Tag: Jesus Christ

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Rest and Retreat

I just love a good retreat. Give me a clear schedule and nature to explore, and I’m there. But it hasn’t always been easy to experience real, restorative rest, whether on retreat or otherwise. Over the past three years, God has been undoing a lifetime of beliefs that kept me bound to achievement, productivity, and performance at all costs, rest included. For years, I would chase after rest, catching a glimpse here or there, but ultimately feeling more tired than before.

I would work, focus on work, work some more, and sacrifice sleep, day after day. Then, I’d go on a retreat to try to rest. Needless to say, that set me up for repeated disappointment. I had unknowingly trained myself not to rest. I knew enough to go on a retreat, but with no idea how to really rest. I learned the spiritual practices. Meditation, centering prayer, mindfulness practices, I mastered them all, but nothing I did could override my training. My thoughts would often be racing as if I was handling an imminent work project. I nodded along to discussions about winding down, unplugging, and relaxing, but none of those things seemed to “work” long term. I thought this was fairly normal.

2024 is the year things came to a head for me. I went on a weekend-long retreat, but even though the people, the setting, and everything about it couldn’t have been more idyllic, I spent the entire weekend in absolute misery. I walked in with a racing mind and pounding heart, and they would not slow down. Watching the fire in the fireplace, hearing calming music, even sleeping felt restless. For just a few precious seconds on the first full day, I was miraculously able to focus on nature during a walk instead of the storm inside, only to have my attention shift back again. Psalm 23 tells us that the Lord is the One thing that restores our souls, “He restores my soul. . . .” (Psalm 23:3a). When we can’t rest as we were intended to from the Beginning, no practices or tools have the healing power to restore us; we need God Himself for that.

As I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, we are all made in God’s image. God Himself rested after He worked, “And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done” (Genesis 2:2). We too are intended to rest from our work. God, in His loving care, even made the Sabbath, a holy day of rest, for us; “but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Genesis 20:10-11). Our rest is to be modeled after God’s own rest, and not only that, God blesses our rest! When we fail to rest, we can sorely miss out.

Rest is always just on the other side of surrender to Christ. It took months of re-training my thoughts, questioning beliefs, learning to let go, learning to really trust God, and learning not to let assumptions about others’ perceptions dictate my decisions. Slowly, I started to experience real rest again. My soul was being restored as much as I allowed God access to my heart, and that took time. Once surrender to Jesus became a regular practice in my life, rest finally didn’t seem so difficult anymore.

Now I can confidently say that God provides what we need, because I’ve experienced it for myself. There were no answers for me except for God’s ability and power to intervene on my behalf. He provides for us to rest, “so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:5). We don’t have to be afraid to let go of control; God is for us! Whether you struggle to rest like I did or not, we can all trust in God that by His power He is faithful to take care of us. We just need to let Him into our hearts; He is the Restorer of souls. Amen.

“So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his” (Hebrews 4:9-10).

For further reading, see Hebrews 3-4.

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

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Made in God’s Image

After God created earth and sky, plants and animals, He did something incredibly loving; He created human beings. “Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:26-27). We have the very image of God in our DNA, designed to be uniquely different from and to shepherd (rule) all the other creatures on earth. We were meant to rule according to His standard of morality for the good of all living things (Psalm 112). We were designed to walk in His image.

Walking in God’s image was the only way of life human beings were meant for. But today, and since sin entered the world and the human heart, there has been a struggle for us to reflect His characteristics, and our hearts became prone to wandering away from God and His Ways. In light of this, what does it look like for us to genuinely reflect God’s image in our character?

God’s characteristics (for more see the Characteristics of God series) include being just and generous, righteous, and moral (Psalm 112). He generously gave us Jesus, His Son, and brilliantly, with justice through Jesus’ blood sacrifice, gave us redemption from sin and eternal life with Him. He also gave us the Holy Spirit when we believe in Jesus (1 Corinthians 12:13). In so doing, He restored our ability to walk in His image!

