InstaEncouragements Blog

Hardships Are the Workroom of Transformation

10/30/2018

"If God’s primary purpose was to deliver to you a comfortable life, He’s a massive failure. No, He’s committed to giving you something vastly better and eternally more significant.

While we constantly revert back to wanting a life that’s a little easier and more comfortable, the attention of our Lord is never distracted or diverted, He stays on task, working to finish what He’s begun; our complete redemption.

God left us in this broken and uncomfortable world, not because He is a poor planner, but because He knew the hardships here would be the workroom where He rescues us from us and transforms us into His likeness.” —Paul David Tripp

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Gratitude Flourishes When Grace is Celebrated

10/26/2018

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When I celebrate the grace given to me by God, and I'm grateful for it, I find it more natural to give that same grace to those around me.

Gratitude flourishes
when grace is celebrated.

Grace and gratitude should be so closely linked, but isn't it interesting how natural is to be ungrateful and how unnatural it is to be grateful?

We've been given so much, but we forget how to be grateful for it. We get so wrapped up in the busyness of life, and that seems natural for us, but we have to be intentional about being grateful for the grace given to us by God. We also have to be intentional about passing that grace on to those we meet along our journey. Intentional about receiving it, and intentional about passing it on.

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The Hope and Comfort of Isaiah 61

10/23/2018

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This passage in Isaiah screams of HOPE! It speaks of favor and comfort, and trading ashes for a beautiful headdress, mourning for gladness, and a faint spirit for a garment of praise. If gives a new name to God's people, oaks of righteousness, and calls them plantings of the Lord. All this for one reason; that He may be glorified!

"To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion-to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations." Isaiah 61:2-4

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The Humble Roots of a Grounded and Nourished Soul

10/19/2018

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The Humble Roots of a Grounded and Nourished Soul

I've been reading Humble Roots: How Humility Grounds and Nourishes Your Soul by Hannah Anderson. I usually don't recommend books before I'm finished reading them, but I can already, highly recommend this one!

Are you feeling overwhelmed by life today? This is a great place to start the journey of finding peace and rest in a world that just keeps loading up our plates with anything but. I call it the "Do More Be More" world, and it only produces relentless anxiety, never peace or rest.

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A War of Worship is Playing Out in Our Souls

10/16/2018

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A War of Worship is Playing Out in Our Souls

What do you love? What do you really, really love today? What do you spend most of your time thinking about? What rules your heart? The things we love, the things we spend most of our time thinking about, these are the things that we worship. These are the things that guide our desires and write our story.

Just a quick survey of things we love finds these ten at the top of the list:

Cake
Shiplap
Pinterest
Fashion
Makeup
Travel
Coffee
Organizing
Crafts
A night out

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Beautiful Gardens Begin With Clearing the Land

10/12/2018

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Beautiful Gardens Begin With Clearing the Land

"Beautiful gardens begin with the violence of clearing the land." Wow! That's kind of deep. It's also a little frightening when you're thinking about the garden of your life!

Have you ever thought of your life as a beautiful garden? That's the way God sees it. He doesn't see all the messy. He looks past that and sees a garden being made beautiful.

Beautiful gardens though begin with a lot of clearing. It's not an easy work, and some gardens need more clearing than others. Some take longer to clear. Some have more weeds, the ground is rocky. But there is grace for the clearing! There is rescuing grace for all this messy clearing. For all the plowing up, the turning over, the weed pulling ugliness there is grace. He is creating beautiful gardens with our lives.

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The Voice of The Potter

10/9/2018

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"Life, like this pot, comes to be in places of tension." —a modern-day potter

Who here hasn't had to deal with tension in their life? Who hasn't been formed by it just as a potter forms a beautiful pot? The potter forms his pot with the tension of his hands, both from the inside of the pot and from the outside.

It's these times of tension that shape us. God uses them to shape, form, and make us into a beautiful vessel for His glory.

Tension is a state of being stretched. Today you may be in that place of tension. You may feel you're being stretched to your absolute limit. The pressures of life bearing down from the outside AND the inside, all at the same time. Hold on! Your story is being written. This is only a chapter, not the whole novel. And Your Story Will Mean More to You Tomorrow than it does today.