Recasting Your Net: Perseverance in Discouragement

Photo Curtesy of Noomhh at
 Freedigitalphotos.com

We are getting an HEB Plus in my hometown, finally, and I am so excited! However, because of the road construction to prepare for the new store, the left lane of the street that it will reside on has been closed for several weeks. Over the past few weeks, time and again I would forget that it was closed and have to practically force my way into the right lane at the last minute. I need to be in the left lane to turn toward my street, so having to switch back and forth between lanes was inconvenient. Eventually I got used to the road being one lane and would prepare in advance by getting in the right lane early. After I dropped my kids off at school this morning, I drove through Starbucks and got some coffee before driving home on that exact road. Prepared for the merge, I got into the right lane, then soon realized the left lane was open again! Since that's the lane I actually need to be in, I very happily got back over. I immediately heard these words:

Paths that were once closed will be reopened.

These words are very comforting to me as it seems the past season has been a "one lane" season. I have been very discouraged by the struggle and constant battle. Can you relate? Does it seem like everything you do has been met with a closed door? I believe God's timing is precise and perfect - whether or not it can be frustrating for those of us bending to it - and these seasons happen for reason. But, seasons change! I believe as we move into Spring, flowers will not be the only thing blooming.

Things in our lives that have been touched by winter, will begin to come alive again. 

A few weeks ago at church, while reading Luke 5, my spirit came alive as I related so strongly to Peter's story. I already feel as though Peter and I were cut from the same cloth: temperamental, zealous, the list goes on, but I also have immense respect for Peter. He allowed Christ to break him down and rebuild him into an amazing disciple - he surrendered to God's plan for his life - even though at some points he did it "kicking and screaming". He is my favorite Biblical Figure, so the fact that I am moved by an historical account that he is upfront and center in is nothing new, but this story pricked my heart in a different way. For the past year, I have felt as though God has been asking me to work toward something that is going nowhere. This something is taking my time, money, and causing me a lot of personal stress. I knew going into it that it was God's plan, but as circumstances have gotten harder - I have gotten weary. I have been ready to hang it up, much like the fishermen in the passage:

"On the banks of Gennesaret Lake, a huge crowd, Jesus in the center of it, presses in to hear His message from God. 2 Off to the side, fishermen are washing their nets, leaving their boats unattended on the shore. Jesus gets into one of the boats and asks its owner, Simon, to push off and anchor a short distance from the beach. Jesus sits down and teaches the people standing on the beach.

4 After speaking for a while, Jesus speaks to Simon.

Jesus: Move out into deeper water, and drop your nets to see what you’ll catch.

Simon (perplexed): 5 Master, we’ve been fishing all night, and we haven’t caught even a minnow. But . . . all right, I’ll do it if You say so."

When is enough finally enough? I can almost hear those words spilling out of Peter's mouth in this passage. He and his fishermen had been working hard all night, to no avail, and had already washed empty their nets and dropped them on the shore. I have wanted so badly to "drop my net" in this past season. I almost heard my own voice when I read Peter's initial response, "Please, God, NO MORE!" But Peter trusted Christ, or at the very least chose to obey him, so he picked up his net once more and threw it out. 

What happens when we are obedient in perseverance? 

" Simon then gets his fellow fishermen to help him let down their nets, and to their surprise, the water is bubbling with thrashing fish—a huge school. The strands of their nets start snapping under the weight of the catch, 7 so the crew shouts to the other boat to come out and give them a hand. They start scooping fish out of the nets and into their boats, and before long, their boats are so full of fish they almost sink!"

Because of Peter's obedience, Christ was able to shine. Not only did he cause Peter to have a very successful fishing trip, but he also brought glory to himself - which, by the way, is what this life is all about. Isn't it? To surrender in obedience so that Christ can shine. What better way for Christ to shine than in the dark, discouraging places? If Peter had been successful the first time around, he never would have seen Christ's power - nor would the masses that had just listened to Christ's sermon. They were watching. They are still watching today.

Our lives are on display to reveal God's glory.

At the end of the story, Peter falls on his knees in awe of Christ, feeling undeserving of his graciousness. In response, Christ tells Peter that from this point on he would be a "fisher of men". What does that mean? It means that because of Peter's willingness to submit his will to that of Christ's, he would be used to "reel in" men and women to the Kingdom of God. From this point on, Peter was on display as a disciple of Christ. Imperfection aside, God would use Peter to bring himself glory.


