the rest of my life looking for more of the beauty of Jesus, his ways, and his world. In his novel The Idiot, Fyodor Dostoevsky writes, “Beauty will save the world”. I’m starting to believe him. 

Ultimately I think that’s what everyone’s looking for. Philosophers throughout the ages would say we’re all just searching for “the good, the true, and the beautiful”. We’re after that transcendence that goes past us, but also encompasses us. Solomon said it this way, “He has also set eternity in the human heart” (Eclessiastes 3:11). Eternity, meaning, beauty, transcendence, are what the Psalmist is referring to when he says, “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all of your waves and breakers have swept over me” (Psalm 42:7). I’m convinced that, whether we realize it or not, every human being is looking for the deep desires of their heart to be satisfied in the beauty and depth of God. The more consumed we are with the beauty of Jesus, the more likely we’ll be to see our friends set on fire in the baptism of beauty that Jesus offers. The more consumed we are with the beauty of Jesus, the more likely we’ll be to see real revival and awakening come. 

“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” - Isaiah 52:7

In my pursuit of the beauty of Jesus, I’ve had an uncomfortable realization. Over time, God has shown me the beauty in intentionally sharing His beauty. Some people call that “evangelism”, but I rarely ever use that word. It’s been loaded down and contorted so much that I think it’s lost its usefulness. Regardless, over the past few years God has revealed to me the truth of what he said through Isaiah above. “The feet of those who bring good news” are beautiful. They’re beautiful because of the message of beauty they carry. In going and sharing Jesus’ story, we are actually participating in and demonstrating so much of what makes his story beautiful. Beauty begets beauty.

I’ve grown to see many beautiful elements in sharing the story of Jesus with people, but one stands out above the rest. At one point during my time in college, I found myself profoundly moved by my peers as I would walk to class. In that season, I found myself completely shaken as I looked into the person’s eyes that passed me by. A new understanding that each person had been made by God and for God was downloaded into my heart, as well as the heartbreaking reality that so many of those image bearers were not living into God’s intended true and ultimate identity for them. 

The beauty in this came when I realized that with each person I encountered, I was actually encountering myself. For most of my life I was that person walking around aimlessly who didn’t realize the beauty of the one who made me, the reality of the one who died to save me, and the true and meaningful life He offers us. Paul describes the believer’s situation well when he says, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11). How beautiful is it that just as this life giving message was brought to me, I now get to take it to others. That process usually looks different than I expect, and it constantly gets me out of my comfort zone, but it’s always worth it.

Author | Jake Stephens

“Will I enjoy revival when it comes?”
I remember thinking to myself in the Fall of 2018 during a prayer meeting. 

At this point, I had been in Athens for about 3 months and knew revival was expected for this city. Many pastors and prayer ministers said it would look like mass amounts of people putting their trust in Jesus in this city. Others suggested it might look like open prayer meetings and worship in university classes. Still others talked about the healings and miracles that will happen right out in the open. And above all, it would look like Jesus getting all the glory. 

As I stood there in a prayer meeting, watching the leader get excited about lives being changed by Jesus, either with an awakening or not, I froze. 
And I asked myself “will I enjoy revival when it comes?” And the follow up thought was “why am I asking this question?”

As I left that prayer meeting those two haunting questions followed me – for months. 

The truth is, at that time in my life, I would not have enjoyed any of what the pastors and leaders talked about. I felt that revival would disrupt my comfort-zone and it would disrupt my plans and intentions for my life. Moreover, the idea of people repenting and turning to Jesus made me angry and I felt like I would not be acknowledged for my faith in the Lord that has lasted through the seasons. 
And then, I revisited Jonah. More correctly, God told me to read Jonah. And so, I did. 
But I didn’t get it the first time. So, I reread it. Five different times. And then, something shifted.

(Reader, I am being this honest with you because it is imperative we examine our hearts for the Bible tells us out of it flows the rest of our lives.)

Jonah was a prophet who received a word from the Lord to “go to Nineveh and call out against Nineveh’s sin.” Jonah did the exact opposite and fled to a different city, Tarshish. You may already know the story; Jonah gets swallowed by a fish (sent by God) and finally he goes to Nineveh and preaches repentance to them. And guess what? The people of Nineveh repent!! And Jonah? Well, he loses his cool.  
The Bible says “it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry” that God turned from the disaster He was going to bring upon Nineveh.  
Jonah prays to God and says “‘O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore, now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” (Jonah 4:2-3, ESV). 

And the Lord’s response?
“And the LORD said, “Do you do well to be angry?” (Jonah 4:4) 

I like the NIV’s version of this question: 
 “But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?” (Jonah 4:4) 


And now, a new question haunted me: “Is it right for you to be angry?” 
I wrote that question down and posted it in my bedroom wall. Every day I saw it for 2 years and every time I did, I prayed for myself to have a heart that would be excited and ready to partner with Jesus in the work of awakening. I prayed for my own repentance more than I did this city. 

