{"id":5720,"date":"2018-08-07T20:20:45","date_gmt":"2018-08-07T20:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/?p=5720"},"modified":"2018-08-07T20:20:45","modified_gmt":"2018-08-07T20:20:45","slug":"gods-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/2018\/08\/07\/gods-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"God’s Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ministry is about pushing out into the water even though there are so many unknowns<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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It is about driving through the puddles and hoping you won’t get stuck<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I will be honest that these past few months were very difficult for us, especially the month of June.\u00a0 June and July were a busy season for us.\u00a0 We knew that would be the case and we went into it running full force praying for the strength to make it through.\u00a0 However early on in June we hit a wall and fell back.\u00a0 You see much like Peter who was walking on the water, we took our eyes off the source and suddenly the wind and the waves around us seemed like more than we could handle.\u00a0 Once knocked down we struggled to know how to pick ourselves back up to press on.\u00a0 God was faithful through it all, but we were not.\u00a0 We had started to rely on our own strength to press on and then we quickly realized we were in way over our heads.\u00a0 For a few days we were paralyzed not sure what to do and not sure how to pick up the pieces.\u00a0 Yet in God’s grace he came and picked us back up.\u00a0 We were broken and we were bruised, but we were his and he became our strength as we pressed on through the weeks and months ahead.\u00a0 Sometimes I look back and say how did we make it through in the state we were in?\u00a0 Well it was all God!\u00a0 Yet again he proves himself faithful!<\/p>\n

This past week was our first down time in the past few months.\u00a0 We took the week to seek God.\u00a0 To seek healing.\u00a0 To look back and see the mistakes we had made and to hopefully learn from it for the future.\u00a0 We considered how to balance better the load we carry, but mostly realized our need to remain plugged into the source.\u00a0 Our ministry calls us out of the boat so often and we see now that it just takes one moment of taking our eyes off Christ to start sinking.\u00a0 It has been a week of healing and a week of renewal in our walk with God.\u00a0 I am so thankful for his grace and faithfulness that carries us through despite our weakness.<\/p>\n

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It is not that the load will lighten<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Or the path will become more smooth<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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But we are learning before we push out onto the waves that we need to fix our eyes on God as he is the one who will keep us afloat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The beauty to me is thinking about what is ahead.\u00a0 18 months ago God gave us a gift of a trip away with Joel’s family.\u00a0 A trip that will take us to the Mediterranean Coast for 2 weeks.\u00a0 We leave for that on Wednesday.\u00a0 We have 2 weeks of vacation, away from our ministry with family.\u00a0 It was a trip designed to bring our family together, as it has been 9 years since we have been all together, but God knew how much we would need this break.\u00a0 God knew long ago that we would need this time to be renewed and refreshed.\u00a0 I am overwhelmed when I think about his goodness, his grace and his timing.<\/p>\n

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We are so excited about this time and amazed at the way God looks out for us<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So as we leave my prayer is that this time would be a breathe of fresh air as well as a great time reconnecting with family.\u00a0 I pray we will use this time to refocus on God and that we would return better equipped to keep our eyes on him even when the wind and waves rise around us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I will be honest that these past few months were very difficult for us, especially the month of June.\u00a0 June and July were a busy season for us.\u00a0 We knew that would be the case and we went into it running full force praying for the strength to make it through.\u00a0 However early on in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":830,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2545],"tags":[448],"class_list":{"0":"post-5720","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-updates-and-news","7":"tag-ethnos360","8":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/830"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5720\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}