I am preparing to take a 3-week break from all social media. To some, this may not be a big deal, but for me, social media is my ministry tool, connection to the outside world, and an outlet for my creative side. However, the very thing that can connect me can also disconnect me. What can be a tool can also be a hindrance. Something that has the possibility of reaching the lost can also cause one to lose themselves. Like anything that is good, it needs balance and surrender.
As a person who RARELY sees people physically and lives a bit of an isolated life, the relationship part of social media is wonderful. God has called me to take the airwaves for Him, and I have gone all-in with His instruction. But I have felt him beckoning me to step back, to recalibrate, to refocus, and to reignite.
The triple threat of grace is what we are proclaiming over our year and our page. For us to Live in it. Live from it and Live to give it! I am instantly drawn to John chapter 17. This is an entire chapter dedicated to Jesus praying. He starts with praying for himself, then for His disciples, and then for the future believers. His focus is absolute. He knows what He is called to do, who He is called to train, and who He is called to reach. Jesus shows us repeatedly what it means to “get away to pray”
“But Jesus often slipped away from them and went into the wilderness to pray.”
Luke 5:16 TPT
Living in grace, from grace, and to live to give grace, means to have the utter concentration for the gifts and call on our lives and to have a clear picture of our purpose: spreading the remarkable news of His Amazing Grace!
My personal word for 2022 is focus, and I hear Jesus asking me to come tuck myself away with Him in a time of prayer and fasting. I love the scripture in the Songs of Solomon that reads “Come away with me”, All relationships need times of rekindling and recentering. Some need to get away to dream again. To remember why they fell in love. Some need it for rest and let’s be honest, sexy time is always a good thing. :) But in all seriousness, drawing near to God in intimacy means sometimes we need to draw away from others. We need to prioritize what gets our full attention and what can wait. We are living in a season where Grace needs our full focus. It needs our vision and partnership. God's unmerited favor needs us to sit it in for a while and remember what it’s for, who it’s for, how we can offer it and how we can weaponize it.
Grace is a hammer on the head of the enemy, and an arm around the shoulders of the broken.
Yet, somehow, many of us have lost our focus on grace. Many have made enemies of those who disagree with us. Many of us hold grace back because it would mean forgiving someone who offended us. We refuse to offer grace to ourselves because it may seem easy, and holiness should feel more sacrificial than accepting the work that Jesus did at the cross. Holiness should feel, well... holy. But grace is what makes us clean. Grace is what makes us able to disagree and love. Grace is what creates an atmosphere of forgiveness. Grace is the foundation of holiness.
Favor on the undeserving is how we crush the enemy and comfort those who are crushed in spirit.
Focusing on the preciousness of His favor, and the purpose of His gift of grace means fixing the lens to center on the Father's heart, starting first with our personal relationship and intimacy with King Jesus Himself. Getting our eyes off any attention-grabbing distractions and instead, getting our focus on attention-grabbing grace and the work it has done, is doing, and is yet to do.
If you feel led to slip away from the noise and step into the secret place, feel free to join me in these next three weeks from January 8th - February 1st. It will be a simple time of dedicated prayer, devotions, family time, reading, and long walks of meditation. I am excited for these set-apart days and will miss seeing all the comments and my team's incredible writings, oh but it is going to be a magical time with the lover of my soul.
See you soon.
Love H
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