I walked out of an abusive marriage while making a little over $300 a month in the job I took just for the insurance. I heard the verse “don’t lay your pearls before swine” in a Sunday night sermon, and it was like hearing it for the first time. I walked off a cliff trusting God to catch me, and He did. It should not have worked. I should have been homeless. Yet I never missed a meal and no bill ever went unpaid. Psalm 37:25 is true, as is every other promise He makes in his wonderful word. God is real. He loves us.
I hope I might be in the middle of an inheritance story of my own.
I was arrested by the footnote - “I couldn’t say no to Him” is a good definition of faith. It reminded me of something I journaled recently. For context, our family recently suffered loss.
I journaled: I acknowledge the Lord but won’t look Him directly in the eye. It’s like running into someone you were close to in the past. You have a shared history that ran deep but now you’re different people. Or in this case it’s just me that has changed. And I feel like I already know the end result. I know I’ll draw close again, it’s like a foregone conclusion, but I don’t know how to bridge the gap from here to there. Maybe it starts with making direct eye contact.
This day’s study was encouraging. It felt like I have my own version of “not being able to say no”, I just need a bit more time for God to draw me onward, as you said.
This is beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing and being vulnerable here. The line able not being able to look Him in the eye can ring so true for me sometimes too. And then it remind me of the scene from the Chosen with Mary returns to Jesus 🤍
This past year of my life is the first time in 21 years of my faith where God pulled me apart. Elisabeth Elliot calls it “the rasping of the hammer”. Chipping and chiseling away. He knew me better than I did and He took a magnifying glass to my life. It’s painful, the cutting away of the flesh. But when the Sword of the Spirit is cutting how can I not trust Him?
WHAT GREAT LOVE to still want me, to forgive as far as the east is to the west and to still trust me with what’s next. I can’t see the fruit yet, but I know the roots have grown deep 💕
This one was a little harder for me than most. Maybe I’m still a little raw and this was hard to actually write down for others to see?
My friend Victoria’s faith was my inheritance. Her faith helped me to see how self focused my faith had been. While I happily checked my box of church and good deeds, she showed me a dependence and constant searching for God that I lacked. I will never forget her telling me that as she weeds, she thinks of God. How He is helping her weed out those thoughts/actions from her life. She saw him everywhere. Constantly looking and finding Him. What a gift to pass on!
I loved being a mom of babies and preschoolers. I am fascinated with how they grow and learn. We were blessed to have a daughter in 1971 and another daughter in 1973. They both were (still are) beautiful and incredibly smart. My husband and I wanted our family to be devoted and strong in faith and we were involved in many aspects of our church and community life.
In 1976 we were thrilled to have a son - beautiful and developing exceedingly well until age 8 months. Then he began having seizures (infantile spasms) and we were told to expect him to have developmental delays in all areas - especially cognitive delays. How we grieved! We thought we had parenting and raising children in faith all figured out. Now we were tethered to home, to doctor visits, to unexpected expenses, to frustration because there was no reason for this and no effective treatment. He lost skills and began to show autistic characteristics. We prayed and prayed and cried and cried - and learned to live a day (or an hour) at a time.
One Sunday evening our preacher preached a sermon just for me - Mark 9, the story of a desperate father whose son was afflicted with seizures. The father begged Jesus, "I believe, help my unbelief," and the Spirit convicted me that I, too, struggled with unbelief. I realized that my prayers and my expectations were focused on what I wanted and how I thought God should handle it and not on the trust I needed that no matter what the outcome of our son's life would be, it would be okay. I could write a book on how my prayers changed, how my coping changed, how my joy in parenting changed. Most of all, my faith grew. I learned to "be still" before the LORD and seek him.
As I "let go" and learned to "let God," incredible, miraculous things started to happen. (Too many to detail here.) Now our son is about to have his 50th birthday and has achieved much, all to the glory of the Father. He has a degree in Christian ministry from Abilene Christian University. He is very active in his church and has roles of teaching, preaching, serving on the administrative team, working A/V, and doing much more. Despite his autistic tendencies, he has a good job, good friends, and is fun to be with. There are problems and challenges, but together (church and family) we take them on and the Helper, through Jesus, helps us.
