8 ways to improve your daily devotions

Do you struggle in the attempt to spend time with your Heavenly Father each day? I've been there friend, and there are many days when I am still there! Over the past year, I have been exploring what it means to commune with the Father through daily devotions. I have tried many different approaches, and though my practice is far from perfect, I have been able to develop a steady and healthy rhythm of devotion time. Today I started asking myself, "what has led to this increase in my engagement with my daily devotions?" and there were a few things that stuck out.

So today, I have for you a little list of tips that I hope will help you engage more fully with God as you enter into the Christian discipline of personal devotion time.

1) Don't find time, make time.
If finding time is your number one issue when it comes to spending time with God, then nothing else on my list is going to help you until you give up trying to find time and just simply make time. The honest truth is that if your schedule is so jam-packed that you don't have even 10 minutes to spend with God each day (or even 3 days/week) then you are too busy. Plain and simple friend. In our busy culture these days it is unlikely that the average person has spare time just lying around waiting to be filled, so if you keep looking for that hidden amount of time, you won't find it. Contrary to what you may believe, you are not a slave to your schedule. God has given you the freedom to say "yes" and to say "no" and so if you are struggling to find the time amidst your busy schedule to be with God, then there is something currently in your schedule that you need to say "no" to in order to spend time with Jesus. I'd start with all things technology, such as: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat, online games, texting, watching TV, browsing magazines, and online shopping. Prioritize making time to be with God, and I promise you the rewards you reap will be far more fulfilling than any of the things on that list.

2) Create sacred space. 
Once we have carved time out to be with God, perhaps the next biggest barrier to a successful devotional time is distractions and interruptions. Any mother knows this (not that I am one...)! But really, we all know it because pretty much all of us own cell phones. Those blasted things we can't live without. So we need to create a sacred space in our lives, and most often this involves separating ourselves from others so that we can be focused on Jesus. This is a practice that Jesus actually modeled for us, He often when off by Himself to pray. We can follow this example by seeking solitude from time to time, in order to commune with our Father. This may mean closing a door, going into a closet, a different floor of the house. I once heard a story of a mother who would sit in her kitchen and put a blanket over her head. Her children would walk in the room to ask her a question,  see the blanket (a visual cue that now was not the time to bother mom unless it was urgent) and would wait until later to chat with her. You could even leave a notepad out on the counter so that they can write their question down, and then you follow up with them when they are finished. This simple act gave this mother mental space in which she could be with the Lord amidst even a chaotic house. Of course, if the matter was urgent (i.e. an emergency of conflict) then she would excuse herself from God's presence and tend to her children. But the point is that when it comes to developing consistency in our devotional lives, environment matters, and even putting a blanket over your head as you pray creates a different mental environment.

3) Use sound as a pathway. 
For some, music or sound is distracting while they are trying to focus. If this is the case, try to find a quiet place, or purchase some ear plugs and put them in (here is a link to my favourite brand) in order to create silence. For others, music drowns out distraction (this is ME!), and so engaging fully in your devotion means finding music that acts as a pathway to God. For me, this is quiet, ambient or instrumental music. I found this amazing playlist the other day on The Good Christian Music Blog. it has been on repeat every morning this week.  Each individual's taste is different. Instrumental might be your best bet, for others, it is worship and for others, it is electronica. Whatever your taste, find music that feeds your soul and brings you into communion with the Father rather than distracting you from Him. If silence is what does it, then choose that.



4) Be devoted.
In the past, I have given up on Bible reading plans or devotional books when I felt like I wasn't "getting much out of it." In the past year, I have learned that daily devotions are less about my feelings and more about showing up. They are about devotion or faithfulness, that is why they are called devotions! Devotion is actually defined as "profound dedication, consecration." So if I have a friend who I hang out with regularly, and there are a few hangouts in a row where we don't have some sort of amazing communal experience together, does this mean that I will stop being their friend? Of course not, because friendship is about loyalty - it's about devotion! We stick around even when we go through dry patches, and sticking around actually teaches us a great deal about friendship. The same is true in marriage and this virtue also extends into our devotional life.  What if we viewed our devotional time as time that was consecrated, or "set apart" for God? What if we devoted ourselves to freeing our time up to meet with God daily regardless of the outcome? What if devotions were more about learning to actually be devoted and less about learning something? I mean, obviously you don't want to sit there and waste your time every day, but the truth is that if you are sitting in communion with God each day, your time is not wasted.

