Holly Furtick

God’s Greatest Guarantee

The Bible promises us that times of trouble will come.  John 16:33 says, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Sometimes God delivers you from a trial.  Psalm 54:7 says, “You have delivered me from all my troubles, and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.”

But sometimes He chooses to simply walk alongside you in the trial.  Look at this verse from Isaiah 41:10

So do not fear,for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthenyou and help you;
I will uphold youwith my righteous right hand.

Just because you prayed for deliverance and God did not answer you does not mean that He is not walking with you every step of the way.  Sometimes I think God wants me to stop praying for deliverance and start simply acknowledging His presence.  I memorized Proverbs 3:5-6 when I was 9 years old.  It has always stuck with me.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.

Whatever your situation is, know that God is not rejecting you if He does not deliver you from your trial.  It may be that He just wants you to grow closer to Him as you acknowledge Him in your situation. He promises to always be with you.

Matthew 28:20
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

 

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Recipe: White Chicken Chili

Last Tuesday at 4 pm, I did not know what I was going to cook for dinner.  I remembered that I had purchased some white cannellini beans a few days before (the simply looked good at the store) and decided I wanted to make white chicken chili.  I did a quick search on my all-recipes app and found the easiest recipe listed.

When I took a first look at the recipe I immediately knew I wanted to cut out the chicken cooking step for time sake (I used a rotisserie chicken instead).  I also added a few ingredients and doubled a few of their portions.  The great thing about soup is they are really hard to mess up.  You just keep adding until you the right flavor combination.

This soup took me less than 20 minutes to make before I let it simmer a few minutes.  I cannot express how easy it was and how yummy it was.  I hope you will try it!

Ingredients
1 rotisserie chicken (meat pulled and chopped, no skin)
2 cans cannellini beans
2 cans of cream of chicken soup
1 can of cream of celery
2 cans of water
1 can of chicken broth
2 tsp cumin
3-4 tsp chili powder
3-4 garlic cloves (pressed)
salt
onion powder

Directions
Combine all ingredients.  Bring to a boil, simmer for 10-20 minutes.

Serve with brown rice, top with sour cream and chopped green onions.

Enjoy!

 

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You gotta have deep roots

Jeremiah 17:7-8
“But blessed is the one who trustsin the Lord,
    whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water

    that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
    its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
    and never fails to bear fruit.”

I love this passage of scripture.  It paints such a beautiful picture of a tree who is able to withstand any difficulty.  The passage does not specify the type of tree or where the tree was planted.  The only requirement for always bearing fruit is deep roots.

When you trust in the Lord, you don’t have to worry about what is coming.  You can be confident that the God of the universe is great and He is good and He promises to be with us always.  And while he does not always deliver us from the trial, we can be confident that He will be with us through the trial.

Sometimes I can become overwhelmed when I wonder what trials our family will face in the future.  Will we all be healthy?  Will my kids grow up to love God?  My life would bear so much more fruit if I would focus more energy on digging my roots down deep, and developing my relationship with God rather than trying to tackle every issue that arises in my own strength, energies and abilities.

Let your roots grow deeper everyday, trust in the Lord and the difficulties come, you will be strong and able to withstand anything.

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Monday Morning Commentary

This Mother’s day weekend my husband’s sermon was called Frustrations of a Fixer. The sermon used the story of Hannah in 1 Samuel 1 and her desire to have a child. Her husband Elkanah tried tirelessly to make Hannah happy but he could not because he could not give her what she wanted, a child.

My husband used this passage to tell us that sometimes we have to realize that our loved one’s unhappiness is not about us. Hannah’s dysfunctional brokenness was not about Elkanah. It was not a person that was frustrating her, it was a purpose.

I loved when my husband said, “God wants his job back.” My job cannot be to fulfill my loved one. That is God’s job. And when I let God do what only He can do, I can become an instrument of His healing process. He also put it like this, “Don’t try to do a job for God that He’d rather do through me.”

He closed the message by saying that Hannah had to dedicate her desire to God before she could dedicate her son.

This message really freed me up to realize that God does not want me to fix the people in my life. Not even the little people in my life. He simply wants to use me as an instrument in His purpose for their lives.

You can listen to the message today at the Elevation Network, on our Podcast and in our archive.

Have a wonderful Monday!

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Life Change Inbox

It’s Friday and time for another Life Change Inbox!  I have been sharing some of the wonderful emails my husband gets, where people share the work God is doing in their lives through Elevation Church.  Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:2-4 that our lives are living letters written so that God might be glorified.

This week I was visiting with my husband in his office when he handed me a copy of Teresa’s letter.  When I read Teresa’s letter, I was so moved.  I immediately emailed her and told her I was praying for her and then asked if I could share her story today.  She said I could.  Here is Teresa’s story…

Dear Elevation Church,

Today I found your church when God lead me to the song “God Who Answers Prayer” and decided to check out your online sermons. I was drawn to the series about the waiting room because I felt God could use that topic to speak to me and listened to the message “Hubs & Spokes, Holding Patterns, & The Supernatural Date Line”.

