I Will Give You Rest {Devotional}

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

I know many of us have heard this verse or parts of it many times, usually when life gets busy or things seem impossibly hectic. This past weekend, I was visiting my home church and during worship, the theme seemed to revolve around needing rest. Matthew 11:28-30 was shared and it was a fresh reminder for me that each day we are supposed to need God, it’s not expected that as we mature in our relationship with Christ we need Him less. In fact, the opposite is true.

As I mature in my walk with God, I see more and more how dependent I must be on Him. And when I’m dependent, it’s as if I am taking His yoke, letting Him carry my burdens, and allowing Him to give me rest. That's what he wants.

On the long drive home, I heard the song “I’ll Keep On” and the words hit me –

Faith is something I am not accustomed to
Trusting other people’s something I don't really love to do
It's like I'm standing in the rain and You offer me a raincoat
But I would rather stand there being wet than take the handout

Why don’t we let God give us rest from the things that toil in our minds? Is it that we don’t fully trust Him? Is it that we just aren’t used to having someone to rely on? Is it that we don’t actually believe God when He says he wants to relieve us of our burdens?

He loves us and cares for us more than we know and he wants us to come to Him; it is how he designed us – to need Him. So, let Him have everything weighing you down... He can handle it.



~ words by Ariel Kuhn

The Order of Blessings | Victoria Myers

   Today's blog post comes from a lovely blogger named Victoria. This is her debut post on Joie Mag and we are lucky to have her be a contributing blogger in the future! Thank you Victoria for writing from your heart and speaking the truth about our identity in Christ.

~*~

   Getting married at 22 years old must have sounded a little scary some people in my life. Not necessarily to my closest family and friends-- they were gracious and supportive. Instead it seemed like classmates, the lady at the nail salon, online articles, the grocery store clerk, and select others wanted to advise me otherwise. They were worried about all sorts of things—that I wouldn’t ever get to travel, or do an internship, that I wouldn’t get to enjoy living alone, that 22 is just too young and that I was probably just getting married for the whole wedding ordeal and a happy ever after type of thing.

     It probably wasn’t until a few months into my marriage that I realized they were right. Or, actually that they could be right. Not about the traveling, the internship, or the living alone—but that they could be right that my heart is capable of simply wanting to get married just for the sake of the backyard wedding, a name change, and a happily-ever-after-be-forever-satisfied-type of thing. Throughout our engagement I became more aware of this temptation, I was caught up in the whirlwind of planning our wedding and supporting two friends with theirs and in the process I was falling more in love with marriage. Which is a beautiful process and I’m grateful for the ways God spoke to my heart through our engagement about what marriage is and how He designed it to be. Grateful that He reminded me that my heart is indeed capable of wanting the wedding and the happy marriage more than Him. That somehow everything between the proposal and the aisle could make me more satisfied than His grace. That all the life to come after the vows we would make could somehow redeem me more than the Cross.

     Like, I said God graciously revealed this to me throughout our engagement which helped me choose Him first. Of course I was a sinner when I planned our wedding, a sinner when I said “I do,” and still a sinner as I continue to live out life with my husband—and choosing God first will only be something I succeed in with the work of Christ in my life. Being aware of this danger that my own heart could hold, I intentionally entered into marriage with an understanding that it’s not created to fulfill me, it will eventually disappoint me, and that my husband’s and my brokenness are made one in the same only through Christ’s work on the Cross.

     This allowed the start of our marriage to be real, flawed, and truly joyful as we sought to understand that our sinfulness only pointed to God’s perfectness, and that our end only pointed to a God that is never ending.

     Fast forward a glimpse into our marriage—the wedding pictures are now posted on Facebook and the wedding band on my ring finger feels like it’s always been there. Husband and I start dreaming up future baby names. We plan out our first girl and brainstorm for the first boy, and I had then created a note in my phone with a running list of possible names and at least four typed out names that we will absolutely use no matter what our in laws or coworkers say. Then I realize, I knew where my heart was going. Yearning for something beyond the now. Desiring something that God has not yet willed to me only because my heart wants to believe that it might fulfill and complete me.

     Through these moments I realized, it’s not that wedding dresses and baby names are things we cannot choose. Rather, we must choose the primary blessing before the secondary. Choose our Creator before the wedding dress, and our Father before the baby names. Throughout our engagement I was aware of the temptation to find my identity in getting married and becoming a wife, and once dreaming up baby names for the future littles I was placing my identity in my hopeful days of motherhood. My heart was seeking these titles to fulfill me, to give me value and worth. What a gift it is that these titles are not my identity, that instead it’s Christ’s work that has made me pure, whole, and redeemed. That I am a daughter of the most High and a vessel for His grace and truth to those He brings into my life. Whether I am a wife or a mother, it is the source of our Primary blessing that is my sure foundation which lets me live out my identity in Him and experience the secondary blessings He ordains for my days.

     Whether we are in the midst of the season or seasons away from the reality—we should find our identity in the Primary blessing, the redemption we received from Christ on the Cross and the live that we may live as God has gone behind, before, and with us. It is through this that we may truly appreciate the fullness, nature, and timing of the secondary blessings; that we may come to know His design for the gifts He has willed to us, and the timing He has ordained into our days. Praise Him with me-- the God who has given us such sweet blessings to worship Him for and such sweet dreams to wait on Him for.

Written by Victoria Myers | Images by Anna Christine Photography

Colossians 1:16-17 {Devo}

In a season when so many things are seemingly falling apart, Colossians 1:17 has steadied my heart.

"For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together."

The truth that Christ is constant and stable in the midst of an ever-changing life landscape comforts my heart in an extraordinary way. Not surprisingly, "Steady Heart" by Steffany Gretzinger has been an anthem I cling to in the darkness of these seasons.

May the words and melody of this song strengthen your faith in a God who is always faithful.

The Great Old Hymns...

Be Thou My Vision

Hymns. Some people love them, and some people go off to "Lala Land" when the organ starts playing. Often we are so caught up in the sound of today's modern worship band that we forget many of these "old-time" praise and worship songs. However, I strongly encourage you not to knock them. See many of them proclaim a truth and reverence for our Savior that is completely lost in many Contemporary Christian Artists. Many Christian artists just sound as if they are trying to be like the rest of the music industry, when in fact we are called to do the exact opposite. 

"And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." -Romans 12:2 (KJV)

In many modern-day Christian songs, the name of the Lord is not even mentioned and the song can easily be mistaken for any ordinary love song about a man or woman. Or if God is mentioned, the song is so superficial it's like any other country song on the market today. 

I want songs to bring me closer to God. I want songs to bring me on my knees and weeping. I'm not saying that listening to these other Christian songs is wrong in anyway, however, when I worship my Savior I want the lyrics to dig down deep and change me.

So the next time that your church decides to worship God with a hymn, or your iPhone starts playing one of those "old-timers songs" don't just skip it. Listen to the lyrics, not the music (if that bothers you).  Make sure that it aligns with scripture (since we should be doing that with any song or sermon, in the first place). And lastly give praise and worship to our heavenly Father, who is worthy beyond measure.

P.S. There is an excellent resource that I just learned about, a book series titled, Then Sings My Soul, by Robert J. Morgan. He goes into depth about the theology and life stories behind numerous hymns. I highly encourage you to look up back stories of hymns so you can see how hymns are still relatable to today's society. 

-Taryn