Childlike Faith

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Jesus loves a good party. In the Old and New Testaments are examples of good friends with good food gathered in the name of the Lord. This is the heart behind our annual GT Gala. We want to usher in Christmas by celebrating what God celebrates: Jesus.

He woke me up in the night with this year’s Gala “theme” if you will. Child-like faith. 

Being child-like might be different from our common holiday goals. Commercials, gadgets, and elvish personas promise to deliver giggles from little kids. And, to be honest, seeing their “eyes all aglow” does something to our insides. We spend a lot of money and effort so our kids get the counterfeit Christmas vibe. But let’s face it, we may or may not hit a home run.

Raise your hand if you have stayed up way past bedtime to assemble some random item. Bikes, car tracks, dollhouses, you name it. A million pieces finally come together and your kids look at the new contraption and. . . go play with the box it came in.

The Grinch taught us well.

“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!

‘Maybe Christmas,’ he thought, ‘doesn’t come from a store.

Maybe Christmas … perhaps … means a little bit more!,’ ”

 

The Lord told me that we think being childlike is something we grow out of. Whew. That stings. Picture the teen years. Once fun outings morph into sullen grunts and blank stares. The beaming children become bored spectators.

The Lord asked this question: Have you been talked out of your child-like wonder?

Are we eager children ready to be enthralled or are we awkward teenagers who occur more like entitled, ungrateful observers?

Jesus constantly calls us to become little children…like right now. Today.

Being Childlike starts with delight. God said that happy children are nice. But there is more.

My friends took their children to the local parade. The mom sent me a video of her 4-year-old trying to catch these huge bubbles. The joy on his face moved me. I kept watching the video. There it was. Sheer glee.

My other friend told me about strolling their almost 2-year-old through Christmas lights for the first time. Her face was beaming as she recalled her son pointing and repeating:  Wow. Wow. Wow.

Beauty does that to us all— if we let it.

God’s purpose in beauty, in surprises, in simple play, is to create moments of delight. Moments of remembering, we are all still His children.

I asked Him, “Why do You go to all this trouble to make such delights for us?”

He asked back, “Well why do you go to all the trouble to bring delight to others (ie, the Gala)?”

I stuttered for a minute. “Because we love inviting other people into beautiful moments?”

I replayed the four-year-old with bubbles and the two-year-old with Christmas lights. There was the delight of the children, but there was ALSO the delight of the moms watching their children. The dots began to connect.

The Lord enjoys us enjoying the things He has created for us to enjoy.

Can you imagine the Glowing Face of God as He laughs over the wide-eyed wonder of His kids? God enjoys us enjoying His gifts in the same way these parents enjoy their children. No needed outcome. No profit loss statements. Only for the joy it produces. 

This begs the question: Do we appreciate, adore, and enjoy His biggest gift, Jesus? It matters to God. It matters to your soul.

Another aspect of being childlike is belief.

God and I have gone through some serious challenges this year. He said He was training my Quick and Willing Yes. He wanted me to trust My Good Father whenever He asked me to do something no matter how outlandish. You can imagine, He has given me many chances to practice giving a quick and willing yes.

I see now that God wants to bless us with adventure. And. He wants us to bless Him back with our child-like response of delight and belief. A natural overflow of His life in ours.

Children believe so much easier and quicker. They don’t have all the mental noise and doubt to cloud their beliefs and thinking. You know this. Tell a child he is stupid and worthless, he believes it. Tell her that some guy in a red suit brings her gifts, she believes it. So guard your children’s ability to believe the truth and guard your own. This delights the Lord.

Jesus invited a little child to stand among them.

“Truly I tell you,” He said, “unless you change and become like little children,

you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this little child

is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

And whoever welcomes a little child like this in My name welcomes Me.”

Matthew 18:1-5

 

God is inviting us to reacquaint ourselves with childlike faith. Our FAITH causes God to rejoice in the same way we marvel over children with bubbles and lights. We are joining in a Heavenly reality that brings Him deep satisfaction.

Child-like Faith produces Expectation. We believe so we become eager to receive from Him.

Let me just put this out there.

