Gentle Reminders

Sometimes God speaks in big ways: He closes doors or He speaks so clearly you are sure He spoke audibly. Other times, there are the gentle reminders. When God graciously and sweetly reminds you of what He has called you to. They aren’t big and in your face, but calm whispers that you know come straight from the Lord.

The past few months I drug my feet. Knowing God was calling me to something big, but fearful of it. You see, the task is beyond me. It’s more than I can understand or research. It doesn’t make sense. Even thinking about it too much overwhelms me. Yet, I have known without hesitation that God was calling me. I tried to ignore it but each God gently reminded me of where He called me.

A Sermon I Heard at Work

I sat listening to a sermon during our monthly in home meeting. You see I am blessed to work with people who love Jesus. A newly hired director was dubbed to preach that day. He shared that God had pressed Him to preach this message and would not let him go of it. He knew it was for someone. Maybe it was for others, but I knew it was for me. Straight out of Colossians 1:9-14 (a book I had just taught in Bible Study), he used words like walk worthy and obedience and God tugged my heart. "Ashlee, have you been obedient?" I hung my head knowing the answer. "Ashlee, are you pleasing me in ALL respects or just some respects? Ashlee, to what degree is this promised- according to My glorious might. I can handle this – be obedient."

A Blog Post by a Friend

My friend Amara writes One Single Voice and recently she wrote a post about giants. “When we lose sight of who we are- the sons and daughters of God- we lower our hopes and think about turning back.”Again God pulled at my heart. "Ashlee, you believe this task is beyond you, yet I have called you. Ashlee I will equip you. Ashlee, TRUST me."

A Text from a Friend

“My prayer for you today and encouragement is for you to not hold back on what God is leading you to based on provision or circumstance.” And I knew God was using her to speak to me. "Ashlee, don’t base your obedience on you, Ashlee base it on me. Don’t hold back Ashlee I am trust worthy. I am a big God who can do anything. Ashlee don’t hold back and walk in disobedience."

And all I can think…is this is God’s grace on my life. That He would love me and pursue me and gently remind me where He has called me. So today, I walked in obedience. Today I quit dragging my feet and simply obeyed. Today I allowed myself to dream and trust the Lord. I do not know where this road will take me, but I know God is taking me there. And I trust Him, because He is faithful.

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Grace in Hard Seasons

Grace: the merciful kindness by which God, exerting His holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues

This description of grace utterly blows me away. I have been in a hard season of ministry. I have fought the Lord the entire way. I have argued, asked God to take it away, asked God to take me back, tried to fix it on my own…oh the list goes on.

As I studied Ephesians 2:4-7 this week, I was smacked in the face with this definition of grace. God through His grace exerts His holy influence on believers to strengthen and increase their faith, knowledge & affection of Him. As I read this definition over and over, all of a sudden things became clear. The disconnected pieces of what God was teaching me suddenly fit together. And God gave me a glimpse of His grace. Just not the kind of grace I am used to.

Hard seasons are an act of His grace. The grace of refinement.

God allows the hard seasons as an act of His grace in my life. Paul Tripp said: Many times we are moaning in the midst of ministry and wondering where the grace of God is and we are getting it, the grace of refinement, not the grace of relief.” Oh, how I have asked for relief. And His sweet gentle answer to me is NO.  No, this is for your refinement. My grace is sufficient to you.

You see refining grace is not the kind of grace I am used to. I am used to the grace that saves and I am used to the grace that covers sin. But refining grace hurts, it exposes, it’s harsh at times. Refining grace is difficult to swallow. It is goes against what feels natural. Yet it is the grace that forces me to deal with my sin, reminds me of my need for Him. You see His saving grace is also His refining grace. They are one in the same and cannot be separated. The same grace that covered my sin, is the same grace that continues to expose my sin. It draws me to repentance and in turn transforms me into His likeness.

Hard seasons remind me I need Jesus

I am confident that I need the hard season to see my need for Jesus. My lack of power allows me to see the One, who redeems and is my only source of hope. My hope cannot be in what I know, how great I think I am, or success in ministry. Hope is only found at the feet of Jesus. Hard seasons remind me how desperately I need to hope in Jesus instead of myself and that is His grace.

As I think about this grace of hard seasons I am reminded of Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 12: 9-10 "And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong." And I know I must stop, remember I am weak, and seek to find my hope and delight in Jesus. He is what I need. He is the grace in the hard seasons. 