5) Slow down.
This requires little explanation (I hope). Basically, the idea is not to just rush through your devotion. The idea is to spend quality time with God, not to just rush through and read as much of the Bible as possible or to catch up on days you've missed in your devotional book. Be okay with missed days. Be okay with not having a specific timeline or agenda. Let God bring the agenda. If all you do for 5 days straight is read the same 3 verses over and over again and spend time reflecting on what they mean - that is a successful devotional week. It's not about quantity, but quality, so take it slow.

6) Be expectant.
Slowing down also opens our ears to what God might want to say to us on any given day. But we often don't hear things because we either A) don't want to or B) don't expect to and so we don't even bother to listen. Come to every devotional time expecting to hear something from God. Maybe you won't hear something every single time, but the more you expect to hear from Him and open yourself up to the possibility, the more you will. It might be confusing (more on that below) and it might be hard at first, but eventually you will begin to hear from God, and not just during your devotion time!

7) Ask questions.
If you aren't hearing from God, ask Him a question. Where are you God? Why aren't you speaking to me? Why can't I hear you?  Listen for a response. See what happens. Or maybe you are hearing things (from your devotional book, from the Scriptures, from the music, or maybe something pops into your head that you heard in a sermon or podcast) and they don't make sense to you. Ask Him why. I don't understand this, can you explain it to me? Is this for me, or for someone else? Is there someone you want me to share this with? Is this for now or for later? When we ask questions, we continue the conversation. God doesn't have to do all the talking.

8) Read something good. 
 This is the last item on my list because, honestly, I think it is maybe the least important (bear with me...). I believe this because if we do the first 7 steps, then it matters very little what devotional book we choose to read that day. As with many things in our faith, it is our heart that matters most. So if our hearts are open, if we have set apart time, and if we have done our part in trying to create an environment in which we can meet with the Father, then the material become just a vehicle to move us into communion with God. When our hearts are there, any devotional book or Scripture we read can be used by God to speak to us. Eventually, you may even find that you don't need a devotional book to aid you, the Scriptures alone are sufficient. I highly recommend that you always keep the Scriptures as part of your devotion time, but I also think sometimes we place all the emphasis on what we are reading and not on who we are meeting with. You may not remember in a few weeks what you read yesterday in your devotional with God. But if you had an encounter with Him, you'll remember how you felt and what you learned. This is because experiences solidify knowledge.  So yes, choose a book that resonates with you. And obviously don't choose a devotional book that doesn't speak to your heart, mind, and soul. But don't think that choosing the right devotion book is what will transform your devotional time because it won't.

Well, that's it! I hope you find this helpful. If you have tips for how to improve your devotion life, please comment them below!

Aiming for Greatness

What does it mean to be great? There are many different definitions, but it all seems to boil down to one thing. To be great is to be extraordinary - to not be just simply "normal," but the supersede normalcy and become the new definition of what it means to be something. 

For example, when Michael Jordan or Wayne Gretzky entered their perspective fields of sport - they both redefined what it meant to be great at basketball and hockey. And ever since then players in both these fields have been compared to these two great men, and many covet the label of being the next Jordan or Gretzky. These men are the "greats" in their field. 

Lately I have been craving greatness, and I think where this desire comes from is a place of deep hunger to feel purposeful in this world. I want to be effective, in all areas of my life: I want a great marriage, a great ministry, to be a great sister and friend and leader. But what I am slowly realizing is that greatness in the realm of faith is not like worldly greatness. 

We are not meant to become great as the world sees greatness.

We are meant to make God greater, as John the Baptist said, "He must become greater, I must become less" (John 3:30). I love the way the Message translation puts it, "This is the assigned moment for him to move into the center, while I slip off to the sidelines."

And I think I know this, in my core - that life isn't all about me - and yet I have lived so much of my life acting like I am the center of the universe. My goals have been personal happiness, success, fulfillment, and fame. 

Even those times when I have gotten angry with God for one trial or another has come from a place of selfishness - whatever was happening was not what was best for me, it was not making me happy.

And so I need this constant reminder that my personal happiness is not, in fact, God's goal. God's goal is both personal and communal redemption. It is our restoration; our sanctification. 

But I tend to get so focused on myself that I forget everyone else. I forget that my life is just one part of a whole. I am part of a family, a community, a marriage. Who I am and what I do impacts more than just me. It can impact the entire world. 

