I am a singer, songwriter, wife, mother, Jesus follower. I send out a 2-minute read every Tuesday about Jesus and life in God.
Advent ✨
|
Hi Friends, For years, I’ve taken the weeks leading up to Christmas to stare into the passages of Scripture about Christ coming as a baby. The birth of Christ is a storyline that’s rich in wonder. We could spend all 365 days of the year focusing on it and not exhaust all there is to see. Last year, I did something different. I wrote an Advent email series specifically for those overcoming spiritual anxiety. Spiritual anxiety? What the heck is that? This is a phrase I’ve been using to describe the heaviness I have felt the Lord lift off my shoulders. For years I didn’t realize I was carrying this — or at least couldn’t name it — until He began to lift the weight. I began to see that while I had for years received much solid Bible teaching, it was often delivered with a quiet injection of spiritual anxiety. I have heard from some of you who also experienced this in your own church context. Jesus told us His yoke is easy, His burden is light. Spiritual anxiety has threads of heaviness and performance. It can sound like a number of things: Do more. If this sounds familiar to you, there’s good news. Yes, there’s good news of great joy for us. For unto us — the heavy laden with anxiety running through our veins — a baby is born. A Son is given. In Matthew 11, Jesus calls to Himself all who want to be free: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” But this didn’t just begin when He was old enough to speak the words. It’s been His mission from the very beginning. Through every detail of Advent, God is extending His hands to lift our heaviness. So let’s go there. For the next few weeks, let’s stand at the beginning of His story and peer into His life. It’s here He lifts off our anxieties and gives us rest. It’s here that we trade hurry, hurry, hurry for holy, holy, holy. It’s here we quiet our souls, stand in awe of Him, and are healed. –Anna P.S. For me, this liberation from heaviness has brought easy sleep each night after years of struggle. I’m praying that you might experience rest for your body, soul, and spirit on this journey, too. |
Anna Blanc
I am a singer, songwriter, wife, mother, Jesus follower. I send out a 2-minute read every Tuesday about Jesus and life in God.
Hi Friends, Welcome to week 2 of our Advent series for those overcoming spiritual anxiety. We left off last week with the angel Gabriel visiting Mary. At the end of his message, the angel seems to leave Mary with a subliminal hint: he mentions Elizabeth. And then he is gone. What does Mary do when she’s had the kind of spiritual encounter that turns her whole life upside down? Without skipping a beat, she runs straight to her friend. The Bible says she hastens to her. Yes, Mary travels to the...
Hi Friends, Welcome to week one of the Advent Series! I wrote this devotional series specifically for those overcoming spiritual anxiety. (You can read more on that here if you missed it.) There is healing for us in this Advent story, and it starts at the very beginning. In Luke 1:26-38, we see Mary visited by the Angel Gabriel and given a most shocking message. That she, a virgin, would bear the Son of God. She is overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, and it begins: Jesus spends His first 9...
Hi Friends, What defines a life well lived? When you’re young, it’s easy to imagine your life stretching out in front of you like a line on graph paper. It ascends predictably, ending in the upper right hand corner. Success! But life is unpredictable. In some moments, it is chaos. I’ve been reading through the life of Moses in scripture these days. There is no sky-rocketing line of success on the graph of his life. In fact, the highs of miraculous wonders and lows of sin and failure spike and...