Infinitely more

I’m excited to announce that I’ve been asked to be a regular contributor at author and artist Crystal Sutherland’s blog. Crystal and I met about 18 months ago at a conference for Christian women writers and speakers. As you can guess, we connected instantly and soon discovered we shared a similar story and background from our childhood.  But more importantly, we both shared the goal of encouraging women, and especially childhood sexual abuse survivors, as they journey toward the healing and freedom that can come through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Crystal’s book, Journey to Heal: Seven Essential Steps of Recovery from Childhood Sexual Abuse, is being released this spring. If you or someone close to you has been a victim of childhood sexual abuse, I encourage you to check out Crystal’s blog. She has a lot of great resources listed for sexual abuse victims.
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Today, I want to confess to you something I’m not very good at: having peace and trusting God when things are going good. Can you believe that? It sounds silly, I know. When things get really difficult or scary in my life I am quick to run to God and put my trust in Him to provide. But when things are good I often find myself holding my breath, waiting for the bottom to drop, because the goodness can’t possibly last. In a bit of a self-fulfilling prophesy, I will start to poke holes, find things that are going wrong or could be better, or just simply things to complain about.
When you’ve been through a major trauma or tragedy in your life, it can be easy to doubt that goodness can be sustained or even believe that you deserve happiness. But God’s word gives us a different truth. In Ephesians 3:18-20, Paul tells us “And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”
Recently God blessed me with a new job, and chance to try a new career path, which was definitely an answer to prayers. But the new job has meant a number of changes in my life, not the least of which is a new commute and schedule. But instead of focusing on the gift of this answered prayer, I’ve been worried about all of the changes and how they’re impacting my family. I’ve worried that the fatigue I felt the first week was a sign that maybe I made the wrong choice, or I wasn’t cut-out for this new schedule. I’ve focused on all the things I don’t know or have lost, instead of all the things I bring to this job and all I’ve gained (and all this only in the first two weeks — eesh!).
But a few days ago God gave me a little reminder of the promise in Ephesians 3…
Get the rest of the story by going to: http://www.crystalsutherland.org/infinitely-more/