Seeing the beauty-filled parts to the story.

Yeow — happy Monday to YOU! We hope you’ve had a chance to dig into our new devotional, Living the Surrendered Life. We started it just five days ago so there is still time to join us. Simply catch up if you’d like to follow along on schedule, otherwise PLEASE read at your own pace. Like we’ve mentioned before, our intention is to be reading Truth daily. That means the Bible! Those red letter words are so powerful + encouraging, aren’t they?? Don’t let something as silly as a schedule deter you from reading every day :)

I had a moment last week while I was journaling where a Bible verse popped into my mind and I thought, YES! Yes Lord! This is what I’ve been seeking, to know more about the word + be able to recall verses + words of encouragement later on. It felt great. Have any of you felt that yet? Or, maybe you felt that sort of thing years ago and I’m just a late bloomer –wink! Or, maybe it hasn’t happened with a verse, but perhaps with a portion of a devotion from the Soul Detox {our first devotional} or Living the Surrendered Life {our current devotional}?

 

I peeked ahead at this week’s Living the Surrendered Life devotionals, and you know what? They are really, really good.

Here are some topics we’ll be studying this week: gratitude [Phil 4:11-12], rejoicing always [1 Thes. 5:16-18], faithful prayers [Romans 12:12], following the Lord’s will [James 4:13-15], repentance leads to salvation [2 Cor. 7:10].

I won’t list everything as I don’t want to spoil the way God will be speaking to each of you ;) But ohhh, trust me when I say this week is going to be so so good. Some of my deepest struggles/fears have to do with fearing the unknown.

I wonder if I were to add an extra dash of trust to my day, would life be easier? The quick, uncomplicated answer would be YES, because I would have more faith to let God reveal His perfect timing [Jeremiah 29:11]. I’m really good at focusing on the little details when really, if I could just take a step back I’d see some of those details are beauty-filled parts to the story, not flaw-filled.

Trust.

Such a big, little five-letter word.

Do you ever struggle with things these sort of things?

This week I want to practice more gratitude, rejoicing, faithful praying, all in the form of Trust.

 

So my challenge for you as you start a fresh week is to prepare your hearts to be able answer these questions: What are you wishing from your past would just go away?  Did you know that patience is really waiting without complaining, and do you need to apply this to your life? Do you dodge responsibility? Is the Lord your God truly *everything* to you?

And remember to look for the beauty-filled parts to the story. We are excited to connect below in the comments!

PS. Let’s memorize this bit of Truth as a group for the week:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” — 2 Corinthians 5:17

UPDATED: Weekly Truth Lock Screen! Next week we’ll explain how to save it directly to your phone!