What BE Has Meant to Us
This week we’re celebrating! BE just turned one, and we are taking pause to reflect on how much God has done in our lives in the past year. On Monday, we shared listener testimonies. So today we thought turnabout would be fair play, and we wanted to share our own personal testimonies. Below are some thoughts from each of us about what BE has meant to us this year!
As promised, we have a special mini-podcast where we all share personal testimonies about what BE has meant to us over the past year. Enjoy!
A MESSAGE FROM SARA:
Can it be that we are really celebrating our year mark at Be Still Be Free??
Praise Jesus how He has worked out our schedules, given us support, revealed topics, stretched time…and the list goes on. However, I would not be honest if I even began to pretend that I have this all figured out and live victoriously in Being Still every single second of every single day. You would laugh if you really knew me — there is a reason God has given this message to me. He knows I need this beyond what is even imaginable.
Monica and I were recently talking about how God continues to keep us on our knees and checks our pride and our mission at the door. In fact, He reminds us daily of our need to trust in Him more than in a process!
But here is what I do know…by walking through the doors of Be Still Be Free, God has been able to truly reveal His truth to me about myself, His calling, His Gospel. And in that, He has reignited a passion inside of me that desires to truly be His and live life abundantly. When you have the truth inside and walk closely in the companionship of Jesus — no matter what the circumstances — you can choose faith and joy and love and grace and kindness and truly BE the light of Christ to the world around you. You learn it really isn’t what you can do, it’s what He can do in you.
I dare say this is really a journey that I will probably walk the rest of my days! But it is a journey I am willing to be on.
This I know…I am a better version of me now than I was before Be Still Be Free. Hopefully, I just continue to grow and grasp the height and breath and depth of God’s love.
A MESSAGE FROM MONICA:
I’m not sure there’s enough time or Kleenex to get through the laundry list of how much God has done in the past year. I’m not even sure I’m capable of understanding most of it — I’m sure I’ll be unearthing more layers of it in years to come.
But if I had to list just one thing — just one, single thing I can identify and say unequivocally, Yes! God totally did that! — it would be transformation.
Over the past year, God has freed up this petulant child who demanded her purpose manifest a certain way…and changed her into a woman with child-like faith in the One who gave the purpose. I can now eagerly anticipate what’s to come — yet hold it loosely, knowing it is not truly mine anyway.
I’m not who I was (thank God), and thank God I’m not yet who I’ll become.
Paul says it more clearly than I can:
I’m not there yet, nor have I become perfect; but I am charging on to gain anything and everything the Anointed One, Jesus, has in store for me—and nothing will stand in my way because He has grabbed me and won’t let me go. (Philippians 3:12, Voice)
When you’ve been still, and you’ve known by experience that He is God…it becomes so much easier to let go of all that so easily entangles and ensnares.
Suddenly, after being still and knowing God, you have to throw off every weight and just run the race He set out before us — because you can’t help but chase after Him wherever He takes you.
Brothers and sisters, as I said, I know I have not arrived; but there’s one thing I am doing: I’m leaving my old life behind, putting everything on the line for this mission. I am sprinting toward the only goal that counts: to cross the line, to win the prize, and to hear God’s call to resurrection life found exclusively in Jesus the Anointed. (Philippians 3:13-14, Voice)
I don’t know how, in God’s economy, it works in tandem — this being still then sprinting toward the goal. It doesn’t make sense on paper, yet does anything in the kingdom make sense on paper? A beautiful rhythm — a symphony of highs and lows and it all works in a holy ying and yang way,
Be still — and sprint toward the only goal that counts.
Be still — and win the prize.
Be still — and be free.
A MESSAGE FROM AMBER:
God is so good. As I reflect back over this first year of BE, I’m reminded that this isn’t just a birthing of an organization or a podcast. It has been the birthing of a movement — a movement that birthed a new me in the process.
Through BE, God has taught me that I am not what I DO. As a twenty-something who is struggling along side Millennials around the world to find her identity, God gently but persistently reminded me that my identity is found in HIM.
That is what BE-ing does. It draws you into the center, into the core of who you are and what this life is all about. When you finally sink down into the presence of God He wraps His loving arms around you and reminds you of your first love and the birthright of eternal life He’s given you (Romans 8:17).
Through BE God has helped me become who He has always intended me to be… And that is a gift I’ll be forever grateful for.
We’d love to hear from you! What is something God has spoken to you in the past year, related to BE or not? We overcome by the word of our testimonies — let’s share a word, ladies! Let’s overcome!