by Julia | Mar 15, 2018 | Musings, When God Writes your Baby Story
The last few weeks I spent quite a bit of time processing something that kinda plopped itself right in front of me. Oftentimes Bible passages speak differently to different people and thats ok, that’s the awesomeness of God’s Word; it meets us where we are and ministers to everyone! So I just wana share a bit how God has been speaking to me thru His Word lately..
So, like most other barren women today, I love the stories in the Bible about the women who were barren, feeling very ‘down & out’, they prayed and prayed. They got their husband to pray for them & some even asked other men of God to pray for them that God would give them a child. God heard their prayer and opened their womb and they conceived! Obviously we don’t always know their Timeline and I am pretty sure they didn’t all conceive during their next cycle. In fact, one account it appears it was 20 years from when they began praying till God opened her womb. However, lately I have been looking at these stories in a lil different way than what you may typically think or immediately presume. I have been seeing a different approach, a deeper connection that these aren’t just for the barren woman of today. If a situation you are in looks impossible, keep reading.
While I would love to say, Look! Every woman in the Bible that was barren, ended up conceiving. So we need only have faith and our story will commensurate to the Bible Stories. I can’t help but realize that there were probably some women back in those times that were barren and died without ever conceiving. And I also know of some godly women today that have never conceived and have peace in being barren. So does that make their stories, their lives, unsuccessful? No, absolutely not! Hang with me……
You see, I’m slowly starting to see that success doesn’t come in us measuring up to the ‘ideal mold of a family’.. success is in God, being able to complete His work in & through us even if it looks different than what we imagined.
So why were only the ones that conceived recorded in the Bible? This is where I may have a lil different view for you. What if those stories were not recorded to give hope to the barren woman? What if the main topic in these stories is not about infertility? What if they were recorded to show to all people, including the barren woman, that God is capable of doing anything. Even if it looks humanly impossible? Nothing is too hard for Him to accomplish. You don’t have to have the ‘picture-perfect life’ in order for God to use you. God has a plan-and when we line up with that plan, there really is NOTHING that can get in the way. God was leading up to the redemption of the world, and to show that it was HIM doing the work, He used the infertile, the poor.. Sara, Rebekah, Elisabeth were barren women that God used to complete His story & bring Him glory! That gets me excited, no matter how impossible your situation may look, God can still 100% complete His plan. I can’t help but think how beautiful that is before God. Having that kind of faith that God can do anything and always holding onto that hope. Matthew 8:5-10
Another thing that I often come across is that barrenness is just way more common today than it was in Jesus’ time because of our unhealthy & sinful standard of today’s world. Yes, I am sure the numbers are a bit more dramatic, sadly. But thankfully God’s power hasn’t changed! And if barrenness wouldn’t have been a common issue back then, I don’t believe that it would have been spoken of so often in the Bible. Everytime it is spoken of in the Bible, it clearly indicates that God is the One who opens and and closes the womb. I sometimes wish it was always as direct as in Ex. 23:25, 26 -“You must serve only the Lord your God. If you do, I will bless you with food and water, and I will protect you from illness. There will be no miscarriages or infertility in your land, and I will give you long, full lives.”
I firmly believe God wants us to care for our bodies etc….. However I think sometimes we get so stuck in the hard season we are in, be it sickness, miscarriage, infertility, loss, depression, _____(insert yours). We start thinking we cannot be of any use to God until ‘this’ is gone. Somehow without even fully knowing, we get the twisted outlook that our life is worthless, it’s just not measuring up. But God never chalks up a life like that, or a season, as useless, one He can’t do anything with. NOO!! We have our focus on the wrong thing. It’s not about the pain. It’s not about the circumstances. I’m quite convinced God would love if there would be no pain in the world. It’s about who God IS. In our weak and vulnerable times, He invites us. “Come away with Me. Healing will not satisfy you, but I will.” This is not a wasted space in your life, but rather an invitation to be filled. To grow deep roots in Him. Your tree will grow strong and unwavering, loaded with fruit when your root system is deeply hidden in Him. Remember, it’s not about the barren women, it’s about God using redeemed people to complete His story & bring Him glory.
Paul talks about it in a beautiful way, and I think it is so key the way he relates it. The handicap does not come from God, but God can redeem it and use it to bring Him glory. Paul even began seeing it as a gift because he knew that if in his weakness he let Christ take over, He would be strong in Him. I think that is such a beautiful picture. He pleads with God to remove the thorn in his flesh, and then gives it back over to Him. When we allow God to redeem our hardship, people see God alive in our weakness. He gets ALL the glory! God doesn’t always heal, but He always saves and always redeems.
“Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,
My grace is enough; it’s all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.
Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.” 2 Cor. 12:7-10 MSG.
This is definitely one of my draft posts and a reality in my life today. I would love to hear your thoughts!
If you enjoyed this post and would like to connect on a more personal level, please connect with me. Or if you need prayer, I would love to be in touch with you! Email me at capturingjewels@gmail.com -Follow me on Facebook or on Instagram. To follow along on our journey and not miss any posts, subscribe to the blog or follow my blog Facebook page, not just my personal one.