As I sat quietly in church and read this passage, I knew what God was saying to me. Allow me to paraphrase (and feel free to use whatever "God voice" you'd like as you read);

"Shara, this isn't about you. I am doing kingdom work. I need you to persevere. If you will surrender to my calling, I will do great things. "

Surrender. One simple word that requires so much. Yet, it's so worth it isn't it? Surrendering to God never returns void. I've done some kicking and screaming, but I have made up my mind.

So, here I go. I'm recasting my net. Will you join me?

If you enjoyed my post, please feel free to follow me on google, subscribe via email or share my post with your friends! xo- Shara

Overcoming Hindrances: Kicking Obstacles to the Curb!

Image courtesy of Renjith Krishnan 

at freedigitalphotos.net

One Step Forward - Two Steps Back

Have you ever had a dream in which you
were trying to run but couldn't
 move, or what about trying to call someone but couldn't dial the number? Frustrating, right? What is even more frustrating, though, is feeling like
this is real life. One step forward - two steps back is a dance I am very familiar with right now. I have
actually found myself saying aloud, "Why can't I make progress?" It seems as if invisible road blocks have been placed in my path to keep me from moving forward. Can you relate to this? 

Pray Against Hindrances

Over the past week, after a series of strange, frustrating and sometimes dangerous events, I very clearly heard God tell me to "pray against hindrances". Before I had hardly any time to let this sink in, I had to deal with a very upsetting situation. In the midst of letting myself become too emotionally involved and being tempted to stoop to a level that I would quickly regret, I heard those words again - "pray against hindrances". I quickly realized that this situation was not a random occurrence, but a purposeful hindrance placed in my path to steal my focus. 

What's Holding You Back? 

Hindrances come in many forms. Some are obvious and some are more subtle. The situation I referred to was subtle. It wasn't blatantly keeping me from physically doing my job, but instead occupied my mind to the point that I could not concentrate on anything else because I was so upset. Hindrances can be physical, mental, emotional and even spiritual. We must learn to discern our encumbrances so that we can cast them aside.

"Therefore, having so vast a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, and throwing off everything that hinders us and especially the sin that so easily entangles us, let us keep running with endurance the race set before us." Hebrews 12:1

I challenge you to be more astute to what might be preventing you from moving forward. Maybe you are allowing gossip to consume your mind, worry to effect your health or making poor decisions that are effecting your job. Perhaps the hindrance is not something you are doing but something that is being done to you and you are allowing it to have power in your life. 

Breakthrough is Coming!

God does not want you remaining stale - he desires that you have victory! I encourage you to pray and ask God to open your eyes to anything that is holding you back from running the race that he has set before you. I'd love to hear your feedback! Has God revealed an obstruction? How are you dealing with it?  

Could your hopelessness be part of God's plan?

Image Curtesy by Stuart Miles/freedigitalphotos.net

I was inspired to write during a recent Sunday morning sermon, as my pastor spoke on Luke 24:13 - 'The Walk to Emmaus'. If you are familiar with the passage, you know that it is a story of two men who are taking a journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus and unknowingly have a conversation with Christ along the way. The two men leave Jerusalem confused and hopeless concerning Christ's death, but arrive enlightened with newfound hope and understanding after Christ reveals to them the truth of His death and resurrection. The message of this story is typically the same, spun from different voices, however one particular verse kept jumping out at me that brought a whole new light to the passage. 

"And we had our hopes up that he was the One, the One about to deliver Israel. And it is now the third day since it happened." v. 21

More specifically on my mind, is the second part of the verse which reads, "And it is now the third day since it happened". Seemingly insignificant, these words would be easy to scroll over without a second thought. However, every single word in the Bible is significant and of importance and this short phrase is not excluded . In fact, I have noticed that the phrases that don't seem to make sense in the passage sometimes have the most awesome part to play in the story! I feel this way about these words. They have haunted me since I read them. I can see the two men, heads hanging, utterly devastated. Enter Jesus. 

So why do these words have such significance? It is common in Jewish culture to believe the soul of the dead hovers over the body for three days, making resurrection possible. However, after those three days are over, it is believed that the soul departs. These men had most likely been desiring or expecting Christ to rise within those three days and once the those three days were gone - so was their hope. Now here they are, totally and completely lost. Their spirits are crushed and any reveries of a king, sitting on a throne, bringing them deliverance from their physical oppressor are lost. 

Be patient with me, however, as I say that I believe their state of devastation was right where Christ needed them to be.  Up until this part of the story, His plan had been molded into their plan, in a form that made sense to them and was possible without divine intervention. Their hopelessness is good and is a much needed means to an end, an end that will benefit them tremendously. They were so intent on believing they knew how things should play out, that they never would have been able to see they were missing the forest for trees - if He hadn't set those trees on fire - so to speak. I can see Christ patiently waiting until the moment their human hopes were out of the way, so that he could step in. Perhaps he even walked by them - invisibly - until that precise moment that they hit pure hopelessness, then BAM! he appeared, ready to do His thing.

