Unearthing Stones, Believing for More...
Thursday, June 28, 2012 at 8:12AM 
Greetings, Friends! Susie Larson here...
And to those visiting, I say welcome! Typically, I post every Wednesday but for some reason I couldn't get my blog to load yesterday. :) My sole purpose is to nourish your soul along the way. Each month I give away a $10.00 Starbucks gift card to someone who posts on my blog. So share a thought or insight, bless lots of folks, and just maybe you'll win a jolt of java for you and friend.
Now on to my topic...
Now that I’ve finished my speaking season and finished writing my next book, I’ve slowed down a bit. And guess what’s happened? Things are surfacing in my life that I can’t ignore. I hear God’s invitation to pause my forward moving progress so that together we can set the plow deeper and prepare the soil for more abundant growth.
I hear the Lord whispering across my heart, Now’s the time to dig up a few stones in your soil, to name them, release them, and be done with them. Now is a time to replace those old lies with life-giving truth. As we go through this process of unearthing these stones, you’ll have some forgiving to do, some repenting to do, but all for the sake of healing and wholeness; all for the sake of preparing for new growth. Now is the time to give Me time and space to heal and restore your soul. Now is the time to pull back from all you ‘do’, to just ‘be’ and to find your delight in Me.’
I still work full days at the station, but I most definitely sense God’s invitation to leverage every other free moment to sit with Him, listen to Him, and respond to the things He’s showing me.
Tuesday on the show, we talked about the call to live the promised life; to take God’s promises as they stand, to persevere in faith as we walk forward; and to understand that when we dare to believe God for more, He asks more of us, not in any deal-making sort of way, but so we’re more suited to carry the things we’re asking for from God.
After the show I got thinking about why so many Christians live outside of God’s absolute best for them. I believe there are two big reasons why so many live out their ‘faith’ lives with a low level of misery or discontentment:
- · An unwillingness to deal with their stuff (sins that entangle, and the things that hinder our forward moving progress)
- · A refusal to believe God for the ‘more’ of Himself that He so lovingly wants to impart to them
Read what scripture says about the unbelief of the Israelites:
The people refused to enter the pleasant land, for they wouldn’t believe his promise to care for them. Instead, they grumbled in their tents and refused to obey the Lord (Psalm 106:24-26).
They refused to believe God’s promise over their lives, so they plopped their rear ends down in the gravel, grumbled and griped because their lives had no promise, and they refused to obey the Lord. And I’m sure they blamed God for their misery! How often do we do the same thing?
Jesus loves us with an everlasting love. He leads us on a journey of grace, refinement, and transformation. He allows for seasons of healing, fruitfulness, and breakthrough. And, He allows for seasons of digging up stones, of setting the plow deeper on a root that chokes out life.
Such seasons are messy, somewhat painful, but oh, so necessary if we really want to go from strength to strength, glory to glory, shining ever brighter until the full light of day.
So I’m setting aside a significant amount of time this weekend and with notebook in hand, I’ll write out every soul ache, angst, and every painful memory that still has a pulse. Once I’ve unearthed the lie, forgiven the pain, repented of the sin, I’m going to have a bonfire and burn up the pages of my notebook. Then, I’ll have communion as a reminder that I have a place at the Table of Grace, always and forever because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross.
I’m typically quick to repent of sin the moment I realize I’ve sinned; I tend to go after any shred of un-forgiveness in my soul when I sense it’s there. But even so, I’ve learned that we can go a long time without fully resolving issues that stand in the way of abundant growth without even realizing it. That's why it's so important to have seasons where we slow down long enough for God to do a transforming work in us.
Sometimes we’re only ready to unearth a portion of a stone and that’s all God asks of us for the moment. But, eventually, when the time is right, the Lord hands us a shovel, and together we pull up the weeds and unearth the stones so we can believe Him for a fresh and abundant harvest.
Maybe you’re in a season where discontentment, frustration, and angst plague your soul. Do you know that we so often sin out of these places? We sin out of our pain, our pride, our fears, and our unresolved issues.
God wants to heal you, and deliver you from the things that keep you from the best of what He has for you. This is what God longs for you to have: an intimate walk with Him; a life healed and whole, full of faith, and full of fruit! A life marked by His Spirit which produces love, joy, peace...
I pray you can find some time to be still and to respond to His work in your life, that you may better know the riches of His love toward you.
Whatever we’ve experienced of God, I promise you, my friend, there’s more. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus!
~Until next week.
*PS - Will you do me a favor and let me know if posting a weekly devotional blog like this is helpful to you? Or is it too long? I'm taking a look at all of my committments and assessing where the best of my time should go. Thank you and God bless you.
Reader Comments (16)
Absolutely Brilliant! Many of my women friends have been churning all year, trying to find what is making us so empty. Is it the church, is it our lives? This has been such an eye opener and what a fabulous idea; burn the pages that are full of "stones". It has given me a great idea to host a party, where we can work on discovering what is keeping us locked up and have a huge bonfire! Thank you!
