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I know it seems like The Dowdney's exited the bogging world, but lately I have felt a calling to be more committed in writing. So here is my attempt. Over the next few months, I am going to to try to write from my heart but at the same time catch everyone up on where we are. Yes, I know, I need to pen the amazing story of our new little gift Bradleigh Nicolynn Dowdney and update on Brayden. I promise I will get to that!
In this walk, I think I have been fairly transparent with my consistent need to lay my anxieties at the foot of my Savior. It is something I struggle with on a daily basis, yet is something that I have a very hard time being completely transparent about. I have a fairly strong personality, high energy levels, and extremely task oriented. So to ground myself and share honestly "I really struggle with this inside battle of anxiety and fear." is hard to put to paper. However, I have felt a tremendous transformation beginning and I feel that The Lord is taking this from me and teaching me about trust and complete dependency upon him. In these very intimate conversation with Father, I hear him telling me to share. How many other people are out there that struggle with fear and anxiety. Maybe it is not as "in-your-face" as mine is. Maybe it is something more quiet. But I am going to try to share from my heart as the Lord walks me through what really leaning into Him looks like.
Today I read this and wanted to share. Very poignant . Talk to ya'll soon.
Who Is Carrying You?
Scott Hamilton - Senior Pastor - Harvest Glaskow, Scotland
Bel bows down; Nebo stoops; their idols are on beasts and livestock; these things you carry are borne as burdens on weary beasts. They stoop; they bow down together; they cannot save the burden, but themselves go into captivity. “Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.
-Isaiah 46:1-4
As you woke this morning, was it with the realization that God’s unbreakable promises to you in Jesus are designed to produce unimaginable salvation in you through Christ? It is easy for us to live out our salvation with some sort of diminished reality which in turn diminishes our capacity to live for God’s greater glory. Isaiah 46 speaks to people for whom such a diminished reality led to captivity. And we should learn from their mistakes. Think on these five truths.
Truth #2: The people whom God called His own had made Bel and Nebo their gods too. That meant they were broken people with broken gods who had broken relationship with the One true and living God. Rather than being carried through life by faith in God, their spiritual loyalties were very divided, resulting in both spiritual and physical captivity.
So who’s carrying you? Or, more correctly, what are you carrying? Their gods were only as strong, responsive, or mobile as they were. Does that describe where your trust is today? The things you are trusting in are carried on your shoulders in your strength. Eventually, they become a burden that weighs upon you. Has it occurred to you that is why you are finding no peace or rest? Has the reality hit that this is the cause of the heaviness felt today and for quite a few yesterdays?
Truth #3: We need to realize in a fresh way today something about our god-alternatives. If you can carry it, there will be a day when it can’t carry you. Further, if you have to carry it, then it’s already crushing you. It’s time to give up investing such massive amounts of energy and emotion propping up idols. This passage speaks of three things sinking to their knees. Do you see it? The idol, the animal, and the one crazy enough to entrust their life to something made from the same raw ingredients as them.
Truth #4: God is saying, “Listen to me: while you are trusting in Disney characters, I am still speaking. While you are walking straight into captivity with whatever you have replaced Me with tucked under your arm, remember this—I have carried you from birth.” God is speaking of Jesus shouldering the burden of your sin, carrying your load, taking the strain of all that weighs you.
Truth #5: We need to realize when we are trusting in an idol and heed the warnings God is sending us every day!