The truth is friends, God is going to awaken this city and this earth, whether we like it or not. He is going to do it! He is the Lord of All, the Rock of Ages, the Creator, the Alpha and the Omega – it does not matter what I think about revival, He’s going to do it. 

Though, I do really want to make sure that I am excited about what God is excited about: people coming to know Him. (And I want that for you to!) 
I want to make sure I am helping in the efforts of brining awakening to this city, not standing idly off to the side, complacent in my own lack of faith and love – or worse, getting in the way of a move of God. 

Now, 3 ½ years later, I can tell you I am so excited for God’s revival. I am so so excited to see professors and classmates open to the Only One who can satisfy. I am so excited to see God’s glory displayed and people repenting from the sin holding them back from God. I am so excited to see Jesus magnified in Athens and this world. 

I have no doubt I will “enjoy” revival because I know my heart can only be satisfied by God. I know my soul was made for Him. And I know I can trust Jesus to provide and care for me even amid a large awakening. 

He is good. And He is coming. 

Are you excited for His arrival?

Author | Samantha Richey

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” - 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

One Wednesday, in the middle of worship at a Wesley service, someone tapped me on the shoulder to share a word they felt God had for me. She looked at me and told me God wanted me to know that I am “enough.” As she continued talking, I was flattered but I can’t lie, my first thought was “hmm, not really struggling with self confidence or wondering about my worth right now and I don’t think this is for me.” After I turned back around, I was immediately met with a feeling. Picture you, talking back to your grandma and she gives the “who do you think you are” look. That’s how I felt God was looking at me.
 
So I readjusted my mindset and settled in. “Okay God, what does ‘enough’ mean. Open my ears.” I began to run through my day. My day started with skipping both of my classes, followed by not opening my laptop, and not leaving my house before 7 PM. Throughout the entire day, I was filled with anxiety and guilt for not being proactive or having a full schedule and I began to realize throughout this entire day, I had been feeling like I was not enough. On my days where I feel like I don’t contribute anything, this is usually where my head ends up. In today’s world, we are often conditioned to require constant entertainment or preoccupy our minds with the impossible expectations of what our lives should look like; we should be having fun and experiencing new things every second of every day.

So I asked myself again, “Enough. When I hear this word what do I think?”
 
Each day is enough, whether I fill my day with praise, rest, meaningless tasks, or I don’t leave my house. Each day is enough for God. I, in my rawest, purest form, with nothing to my name, am enough. I invite you to rest. Rest in the knowledge of knowing that because of who God is, we don’t have to carry the pressure of being enough. God never intended us to. The purpose of Jesus carrying the weight of the cross up Calvary hill was so that we get to live in freedom and the weight of our sin is not ours to bear. Just as God is enough for me, I ,in my brokenness and laziness and doubt, am enough for God. On my days where I contribute nothing and on my days where my schedule is full; on my days where I have thoughts of anxiety, and on the days where I feel the earth is my oyster and it is made for me. I am enough. Rest in the knowledge that because God is who He says he is, there is no perfect standard we have to reach. Because God is who He says he is, we get to acknowledge our brokenness, but rejoice in the fact that God comes and meets us where we are and we get to live through Christ. Our hearts can be transformed and all God asks of us is that we give everyday to Him. In everyday, I have a choice to remember that truth and living in the joy of knowing that the God that created every human, every animal, every planet, and every breath; the God that has moved mountains and parted the seas and performed countless miracles looks at me with nothing to my name and calls me His. He loves me enough to use me and use every second, every minute, every day for His glory. And as long as I continue to show up in pursuit of Him, He will never leave me wondering if I am enough or not. He will fill me with the truth of His word, that I am enough, not because of what I accomplish or who I am or what I do, but because of who He is.

“I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul will make its boast in the Lord; The humble will hear it and rejoice. Exalt the Lord with me, And let’s exalt His name together. I sought the Lord and He met me more than half way and answered me, And rescued me from all my anxious fears. They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces will never be ashamed. This wretched man cried out, and the Lord heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles.” - Psalm 34:1-6

Author | Jessie Thomas

“God comes where he is wanted” 

Two weeks ago, Jon Tyson, an author and pastor from New York City, came to Athens and said this phrase when talking about revival. He and his family had traveled to the locations of many famous revivals around the world, and came to realize that there was nothing particularly special about where God sparked revival. There were just desperate people who called out “come, holy spirit”. 

Revival was a foreign concept to me before I came to Wesley. It honestly sounded kind of crazy to me, and I did not understand what people meant when they said it. But revival is something that is prayed for everyday for the students of UGA and the people of Athens. And over the years, I have joined in on praying to see God revive Athens and learned more of what it means. 