This doesn’t mean walking in His image is easy, even for those who have been saved by believing in Jesus. It takes choosing to take up our cross daily to follow Him, and losing our life (refusing to follow the sinful desires of the flesh) to follow the Way of Jesus (Luke 9:23-24), who is our perfect example of living according to God’s character and will. He is faithfully walking with us and empowering us to be faithful through the Holy Spirit (John 14:26). In Galatians 5, Paul writes, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:24-25). We reflect God’s image by denying our flesh, choosing to live by the Spirit, as we believe and rely on the redemption and hope we have in Jesus. God longs for us and our character to genuinely reflect His image (Psalm 112). When we pray according to God’s will, we can be assured that He will answer our prayer (John 14:14).

An important caveat is that it is a privilege to be made in God’s image,  and something to treat with the utmost humility. It is not our right to play God. To do so is to walk in the flesh, which only prolongs suffering apart from the will of God. It is important to remember when talking about God’s image in us that we are not God; God is God, and we are not. 

The image of God is renewed in us by redemption through Jesus Christ. When we abide in Jesus, we have healing, restoration, and life, even in the midst of sin. When Jesus returns to earth, sin will be no more, and we will live in the beautiful way God intended at the Beginning. But, we will understand God’s love on a much deeper level, because we will know and have experienced the bondage to sin that He saved us from. We will understand the lengths He went to rescue and redeem us from it. This just increases our intimacy with God, which sin tried to prevent, but which God desires. Thankfully for us, God’s will always will be done.

Children are often thought of as looking like, or having the image of, their parents. The greatest privilege anyone can have is to be a child of God, to bear His image. And the amazing things is that He offers it to everyone freely, through Jesus Christ. Everyone bears His image, because He created all people, including you! Sin tragically separated us from God our Father. But Jesus, the Son of God, sacrificed Himself on our behalf, making a Way for us to be adopted back into the family of God (Ephesians 1:4-6). Jesus died to save us from the sin in our own hearts and from the sin of the world. He loves all those who were born to bear the image of His Father.  

May we joyously thank God for allowing us the Way to partake of His great love in the family of families, which we were made for, and where we will always belong. Amen.  

“Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous. Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice. Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered forever. They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord” (Psalm 112:4-7).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

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3 Ways to Build Confidence in Christ

Confidence is something many people spend their lives chasing. Lots of money is spent every year by people trying to look and feel more confident. But true confidence doesn’t come from what is external; confidence is at a deep, soul level, within us. And true confidence isn’t purchased, achieved, or earned, it is given to us as a gift from God. Jesus Christ is the only solid, secure foundation (1 Corinthians 3:11) on which we can have true, lasting confidence.

That said, we can do things that can help keep our confidence in Christ strong, as there are many things that will consistently try to come against us, and tempt us to doubt. We need confidence to endure the tests, trials, and storms that all of us will face in life. A few months after I started Life with the King in 2019, I wrote a post called Confidence in the Promises of God about the confidence that comes with believing God’s promises in Scripture. I shared three key promises to rely on, and today I want to offer something deeper still. Here are three ways (there are many more!) to build confidence in our Lord, Jesus Christ:

1. Seek the Depth To Which You Are Loved By God

We are so incredibly loved by God. He loved us so much that He gave us the written Word, an enduring love letter written for us to know His heart towards us. He loved us so much that He gave us His Son, Jesus, to die so that our sins could be atoned for by His blood, shed to save us from death (Romans 8:2, Hebrews 2:14). He loved us so much that He gave us the Holy Spirit, to give us power, comfort, wisdom, and discernment as we seek to live according to God’s will for us. The Holy Spirit dwells within all believers (Acts 2:38, Romans 5:5, 1 Corinthians 6:19). These are just a few of the ways we are cared for and protected by God; there are countless ways He forgives, shows grace, and is kind in uniquely personal ways to each of us on a daily basis. Caring for us and protecting us was His plan all along. “When I thought, ‘My foot slips,’ your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up” (Psalm 94:18). God’s love protects us. As the Truth about the depth of God’s love for us becomes clearer, our confidence can do nothing but grow! We can be confident in God’s love for us.