Last Sunday I found out that my baby that I had been carrying for 19 weeks had died in the womb. My husband and I are missionaries in a city in Siberia (Russia) called Irkutsk. We work with youth here in a local charismatic church. To find out that we had lost our second baby, and especially so far along, devastated us. Last Wednesday I was induced and bore our precious little angel. This experience was not only heartbreaking, but emotionally traumatic as you might imagine here the medical standards are quite different. For example, the morning after giving birth 2 girls were put in my room, who had just that morning had abortions…one only 14 years old.

I just wanted to give some background as to why I was truly ministered to and touched by Pastor Steven Furtick’s message. I don’t know why God has  kept us in this holding pattern, but I truly believe God’s ways are good. Thank you being faithful to the Word and therefore encouraging me, someone who is living very far across the dateline, (in the future, as Pastor Furtick put it)…And thank you for such an encouraging song for me during this time of healing. I think I listened to it 15 times this morning during my time with Jesus:)
Bless the Lord with all that’s within, O my soul!
I cry out with all that I am – make me whole.
Here I stand I place all my hope in you.
My Healer will see me through.

Sincerely,
Teresa

When Teresa replied to my email, she said “I hope that God can use our story in any way to expand His Kingdom. I know our story is only just beginning, but it has already been quite a journey. I see God’s supernatural hand in everything about my life and my husband’s life, too. So, I have to believe that God has supernatural children in store for us..but it is really hard to be where we’re at now. So thanks again for praying and thanks to those at Elevation for their prayers, too. May the Lord bless your ministry abundantly!”

Would you join me in praying for Mike and Teresa?  I am praying that God would wildly bless their ministry and their family as He honors their commitment to serving Him in Russia.  You can find out more about their ministry here.

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Stop trying to balance everything

Everyone has someone in their life that seems to have it all together.  Often it is not a close friend or relative (because when you really get to know someone you realize that no one really has it all together).

One question that is frequently asked of me as a woman in ministry is “How do you balance everything?”  Well, the short answer is, I don’t.  My laundry piles up in my laundry room.  My kids don’t always get a full night’s sleep before school the next day.  My kindergartner often does his weekend homework on Monday morning before school.  And I certainly do not provide healthy, well-balanced meals for my family every night.  But I don’t think that balance is the key.  It is not about separating every aspect of my life and making sure everything gets equal or adequate attention.  It is about integrating everything.

As a family, we try not to separate family time and church time.  It is all family time.  Sometimes we are together at our house.  Sometimes we are together at a piano recital or a t-ball game.  Other times we are together at church.  During our Code Orange Revival, my mother offered to let my kids go and stay at her house for at week.  And while that would have been easier, it went against our whole purpose as a family… we do it together.  I want my kids to have a front row seat to see all the amazing things God is doing in and through our church (at an age appropriate level) and they cannot experience that if they are not there.  A lot of those Code Orange nights, they came only for the beginning of church and then went home with a babysitter.  But they got to meet almost all of the speakers, and they got to experience some of the worship, and they got to participate in our children’s ministry.

I am also working on being with my kids when I am with my kids.  You know what I mean by this.  I am learning (please hear me say I am learning) that I need to get my stuff done when they are at school or napping or sleeping at night or with a sitter.  The time for me to read my bible or prepare for my small group or work on my blog is not from 3-5 pm when they are waking up from naps and coming home from school.  I want to work my schedule so that I can be not only present but active with them.  They love it when I sit outside while they are playing.  I need to be with them when I am with them.

Integration can also happen in my personal life.  On the many mornings when I did not get up and have a cup of hot tea and read my bible before my kids have woken up, that doesn’t mean that my day is shot spiritually.  God wants me to integrate my relationship with Him throughout my day.  I can listen to a sermon at the gym, or while I am unloading my dishwasher.  I can pray while I am driving my car and my kids are listening to Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” for the 100th time.  I can work on scripture memory with my kids while they are eating breakfast and I am packing lunches.

I do not get this right all the time.  But I work towards integration, not balance.  Colossians 3:4 says “When Christ, who is your life, appears…”  Christ is my life.  He is not a part of my life.  And I want to live like that.

 

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Strawberries fields forever

 


I love strawberries.  I’ll eat them all year round, even in December when they are not in season, I buy and eat strawberries.  But strawberries in April and May here in North and South Carolina cannot be beaten.  Even my husband who says strawberries are just an instrument used to eat melted chocolate, enjoys them this time of year.

A few weeks ago I took my kids to pick strawberries.  Elijah said he wanted to bake a strawberry pie or something other than strawberry shortcake (which incidentally is my favorite dessert.  You can see my recipe here or on the back of the Bisquick box.)  So off to Pinterest I went that night in search of a strawberry muffin recipe that we could have for breakfast the next morning.  My criteria was that I had all the ingredients.  That eliminated many of the recipes that called for yogurt.

So I experimented with this recipe.  I had to make a few changes based on my ingredients and the fact that I wanted to make them a bit healthier (whole wheat flour).  Pictured here are our muffins, they turned out delicious!