To me, revival means God responding to the desperation of His people and heaven touching earth. It means all people experiencing the love of God seeing Him rightly, and responding accordingly. It means renewing and awakening.

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land." - 2 Chronicles 7:14 

God calls us to turn to him and recognize our need for Him, and He responds. 

I had the opportunity to personally experience one of those revivals around the world in 2019. I went on a mission trip to Cuba with Wesley that year.  If you have never heard about the church in Cuba, revival is happening. You should look into it!  The church is growing exponentially everyday and people are responding to God at rapid rates. It's absolutely beautifully crazy how much God is moving, healing, and present. You can feel the spirit in a way that you cannot miss.  While I was there, I remember thinking, why can’t this happen in Athens? 

Why don’t people respond to God in Athens like they do here? 

What are we missing that they just get? 

And the truth is, although Cuba is the most special place, there is nothing uniquely special as to why revival broke out there. Instead, it is God’s response to their desperation and desire for Him. The people of Cuba are DESPERATE for God. The pastors make 40 dollars a month doing what God has called them to do. They need Him to show up to put dinner on the table at night. Their hearts are positioned to know that God is their everything and all they need, and they NEED Him to show up and they tell Him that. They give everything they have to follow Him, and he responds. It is beautiful. 

To be honest, it was really hard for me to adjust back to Athens after that. I had such a fire to see God awaken and renew and revive, but I became discouraged quickly. We live in a lot of comfort, and there are a million and one ways for us to distract ourselves from desperation. 
BUT, there is a way for us to position our hearts to recognize our dependence on God. Because although we may not all need Him to move to have dinner on the table at night, our soul NEEDS God. And the people in Athens and the students at UGA that do not know God, NEED God. And we get to join in on the years and years of prayer for God to bring revival to this campus to see heaven touch earth. And we get to want God, recognize our need for Him, and invite Him to come. 

So let us join in on the years of prayer for revival that is deep in Athens. Let us tell God that He is wanted here. That He is needed here.  And believe that He will respond.

"Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” - Psalm 85:6

"After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly." - Acts 4:31

"My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever." - Psalm 73:25

Author | Carolyn McLain

I have been told by many older Christians that the most influential thing we can research as young Christians is the history of Revival. I have meant to put that wisdom to use, but until writing this blog I haven’t sat down to do it. Reading about the businessmen’s revival has been amazing, and also convicting.

This revival happened in New York City in 1857, and can be traced back to a businessman named Jeremiah Lanphier. Lanphier came to know the Lord in 1842, but continued to work his normal job. God gave Jeremiah His heart for the lost, and Jeremiah had a deep burden for the people around him to know God. In 1857, he decided to quit his job and change careers to pursue vocational ministry.

Jeremiah joined the staff of the North Dutch Reformed Church. He was given the task of going to the communities around the church to evangelize. After a few months, he decided he would start a prayer meeting that would meet every Wednesday from noon to one. He wanted to make it accessible to people that worked so he set the time for the typical lunch hours. He printed thousands of flyers, and passed them out around the city. Here’s what the flyers said:

How Often Shall I Pray?

        As often as the language of prayer is in my heart; as often as I see my need of help; as often as I feel the power of temptation; as often as I am made sensible of any spiritual declension or feel the aggression of a worldly spirit.

        In prayer we leave the business of time for that of eternity, and intercourse with men for intercourse with God.

        A day Prayer Meeting is held every Wednesday, from 12 to 1 o’clock, in the Consistory building in the rear of the North Dutch Church, corner of Fulton and William Streets (entrance from Fulton and Ann Streets).

        This meeting is intended to give merchants, mechanics, clerks, strangers and business
men generally an opportunity to stop and call upon God amid the perplexities incident to their respective avocations. It will continue for one hour; but it is also designed for those who may find it inconvenient to remain more than five or ten minutes, as well as for those who can spare the whole hour.

So on September 23, 1857, Jeremiah held the first prayer meeting. For the first 30 minutes, no one showed up, but for the last half hour, there were 6 people total. The second week, 20 people showed up and the third, 40. Because of the rapid growth of interest, Jeremiah decided to make the weekly prayer meeting a daily prayer meeting. Other churches joined in on this movement, and before you knew it, there were noon prayer meetings all over the city.

Apparently, the New York Times actually tried to count all of the people that gathered for these meetings, but they weren’t able to make it to all of them before the hour was up. However, it is estimated that 10,000 men were praying during this hour consistently throughout the city. Soon, churches started hosting meetings multiple times a day and these would last for hours at a time.

This movement that started as a way to pray for the people in the city far from God turned into an evangelical awakening. Churches all over the city not only saw new members, they saw people come to know the Lord for the first time. The Gothic Church in Brooklyn had 75 people pray to receive Jesus in January of 1858. And just like the prayer meeting’s humble beginning, this was only the start.