You see, sometimes God has to peel apart our fingers and loosen the grip of the hope to which we cling, so that He can then replace it with Him - allowing us to see that what we have been holding to, so strongly, is false. And would you blame providence for this? For the momentary breaking of one's heart, ideals and plans, in order to show us what He has is real. Not better, but real...true. 

Christ does not offer better hope, He is hope. 

So, as I reflect on these two men, I see the importance of complete reliance on Christ. Had they not had to set aside their assumptions and focused on Him, they wouldn't have ever known that true salvation was coming for them - not just a physical deliverance from bondage, but an eternal salvation for their souls!  They found a hope that day that isn't based on circumstances. It goes beyond that. Beyond pain, confusion and frustration. These men, and their famous journey, are a beautiful picture of how our crushed dreams and lost hope aren't necessarily an end, but the beginning of a journey that holds more than we could ever dream of for ourselves. 

"But as it is written, 'Things which an eye didn't see, and an ear didn't hear, which didn't enter into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love him.'" 1 Corinthians 2:9 World English Bible

The First step

This blog post is a snippet from my book The Thankful Project. The content of this post is from a chapter that I have dedicated to learning gratitude in adversity. I hope you enjoy this tidbit! 
  


    You’ve probably heard the old adage, “The first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem.” Why is this? Simply put, if you do not know what you need then you won’t know what to ask for/work for, etc. However, If you are anything like me, you’re not fond of looking at your mess up close and personal like. You know, the stinky fish in the trash that’s smelling up your kitchen, i.e the pile of bills and debt sitting on your desk? Or what about the giant elephant in the room, i.e. the infidelity, depression, etc. ruining your life? Ignoring it’s existence will not make it go away. Let me repeat that. Listen carefully. Ignoring the thing that is ruining your life is not going to make it go away. Neither will griping about it, crying about it, having a pity party or worrying. What, Shara? I can’t worry my problems away? To all of us worry warts out there, that sounds like heresy. It’s true though and you know it, because you’ve been worrying for years and your house smells like stinky fish and every time you want to watch t.v. you find yourself yelling at Gladys to get out of the way! (That’s the elephant’s name...she’s been there so long you had to finally name her.)  I am making light of this, but I know that a lot of the time it is truly hard to think there is any positive emotion that will actually benefit our situations. We are partially right about this because truthfully apart from occasional circumstances in and of ourselves we are not capable of digging ourselves out of our own ruts.  Enter God.  Enter glorious, faithful, remarkably incredible God. He will show up anywhere the praise of His people beckons him, even if that means slap dab in the middle of a dilapidated mess!
     The first thing that Nehemiah did upon arrival in Judah was to take a midnight stroll around the city to inspect the destruction. He needed to know what he was dealing with so that he could make a plan. Plenty us of have had to come home after tornados, hurricanes, or tsunami’s and see the utter heartbreak of our town torn to pieces - add to that the hate of war - and you can imagine the anguish he felt. After surveying the mess, Nehemiah was better aware of the situation, which allowed him to make a solid plan!
      So, if you've found yourself in a sticky situation, it might be time survey the damage! Don't be afraid to face your disaster head on! Do it with the confidence that God has gone before you to lead the way towards rebuilding! Ask him for wisdom and guidance on the your next steps towards restoration! 

I hope you enjoyed this (slightly adapted for blog purposes) snippet of my book, "The Thankful Project"! Keep an eye out for the book in its entirety later this year! 

XO - Shara

Love Bites

I haven't blogged in a while. My husband and I are partnering with another couple and opening a restaurant…soon! So, that has been consuming a lot of my time and anytime that I have been committing to writing, has been for my book. But, I got to thinking about something today and felt inspired to write - so here goes! Forgive the short and sweet approach of this post!


Every genre and generation of music sings about it. From "love hurts", to "love bites", to "I'm gonna keep on loving you", love has been the topic of too many songs to count. Why? Because that is something that everyone can relate to. We have all felt love - even if it was/is reluctant or leery. We loved our parents or siblings when we were children, then friends has we got older and on to spouses or significant others. We love being loved, the feeling it gives us. We enjoy the companionship and intimacy that love grants us.  But if you're anything like me, you don't like to think about the negative aspects of loving someone.


