If you’re like me, you wish your relationship with God made a bigger difference in your everyday life. During Sunday worship, you feel spiritually refreshed, but by the time you corral your kids to the car, your nerves are on edge again. Monday morning finds you back in the rat race, overwhelmed by school lunches, that work project, and that hard conversation you need to have with your husband. Then your 12 year old tells you he needs to go the store for science supplies before school!
Don’t we all need a little more grace for the hard, hectic days? Grace to stop, breathe deep, and remember He’s with us? Grace draw near to Our Helper and do the next thing in front of us. Grace to recognize God’s hand at work in our lives.
Don’t we all need a little more hope? Hope remembers all the promises of God are “Yes” in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). Hope tells us one bad day doesn’t mean a bad life. Hope always whispers that more joy is around the corner.
We forget that Grace and Hope came to earth as a person.
Jesus Christ is our truest source of hope. John was talking about Jesus when he said this:
The truest path to more grace and more hope is more of Jesus.
He is the way, the truth and the life. He has everything we need. Let’s draw nearer to Him, shall we?
I’m not always sure how to do that, are you? How can we have a relationship with Christ during our Monday through Friday lives? How do we maintain a meaningful connection Him when we’re running like hamsters in a wheel?
Maybe we need to take baby steps towards Jesus throughout the day.
When we call on His name and invite Him into our lives, He comes with grace and hope. Need help for the task in front of you? He strengthens and enables. Need wisdom? He gives it. Do you need someone to listen to your disappointment or sorrow? He hears, and He comforts. All we need to do is pause for a moment to pray.
Maybe we need to return to Our First Love with a renewed commitment to set aside time for Him.
A small commitment of 15 minutes each day might be the most powerful step we can make towards opening our lives up to the transforming power and love of God. Spending time with Jesus in the morning improves our outlook, helps us hear His voice, and sets us up to walk with Him throughout the rest of the day.
I want to invite you to a 10 day journey to focus on Christ and get to know Him better.
I wrote 10 Days to More to encourage women to draw nearer to Jesus and to explore different ways of interacting with God’s Word.
If you’d like to join me, add your email in the subscription box on the sidebar of this blog. I’ll send you a free copy of 10 Days to More. I hope you find encouragement and ideas to spark renewal in your quiet time and relationship with Jesus. Together, we’ll look at a different way to do devotional Bible study each day.
Let’s take baby steps towards more of Jesus in our lives. God loves any small effort we make to draw near to Him.
Did you enjoy this post? You can subscribe to get fresh servings of Faith Spilling Over delivered weekly to your inbox. Enter your e-mail address in the box at the top of this page.
I’m linking up with Holly Barrett’s #TestimonyTuesday, Kelly Balarie’s #RaRaLinkup, Holley Gerth’s Coffee for your Heart, Lyli Dunbar’s Thought-Provoking Thursday, Crystal Storms’ #HeartEncouragement, Suzie Eller’s #livefreeThursday, Arabah Joy’s Grace and Truth, and Susan B. Mead’s Dance with Jesus. Check out these communities for more encouragement.
We’re both focusing on hope today my friend, and boy, do I need MORE!
This sounds exciting. I’m sharing now and praying that many will be blessed by it!
I know, right? Without knowing it, I think we might have been reading each other’s blogs at the same time! Thanks for your hopeful words, friend!
I love this, Betsy! Your posts always seem to ring true with me and provide such a timely message. I love the “baby steps” – what practical ways we can open our eyes to God’s provision. Thanks for writing – your words are a blessing.
Thanks so much, Karen. I so appreciate your reading. It is a privilege and an honor for me.
Love it Betsy! More of Jesus? Yes, please!! Thanks for this generous gift, friend.
Yes, please is right! I’m saying it too. 🙂
Excited for you with this freebie! And I’m excited for us who get to enjoy it and go deeper!
Aww, Dianne. You are a jewel. Thank you.
This looks great, Betsy, and practical as well. I know that feeling of worship on Sunday and non-worship during the nitty gritty. But God’s working on me! It takes time sitting at His feet and implementing all through the day, doesn’t it?
Excited to share this resource with my readers! You’re the bomb. 🙂
Thanks so much, Ruthie! I appreciate you. I know you know how it is in real life! Let’s keep taking those baby steps in the middle of the nitty gritty!
Thanks so much, Ruthie! I appreciate you. I know you know how it is in real life! Let’s keep taking those baby steps in the middle of the nitty gritty!
Your words always hit me right where I am. There are no 12 year olds here needing my attention but Sunday comes and go as if it never existed some weeks.
Your 10 day journey sounds amazing. God is working through you to teach and lead us closer to Him.
Thanks so much for your encouragement here, Mary. I so appreciate you. Even with no 12 year olds around, life brings challenges, right?
Thanks so much for your encouragement here, Mary. I so appreciate you. Even with no 12 year olds around, life brings challenges, right?
Looks wonderful, Betsy!
Thanks so much, Jenn.
I know what you mean about how that Sunday refreshment can vanish so quickly. I know it’s “just” a feeling and we shouldn’t rely on spiritual highs in any case, but it can still be discouraging.