2. Develop a Trusting Relationship with God

It is our relationship with God that brings us joy and light (guidance, clarity) in life (Psalm 97). We have confidence that we have final victory over evil and idolatry (Psalm 97:9-11) because of who God is. Scripture often refers to knowing God’s name, which means knowing His character, what He is like, and what He cares about (for more, see the Characteristics of God series). To Truly know what God is like, we need to go to the Source Himself. We can’t rely on other people’s relationships with Him, we need to get to know Him for ourselves. Seeking out His heart by talking to Him, and earnestly listening for His voice, build relationship with God. In that relationship, trust and confidence of the security of His love can grow. “And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you” (Psalm 9:10).

3. Believe and Rely on God’s Forgiveness

God’s forgiveness forms the foundation of our confidence (Psalm 99:8). “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight” (Ephesians 1:7-8). We rely on being forgiven by God through Jesus Christ. We easily forget what an amazing luxury it is to be forgiven. It is our state of being forgiven that allows us to confidently walk with Him. Being forgiven means we are securely within His grace, because of our relationship with Him.

To recap, revelation of God’s amazing love leads to trusting relationship with Him, which leads us to living confidently in a state of knowing we are forgiven. This isn’t something we do once in life, it is something I’ve had to start fresh with many times. But every time, God wipes the slate clean in His merciful forgiveness. He is ready and willing to help us to strengthen our confidence daily. We can deeply experience the freedom and victory Jesus has already gifted to us by living confidently and being confident in Him.

Confidence doesn’t originate in us, it comes from God Himself, who is the Source of who we are. It seems to me that we are only as confident as how much we trust in His love, relationship, and forgiveness.

May God help us confidently overcome through Jesus Christ and our full reliance on Him! Amen.

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

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Letting Go of the Past

All of us reach certain points in our lives when we have to reconcile with the past. Whether we realize it or not, we all have a relationship with the past: what has happened, and how we perceive what has happened. The past may require self-forgiveness for the ways we chose to react or not react, and for the ways we perceived things in a way that hurt ourselves or others. It may require us to ask forgiveness from other people, and from God. It may also require us to forgive others. It’s when our past starts to get in the way of our present that we need to take a closer look, and with God’s grace, let it go.

In the midst of this rather uncomfortable but necessary place, I take heart in the words written by Paul, who, before putting faith in Jesus Christ, had quite a messy past indeed. He wrote about forgetting what was behind him, thanks to Christ’s saving work in his life, in exchange for something much more fruitful; “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained” (Philippians 3:13-16).

As we talked about last week, faith (Philippians 3:9) is the foundation for this “upward call of God in Christ Jesus;” faith is at the heart of life with God. It is faith that drives us forward in our relationship with Jesus. Followers of Jesus have faith that there is eternal life for us, resurrected with Christ. God’s transformative power works on our hearts and minds (Romans 12:2) and allows us to let go of the past, the things that came before following Jesus. In Christ, the past no longer has a hold on us. We no longer need to strive to earn approval, forgiveness, or redemption—in fact, there is no way we could ever even come close to earning these things at all! Only Jesus can provide deliverance from our sins, and the only way is through our faith. Jesus is enough to cover our past and whatever may be holding us back. May we believe the Truth, trusting that our relationship with Jesus is enough to free us from the past.

Paul had an unshakable faith. His letter to the Philippians, written while imprisoned, is so powerfully faith-filled that it is encouraging to us even today, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:7-8). Paul’s words of bold faith, that knowing Jesus is absolutely worth more than everything else in life, including that which was behind him, is incredibly empowering. Jesus empowers us to let go of what came before, and go all in with Him in faith. He will never let us down.

So, whenever our past is brought to mind, whenever it discourages us, disheartens us, or feels too big and too much to overcome, may we remember what is True. Jesus has already overcome our past. Let’s remember to ask Him what He has to say about our past. We no longer are bound by what came before, Jesus paid for it all.

May our faith be encouraged, and may we be empowered to let go of what is behind us to reach God’s upward call for our lives in Jesus Christ. He has overcome. Amen!