If you can teach your kids to “expect” Santa, which isn’t real, please for the Love of God, teach your children to EXPECT to Hear and receive from our GOOD GOOD Father. Teach your own heart and those around you to Delight, Believe, and Expect all the beauty of Jesus.

God said childlike faith is a superpower.

He told me if we truly understood the power of childlike faith, if we truly understood the joy of dependence on God, we would pray more because we would realize the ripple effects we all have in the lives around us.

This Christmas, remember Your Father enjoys you enjoying this beautiful life. Remember to honor and celebrate Jesus, our perfect Gift. It matters to God.

Advent Reflections: Every Good Gift

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Chuck and I are going through lean times. Maybe you are too. New jobs, home repair, kids’ expenses, illness—many factors cause money to pass through all of our hands. Seen and unseen circumstances affect cash flow like the moon affects the ebb and flow of the tide. God planted three truths in our hearts to help us ride the ever-changing waves.

 

A couple of years ago I was whining, fretting, arguing, praying about God’s provision. This was His answer.

Asking Me to provide is like asking the waves to return to the shore.

Think about it.

Have you ever been to the ocean when the water wasn’t flowing to the shore? Sure, sometimes it’s thunderous and full and high tide. Sometimes it is lakewater flat and calm. But the waves are ever lapping the shores, returning, ever returning.

This word from the Lord is medicine to my shaky heart. It is also a shot of adrenalin to my spirit to recognize He is the Lord of the whole, dang ocean. God is the Maker of all the earth. He will care for me and you as constantly as the saltwater finds its way to the beach. We can bank on His Unfailing waves.

There is always enough to give.

We learned this powerful truth from saints who have gone before. As young believers, me and Chuck watched these gray-haired God lovers give testimony about the faithfulness of God in every season. “He’s been so good to us. We can’t afford to not give,” they would say as grateful tears ran down wrinkled faces.

Selah.

When things are tight, giving to God and others feels like the least appropriate response. It’s natural to grab and cling to what we have. But we are supernatural beings. We have access to all the resources of Heaven. We may not feel that way, but it is our reality nonetheless.

Chuck and I have learned to empty our pockets to fill our faith. We overcome lean seasons, hard seasons, even famine seasons— by giving. But why? 

It’s a declaration of trust that He will give us all we need. We give even though it doesn’t make sense on paper. It makes sense to God.

We are blessed to be a blessing.

Giving reminds us of our holy birthright, our eternal covenant. Our Good God will care for us AND give us enough to share. As you approach Christmas, as you plan for 2024, as you review year-end reports, remember your covenant God. Remember His desire for multiplication.

Everything we have is a gift. We may think we worked for it. We earned it. But revisit Deuteronomy 8. It’s all part of our covenant with God—through HIS giving, we become a blessed people group known on the earth for outrageous faith and generosity.

God-covenant-awareness changes us. It trains us. 

We see this year the Lord has taught us to trust more, deeper. The word is constancy.  He continues to take us through seasons of plenty and want so that we master the secret of dependence. Flowing in His favor, without all the drama. (Though we are still working on the no drama part.)

My counsel? Count your blessings. Then give them away. The ocean will bring you more.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17

 

He Remains

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Loss never comes at the right time. It could be the loss of a job. It could be a shifting relationship or even a death. Sadly, it’s never at a moment of our choosing and we always want just one more chance to talk or at least one more hug. We just want more.

The pain of loss punches us in the gut. It takes our breath away—every time. Sometimes my faith leaks out of my heart just like tears fall out of my eyes. The bad news is loss doesn’t happen only once but over and over throughout our lives. 

You’d think we would be better students by now. Better at hurting, I mean. We sure get a lot of practice.

What I want to offer you today is this truth: He remains. No matter what happens.

We recently had to say goodbye to our dear Great Dane, Simone. Let me tell you, whew, God could not have been more near. I know, I know, she’s a dog. But she was a gift from my Good Father. And my Good Father cared deeply that His kids were crying over the loss of their companion.

