Maroney tales

I had one of those profound moments this morning while drinking my homemade pumpkin spice latte in bed. (I love Saturdays btw) God sat me down and gave me a word for myself.

My devotional asked me to list the 4 things Jesus said in Luke 4:14 that He had come to accomplish in his ministry

1. proclaim freedom for the prisoners

2. recover sight for the blind

3. proclaim the year of the Lord's favor

4. release the oppressed

As I started to think about how He has done all of this in my life, I was reminded of where I started, where I came from, like your old home town on a map.

I have been freed from guilt and pain, I see the hurting world around me now, and I care. I have been given the desires of my heart in a loving husband and a family, I can proclaim and testify of God's realness, how He heals people, how His plans are perfect and How his Bible will tell you how to live an incredible life if you put your trust in Jesus.

(seriously His plans work for everything - marriage, being sick, parenting, dealing with tragedy, etc.)

I wish I could carry a map with me every day to be reminded of where I came from. You would think I would wake up every day with such JOY about being where I am now. and I should!

But I don't. I have had to fight to have joy the past year and half. I have been mostly in a season where the natural world around me brings me down. (life as an adult is hard yo)

and because I am not 100% happy all the time, effortlessly, I forget to be thankful for this place where I am.

Just like the Israelites. The people that God led out of slavery in Egypt. They were led out of oppression and a horrible situation and what did they do? They complained! because they were not 100% happy, because life wasn't a box of chocolates. They said they would have been better off still enslaved in the place where they came from. How ungrateful... but very familiar

What did God do? He loved them enough to test them, discipline them and teach them, even though they were sinful.

He made it so the only food they had was food He dropped out of Heaven for them every day. If they tired to save the food for the next day, it would develop maggots and rot. Why? so they had to depend on Him for what they needed, so they learned to trust Him and realize He was in charge and waaay smarter than they were.

Proverbs 19:18 NIV says this:

"Discipline your son for in that there is hope, do not be a willing party to his death"

God loves us so much that he will take away our happiness and will let us experience hard things in order to discipline and teach us. Why? because indulging us in our bad behavior would destroy us.

He didn't save us to leave us broken with all of our bad habits.

He threw us the inflatable raft in the water, but then He enrolls us in boot camp for the soul.

It is kind of like Mario Cart (the only video game I ever played) - to move up a level, you had to master the race. You had to fail, learn lessons, be humbled!!, and if you continued to make the same mistakes, you continued to face the same races over and over.

Today:

I will remember where I came from and I will testify that God has saved me

I will be happy where I am, I CHOOSE to look for all the JOY that is around me!

I will stop asking God why I go through challenges and tests

Instead I will work on figuring out what He is trying to discipline out of me and I will ask the Holy Spirit to show me how to master those things, how to be more like Jesus.