I am a seeker, yes. I am a believer, for sure. I am also a person filled with many questions for God—big, overwhelming questions* that challenge and push and leave me unsettled.

I believe there are answers, I should make that clear. (On a most basic level, that knowing is what faith is all about, wouldn’t you agree?) Still the point I want to make is that there is much I simply can’t fit into the context of this earthly life, into my belief in a loving God.

He answered one such question for me last week in our Beth Moore bible study: Believing God. I am a huge Beth Moore fan, let me be clear about that. Her lessons on Esther and Daniel and the Fruit of the Spirit rocked me (in the very best ways) to my core. And now we are working our way through Believing God, a study based on the profound truth that believing in God is not the same thing as believing Him.

There is a five point pledge that forms the center of this study and each time I consider it, I am particularly drawn to #3.

I am who God says I am.

In the words of Beth Moore, Whoa.

I am who God says I am.

The lesson last week was on this very point. It crescendoed to a story that illustrated the reality that we all face difficult seasons in life in which we are “sifted.” (Can’t you just feel it? Haven’t you faced a time in which you made choices that left you simply shredded?)

It happens, Beth suggests, when God gives the devil access to you*, His beloved. [See overwhelming questions, above]. There is some sifting that needs to take place, some stuff you need to let go of, deal with, move beyond. Some lessons you still need to learn. Because sometimes what God is saying to you, His chosen one, is this:

We got places to go, you and I. And that stuff ain’t going with us.

Whoa again.

We’re not taking that stuff with us.

Thanks and praise for the ability to know this. Thanks and praise for the fortitude to deal with it.

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You can find the Beth Moore studies Believing God: Experiencing a Fresh Explosion of Faith; Esther: It’s Tough Being A Woman; Daniel: Lives of Integrity, Words of Prophecy and Living Beyond Yourself: Exploring the Fruit of the Spirit at Lifeway.