Tag: trust

One Step at a Time

Lisa Preuett

My upcoming book, Embracing The Race: 40 Devotions for the Runner’s Soul, is closer to the finish line of finally being published. This process hasn’t been a quick sprint by any means, but more like a grueling long distance race with many twists and turns.

What started out as an exciting dream with determination, gradually turned to many moments filled with doubt and discouragement along the way.

Can I really do this?

What if it isn’t good enough?

What if they reject me?

Just as a race is completed one step at a time, the process of writing a book is also completed one step at a time.

And with each step, we keep going. We persevere!

My goal was to write 40 devotions that highlighted the parallels between running and our journey with God. But sometimes when I was writing the first five, I worried if I’d be able to finish the last five. God reminded me over and over again:

One step at a time. I’ll give you grace for today. Stop worrying about tomorrow.

I’m excited that God has opened the door for me to write this book! He’s showed me so much truth, wisdom and insight that I wouldn’t trade for anything. When I first started running, I truly thought I was checking a box on my bucket list to run one 5K.

But God had other plans.

When my feet pounded the pavement, He spoke truth into my soul.

With every step of my slow pace, He soothed me with His peace.

What I thought was just a race, were hidden lessons of His grace.

Whether you consider yourself a runner or not, Embracing The Race will encourage and challenge you in your race of life. You’ll be inspired to go deeper in your walk with Jesus. The apostle Paul writes multiple times throughout scripture how our lives are like a race.

And he urges us to run in such a way as to win!

My book won’t officially release until November 14th, but it’s available on Amazon now if you’d like to preorder it. Click HERE to check out the details.

Until then, I’d appreciate your prayers as I take the next steps of building the momentum through marketing and spreading the word. I’ll keep you posted in the weeks to come. The ultimate goal is to encourage others in their faith journey!

I don’t know where you are in your race of faith. Maybe you’re at the start line and you’ve barely taken a few steps. Maybe you’ve been in the race for a while, but you’re wearing out and feel like you want to quit. No matter where you are, I encourage you to simply take the next step. Keep going!

One step at a time.

EmbracingTheRaceLargeFront

Blessings to you!

Lisa

 

 

 

One Piece of the Puzzle

Lisa Preuett

Grasping one piece of a puzzle tightly in her stubby fingers, my daughter wailed, “Mommy! Help me! I don’t know where this goes!”

I gently bent down in the floor with her and took the puzzle piece out of her hand. “Let’s see what you’ve got so far.” She’d completed about a third of her Little Mermaid puzzle but was stuck on where this one piece should go.

I reached over and picked up the puzzle box, which revealed the entire completed picture. Looking at her one piece, I tried to show her how it would fit into the top right portion of her puzzle.

After several attempts, my daughter finally found the place for her piece of the puzzle. Giggling with delight, she said, “I see it now! It’s almost done, Mommy!”

Curling up on the couch to continue watching my daughter, I felt a gentle whisper tugging on my heart.

Lisa, your daughter’s frustration with the puzzle piece is how my children act when life doesn’t make sense.

You only see a small part of my purpose and plan for your life. You have to trust me because I’m the one who holds the puzzle box with the completed picture.

Wow. My eyes were opened wide to this astounding truth as I continued watching my child finish her puzzle.

How often do we feel stuck in our journey of life? Like a frustrated child, we throw up our hands, wailing out to God, “I don’t understand! This doesn’t make sense. I don’t know what to do.”

Just imagine God looking over at His completed picture of our lives. Maybe he smiles and says, “I can’t wait for her to see where the next piece goes. What a day it will be when she sees the whole picture.”

In the meantime, we have to wait. We have to trust. We have to surrender our urge to see the entire completed picture NOW.

I had access to the puzzle box with the completed picture to help my daughter. But in our faith journey, we don’t get to hold the puzzle box. Only God has that power.

So instead, we must trust that he sees and knows. Along the way with each step, God will give us strength and wisdom to handle the piece of the puzzle we currently hold. He longs for us to cry out to him. He loves to watch us giggle with delight when we finally see something that once was unclear become clear.

Some pieces of our life puzzle will make sense to us while we walk this earth. But others will not. And for those unknown pieces, we can look forward to a day when we see him face-to-face. When it all will make sense. When all will be well.

As a little child maybe we’ll say something like this:

“I see it now! It’s all done!”

1 Corinthians 13:12(NLT)  Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

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Blessings to you!

Lisa Preuett

 

Get Out of Your Comfort Zone!

