Author: Kayla Mahnken

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Take Heart My Battle Weary Sister

Dear sister,

I remember the last time we talked you mentioned you were dealing with a particular sin in your life and tonight you feel like your progress in putting it to death has been slow and unfruitful. After all it’s been two years since you were made aware of your sin and the Lord in His kindness led you to repentance. Yet here you are, still repenting of and still slipping back into the sin you are trying so hard to destroy. The cycle seems endless.

Dear one, I am here to remind you (and myself!) or perhaps tell you for the first time that your pursuit is not hopeless and the cycle is not endless. One day, the Lord will wipe every tear from our eyes and we will be free from all unrighteousness, perfectly spotless, standing in the glory of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Therefore, dear sister, because of this hope we have in Christ, continue to confess your sin to God for He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin (I John 1:9). Remember that when Christ died on the cross he paid for every sin we would ever commit past, present, and future. Christ took the wrath of God for you. This means, dear one, that if you are in Christ there is no wrath…none. It’s gone! Christ took it all. All that is left for you is His flowing streams of forgiveness and His mercies that are new every day. So dearest sister, remember that the sin you are fighting is paid for and that Christ died so that we could have freedom from sin, meaning your fight is not in vain. Therefore, continue training yourself in righteousness and do not lose heart. Though you may lose the battle, Christ has already won the war. And no matter how many battles you win or lose, you are Christ’s.

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

In Christ’s unfailing love,

Kayla

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Disappointment and God’s Way

 

Dear sister,

Last night I was supposed to go dancing but my prolonged sickness flared up and there was so much that needed to be done around the house that I had to stay home, help out and finally get some much needed rest. Having waited all week to go to this dancing event I was very disappointed that I was not able to go. In a façade of contentment I told myself that God knows best and there was a reason I was at home sick and not out driving to dance class. Dear one, I think many times we are so concerned about our own needs and our own wants that we place them far above the will of God. We pretend to be content in His sovereignty but in our hearts we are dissatisfied and tell God that we can take it from here. Ha! How arrogant we are to think that we are more equipped and more able to manage our lives than God is.

 Dear sister, there is no doubt in my mind that at the very moment we try to take control over our lives is when they start to fall apart. Then, when they do we get angry with God and ask Him why He’s letting it happen! Dear one, if you have taken the reins from God, give them back. He will not slumber or sleep. He is your keeper and the shade of your right hand. He will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life (Ps. 121:3-7). This means that He can be trusted with your entire life! Confess to Him that you have been dissatisfied in His will and more concerned with your own purposes rather than His and remember that He has promised us that if we love Him, He will work all things together for good (Rom. 8:28).

The next time you find yourself disappointed because something did not go your way, remember that it did go God’s way. And though we may not understand it now, His way will always lead to good, not evil. Rest in that truth daily, dear one.

Your sister,

Kayla    

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Faithfullness: Healing

My Dear Sister,

Sin. Apart from God it does irreparable damage to our souls and our lives. Apart from God we are helpless to do anything but walk in the darkness. It is only when the Lord intervenes in our life and awakens us to His glorious light do we realize that we’ve merely been blindly stumbling through our lives without even a flicker of a candle to guide us. Along with the light, we receive new eyes. We can now see the hopelessness of our old ways and the destruction we’ve left in our path. Praise the Lord that it brings Him glory to save us in our helplessness and rescue us from our own depravity. Sin has wreaked havoc on every square inch of our lives, yet God takes us into His arms and promises to heal us. He takes our broken lives and begins the process of sanctification, the process of healing that will continue throughout our entire lifetime. God promises that once He begins this good work He will bring it into completion. Paul says in Philippians, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it into completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (1:6).

Praise the Lord for His great faithfulness. He will never forsake us, and even when we fall He will continue healing us. I’ve seen God been faithful in many ways but if there is one point that His faithfulness is essential it is in making us more like Christ. We will never get there on our own. There are too many broken pieces to put back together, too many jagged edges to smooth away.  If we ignore the damage sin has done to us we will never be healed. Known sin that has not been confessed has the power to devour us. If we make no effort to extract it from our lives it will remain there, eating away at us. Therefore, we must confront it head on. It will not be easy but it is essential for your growth. For we have not been called to impurity, but to holiness (1 Thess. 4:7).

In the Psalms, David cries out to the Lord, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled” (6:2). In Lamentations, Jeremiah writes, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” (3:22-23). The Lord is ready to flood you with His mercy; not just today but every day for the rest of your life. His steadfast love will never cease; it will go on for all eternity. With Him by our side we have the power to conquer the sin in our life and He will give us whatever we need to accomplish that end. He will be faithful to renew our souls and heal us with His gentle hands.

The passage in Lamentations goes on to say, “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.” Because the Lord has extracted us from the darkness and has plunged us into His glorious light we now have hope. God is our hope, our Savior and our Light. So hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Confront your sin and ask God to help you pull the root of it completely out of you. He will be faithful; He will give you the strength and He will heal you.

