Posts
Hannah Morrell
Enjoying the Abundance

Today as I was asking God about how He provides, He brought me to John’s gospel in chapter 6 when Jesus feeds the 5,000. I thought about the young boy who was willing to give them his five loaves and two fish, and what must have gone through his mind in offering his food for the day to the disciples for the crowd. I don’t think we have a good perspective on what a sacrifice this was for this boy. He couldn’t run to the grocery store and buy more food, and he probably gave his food expecting he would go hungry that day. This boy didn’t know what Jesus was about to do, but he knew this teacher needed the food and gave it without any expectation of reward.

The other thing I realized is that this boy got to eat the multiplied food too! He didn’t go stand off to the side while everyone else ate—it was for him as well. And verse 12 says that everyone was “satisfied” so no one left hungry. What a beautiful way to show that whatever we offer and surrender to Jesus, He receives with joy and multiplies it for us as well as for those around us. It may not seem like much, or it may seem like everything. But either way, we get to partake in the generosity of our Heavenly Father.

Andrew Murray in Absolute Surrender says “It is the very nature and being of God to delight in communicating Himself. God has no selfishness, God keeps nothing to Himself. God’s nature is to be always giving. In the sun and the moon and the stars, in every flower you see it, in every bird in the air, in every fish in the sea. God communicates life to His creatures. And the angels around His throne, the seraphim and cherubim who are flames of fire—whence have they their glory? It is because God is love, and He imparts to them of His brightness and His blessedness. And we, His redeemed children—God delights to pour His love into us. And why? Because, as I said, God keeps nothing for Himself. From eternity God had His only begotten Son, and the Father gave Him all things, and nothing that God had was kept back. ‘God is love.’”

Enjoying the Abundance
Hannah Morrell
Giving Thanks Before We Receive

God is teaching me these days about giving thanks in the “before.” As in, before the answer comes, the change happens and the provision is delivered. We love giving thanks “after” and there’s nothing wrong with that. But when we are able to praise Him before we see any evidence of His work, and simply because we know Him and trust His love for us, this is a different thing entirely. I think there’s also a humility in acknowledging we have no idea how He’s going to work in the situation, and if we are even going to like it. But He is not absent ever, and is always working in the difficulties to bring us closer to Him.

I see examples of this in Jesus giving thanks as He was dividing the fish and loaves to feed the five thousand. He didn’t see evidence in front of Him of how His Father was going to feed all these people, but He believed that’s what He was inviting Him into, and thanked Him in advance. Paul and Silas while in prison in Acts 16 sang praises before they were freed, and really without knowing they would be. They sang first, knowing that their God would take care of them in the best way. Later in Paul’s life, that looked like being in prison for a long time. Why didn’t God provide in the same way? Because He often changes things up, never settling for the same.

Giving Thanks Before We Receive
Posts
Hannah Morrell
Loving Enemies

Jesus said some pretty crazy things through the Gospels, and most of them didn’t make sense to any of the people listening at the time. One that really catches us off-guard is when He mentions how our ancestors have been taught to love neighbors and hate those who hate you, but He says to instead love your enemy. That’s nuts! There is nothing in me that wants to love someone who has set themselves against me. And I suppose that’s part of it—I can’t do this on my own.

Most of what Jesus calls us to do is completely impossible on our own. We can’t forgive, we can’t bless those who curse us, we can’t rejoice in trials, we can’t not be afraid. Yet with His Life in ours, He is saying this is possible, and even further, will be true of us as His living water of love gushes out through us to others.

Often when I get mad at someone because they’ve hurt me, or because they’ve hurt someone I love, I want to punish them, reject them and hurt them back. Most of this I suppose I do in my head, not in reality, but the attitude is definitely there.

Loving Enemies
Posts
Hannah Morrell
Wisdom

I have been reading Proverbs the last few months, and God is definitely talking to me about wisdom as I read this book. It is a pretty major theme throughout after all, but I’m seeing it differently than I ever have before. Someone asked me what I thought the difference between wisdom and knowledge was, and I’ve been asking God the same question.

Often we focus on knowledge, gaining information ad nauseum, hoping that enough will allow us to control our environment, to be acceptable to God, to prevent pain. But no matter how much we know, we can’t control our circumstances, we already are acceptable to God (based on His work not ours) and we can’t prevent pain. Now, there’s nothing wrong with knowledge, but I think it is only half the battle.