Words of Grace

"Can I be brutally honest with you?" is a phrase I used to use quite frequently.  When my friends would come to me for advice I would ask them my question and then I would be brutally honest. I cannot tell you how many conversations I walked away from where I knew I had hurt that person's feelings. Unfortunately I walked away thinking, well I warned them, I asked if I could be honest, if they didn't want that they shouldn't have said I could be honest.

I strongly remember doing this with one of my college roommates. The shock and hurt on her face still hurts my heart. I do not remember the conversation, just the stunned and hurt look she wore. I knew in that moment I had messed up, but I was so wrapped up in the freedom of my words that I refused to even apologize. I was living by "if you love them speak the truth" instead of "speak the truth in love." I was living in a twisted version of Truth. Yes, I was living in a self righteous lie about my words. And the Lord would only let me live there for so long.

Over time, the Lord got in my face with His Word and started showing me what He thought about my words. As I looked at scripture I could not get away from what God has to say: that words are a fire and a restless evil. God revealed to me that my words could bless or my words could curse, but they could not do both. James 3:11 tells us: Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water?" I realized that there was something wrong with my words. I couldn't call myself a believer and not consider the words I spoke to people. If I was in Jesus, then I should be a fountain with fresh water, and a fresh water fountain cannot send forth bitter water. My "truthful" words were actually bitter words. God was opening my eyes to a change needed in my life.

God used a mentor to continue to affirm this Truth. She was my assigned mentor for a summer. I had known her for many years. I was honestly surprised when I spent time with her. She was not the woman I remembered.  She had transformed from a loud and blunt person to someone who walked with grace. I asked her what was different, what had happened to the woman I once knew? As she told her story it reminded me so much of myself. She shared how God transformed her especially when it came to her words and shared Colossians 4:6 with me: Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person. 

As I considered this verse I realized I had zero grace in my words. I knew that I did not have an ounce of grace in me naturally. But I was living in a lie of "Well this is how God made me!" God showed me that just because I do not come by words of grace naturally, He still calls me to walk in them. That was a hard realization, because I liked the freedom I had, and I did not want to acknowledge I was abusing my freedom. Slowly, God began to change my words. Over time, He taught me how to walk in His Truths regarding my words. Sometimes I still struggle, but God is reminding me of the importance of the way I speak. And that to walk worthy of Him is to talk in a manner worthy which always involves grace. 

We just cannot get away from God's grace. God has given us this amazing grace: His Son who died on our behalf so that while we were yet in sin, we might have eternal life. God allows His grace to show up in our lives in so many ways. I am so grateful for His grace in my life. I know without a doubt I do not deserve it. I know in turn I am called to walk in the grace He so freely bestowed on me. He calls us to walk in grace with ourselves and with others. He calls our speech to be seasoned with grace. May my words be worthy of Him.

Great Joy

“Ashlee, I am blessed by your joy. It is God’s grace in your life”. Those words spoken by my friend Amanda actually surprised me. The last few months have been fast and furious.  And I knew I was excited about what God was doing, but I didn’t realize I wore it with every fiber of my being.

It wasn't the first time I have heard tha trecently and I had to ask myself, what is the difference? What in my life has changed? As I have sought out that answer I realize that much has changed.

I have walked out of a hard time. Last year my husband and I were involved in a ministry for all of 9 months. And it was hard. It was a very hard way to start our marriage. We argued a lot. When we realized that God was making away for us in college ministry, we knew it was time to walk away from this other ministry. The other ministry wasn’t a bad ministry. In fact we knew it was something God called us to even in that short time. But it was a difficult time of ministry for us. It felt very dark many days. And I wore than darkness on me like a blanket.

Also, there is great joy in walking with Jesus. As crazy as the last few months have been, I see Jesus in it all and that has enabled me to have great joy. He has been speaking to me in so many ways.  I am seeing Him direct my path when it comes to leading the girls in our college ministry. And I am truly overjoyed.

There is also a confidence that God has enabled me to walk in. God has been teaching me this year, to worry what He thinks and not what others think (Just FYI- I have not arrived yet, this is a major struggle in my life). Over and over God has been reminding me to please God, not man (sometimes I repeat that phrase over and over again). Walking with Jesus has given me the confidence to be the woman He has made me to be. Part of my confidence comes because I am using my Spiritual Gifts again. Have you ever noticed the pure joy that God gives you when you use your spiritual gift? It is this crazy amount of joy I do not even know how to describe. As I am walking in Jesus and using the

God is moving and I am excited. He just keeps showing up. Even on discouraging days. It is the evidence of His grace and mercy on me. There is great peace & joy when God shows up.  

