Hey Friends,
I’ve felt God move and lean into my season as well in really powerful ways. In the midst of a season where there's been a ton of fear, heart ache, & hope deferred the Lord has been so incredibly kind to me. I’ve been gone from RWOL for a little while now and it has been extremely challenging, mentally, emotionally, and physically. I haven’t shared much so wanted to take this time to bring you in.
· My prayer is that though my words will not adequately express the height & depth of God’s love, maybe I can set you up and position you with them in a way that you are able to receive God's love. My hope is that God might insert his love in the places that you think are absent of God’s love in your life
· I ask the Lord to help us receive it. Amen
My wife survived a near death pregnancy and our baby is alive and growing well! God has met me in my anxiety and I’m making steps to be able to be back in the gym. I have a lot of reasons to praise him even though life has gotten so heavy. It started back in May when Britt and I went to our 18-week appointment and found out that Britt had a rare condition that put her and the baby at a high risk for complications. It scared us a lot especially being our first pregnancy and not knowing exactly what was going on and what might happen. (Don't go to Google to relieve your anxiety.) In the midst of this we decided to share with our community the exciting news of our pregnancy, however, did not mention the condition to anyone then. After we shared we got a message from a church friend that is on staff with us. She proceeds to tell us she had a dream the night before we went to the doctor (she had no idea about the condition, that we were even pregnant, and that was the night before we found out the news). In the dream she saw britt and I walking through the woods with a young girl atop my shoulders. It wrecked Britt and I. I was so convinced God loves us and sees us. When we were in the OR and things headed south and Britt was bleeding out it was that dream that came to mind and met me between my surrender and wrestling. I chose to believe that that was from God and sure enough three months later, Britt is healed up and running and our baby has gone from 4 ½ pounds to about 10 pounds!
Ephesians 3:14-24 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family[a] in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Ephesus is a place and a people much like us – very culturally diverse and religiously affluent, well-educated as a whole and economically stable. And in the midst of this context, people experience all kinds of difficulty, pain, heartache, struggle, and death. There’s oppression and segregation, hardship and turmoil, political corruption and sickness. And Paul is writing to his friends from a jail cell.
Paul shares a lot of things throughout this letter concerning the Body of Christ and how to be strong against the devil. But right in the middle of this love letter of encouragement to the Ephesians he bows his head and drops to his knees to pray his deepest desire for this people: that they would know the love of God that surpasses all understanding.
This Love is not the same as the one we so flippantly use within the paradigms of our culture. The definition of this love is that of the highest form of love. A love that goes beyond circumstance or your upbringing. It's a love that is unconditional. That’s the Love Paul is praying for here, on his knees on the hard bare floor behind prison bars!
I’ll conclude with a story about God showing his love to my mom in the darkest part of her pain: My mom was sexually abused by her father in really terrible ways. Not only that she was verbally abused and other things. He was a very terrible man. My mom still bares the trauma in some ways, but has received so much freedom from the love of God. A few years ago God was moving in a really beautiful and powerful way in my family's lives. My mom felt left out from the experience and pleaded with God. “Oh Lord you are doing this mighty thing in my husbands and son’s life, where are you with me? I want to know your love. I need you, please meet me.” She went on to have a dream and in the dream she was in the same bathroom where her dad used to rape her. Her dad was on top of her and she was terrified when all of a sudden a hand rips her dad off of her and it's Jesus standing in front of her with a soft smile and teary eyes. He grabs her by the hand and walks her out of the bathroom and tells her that she’s his princess and to never look back.
God saw her even in the darkest of times and the worst pain in her life. Pain she wanted to suppress her whole life. But oddly enough this is the exact place Jesus showed up. As I’m navigating through my own hardship and pain I’m reminded of the words from C.S. Lewis. “God is not safe! But he is undoubtedly good!” It’s a LOVE that goes beyond understanding, meaning it requires us to experience it, to taste it. And it’s a LOVE that will transform our darkest places and worst pain into rejoicing.
This is the exhortation Paul is giving us even 2000 years later.May you KNOW the LOVE of GOD in the midst of your PAIN! I have found it in the person of Jesus Christ through his death on a cross!
Pray Ephesians 3:14-21
-Joshua Williams
#Painsgiving
#NotEverythingHappensForAReason
#RestoringWholenessOfLife
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