Category: Writings

Jesus Shines Through Our Cracks

Posted on by Sarah Pittmann

Jesus Shines Through Our Cracks

Broken jars of clay. If you have spent any amount of time in this world, you will feel it. We get bumped and banged up in this life, and these earthen vessels that we are, crack, chip, and break. What good is a broken jar of clay? Whatever is in it, just spills out. But if you put a light in it, then it becomes a lamp. The bigger the openings, the more light comes through illuminating the space around it.  

 

Jesus is the light of the world. (John 8:12) We are broken jars of clay. If we invite Jesus inside our vessels, we then become lamps. The light of Jesus shines within us and spills out through our cracks onto the problems we face and the people we encounter. “We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Cor. 4:7) The fissures life has left in us, small and great, are given a purpose. To be lamps illuminating the darkness.  

I found myself at a point in time feeling very insufficient, focusing on my many cracks. Cracks of inability. Cracks of brokenness. Cracks caused by my own sin. And lots of cracks caused by the damage done to me. I was getting discouraged by the multitude and magnitude of the insufficiencies of my brokenness. But GOD is teaching me to stop looking at the jagged edges of my cracks, and instead, look to the openings they have created, small and big, and be on the lookout! Searching the gaps for where Jesus will show up and shine through.   

Now it’s a treasure hunt! When I’m feeling unable, exhausted, insufficient, unqualified, overwhelmed, etc., it’s like, Ok Jesus, which crack are You going to show up in and shine through today? His power is made perfect in my weakness. (2 Cor. 12:9) Now the cracks that made me feel so broken, are the very thing that let Jesus shine through. So, the bigger the cracks, the more Jesus can shine through! May God open my eyes to see where He is shining through my cracks and filling my gaps with His glorious light, spilling out and illuminating the situations and relationships around me. 

And it gets even better. Not only does Jesus shine through our cracks and give them purpose, that we may comfort others with the comfort we have received (2 Cor. 1:4), He is making all things new. (Rev. 21:5) In Japan, a broken piece of pottery is not thrown away, but repaired. And they fix it in a special way; infusing the cracks, chips and breaks with gold lacquer. The result is that the repaired piece of pottery is more valuable than the original. Are we trying to hide, cover up, fix with our own insufficient power, or pretend our cracks never existed in the first place? Or are we going to allow our cracks to become lamps for Jesus? I urge you to cooperate with the Holy Spirit sanctification work that is adding immeasurable value to us until the day of completion, when all our cracks and breaks are repaired with gold.

Next time you are feeling insufficient and fully broken, instead of being discouraged, use the opportunity to delightedly search the gaps and be on the lookout for where Jesus is going to show up and shine through the cracks! 

Written by:

Sarah Pittmann

Praying Scripture – From Hope to Reality

Posted on by Sarah Pittmann

Praying Scripture – From Hope to Reality

Psalm 119:9-16 

“How can a young man cleanse his way? 
By taking heed according to Your word. 
With my whole heart I have sought You; 
Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! 
Your word I have hidden in my heart, 
That I might not sin against You. 
Blessed are You, O Lord! 
Teach me Your statutes. 
With my lips I have declared 
All the judgments of Your mouth. 
I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, 
As much as in all riches. 
I will meditate on Your precepts, 
And contemplate Your ways. 
I will delight myself in Your statutes; 
I will not forget Your word.” 

This was the first passage of scripture that I prayed over myself. At the time, not a shred of it was true of me or my life. I was a prodigal returned with a shattered heart and nowhere safe to put that heart except in the Father’s hands. I was in the process of learning who God really was, how to seek Him first, and what it meant to live out my faith.  

I attended Bible Studies for the first time in my life. I heard about the power of praying scripture. This passage, Psalm 119:9-16, jumped out at me and I decided to try it. I desperately needed what this passage promised…a way to cleanse my ways. I prayed this over my life regularly and often and with my whole heart.  

Now I can testify that God is faithful and true! Over a period of seven years filled with trials and tribulation, God answered my prayer. God Almighty made every bit of this scripture passage true in me and in my life. I thank the LORD for this beautiful work. 

I took heed according to His word and He cleansed me. I seek Him now with my whole heart and He does not let me wander from His commandments. I hide His word in my heart, and He helps me not to sin against Him. Though I fail often, I regularly confess, and He is so good to faithfully forgive me.  

I bless the Lord above all things, and He teaches me His statutes. With my lips I now declare the judgements of His mouth, and God gives me the opportunities to do so. He has emboldened me to speak by the Holy Spirit. I now rejoice in the way of His testimonies as much as in all riches. God provides and takes care of me. I now meditate on His precepts and contemplate His ways. I delight myself in His statutes and with God’s help, I will not forget His word.  

As I write this, it has now been ten years since God started this work in my life. He has been faithful to complete the good work He started. I have learned that praying scripture is indeed powerful and have prayed many scriptures over my life, my kid’s lives, and over others. I have seen God’s faithful hand at work.  

I encourage you to open His Word and feast on it…live and breathe it. Let His living, active, and powerful Word work in your life and heart.  

Do you want to see a change? Pray Scripture over your life. Do not give up. God is faithful and true and moves with power.  

