Author: Kayla Mahnken

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His Wings, His Courage

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10

Dear sister,

When you think about courage, what comes to mind? Bravery, strength, honor? What about fear? Do you ever think of a courageous person of someone who is afraid? Of course not! But is being fearless really a prerequisite to earn the title courageous?

Ambrose Redmoon once said, “Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.”

When people hear about my trip to Africa they will occasionally say, “That was brave of you.” or “That must have taken some courage to travel half way across the world.” I find the comment funny because I don’t tend to think of myself as a woman of courage. I’m scared to death of spiders and anything else that creeps or crawls on the earth and I was definitely scared when I was at the airport about to fly to a third world country having never left the United States before. I was scared even a few days before I even arrived at the airport! I couldn’t know ahead of time whether I would make it to each destination safely or without complication. I couldn’t know if the people I would be meeting up with in Amsterdam would arrive on time and that we’d all be able to catch the same flight as planned. I couldn’t know those kinds of things and there was a certain level of fear and nervousness that came along with that uncertainty. Have you ever been afraid of the unknown?

Fear is dangerous; it can control and even paralyze us. We can be so afraid of doing something that it keeps us from obeying God. But, I didn’t let that stop me. I didn’t say, “No, God, I know you want me in Uganda but I really don’t think I can manage the long flights.” Courage is not doing big things without fear, it’s doing things in spite of fear. It’s understanding that yes, this obstacle is big and scary but my God is bigger. My God is trustworthy and I can trust Him to bring me through this even though I am afraid right now. I was nervous about leaving the country and going to Uganda but I trusted that the Lord would bring me there and back safely and went where He was calling me to go. And guess what? He was faithful to do it! So I think Redmoon had it right. Courage is not the absence of fear but rather realizing that the goal, or the desired outcome, is more important than fear. My calling to serve the Lord in Africa for two weeks was far greater than my fear of traveling half way across the world. God doesn’t expect us to be fearless. It’s clear from Scripture that He knows we will be afraid at times. But what does He say? In Joshua 1:9 the Lord says, “Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” It doesn’t matter where you are, what you’re doing in life or what is that you are afraid of. The Lord your God is with you, He will strengthen you, He will help you, and He will uphold you with His righteous right hand (Is. 41:10). So take courage, dear sister, and trust in Him.

Under His wing,

Kayla

Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! Psalm 27:14

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Freedom in God’s Will

My dearest sister,

Do you ever fret about which school to go to, which job to take or what house to buy? Do you worry that if you choose one path over another that you’ll miss out on what God had planned for you if you had chosen differently? Are you waiting for signs to appear and peace to befall you before you make a decision? I have been there, dear sister, and I know that it is a difficult place to be. For the Christian, decision making can often be confining and make you feel like you’re walking on a tight rope because we are doing our best to follow God’s will for our lives. We don’t know what God’s will is for our lives when it comes to what school to go to, what career to choose, what man to marry or what house to buy or how many kids to have. This is why we (or at least I) often feel constrained when faced with a choice and always fearful of making the wrong decision. 

I struggled for days and possibly weeks to decide whether I would go to Stetson University or Florida State. I prayed. I weighed the pros and cons of each. And then I prayed some more. One day I would lead toward Stetson, the next I would want to go to FSU. I continued praying, wondering if God was ever going to “tell” me what school to go to. Still, after more praying and weighing of both options, I didn’t feel “God leading” me one way or the other. One day my dad told me that I had until the end of the day to make a decision. Yikes! The prospect of making such a decision in a matter of hours was not welcomed but by the end of the day I had decided to go to FSU. The decision had been made and there was no more going back. 

Recently, I read a book on discerning God’s will and it has completely liberated me from this sort of experience in decision making. It is called Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung. Though it is geared toward younger people the principles he lays out in his book can be used by everyone and applied in every stage of life. In short the book explains that we are not meant to know what God’s hidden will for our lives is. All we can know for certain regarding His will is what He has laid out in Scripture. God does not expect us to know where He is taking us before we get there. He doesn’t expect us to know that we need to go to this school or buy this house in order to accomplish His will for our lives. More than that, He doesn’t plan to tell us in advance, before we make life-changing decisions. 

So what can we do if God isn’t going to be putting up big red blinking arrows in the sky for us to happily follow along our way? We must search the Scriptures. There we will find the principles needed to make every decision we will ever be faced with. We must use these principles, check our motives, and finally ask God to grant us wisdom. And then we make the decision. We don’t wait for signs. We could end up waiting a long time and never do anything! What’s more, if we are looking for a sign are we really trusting God? If God “tells” us, “Yes, you must go to school here or buy that house” are we taking risks for Christ? Does not God desire us to put our trust in Him unreservedly?

So dear one, dig out the principles of decision making found in God’s word that He has given to us. Pray for wisdom and just do something! God’s will is not a tight rope as we often imagine it to be. But know that there is freedom in Christ! Freedom to obey His word, freedom to trust Him and freedom to make decisions without lying fleece on the ground. So stop living in fear that you are “missing out” on God’s will for your life if you make a decision without signs or visions or that supernatural peace that we often talk about. The only way to miss out on God’s will for your life is to not do anything at all! 

Your liberated sister,

Kayla

KBM

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Lest We Nullify the Grace of God

I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. -Galatians 2:21

Dearest sister,

Once again I have found myself relying on my own ability to live righteously before the throne of God. And once again, I have been found wanting. I have fallen down time and time again and I am weary; weary of falling and weary of getting back up. Oh sister, when will we learn! Our strength is not found in ourselves. We are but dust formed by the mighty and omnipotent hand of God who breathed into us the breath of life. We can no more live righteously on our own than we can breathe without God supplying our every breath. Yet the attitudes of our hearts often reflect an unwillingness to depend on God for everything.