My changed perspective from what the world values to what God in his providence has predestined is only part of the inheritance from God - and convicts me daily of the "better country" to come.
Good morning, all. I did not get this done until Monday. Thank you JL for letting us know we had tech issues. I did not even look on Sunday. :)
The most recent time I walked in faith to some kind of inheritance is my current situation. I founded a nonprofit called Bridge II Sports with a mission to use sport as a tool to empower youth, adults, and veterans with physical disability to life; be a light in a dark place. That was twenty years ago. Yahweh has been leading me away from this work to another. As of January 1, my title is Founder. I do not know the work Yahweh has for me at this point. I am seeking, resting, and healing. What I do rest in is that Yahweh is faithful. I am in a new place at 63, not working. LOL! It feels odd, and, I am taking each day to seek God and turn my hand to the plow as needed.
I received the inheritance of a beautiful marriage and by beautiful (by beautiful I mean alive, well, abiding in Christ, on the rough days - choosing to recovery quickly and well, fighting our flesh, etc). We inherited this by way of our beautiful boy, Nehemiah, who on January 28, 2017, obeyed God. He traded breathing in heaven versus earth after 9months of living in my womb. Oh did his little exit shake up our foundation (truthful it exposed we had none). We married in 2013, out of season. God was still developing but we thought we were the developers so we broke ground and said to heck with listening and waiting on God’s timing.
When Nehemiah returned home it exposed we didn’t have one. Oh but God….He took a raggedy couple soaked in sin, reminded them that were purchased by the blood, and He breathed life on their shattered pieces. Because his breath is sovereign, it didn’t scatter randomly….
Oh how He loved us back to life in the midst of great grief, brokenness, disobedience, doubt, broken trust, etc. through his body - tangible body in the earth.
We became heirs! We look at each other often and say, Nehemiah died and because of it, we live. His little life, God used (not caused) to save us.
My inheritance story is also in regard to motherhood. I will condense it as best I can-
My first son was born pulseless. He was dead. He required 13 minutes of CPR to regain a heartbeat. Protocol is to stop at 10 minutes. Praise God the medical team kept going. We were cautioned he may have severe disabilities from the profound lack of oxygen to his brain during that time.
Miracles unfolded before our eyes. So many peoples’ faith grew through this tiny baby’s life. He is six now and has no deficits.
The Lord jolted my faith when he began my journey into motherhood. My inheritance has been the freedom to parent with open hands, knowing that this child (and each of my children), belong to the Lord. I believe without this situation I would be prone to fret over little things, be overly controlling and anxious, and worried about all sorts of things down the road.
I am definitely very late to this, having been thrown entirely off by not seeing Saturday's post until late on Sunday -- thinking perhaps this was weekdays rather than every day since I checked email until noon on Saturday without seeing anything and then went on about my day and church and family on Sunday et voila! Totally my bad. I'm not entirely sure that it fits the definition of inheritance but I had a friend ask me a few months ago if I had seen any changes in myself and/or my faith over the 50+ years since my salvation in my walk with the Lord. And my honest answer was simply "I don't know." I explained to her that I never try to look too closely at myself because that always seemed a vain thing. I know that I've prayed daily that God would break my heart for the things that break His heart, and for a heart more like Jesus' heart. And, as I look at that aspect alone, I can say that I've gone from angry child who viewed tears as complete and utter weakness, to praying that God would break my heart. I cry a lot more these days.
So sorry for the hiccup Susan! It's my fault--error with the scheduling.
I love this marker of transformation. Thank you for sharing! Tears (crying them, owning them, not being embarrassed of them) are one of the biggest markers of my husband's spiritual growth. He cries all the time, and I love it.
I walked out of an abusive marriage while making a little over $300 a month in the job I took just for the insurance. I heard the verse “don’t lay your pearls before swine” in a Sunday night sermon, and it was like hearing it for the first time. I walked off a cliff trusting God to catch me, and He did. It should not have worked. I should have been homeless. Yet I never missed a meal and no bill ever went unpaid. Psalm 37:25 is true, as is every other promise He makes in his wonderful word. God is real. He loves us.