Written By:

Sarah Pittmann

Learning To Love Me

Posted on by Sarah Pittmann

 

Learning To Love Me – start 8/22/20 (this was my journal entry that day after someone had challenged me to look in the mirror and tell myself I loved me)

 

So I looked in the mirror and tried to say it. But the truth I found, was that I don’t love me. In fact I despise me. I am more beat down and fractured than I realized, believing the lie too deeply, that I don’t deserve love. Another layer to heal that I didn’t know was underneath. Being beat down the majority of my life drove many thorns deep into me; God has been removing the visible thorns, but now, knowledge of a tip that broke off, deep inside and invisible. BUT GOD loves me too much to let it stay hidden inside, continuing to poison me; so HE has opened me up for surgery. And I’m ok with that.

I choose today to start the journey of learning how to love me. Asking God to help me love me. And declaring in the mirror, that I WILL love me.

 

The person who helped instigate this surgery journey had said: “When you start to love yourself you will then be able to allow other people to love you. You are a beautiful queen and you must truly believe that in order to heal.”

 

I had started praying Psalm 103:1-5 over me and our family 2 days prior to this.

“Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

Psalms 103:1-5 NKJV

 

Then God gave me a word yesterday when listening to an unrelated podcast: to “stop worrying about yesterday’s’ mistakes as a parent with kids, it’s gone. God gives what’s needed for TODAY.”

 

I cry when God speaks to me because I’m still overwhelmed that God would speak to little ole me.

 

—————————————————————————————————

This is the end of the fragmented journal entry, but I stumbled across it again today, 14 months later and saw that the Hand of God was doing way more than I could have ever imagined. From a place of darkness, He has brought me into the Light!

 

Present day – 10/23/21

Little did I know that almost immediately after penning the words in that journal entry, I would start on the journey to a physical surgery at the same time. What had started as a bulging disc in my low back and making good progress in physical therapy to correct, suddenly turned into my body going haywire and us not knowing what was going on. After an MRI of my entire spine; finding many things causing issues; one thing was discovered that could only be treated by surgery. A Tarlov Cyst on my C7 nerve root (that’s at the base of the neck). So, the referrals to the neurosurgeon, the diagnostic nerve root blocks and all the things to determine if I was a candidate for surgery began. Exactly 10 months later I was in the operating room having neurosurgery on my neck.

I now sit 14 months after beginning this journey of learning to love myself, accepting the loving surgery of God, our Great Physician, and 4 months after neurosurgery. Looking back over the last year, I can see that God did a lot of different surgeries in me and in my life. There was a physical surgery. There was a relationship surgery. There was surgery to my innermost being. And there was spiritual heart surgery. There’s a song that is fitting here that says, “God is digging all my roots up”. Like the expert hand of my neurosurgeon, the expert hand of God, our Great Physician, was performing surgery in me to dig out deep rooted lies and remove thorns that had dug in deep and were still poisoning me. And just like the Tarlov cyst on the nerve root effected my whole body, so also that broken off tip of a thorn hidden and invisible was affecting my whole being.

 

This last year was full of much pain, but also much healing by God as I learned to love me as HE loves me. You see God tells me that I am: blessed, chosen, accepted, redeemed, forgiven, known, sealed, holy, God’s workmanship, LOVED, saved, child of God (Ephesians 1-2). In Him I am free! “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32) The truth is GOD LOVES ME and that frees me from the lies that poison me and tell me I am worthless. Surgery was necessary to free me to be able to experience the fullness of God’s love. You see, it’s not about me loving me, it’s about GOD loving me! And I learned that even though what that person said to me sounded pretty, it was not the truth.

Isaiah 43:1-3  (replace Jacob & Israel with your name as you read the below Scripture)

1 But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name;
You are Mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned,
Nor shall the flame scorch you.
3 For I am the Lord your God,
The Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

Today, I can look in the mirror and smile radiantly at myself and say I love me. I love me because God loves me, He adores and cherishes me, I am precious and honored in His sight (Isaiah 43:4), He covers me with His robe of righteousness (Isaiah61:10), by His stripes I am healed (Isaiah 53:5), He loved me so much He sent His Son to die for me (John 3:16 & Romans 5:8), I love because He first loved me (1 John 4:19). If the God of the universe Who created me can love me this much, and He has placed His love inside of me, then I can love me, I can love my kids more and I can love all the people around me with His love…and that’s a lot of LOVE.

 

Love is also a boundary. Lack of boundaries for sake of trying to be nice, is not loving at all. Boundaries are loving and boundaries allow love to grow. God Himself sets boundaries for me and the boundary lines which He has set for me are pleasant (Psalm 16:6). I have “come to know and to believe the love that God has for [me]. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1John 4:16). So, I will abide in God and I will love the Lord God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength (Deut. 6:5), and through Him I will love myself and love others, for HE LOVES THE WHOLE WORLD!

Written by

Sarah Pittmann

 

Proper Timing: God’s Timing

Posted on by Sarah Pittmann

Proper Timing: God’s Timing

The biggest deception since the dawn of time is circumventing the proper timing to receive what will be given. For example, there is a jar of cookies on the counter; but the parent says the child cannot have one until after dinner. If the child takes a cookie before the proper time, though there is sweetness for a moment, it is followed by the bitterness of consequence that will last much longer. But if the child waits until the proper time, then the cookie is given and lingering sweetness is enjoyed.

So it is for all humanity. In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth and placed Adam and Eve in the garden, He gave them an abundance of good things and told them that only the one tree was not to be eaten of (the cookie jar).

Continue reading “Proper Timing: God’s Timing” →