News about these meetings and this revival spread all over the country, and a lot of cities decided to follow suit. Prayer meetings popped up all over the country. So much so that, in some cities, business owners would agree to close down for the hours the meetings were taking place. They wanted to take part, they wanted their employees to take part, and they wanted potential customers to take part. What God did in Jeremiah Lanphier’s heart, He was doing in people’s hearts across the country. He was burdening people to pray for the lost, and He was showing up when they did.

It is reported that 1 million people, out of a US population that was only 30 million at the time, prayed to receive Jesus during this revival from 1857-1858. To put that into context for us, that would be like if just over 11 million people came to know Jesus between now and December of 2023. How crazy would that be? What would change? How different would our country look? I don’t know about you, but I’m also left with the question of why can’t this happen again?

There’s not a formula to make God do something like this, but why not start where Jeremiah Lanphier started? Why not have a prayer meeting for people far from God and see what happens? At the very minimum, we would be spending time in God’s presence for an hour, and we would get more of His heart for the lost. I don’t want to put limits on God, because I believe He can do greater things than the Businessmen’s Revival, but He did it once, so He can do it again. With that being said, I’m going to start praying for the lost every Thursday from 12-1, and after that I’m going to go on campus to share the Gospel from 1-3. And, to quote Jeremiah Lanphier, “It will continue for one hour; but it is also designed for those who may find it inconvenient to remain more than five or ten minutes, as well as for those who can spare the whole hour.”

If you want to learn more about this revival, and because I don’t want to plagiarize, I got all of the information for this blog from two resources:

https://www.dayandnight.org/businessmens_revival
http://vancechristie.com/tag/businessmens-revival/

Author | John Wesley

“They sing a new song: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation…Worthy is the Lamb.’” - Revelation 5:9-12

The cross is such a familiarized symbol. We see it on the top of church steeples and on chains around people’s necks. We ink it into our bodies and engrave it on tombstones. I wear a small golden cross with six pearls around my neck every day – I never take it off. That tiny cross is often the first thing I see when I look at myself in the mirror each morning. It’s something I choose to adorn myself with, and everyone I come across sees that symbol, too. The image of the cross is difficult to avoid in our culture, and even if you are not Christian, it causes you to be reminded of the Christian faith.  

The cross is the Christian symbol. It’s our image to represent our faith, our religion. We use it to symbolize the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and His resurrection, how He conquered death and paid for the sins of the world. It’s the backbone belief of Christianity: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever beliefs in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16). It’s familiar and routine, seen and discussed so incredibly often. But do we ever really think of what the cross can fully represent or what it can entirely mean?

In the fall of 2021, I took a religion course on Apocalyptic Literature, and yes, it was just as daunting as it sounds. We explored texts from Daniel to the Book of Jubilee, ultimately ending with an extensive focus on Revelation. The big, scary Revelation, end times and all. The things I learned from that class were remarkable and faith-shattering. I could write an entire essay just on how the book of Revelation broke apart the image I had of God and how it rebuilt it into something more wonderful, more mysterious than I could ever imagine. (Maybe another time!)
 
Revelation is a form of the apocalyptic genre of literature, academically described as texts that deconstruct an era of oppression and suffering and offer up resistance as hope that a divine being will overcome (big concept, I know). Many apocalyptic authors will take things about their oppressors (gods, emperors, etc.) and turn them on their heads in a firm statement of: “you are nothing compared to our God.” John does this a lot in Revelation, twisting a symbol that previously meant Jerusalem’s destruction and depicting it as God’s victory. There’s so much more to Revelation than I could possibly study in a semester. Still, our class was focused on seeing those symbols of domination and watching them shift into images of empowerment.

I had just submitted my final paper for that course, and I was walking across North Campus towards Starbucks. I was planning on getting a massive, super sweet latte to celebrate. I passed by a man wearing a huge cross around his neck on my walk. Not an uncommon sight, but God chose that moment to speak to me. My brain was still wired on the apocalyptic genre, and God used that to shoot something so quickly into my mind that it stopped me in my tracks.

The cross is the ultimate symbol of resistance. 

Crucifixion was a horrendous method of execution. The Romans used it as a sign of terror and defeat. It was public torture: nails were driven into the hands and feet and hung against a wooden cross until bleeding to death or suffocating. The Roman officials would leave crucified bodies hanging for several days after death, where the public would constantly be reminded to submit out of fear. The cross was a horrible symbol of death, fear, and torture. Jesus underwent the terrible suffering of crucifixion as atonement for the evil of the world. He was humiliated, whipped, and left to die in agonizing pain. But Jesus resurrected, overthrowing death and solidifying His defeat over evil. He brought life and salvation, serving as the ultimate sacrifice to ransom us from sin. It’s the truest story of victory.

