Let me tell you something I wish I would have known when I first truly accepted having a real relationship with the Lord: the minute you say "yes" to Him is the minute Satan is going to try and tear you apart. You see, I used to think that accepting God meant accepting constant blessings, with no bad - just good; I thought that by following God, that meant that nothing that Satan tries to do could ever get to me. Here's a spoiler alert: THAT THOUGHT IS FALSE.
God is gracious, yes He is. God is gracious enough to bless us with good moments - good things; God is also gracious in allowing us to have our seasons of sorrow and grief. And yes, through those bad seasons, I still believe that God is gracious. I choose to believe that when God gives me a season of what feels like nothing but hurt - He is still so gracious. I don't just believe that God is gracious in the seasons He gives us, I believe that God is gracious enough to provide us with a community for the tough seasons, and the good seasons. God would never give us a season of sorrow and grief when we are left stranded. God will provide a community. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 12:25-27 (which happens to be the backbone of Exuberantly Us - ironic, huh?) it says, "so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for one another. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it."
We are all apart of the body of Christ. We will mourn together, and we will rejoice together. God provides. God is gracious.
I am so excited for Exuberantly Us and I am so excited to meet you all and become your sister! I love you all and I hope you enjoy this wonderful community that God has so intentionally blessed all of us with through the God-fearing ladies I've had the pleasure to know and love. Have a great day, y'all!
Much love,
Madisen
Madisen, WOW girl, what wisdom you have!! You are so right; so often we like to believe that coming to know Christ means everything in life suddenly becomes perfect? But you hit it right on the head girl- we are still living on this earth and dealing with challenges just like before. Life with Jesus just means more JOY and AUTHORITY and PEACE and POWER that we get to operate from... and that's pretty cool.
And YES, our God is GOOD and He is GRACIOUS- even when (or especially when) it doesn't make sense to us.
We are so excited for you girl, and cannot wait to get to you more through Exuberantly Us!