I would define wisdom as the revelation of God’s perspective on the information we have learned, and His definition of application to our lives. Wisdom, after all, is Jesus Himself. When we recognize we are in Christ and already have all of Him, we also can ask for wisdom at any time, knowing that He will give it. James 1:5 says, “And if anyone longs to be wise, ask God for wisdom and he will give it! He won’t see your lack of wisdom as an opportunity to scold you over your failures but he will overwhelm your failures with his generous grace.

Wisdom
Posts
Hannah Morrell
Trust & Fear

As I pray and soak in the presence of God these days, often the question that forms in my mind from Him is, “Do you trust me?” And generally my answer is, “Not really. But I want to. Will you help me?” What I’m discovering is that this continued building of trust by Him in my heart is a very slow process, and I feel like I’m moving backwards quite a lot. I know I’m in good company with that as well, so it’s not something that’s shocking to Jesus as He shepherds me.

Some days I feel like there are weights on my feet as I walk this road, and I am realizing it’s not pressure from God for He never demands trust. I get really down when I believe I’ve failed and disappointed Him again. But that’s not His perspective. He always invites—never demands. He doesn’t use condemnation or shame to get me to move the right direction. If any of these voices exist in my head it’s from the enemy, and I must dismiss it as a lie.

Trust & Fear

selfishness

Enjoying the Abundance

Enjoying the Abundance

Today as I was asking God about how He provides, He brought me to John’s gospel in chapter 6 when Jesus feeds the 5,000. I thought about the young boy who was willing to give them his five loaves and two fish, and what must have gone through his mind in offering his food for the day to the disciples for the crowd. I don’t think we have a good perspective on what a sacrifice this was for this boy. He couldn’t run to the grocery store and buy more food, and he probably gave his food expecting he would go hungry that day. This boy didn’t know what Jesus was about to do, but he knew this teacher needed the food and gave it without any expectation of reward.

The other thing I realized is that this boy got to eat the multiplied food too! He didn’t go stand off to the side while everyone else ate—it was for him as well. And verse 12 says that everyone was “satisfied” so no one left hungry. What a beautiful way to show that whatever we offer and surrender to Jesus, He receives with joy and multiplies it for us as well as for those around us. It may not seem like much, or it may seem like everything. But either way, we get to partake in the generosity of our Heavenly Father.

Andrew Murray in Absolute Surrender says “It is the very nature and being of God to delight in communicating Himself. God has no selfishness, God keeps nothing to Himself. God’s nature is to be always giving. In the sun and the moon and the stars, in every flower you see it, in every bird in the air, in every fish in the sea. God communicates life to His creatures. And the angels around His throne, the seraphim and cherubim who are flames of fire—whence have they their glory? It is because God is love, and He imparts to them of His brightness and His blessedness. And we, His redeemed children—God delights to pour His love into us. And why? Because, as I said, God keeps nothing for Himself. From eternity God had His only begotten Son, and the Father gave Him all things, and nothing that God had was kept back. ‘God is love.’”

The Dance of Relationship

The Dance of Relationship

I’ve been reading Tim Keller’s book, The Reason for God recently. I was struck by what he wrote about the Trinity. He says:

The life of the Trinity is characterized not by self-centeredness but by mutually self-giving love. When we delight and serve someone else, we enter into a dynamic orbit around him or her, we center on the interests and desires of the other. That creates a dance, particularly if there are three persons, each of whom moves around the other two. So it is, the Bible tells us. Each of the divine persons centers upon the others. None demands that the others revolve around him. Each voluntarily circles the other two, pouring love, delight, and adoration into them. Each person of the Trinity loves, adores, defers to, and rejoices in the others. That creates a dynamic, pulsating dance of joy and love.

He continues on to say that we are happiest when we are dancing, or in relationship, with the Trinity of God, as we are created for this—to be an extension of this beautiful relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

When we are enjoying this relationship and focused on God, we can enjoy the dance, and also reach out to others to come join us. I think the trouble comes when we believe we have to start our own dance, with people surrounding us who will make us feel happy. We are created to be in relationship, but the foundation of that must be our relationship with God or we will be tossed around and disappointed. I think that’s why so often we get incredibly hurt and rejected by people—because we have put them in a place in our lives that only He can hold.

Walking with the broken to find hope in Jesus