Song of inspiration
"Pour my Love on You"
Over this 4 years, I have learned a lot about God's will for me and His will for His people.
Faith is a spiritual muscle that only grows stronger with the weight being added. When circumstances in our lives change, we can decide to grow closer to Christ or turn away. If we turn away, our faith weakens. If we turn to Him, thanking Him and praising Him through the storm, the act of believing in what we cannot see grows stronger. Our grip on His hand gets tighter. Our dependence on Him gets deeper. Our eyes of faith, the ability to see the unseen, grows stronger. Our spiritual senses get sharper.
As Christ takes us along our adventure of faith, we grow more mature in Him. As we grow stronger, we can handle more weight and responsibility in the Kingdom. Our vision grows grander, beyond ourselves and into a bigger family of faith. We are pushed to take our personal relationship and testimony and share it to grow the Kingdom, the Church, the Bride of Christ.
I am finding out in my journey, that God WILL give us more that we can handle. Look at the assignment he gave to Moses! And Jonah! Neither of these men felt capable to do the will God had set before them. But it's through our weakness He shows His strength. It's through our lack of knowledge He shows His infinite wisdoms. It is a false promise (not in the Bible) that "God will never give you more than you can handle." In fact, I believe that is the whole point of Christ's existence is for Him to carry our burdens to the cross so that we don't carry them
To the grave. When we carry more weight than we can handle, we realize how weak we are beneath it. We realize our need for something stronger than ourselves! That is FAITH!
To the grave. When we carry more weight than we can handle, we realize how weak we are beneath it. We realize our need for something stronger than ourselves! That is FAITH!
THE REAL PROMISE IS...
He gives Rest for the Weary
Matthew 11:28-30
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” He wants you to come to Him, surrender control of what's weighing you down and to give you peace in exchange.
After the death of my best friend and husband, Shannon Seaton, over three years ago, I have realized the truth of what is around us. There is more around than what we "see" with our eyes. We believers here on earth are being cheered on in this race of life by the witnesses in the Heavens. I believe they look at us and are entertained by our praise and worship in the midst of our struggles to finish. I believe they want us to be aware of their joy when we grow the Father's Kingdom here on Earth. They applaud souls coming to Christ.
" Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."
Hebrews 12
Whatever it is that we are doing to grow the Kingdom (teaching, preaching, serving, creating), keep doing it! Do not grow weary or weak. Keep running the race towards the finish line, the cross. Don't let your circumstances or disappointments slow you down or weaken your faith. It is the greatest sacrifice to Praise God when it's hard to see His hand. Push through.
Isaiah 40:30-31
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Image Created by Tabitha Morgan for a friend of faith growing the Kingdom
There have been times where I felt like I was living my life doing the best I could to do what I thought God's will was for my life. I pray before my every step in life for fear of falling. I need Him to show me the way. I'm lost without His light on my path. So, why does the path we run sometime lead to unfairness? I struggled with this. I know God is on my side... (Romans 8:31), so why was I feeling so let down? Where did I go wrong?
I came to God in my quiet time with this question...
He gave me a vision of the cross. His Son Jesus followed Him without fail. He always gave up His desires for those of His Father's... but it lead him where? The cross. Is that fair? No.
Peter and John, faithful disciples that followed Christ landed in prison for healing in HIs name...
is that fair? No.
Job lost almost everything he had been blessed with after being obedient to God... not fair.
But God showed me His plan... That the path does not end where the earthly eye can see. The plan is to strengthen & perfect the runner along the way... to make me and the faithful ones as much like Christ as possible. That means following Him to places that lead to unfair circumstances. These are our crosses to bear.
"And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple."
Luke 14:27
Jesus told us, "In the world you will have trouble..But take heart! I have overcome the world"
John 16:33
He told us to expect unfairness.
(Matthew 5:11-12, 44; 10:23, 13:21; Mark 10:30; John 15:20).
He told us that the world would hate us (John 15:18-19).
After God shared this knowledge with me, I had to let it soak into my soul. IN time he showed me this verse to help it make sense...
(His emphasis to me was on verse 13)
Ephesians 4:11-16
"So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up
13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. "
God was telling me that in order to move forward in my walk of faith, I must grow up. He has grown my for a greater purpose, to lead others to the Grand Finish. It's not all about me and my life walk being fair! It's about my life walk reflecting His. It's about my life walk being used to lead others to
The Cross. To show them the place where they can lay it all down at His feet. I either had to grow stronger for the walk or go Another path. God has a way of putting us in our place of humbleness with His loving words of truth.
Satan has a way of leading us to a life of pride with pretty lies too...
Here is where I had a flashback of my infant faith...
Flashback of my life in 2008
This wasn't the first time God had brought the subject of "infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind" to me. I had heard it years before when doubting the faith I was raised. I was just about to attend a conference with my Christian friend Micah. It was an event that would totally alter my future faith...See here if interested in reading my non-current testimony in the autobiographical comic, SuperTab
(above, Page of Adult doubt from SuperTab...)
After letting all of this soak into my spirit... I came out with the first drawing you see above.
It is of the church at Jesus's feet. The notes of praise, worship and thanksgiving are opening the Heavens for God to take pleasure in the aroma of sweet sacrifice.
What I have learned is that Worship is an act of humbling ourselves before Christ and submitting to His will. The true place of humility is as a servant at their Master's feet. Jesus showed us this at the Last Supper.
He said, “Do you understand what I have done for you?” He asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord.’ You are right. That is what I am. I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet. So you also should wash one another’s feet. I have given you an example. You should do as I have done for you. John 13
Also, when the sinful woman came to see Jesus, she went to his feet sacrificing tears of shame, her finest perfume and wiped his feet with her hair. Luke 7:36-50
Mary, the sister of Martha was also found listening intently at the feet of Jesus. Jesus told Martha in her business and worry, that Mary was at the better place. Luke 10:38-42
This is the place to let go of what we think we deserve and give the Savior what he deserves. Once we let go of ourselves, our flesh, we find our Spirit... this is where we can find Him in true worship
John 4:24. "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
The church should be at His feet in true worship. From the church should come Praises and Thanksgiving. These are like sweet fragrances of sacrifice to the Lord. The Heaven's open up pleased by the sounds of the Church praising the King. Heaven and Earth are joined in one accord as Christ had taught. "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven!" Let the Heavens and all the angels, the witnesses in the clouds (Hebrew 12:1), open up when we Praise the King on earth as it is done in Heaven.
Psalms 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful to him, and bless his name.
Hebrews 13:15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
I hope these images, words and scriptures have blessed you in your present faith. May God bless you for reading the truth. May you hear the Heaven's singing "Christ" this Christmas beyond all the noise of this world drowning it out.
Tabitha Morgan