When God calls me to do something, I do not fear the outcome, I trust Him. An example is my Bible study. Hosting this study and teaching it is something I know that God has called me to. But husband, well he was kind of nervous for me. He didn’t say it, but I knew he was afraid no one would show up. But I wasn’t. I knew that if no one showed up I had still been obedient. I walked in a peace from God who said, do not be afraid, I am doing this, trust Me.

So yes, there is a great joy that God has given me. It reminds me of the Psalmist who says in Psalms 16:11 “In your presence is fullness of joy” Gosh, such great truth. We find joy in God. We find joy when we are in His presence.

I pray this encourages you today. I pray that you would seek God and His presence and that in Him you would find great joy.

 

Ambassadors of Grace

Welcome to part three of my series on grace. Today we are going to talk about being Ambassadors of Grace.

I often find myself in need of grace. I look at myself and realize that I fail. I fail at life pretty much every moment of every day. And in that I know that I need grace. I need God’s saving grace in my life to mold me and change me into the new creature He says that I am. I am unable to do it on my own. I need Him to do it.

However, I am not very quick to give grace. When it comes to others, I am quick to criticize and judge. I am quick to think negatively of others.

Gratefully the Lord has placed some special people in my life that have taught me about living as an ambassador of grace. First is my best friend Elizabeth. The Lord gave her to me as a lifelong friend at the age of 4 (she was three). Elizabeth embodies grace and mercy. She will forgive anyone no matter how many times they have hurt her. As her friend it has often made me defensive of her. 

Then there is my husband. He often views people with a lens of grace. He has the ability to give people a second chance when I am ready to write them off forever. And I have learned, that often he is right. I have learned to listen to his wisdom and perception of others.

The Lord has used these two people to teach me a very hard lesson (that I am still learning mind you). That lesson is how to walk as an ambassador of grace. I once heard someone describe it as being a grace dispenser. As someone who has received grace for the Father, I should in turn dispense grace to others (especially those who are my brothers and sister in Christ). You see, I don’t come by grace naturally. It is something the Lord has needed to grow in me.

So how do we become ambassadors of grace?

We seek God and walk in His Spirit. True grace can only be found in God. To walk in grace, I must be walking in God. I must be abiding in Him as I see taught in John 15.  Often those times I don’t want to even consider giving someone a second chance, I am living in my flesh. The flesh is what Paul calls the “old man” or the “old self”. To give grace to others, I need to be in the Spirit (as in the Holy Spirit). I can only do this when I am abiding in Jesus.

We realize that nice and grace are not the same. For some reason many of us have equated “being nice” with grace. I am sorry, but these are just not the same thing. Often being an ambassador of grace means doing the hard thing. Sometimes it involves speaking the truth in love. Walking in grace is not always warm and fuzzy and rarely involves roses and bunnies. Sometimes it hurts.

We move beyond ourselves. Phil 2:3 tells us that we should regard one another as more important than ourselves. As we seek to be ambassadors of grace we must consider others before ourselves.

We speak the Gospel. The Gospel itself is grace. We cannot be ambassadors of grace without speaking the Gospel to those around us. 

Being an ambassador of grace is not an option. If you are a believer, then showing grace to others is apart of your identity. It is something that was first given to us and that we should in turn extend to those around us. I encourage you to consider those around you and ask whether or not you are dispensing the grace that was first given to you. 

Walking In Grace: Me, Myself, and I

Last week, we defined grace. This week I want to talk about living out grace with myself.

That may seem odd to you, but the Lord has put several women in my path recently that struggle to show grace to themselves. And I will be honest, I struggle with it too. My name is Ashlee, and I am a perfectionist. This means I have very high standards, this means I am very hard on myself. Even today as an adult verbal discipline is the hardest for me to receive. It crushes my heart for someone to tell me they are disappointed in me. And then I beat myself up about it.

 As I look at the young women God has placed in my life, I see they struggle with the same thing. I do not think this is something women struggle with alone, but it is definitely something the women God has placed around me struggle with. So how do we learn to walk in grace with ourselves?

