Excerpts from Ephesians 4:

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace.


It was he who gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.


Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.


INSTEAD, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the head--CHRIST.


From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.


I am longing for the day when we as a body of Christ can truly work together out of the bond of peace.  I am so tired of being tossed here and there by every wave that comes in life.  I want to know the fullness of Christ.  I want to be strongly rooted in him and in his mighty power.  I want more.  It's so hard to want more, because through wanting more, we are asking for some rough and challenging times.  I feel like it's only in the depths of challenge and heartache where we truly learn to live this life.  Where we truly learn to discover who God has made us to be.  In the midst of heartache and struggle we learn to know who God really is and who we really are.

I often think that our view of God is too small.  When we pray for something, and he doesn't answer, what does that really mean?  Do we really think that God is going to work how we want him to work?  What does it say about God when something horrible happens...or we find out that something horrible happened to someone we love dearly.  Where was God in that?

Through this whole support raising process I am learning that God is giving us the exact amount of money that we need each month to learn to truly cling to him and his provision for us.  We have exactly what he wants us to have so that we can grow in our faith and in our understanding of who he is in our lives.

Just because we give it all for God doesn't mean that we automatically get some kind of orb of protection put around us.  I often think, "God, we put it all in for you...why did this happen??"  I guess God says in those moments that there is even more that we need to put in for him.  More of ourselves that need to be shaved off, more refining that needs to happen in our spirits, so that we can be mature and complete, lacking nothing.