Lisa Preuett

Matthew 14:29  So Peter got out of the boat. He walked on the water toward Jesus. But when Peter saw the wind, he was afraid. He began to sink. He cried out, “Lord, save me!” Right away Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “Your faith is so small! Why did you doubt me?”

After running six half marathons during a four-year stretch, I felt God nudging me to attempt a full marathon. At first I fought against this gentle nudging. What? Are you getting me mixed up with someone else, God? Can’t I just stick with what I’m already doing? But when I realized He was indeed nudging me, I completely surrendered. Yes! I stepped way out of my comfort zone. I’d grown quite comfortable in running half marathons. I knew what to expect. I was comfortable with my pace. Comfortable with the training schedule. Confident in beating my own personal records from previous races. I was satisfied with my collection of medals from finished half-marathons.

But when I finally decided to attempt a full marathon, I stepped into unknown territory. It took me several days to muster up enough courage to actually register for the race. And once I officially registered, fear gripped my heart. I was no longer comfortable.  Maybe you’re comfortable jogging a few miles around the block, but you think you’d be too uncomfortable to sign up for a 5K. Perhaps you’ve grown accustomed to running nothing but 5K’s and the mere thought of going beyond that distance makes you break out in a sweat. You don’t want to leave your comfort zone because it’s just not….comfortable. But you know what? Sometimes that’s exactly where God wants us to be.

I’m sure Peter felt the same way in today’s passage. It’s pretty obvious that Peter most certainly stepped out of his comfort zone! The other disciples huddled together as they watched comfortably from inside the boat. Nobody else dared to follow behind him. He progressed from being a spectator to a participant. He stepped completely out of the boat and then he walked toward Jesus.

But when Peter saw the huge waves in the distance, he began to sink. He didn’t sink from the presence of the waves; he sank because he gawked at the ferocious waves and took his eyes off Jesus. When Jesus calls us out of our comfort zones, the wind and waves may still distract us. What are your distractions? Doubts from your inner soul? Criticism from others who don’t understand? Unexpected circumstances?

When Peter began to sink, he didn’t have to wait long for Jesus to rescue him. It’s because Jesus was right there. When Jesus calls you out of your comfort zone, he doesn’t just watch from a distance. He is right there beside you to catch you when you fall. The first timid step into the unknown can often usher in a tidal wave of fear. When that happens, humbly drop to your knees in prayer. Call out to Him like Peter did and let him rescue you with the strong grip of his loving hand.

READY? Where do you think Jesus is calling you to come out of your comfort zone? Are you still in the boat? Then trust Him as you take that first step out. Are you a few steps out of the boat? Then keep going one step at a time as you fix your eyes on Jesus. Are you beginning to sink? Then call out to Him! He is still there to catch you and get you going again.

GET SET. Psalm 105:4 Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always.

GO!  Lord Jesus, I humbly come to you and ask you to show me where I need to come out of my own comfort zone. Please forgive my unbelief and my human tendency to worry! Help me to not focus on the gushing waves around me, but to focus on the strength and peace you promise when we choose to seek your face. 

 

 

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Blessings to you!

Lisa Preuett

http://www.reststopforthesoul.com

Where Strength is Found

Lisa Preuett

Sometimes I feel worn down. Extremely weak. Physically, emotionally and spiritually. All of the above. Strength seems far away. Non-existent. Yet I feel I must DO something to gain strength.

To gain strength physically I exert myself full force into a weight lifting session or a 3-mile run. After I DO those things, my physical body will gain strength, stamina and endurance.

To gain emotional strength I can DO something to lift my mood. Dive into a favorite book. Put on an upbeat CD to re-focus my attention. Or maybe even convince myself that something sweet like ice cream or chocolate will soothe my frail emotions.

But to gain spiritual strength, what is my first response when I feel weak?  I can DO some things that will perhaps make me feel better: Go to church. Turn on the Christian radio station and sing my heart out. Go to my Bible study. Call a trusted friend and unload my concerns.

These are good things, yet all of them involve me doing something. According to Isaiah 30:15, there’s a different message to those who are feeling weak and in need of strength:

In quietness and trust is your strength. 

I don’t see any action verbs that stand out in that verse. Shouldn’t I be doing something to gain strength? How can being quiet bring strength? And what about that word trust? How do you know someone is in the act of trusting? You can’t see it. Where is the action here??

The action is being accomplished by God Himself. When we are still and quiet in His presence, His strength becomes ours. When we truly trust God, our burdens are lifted from us. He takes them from us–in His strength. We don’t have to DO anything outwardly in our own strength. He does it all.