And so the question I have to keep asking myself when I want to turn my back on God and say, "this is not what I wanted... this is not my version of greatness," is this: "could this mean great things for someone else?" And when I don't like what God is doing, I am reminded that perhaps what He is doing is bigger than just me - that maybe sometimes the things that happen in my life have little to do with me at all - they are for someone else. 

And so my faith is constantly bringing me back to this place that I find it really hard to stay in: a place of humility. I don't like being humble. It's not natural or normal. I want to elevate myself. I want to be great. I want to have the life I've always wanted to live. But my Lord constantly reminds me that I was created for something more than mere personal greatness. I was created to take part of an epic story that expands way beyond myself. Yes, I was created for something much greater. And fulfilling this high and holy calling begins with lowering ourselves. It begins with humility.

This is what it really means to become "great": it is not to be above everyone else - but to be below. It is to humbly accept that our lives are meant for more than just our own personal fulfillment. They are meant to draw others, the whole world in fact, into truth, grace, love and redemption.

I pray that my heart will become more like those of our faith fathers who, "[did not], even though their lives of faith were exemplary, get their hands on what was promised. God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours" (Hebrews 11:39-40, MSG).

giving myself permission

I made a NewYears Resolution this year that I would start writing again.

And like with every year's resolution, I did write for a little while. But then after about 4 days my writing tapered off and I started waking up every Monday morning (my writing day) saying, 'Today, I will write!" ... and then it was 11pm Monday night and I had written nothing.

This is no irregular pattern for me. Having a desire - a skill I want to hone or a project I want to get done - and not following through. Our small apartment is full of these unfinished projects. Unfinished poems, songs, paintings, nutrition plans...  and it is actually quite okay with me because lately I have given myself permission not to finish everything I start. Permission to try new things and not like them, or just not finish because I plain lose interest. Permission to have unfinished business.

And yet today I need a different type of permission. And I need this permission because writing isn't like all those other things I set out to do and don't finish. I like writing. Love it, in fact. Especially when it isn't the school type or writing... though I even like that sometimes too. It is therapeutic, helps me process, and is probably one of the only ways I remember anything. I also like writing because I believe I am good at it (someone pinch me... did I just say I was good at something? That never happens. No like honestly - I'm pretty self-deprecatory). But yes, most of the time I think I'm good at writing, and I want to be better. 

But for the past 2 months I haven't been publishing anything anywhere because I've been afraid. Afraid that maybe I'm not as good at it as I think I am. Afraid no one will read it. Afraid that the words I write will not be found interesting or significant by anyone but me. And then I realize that I need more permission... Permission to not writing something dazzling every day, but just to write for the sake of writing something, Permission to give up my people-pleasing ways and create something that, if no one reads it, could really just be for me. And finally, permission to be courageous and just do it: just write! 

Not always my strong suit - courage that is. Seriously. I did a personality test with my husband a few weeks ago and my personality description literally said that I was a cautious person in all areas of life, and in particular that I spend a lot of time planning moves and not a ton of time executing them (unless life - or my job - requires it, which they always do!). And so on Jan 1st I planned to write, and I did a little bit, but it never once wound up on my blog - the blog that when I was 15 I posted on almost every day (you can read the archives... I'm sure my 15-year-old brain was even more dazzling than this 28-year-old one, ha). 

And so today I am giving myself permission. 

Permission to be courageous.

Permission to fail.

And permission, more than anything else, to write.

So here goes, friends.

Want to come along for the ride?

Real (In)Security: Part II - Naked and Alone

Fear. We all feel it. We all hate it. We try to escape it but it seems inescapable. It drives so much of what we do.

I remember being full of fear when I lived in Bolivia. I was alone, without friends or family in a foreign country where my ability to speak the language was faulty at best. I was deeply insecure about my purpose and about whether or not anyone within 100 kilometers even cared that I was alive.

I had no idea who I was or what I was doing. I felt so utterly alone and incompetent. For the first time in 23 years my parents, who had always had a daughter who found excitement in travelling away from home, could hear the loneliness flooding from their daughter’s voice on the other side of the telephone.  

But one night, while alone in my room in that distant country, I came across this photo:

And after that something changed.

My reality did not change.

My situation remained the same.

My loneliness was still there.

But that night I made a decision, a decision to try again tomorrow.

So the next day I woke up and leaned, heavy and hard, on the things I knew to be true. I knew that I was someone worth knowing, someone who had something to offer, and I also knew that my feelings of inadequacy were lying. I just had to remind myself of that.

God just had to remind me of who I was.

Slowly but surely I began to see progress and made a few new friends.