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

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Unwavering Faith

I’m in the thick of reading the Psalms. There are 150 Psalms in the Bible, and at a surface-level reading, they could seem rather repetitive. Many of the same words, phrases, and sentiments show up, psalm after psalm. The more I study them, however, the more unique I find them to be. Psalm 88 recently caught my particular attention with a stunning display of encouraging faith I want to share today.

Psalm 88 is categorized as a lament, an earnest and urgent petition to God, from an individual’s point of view. In this mighty Psalm, the faith of choosing to continually cry out to God, pray to God, and call upon God, even in the depths of trouble—weakness, feeling distant from God, overwhelmed, being shunned, sorrow, affliction, suffering, and destruction—stood out to me. This distinct Psalm has no statement of confidence that God will bring deliverance or relief, as all the other Psalms have. Psalm 88 expresses the unwavering faith of the individual, as they simply come before the Lord in prayer, “Every day I call upon you, O Lord; I spread out my hands to you” (Psalm 88:9b). They pray faithfully, even as they are experiencing absolute misery, darkness, and sorrow day after day, to the point of feeling abandoned by God Himself; “O Lord, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 88:14). This psalm has a unique display of love for and trust of God, without confidence that He will change the singer’s circumstances.

When I realized the level of desperation the singer of this Psalm was in, the fact that they still expressed faith by seeking God in prayer using such connected and passionate language gave me pause. It is a beautiful example and reminder. There are occasions or seasons when we too may not feel or sense any sort of reply from God. We may feel abandoned by God, as expressed in Psalm 88; yet that doesn’t give us an excuse to stop acting on and praying in faith, even when we don’t see hope in sight. Continuously bringing our situation to God no matter how we may be feeling, as in this Psalm, shows incredible faith. God desires for us to have faith in Him and what He did for us (John 3:16, John 12:46, John 14:1, Acts 16:31). By including Psalms such as this one in Scripture, He has told us we won’t always feel connected, hope-filled, or happy. Feelings don’t surprise Him. They don’t change the reality: God set the foundation of steadfast love and faithfulness for us (Psalm 89); He paid the penalty for sin through Jesus; He has authority over all the things that seek to discourage us or steal our joy or destroy us. We are asked to believe and trust Him by faith, and not to give up believing, no matter how we feel or how dark things may become.

The depth of the faith shown in Psalm 88 goes deeper still, “You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves” (Psalm 88:6-7). The singer attributes their difficult situation to God Himself. They don’t shy away from telling God how they feel as a result. They acknowledge that God has authority over the situation they are in, that He Himself allowed it, if not caused it, and that He also has the ability to get them out of it. Again, the Psalm makes it clear that the singer feels distant, shunned, and in increasing internal pain. Yet, they still express faith that God has control and that relief is in His hands.

Hearing God’s Word—the Truth—strengthens our faith. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17); this is what Psalm 88 did for me. It was such an encouragement to see such gritty, unrelenting faith in the middle of the Psalms this week. Faith is fundamental to following Jesus. In the Word, we are commanded to believe in Jesus, “And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us” (1 John 3:23-24). Faith in God is so important to pleasing God and doing His will. I’m realizing that maybe faith is not as mysterious as it’s sometimes made out to be; faith comes by hearing the Truth, and it is a gift that God gives to all those who ask Him for it.

In Romans, Paul writes about the importance of believers doing what they do in faith, “For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23b). Faith is foundational to walking in step with God, to walking in love, and abiding in Him.

May we continue to seek out and hear the Word and to pray for strong, unwavering faith as we endure until the very end. Amen.

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation” (Hebrews 1:1-2). 

“And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

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6 Ways to Walk in Love

When I put my faith in Jesus, humbled by His love for me, my life became His. No longer my own, I willingly came under His authority and will. Responding to the love of Jesus naturally results in the desire to obey His commands because we know that they are what’s best for us and for others. He commands His followers to walk in His love: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). It is God’s will that we love one another; in love, amazing things can happen.

