Find Soul Rest with Jesus!
[Editor’s Note: This is a guest blog by Bethany Calverley, a writer and photographer from Australia — she’s not only sharing a fantastic devotional with us today, but she’s letting me host some of her awesome beachy photos here too! I just love when Devotional Diva gets the opportunity to have other kinds of art on here — because God has blessed us all with different gifts! Thanks, Bethany!]
Find soul rest with Jesus!
I’ve been riding this high for the last 4 months – Doing ministry, meeting people, falling in love and traveling America. My life has changed dramatically this year and I’m forever having to pinch myself to see if it’s actually real, if this is actually my life. I feel beyond blessed.
I’m so used to my life being go go go! Now that I am home God is allowing me time to reflect, to process and to grow in the waiting.
I’m so honest in my writing and this time is no different… I haven’t been trusting God like I should be. I have been fearful and I’ve been anxious for what’s to come because I just feel like I have no direction of where my life is headed. I have stopped dreaming and I’ve been limiting my God to the things he is more than capable of doing.
So often, well for me anyway, when things aren’t going the way ‘I’ have planned I rush into opportunities that I think are from God without actually praying about it. A perfect example of this was a job that I recently received – This Job wasn’t for me at all and I ended up really burning myself out. If I had of just sat still for a few weeks and listened to what my God was telling me to do I wouldn’t be sitting in the struggle I physically and mentally found myself in. Sometimes God actually gives us a chance to stop and just rest. Rest in his promises, rest in his will for us and rest in DREAMING!
Matthew 11:28 – Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Proverbs 16:9 – In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.
In my waiting, I am learning. I am so thankful that I can hear God loud and clear when he’s talking to me and trying to reveal to me what I should be doing while he is working out the next stages of my life. I was listening to a podcast called finding God wherever you are. This was just one big slap in the face from the Lord and I LOVE THAT. As a Christian I need that. I need God to stop me in my tracks of a negative and doubtful mindset and be reminded that my life is in the hands of the creator of the world who cares for small creatures. So why wouldn’t he care for me?
The podcast was about “going back to Bethel”. Which essentially is about going back to the place where God moved when you were at your lowest, where you thought there was no way out, where he made a pathway through the wilderness.
Suddenly, I found myself having soul rest with Jesus and I was reminded of all of these beautiful times he carried me through when I couldn’t make it and when I felt I had nothing left.
He made a way when my heart was anxious to go to school and I was throwing up every morning because I couldn’t bare the thought of it, He made a way when hurtful words were thrown at me, He made a way when my father died, He made a way when I was abused, He made a way when my mum had cancer, He made a way when he provided money for me when I had nothing, He made a way when he took me on an unforgettable journey to America, He made a way when he made my dreams come to pass. HE MADE A WAY!!!! When I have been at my absolute lowest points of life he has been there and he is the one who has helped me through, HE is the reason I am who I am today!
I urge you, if you are reading this to “Go back to Bethel”… Go back and reflect on the goodness of our God, the answered prayers that have come to pass, the blessings you thought weren’t blessings and use that time to dream because as one of my favourite verses states in Romans 8:28 – And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Today rest in the promise that he is an all-knowing God, who planned your life out before you existed and he is working for YOUR good!!
Hey Pretty Diva’s! My name is Bethany! I’m 21 years old and live on the Central Coast, NSW, Australia. I am a lover of Jesus, the ocean, overalls and acai bowls. I am a quirky little soul and I’m a sucker for all things creative. I’m passionate about writing, photography and art. My greatest hope is for all women to see themselves the way Jesus sees them and to empower others to walk out their God given destiny! I hope you enjoy my blog post!
ALL Photos provided by Bethany Calverley.
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