And like all loss, He just keeps teaching me about His willingness to meet me right where I am. He knows just what I need. Sometimes He gives comfort, or it may be truth, or rescue, or tenderness. Whatever it is, He remains.

Here is an example of His wrap-around presence. Chuck brought Simone to me to say goodbye. I was at a lakehouse getting ready to teach a retreat. I was so torn. Do I cancel or go on? Do I see her for the last time or miss her? When she slowly got out of the car, I knew I had chosen well. It was a gift to see my old friend—one more time. Then they drove off.

Standing there cold, barefoot, and alone, I crumbled. ‘What have I done?’ I thought. ‘How will I ever catch my breath? How will I ever teach?’ I walked down by the pool to find a place to cry in private. I wasn’t praying. I was just crying.

But as I stood there, I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the morning. Wispy steam lifted up off the water as the sun rose up over the hills. I noticed the sound of birds singing and watched one fly above me and land right on top of a tall tree. Faintly, somewhere far off in my spirit, I heard, I care for the sparrows.

I said out loud, “I know Lord. I know you care.”

Look at all this beauty, He said. It was an incredible view of the lake, the mist, and the colors.

“I know Lord, it is beautiful. This just hurts so much too. I don’t know how I will stop crying. Let alone teach,” I said through sobs.

What happened next is nothing short of a miracle. This swirl of energy started around my waist and spiraled up around me through my body and up through my head.  All of this caused me to inhale sharply. 

In a moment, my tears stopped. Just like that. In one holy touch, God replaced my anguish with His peace. I felt like He had painted me into His beautiful morning landscape of hope and glory. 

His presence changes everything.

Loss is inevitable. He remains.

He sees you. He honors your tears. He heals your sorrow.

God is unstoppable as He gathers His hurting children in His arms. To be sure I have cried since then. But that rush of the Holy Spirit, surrounding and containing me, so I could carry on for the day is burned in my memory.

He remains. 

Beginning with Thanks

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By: Laura Jones Collins
The holidays are here.  And I don’t know about you, but we have had a lot of hard and hurt going on right before we go into the “most wonderful time of the year.”
I want to give you some things the Lord and I have been talking about. Like how to walk out this season  in peace instead of so much stress that we wish the next month and a half away. Like Holy Spirit survival guide stuff.

Here’s what the Lord said to me: “Thanks comes before Giving. You must receive and give thanks before you can give from overflow. Otherwise you will be giving out of compulsion rather than a cheerful heart. Never give at the expense of your peace.”
In 2 Corinthians 9:7 , Paul writes, “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” I know this is about giving in the sense of giving to the Lord. But if this is His heart for how we give to Him, then how much more should it affect how we give to each other?
So how does that work? The Lord kept reminding me of how Jesus fed the five thousand. We read the story in Matthew 14:13-21
13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”
16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.
18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.
Jesus received the small gift. Even in what looked like ridiculously impossible circumstances to his disciples.
He gave thanks.
THEN He gave it away.
There is something about thanks that produces overflow. Ann Voscamp says, “Thanksgiving always precedes the miracle.” We read in Psalms that we enter His gates with THANKSGIVING and His courts with praise. Thanks is how we get into His presence, it’s how we receive from Him. And that divine exchange – receiving, thanking, blessing – is part of our intimacy with God that produces overflow.
Activate:
What can I be truly, deeply thankful for RIGHT NOW?
What am I doing that is costing me my peace?
What is God specifically giving me that I can recieve in this season?

The Power of Do-Overs

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This lovely picture is from last week. Everything started out beautifully. Chuck walked out of his office and said, “Oh my goodness it smells wonderful in here.”  I laughed and told him it was the magic of garlic, onions, and olive oil. Great ingredients to begin with then I added Italian sausage, ground beef, red wine, and balsamic vinegar. (Ten points if you can figure out what I was making.) Then I went outside and got distracted…

The next time Chuck came out of his office, he was banging on the door with his foot,  trying to get my attention. The pot, now in his hands, was pouring out smoke.  I rushed into the house and was instantly enveloped by a grey cloud that reeked of charred meat. Not the eating kind of charred, but the death kind.

