Allowing GOD to Change Us from the Inside Out
After finishing Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, I was ready to write a completely different book. But no matter how hard I tried, that book wouldn’t come.
A six-month sabbatical from writing turned into six years of intense writer’s block. Along with that came an intense crucible time in my own personal life.
Through a falling-out with some very dear friends, and the removal of man’s approval, God began showing me ugly places in my heart where my flesh had asserted her authority over His. Core issues from my childhood and fault lines in my psyche that left me vulnerable to Satan’s attacks.
Everything finally culminated during a frustrating time in our church building program.
It was then God whispered to my heart, “You’ve got a Martha spirit, Joanna. You’re a good girl wanting to do good things, but you are running ahead of me. You are doing this in your own strength, and as a result your work is cloaked in your flesh … and your flesh ain’t that pretty!”
It was a hard truth to hear, but God is kind enough to reveal so He can heal. All we have to do is agree with the diagnosis. Dr. Jesus will bring the cure!
My second book in the Bethany trilogy, Having a Mary Spirit: Allowing God to Change Us from the Inside Out was birthed out of those difficult six years, and it outlines lessons on how we can partner with God in the transformation we need.
Looking back, I wouldn’t trade that dark night of my soul for anything in the world. While, like Paul, I have not attained all that I want to be or should be. Yet, thank God, I am no longer what I was.
Isn’t it amazing how God takes the very things the enemy means for our destruction and uses them for our construction … the all-important process of making you and I less like us and more like Jesus!
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