A couple days ago I drove my parents to see my uncle, who is in the hospital recovering from surgery. My sister planned on going with us (she ended up not being able to) and I made the comment to her, "aww…the whole family all together for the day!" Only that wasn't true. One of us - my brother - is missing. Our family will never be whole again until eternity. You better believe the empty 5th seat would have been felt, even after 20 years. That's how it goes when someone you love dies. You feel the crushing pain for the rest of your life. Does it fade a bit? Perhaps…but it never dies. This post isn't about grief or losing a loved one, though. It's about love, period, and the sacrifice that you sign up for when you choose to love someone. You see, when we choose to love someone we are choosing all the hurt that love encompasses. Whether you're lied to, cheated on, or they die and leave you desperately lonely for their presence - we chose it when we chose them.

I started reading The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom a couple days ago, who by the way, along with her family, is the human epitome of love. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten and will carry on with their legacy. In the book, after Corrie is turned away by the man she loves, her father says to her "Do you know what hurts so very much? It's love." Wow. To have already pondered the pain of love, this quote caught my attention. I read it over and over.

"Do you know what hurts so very much? It's love."

That sums up this post in 2 short sentences.

Remember that when you chose to give your love to your children, spouse or best friend. At some point your heart will be broken, but that is alright. Garth Brooks says it best in his The Dance  - " I could've
missed the pain, but I'd had to miss the dance."

Dance on my friends.

XO - Shara


In keeping with the theme of Love and sacrifice, I would like to encourage you to pick up my friend's book, "Intentional Marriage: The Art of Loving Your Husband." It is .99 for today only on Amazon. Pick it up!!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

The Role of Gratitude: The Thankful Project Book Excerpt

The following is an excerpt from my upcoming book The Thankful Project, which speaks about living a victorious life through gratitude. This particular excerpt talks about the role of the priest and poses the question of whether we are taking our job seriously in the royal priesthood of Christ. 

“They are to stand every morning to thank and to praise the LORD, and likewise at evening.” 1 Chronicles 23:30

The Bible has a lot to say on the subject of thanksgiving in regards to our spiritual journey. More than a suggestion, it is commanded of us and part of our role as Christians. An intricate part of worship, thanksgiving is crucial to our spiritual growth. The existence or non-existence of Thanksgiving can be used as a good indicator of where we are in our walk with God. 

In 1 Chronicles chapter 16, we see a very important, and beautiful, picture of the role that thanksgiving plays in Christianity, as David appoints the levites with their different roles in offering praise to God. King David has just had the ark brought back to Jerusalem after it had been out of Zion’s possession for quite a while. After celebrating its return, David wastes no time in giving the Ark a home and setting up the duties of the priests. He immediately appoints the Levites with different jobs concerning the ark.

“David appointed the following Levites to lead the people in worship before the Ark of the Lord—to invoke his blessings, to give thanks, and to praise the Lord, the God of Israel.” 1 Chronicles 16:4 (NLT)

 The roles consisted of praising and petitioning God, as well as giving thanks. There was actually a specific job designated solely to being thankful. Having a heart of gratitude may sometimes start to seem cliche or trite, but this passage of scripture shows us the true importance it holds. At the point of history in this verse, God’s spirit did not live within humans as he does today, but in one place - The Ark of the Covenant - and the Levites, or priests, were the liaisons between believers and God. God’s people counted on the priests to help them remain in good standing before the Lord by offering sacrifices, praise, and offering thanksgiving! The people of God expected and relied on the Levites to carry out these duties on their behalf. Once Christ ascended to heaven, He sent Holy Spirit - the spirit of God to live within those who believe. Now we are our own priests - our lives and praise our sacrifice. How often are we offering our thanksgiving to God? I can’t help but wonder if we maintain our priestly duties to the degree that we would have expected the Levites to do for us. Do we take advantage of this incredible gift or do we take it for granted? This question can only be answered individually, and I have a feeling I know my answer. Can you say “ouch”? 
Notice also that the priests were not merely stating their thanks for “counting their blessings”, they were offering up their thanksgiving to God. You may consider yourself a grateful person, but are you giving the thanks where thanks is ultimately due? 
Paul confronts the consequences of due thanks being withheld in the book of Romans as he writes about the wrath of God being poured out on the godless and wicked. In chapter one, He points out the root of their detestable sins:

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Romans 1:21 (NIV emphasis mine)

Withholding gratitude from God had a pretty hefty price tag for these “godless and wicked” people, as the next few verses explain that He gave them over to their sin. They refused to acknowledge Him and His goodness, made life about themselves and distorted the truth, thus beginning the downward spiral. They worshiped themselves and the things of this world rather than the maker of all things, hoping for power from powerless things. We do the same thing when we refuse to worship God by giving an offering of thanksgiving - acknowledging Him as the true God “from whom all blessings flow”. 


XO-Shara

  This post was shared at: