A Cup Too Small - Cathy Joy Hill

Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Matthew 6:25 NIV

Maybe we’ve been given a cup too small.

I heard her behind me as I walked along the lake in Chicago. A young woman discussed going to New York to find her “perfect job.” Strolling in arguably one of the greatest cities in the world, where opportunities wait on every square block, she was dissatisfied and searching.

I would have turned around and scolded her if I had not once been her. I remember seeking perfection. My oldest son is busy now with the same pursuit, and my youngest son is also—the latter, the perfect grad school, the younger, the perfect role in the musical.

Is it because God formed us by perfection that we desire it so? We search long and hard for something we don’t yet have—fame, wealth, love, happiness, contentment, understanding, excitement, forgiveness, relationship. We always need one more thing, one more minute, one more day.

I am eternally grateful to look back and still have time to look forward. I tell my sons that what looks like failure is God-directed. And what feels like success is simply a steppingstone.

Perfect contentment, love, trust, and friendship are reserved for one relationship. That one that stole our heart at conception and keeps it under His watchful eye. God waits for us to find Him. He seeks us so gently we don’t even know He is there. After finding Him, we chase to go faster and farther and taller and better. But the best position we can hold is bent over in service or on our knees in prayer.

Our frustration over failure is replaced by the exultation of a grand director who gently leads with the whisper of angels and the tug of the intangible.

These touches from Him reverse and inverse everything we value. We realize the greatest is the least, the smallest is exceptional, and the cup that seemed so small only needs pouring out to grow.

The pressure to do, be, and have is replaced by the posture of grace. All grace. The breath, the life, the suffering. All grace to be a part of this grand prelude to the glorious finish.

I tell my sons to enjoy the ride because the finish line is incredibly worth it. Stay on the path, see the view, watch God work, and listen hard. I want to see God’s hand stamped all over the passport of my heart. Blessed indeed is the one who stops seeking and realizes what they have found.

Is your cup too small?

Tweetable: Is your God-cup too small?  

Cathy is a writer, teacher, and entrepreneur. She met her husband Brian while studying in Paris, France. They make their home in Geneva, IL, with their four children and their daughter-in-love. She loves writing about the wonder and whimsy of life and her love for Jesus. Her first book is Destination: Fierce, Moving from Fear to Fierce. Learn more about Cathy at www.cathyjoyhill.com.

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Those Stubborn Doubts - Martin Wiles

When they saw him, they worshiped him—but some of them doubted! Matthew 28:17 NLT

Some made promises, but I doubted they’d keep them.

No middle schooler wants to be uprooted and moved hundreds of miles from his friends—but that’s what happened when Dad decided to pastor a church in Jackson, Tennessee. Except for the first three months of my life—which I don’t recall—I’d never lived anywhere but South Carolina. All my friends lived there. Now I’d have to leave family and friends behind for an adventure I never asked to go on.

We’ll come to see you. We’ll keep in touch. We’ll write. I heard the promises, but I doubted any of them would come true. And except for my grandmother, they didn’t.

Over the next three years, I made new friends. Then Dad decided to move back to South Carolina. I heard the promises again from our new friends, but I doubted they’d come true. I saw several friends on a couple of occasions after we moved, but the friendships were doomed once we moved.

Some of Jesus’ followers struggled with doubts too. After His resurrection, Jesus instructed them to meet Him in Galilee. When they saw Him, most believed … but some doubted.

Doubt isn’t a fatal sin unless it keeps me from believing in Jesus as my Savior … the one who can forgive my sins and reconcile me with God the Father. Those in this instance who doubted had earlier believed in Jesus as the Messiah and also possessed much biblical knowledge.  

Doubt accompanies our fallen nature. Even when given a new nature by Christ, doubt can linger. We pray for deliverance from a life trial, but doubt God will deliver. We pray for healing from a disease, but doubt God’s ability to heal. We pray for God to bring back a wandering spouse or heal a friendship, but don’t really believe He can.

God understands our doubts—He knows our nature. Although doubt in the form of unbelief keeps us from a relationship with God—and hinders our prayer life—God is a loving heavenly Father who never turns His back on us merely because we struggle with doubts. He wants to transform those doubts into faith so our spiritual fortitude can grow and so we’ll be prepared for this life of faith travel.

Give your doubts to God. What He does with them will amaze you.

Prayer: Father, we give our doubts to You and ask You to form them into faith.

Tweetable: What doubts do you struggle with? 

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Bouts with Doubt - Martin Wiles

John’s two disciples found Jesus and said to him, “John the Baptist sent us to ask, ‘Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?’” John 7:20 NLT

“I don’t know if I believe in God anymore,” he said. And he left. Never to be seen or heard from again.

Rob and I were good friends during my first semester of college. How firm his spiritual foundation stood before coming to college, I’m not sure, but a new doctrine soon shook it to the core. Toward the end of his first semester, he met up with a group of men who were studying predestination. Rob joined in. 

Why the doctrine affected him the way it did, I’m not sure, but soon Rob doubted his salvation and his belief in God. His doubts overwhelmed him. As I walked into my apartment for lunch one day, he greeted me with the news. He planned to leave.

John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, also doubted. John had announced Jesus as the Messiah, had baptized Him, and had watched his own disciples leave him and follow Jesus. But at one point in his life, he doubted whether Jesus was whom He had proclaimed Him to be. When John’s two disciples approached Jesus with John’s question, Jesus merely sent them back and told them to remind John of all He had done.

Doubt isn’t a sin; only unbelief is. Jesus didn’t tell John’s disciples to rebuke him with scathing denunciations for doubting. He told them to gently remind John of the things Jesus had done which proved His Messiahship. Jesus also declared John to be the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. Unbelief keeps us from God—presently and in eternity—but doubt doesn’t have to.

Our human nature leads us to doubt. Our minds react against what appears illogical or beyond the bounds of scientific proof. If something doesn’t make sense—or if science says it isn’t true—we naturally doubt.

Rather than destroy our faith—as it did Rob’s—doubt, when approached correctly, strengthens our faith. It did for John when his disciples brought back word from Jesus. Jesus assurances reassured John and drove away his doubts. Doubt leads to research, prayer, Bible study, and other forms of action so we can discover answers—all healthy approaches when dealing with doubt.

Don’t let your doubts overwhelm you, but also don’t demean yourself because you have them. Take them to God. As with John, He’ll soothe your doubts and reassure your faith.

Tweetable: Are you battling doubt?

Prayer: Father, thank You for not casting us aside when we have doubts but for lovingly reassuring us of Your love and existence. 

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Good God, All the Time - Martin Wiles

For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 2 Corinthians 4:17 NLT

Two hurricanes back to back, but God’s goodness remains.

Coastal Texas and Louisiana reeled from the effects of Harvey—a powerful hurricane that blew on shore and wreaked havoc on property and lives. Pictures caused me to gasp. Structures flattened. As many as sixty people dead. Most—if not all of them—innocent people. People minding their own business, going about life the best they knew how. Until Harvey changed it all. Harvey took lives, businesses, homes, possessions, dreams. Floods capitalized on the winds.

Irma followed closely on Harvey’s heels. The largest Atlantic hurricane on record, packing sustained winds of 185 mph. Florida was in her path, and she was as wide as the entire state. Islands felt her wrath before the state. Irma repeated Harvey’s destruction—only with not as much rain but more wind. The death toll copied Harvey. So did the destruction of property.

Many question the existence and goodness of God when evil and tragedy rear their ugly heads. How could a good God allow such things to happen? If God does exist, He must be a wimp because evil appears to be winning more than it’s losing. Questions asked or pondered by unbelievers—but contemplated by believers occasionally too, if we’re honest.

The apostle Paul knew trouble. He inflicted it on early Christians before he became one, and after he believed he endured it himself—eventually dying for his faith. He knew, however, what lay ahead for him: heaven. And what he would experience in heaven would far outweigh anything he faced on earth.

God’s wants to stretch our faith—not destroy it. His goodness remains even when calamity strikes. He doesn’t inflict evil, although He allows it to continue. If evil was stronger than God, then God wouldn’t be sovereign. Individual elements in our world demonstrate the existence of evil, but God promises to take the parts and bake a delicious whole from them for His children.

I’ve experienced tragedies and disappointments that have rumbled my faith and raised questions in my mind. But my faith remains intact because it’s built on the solid foundation that God loves me and has my best interests at heart—regardless of how things might appear. He has the same in mind for you.

Never question God’s love or goodness. He loves matchlessly and exudes goodness continuously.

Tweetable: Do you sometimes question God's love?

Prayer: Father, strengthen our faith for the good times and for the bad times. 

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Flashback Friday - Dealing with Doubts - Martin Wiles

Dealing with Doubts

Deep inside…occasionally…temporarily—and on bad days, I’m a skeptic. 

But before you pronounce judgment, examine your inner self. The one no one else knows. The side you only let escape when you’re with the closest of friends. If you’re honest, you’ll probably admit that sometimes you’re a doubter too.

I know asking God for something without believing he’ll grant it is useless. I’ve prayed without faith. More often than I want to admit. I say I believe—I even act like I do, but deep inside I’m not sure I always do. If I did, I wouldn’t be surprised when God actually answers. Like most, when I was young in the faith, I believed God could and would do anything. But then I became over familiar with my faith and it lost its edge. Read more...

Tweetable: How do you handle your doubts?

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