Christianity took the symbol of the cross – a historically horrifying image of death – and turned it into a reminder of that truth. A symbol filled with so much pain, depicting the domination of Rome, of evil, and of defeat, has become our symbol of God’s victory. Jesus, just like the apocalyptic writers, took a vile image and flipped it completely upside down. Instead of loss and suffering, the cross now reminds us of Jesus’s love and the defeat of evil. The cross is our freedom. How remarkable is that?

Author | Anna Goellner

As I was scrolling through TikTok over winter break, I couldn’t notice the trend of the “rest.” “Sunday reset”, “Monthly Reset”, and now, “New Year Reset”. While these videos included simple tasks such as deep cleaning one’s room or meal prepping for the week, the more I scrolled the more I began to feel a looming sense of pressure. I felt like I had to completely remodel my life in the weeks leading up to the new year. I had to be organized, at peace, and have a list of at least 15 goals to reach in the next 365 days. 

Every morning I would wake up and almost immediately feel anxious thinking about all of the tasks I “had” to do that day to make sure I was setting myself up for the “best year of my life.” But, at my small desk in my childhood home God tore through the lies in my mind that I needed to be a curated version of myself in order to have what one would consider a “successful” year. He reminded me that the only way that 2022 could be a year of growth and satisfaction was through Him, and Him alone. 

The main way I grew in my faith in 2021 was learning to identify the tricks that the enemy uses to pull us away from God. One of his favorite strategies is to distract us. C.S. Lewis says “the safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot without sudden turnings, without milestones.” Through the process of meeting with God and submitting my expectations to Him, I was able to set some health goals for the new year that equip me to fight the spiritual battle I face every single day: complacency.

I’m sure that many people can relate to the fact that I find a lot of my worth in productivity. My Google calendar is set for the next six months and I plan out my day to the minute every single morning. Yet, for someone who plans a whole bunch, I seem to miss the mark when it comes to getting into God’s word as much as I should, which benefits Satan's cause when it comes to filling me with fear, anxiety, and mistrust. 

So, my goal for this New Year is simple: pay attention to what I pay attention to. 

One of the main excuses I make for not getting into the Word as much is not having enough time. After all, I have classes every day, a job, and the average 8.5 hours of screen time each day that I must tend to! (Kidding, of course). In order to be more consistent in the Word and dedicated to my school work, I gave a close friend my phone and had them set a screen time limit with a password that I can only pray they don’t forget.

I believe that by partnering with God and being consistent in reading through the entire Bible in a year through the Bible Recap Program will help me reach my goal of becoming more sensitive to His Spirit and will be able to see His will for my life more clearly.

My prayer for myself and for you this year is that we would listen to the words of Paul and “fill (our) minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable.” I pray that we would remember that attaining a 4.0, hitting the gym every day, and doubling our social circle will only bring us so much happiness. Ultimately, the only thing that can bring us what we truly look for, satisfaction and joy, can only be found in our Father.

Author | Bentley Clark

Martin Luther King Jr. Day falls every third Monday in January. Every year, many eagerly await a day off from school to sleep in, watch tv, lounge around, and do nothing. But how does that honor Dr. King's Legacy? How does that pay tribute to a man who fought so hard for civil rights in this country that he died for it?
 
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King was a fierce activist and civil rights leader in this nation. But he was also a fierce social justice warrior for the Lord. As a follower of Christ, he was motivated by Christ's love to serve Him and struggle for His Kingdom. He was also motivated by Christ's message to care for his fellow man. In a sermon he preached in Montgomery, Alabama, Dr. King stated, "Christianity is hard because it demands a dangerous and costly altruism; It demands that the “I” be immersed in the deep waters of the “thou”".
 
Dr. King knew that as followers of Christ, we are called to set aside our own personal wants and needs to bring about God's Kingdom here on earth. Not only that, but we are called to completely put "ourselves without reservation at the service of Christ and his kingdom" (Martin Luther King, 1956). During his 11 years of service to this country, Dr. King modeled this by putting himself in harm's way time and time again. He was arrested over five times, his house was bombed twice, and he was stabbed with a letter opener. Yet he, like the apostle Paul, "press[ed] on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called [him] heavenward in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:14). He followed God's commandment to love his neighbor as himself until the point of death.
 
While few of us are called to put ourselves into such violent circumstances, we are still called to serve the Lord with our whole beings and that looks like serving others with our whole beings. On Martin Luther King Day, recognized as a National Day of Service in 1994, we have the opportunity to put that into practice and honor Dr. King's legacy by serving our family, friends, and community. This year, I challenge you to find a way to reflect God's heart for His people by serving someone near you. Whether it be volunteering in your hometown or putting salt on the ground to protect your neighbors in the snow, find a way to truly honor Dr. King's legacy and serve the Lord with all of your heart.