Those first 4 months in Bolivia were difficult. But I ended up leaving there full of joy, accomplishment, and a connected heart. I’d end up returning there twice more in the 18 months that followed to live and work. With God's help I overcame the fear of being alone and took life head on.

Through that experience these are some of the things I learned:

Fear is a tricky thing. In some sense it is necessary for our survival. Fear keeps us from doing stupid things, it makes us think before we leap, and it tells us when danger is near. In some sense fear can keep us safe.

But if you have too much fear it can debilitate you.

In the beginning our greatest fear was taken care of.

 “Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner'" (Genesis 2:18).

Everything else God had declared good. The only thing in that perfect world that was “not good” was being alone.

I think that for many of us our greatest fear is being alone.  Not the kind of alone you necessarily feel when you are the only person in a room, but the kind of “being alone” that produces loneliness. We fear being unloved, abandoned, or not cared for. We fear being surrounded by a hundred people and feeling as though not one of them truly cares for us.

But this fear of being alone is not something that human beings began their existence with. Adam was not lonely without Eve in the Garden, he wasn't even technically "alone" because God was there with Him.

In the beginning, loneliness was not an issue because human beings enjoyed intimate communion with God and then also with each other. In the beginning we could fully be ourselves. We could be naked (Hebrew: ‘arowm), bare both in appearance and in matters of the heart. We were without pretense;  we had nothing to hide and we were unashamed (Genesis 2:25).

But then we lost our security. When humanity fell into sin her walls were quickly raised; walls of defensiveness and fear. We were given clothes for our bodies and fear for our hearts because we could no longer live in complete unhindered nakedness; we had to be clothed. Somehow sin brought with it the necessity of covering ourselves up, both physically and emotionally/mentally. 

In Genesis 3:8-10 Adam states here that he was afraid of God because He was naked. Why did his nakedness make him afraid? In reality we know the truth, Adam was not afraid of his physical nakedness – God had created Adam and was well acquainted with what an unclothed human body looked like. The word Adam used for naked, a different word than that used in 2:225, tells us why he was afraid of the Lord. The Hebrew term ‘eyrom implies a slightly different kind of nakedness. The kind that also implies helplessness. And this is why Adam was afraid. Because not only had he disobeyed God, but he was also helpless to do anything about it. He was helpless to repair the relationship; to fix it, to undo his sin; to erase any of it. And so Adam was afraid.

In a matter of seconds a relationship that was founded on security becomes founded on fear. This is because sin brings fear and shame. Sin brings the fear of not measuring up; it breaks our connection with God and others.

Not only is Adam naked and fearful, but he also quickly becomes defensive, blaming his wife for his own sin (Genesis 3:12). This man and woman who were created live in unity with one another quickly find that a wedge has now been driven between them. Two people united as one flesh became a divided flesh; relationships became broken.

Through all of the studying and thinking I have done on the subject of insecurity and fear I have some to believe that much of the suffering we inflict on others, and even the suffering we inflict on ourselves, is rooted in the things that we lost in the Garden. In the garden we lost our innocence and security. Fear and shame came on the scene and we could no longer trust that who we were was enough. We became utterly naked and helpless.  We lost the courage to boldly approach the Lord. We lost the courage to even approach one another. We lost the safety that comes from living in intimate community.

We began to fear being alone.

The very thing that God said was “not good” is the same thing that our sin brought us into. 

Loneliness has become the human condition. We all feel it, we all fear it.

But we are not alone, are we? Adam still had Eve, he even still had God. But after the fall something was fundamentally different in their relationships. Something inside of them changed when sin entered their world. Their relationships were now largely controlled by fear.

We are in the same predicament as Adam and Eve. We are born into a sinful world. We are born into a world that is riddled with fear and shame.

We are all born as sinners. It is a reality we cannot escape. And we all succumb to fear at times, to defensiveness, we like to blame others for our sins. And we all feel loneliness from time to time (or most of the time), don’t we?

How utterly hopeless this seems…

But hope isn’t lost! There are people all over the world who live lives that have largely been set free from insecurity and fear. And we are often amazed when we meet these people. They seem to have this contagious energy; they have a brilliance to them that we are drawn to.

Somehow they got their security back. Somehow they began to believe in their innocence.

It is possible. But it isn’t easy.

It will take a whole lot of courage.

I am not professing to be someone who has figured this all out, but I am professing to be someone who once lived a life riddled with insecurity, shame, and doubt. But then something changed. It began that night in Bolivia and it has continued on from then till now. My journey is not over (far from it!), but I can sit here and write to you all with a deep assurance that insecurity need not be the driving force of our lives.

