I haven’t been posting in a while because it’s been a pretty busy season of my life where I feel I’m struggling to find my footing & even know how to process things myself, let alone attempt to bring others in the chaos.

But one of the positive things that has been happening is that I’ve been meeting with these two fabulous women on Monday nights. One of them has a heart for mentoring women, and has hand-picked me & another new mom in order to invest in us and offer some of the wisdom she’s gleaned from her life experiences.

I love it when others are willing to share what God has given them, especially when it comes in the form of investing time. Those are precious things to share, treasures from God and time.

The other woman is a new, but dear friend of mine that I’ve recently gotten to know better through our mutual new season of life, motherhood. Our kids are actually only 1 day apart.

(Have I mentioned yet that I love God’s timing? If not, I’m sure it will be the mantra for this post.)

So, we are studying a book called “The Great Lie” by Martha Kilpatrick. I knew nothing of this book, or should I say, booklet, before we ordered it online – other than two people had highly recommended it in the span of a two-week period, and so it caught my attention. But don’t let the size of the booklet fool you. It’s jam-packed full of thought-provoking statements and challenges. We’ve just barely waded in and feel pretty over our heads already. But in a good way.

The main emphasis of the book is about how Satan is bombarding us with a lie, a two part lie: God is not good and God is withholding good from us. Can you relate to that? Struggle with discontentment? Worry? Distrust? Want to control most of everything? Oh sorry….that’s just me.

Maybe you can relate, too.

I would share more, but in my excitement, I have a tendency of trying to spit out what I’m just barely internalizing personally and not giving myself enough time to really, truly let it soak in. I had a friend tell me in college that I needed to “chew my cud” a little bit longer. I tried not to take the cow reference personally. 🙂

Anyways, so I’ll spare you of any more commentary on the study. I do recommend you check it out, though!

So, onto the reason I did get on to share tonight.

Tonight the Lord led me to a couple of blog posts that were very timely and I believe contain some morsels that I need to chew on this evening. I don’t know how the Lord speaks to you, but often, for me, it’s about bringing multiple resources and references to my attention to really fill in the picture. Our God loves variety and I dig it as well.

Plus, it never hurts for God to continually re-emphasize what He’s saying to me – I guess I can be a little slow on the uptake sometimes.

So, in order to not get distracted and try to share about something that I’ve really just begun processing myself, I just wanted to pass along the encouragement I received!

Enjoy!

http://kellyneedham.wordpress.com/2010/08/01/what-are-you-waiting-on/

Faith in Difficult Times
http://kellyneedham.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/faith-in-difficult-times/

No Good Thing Does He Withhold (Part 2 of Faith in Difficult Times)
http://kellyneedham.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/no-good-thing-does-he-withhold/

Nothing is More Important (an excerpt from a 31 day series on Parenting)
http://joyfuljava.blogspot.com/2011/10/31-days-nothing-is-more-important.html

I ran across this video tonight in the search to find a new worship CD, and this was yet another confirmation of God’s faithfulness to meet me where I am. It’s been a rough season the past 6-8 weeks, with a lot going on and honestly just not having the time (or taking the time) to sort through all of it mentally or emotionally. Needless to say, I’ve been kind of a wreck (and God has extended grace to and through my husband to help me in the midst of it)!

Tonight, I felt as though this was an invitation for me to fall apart.
To let go and trust that God is big enough to handle my brokenness.
To cease striving to hold myself together.
To be reminded that He is with me in the midst of my brokenness, and that that is when I’m the most sensitive to His voice.

I guess when I stop telling myself that I’m fine, that I can pull myself together and quiet my inner pep talks, it’s then that I can hear Him speaking to me, reminding me that I need Him.

When I let go of my perfectionism, I can exchange my poor attempts for His strength.

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9

The video really spoke to me and I’m praying that this season can be redeemed and changed into a season of intimate revival in my relationship with Jesus. What Satan has meant for harm, God has always transformed for His purposes because I belong to Him. I do pray for the courage to hold on to Him when my life seems to be falling apart and to trust His heart when I don’t understand His ways.

I encourage you to take a minute to listen to the song first, and then watch the video of the story behind it. I couldn’t find it to add to my playlist, or I would have put that on the top of my list. I’m sure I’ll be listening to it a lot over the next few weeks.

Fall Apart by Josh Wilson

The Story Behind Fall Apart