Linking up with Grace & Truth and..
by Julia | Apr 9, 2015 | me & my jewel, Musings
We recently had the opportunity of hosting some ‘new friends’ and we were really blessed in sharing time with each other, along with parts of our stories, and praying together. As they were preparing to leave, I gave them a print of the above photo along with our contact info. A lil bit later she comes back to me and says that as she was looking at this photo she saw something she felt like she was supposed to share. She sensed that like as in the picture, the background looks dead and brown with old buildings, and the foreground is just lightly turning green and showing life. That it is where we are at in our life right now; even though behind us we have had hard times where things seemed kinda dead, old and brown…that they are starting to change. And we will be beginning a new kind of life-that is “full of life”.
I was so blessed by it and felt like it was from God..I just wanted to document it 🙂
Be blessed, God is always so faithful!
by Julia | Mar 23, 2015 | Musings, When God Writes your Baby Story
It’s dreary and 45 degrees today..
My spirit is heavy. I know God has such an immense plan for us. The journey we are on is so beautiful and yet the process can be so painful. Why does pain need to be involved? And yet I welcome it. I welcome God to use it. Knowing that it is refining me – getting rid of junk. And to uncover a jewel lots of refining, purging, sanding away needs to take place. There is incredible beauty from pain.
Dear God, use this pain as part of your purifying process. Teach me your way. I know You are sovereign. You are so mighty. I know you are in control. I know this because you are my King and I submit my life to You. I gave You my desire for a family. I placed it in Your Hands and continued serving you. Sometimes I have been very confused as to what You are doing and other times I smile and dance just knowing that Your Almighty Hand is smoothing the pathway. With your own fingers you are drawing the route on our life-map.
The unknown [not being able to see around the next bend- or why we went down this hill, up that mountain, thru that desert..] that unknown is at times really hard to accept. But I know you are protecting me. You see the road ahead and you allow me to see all that I need to, to be safe. And the rest; you protect me from it. I hear you say, “Just trust Me”.
Oh Father, I have been trusting. I will continue to trust. My faith has been shaken. But you know what, I think I’m finally getting the picture! Everytime that I stop, everytime my faith feels shaken, everytime that I don’t want to keep walking on this specific pathway you have smoothened for me, everytime that I want to run back to the intersection where I had the choice of following the pathway You designed or the one where I could choose my own way that with the human eye looks good and filled with ‘comfort and ease’. And in all those when my flesh wants to quit, to drag me down that other road- whispering in my ear, ‘it’s not sin, it’s just easier, it’s what you want’. But I stop. I cry. I ask for You. Your help. And everytime I choose to believe again, to give it ALL to you, to passionately follow and trust in You. My faith is grounded another level deeper. It’s like another measure stronger and I know that it went through the fire, it became strengthened, concreted enough for whatever is next. Because the next boulder that falls in my pathway may be just a bit larger, a bit tougher than before. But I am not going to turn around or quit, so it is going to have to be moved. In those questioning times I am gaining enough strength and faith to be able to OVERCOME and move that boulder away. In faith I am going to conquer in Your Name. I will keep on the pathway You are scripting. I will choose to believe.
I know ultimately I only want what YOU have planned-no matter how hard it is. I want to stay on the road that you are writing just for me, because it’s all for your glory. I know that someday I will understand. Someday all this won’t seem cruel at all. Instead I will fall at your feet and worship you, being able to see what all you protected me from. What all you prepared me for. …
and at this point I hear God gently whispering, “I want you to fall at My feet and worship me today. Without seeing the whole picture. Without understanding. I want you to worship me in faith. Because I AM good all the time.”
Faith is believing without seeing. Faith is what makes it possible to worship without feeling like everything is good in our life. So today, I once again grab that faith and cling for dear life. And I will worship because I know that my God is good and is doing good things in my life, whether my human eye can see it or not.
How do you get through difficult times?
[Edit: this was written last week, just getting around to posting it today..]
by Julia | Jan 2, 2015 | Musings
I’m hearing a lot of; “Oh this past year has been the greatest one yet.” “It’s been the best year of my life.” “2014 was such a great year, ready for another one!” “The past year was full of so many good things-welcome to the New Year.”
And so it got me thinking…of my past year.. And I couldn’t help it. Pretty soon tears were sliding down my cheeks. This past year was probably the hardest year of my life. In some ways it could almost seem like a ‘wasted year’ with no real big accomplishments to show for. But, deep in my soul I felt a stirring, a peace and a smile through my tears, gently telling me that those 12 months of difficulty, tears, and pain were not for nothing. They were moments of ‘hands-on teaching’ from my Abba Father. I learned how to speak more kindly and take time for what matters most. I have become more of a sensitive person than I even deemed ‘necessary’ a year ago. And probably even other areas that I’m not aware of. It’s definitely been a year of peeling back those layers and becoming more aware of who God really is, not just who He is, but who He is to me. He is simple not just some kind of man in the skies whom we love if we want all good things to come our way. Stop and truly answer this question, WHY do you love Jesus? {beware, it could change your life.}
I realized something that I have been pondering on for awhile…. that ‘moments of joy’, ‘good times’, ‘best memories’ and ‘wonderful things’ are not what define whether or not I had a good year. What really defines good for us? Is it in the comforts of men and the fleshly pleasures of humanity? Or are we ONLY about the glory of God and concerned about the fame and renown of Jesus Christ?