Hi Susie! I so love reading your blogs and words of blessing each day. It is so encouraging to me. I feel like the whole analogy of the garden is such a relevant word of the Lord right now...he seems to be speaking a similar thing to friends around me. Some of us are in plowing or pruning seasons and others are living in the fruit of those seasons. Either way, it is incredible to hear over and over that God's faithful gardening and "tilling of our hearts" it actively going on because of his love...
Your weekly blog is SO helpful to me! I get conviction and encouragement from it every week. However, I will pray that God brings you the insight as to what you should do with your time- listening to the radio show also provides help to me weekly. Thank you for your time and encouragement to live my life for Jesus!
This post is timely for me. Thanks for the idea about the notebook (and the fire!). A memory/regret cloud descended on me early this morning while I was reading the Word. As I read I could feel it lift, which is powerful and I'm thankful to see God's power in action. But I think there is a better freedom He wants for me.
So, thanks for writing this,
xo, H.
P.S. I don't think your posts are "too long" but if you are asking me if a shorter post would still have a lot of impact, I would say yes.
But wait.... doesn't it take longer to write a short post? It does for me. :)
Hi Susie,
I love your blog. It has been very helpful and inspirational. It has never seemed too long for me in fact, sometimes, I wish it were even longer. Thank you so much, and I hope you will decide that this is valuable use of your time. God bless you!
I love your blog post and particularly today's. I am tired, run down and prone to lies. I look around and rarely see the genuine heart you share in your posts. Please continue to share and know your journey touches others deeper than you know. I will join you this weekend with a notebook and a fire! I am determined to trust in God's promises for me.
Loved your post. Words we all need to hear. Actions we all need to take. I'm praying for you right now.
Blessings!
Hi Susie,
Please don't give up on your weekly posts, I just love reading them, and they are so inspiring
to me. You truly are very gifted, author, speaker, radio personality, etc. You truly are blessed
and you are a blessing to me as I read your weekly blog posts. Thank-you Susie in all that you
do, and God Bless.
Your posting is right on time and right on target. Being frustrated, battle worn and discouraged for these six months has left me heartsick for Jesus’s return. 'Get me outta here, Lord!’ I realized yesterday that this was about unresolved issues. I don’t want to make another trip around that monotonous mountain. It is time to dig up a few more stones for potential future harvest. Thank you for the timely post.
The picture that came to my mind is of an extremely large rock out in our back field. Its unearthing would be a very demanding job, we would perhaps need a crane? So the crops and the harvesting go around it. AND WE learn to live life around some of those large rocks...THANKFULLY God has a way of bringing us to the edge of them at the right time and getting to work...Plow is going deep here now. For the first time I am finding joy in the pain because of the heat in my heart. The passion and purpose and pressing into God more deeply.
Thank you (again) for your faithfulness and for cultivating your own soul for refreshing us all...I love reading your posts and the length is just right! :) Love you Susie! Blessings dear sister-friend, on your quiet and freeing weekend!
~Kathy
This is my first time reading your blog....or anyone else's for that matter. I heard you on the radio and am sitting at home now after reading your blog and thinking about what you have shared with us from your heart. It takes a lot of courage to be so open and honest with yourself for all the world to see. I believe God will surely bless you mightly this weekend and you spend time with him in relfection and bare your soul to him and allow him to start pulling the weeds and digging out some of those rocks we all drag around with us because we are so use to them that they seem like they really belong there and it takes too much time and energy to dig them out and throw them away. May God bless your weekend alone with him.
Susie,
I look forward to your insight and wisdom in every post. I think the length is just right. Keep up the great work and keep the articles coming!
Valerie
HI Susie
I love your blogs! They seem to always 'hit where it hurts' for me! I really hope you dont stop doing them. I have been and guess still am, afraid to 'dig up the soil' and find the buried stones. I think God has been almost forcing me in some ways to do that, but I bet it would be a smoother ride if I submitted and obeyed and attempted to cooperate more! Thanks for your heart and your words..always inspiring.
I love your blogs Susie! Keep them coming! Some days I just crave a special "word' from God. For some reason my time with Him may have been filled with concerns so I do not hear His voice above it. the!n later I get on a blog like yours and there I find somethng I was really needing to hear. Bless you Susie! if you feel like it is abit much to do maybe cutting back to once every other week may be an answer. I sure would not stop doing it unless God directs you to. Alot of people may be helped but do not necessarily respond in this manner. Thankyou for your ministry.
Betty M from ND
Susie - Thanks so much for some much needed truth and conviction about leading a half-full life in Christ, when I know He desires to do and be so much more in my life. It's so easy to spend time in busy-ness and activity without stopping to reflect on where we are, what we need and really connecting with the Source for everything that we are seeking. Praying that you will continue these posts - they can be life-changing. Any time people put God's Word out accurately to share with others, we are all blessed.
Thanks so much for all you do to help us all "live the promise."
God bless.
I love your post you say so many things that I know are from the heart of God. I hope you will keep writing God willing.