We had company arriving in three hours. Dinner is dead and our house makes you want to vomit.

Good times.

Have you ever scorched a conversation? Or burnt a relationship to a crisp? So much so that your heart hurts for days after?  Yeah.  Me too.  In fact. While supper was burning on the stove, I was distracted by a conversation that had an eerie resemblance. Burnt to a crisp. And reeked for days.  So now what?

It is the holy work of Do-Overs. When you know how it could go if you had a chance to start again. To do it better this time.  This is how the mess in my house tutored me in the mess of my conversation.

First, the initial assessment:

No fires. Check.

Windows open and fans on. Check.

Chuck is not burned. Check.

Candles lit. Check.

Second, begin acute cleanup.

Whew. The whole area surrounding the stove was a nightmare. Deep cleaning was required. But immediately I got the stovetop and floor cleaned, so I could cook again right away.

Third, still need to feed the company.

The Lord was so kind. He reminded me that I bought two packs of Italian sausage for two different recipes. Ahh.

Thank you, Lord. I had all I needed for a Do-over.

Fourth, I started again.

I got a clean pan and threw in the garlic, onions, and olive oil. This time, I only left the pot once all the ingredients were simmering happily.  To be clear, I was making this new fragrant dish while choking back the still-present smoke smell. As I peeled and sliced and stirred, I replayed the fiasco. What had I done wrong? Why had it burned like that?

Not enough liquids. I had sauteed the onions and browned the meat but forgot to add the crushed tomatoes. (Yes, it’s spaghetti sauce.) I had wanted to let the meat cook a bit more but ruined it all instead.

I am telling you this because while I was burning my supper, I was engrossed in a difficult meeting via Zoom on my back porch. Turns out, I scorched the meeting the same way.

So again, what had I done wrong? And what to do now?

One. I had to open the windows and give everybody a minute, including myself to get some fresh air. We were all choking.

Two. I had to clean up the mess. Emotionally, spiritually, relationally.

Three. I had to begin again. And learn from my mistakes. Turned out that my meeting had all the ingredients there,  just like my sauce. We just needed to add a little extra liquid— insight, courage, wisdom, and even Living Water. Smile. And I needed to stir and simmer it longer.

Holy Do-Overs.

Can I tell you this is a code word in my family? Chuck and me, and the kids, would often come back after some charred moment and ask: Can I have a Do-Over? I can do that better than I did right there.

Do you know that we still had a lovely spaghetti dinner that night? Even that was healing for me. It reminded me I am a good cook.  Just like I am a good friend and leader.  I just have to keep my focus and clean up my messes.

Honestly, the hardest thing for me was enduring the stench. For days when I walked in my house or leaned too close to the exhaust fan, (oh the irony) I could smell traces of it all over again. The stench reminded me of the stinging in my heart and the hurt to others.  But we keep learning. We keep cleaning. We keep trying to be our best selves.

Lord, we thank you for Holy Do-Overs. Thank you for mercy. Thank you for healing. Thank you for good meals after bad ones. And good relational laughs after tears. Amen.

His Song Creates Change

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Can I just say that the Spirit of God is the medicine for all the world?

Right now, we are witnessing wars, hostage negotiations, trillion-dollar debt deals, abject greed and starvation. And the cherry on top?  My own human heart. Do you feel the chaos and contradiction rise up inside as you watch the events outside? Add a little personal drama to this emotional cocktail and we’ve got ourselves a meltdown. Unless…

The nearness of God has to matter in cases just like this, or, we have bought into some placebo mind game. What was it the theological haters called it? The numbing of the masses? Yeah. Sit down and be quiet. I want to release a testimony.

Just like you, I am navigating the news, work life, family life, and the assaults on my own mind. I felt like I was being crushed. So I did what I knew to do. 

Worship. 

Early one morning, I went to the water to quiet the noise. I started hearing Him whisper specific lines from several songs I’ve been soaking in. That night, He woke me up in the wee hours. I grabbed a familiar verse from a dusty version and my eyes popped open. 

“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us” Ephesians 3:20 NASB

Listen, I have nailed down the More Abundantly part and the Ask part. It was the little word Think that stopped me cold. 

