We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is "good," because it is good, if "bad" because it works in us patience, humility, and the contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country. - C. S. Lewis Hi friends! With Thanksgiving being almost upon us, I wanted to share with you some of my thoughts on being thankful. I was thinking of Betsie and Corrie ten Boom giving thanks in a horrible Nazi concentration camp during World War 2. Here's the story:
The ten Boom sisters had just arrived at a new camp and realized the overcrowded barracks were also swarming with fleas. Corrie wondered how they could live in such a place, but her older sister Betsie said God had already given them the answer. She told Corrie to read the passage from the Bible they'd read that morning. Corrie went to First Thessalonians chapter five. When she came to verses sixteen through eighteen, "Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus--", Betsie exclaimed, "That's it, Corrie! That's His answer! 'Give thanks in all circumstances!' We can start right now to thank God for every single thing about this new barracks!" "Such as?" Corrie asked. "Such as being assigned here together," Betsie said, and Corrie agreed. They went on to thank God that they had been able to keep their Bible, that there were so many people there who would be able to hear God's Word, and then Betsie gave thanks for the fleas. The fleas! Corrie thought. "Betsie," she said, "there's no way even God can make me grateful for a flea." "'Give thanks in all circumstances,'" Betsie quoted, "It doesn't say 'in pleasant circumstances.' Fleas are part of this place where God has put us." So they gave thanks for the fleas. But Corrie felt sure that this time Betsie was wrong. Time passed, the days filled with hard work and cruel guards, but every evening the women in their barracks would gather round to hear the Word. They were grateful they were able to read the Bible, but they wondered why the guards didn't stop them. Then, one day, Betsie learned why. It was because of the fleas! The guards refused to enter that barracks because they knew it was infested with fleas. God had a purpose, even for those horrible fleas. Wow! If they could give thanks in such terrible conditions, I thank we ought to be able to be thankful, too. The Apostle Paul, who wrote those verses in First Thessalonians, was beaten, flogged, stoned, imprisoned, and finally died a martyr's death. Yet he was still able to give thanks. Sometimes, our eyes are so fixed on the difficulties, the hard things, in our lives, that we can't see anything to be grateful for. But when we fix our eyes on Jesus, and then look at all the good things He's given us, we can give thanks. My life is so full of good things: loving family, good friends, a warm house, delicious food, leaves arrayed in their fall colors... and I'm sure you have much you can give thanks for, too. And even if it seems there is absolutely nothing else to be thankful for, we've been given the best gift ever: Jesus Christ who died and rose again to save us from our sins and give us eternal life with Him. Nothing will ever take that away, and we can always give thanks for that. And, like C. S. Lewis said in the quote at the beginning of this post, we can give thanks in hard times because it draws us closer to the Lord and helps us look forward to Heaven. Well, friends, have a happy Thanksgiving and always remember, "He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it," (1 Th. 5:24). All for Him, Savannah Jane P. S. I did the artwork at the top of this post with charcoal and then added watercolor paint to the leaves.
0 Comments
“The longer the tea bag sits in the cup, the stronger the tea. The more God’s Word saturates our minds, the clearer our grasp on what’s important to Him and the stronger our prayers.”
—Joni Eareckson Tada My sister Sophie came across this quote, and I quite liked it. If you don’t know who Joni Eareckson Tada is, "And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called The Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, one on either side, and Jesus in the center. Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was: 'Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.'"