I think one of the main reasons people are quick to reject Christianity is that it requires us to admit that we are not in control and that we need help. We are not strong enough on our own, we cannot  earn perfect righteousness and therefore we must rely on another, namely Jesus Christ. People don’t want to rely on grace; they want to rely on their own works. They want to believe that everything they do is earning them some sort of favor in God’s eyes that will get them into heaven. This is the “gospel” that people want to believe, but it is not the true gospel.

The phenomenon of this faith plus works religion is not a creation of the American culture. In fact, when Paul was writing his letter to the Galatians he was writing to defend the true gospel that was under attack in the churches of Galatia. Paul says in Galatians 1 “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ” (1: 6-7). The Judaizers had infiltrated the churches and were preaching a message contrary to Paul, that of a faith plus works salvation. Paul takes a stand against them, defending the truth of his gospel that he received not from minds of depraved and corrupt men but from a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul reminds us “that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2: 16). He continues saying, “so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be saved.” Did you catch that last part, dear sister? No one will be saved by works of the law. This means that you cannot do anything to earn your salvation. Not your prayers, devotions, church attendance or any other good deed that you could contrive will grant you entrance into the gates of heaven.

Think about how you’re living. Is there any area of your life that you are depending on works and not grace? Is there an attitude in your heart that ‘nullifies the grace of God’? Examine your heart, dear sister. Ask the Lord to bring you to repentance where necessary and live in the light of His glorious grace.

In awe of His grace,
Kayla

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The Law of Kindness

“She opens her mouth with wisdom; and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.”
~Proverbs 31:26

Dear sister,

I like to think of myself as a generally kind person. I’m not rude or mean to people. I generally speak well of people in their presence and away from it. Yet when I read Proverbs 31:26 I am reminded of how often I fall short when it comes to being kind to others. I’m reminded of the many times I have tried to control my frustration with others and exhibit patience toward them and then not been able to contain it fully and end up making an exasperated remark in an unkind tone of voice that I now regret.

So maybe simply being a “nice” person isn’t exactly what King Lemuel is getting at here as he writes the thirty-first chapter of Proverbs. What is this ‘teaching of kindness’ that he speaks of, and what all does this entail?

In other versions the word ‘law’ is supplied in place of ‘teaching’. A law is something that we live by or abide by. Most of us when we get into our cars automatically reach for our seat belt because the law requires it of us and is therefore our duty to abide by it. Because we are obligated to fulfill the law we are in the habit of clicking our seat belts into place. In the same way, we, as women of God, are to live by the law or teaching of kindness and be in the habit of being kind, so much so that it is an automatic reflex.

Kindness is more than simply being nice to people. Kindness entails responding graciously to others even when they might not deserve it. In other versions we see ‘mercy’ and ‘faithful instruction’ is used instead of kindness so we can incorporate these meanings into the word as well. Kindness, according to Proverbs 31:26 is not just an attitude, it’s a way of life–‘the teaching of kindness is on her tongue’. We should be in the habit of being kind of others. A gracious response should be our first response no matter what the situation is.

Now, if you’re like me (and you are), then you’re a sinner and it takes more than just reading this verse and understanding what it means to be a kind and gracious person. We actually have to practice it. This means that we should take every opportunity to show kindness and that when we fail to respond graciously we should go to the person we have spoken harshly to, ask for forgiveness and tell them what we should have said.

Being kind to others is not always easy, but we are not alone in our pursuit to be courteous and gracious to others. Kindness is part of the fruit of the Spirit and if we have the Spirit in us, He is cultivating this virtue in our lives. We must depend fully on the enabling of the Spirit and on the strength of the Lord to grow in this virtue. Without the Spirit we will be hopelessly unable to be kind to anyone.

Grace and peace to you, dear sister,

Your sister,

Kayla

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Testimony of a Broken Heart

 

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”  ~ Psalm 147:3

Dearest sister,

Though grief may come to us in many different ways, the two most common ways are death and heartbreak. Heartbreak doesn’t have to come from breaking up with your boyfriend or the end of a marriage. Heartbreak can come from the loss of a friendship, the behavior of our friends and loved ones, and even the acknowledgement of our own personal sins. No matter how it comes, dear sister, having our hearts broken is a difficult and painful experience.

Some time ago I was struggling with the loss of a friendship.  Actually it was the loss of a “season of friendship” that was very dear to my heart and that I cherished deeply. Circumstances demanded a change in the way I viewed our relationship but I wasn’t ready to accept this new season of friendship where I played a lesser role in my friend’s life. After confiding in my mom one night she told me, “Kayla, you need to grieve this loss.”  I hadn’t realized that I was need of grieving but I did know that my heart was broken. I even felt betrayed, unloved, and abandoned. Did my friend consciously inflict these feelings? Was it my friend’s fault that I was feeling this way; No, of course not.  But in my selfishness I had grown bitter and angry. So I heeded my mother’s words and I grieved the “loss” I was feeling.

Once I let the grieving process begin, the Lord began to change my heart and started to heal the brokenness within me. Oh the sweetness of our faithful Savior. Oh the richness His healing brings. With time I was able to accept this different kind of friendship and once again enjoy the company of my beloved friend.

The lesson to be learned here, dear sister, is that if we do not allow ourselves to feel our hurt and to grieve the loss we are feeling whether it be from a broken friendship, the death of a loved one or any other cause, we have the potential to grow bitter towards God and/or others. Dear sister, you do not want your life to be defined by bitterness or anger! I want to encourage you to lift up your cares to the Lord, tell Him of your grief because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:7). And remember our Lord was called a man of sorrows and described as being acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3). He understands your hurt; He knows your grief. So grieve, dear one. Cry your heart out, for afterward comes healing and a peace that passes all understanding.

 

Your sister,

Kayla