Author | Stephanie Seda 

This may be something unique to myself— but have you ever thought of dissonance as a feeling or emotion to be experienced? Dissonance typically means a lack of harmony in music, but another definition from Oxford languages is  "a tension or clash resulting from the combination of two disharmonious or unsuitable elements.”

“A tension or a clash.”

I think we usually associate tension as being a hostile feeling and think of times when we’ve felt uneasiness when we have an opposing viewpoint from someone or have experienced anxiety. This anxiety could be situational or it could be a lens through which we are perceiving events and information which then becomes the framework as to which we process everything.

What if we reframed how we view the word tension?

A result of us choosing to be followers God and walking the narrow road (Matthew 7:13-14) is transformation:

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” - Romans 12:2
 
“The renewing of your mind.”
 
I think a lot of times we think a natural result of intaking scripture and consciously making decisions that are counter to the culture of the world we live in will lead to a miraculous transformation that will leave our old selves unrecognizable. We think we will be gaining these new mindsets and that we’ll have new ways of carrying ourselves that will resemble “the ideal Christian.” And as I reread that as I write, I’m audibly saying “oof.”
 
There are some instances where God is so, so kind to us and redeems things in our lives that would only be possible because of His grace, but I also think He invites us to step into a dissonant place with Him where contrasting thoughts and beliefs go head to head and bring about refinement. When we ask God to help us do the hard heart work, and replace lies with truths and let ourselves ask where the thoughts we currently believe don’t necessarily line up with the beliefs we might have held onto for years and years, He opens up space for new mindsets and understandings. This can help reshape and transform our beliefs to be grounded more in what God says to be true rather than a lie we believe or what we wish were true.
 
“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” - 2 Corinthians 3:18
 
I think the greatest physical representation of this can be shown in the formation of mountains. Here is a description from the American Museum of Natural History’s website: “Mountains form where two continental plates collide. Since both plates have a similar thickness and weight, neither one will sink under the other. Instead, they crumple and fold until the rocks are forced up to form a mountain range. As the plates continue to collide, mountains will get taller and taller.”
 
When two ideas, such as patience and restlessness, or contentment and disappointment, come to a tense point and begin to push up against one another in our minds there is a friction. That friction in turn produces fruit when we find in the middle what we can test and discern to be true through God’s word in scripture and the Holy Spirit inside of us.
 
Another way God presents tension is in the way He created us.

“So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law, but I see another law work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.” - Romans 7:21-23

The nature of our human flesh desires things that directly contrast the ways our Spirit delights in doing the things the Holy Spirit calls us to do, creating a tension in the patterns of the ways we choose to act and the mindsets behind our behaviors.
 
One of my favorite books is Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard. It is an allegorical story about spiritual growth that follows a girl named Much-Afraid as she leaves her family the “Fearings” and journeys to the high places (or new degrees of glory) as she is guided by the Chief Shepherd.
 
In the beginning of the story, the Shepherd plants the seed of love in Much-Afraid’s heart. Before the Shepherd puts the seed in her heart, Much-Afraid asks if it will hurt since the seed appears to be very sharp. 
 
“He answered gently, ‘It is so sharp that it slips in very quickly. But Much-Afraid, I have already warned you that Love and Pain go together, for a time at least. If you would know love, you must know pain too.’”
 
It can feel incredibly heavy to think about having to bear pain and heartache and also rest in the fact that you are so deeply loved by God and you are also capable of loving Him so deeply and loving other people.
 
“She woke suddenly an hour or two later, her mind intensely alert, conscious of an agonizing pain such as she had never known before. The thorn in her heart was throbbing and aching in a manner she could scarcely bear. It was as though the pain was hammering out something which at first she was still confused to understand.”
 
Much-Afraid then experiences a hard clarity as to the thing she had been wrestling with before she had fallen asleep that seems to come to her in a flash. This difficult reality check cloaked in tension, but also in honesty, allowed her to take the risk to embark on a journey of growth and strengthening with the Chief Shepherd.
 
I think sometimes breakthroughs can come in a flash, but a lot of times I think tension boils up and we experience a slow process of restlessness with conflicting thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. 
 
This past week I felt a heightened awareness in noticing tension and seemed to experience instances of it every day in so many different contexts. I see this friction as I read different kinds of books, in the things we as a staff are praying for and the things I am personally praying for, in teachings, and in the things I am trying to process and understand. I have been so astounded by the ways that God has opened my eyes to this and the way the strange longing feeling that comes with dissonance has shown itself to be incredibly beautiful in the fruit and refinement that has been beginning to stir in my own heart.

Author | Emma Kate Shelton 

Gracious and kind Abba. 

Psalm 116 is a really beautiful Psalm, and a picture of the relationship God the Father wants to have with us. I would encourage you to read the entire Psalm, but Verses 5-7 really stood out to me. 

5 The Lord is gracious and righteous;
    our God is full of compassion.
6 The Lord protects the unwary;
    when I was brought low, he saved me.
7 Return to your rest, my soul,
    for the Lord has been good to you.