May you be blessed in the year to come,

Kayla

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Kayla’s Hope

My dear Sister,

When the psalmist says “Delight yourself in the Lord” (Psalm 37:4) and “In Your presence there is fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11) I am always confused. Fullness of joy? Really? I’ve never experienced that. And yet the word of God commands us to delight in the Lord and tells us in truth that in God’s presence our joy is complete. Still, I have remained perplexed.

This semester I have been praying that God would become my all in all. With so many distractions from the world and the many desires in my own heart, I have been fearful that I would never truly understand what the psalmist was talking about. To be truthful, for most of the semester I didn’t even want to open my Bible much less figure out this delighting in the Lord thing. Of course, I wanted God to be my all in all but  at the same time it felt like searching for this joy was a hopeless pursuit. I didn’t actually believe that God would reveal himself in such a way that would give me great joy. He does that for other people, not for me. I kept praying (inconsistently for that matter) but I wasn’t always faithful to do my part of getting into the word and praying for Him to work His joy in my life.

The other day I was in the prayer chapel on campus, conveniently located right down the street from my 9:30 class, and I decided to tell God exactly how I was feeling about this. Here is an excerpt of that prayer:

Dear Lord, I don’t fully understand this joy that is fulfilled in Your presence but I do know that You are where I will find it. I do know that You have loved me with an everlasting love, a love that will never change or diminish. I know that You can heal my brokenness and give me a joy that overflows. Lord, I want to know the place where the psalmist could say that fullness of joy is in Your presence. I want to delight myself in you and I want to be in that place where I can truly say that You are my all in all…I pray that as I seek Your face daily I would find unspeakable joy in Your presence. Amen.

With that I had a short quiet time on Romans 5:2 and I went on with the rest of my day. I didn’t really feel any different but I was glad that I had been honest with my Father. When I got home an hour or two later I started doing some things around the house. At some point I found myself wanting to go spend time with God. This caught me a little bit by surprise. When was the last time that I actually wanted to open my Bible and read it? I started praying and found myself crying. However these tears weren’t tears of sadness or loneliness. No, they were tears of joy! Where had this come from? All of a sudden I had this joy in my heart that was so overwhelming that even though I had my Bible in my hand I didn’t want to open it because I just wanted to keep telling God how joyful I was because of what He has done for me.

As you can probably imagine, I didn’t want this mountaintop experience to end. I wanted to feel this intense joy forever more because there in that moment I had found not just joy but hope. I had confidence that Jesus really was enough for me. I had confidence that what I had seen God do in others; He would also do in me. I had been praying for this all semester and here at the end of my last four months of undergrad God gave it to me out of nowhere! It was like God was saying, “Here is all of my joy, Kayla. I’ve been saving it for you for this very time. Now, hope in me.”

This world we live in is a valley, dry, desolate, and wasted. If you look for hope here you will be sorely disappointed. But if you hope in the Lord you will find streams of living water. So seek the Lord and do not grow weary in seeking Him. Persevere and do not give up. There is hope.

“And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).

Merry Christmas!

Your sister,

Kayla

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Mercy Received, Mercy Given

 
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”​
​~ 1 Peter 1:3-5
My dear sister,
 
I love this verse because it wonderfully demonstrates the extent of God’s mercy through explaining what He has done for us. However, even though we have this verse I find that I don’t meditate on God’s mercy quite enough. So let’s meditate on it together. Let’s first consider what mercy is. Easton’s Bible Dictionary describes mercy as “compassion for the miserable.” You read correctly. Mercy is having compassion for those who are miserable, or of a pitiable state. This reveals a hard truth about what we are like before salvation and is confirmed everywhere you look in society. It means that without God, without His saving love in our lives, we would be utterly miserable. So God saw us in our miserable and sinful state and though our sin justly deserved death, He made a way for us to have life. God showed us His great mercy by sending His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. And when Christ had accomplished that work God raised Him from the dead, conquering sin and death forever. Those who are in Christ abandon their miserable selves and receive new life in Christ, in whom there is joy that abides forever. And if that wasn’t enough to blow your mind, read the next part of the verse. Not only did God give us life by causing us to be born again but He has also prepared for us “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.” But wait! There’s even more! God, even now, is guarding you “through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” How great is this mercy that God has shown us? He owed us nothing, and we deserved nothing but death and yet He gave us everything!
 
So now that we have received this mercy, how should we respond to it? In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy” (Matt. 5:7). In Matthew 9:13 Christ says, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Because we have received mercy it is now required of us that we practice mercy. This is certainly a hard thing for me. Walking around campus at FSU it is all too easy to judge others based on their wardrobe, hairstyle, or colorful vocabulary. In my anger and offense, I selfishly forget that I’m supposed to show mercy to those who don’t know Christ and are therefore in that miserable state that we talked about earlier. This week I hope to find ways to decrease my judgmental thoughts and replace them with acts of mercy. For it is mercy that triumphs over judgment (Jas. 2:13). I hope you too, dear sister, will find ways to show the same kind of mercy to others that Christ has showed to us.
 
In Christ,
 
Kayla