Quietness and trust go hand-in-hand. Being still before Him with a surrendered heart allows us to soak up His presence. And when we do that, it is easier to trust. When we know Him more intimately through His word and prayer, we can confidently trust Him. That is where our strength is gained. Not by anything we do, but by being in Him.

What’s that look like in day-to-day life?

I don’t always get this right. In fact, I frequently get this wrong and have to be humbled before I start to “get it”.

In the midst of a drama-packed melt down from my daughter, shouldn’t my strength come from yelling, lecturing or punishing out of anger?

In quietness and trust is your strength. (Lisa, pray for your daughter and trust ME with her short comings.)

In the midst of a disagreement with my spouse, shouldn’t my strength come from arguing, complaining or even taking things into my own hands?

In quietness and trust is your strength. (Lisa, let go of your pride and trust ME with your husband.)

When I’m sitting in traffic on Bardstown Road and only going two miles in 30 minutes, shouldn’t my strength come from honking my horn or mumbling ugly words under my breath at complete strangers who can’t hear me?

In quietness and trust is your strength. (Lisa, take a deep breath and accept the situation as it is. Trust ME to calm your anxious heart.) 

Because of my sin nature, I am prone to try and DO something to gain what feels like strength in the heat of the moment. Yet those things all lead to disappointment, discouragement and even defeat. But when I quietly come before God and trust Him, I gain peace, hope and ultimately……STRENGTH.

So where are you feeling weak, dear friend? From where are you drawing your strength? Are you trying to muster up strength by doing things you think are productive? Are you impulsively reacting to a situation in which you feel weak? How do you handle the inner battle of your heart to DO -vs- BEING QUIET? Feel free to leave a comment! We’re on this journey together.

May we all embrace the truth and power of these words:

Isaiah 30 15

 

Shocked, But Not Shaken

Lisa Preuett

Sometimes life is going smoothly and suddenly, out of nowhere,your cage is rattled. You’re caught off guard and have the wind knocked out of you. A phone call leaves you utterly shocked. This is what happened to our family yesterday. My husband’s job was eliminated. No warning. No red flags. Nothing.

“We’re downsizing. Sorry this has to happen, but it’s the direction we must take the company.”

And so that is how our morning started off. After realizing this really happened and we weren’t dreaming, we had to pull ourselves together and do what we most often do when a crisis comes our way: We cried out to God, our Faithful Father. Although our hearts ached and confusion swirled mindlessly, we took it all to the throne of God. This most certainly caught us off guard, but it was no surprise to Him. We have no idea what lies ahead, but He does. We don’t understand the reasons or the timing, but He has a purpose and His timing is sovereign.

My human, finite mind fills with questions: Why now God? Why did we not get any warning about this? Didn’t you lead our family to this job? Don’t you know how uncertain our economy is right now?

But He whispers to my heart ever so gently, “I’m in control. Trust me. Lean not on your own understanding. I’ve carried you through trials before and I’ll carry you through this one too.”

The scripture God is shouting loud and clear to me is this: Psalm 62:1-2 “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my fortress, I will not be shaken.”

Our true security is in God alone. Period. Sure, He blesses us with people and things that help us rest, but our ultimate rest can only be found in Him. (Is my faith being challenged since the home page on my blog is entitled “Jesus…the Ultimate Rest Stop? Am I going to live out the words I type?)

True rest can’t be found in a job. True rest can’t be found in houses or cars. True rest can’t be found in the amount of our bank account. True rest can’t even be found in the humans who love us most. No, our only source of true rest can be found in God alone.

God alone is our rock. Anything else we attempt to call our rock will only crumble. It will shatter right before our eyes.

He alone is our fortress. A fortress is where you run when you need help. Where you run to when you are in a storm. Where you run to when things fall apart. I can honestly say that physically I can’t run fast, but I’m capable of sprinting like crazy to God my fortress. It’s the only place I can find refuge.

I will not be shaken. Yes, things in life will shake around us. The economy. The weather. Our marriages. Our children. Our own prideful choices. But without a doubt, our God almighty will never be shaken. And if He lives in us, then that means WE will not be shaken.

I can’t be certain of when and where my husband will get another job. But I can be certain that God is in control. He will carry us one step at a time. We will cling to the truth that although the ground we walk on is unstable and shaky, we will not be shaken as we hold tight to HIM.

So what is shaking around you, dear friend? What are you allowing to rattle your cage? Who or what is attempting to crack the foundation of your rock? Whatever it may be, join with me in prayer as we run together to God in the midst of our challenges, trials and times of uncertainty.

Psalm 62:1-2 “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my fortress, I will not be shaken.”

unshaken