Words4Wonder Blog

Jerimiah 29:11   “For I know the plans I have for you , declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”   Throughout this year, I’ve set expectations. I’ve set expectations for things and people, and they didn’t happen. From this, I had two options: I could hold resentment to the world for things not going my way, or I could self-examine why I placed those expectations in the first place. Looking back, I wish I chose the latter , but for a long time I was angry. I was angry with people and with God. I questioned why God wouldn’t give me that blessing or answer that prayer, and instead of God telling me why, he sta yed silent. I had no response. In that silence, I was left with me and my own thoughts , and through that, I had gotten my answer. My anger towards the world was really a reflection of anger towards myself.   At times we underestimate how prideful setting our expectations in the wrong place can be. The idea...

2 Peter 3:18    “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever”     Before I finished school, I set the expectation of being intentional with my growth with God. I pictured myself being more knowledgeable on the bible, praying longer and contributing more ‘meaningful’ things in Bible discussion.  I f you want me to be honest, none of those things have happened, or at least what it looks like to me. I haven’t been reading my bible more, my prayers are rushed and at times ritualistic and I still say the same things in bible discussion. I’m only saying this to show you that what looks like growth to us may not be what God is trying to grow us in. Although all those things that I wanted to do are good, they were my expectation: not Gods. And this isn’t to say that if you do any of those things you’re not growing, you definitely are . But I feel like as Christians we can manufacture our own expect...

    Matthew 5:9   “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God”   There are two things that stick out to me when I read this scripture. For one, in order to be called “children of God ”, we are to have peace: it’s a collective trait we must all share. The second thing is that the scripture didn’t say peace, it sa ys “peacemakers ”, implying some level of work to be done to receive it. Peace is inherited from God, but that doesn’t mean work is not required to receive it. Peace requires trust, and trust requires a full surrendering: completely submitting our problems to him, having solace in the fact that God’s security is bigger than our circumstances.  As I've gotten older, I’ve always questioned what true peace is. Questions like “When will I ever reach peace?” or “Am I even deserving of peace? ” . I don’t think I’m alone in asking these questions. Whether you have said it verbally or not, we’ve all wanted our situat...