Walking in Grace with Myself is NOT:

A free ride to live however I want. I see this often with believers my age, they think that because of God's grace they get a free pass to live whatever life they want. I have some bad news for them, this is not what the Word of God tells us. God is very clear in His standard for our lives. His standard is holiness. Peter reminds us of this in 1 Peter 1:15-16 “But like the Hole One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY FOR I AM HOLY”” Walking in grace here looks like me walking in obedience to who God has called me to be, while realizing I can only be that because of what He has already done for me. There is a dependence that I need here on God. Only by abiding in Him, do I have the ability to be who He calls me to be.

Seeking the approval of man over God. Yep, I am one of those people pleasers. I was a suck up in high school. I was that girl who did extra credit when she had a 4.0 GPA. Sick, I know. I continue to struggle with pleasing others, but this year God is reminding me heavily of Galatians 1:10 “For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still striving to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.”  When God first brought this verse to my attention it grabbed me. It shook me. It reminded me that I am to strive to please God, because I am His bondservant. It also contrasted the stark reality in my life that I often care too much of what others say of me and too little about who God has already said that I am in Him. To walk in grace with myself, means I seek the approval of God alone.

Self Abasement. My Bible Study girls and I are studying Colossians. And it is AWESOME. As we have studied, this word self-abasement (Col 2:18) stuck out to me. When I looked it up in the Greek, I was surprised. Self-abasement is a lowliness of mind, specifically in Colossians it refers to a false humility. When I understood what this meant, a light came on for me. I have several people in my life who belittle themselves. Now, God calls us to be humble, but this belittling is not a Christ-like humility.  It is a belittling that sees one's self as less than and loses sight of Jesus' death on the cross. For me to walk in grace with myself has nothing to do with a false sense of humility, but has everything to do with trusting Who God says I am in Him (See Col 2 & Eph 2 for more on this). It means I do not walk around beating myself up or punishing myself. It means I submit myself as a bondservant of the Lord, not myself.

 

Learning to walk in grace with myself, is something I continue to struggle with. But when I do I must change my perspective by remembering what I see in Scripture. This is the only way that our view of ourself changes. I must view myself on God's terms. For me it's important to remember what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:10, by God's grace I am what I am. Everytime we struggle, we must return to the Word and see the Truth again. To help us cling to this verse today. I made this for you!

 

 

Grace Defined

This is Part One of a Four Part Series on Grace. This week we will define Grace.

Grace is an awesome thing. Grace is a confusing thing. God’s grace often doesn’t make any sense to any of us.

Vine’s Dictionary tells us this about grace:

on the part of the bestower, the friendly disposition from which the kindly act proceeds, graciousness, loving-kindness, goodwill generally, especially with reference to the Divine favor or "grace," in this respect there is stress on its freeness and universality, its spontaneous character, as in the case of God's redemptive mercy, and the pleasure or joy He designs for the recipient; thus it is set in contrast with debt, with works, and with law.

on the part of the receiver, a sense of the favor bestowed, a feeling of gratitude, ("thanks"); in this respect it sometimes signifies "to be thankful,"

I have often heard of grace defined as unmerited favor. To truly define grace, we must turn to Scripture and let God tell us about His grace. Exodus 34:6 is an important place we see grace defined. Here, God is meeting with Moses and giving the Ten Commandments (the second time around after Moses shattered the first set). God comes before Moses and tells Moses about Himself:

Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations." Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship.

Did you notice what God said about Himself? He is compassionate & gracious. He is slow to anger. Did you notice Moses’ response? He made haste to bow low. God defines grace in Himself. It is His character. When we look at God’s Word we see grace in God’s character: Noah & the Ark, Saving Lot out of Sodom, giving Moses the 10 Commandments, choosing Israel as His chosen people, the giving of the Temple as a place of worshiping God & offering sacrifice, the giving of the land of Canaan, God as a warrior going before His people in battle, etc. Over and over again, we see God, who is grace.

In John 1:17, we see something else: For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. In John, we see grace was realized through Jesus.

Paul talks about grace through Jesus further in Romans 5. In this chapter, Paul defines grace. He tells us how grace came about and what it is. He says that while we were helpless, Christ died for us, He justified us by His blood, He reconciled us to God through His death, and He gave us life. Grace is what Christ did for me on the cross. Grace in Jesus is that while I was yet dead in my sin, Christ made me alive with Him. Grace in Jesus is that while I earned eternal death because of my sin, Christ gave me eternal life in Him.

How can we know what grace is? Grace, can only be defined in God and through Jesus. To know grace, we must know Him.

Grace defined…this is just the beginning. Join me next week as I talk about walking in grace.