Without further (any) ado, here are the winners for my 40th birthday giveaways:
- Barn Again Design Co. Bundle :: KIM CAMPBELL
- Hey Emily Thomas Print :: JULIE
- Paperback copy of Your Sacred Yes :: KELLEY, HEIDI J., TRACI HARDY, VALERIE VREEKE, and CHANDA TOUCHETTE
Winners were electronically, randomly selected and will be contacted within 24 hours via email.
Congratulations to each of you. And THANK YOU Barn Again Design, Hey Emily Thomas, and Bethany House for your donations. I pray God’s blessing, wisdom, and guidance over your businesses.
Don’t forget the COUPON CODES for all of my readers:
Barn Again Design Co.: 20% discount by mentioning my blog when you order. Furniture pieces only available for deliver in North Carolina and Virginia. Everything else available to ship in the continental USA.
Hey Emily Thomas: 20% discount with coupon code TOOVERFLOWING at checkout
Now for week five of Fruitful Affliction.
In this week’s video I talk about freedom and the time I turned 40 last week and jumped from a plane.
Since the beginning of this year, God has been speaking the word “freedom” to me. He has been leading me into places of greater daily freedom — freedom from fears and insecurities. And in the pondering of freedom, I’ve asked myself, “What binds up my heart?” What or whom, other than Jesus, do I depend upon for life or joy or peace? Because when we start clinging to anything lesser than Jesus for life, we’re in bondage. We’ve forfeited freedom. And I. don’t. want. that.
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” (Galatians 5:1a) Jesus died and rose to give us freedom. And the freedom He offers is complete and glorious. I pray we “enter in” this week.
Fruitful Affliction Week 5 Teaching Video
(and no, the moment recorded at 9:12 was not planned. Listen closely. You’re welcome.)
Fill me, Lord…
What would it look like if freedom was fully realized in your life?
I did order something from Hey Emily Thomas and received the discount, thank you very much Lara for offering this.
Gods blessings to you..
Oh yay! I just love Emily and her work. I know you will be blessed.
So in regards to the question: “What might love tangibly look like when we don’t agree with the decisions of someone in authority over us?” I am hoping you or some of your readers might have some thoughts….
Hi Rebecca. Thanks for starting this conversation. It’s a difficult question to process because our flesh naturally wants to “bite back” when someone isn’t loving or when they are making poor choices that affect us. But looking at Scripture, it seems that the very first thing we need to do is commune with God to gain perspective — we pray. we worship. we seek Him through His Word. Then, after we’ve spent time with Him, we’re more prepared to address the specific situation. Sometimes He may call us to speak a word of warning in love. Sometimes He may call us to be quiet and intercede, waiting on Him to move. But either way, it begins with us gaining His perspective. A friend recently quoted something to me, and I don’t know who said it, but she said, “Love contends for the highest good.” The highest good is the glory of God. So we pray for wisdom to know what that will look like in specific situations. I pray that God continues to speak to you as you wrestle through this important issue. I’d love to hear more of your thoughts. Blessings to you!
I agree. For mw, slowing down and taking time to gain perspective by focusing on what is really going on helps. Slow to speak. Kind of like the lessons we learned in Week 1. I have to really fight off my feeling that I have a right to be heard or understood. I know there is blessing in authority though so that is something that I have to focus on.
I like that quote! I am writing it down.
I think there is freedom in letting go of needing to understand and just trust in the goodness of God. It looks like peace. Peace that I would wake up with every day and not matter what I walk through. I believe that if I could fully realize freedom then I would be less likely to be trapped in my habitual sins (fear of losing control leading to anger). I would also have a clear vision of him surrounding me.
I found Day 4 of this week to be difficult. I struggle with evaluating my God-given personality and how he has called me to use my gifts. But I also found the day very timely. I am faced with a really sad (probably terminal) circumstance involving a friend’s son but I was totally bombarded with sickness, death, and dying involving some patients at work when I did this week of the study. So this was very timely and ministered to my heart. Thank you.