Thank you for this, Jennifer. You've been a powerful example of faith.
I hope I might be in the middle of an inheritance story of my own.
I was arrested by the footnote - “I couldn’t say no to Him” is a good definition of faith. It reminded me of something I journaled recently. For context, our family recently suffered loss.
I journaled: I acknowledge the Lord but won’t look Him directly in the eye. It’s like running into someone you were close to in the past. You have a shared history that ran deep but now you’re different people. Or in this case it’s just me that has changed. And I feel like I already know the end result. I know I’ll draw close again, it’s like a foregone conclusion, but I don’t know how to bridge the gap from here to there. Maybe it starts with making direct eye contact.
This day’s study was encouraging. It felt like I have my own version of “not being able to say no”, I just need a bit more time for God to draw me onward, as you said.
The eye contact! I think that's it. Just small steps to restore the intimacy. You're held in love, Mahalie.
I felt this post in my inmost self. In the past I've always dealt with loss that way. Yes, eye contact. Thank you for your vulnerability.
This is beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing and being vulnerable here. The line able not being able to look Him in the eye can ring so true for me sometimes too. And then it remind me of the scene from the Chosen with Mary returns to Jesus 🤍
This past year of my life is the first time in 21 years of my faith where God pulled me apart. Elisabeth Elliot calls it “the rasping of the hammer”. Chipping and chiseling away. He knew me better than I did and He took a magnifying glass to my life. It’s painful, the cutting away of the flesh. But when the Sword of the Spirit is cutting how can I not trust Him?
WHAT GREAT LOVE to still want me, to forgive as far as the east is to the west and to still trust me with what’s next. I can’t see the fruit yet, but I know the roots have grown deep 💕
Those pruning seasons are rough! But it's evidence of love. Tough love. :)
(That's Hebrews 12 stuff btw)
Amen! Spring comes!
This one was a little harder for me than most. Maybe I’m still a little raw and this was hard to actually write down for others to see?
My friend Victoria’s faith was my inheritance. Her faith helped me to see how self focused my faith had been. While I happily checked my box of church and good deeds, she showed me a dependence and constant searching for God that I lacked. I will never forget her telling me that as she weeds, she thinks of God. How He is helping her weed out those thoughts/actions from her life. She saw him everywhere. Constantly looking and finding Him. What a gift to pass on!
Beautiful!
Marvelous!
I loved being a mom of babies and preschoolers. I am fascinated with how they grow and learn. We were blessed to have a daughter in 1971 and another daughter in 1973. They both were (still are) beautiful and incredibly smart. My husband and I wanted our family to be devoted and strong in faith and we were involved in many aspects of our church and community life.
In 1976 we were thrilled to have a son - beautiful and developing exceedingly well until age 8 months. Then he began having seizures (infantile spasms) and we were told to expect him to have developmental delays in all areas - especially cognitive delays. How we grieved! We thought we had parenting and raising children in faith all figured out. Now we were tethered to home, to doctor visits, to unexpected expenses, to frustration because there was no reason for this and no effective treatment. He lost skills and began to show autistic characteristics. We prayed and prayed and cried and cried - and learned to live a day (or an hour) at a time.
One Sunday evening our preacher preached a sermon just for me - Mark 9, the story of a desperate father whose son was afflicted with seizures. The father begged Jesus, "I believe, help my unbelief," and the Spirit convicted me that I, too, struggled with unbelief. I realized that my prayers and my expectations were focused on what I wanted and how I thought God should handle it and not on the trust I needed that no matter what the outcome of our son's life would be, it would be okay. I could write a book on how my prayers changed, how my coping changed, how my joy in parenting changed. Most of all, my faith grew. I learned to "be still" before the LORD and seek him.