What sticks out to me most is that it says, “return to your rest, my soul,” inferring that we were created to be resting beings. Somewhere along the way humanity lost this characteristic and replaced it with business. Maybe that is why true, genuine rest feels so effortless. Because it is how we are supposed to be. That is something the Lord is still working on with me.

Understanding God the Father to be gracious, loving, and kind, labeling him as Abba, these things come easy to me. I am very grateful, and I am very fortunate to have a very good Earthly Father. My dad is my best friend. To be honest, my relationship has been so good with him that I am prone to forgetting to acknowledge I have something better. That is harsh for me to realize because I love and adore my Earthly parents, but there really is a greater Dad out there. 

As I have gotten older, seeing God the Father as loving and kind has not been very hard. I have had a factual understanding, because I believe the words in the Bible, that He is gracious and loving, however I have struggled at times to felt seen and heard. This is an Earthly and a spiritual struggle I have had my entire life with both humans and God. I know He loves me, and I know He cares, but sometimes I feel misunderstood or unseen. That is something that I struggled with my Earthly dad for a long time. We can get into these passionate arguments about something, and stubborn as we are, we will see things differently and not understand the other person’s point of view. I think I do this with God. I argue. A lot. But something shifted a few years ago.

Freshley did a sermon on the Old Testament names of God my freshman year, and the one that
stuck out to me the most was El Roi: The God who sees.
 


The world is really bad as seeing YOU instead of seeing a list of things about you. It sees your race, your religion, your culture, your intelligence, your career, your quirks, your clothes, your opinions and thoughts, and it takes those things and determines that because those do not fit the mold, that you are less than, that you are not worth listening to. The world fails to see YOU as a whole, to see your talents and gifts, your genuine personality, the good things, the reason why you think or do the things you do. And maybe your Earthly father does that too. Mine, as loving as he is, is not perfect, and sometimes we do that to each other. Love between humans sometimes has absolutely nothing to do with how you feel about a person. You can love them fiercely, and you can disagree fiercely. With Abba, however, love has everything to do with it. He loves you deeply despite your differences. He doesn’t ignore the parts of you that the world does. He sees your personality. He sees your likes, your dislikes, your quirks, the weird things about you only your best friend knows. He sees the negative things too. He sees everything, but instead he focuses on YOU and loves YOU no matter what all those other things entail.

This really challenged my guilt complex. And it really challenged my misconception that nobody saw me for me, even my best friend and Earthly Father. Maybe it was the teen angst, but mostly it was the enemy taking something that is so special to me, my Earthly dad, and using him as a weapon to shift my view on Abba. He is crafty, and it honestly makes me so mad that he took one of my most prized possessions and used it against God, but I get to sit here today saying that He can’t and doesn’t do that anymore. Abba is Father. He is good. He is kind. He is loving. And He SEES me, loves me, acknowledges me, and he WANTS me. Whether you have the best relationship with your Earthly Father, a bad relationship with him, or no relationship with him, you get to share with every single human in the fact that God the Father is kind, loving, sees you, and wants you. 

I think I always separated God the Father and God the Son, but as I have gotten older, I see how intertwined they are. Because God is loving, He sent Jesus to love us in person. Because God is kind, He sent Jesus to heal us and show us kindness. Because God sees us, He sent Jesus to look us in the eyes, to see the ones the world does not see, like Zacchaeus or the adulteress in John 8. Because Abba wants you, He sent Jesus die on the cross to take you back from the grip of the enemy. 

Connecting God the Father to God the Son changed how I viewed Abba. It is an ongoing process to shift from the factual mindset to the relationship mindset. I very much have a long way to go in how to actively pursue that relationship with God the Father, but this would be my encouragement to you:

Wherever you are at, there is always room for more. Don’t let that be a discouragement, but rather a confidence boost and reassurance that you do not have to be at a certain level with God to be accepted by Him. EVERYONE could grow in how they interact with Him, even the seemingly “perfect” and devoted believers. Comparison is the thief of joy, so ask God to intentionally put blinders on you to remove the distractions from your peripheral line of sight, to set your eyes on Him alone. Ask Him for guidance on what it looks like for you to have a more open Father-Daughter or Father-Son relationship with Him. 

The song “He Has Time” by Common Hymnal and Jamie MacDonald paints a really beautiful picture of this relationship, this freedom from guilt and shame. If you connect through music or writing, this is a really powerful song, and I think it really adequately puts into words the powerful redemption we can find in seeking a relationship with God the Father and God the Son.