Paul wrote, “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2). What does it mean to walk in God’s love? According to Scripture, walking in love involves both avoiding pitfalls and taking some particular actions. Please note that faith is not based on actions or works (Ephesians 2:8); that is not where I’m coming from with this blog, friends. Scripture gives us specific examples, which I find to be helpful guardrails for everyday life; we have these reference points to correct course if and when needed. While I can’t provide a comprehensive list of Scripture’s examples of walking in love today, I’ll name a few.

Walking in Love: Things to Avoid

  1. Do not speak about sexual immorality or impurity or covetousness (Ephesians 5:3). In Ephesians 5, which speaks to walking in God’s light, Paul calls these things improper, out of place, and taking part in darkness. To speak of these things does not honor Jesus Christ or the place we have as children of God, and as those who inherit His Kingdom. It is not conducive to being a saint, being wise, being thankful, or being people who understand God’s will, filled with the Spirit. “The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12).
  2. Do not participate in drunkenness (Romans 13:13). Drunkenness is not conducive to walking properly (no pun intended), as in the light of Christ.
  3. Do not participate in quarreling or jealousy (Romans 13:13). Quarreling and jealousy do not make it easier to love people, but can make it much more difficult to do what is best, not only for the other person but also for ourselves. Being jealous of someone else is indicative of taking our eyes off of Jesus, because we want something that is apart from Him and the way He uniquely made us. Paul went so far as to say that coveting (wanting something to an excess that is not ours), is a form of idolatry (Ephesians 5:5).

If I find myself edging closer to any of these things, it is a warning sign for me, that I have taken my focus off of God, and am not walking in love or in the light of Christ. These things are not reasons to self-condemn or live in shame (Romans 8:1), but can be helpful signposts to point us back to Jesus, and to surrender our focus and attention to Him. They are signals to confess the darkness and bring us back to walking in the path of His light.

Walking in Love: Things to Do

2 John chapter 1 names specific evidence of walking in love:

  1. Love one another (verse 5). As in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), loving others means having compassion on people, no matter if they are considered a friend, neighbor, or enemy. Loving others means having mercy toward them, even when it is not convenient or cost-effective for us. This is something that Jesus did perfectly; we have His life to look to as our best example of what it looks like to live a life of loving others.
  2. Confessing the coming of Jesus Christ (verse 7). Acknowledging that Jesus is God the Son, who came in human form with a physical body, in other words, that Jesus is both fully deity and fully human, is important in walking in love. In every age there will be deception and deceivers spreading lies about the deity and/or humanity of Jesus. Walking in love is not to be deceived about who Jesus is (and thus taking our focus off of the Truth); in His love, our spirit confesses that Jesus is exactly who He said He is.
  3. Abide in the teaching of Jesus Christ (verse 9). I have written a bit about this before in Abide in His Love. Abiding in Jesus stems out of the personal relationship Jesus longs to have with each one of us. He wants us to know Him, trust Him, and love Him, and in turn, He gives us the light of life. He even promises “a full reward” (2 John 1:8) to those who love others, walk in His commandments, and abide in His teachings (Matthew 22:36-39).

Focusing on Jesus involves focusing on the things He commands us to do, and on His character. The more we know Him, the more we love Him. The more we love Him, the more we recognize how much He loves us, and how much love He gives us every single day. As we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to abide in His love and obey His commands, may we love God with all we are.

May we remember that Jesus has already and continues to give us more than enough to walk in His love. Amen.

“‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And he [Jesus] said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. . . .'” (Matthew 22:36-39).

“And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:10-14).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

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7 Years of Life with the King

I invite you to celebrate with me as Life with the King turns 7 this week! Last year, I wrote about the birth of this blog in my post, Seeking Life’s Deeper Truth on July 24th, 2025.

This post today also happens to be the 100th Life with the King blog post. Halleluiah, all glory be to God!

After 7 years, while 7 is known as a number of completion, I somehow get the feeling it’s just beginning. Some statistics: blog visitors have increased nearly seven times in the last two years. My most-accessed post is the very first blog ever posted in July 2019, What To Do When You Struggle With Faith, with over 1,250 views. The blog is meant to be shared with people who might need encouragement, who might be seeking Truth, and who might feel lonely in their faith journey. There has always been a hunger for Truth, Life, and God, but I’m seeing it multiply just in this blog’s stats.

