Also though, quick thought: If you’ve been following the Lord for a long time and you see new zeal and excitement like this, you might wonder, “What about me?” and feel like you lack newness or vitality or excitement.

But Jesus is not a fickle friend who drops old companions for new, shiny ones. He leaves the 99 for the 1, but He does it to bring the flock all together, to bring the one into community and family.

If you’ve been holding the fort in faithfulness, remember your purpose and first love. He has never tired of you.

This stuff 👆🏻 is so amazing not because they’re celebrities, but because this conversation is happening all over among people everywhere. The Word is living and active and powerful and changing lives, and we may not see it perfectly yet, but this is awakening and enlightenment and revival.

Ever followed God into a calling that was bigger than you expected, harder than you could've imagined, and cost more than you thought you could give? Yeah, fun times. 😵‍💫🤪🤯😂

Here's the behind-the-scenes of our story, and the “baby” I carried for eleven years:

On Substack: https://shannonguerra.substack.com/p/with-book

On my site: https://copperlightwood.com/2023/08/with-book.html

Or audio here: https://shannonguerra.substack.com/p/with-book-c5e

Shannon Guerra

with book

introducing the one I always meant to write

Confession: I’m not touchy-feely and usually skip videos like this, but this one got me. 🔥🙌🏻

📖 It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High;to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night……For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.
How great are your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep!The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this:that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever;but you, O Lord, are on high forever.…My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies; my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants.
The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God.They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the Lord is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

— Psalm 92:1-2, 4-7, 10-15

For many of us, this is a season of refining, pressing further than we thought we could go, pushing through pain, taking maturity to the next level. And it hurts, like a muscle being strengthened.

We are refining character and relationships, habits, skills, and communication, working toward a great plan that we cannot fully see, praying for rain but not yet seeing the cloud the size of a hand.

He sees what we cannot see – and sometimes, often, He lets us see these things for each other.

These curveballs, these situations of unknowing and what-in-the-world-are-You-doing, prove to us that surrender is beautiful, powerful, and victorious, and that He knows what we want better than we do. He’s not afraid to give it to us, even when we’re afraid to ask for it or to take it.

— From Work That God Sees, available here: https://copperlightwood.com/work-that-god-sees