Author | Rachel Henderson 

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” - Matthew 5:7 

If I’m being honest, I don’t know how many times I’ve read the beatitudes over and over again without even stopping to think about what each one means. I know they are important because it’s part of the truth that Jesus shares to the people, but it was so easy for me to gloss over them because it’s something I’ve heard so many times. I mean some are pretty straightforward, but when I stop to think about the other verses, I realize I definitely need to take more time and thought to digest these verses. Matthew 5:7 was a specific one that took more time for me. I mean what does Jesus even mean by merciful. Logistically, it makes sense that a person who shows mercy is considered merciful and because mercy is usually associated with forgiveness, one could assume that a person who shows forgiveness is merciful. While I think that is true, I don’t think that’s all Jesus meant by this verse. 

For one, mercy is more than just forgiveness. We see that when David asks God for mercy after his sin with Bathsheba. 

"Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin."
- Psalm 51:1-2

In these verses, David is acknowledging he did something wrong and asking for God’s mercy. However, we can see that mercy isn’t just choosing to forgive, but it’s cleansing of sins. It also emphasizes God’s mercy comes from unfailing love and compassion. God has the authority to simply wash away David’s sin and He does so. It is important to note that God does so not because David is a good guy and deserves it, but because He is a merciful God full of unfailing love and compassion for us. He abundantly chooses to cleanse us because that’s the character of God. Now this doesn’t give us a free ticket to keep on sinning, but it shows us that because God shows mercy, we are able to show mercy to others, too. 

Ultimately, because our God is a merciful God, we get to choose to be merciful people. Thank goodness for mercy because, without mercy, I don’t think we’d be here today. As Jesus showed us the ultimate act of mercy by dying on the cross for our sins. He showed us compassion as he chose to sacrifice Himself for us. 

However, the way we show mercy looks different from how God shows mercy because of course, for us, mercy doesn’t mean we are dying on the cross and are cleansing the other person's sins. Simply because that’s not our job, but it does mean that we choose not to hold grudges or seek revenge. We probably all know what it means to not hold a grudge, but to me, this means not continuously bringing up something someone did wrong maybe more than one time. It also means not using it to judge a person for a mistake that might’ve happened. This is definitely something easier said than done because we all try to protect ourselves after getting hurt, but we get to become merciful people because of who God is and who He made us to be. I mean thank goodness God doesn’t hold grudges or seek revenge for the sins we committed. Another thing to remember is that showing mercy doesn’t necessarily mean forgetting, but it means choosing to let go of the blame and choosing to trust God will seek justice for you. 

Practically, to be a merciful person looks different for each person, but it does help to know what mercy means. Based on what I know, I define mercy as the act of showing compassion through love and humility. By being merciful people, we are able to love our neighbors the way God intended us to. We are also able to show compassion to every person, especially to those who have hurt us because that’s what Jesus did when lived on Earth. 

Without knowing it, you probably have shown mercy multiple times this week as being merciful can look like choosing to put ourselves in the position of those who hurt us, but we are also merciful by gently correcting someone out of love instead of pride or by choosing to be grateful rather than complaining about the situation. As you can see, showing mercy doesn’t have to be hard, but it does take a lot to be a person who is merciful.

Author | Ellyzsa Valencia

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”- Matthew 5:6 ESV

As someone whose unofficial love language is to be fed when I’m hungry, any pieces of Scripture that have to do with being filled or satisfied always make me feel the love of God. A fear I often struggle with is that I won’t have enough or that I will be left lacking in some way, because I have seen the goodness of God and never want to be without it. The wonderful thing about what Jesus says in Matthew 5:6 is that when the thing we most desire is more of God in our lives, we will never be left with less than satisfaction. 

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’”- Jeremiah 23:5-6

To me, to hunger and thirst after righteousness means to desperately long for more of God in your life: more of his will, more of his Spirit in you, more of your thoughts to be aligned with his thoughts. To desire the righteousness of God is to desire that more of God’s holy will would be displayed on earth, primarily through you and the way you live. I think to hunger and thirst for righteousness is also to acknowledge that God’s ways are higher than ours. Seeking to live as he would have us live is to live by righteousness, because God’s ways are truly right and just. Being righteous is typically defined as “right standing with God.” This is why sacrifices were required in the Old Testament to atone for sin, so that the people could gain back the righteousness that was tainted. But the beautiful thing about Jesus’ sacrifice is this: he made the final sacrifice to atone for all of our sin so that we could live forever in the presence of God. Now we have righteousness through faith, as Paul writes in Romans 3:21-26: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace a as gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

When we long for righteousness, that doesn’t mean we have to be perfect and righteous in ourselves. Jesus made a way for us to be clothed in his righteousness because of God’s gift of grace. Desiring the righteousness of God means wanting to look more and more like Jesus every day, because in him we receive our righteousness. And when we long to look more like Jesus, God says we will always be satisfied; where our satisfaction comes from is not where the world is going to seek it, and it probably won’t look like the things of this world either. But, because of God’s grace and mercy, we can trust that his satisfaction is one that is complete and without end. 

Author | Katie Pitner