His power works within me to Think different.  If I will let Him. 

So I just kept chewing on this word, pressing into His presence while I was doing daily chores. And then it came to me in a rush. I had to stop everything to capture the comfort He was singing over me.

These are lyrics from several songs that He mashed together to answer my fear, my hurt, my longing. My Need. 

(You literally can’t make this stuff up.) 

His New Song…

Why do I care if I don’t know what to do? 

When I live by the strength of Another 

You got me under Your wings

I could worry about many things 

But one thing is needed 

You’re all I need God 

Help me to see that

You got me under Your wings

I need you to heal my heart.

Come lay me down to drink Your cup 

And resurrect me like Your Son 

I’m gonna love again 

You’re faithful to heal my heart

I’ll be the branches if You’ll be the root

To lay on Your shore and be washed by Your waves

‘Cause all I want is You, You know

‘Cause through the joy of letting go

Yeah, I’ve found my peace, I’ve found my hope, I’ve found my home

I need your Shelter 

Hide me away from the harm

Away from it all

I’m safe here in Your loving arms

I need Your shelter

The weight of the world’s falling off of my shoulders

I’m letting go ’cause I know that You hold it

You care for me more than I even know, and

I just need You

Keep your eyes open wide

Guard that beautiful heart

don’t ever let your love grow cold

don’t settle for the easy road

The hardest things will make you  grow

Lord, thank you for singing over us. Your presence works the world right out of our thinking. I love you back. Amen. 

Listen to original songs and find credits here: 

 

Losing or Leveling Up?

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Surrender. Come on, be honest. Did the word make you cringe? I’ve always equated surrender with a white flag, admitting defeat. Losing the battle, game, or ahem, argument. But the other day the Lord gave me a new meaning of why surrender is the pathway to more fullness, more…Life.

 

Me and the Lord have this game we play.  He likes to show me the meaning under the meaning in words. One morning, I was praying with Chuck and a picture just popped into my mind.

Sur render. 

Surrender? I asked.

No. Sur render.

He was trying to redefine the word for me. I had to go look up what the Lord was hinting at.

At the most recent Yes and Amen retreat we talked about how God leads us through a process of transformations. We made a whole list of worldly mindsets we take off and Kingdom mindsets we put on. One of those was Self-sufficiency transformed into Surrender.

When I got home, He kept unpacking this. A weak view of surrender feels like resignation or quitting, or worse, losing. So from that mindset, if we “surrender to God,” it doesn’t always zing in our spirit. But look, there’s more:

Sur means “to be over, above, beyond, in addition.”

Think sur-plus, sur-charge, sur-prise, sur-name .

Render means in artistic terms to “to cause to become.” With this upgrade, Jesus is inviting us to give Him our situation, fear, need, or dream on the understanding that He is above and beyond our skill and pay grade and He wants to create more for us than we can do all by ourselves.

I don’t know about you, but that zings my spirit.

I am not quitting on me or my plans. I am leveling up. With Jesus.

Self-sufficiency to Sur render means we give our plans to Someone who is over and beyond us and then He causes something even better to become. Sure, we can do it. But He can and wants to do it better with us. 

Try it His way. You might like it. Besides, self-sufficiency is exhausting anyway. 

Bigger on the Inside

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Greater is He that is in you…There are some lessons that God never tires of driving home in our hearts. Since truth sets us free, it makes sense that He keeps flooding us with pictures and verses and revelations of who He is, and thus, who we are. We sometimes forget that God is ever working miracles in hidden places.

I have so many God stories about butterflies. I mean, c’mon. We all probably do. Here’s the most recent one. The other day, Lindsey and Christopher told me this story of a caterpillar that they got from their daughter’s school. And it did what caterpillars do, eat and grow and put itself in a chrysalis. Right before they went on vacation. 

So like all good parents, they brought the chrysalis with them. In a padded box. From Tennessee to Florida. 500 miles.

Somehow even this effort speaks to my faith. They KNEW that something amazing was going to happen. So they went to any length necessary to partner with the miracle.

Selah.