As I "let go" and learned to "let God," incredible, miraculous things started to happen. (Too many to detail here.) Now our son is about to have his 50th birthday and has achieved much, all to the glory of the Father. He has a degree in Christian ministry from Abilene Christian University. He is very active in his church and has roles of teaching, preaching, serving on the administrative team, working A/V, and doing much more. Despite his autistic tendencies, he has a good job, good friends, and is fun to be with. There are problems and challenges, but together (church and family) we take them on and the Helper, through Jesus, helps us.
My changed perspective from what the world values to what God in his providence has predestined is only part of the inheritance from God - and convicts me daily of the "better country" to come.
This is a beautiful story. Thank you for sharing.
Good morning, all. I did not get this done until Monday. Thank you JL for letting us know we had tech issues. I did not even look on Sunday. :)
The most recent time I walked in faith to some kind of inheritance is my current situation. I founded a nonprofit called Bridge II Sports with a mission to use sport as a tool to empower youth, adults, and veterans with physical disability to life; be a light in a dark place. That was twenty years ago. Yahweh has been leading me away from this work to another. As of January 1, my title is Founder. I do not know the work Yahweh has for me at this point. I am seeking, resting, and healing. What I do rest in is that Yahweh is faithful. I am in a new place at 63, not working. LOL! It feels odd, and, I am taking each day to seek God and turn my hand to the plow as needed.
I received the inheritance of a beautiful marriage and by beautiful (by beautiful I mean alive, well, abiding in Christ, on the rough days - choosing to recovery quickly and well, fighting our flesh, etc). We inherited this by way of our beautiful boy, Nehemiah, who on January 28, 2017, obeyed God. He traded breathing in heaven versus earth after 9months of living in my womb. Oh did his little exit shake up our foundation (truthful it exposed we had none). We married in 2013, out of season. God was still developing but we thought we were the developers so we broke ground and said to heck with listening and waiting on God’s timing.
When Nehemiah returned home it exposed we didn’t have one. Oh but God….He took a raggedy couple soaked in sin, reminded them that were purchased by the blood, and He breathed life on their shattered pieces. Because his breath is sovereign, it didn’t scatter randomly….
Oh how He loved us back to life in the midst of great grief, brokenness, disobedience, doubt, broken trust, etc. through his body - tangible body in the earth.
We became heirs! We look at each other often and say, Nehemiah died and because of it, we live. His little life, God used (not caused) to save us.
I’ll never forget….
My inheritance story is also in regard to motherhood. I will condense it as best I can-
My first son was born pulseless. He was dead. He required 13 minutes of CPR to regain a heartbeat. Protocol is to stop at 10 minutes. Praise God the medical team kept going. We were cautioned he may have severe disabilities from the profound lack of oxygen to his brain during that time.
Miracles unfolded before our eyes. So many peoples’ faith grew through this tiny baby’s life. He is six now and has no deficits.
The Lord jolted my faith when he began my journey into motherhood. My inheritance has been the freedom to parent with open hands, knowing that this child (and each of my children), belong to the Lord. I believe without this situation I would be prone to fret over little things, be overly controlling and anxious, and worried about all sorts of things down the road.
Beautiful!
I am definitely very late to this, having been thrown entirely off by not seeing Saturday's post until late on Sunday -- thinking perhaps this was weekdays rather than every day since I checked email until noon on Saturday without seeing anything and then went on about my day and church and family on Sunday et voila! Totally my bad. I'm not entirely sure that it fits the definition of inheritance but I had a friend ask me a few months ago if I had seen any changes in myself and/or my faith over the 50+ years since my salvation in my walk with the Lord. And my honest answer was simply "I don't know." I explained to her that I never try to look too closely at myself because that always seemed a vain thing. I know that I've prayed daily that God would break my heart for the things that break His heart, and for a heart more like Jesus' heart. And, as I look at that aspect alone, I can say that I've gone from angry child who viewed tears as complete and utter weakness, to praying that God would break my heart. I cry a lot more these days.
So sorry for the hiccup Susan! It's my fault--error with the scheduling.
I love this marker of transformation. Thank you for sharing! Tears (crying them, owning them, not being embarrassed of them) are one of the biggest markers of my husband's spiritual growth. He cries all the time, and I love it.