A Battle Cry of Encouragement

There's a city with war-torn walls, and the enemy draws near. The defenses have crumbled to rubble piles that tiny creatures scurry beneath, and the fresh wind that quivers the rough homes traverse the same path that foreign armies can march. The war is almost upon them.

So they grab swords in one hand, tools in the other, and they begin at their homes.

The people work.

They raise a wall, ready to fight or build, because this city is the Lord's, and the work will be completed.

Recently, our church family studied the story of Nehemiah.

It's an account of Israel--a people chosen by God who rejected Him and were thus sentenced to exile and their homes fell apart to rubble. Years later, a remnant returned to find Jerusalem in shambles and enemies darting in with angry threats.

But God had a plan.

And His people put their trust in Him and got to work with swords and tools. They began at their homes and made sure that in the place God set before them, a wall was built. They worked in a battlefield.

Live your lives in union with Me, and I will live My life in union with you.

 

And it reminds me of a favorite scene from my soon-to-be-released fantasy novel, The Way of the King.

As tension rises, Kadira finds herself surrounded by enemies, and one of her closest friends chooses to defect to the opposing side. Broken, she finds maybe her last friend--a man wounded and imprisoned in the same enemy's prison cell.

Kadira's hurting. Alone. Afraid.

She loves her King and would lay down her life for him, but the weight is so much.

And in the darkness of prison cells where the treacherous Prince's green fire burns like an emerald snake, she meets her friend in similar dire circumstances, and the words of encouragement could make me cry.

I AM the vine, and you are the branches. If someone is living his life in union with Me, and I in union with him, he will produce much fruit; for apart from Me you can accomplish nothing.

Kadira and her friend stand, metal bars separating them, but they know the King is worth it, and He will win. So they stand strong.

And before she leaves, he whispers to her,

keep running.

Because yes, it's a race and she's tired and exhausted and ready to give up and fall, but no. Keep running.

And I think the people during Nehemiah's time had a similar call ringing in their ears: keep going. keep building. keep working. This is for our God, and He will provide, protect; He will win.

Today, I needed that too. Maybe you do as well.

Because life can be hard. Races aren't easy strolls through "Sound of Music" hills. The ground might be rocky, your knees may be bruised or bleeding, or maybe you're completely out of breath.

Friend, keep running.

Maybe there's city walls falling all around you, and the only defense is that little pile of stones in front of your home. But God can use that wall, and He can defeat the enemy. So let's move to the next house and help them build too.

Or go to the runner who has fallen, take his hand, and help him keep going.

Here's where it starts:

If you are living in union with Me, and My words are dwelling inside of you, you may ask for whatever it is that is on your hearts, and it will be done for you.

 

It starts with me and Jesus.

You and Jesus.

Knowing He is worthy and that if He has called you to this moment, He also has given you everything you need for it (2 Peter 1:3).

He is a loving, tender God of rest and grace, and He will supply all you need.

To fight, we abide. Remain. Live in union with Him.

Like Nehemiah building the wall and Kadira and her friend fighting onward for their King. And I can't tell you the end of The Way of the King (as that would give away way too many spoilers!), but Nehemiah's story is already published. ;)  And part of the ending is an entire parade of musicians traversing the finished wall and ending up at the House of the Lord where they filled the city with song and yelled their praises so loud that they could be heard from afar off.

That's what I call victory!

So I encourage you: keep running. keep building.

Pursuing Jesus has changed my life forever, and He can do the same for you, Friend! ♥

((verse snippets from John 15))

The same kind of love that the Father has shown me, I, likewise, have shown you. You must continue in My love...

You will continue in My love if you obey the commandments you have received from Me...

~♥~ 

How a Christian Endures Trials || (and I went on a race)

dear reader,

this is a post for the one traveling through a desert

and seeking a Promised Land.

don't give up hope.

I go running every week, and people ask me if I enjoy it.

That makes me laugh. ;)

I think of how my body literally hurts all over, how my lungs feel like they could explode, and how the sun beats down and wants to wither me like a raisin sweltered in the desert heat. I'll look up a hill and count mailboxes as I pass painstakingly slow knowing there's only four more, three more, two more until the finish line!

But I run again. And again. And somehow, yes I do enjoy it. Just like I did that three-tier race in April--running, boating, and biking--even though it was hard, it was beautiful and good.

Maybe that's because when I do this hard thing, it grows me, and I'm stronger and can say, panting, "God did it. He got me up the hill."

Instead of focusing on the pain, I run thinking of the prize: the cold cup of water waiting in an AC home that I can enjoy with the satisfaction that I did something hard and overcame.

Lately, God has been taking this idea further as life throws real-life trials in my face, and through the temptations to focus on the heat, the pain, the stretching, He whispers, count it all joy.

Consider it the truly greatest of joy whenever you find yourselves being beset, my brothers, by trials and temptations of various kinds, since you know that the testing of your faith results in patient endurance.

- James 1:2

But how, Father? How can my painfully weak self rejoice? 

I look at something impossible.

He reminds me, it results in patience. There's a reward.

So I run.

But what makes it worth it is when I realize my Jesus did the same thing before me. And He gave thanks.

Then He took a cup of wine and, after giving thanks, said... "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is about to be poured out in your place."

- Luke 22:17, 20 

 

 

How? How could a Man understand that He was about to go through the most intense, painful agony, spilling His own blood for people who would mock and betray Him? And He thanked God for it? What impossibility!

He went a step further...

Then He took some bread and, after giving thanks, broke it and gave it to the disciples, saying, "This is My body, which is about to be offered up in your place..."

- Luke 22:19 

He thanked God twice.

This is the Jesus I follow.

He was a perfect Man who let His body be broken because He loved us that much.

Jesus was the Passover lamb in Exodus 12 that had to be slaughtered so that the Lord would pass over His people who were marked with the lamb's blood, and thus they were saved while the enemy received punishment. In the same way, I stand in a world torn by sin and death, but I'm washed in His blood and am clean, forgiven, covered.

But after that, God's people still wandered in a desert. They hadn't entered the Promised Land.

And that's why we're walking in a desert today.

These trials, these pains, these things that hurt and confuse, we can give thanks in them because a Promised Land is coming when our King who also suffered will come from Heaven, restore this earth, and establish His Kingdom in it! Wrong will be destroyed, our bodies will be freshly new, and Eden will spread across this broken land.

That's why Jesus endured. He knew there was a joy set before Him.

...run the race set before us with patient endurance, keeping our eyes fixed on the One who pioneered our faith and makes it blameless, that is, on Jesus, who for the joy set before Him patiently endured the cross, thinking nothing of the shame of that kind of death, and now sits at the very right hand of the throne of God.

- Hebrews 12:1-2 

It starts with a Lamb giving His blood, and we can travel on knowing He will be victorious.

So consider it joy.

Oh friend, consider it joy!

 

When we run and sweat and hurt, may we know it's drawing us to the finish line and making us more into the person He always intended us to be.

Beautiful.

Whole.

Holy.

A person that can walk and talk with God as we did in the garden of Eden.

And that's how we endure.

God does impossible things like that.

God's been putting this urging on my heart over the last weeks, and I hope it blesses you! I was inspired by my lovely friend Laurel, and you can read another hug of encouragement on her website here!

And, just sayin', my favorite book is about to come out and is stuffed full of encouragement for the soul fighting to be loyal to their King. ;) Keep your eyes out for a cover reveal soon!

You're so loved, friend. Travel on!

((photos credit to Alesha who photographed a triathlon I got to be part of))

~♥~