In Florida, they watched and waited and a beautiful butterfly emerged from this tiny case. They showed us this picture. It was Christopher who exclaimed, “It’s so big. I don’t know how this big butterfly could even fit inside this little cocoon.”

That’s when I heard the Lord. “It’s bigger on the inside than on the outside.”

I just let that phrase percolate with the Lord for several days. And here is what He gave me.

  1. Don’t settle for caterpillar living, when you are destined to be a butterfly.
  2. I must do whatever it takes to partner with miracles.
  3. There is radical transformation happening that I can’t see.
  4. God inside me is bigger than the little world outside me
  5. The afterlife with God is bigger than the chrysalis of death we all face.

    Maybe read those again. Let Him drive truth home one more time. It will set you free.


    You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them,
    because the     one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

    1 John 4:4 NIV

Heal Thyself

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We all go through heartbreaking times. We deal with loss, betrayal, slander, devastation. One hard lesson I have learned through it all is I would prefer to focus on someone else’s problem, sin, or character issue than to work on my own.

 

Ouch. If I work on you, I don’t have to work on me. It’s easier. On me! Seriously, you know it’s true. But God.

Psalm 51 says a lot of needed and beautiful things about healing. And it starts with me and you naked before the Lord.

Surely You desire truth in the inmost being;
You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

God knows the truth about us deep down. And He wants us to know the truth about us too. But thankfully He doesn’t stop there. He shows us our brokenness, then He teaches us a better way. And then —gasp— He washes us.

Wait what?

 7 Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones You have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide Your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquities.

And if being seen and known, taught a better way and washed is not enough, God goes one step further. He generates a brand new heart and Spirit to spirit connection!

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.

Listen, loved one. You going after your own wholeness and healing with the Living God will do more to right your tough situation than anything else you can offer. 

I see in my recent trials with children and parents that it would be easy to amplify their problems and needs. If I could just fix them… But all the while, the Lord kept saying, “Jana you have work to do. Let Me heal your heart.”

Give yourself to His careful examination. Let Him show you and wash you and heal you. Then you can re-enter your family drama or work drama with a better version of you, a Right Spirit You. 

Pay Day

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Let’s face it. If you work in a non-profit land, it’s pretty safe to say you are not in it for the money. Smile. In the beginning, I would sometimes grumble at the Lord, “I’m not getting paid enough to do this. It’s so hard. I mean, I love you Lord, but dang…is this worth the effort?”

In a kind way, the Lord shifted my appreciation. 

Now, without fail, there comes a specific moment when everything is in place and the event is humming along. 

The Lord whispers, “Don’t miss this. It’s Payday.” 

I stop and breathe it all in, focus on a person or an action I think He is pointing out, and catch a holy moment. 

God doesn’t miss one ounce of our effort. He sees every task, every offering, every sacrifice. And even more, He rewards it. (Hebrews 6:19)

Maybe not in cash, but dare I say it? In His pleasure. He shows us His Big Why we do what we do, and it is far beyond what we could ever hope or imagine. 

Holy Spirit was alllll over the beach retreat last weekend. Through the middle of the night prayers and travailing for breakthrough, He would whisper, “Keep going, payday is coming.”

And it did. We were in a worship session, my eyes were closed and I was just singing and swaying with Him. I was thanking Him for carrying all of us, blessing Him for revealing Himself. And His whisper came. 

“Listen,” He said. I stopped singing. Ahhh their voices. This was a new song to most when we began the weekend, now the women were singing their hearts out here at the end. 

 

You opened up the heavens./ You rained down your love.

Father my heart is toward you./ You’re more than enough.

 

Tears ran down my cheek. Thank you, Jesus. 

Then He said, “Now take a look. It’s payday.”

I carefully turned around to see a room full of women. Their eyes were closed, hands held high, faces glowing with the presence of the Lord, declaring their renewed love and faith in this beautiful God.

It’s why we do what we do. All for His glory. No better payday. 

“And without faith living within us, it would be impossible to please God. For we come to God in faith knowing that he is real and that he rewards the faith of those who passionately seek him.”

Hebrews 11:6 TPT