Yes this past year was one of the hardest and most painful ones that I can remember, yet I wouldn’t trade it for one that was filled with easy roads and flower-strewn pathways. If that’s how yours was, then thank Him, if not, still thank Him. It’s often at the end of a calendar year that one looks back to the moments that penetrate our minds. For some the ending of the year looks even better than they envisioned, for others it looks nothing like what they had hoped or imagined. Despite all the laughter and good times, the blessings and the touches from God. We also see the loss, painful experiences, and sickness, plans that ‘failed’, dreams that seemingly were crushed.. Many people would say, “Just focus on the good times” -but I’m thinking; those other things, they affect us the most and should we just forget them? So if we choose to focus on one or the other it will automatically define whether we look back and say that we had a great year, or our year was just a mess? Neither one seemed right to me..so here’s a bit of my heart….
I could share with you the excerpt that I’m not printing (the details of my year)–but this isn’t some kind of pity party and this isn’t about ‘levels’ and ‘categories’ that I would then automatically be thrown into with your human mind {sorry, it’s something we all do and so I’m being helpful by leaving it out, to drive home the point here}. This is about learning there aren’t levels…and letting go of those categories in our human thinking…..our pain may be different from anyone else’s but it’s been passed through our Father’s Hands and His only level is true purity and beauty. I don’t believe He measures the pain -He’s measuring the results. We automatically put pain in levels, who has the worst and those that have the easiest levels—but are there levels in God’s economy? Who are we to judge whether or not something that is ‘happening’ to us could be worse, or is ‘bad’? If we are sons and daughters of the King, nothing will come to us without the Father allowing it. I’ve come to realize that He has a perfect ‘combination’ for us-the one that will wipe away all that self. We might look around and think we have it the worst, or we might think that we could never handle what our friends are going through. But the truth is, your journey, even though it’s different than mine, is perfect for you and God isn’t giving you an easier or a harder level, he is simply giving you his grace, and allowing the trials He knows it takes for you to be all that He wants you to be, combined with how much you are willing to give Him…[which could be another whole post on it’s own]. Beings we are created with different abilities we all have different areas to grow in and He knows just exactly how much it will take to make us into the kind of person He wants to mold us into and to achieve the results He sees can be reached if we allow every ounce of it to do a work in us and the world around us. [It’s not about us, it’s about a greater purpose..] So if we say, ‘Oh, it could be so much worse’, than we aren’t truly allowing the pain of the situation to mold us, we are only thanking God for something that He didn’t give us. And by all means, if it’s painful.. don’t just take it in… use it!! Let it change you. If you just take it in, you are just accepting inflictions from the devil, you must let it change you to bring glory to the Father. Think a bit about the death and the prayers of Jesus—God allowed exactly what He saw was necessary to save the human race. Was Jesus praying and thanking God that it would be over soon? No, He prayed, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want you will to be done, not mine.” And then again, “My Father! If this cup cannot be take away unless I drink it, your will be done.” –He didn’t want the pain, but He knew that if the Father was allowing it, then He wanted to drink it.
So, yes I am thankful for this past year and the things it has taught me.. I won’t just say it’s been a wonderful-great year and forget about the pain, hurt and trials. But I will say that it has been a beautiful year, realizing that even though it wasn’t what I had planned for or dreamed of, it was God’s, and I’m so thankful that if He chose this pathway for me to walk through, that I didn’t throw the cup out, but drank it. I realize that it’s taken me awhile and I’m hoping that I will only continue to learn more about the nature of God. Whether it be through what my earthly mind would deem as good times or bad times. I realize that there is nothing to be ashamed about in both–but in both there is always a God that wants the glory. So whether it be a difficult season you are in, or maybe you are experiencing showers of blessings, remember that everything can be used for His good and for His glory. And joy, true joy isn’t dependent on your circumstances. Even though 2014 was a hard one, God was soo good to me and I am so thankful for the journey He has me on. My prayer is that in both I would always , ALWAYS remember to give God the glory! Allow Him to have the paint brush and your canvas in life will be being made beautiful once 2015 draws to a close…
..to Him be the glory.
by Julia | Sep 17, 2013 | Musings
Hello, I am so glad you are here!! 🙂 I feel like i should apologize……but just as I don’t like to apologize for a messy house I don’t wanna apologize for a messy website. It’s just a work in progress, and look! yer special, you got to see the progress! 🙂 just like in your life- to get a final beautiful person/habit, there must be a journey, a chipping, a work, =progress, and its not always pretty, but it’s necessary! So if you stick with me to the end–I promise you, not only will you get to see a beautiful chapter {not the ending} you will get to know more about me and my {journey} =progress in this thing called life. where lots of beautiful things take place. and sometimes those things we would call hard, difficult or {ugly} which again is all our progress, to the final.
by Julia | Sep 16, 2013 | Musings, Recipes
ahh you must needs try this delishously moist bread..
check back for the recipe!