This morning I was standing outside with Jonathan, waiting for the school bus, and he was very cranky. Suddenly he said “Geese!” and we looked up and there were 3 trumpeter swans flying over. I have never seen them in flight before or heard the sound they make. In that moment, to me they symbolized the Father, Son, and Spirit, passing over our house and blessing it. I felt encouraged by this thought because I need that sense of God’s presence and blessing when (as is so often the case) the spiritual “feelings” aren’t present. So I especially appreciate these words in your post: “Don’t we all need a little more grace for the hard, hectic days? Grace to stop, breathe deep, and remember He’s with us? Grace draw near to Our Helper and do the next thing in front of us. Grace to recognize God’s hand at work in our lives.” Thanks for this, Betsy.
What a beautiful story of the three swans! Wow. Thanks for sharing that. It’s true that they are just “feelings,” but when we’re not “feelin the love,” it’s doubly hard to keep on going. I’m so thankful for grace and for God who knows our hearts, that we sometimes just need for Him to touch them.
I love this! We all need more of Jesus. I’m not sure we can ever get enough! He’s been drawing me closer encouraging me to seek Him all throughout the day, not just in the mornings or during my quiet time. Your encouragement lines up perfectly with this. Thank you! Sharing now. 😊
Yes, I also am feeling the pull to just lift up my heart, my eyes, my thoughts, or whatever! to him during the day. Somehow my time in the morning sets me up to do that better. (And then other days I blow through with nary a thought of Him! 🙂 ) He is merciful.
This sounds great, Betsy. It’s always good to find more ways to focus on Jesus and to hold on to the grace and hope he offers even in the midst of life’s busyness.
Yes to holding on to the grace and hope he offers, Lesley! Hope you’re having a good week.
I’m remembering Bill Murray taking his “baby steps” in a movie from way back in the day. Baby step–so much to be said for that–they get us going and that’s huge;) Excited to see your devotional:) I’m working on something along those lines as well. Baby steps… Blessings today, Friend!
I love the baby step concept, Ginger. It helps me so much to think of just one small step at a time.
Just this morning, I was thinking about the difference between spending my devotional time learning more about God and spending my devotional time falling in love with God. I so want to not just check a box but to know Jesus more. Intimately and personally. So looking thankful for this resource!
Oh yes, Lisa. I really want my devotional time to be about spending time with Him rather than just learning about Him. That’s kind of why I tend to “read less” in my quiet time.
Grace upon grace! YES! I want to drown in grace. I want to allow myself to receive it fully and be soaked to the core. Sometimes those baby steps toward Jesus are the best ways to find that grace. And when we take a step backward or feel like we’re standing still, allow ourselves to stand and ask for more grace.
Yes, let’s receive it fully, Becky. I like the idea of asking for more, especially when we’re taking that step backwards.
Dear Betsy, it seems so easy to forget that grace and hope in Jesus are only a prayer away. Thank you for encouraging us that Jesus accepts us as we are and longs to lavish His love upon us. Blessings from your neighbor at Holley’s
Thanks so much for reading today, Alice. Yes, he does accept us as we are. <3 Good thing, too.
I think I need to constantly take baby steps toward Jesus!
Me too, Sarah!
This morning as I was driving into work, I kept thinking about how the only good in me is all because of Jesus. Then I read this blog post!! So good, Betsy. Love you lady.
Ain’t that the truth, Lauren? The only good in us. <3
You’re such an encourager, Betsy. Love how you’ve introduced the download, and I’m thinking you’ve been a fly on the wall at my house. Our 12 yr old does have a science project, and yes, it was a topic recently – fortunately the night before he needed it, not the morning of. Still, it was a bit of a quandary. But over it all, yes, we simply need to press into grace, into the arms of Jesus.
Oh yes, we’ve had so many domestic quandaries ourselves! I’m SO glad my science days are over. I can’t even tell you how glad. Pressing into grace myself today.
I can always use more Jesus. I love how you talked about feeling refreshed in church but then stressed by the time you get to the car after! I always seem to take this one deep breath after we do our confession and absolution during the service. I’m breathing in forgiveness and hope and grace and exhaling stress and guilt and everything nasty from the week before. A blessed few moments of pure peace in my pew… until one of my kids starts fidgeting or making noises or faces at his brother! If only I would breathe in more of Jesus with every single breath I take! XO!!
Oh I know. That’s just how it is for me too, Liz. Any little thing sets me off! #needmoreJesus
I love this reminder that Jesus offers the comfort and hope of relationship. Thanks for your ever-encouraging view of this following life.
Thank you, Michele, for reading so faithfully. <3 Blessings.
Betsy,
Yes, finding hope in Jesus 🙂 Tweeted and I pray many will be blessed by your words. Thanks for an encouraging post 🙂
Thanks so much, Dolly. Blessings to you, friend.
Yes! I need more! Signing up right now. Thank you, Betsy.
Blessings, Elizabeth!
Blessings, Elizabeth!
You just described my life in the first paragraph, lol. It’s so important to take that time with the Lord and get refreshed. Your devotional looks great!
Thanks so much, Valerie! Yes, I’m needing time with the Lord about now! 🙂
Ah, yes! I’m reading this whilst my squirrley students should be focusing on a writing project (I’m writing to model writing 😉 ). I needed the reminder that my patience comes from Jesus!
Blessings to you, Anita! Grace and patience! We all need them. 🙂