A few weeks ago we started doing Bible Club each morning with our kids, my husband found this great family reading plan Exploring the Bible Together and we all do it. It’s been a great way to start our days together, we may need to adjust when we do it once school starts, but we will figure that out when we need to. Anyways, today my husband said, “After Bible Club do you want to go get coffee and get some time outside the house?” Of course I said “Sure!” (I will add that my husbands job allows him to work from home and his hours can be somewhat flexible so this spontaneity well welcomed). We have had seasons in our lives where we were very consistent about giving each other time like this and are working to get back into that, but for now we are accommodating it when we are able to for one another. Eva asked me why I can’t just go Bible study at home and I explained to her that mommy and daddy need time to get out of the house and have quiet time with God. I think it’s very important to explain to her what I am doing and why, my hope is that she always knows that all of us need to seek and persue Jesus and how helpful it is to spend time with Him. So off to a coffee shop I went, put on some headphones with worship music, journaled out some prayers and opened up my Bible. I am in a plan to read the Bible in a year which usually consists of one chapter from about four different books. I started Romans a few days ago and every time I read Romans, God highlights so many things for me. While praying I asked God to help me with what to write and share; I feel that this is what He wanted me to focus on. In chapter four of Romans, Paul talks about the righteousness and faith of Abraham. He talks about Abraham’s righteousness not being based on any works that He did, God called Abraham righteousness and then Abraham’s faith grew out of that. He then went on to circumcise himself and his entire household. But again, what really struck me, was that it wasn’t like Abraham circumcise himself and then God said “Oh Abraham you are so faithful and righteous because you’ve done so!” No, it was from that love that Abraham received from God which grew his faith and then moved towards the circumcision. Abraham responded to God with all he had, he moved from his home to an unknown place, “received the sign of circumcision as a seal (verse 11), then trusted God to provide a son and even trusted God through the test of sacrificing his son. Abraham was far from perfect, he still made mistakes along the way and sinned but His faith is such a wonderful model for our own. And the fact that he sinned and made mistakes, makes his story so much more relatable. It made me reflect on the knowledge that we all have been called righteous by God, we all have the opportunity to step into that faith the way Abraham did. I know that for myself I struggle with giving some things fully over to God
- My timeline and the growth of my business
- Daily schedules and all of the things I would like to get done rather than slowing down to focus on what God wants me to do
- My emotions (a lot of times they can get the better of me and I will stew for a bit before stepping away to pray in the moment, or respond to my children unkindly rather than taking a deep breath before responding)
- I am sure there are many other but that is a good enough list for now
I have realized that I find it easier to trust God with the bigger things in my life than the smaller. I have lost relationships over the past few years that I fully trust God will restore when His time is right, I can rest in knowing that timing is outside of my control. I trust our finances over to God in a big picture manner, I know that the dreams we have we will be able to achieve in His timing, but I do have a harder time releasing control over smaller aspects of our budget because it may interfere with my “comfort” short term. I trust that God has a plan with what He wants to do as far as my small business and if it were to grow, but of course I want it faster than he has planned (don’t we all?). I know that as women we are not be able to relate to the pain of circumcision like Abraham went through. However I have been through seasons of heart circumcision and know pain associated with that. Those seasons allowed my heart to soften so God could truly work on it, and for that I am grateful. This morning’s reading reminded me that I have been called righteous by God. Romans 1:6 says “including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ” that “you” means all of us, we all have that calling from Him to belong to him, to allow our faith to grow out of that calling and to walk in it with the big and the small things.
Blessings,
Ellen
Here is a a link to my Bible, I love the space provided for journaling.
https://www.crossway.org/bibles/esv-single-column-journaling-bible-none-tru/
