work Archives : Life with the King

I like to start each new season with a list of a few fun things to see, accomplish, or experience, especially summer. I don’t usually check all of them off, but it helps me to have some specific things in mind to aim for, so I don’t let the season pass me by. Since I’ve quit my traditional job, I wasn’t sure if I should make these lists of goals anymore. How would these kinds of goals be possible? Going anywhere and doing anything costs money and time, and with margins getting tighter, my fun list could become a source of shame, greed, or worse if I’m not careful.

As someone who naturally leans more on the practical side, it’s important for me to remember that God wants us to enjoy our lives, and that He is our provider; not our jobs, work, or efforts. God is everything. If He puts something on our heart to do, we need to listen to that. It comes down to trust in God. I’ve been learning in this season not to trust my own logic and feelings about what’s possible, but to trust that God can do impossible math.

I first heard the term “impossible math” from Dallas Jenkins, when he described how God provided for his work on The Chosen television series. That term has stuck with me for several years. Lately, when I would think about doing one of the things on my fun list, money suddenly became the first obstacle. But something started to change in the way I thought about it. I didn’t get discouraged right away, but instead asked the Lord if this was something I needed to say yes to anyway, even if it seemed impractical. For three of those things I’d written down already this season, God has nudged me forward to accomplish them.

Since I’ve made the choice to forgo a steady income, I’ve been learning how to live without one, how to trust the Lord to provide for my needs. He always does provide in one way or another—God does impossible math. Anxiety is optional; He provides just the same. It’s so much better not to worry and simply trust that He will come through, because no matter what practicality might tell us, the Truth is that He always will! God has been very patient with me as I learn this. I am very slow to trust, and slow to let go of worry and anxiety. God truly loves us and is gracious to us! He never loses patience with us. Amen!

God graciously made a way for me to go on a trip that was on my fun list. God truly did impossible math so that I could go on that trip! I had worried so much beforehand about having enough to cover it. But there was nothing to worry about. I still have such a long way to go in trusting God without worry. I’ve seen God’s impossible math firsthand now, which is something I may not have experienced if I hadn’t left my traditional job. For the trip, the gas cost almost half of what I thought it would be. God provided more income than I thought I would have for the trip. He made it so all the food costs were provided for. Impossible math!

God makes a way, even when it seems there is no way, if it is His will for us to go somewhere or do something that He’s placed on your heart. If that’s the case, don’t let worry or fear get in the way. Trust in the Lord! He does impossible math so that His will may be accomplished on earth as it is in heaven! All it takes is for us to say yes to Him. Friends, what is the Lord leading you to do this summer? Don’t let anything hold you back; wait and watch Him work to make the way!

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24).

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.

This year, I’ve visited more farms than I can remember visiting in any previous summer. I’ve picked strawberries, peaches, and flowers. I’ve smelled the Maryland tomatoes and cantaloupes piled high in farmer’s market bins. I’ve felt the sun more than I have since I was in middle school. It’s been healing.

Stale, work computer-charged air a distant memory, I’ve been appreciating the delight of abundance this harvest season. The earth’s harvest is very symbolic in Scripture; it has so much to teach us, especially if, like me, you’ve had to adapt to measuring time by email deadlines rather than by the seasons of Creation.

The harvest season comes with a lot of opportunity to connect with God and each other. As summer yields the crop for the year, seeing the abundance of God’s provision has given me a childlike wonder and delight. A single fruit tree bearing incredible quantities of fruit in just one season has been quite a sight to behold on the farm.

I’ve been longing for the ability to make my own life fruitful to live in the beautiful ways Scripture says is possible (eg: John 15:5, Galatians 5:16-25). But I often feel sorely lacking, and in a season not of abundance but of drought. I’ve been reading about and longing for sanctification and frustrated by its slow, and at times painful, progress that takes a long time to yield fruit and a lifetime to be completed. Sanctification is hard to define, but it involves seeing the Truth to the point of no longer being deceived by selfish desires or goals to find fulfillment, and dedication to serving God and doing His will, instead of my own. This is foolishness to the world of email deadlines, profit margins, and fiscal year spreadsheets that I was entangled with for years, and the process of detangling has been a wild one.

Like the wheat and weeds grow up together, people who love Jesus grow here in the world along with everyone else and everything else (Matthew 13:24-30). Followers of Jesus are not to be removed, but to remain in the world and be an influence for good. Jesus prayed for His followers in His high priestly prayer before His arrest, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it” (John 17:15-16) (NIV). The answer to sanctification is not shutting out all of the entanglements, temptations, and evil and hope that that makes us good enough people. We can’t escape the world, nor does God want us to. What makes us able to be fruitful among it all is utter devotion to and dependence on Jesus and His sanctifying work in our hearts.

Jesus continues His prayer, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified” (John 17:17-19) (NIV). Jesus prayed for our sanctification. Sanctification involves abiding in Jesus. Abiding, like sanctification, is ongoing, not bound by time at all. We all live in the tension of waiting for the fullness of God’s provision and work in us. It isn’t something I can achieve or be rewarded with. It’s something I simply need to allow. Simple, yet, at least for me, incredibly difficult.

It’s worth it though, because sanctification leads to our lives bearing good fruit. As we allow God by the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:16, 1 Corinthians 6:11) to work in and sanctify us, we grow and mature. We are transformed by Him in holiness, or moral purity in our attitudes, thoughts, and actions. I’ve witnessed this change in people, and it’s simply miraculous.

The fruit that comes as a result of sanctification is loving people as God loves us, living with joy, walking in peace, caring with patience, bearing with others in kindness, and so on (Galatians 5:22-23). Sanctification involves our hearts, minds, and spirits coming to a place that no longer gives in to anything that blocks us from abiding in Him. And again, we’re on a lifelong journey to be sanctified. God is faithful to sanctify His people, even though it may feel slow and painful and impossible at times. This season of abundant, fruitful harvest reminds me of this hope for my own life.

There’s nothing we can do to earn sanctification or speed it up or work toward it. The work is allowing and completely depending on God to do the work that is needed in us, and having faith that He is, has been, and will be working. May God help us on the days we resist His work, and may our lives bear fruit as we allow Him to work through us. Amen.

“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).

Tag: work

Impossible Math

Sanctification and Fruitfulness