 

 

Ingredients:
2 C. whole wheat flour
1 T. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
1 T. flaxseed
2 eggs
1 C. whole milk
6 T. butter or vegetable oil
1 C. sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 C. (heaping) strawberries

Directions:
Combine the dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl.
In a medium bowl, lightly whisk eggs and add the rest of
the wet ingredients.  Mix together with the dry ingredients.
Gently fold in the strawberries.  Fill the
muffin cups 2/3 full.
Bake at 400 for  20 minutes.  Recipe made 18 muffins.

 

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Monday Morning Commentary

This has been such a great series.  My husband did a killer job this weekend closing it off.  His message was based out of Habakkuk 2:1-3 and 2Peter 3:8-9, and called, “Holding Patterns, Hubs and Spokes, and the Supernatural Dateline.”  Incidentally, those were his sermon points too…

1.  God’s transportation system operates through hubs and spokes.  Sometimes God takes you through a hub to prepare your heart for the destination.  Sometimes you gotta go through to get to.

2.  God doesn’t put you in a holding pattern to punish you but to protect you.  God is intentional about His delays but His delays are not denials.

3.  Trusting God means crossing over the supernatural dateline.  Romans 4:17 tells us that God calls things that are not as though they are.  He is in tomorrow and I can trust Him.

I love knowing that while my waiting room seems like an inconvenience to me, to God it is a place of teaching, growing, protecting and guiding me.  I hope you will take the time to let God speak to you through this message.

You can listen to the message today at the Elevation Network, on our Podcast and in our archive.

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Life Change Inbox

It’s Friday and time for another Life Change Inbox!  I have been sharing some of the wonderful emails my husband gets, where people share the work God is doing in their lives through Elevation Church.  Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:2-4 that our lives are living letters written so that God might be glorified.

Here is Bethany’s story…

Pastor Steven,

I just wanted to share with you how much you have touched our family over the years. In 2008 my husband John started a new job that had great pay and benefits. We were living comfortable, but God was not part of our lives. I grew up Baptist, but my husband was never exposed to church, so he was a non-believer. I had quit going to church because I had a weekend job and honestly never had the desire to go. While my husband was at his job he met a man that was a member of Elevation. He began to witness to John and began to feed him the word of God.

In Aug 2009 John went to Elevation at Providence and you did a sermon on Faith Fatalities. John came home a different man. He was crying like a baby. God touched my husband through you in a way that he has never been the same. He quit drinking and was on FIRE for GOD!!! He started bringing our 2 children every weekend. We had been trying to have a third child for 1 1/2 years and the month he was saved at Elevation I got pregnant! John lost his job Feb of 2010 when I was 6 months pregnant and we were crushed. How would we make it without his income? We put it in Gods hands. John decided to go back to school, and was accepted into the Radiography program. He is happier now than ever. We now see that the job was never about the money, but about John meeting Kenny and attending Elevation. I attended with John one weekend and was like “wow, I want to come too!” I attended the Easter sermon last year and re-dedicated my life to Christ. I felt a peace come over me. I prayed that God would open the door for a job so that I could have weekends off. I was patient because I knew God had something great in store for me. He exceded my expectations! Not only did I get a job working Monday-Friday, He doubled my salary and now I work in an office with believers in Jesus Christ! I feel so blessed.

A month ago I was diagnosed with stage 3 cervical cancer. I feel honored that He has trusted me with this trial to go against in His name. I have full faith He will bring me through this. I told John that while I may be carrying this, it may not be about me, but about helping someone else. And, if I can help just one person by my faith, it will all be worth it. You are helping me through this. And I am just 1 story out of thousands of lives you have touched. I will have surgery, and honestly I am not afraid. I am at peace :) God has a plan and it is going to be awesome!! Our family loves you and we proudly show our Elevation stickers on our vehicles. I have told numerous people how great my church is. We drive from Shelby every weekend, and while others think we are crazy for driving, we feel blessed God has led us to you :)

Bethany

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Small Changes

Sometimes small changes can make a huge difference.  Like how a huge ship is moved by turning the rudder just a few degrees.  Life can be like that too.  Like waking up just 15 minutes earlier could make the difference between a chaotic morning and a calm morning.

I recently re-listened to a sermon series by Pastor Craig Groeschel on the topic of Margin (the sermon series is a few years old so you’ll have to search LifeChurch.tv podcast to find it).  It was so helpful to hear his take on how to have more margin in my life whether you are talking about financial margin or even scheduling margin.

About the same time, I found this blog post through Pinterest (what did we do before Pinterest?) called 10 habits for a well run home.  I have never read this woman’s blog before but I really like this post.  She simplifies the art of creating order to very  common sense things like going to bed earlier so you can get up earlier and packing lunches and laying out clothes the night before.

I was personally challenged by the getting up earlier part.  I am working on it.

I have got to learn to focus on the things I can change, rather than the things I can’t change and so I will experience a difference in my life.

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