Point Them to the Answer, Not the Circumstance

There are days where I wonder if it’s worth blogging anymore.

The blogosphere has changed in the last four years when I started this blog.  Everyday my inbox is full of blog posts that I have subscribed to read their daily posts.  Unfortunately, a lot of them have shut their blogs down to spend their time doing other things. Part of me wonders if their story was finished or felt as though no one cared about their story.

When I started this blog I titled it “Michelle Sarabia”.  A few posts into writing, I knew this wasn’t about my story but His story.  The best, most famous, Author out there.  I committed this blog to writing His story.  Words that would pierce hearts just like Peter did in Acts 2.  Where words would change lives in an instant or keep the reader coming back for more because his heart needed to hear more.

More inspiration, more truth, more love, more Jesus.

It seems as though that all that blogs are about now is the bloggers story.  The story of cleaning, cooking, organizing, conferences, life circumstances being written all “in the name of Jesus”.

Can I ask a question….when does the piercing of the reader’s heart take place?

When the title of my blog was changed to Beyond Brave, I was out to lunch with a friend and I was telling her that I wanted to change the title of my blog to Brave.  As we talked about our stories and all that God has brought us through.  She looked at me and said what about calling it “Beyond Brave”.  I loved it because it was in moments like this, when having lunch with a friend and sharing some of your deepest yearnings for God.  Sharing each other’s hearts of lives being changed all because of Jesus.  Thus the subheading “When ordinary moments take extraordinary Faith”.  We left there feeling inspired, encouraged and excited in what God was going to do next in our lives.

Four years later, I find myself with such an aching for how our stories have affected His story.  See Jesus died on the cross for you and for me and the cool thing is He rose again.  Jesus told stories.  Two thousand years later His stories are still being used.  I’m afraid our own stories have hidden the true story and the Storyteller.

Just like my lunch with my friend, I want you to leave my blog feeling inspired and encouraged.  I want you to feel challenged to be better even as I challenge myself.  I don’t want any of my circumstances or situations to over shadow what God is doing in them. My hope is that I point you to the One who is the True Author and Finisher of your faith (Hebrews 12:2).

I don’t want to ever feel when I write and you read that you may think, “all she talks about is Jesus”. Sorry, but this isn’t high school and I’m not here to win a popularity contest.  I’m here to write words like David was in song.  I’m here leaving a digital footprint like Paul was when he challenged those to follow Christ.  I’m here to show love from my laptop to all over the world.

Bloggers continue to share your stories but let’s go back to the basics.

• Pray and ask God what He wants you to write about for today’s blog post, each day.
• Lead them to Christ not to your circumstance
• Let your readers see this Amazing God we have fallen in love with.  Let them know why we love Him.
• Lastly, point every story we tell back to Christ.

Remember this; He is the Author and Finisher of our faith.  He writes the once upon a time and happily ever after. It’s up to us what we write inside the pages of our books.

Hebrews 12:1-3 The Message Translation

Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!