So I invite you to come on this journey with me. This journey of exploring what real security looks like. If you'd like to come along for the ride then sit back, take a deep breath, tell yourself to be brave, and stay tuned for our next post about the kind of courage that changes everything.
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Do you struggle with insecurity? Have you found ways to overcome it? Do you have thoughts or comments you would like to share? Please comment below or feel free to send your stories to kait.jongsma@gmail.com - I would love to hear from you!

Real (In)Security: The Beginning of Change (A Late Introduction)

A few weeks ago I decided that I can’t watch the news any more. I don’t mean that I won’t. I mean I can’t. Physically, emotionally, spiritually, I just cannot do it. I get an ugly feeling in my bones when I do. There is too much suffering, and too many days go by when I wonder how we got so lost.

(Photo Via Nicki Varkevisser)

The world is full of stories of those who seemed to have lost touch with the things that make them human. Every day we are bombarded with stories of how we have hurt one another. I would like to say that these stories don’t shock me. History has told me that these things happen, a Holy Book even tells me why, but still I am shocked and saddened by these things. During my short 26 years I have also experienced a world of goodness, and so I am puzzled at the paradox of a world that is at the same time both beautiful and ugly; lovely and hateful; peaceful and yet full of chaos and war.

I crave a world that is full of goodness and grace, and though I am not the Saviour, I am His child and He has created me to be salt and light in this world; to be a preserver and an illuminator.

I often struggle with what this looks like on the ground. I wonder how I am supposed to do this because I am stumbling along in life just like the rest of us, unsure of what my role is in the chaos and noise.

All I know is that there are many moments when I know that we were made for more. We’re better than this, aren't we? We’re better than the bickering and bitterness, the mistreating and competing and taking advantage of each other. We’re definitely better than all the violence and rage. And I know this because I have seen glimpses of a better world; I have seen people who breathe life into the hearts of others instead of sucking it out like a vacuum. I have felt joy so pure that I wish it would last forever.

I once read that feeling that way – feeling so good you don’t want it to end – is an indication that maybe it wasn't supposed to end. We were made to live in eternal bliss with God.

But things got broken.

And it was us who broke them.

And I have asked God over and over why this is so. Why does life have to be this way?

Lord! I cry out with my whole heart, why do we hurt? And why do we hurt each other?

Because though I don’t believe that suffering, evil, and pain can cease to exist (at least not right now), I do believe that as God’s image bearers we have it within us to love one another as God loves us.

But the reality is that on the grand scale, we don’t.

Granted, there are some groups of people  that are fighting to live in real community with one another. They are inspiring. But the world is still overrun with pain inflicted on one human being by the hand of another. We still live in a world where evil seems to be winning (and I use the word seem here because I also believe that evil is not, in fact, winning - at least not on the grand scale and later we’ll talk about why).

I have wrestled with this question of suffering my whole life. I have read mountains of books and articles and tried to find some sort of reconcilable “theology of suffering” that makes sense to my empathetic brain. I have asked the question of why too many times. Why are we like this? And more importantly, is there hope for us? Is there hope for change?

I believe that there is. And most people who know me know that I believe that hope to be found in Jesus Christ. But please don’t write me off as another religious type just yet. I am not writing to try and persuade you to convert to Christianity, but rather I write to encourage you to consider three universal human values, and then to consider how practicing each of these values – values which were perfectly modelled to us by Jesus – might change you and thereby change the world.

In this series we’ll be talking about these three values which I believe are essential to our happiness and fulfilment as human beings. I like to call them the Fierce 3:

•          Courage
•     Confidence
•     Community

These may seem like weird values to choose, but trust me, they are crucial to our ability to thrive as healthy, loving, and peaceful human beings. These things mark the beginning of change.

As your read you will most certainly be challenged, agree, disagree, and have revolutionary thoughts of your own. 

Send them to me. 

I would love to hear the stories and opinions that arise from your heart as we take a look at things such as fear, suffering, and vulnerability. Will you journey with me as we attempt to piece together what it might look like to live in a better world? Stay tuned for my next post which will explore the concept of fear and why courage is needed.

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Have thoughts or comments you would like to share? Please comment below or feel free to send your stories to kait.jongsma@gmail.com.