John 19:17-19 This is for all my fellow girls who have younger siblings. It’s for me, too, because I need to be reminded of these truths. I have two younger sisters and two younger brothers. No matter how many younger siblings you have, I hope you’ll be encouraged by these truths I’ve learned. Realize the Impact You Have I think many of us older sisters often don’t realize just how close our younger siblings are watching us and following our example. We have a huge impact on their lives just by how we live our lives. When we seek to follow Christ with all our hearts, they’ll see that, and maybe, just maybe, it will encourage them to live for Him, too. Realize the Blessing They Are Too often, we look on our younger brothers and sisters as a burden instead of the blessing they are. What if we realized they are our best friends? This is something my parents have always taught me. It’s easy—since they’re younger than and not as talented as us mature young women—to not see their skills, talents, and strengths, but only their childishness. It’s easy to forget that not too long ago, we were their age and maturity. It’s also easy to forget that we still need to grow spiritually, too. So, ask the Lord to help you see them as a blessing. Your Mission Field Starts Here
Another thing my parents have taught me is that your mission field starts at home. And for us older sisters, our mission field includes our younger siblings. It doesn’t end there; we should share the gospel with the lost and reach out to the poor and oppressed. (I wrote a whole book about that. Click here to learn more about my book Do Justly.) But, as Christians, everything we do is an opportunity to serve the Lord. Wherever we are is our mission field. And for many of us, at home with our siblings is where we are most of the time. When you play with your younger brothers and sisters, look on it as a ministry. It may seem small compared to other ministry opportunities, but Jesus said, “He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much.” And it is really far more important than we may realize. When You Fall Short None of us are perfect. We’ll all make mistakes in our relationships with our siblings. And when we do, we just ask God’s forgiveness and theirs, and move on. I know. It’s hard to ask forgiveness from anybody, but it’s especially hard to ask your little brother to forgive you. But it’s what God says to do. And, you know what, when your younger sibling sees that you’re willing to apologize, they just might be more willing to apologize, too. Well, always remember, “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it,” (1 Th. 5:24). All for Him, Savannah Jane Merry Christmas! Do you know what the word “Christmas” means? It means “Christ celebration”. That’s what Christmas is: a celebration of Christ. Two thousand years ago, a baby was born in Bethlehem and laid in a manger. And in this baby is all our hope; for this baby was born to die. He was born to die for our sins and rise again, giving us life. How wonderful it is that we have a holiday season set aside to celebrate Christ’s birth! Today, I’d like to share with you some ways we can remember Jesus Christ this Christmas season. Learn the Origins of the Traditions If you do some research, you’ll find that the traditions and decorations all point to Jesus. Christmas trees, stockings, lights, carols—they all have stories behind them, incredible stories that tell about Jesus. Listen to Christ-centered Christmas music I love Christmas music! And I’m not talking about “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”. “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”, “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus”, “O Holy Night”, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”, and many, many other carols are beautiful songs that tell the story of Jesus. Show Extra Love to Your Family and Friends At Christmastime, we have the opportunity to show extra love to our family and friends by making and buying gifts, sending Christmas cards, baking cookies, and just spending extra time with them. Make the most of every opportunity to show God’s love to your loved ones. Watch Good Christmas Movies In my family, we have some Christmas movies that have become tradition to watch every year--The Nativity Story, It’s a Wonderful Life, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and The Very First Noel. One we watched for the first time this year was Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas. I’d recommend all these movies. Remember “The Least of These” Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me,” (Matthew 25:40). When we are celebrating the birth of Jesus, let us remember the least of these, the poor and the oppressed, and look for ways to help them. I shared about Dressember in my last blog post, and before that, Operation Christmas Child, but those are only a couple of the ways we can help the least of these. (My book Do Justly and the “Join the Mission” page of this website have many more ideas). Read the Christmas Story Read the Christmas story in the Bible, Luke 1 and 2 and Matthew 1 and 2. Think on it and “ponder it in your heart” as Mary did (Luke 2:19). That’s the whole reason we celebrate! Well, I hope you have a very merry Christmas! Always remember, “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it,” (1 Thessalonians 5:24). All for Him, Savannah Jane Guest post by Sophia Louise McCrary
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” Matthew 7:7-11 Our Lord promised us that if we ask we will receive. Yet, there have been many times in our lives that we asked and we received, well, nothing. Or, perhaps something did happen, but it certainly wasn’t what we asked for. What went wrong? He promised. Did He change His mind in this instance? No. The problem is not with Him. He will never change His mind or break His promise in a certain situation, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”(Hebrews 13:8). The problem is with us. The problem is with our limited understanding of God and His words, and our lack of faith. You see, we see it as if we asked for bread and God gave us a stone. But, in actuality we have asked for moldy bread and, instead God has given us good bread. At some times we are more aware of the fact that we are doing this than at others. Often we don’t realize we are asking for moldy bread. We seek to ask for good things, things that would please God and are in accordance with His will, and many times they aren’t bad things. They’re good things. But, God has even greater plans that we cannot yet see or comprehend. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”(Isaiah 55:8-9) Often, in these cases where we are asking for moldy bread God turns our plans completely around, showing us the good bread He wishes to give us. This is not a reason to grumble, but to rejoice. At other times we’re a bit more conscious of having asked for moldy bread. We’re not necessarily asking for bad things. Some of the things we ask for aren’t bad, but we are not truly doing all that He asks of us-in faith. Our view of God is limited by the influence of the world on us. We fear that if we ask for too big of things God will not feel like granting it and we will be left hanging. So, instead of coming before the Throne Room of Grace with our petitions, even those that the world deems impossible, trusting that if things do not come to pass exactly as we have asked it is because God has even greater plans that we cannot yet see, we settle for a counterfeit version. We ask for small things thinking that we will get them and at least we will have something. It takes great faith to ask for impossible things and many of us don’t have that type of faith. We really don’t want to do anything that we have to step out in faith for, because, to us it feels as if we are walking on thin ice. Ice which might hold us or might not. In our generation we would rather walk by sight than by faith. We would prefer to do things that only require us to rely on our own strength and our own abilities, or perhaps slightly beyond them. As long as we don’t mess up too bad, things will be fine. We’ll pray to God in these situations and we’re comfortable, because we think we’re in control. As a side note I want to mention that when we pray for things just for our personal gain and to boost our agenda we will not receive. In James it says that “you ask and do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures”. When you ask for something just for your own personal gain and try to say that God broke His promise that is, in fact a ridiculous claim. Please, also remember that when God seems silent it is a test. The teacher is always silent during the test, watching, waiting, seeing what you will do. It’s not about asking for big things to show that we’re “trusting God”. It’s about completely surrendering to God, crying out to Him in prayer in the big things and the little things, believing that He is able and He is faithful, and that if what comes to pass is different than what we asked for it is because we have a God that is greater than we are. He is not failing us and giving us a stone. We have asked for moldy bread and He is giving us good bread. In the Bible, God’s people are compared to trees. Psalm 1:1-3 says, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither and whatever he does shall prosper.” And Jeremiah 17:7-8 says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is in the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.” I’ve been thinking about what it means to be a tree. It means many things, but one thing that really struck me is that trees never stop growing. So it must be with us. How easy it is to fall into the trap of thinking that since we are more spiritually mature than most other people our age, we do not need to keep growing. But this is not true. All of us, always, have areas of our lives where we need to grow. And how do we grow? Trees cannot grow unless their roots are drinking in water. And as they grow, their roots will go deeper. Christ is our living water. We must plant our roots deep in His Word. Psalm 1 talks about turning away from sin and delighting in God’s Word. Jeremiah 17 talks about trusting in the Lord and placing our hope in Him. That’s how we’ll grow. Not by occasionally picking up our Bibles but by making it our lifeline, constantly turning to it, “meditating on it day and night”. And as we do that, we’ll trust Him more and more, and grow more like Him.
So, let us seek Him and keep growing, always growing, in our walk with Him. And remember, “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.” 1 Th. 5:24 All for Him, Savannah God often asks us to do hard things. In fact, as true followers of Jesus, we'll be doing hard things all the time. In Luke 9:23, Jesus says, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me."
It's hard to deny yourself. It's hard to take up a cross. It's hard to live like Jesus did. It's hard to keep a passion for justice ablaze permanently and not just for a short time. It's hard to love someone who shows you no love in return. It's hard to stand for what is right when no one else is. It's hard to keep praying when it seems like your prayer is going unanswered. It's hard to be kind and polite to that person who's rude to you. It's hard to let go of what you want to do so that you can serve someone else. It's hard to speak the truth that no one wants to hear. It's hard to forgive someone who hurt you. It;s hard to be joyful when things don't go the way you wanted them to. It's hard to be unselfish and serve when no one sees and no one says thank you. It's just hard. Actually, it's impossible. But God is calling us to live this impossible life. It's not about obeying a list of rules. It's that we love Jesus and He says, "If you love Me, keep My commandments," John 14:15. But we can't. No matter how hard we try, we'll never be able to. In our own strength, we can't. But God is not asking us to do these things in our own strength. He never gives us commands without also enabling us to obey them. He wants to give us His strength. He wants to fill us with His power and do through us what we could never do on our own. "Without Me, you can do nothing," Jesus says in John 15:5. And as Corrie ten Boom once said, "When I try, I fail. When I trust, He succeeds." When we have Jesus Christ living inside us, we have the power to live a life that would otherwise be impossible. We will become people who love and serve our families, pray and keep praying because we know God will answer, do justly, love mercy, walk humbly, rescue the oppressed, stand for what is right, no matter the cost, share the gospel... to put it simply we reflect Jesus Christ in every area of our lives and we will do it all, as C.T. Studd says, "with His joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts." No, these things will not save us; what we do will not get us to heaven, as some people believe. We are saved by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ. It is His atoning work on the cross that rescues us from sin and death. But when we give our lives to Jesus Christ, we can't go on living the same way anymore. Our lives now belong to Him and the way we live should reflect that. No, we won't do it perfectly. We'll make mistakes. And when we do, we'll seek His grace and start again. So, let us go and live this impossible life, not in our own strength, but in His. "'Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the Lord of hosts." Zechariah 4:6 |
Hi! I'm Savannah Jane...I'm the author of several books for children and young adults with a passion to encourage young people to live for Jesus. The third born in an amazing family of seven children, I was homeschooled all the way through. This is where I share encouragement for Christian girls, updates about my books, writing tips, book and movie reviews, and assorted other tidbits. Archives
April 2020
Categories
All
Quote"When I try, I fail. When I trust, He succeeds."
-Corrie ten Boom I'm on GoodReadsFollow my family's writing, illustrating, and publishing business/ministry.Follow my blog on Bloglovin' |