A Bucket Full of Holes?

There is No Lack in Jesus, He Is Enough! 

When I first started to learn this, I was at a place in my life that I would have said, I was NOT enough and had no idea what to do about it, except...just try harder to be enough!

This month's blog is going to be a little different, as I'm going to share why the classes I teach are not just for learning, but for transformation in the Christian life and experience.

At the age of 40, I was at a crossroads of asking myself:

"was this all there was to my Christian life"?

I was married, a mom and invested in the local church.  That should have been enough, right?

But, to let you into my behind the scenes of life thinking…

Shouldn't life just be grand? Would I ever feel whole? Could I ever know real love?  These are the shoulda, woulda, coulda's that rampantly ran through my mind.

The answer to those 3 questions, had to come from a different start than me.  What I thought and what I felt and what I chose over and over and over again to get my needs met, was just not enough!

I thought if I did really well and gave good effort in every area of my life, I would achieve some peace. Sounds good, but the part that never quite worked out was, that there were other people involved in this equation and circumstances I didn’t see coming.  I could perform all day long, but my heart attitude was always in a "lack", so I was always coming to everything with

"please tell me I'm someone to you". 

Can you feel this?  It's a miserable place to be when you see things from this perspective and the holes in my bucket were becoming more and more visable.

I started this blog by letting you know I was 40 years of age when my story of self-sufficiency started unravalling beyond my control and of how I did my Christian life.  On the outside, you’d have never known, but on the inside, I was a ticking emotional time-bomb.

There is a story we can look at together for a few moments that will help to show what God's solution was for me as we read about the people of Israel.

Please read this chapter so that the rest of this blog will have more impact.

Numbers 13 ESV - - Bible Gateway

Joshua and Caleb (two of the spies) are the people, we need to focus on, in this account of Israel's learning to see their self-sufficiency versus God's supply.

In these verses we see how Moses gave instruction to those going into Canaan.  We can look at this in our own lives.

17 Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up into the Negeb and go up into the hill country, 18 and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, 19 and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, 20 and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.

There were 12 spies, but only 2 of them came back with a Report of Life. The other 10 gave a report of Defeat! and Depleat! Joshua and Caleb saw God’s provision and chose to live out of that supply daily. There were some practical things that we can gleen from this story for where we might be living from in our daily experience.

God’s supply

- take time to ascess where you're at

- look to Jesus by beginning to pray

- take note of who your surrounded by: Depleaters or Fruit bringers?

- what verbage or attitudes are happening around you?

- do you have campers in your life or difficult walls to scale?

- is there fruit anywhere in your situation?

- is the tree of Life impacting you or the tree of Good and Evil ensnaring you?

It's important to take inventory, so you can know what God's supply is.  God doesn't tell us to go solve all of these things I just mentioned.  He just tells us to take an inventory.  Isn't that interesting?  He wraps up this section of verses by saying, take an ascessment and then gather the fruit of the land and do it with courage and a good attitude.

Well, this isn't how I approached solving problems in my life.   My list always started with me at the center of it! Maybe you can relate.

Dayna’s lack!

- Why can't I just be happy?

- Jesus is probably the answer, but I'm not sure how to make that happen.  Throwing out, "help me" prayers seemed to be all I knew.

- Those around me weren't complying with my demands of "just love me already"

- my verbage and attitude usually started with self analyzing, self management, and add some more self.  Arggh!

- I had campers and difficult walls and had no idea what to do with them.  Just being honest with ya!

- The fruit I could see in my life was, I knew for sure I was a born again Christian.  I accepted Jesus when I was 5 years of age and I knew I was going to heaven.  Beyond that, I pretty much just tried and tried to be a good girl.  Don’t ruffle any feathers, or keep the peace as best I could. Exhausting!

- Jesus is the Tree of Life and He was there as a reminder that I would be with him after death.  But the other tree, That Good and Evil tree, was my main focus as I always attempted in my daily experience to be on the Good side of that tree.

I hope you can understand after reading through these two lists, how one had a Giver and one was a Depleter.

Something was amiss and I knew it.  I was at the end of my "self life" at the age of 40, but I was also at the threshhold of the beginning of New Life in Christ.    He had been there all the time, but I always had Him in the "not enough" category of my life.

I reached up and out of my dissatisfied life and called a family member that knew Christ as her life.  I saw great difficulty in her life, yet, I also so JOY in the midst of it, that I couldn’t explain. We both had Jesus, but mine wasn’t working….I WAS working! She began to mentor me and share what I share now in the classes I teach.  It wasn't just more information on “How to be Good-er”, it was life transforming.  I remember when I heard her say, Jesus is the only One who can live His life.  We aren't to mimick Him. Dayna, we are to let Him.  This is where it all began to start my journey with moving out of the Tree of perfomance and allowing Jesus to BE my life.    If this doesn't make sense to you, it's okay, because it didn't to me in the beginning either.  That's why as each class I teach shares a piece of truth, it then builds from one class to the other of having Christ at the helm of Life and I get to join Him in Who He Is - Enough!

There is no Lack in Him, only supply!

I would love to spend time with you and answer any questions about what the classes look like for us to walk through your lists.

Jesus can take your lists of do's and don’t’s- of woulda, coulda, shoulda's and exchange them for "It Is Finished!

Walk in courage and a joyful heart today.  It is possible, He made it possible.

Blessings to you all, and I hope to hear from you soon.   If you’re intersted, I do have sponsors for the classes, if needed.  Please just let me know and don't hestitate to inquire as there are no expectations,  just an Open Door Access for you. Come on In!

In His Sufficient Supply in His Holy Bucket!

Dayna

https://www.opendooraccess.com for class information