God has given us all gifts to share for the good of all people, and He will give you what you need to make His plans for your gifts a reality, even if it takes 7 years or 77 years. Never give up. I’ve learned in my own life with the King that whatever God has given you to do, whether writing a blog or not, is worth doing. He will refine and transform you through it. He will help us see it through.

I wasn’t qualified to write about faith because of great faith or anything like that, but instead because of the shortcomings I had with faith. It was my doubt and failure to have faith that put me on a journey of seeking Truth and starting this blog. I knew what it was like to do the wrong thing and live the wrong way in God’s eyes. I knew I was a sinner 7 years ago, and I know I am a sinner now. But the more years go by, the more I know that “…God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). It’s all about what Jesus did for us, not what we have done, wrong or right. In putting our faith in Jesus’ sacrifice for us, we are, rather unfairly, forgiven. Halleluiah!

I was reading about that “unfairness” today in Romans 5. It reads, “one trespass led to condemnation for all men” (Romans 5:18), which sounds pretty unfair to me. There have been times in my life where I felt completely trapped by and resentful of that tie to sin that I could do nothing about whatsoever. It was inherited simply by being a human being just like Adam and Eve were human beings.

But there is hope, for the very next thing Paul writes is, “so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men” (Romans 5:18). Jesus’ act of righteousness, sacrificing Himself for us to pay the penalty, makes inheriting justification and life just as easy for us to have as our inherited sin! “For as by one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19). Adam disobeyed God, Jesus obeyed God. We were made sinners by Adam, and we were made righteous by Jesus. It sounds simplistic until you realize the poetic depth and profundity of what Jesus did to undo the curse, oppression, and lordship of sin and death over the lives God lovingly crafted for us to live with Him in freedom and peace. We are loved enough by God for Him to bring that life, freedom, and peace about to completion (Philippians 1:6).

It’s all about what God has done for us, it’s not about us. It’s not about striving to be perfect, it’s all about Jesus. The reality is that we truly are desperate for Him, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:1-2). We’re just so prone to forget. But even in our forgetfulness, there is so much grace from God, “For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:16-17). There is grace upon grace for each one of us. Jesus is the Truth. Halleluiah!

If you’re a longtime subscriber, please know that I’m so grateful for you! I’m amazed every post is actually being read, even after 7 years of writing—thank you. And if you aren’t already, please take a moment to subscribe.

May you experience God’s kindness, peace, and grace in your own life with the King. Amen.

“For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and like & follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

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God’s Authority and Power

Have you ever been described as someone who “has a problem with authority”? If not, you can probably picture someone like that; a person who doesn’t want to be told what to think, say, or do. For most of us, the sentiment resonates. This world is full of voices, ideologies, and philosophies that confidently, persuasively, skillfully, and sometimes quite subtly, tell us what to do, what to buy, and what to pay attention to. I for one have definitely been frustrated by this and have, in a defiant huff, tried to simply go my own way.

It isn’t possible as human beings for us to avoid coming under the authority of something. Because God created us to be ruled and commanded by Him, it is in our nature to follow and obey. We don’t get to choose whether we are under an authority. We all have the free will authority by God, our Creator, to choose what we follow and bend our lives to. We are always under authority and always being led, a lot like sheep who need a Shepherd. Who or what is it that we are allowing to shepherd us today?

We may live to serve our calling, our work, our community, or our family. We can live to serve man-made ideologies and political perspectives. We can live to serve ourselves, our pride, and selfish indulgence. However, there is a big difference between living to serve God, and living to serve anything else. The first two of the ten commandments warn against idolatry (Deuteronomy 5:7-8). We are not to order our lives around anything before God Himself. Nothing and no one is powerful enough or big enough to handle the weight of our need but God Himself. He knew that, and He calls us to serve Him out of the overflow of energy, focus, and clarity of identity and purpose that comes from our relationship with Him. The sin of idolatry is putting work, people, or ideas in the place of God.

Paul wrote, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority” (Colossians 2:8-10). Paul warns not to allow our hearts to come under the authority of anything but Christ, or the lies that run rampant in the world. We must remember that we are filled in Christ, who has authority and power over every thing, including the things that we may be drawn to, or compelled by or taken with in this world.

I learned the hard way that it’s entirely up to us whether we submit to the authority of Jesus or not. God is the only One powerful enough to overcome all of the horror, darkness, and destruction of our own souls that other options eventually lead to. We are commanded not to have other gods and not to idolize anything but God, for our good. His authority is safe. His is the only authority under which we can have True freedom. Ideologies or other things or people in this world may promise freedom, but all lead to a life of believing lies about who we are and how we were created by God.

How do we know we’ve gone wrong? The best test that I know is to look at the fruit of our lives. Do our lives overflow with the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? For me, if one, some, or all of these is, or are, lacking, that’s a sign to me that it’s time to talk to God about what’s holding me back. It’s time to ask Him where I haven’t feared His authority and power rightly; to ask Him to convict my heart of sin. The sooner we turn to Him in repentance from sin, the sooner we can enjoy His safe, loving authority over our lives.

I spent years thinking I was doing fine, working until 9:00 pm every night, serving work. Agonizing over my performance with dance which was my hobby, serving man’s approval. I thought I was fine neglecting my health, serving my own convenience over stewarding my body well, which is God’s handiwork. Friends, it’s so easy to slip into excuses like, “This is completely normal, everyone does this,” or, “I just am too overwhelmed to think about it right now.”

I now recognize that those are lies and attitudes designed to keep us stuck in bondage; they are not based on what is True. We can know this because the Truth is that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13). The Truth is that “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7). And the Truth is that “nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37)! There is nothing that can separate us from God’s love (Romans 8:38-39); there is nothing holding us back from living a life of fruitfulness except coming under the wrong authority.

Jesus is the Truth; He is the only way out of the entanglement of lies. He is the door (John 10:9); there is no other way, friends. Submitting our lives to the ultimate, loving, all-powerful authority of Jesus is the best thing we’ll ever do in our lives. Jesus has shown us the way, may we walk in it (Isaiah 30:21)! May we enjoy fruitfulness, Truth, and life under the all-encompassing authority of Jesus. Amen.

“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).

“All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him‘” (Luke 10:22).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and like & follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

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A Grateful Heart

Gratefulness is not my default setting. I need to make a conscious decision, and ask for God’s grace to be grateful. But having a grateful heart is one of the best things in life. It opens you up to possibility, it makes God’s work easier to notice in your life, it helps focus you on the Truth, that we have endless reasons to be grateful to God, starting with life itself.

Last week I did something out of obedience to God that required sacrifice. Afterwards, I felt tired and had gotten discouraged. I had obeyed God, but I forgot to be grateful for the opportunity to obey in the first place. Instead, I was focused on all the things that had been uncomfortable about the experience, and had pushed and challenged me. But the Truth is, I can focus on being grateful that I chose to obey the Lord. The tolls of living in the fallen world pale in comparison, and thinking about it in these terms, suddenly makes it easy to realize I would choose it again every time.

Obedience is a direct result of fearing God. Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 111:10), essential for a life lived in Christ. Hebrews 12 says, “See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.’ This phrase, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:25-29).

This passage warns us to fear God, to obey Him, and implies that the only right response to the kingdom that we live in, that which is eternal and in Christ, is being grateful. From our grateful hearts with the wisdom of His kingdom, our only response is to worship God with a holy fear.

God is bigger than every inconvenience, discomfort, or challenge. He is faithful to us, and His will is for us to obey Him. He helps us to do that whenever we choose it. It’s okay to ask for God’s help to have a grateful heart. Obeying God doesn’t mean life will suddenly be easy. Life is difficult for everyone. But with God’s help, we can be grateful, seeing through new eyes by His grace just how much He has done, is doing, and will continue to do for us. I’ve had to ask for His help doing that this week. It’s been a needed lesson, and maybe you can relate, if not today, then someday. Let’s remember He will help us when we ask! He alone can change our hearts, giving us hearts of gratefulness that please Him; He is faithful.

Thanks be to God!

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and like & follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

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Grace for Sleep

How much does sleep impact your day-to-day life? Do you have to be intentional to get healthy sleep? For the majority of people living in Western culture, sleep is often talked about like a luxury, a commodity, or something to be envied. Sleep is a gift God gives (Psalm 127:2). It’s also been a huge struggle for me, as I wrote in Falling Awake. But today, I want to write a bit more about physical, literal sleep.

Have you ever experienced your eyes becoming heavy? All of a sudden, you can lose track of the conversation or tv show or song or task at hand, and just feel powerless to keep from falling asleep. As someone who has experienced insomnia for much of my life, this level of being tired is usually a welcomed state of being. However, there are times when being asleep is more than a little embarrassing, like with Peter, James, and John in the Garden of Gethsemane.

In both the Gospel of Matthew and Mark, we find the story of Jesus’ disciplines falling asleep in Gethsemane, after Jesus had told them to watch while He prayed: “And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, ‘So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, ‘My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.’ And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, ‘Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners‘” (Matthew 26:40-45). Jesus, even on the night He was being chased down for arrest, showed compassionate, loving grace toward the weakness of the flesh in his best friends.

He knew their spirits were willing to keep watch and pray, and their hearts were in the right place. However, their physical bodies could not keep up with their hearts and they, seemingly beyond their control, in weakness, “took their rest.” Paul wrote, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). When we are weak and we surrender our weakness to Christ Jesus, in His great mystery He somehow becomes our strength.

In our weakness, we can surrender to be led by God, as a sheep to our Good Shepherd. The prophet Ezekiel used this analogy, “I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice” (Ezekiel 34:16). Everything provided for the sheep is from their Shepherd.

It follows that rest and sleep are the gifts of God for us. Rest is built into the very Creation, darkness of night being a daily time for rest, and the slower seasons of plant productivity being a longer time for rest taken by the earth. In a culture of overwork and little sleep, it’s important to remember that the grace of God can be demonstrated to us by rest and sleep. If we aren’t paying attention, we may miss this facet of His grace for us.

I am not saying that trying to stay awake is always disobedience; it also can imply a great God-fearing desire or effort on the part of a person. King David said, “I will not enter my house or get into my bed, I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob” (Psalm 132:3-5). When our work is for the Lord and we’re within His will and purpose for us, He will give us the strength we need to stay awake to accomplish it if necessary. But those periods require discernment. Those periods are often only for a season. Rest is a need, and a gift God wants to give us as our trustworthy Shepherd; resting in Him, we experience His peace.

God the Father doesn’t sleep. He doesn’t need to! It is because of His work that we can rest: “He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand.” (Psalm 121:3-5). That God is our keeper is such Good News! God shows us grace in every way, and one of them is to give us the assurance and rest of His strong Presence in our weakness.

I had a minor Peter, James, and John moment just this week. I fell asleep when I really needed to stay awake, and a domino effect of consequences followed. At first, I was upset with myself, but I soon realized God knew my heart, just like He knew that of His disciples’ that night in the Garden. He had already forgiven my weakness. I just needed to thank God for His understanding and let go to take the next step with Him.

While God made us all fearfully and wonderfully (Psalm 139:14), Jesus knew our weakness firsthand. Not only was He fully human, He saw how his best (human) friends couldn’t stay awake with Him. He knew then and knows now, we are jars of clay (2 Corinthians 4:17), not steel. “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:13-14). Even in Jesus’ most difficult moment of anguish in His life to that moment in the Garden of Gethsemane, He showed incredible grace for the fragility of our human flesh, and continues to show us His amazing grace for our weaknesses. Can I get an amen?

If you ever feel reluctant to give yourself grace like me, remember in Jesus’ grace, you are already forgiven. He knows you are human, and He knows your heart. Leave unforgiveness at the cross, and find rest in His presence and peace today.

“The Lord bless you and keep you;  the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” (Numbers 6:24-26).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and like & follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

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