The Outflow of Faith

We all spend a lot of time trying to become better people. The local Chapters store is full of shelves brimming with self-help books. Christians especially spend a lot of time doing this thing I like to call "sin management". We have somehow come to believe that our actions are what matter most. I mean, actions speak louder than words, don't they? But contrary to what our surface-obsessed world might say, our words and actions aren't what matter most. Instead it is who we are, not what we say or do, that matters most to the Lord. This is not to say that actions and words don't matter at all - they matter a fair amount! But read through any of the Gospels and you will see that words and actions are not enough for Jesus. In fact, words and actions are virtually worthless if we have done nothing to address the attitude of our hearts.

Jesus teaches us a third way. A way that is not driven by words or actions, but by something different.

He does not teach knowledge accumulation - knowing and saying the right things at the right times.

He does not teach outward action - doing the right things at the right times.

He teaches inward transformation - transforming our words and actions by transforming our hearts (Luke 6:45).

This concept is introduced to us very early on in the Bible through the story of Abraham. Abraham was counted as righteous not because he did and said all the right things (though as the father of our faith he was a pretty stand up guy!), but because he had faith. 

We spend so much time trying to control the outward things that we neglect to focus in matters of the heart. We focus on sin management and trying to control external factors that contribute to our sin instead of focusing on the only thing that is actually within our power to control: our hearts. We cannot control the world around us, but we can take responsibility for our own thoughts, feelings, words and actions. 

In Matthew 17 Jesus tells His disciples that they were not able to drive out a demon because of the weakness of their faith. Might it also be true that we are unable to get a grip on the evil in our lives because we too lack faith?

(Photo via RobinMeadDesigns)

If we don’t defeat sin, if we don’t thrive, if we don’t successfully endure suffering might it be because we lack faith? Maybe we fail not because we are weak, not because we are incapable, not because we are naïve or lacking in knowledge or self-control (though all these things may be true) – but because we do not have faith in the God who has demonstrated over and over again throughout history that He always gains the victory.

This does not mean that we need to beat ourselves up over it. But just that perhaps we need to shift our focus away from "sin management" and towards faith growth. 

What does that actually mean? How do you increase your faith in practical way?

Here are a few places we can start:

1) Get to know who God is

We cannot trust someone we don’t know or have no relationship with. Take a lesson from your other daily relationships: trust grows when we spend time with someone and see that they are a person of integrity, that they are loyal, honest and have our best interests at heart.

2) Look for God in the small things

Sometimes our faith is weak because we don’t look for God’s work in our lives or we miss the small but incredible ways in which He works. In Matthew 17:10-13 Jesus tells the disciples that what the Scriptures say about Elijah and the Messiah are being fulfilled right before their very eyes, yet they failed to see it. Why?  I think it has something to do with their eyes. They were looking for some triumphant Saviour who would overthrow Rome, not a humble carpenter's son and a crazy wild man who ate honey and locusts. Sometimes we don't think that God is at work in our lives because we are looking for grand gestures and miracles. God does those from time to time, but most of the time I believe that He works in the small things – in the encouragement of His Word, when a generous friends buys you coffee, when you're able to pay the bills every month, when someone offers to complete a task you had been struggling to find the time to do, when you choose love over bitterness. God often shows up in humble ways that we don't expect.

3) Don’t be a slave to your emotions

Sometimes our faith suffers because we don’t feel as though God has fulfilled His promises. We don’t feel  happy, we don’t feel  forgiven, we don’t feel  blessed, we don’t feel as though things will work out for good. Emotions are tricky things because they are powerful. I firmly believe that emotions are a gift, but like any gift they can be raised to the position of an idol. Depend less on how you feel and more on what you know to be true (this is where wisdom and understanding come in). Keep company with people who regularly remind you of God’s faithfulness and His Truth.

4) Take a leap

Faith in another person is solidified when we take the leap of faith and they come through. My relationship with my best friend was solidified when I shared with her a very personal story about a hurt that I had experienced in my childhood. Our trust in one another grew as she shared a similar story and we were able to comfort and speak truth into each other’s lives. My trust in her was solidified because she never judged me and to this day has never told another soul (though sharing with her was a first step towards me being willing to share my story with others). That age old saying, “you never know until you try” is true. You can never grow to trust someone if you are never in a situation in which you must trust them. Take a leap; step out in faith and see what God will do. Give Him the opportunity to show you that He is trustworthy.

"For we walk by faith, not by sight." - 2 Corinthians 5:7

the Most Beautiful Hope in the world

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.'

And he who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.' Also he said, 'Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.' And he said to me, 'It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.'"

- Revelation 21:1-7