Uncompromised

  I See You When God's Love Doesn't Look Like We Expected I see you. I see you showing up when you would rather stay in bed. I see you smiling in the church lobby while carrying something no one in that lobby knows about. I see you praying the same prayer for the hundredth time, wondering if heaven is still listening. I see you sitting with a diagnosis you didn't ask for, a marriage that feels harder than it should, a child who is struggling, a dream that quietly died, or a hundred small griefs that piled up until they became one very heavy thing. You are doing the hardest kind of faithful. The kind no one applauds. The kind that just keeps going. And somewhere in the middle of it, you have probably whispered a version of this prayer: "Lord, I know You are good. I just don't understand what You are doing." Friend, I want to sit with you here for a while. Not to explain your pain away. Not to hand you a verse and walk off. I want to open Scripture with yo...

Isn’t it absolutely awe-inspiring that while people often look at our outward appearance, our flaws, failures, or even the messiness of our lives, God sees our hearts? He doesn’t judge us by what the world values, but instead, He looks deeper, beyond the surface, and sees us for who we truly are. 1 Samuel 16:7 says: “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or his stature because I have rejected him. Humans do not see what the Lord sees, for humans see what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart.’” This truth has been on my heart all week as I’ve talked with a few friends who are going through incredibly difficult seasons. They’ve been misjudged, hurt by others, or weighed down by the feeling that no one sees or truly understands them. It reminded me of times in my own life when I felt unseen or unfairly judged. Sometimes it’s hard to face situations like gossip, lies, or backstabbing, but these actions often reflect the condition of the person’s heart. Matthew 12:...