by MeredithNMills | Oct 24, 2017 | abiding in Christ, Family, grace, growing in Christ, knowing God, Uncategorized, Walking by Faith
By Meredith Mills
@DazzledByTheSon
Yesterday was not a good day.
Everyone in the Mills house woke up tired from a busy weekend. And busy weekends make for long Mondays.
The kids and I took a field trip which involved a lovely nature walk in the autumn-colored woods. An impending thunderstorm held off and the temperature was perfect.
The humidity, however, was intense. I wore rain boots instead of hiking boots so by the halfway point, I was exhausted. That halfway point happened to be at the bottom of a hill and the hike back seemed much longer than the hike in.
After a morning of learning about wildlife and preservation efforts, we headed home where a messy house greeted us and screamed of work that needed to be done. My afternoon to-do list didn’t include all the kiddo needs that arose, and I failed to handle those “interruptions” with grace.
It was not a good day.
As I look back on it, however, I see much for which to be thankful, so many things to slow down and savor, even in the chaos of the day.
Surely I could have done better.
But I didn’t. I didn’t live the day well.
Maybe it’s because I neglected to keep coming back to Jesus. I forgot that on my own I can’t do better. I can’t chose patience, grace or gratitude without staying connected to Christ, without yielding my heart and expectations to Him in each moment.
“And He will be the stability of your times, a wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge. The fear of the Lord is his treasure” Isaiah 33:6.
Underneath the shifting sands of emotional ups and downs, God is the bedrock for our souls. He offers the stability of His unchanging heart and faithfulness of character.
He’s the steady Source of everything I need in every moment – salvation from the sins that tempt me, wisdom when I don’t know how to parent, knowledge of His heart when I lose sight of His face – all these things in abundant measure.
In big struggles and little frustrations, God understands. He offers wisdom and grace for each one – and new mercies with every rising sun.
Stability in unstable times – this is God our treasure.
How has God been your stability this week? In what ways do you need Him to be your unchanging Rock today? Please comment below – I’d love to hear.
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by MeredithNMills | Sep 5, 2017 | Family, grace, Identity in Christ, knowing God, Uncategorized, Victorious Living, Walking by Faith
by Meredith Mills
@DazzledByTheSon
Sometimes you’ve got to give yourself a time out.
For several months, I’ve been very intentional about writing regularly, trying to post here on a weekly basis. But last week, I chose not to write. At all.
God told me not to.
I had lots of work to do – A book proposal waiting to be revised, a book in process, a weekly blog post, a monthly contribution to Just18Summers and another article to complete by the end of the month.
Clearly, I didn’t have time to take the week off.
But God showed me that writing had become an idol.
An Idol.
It’s a rather church-y word, one that’s lost much of its meaning to modern American Christians. We read about idols throughout the Bible, but they can seem like distant relics of the past or an unfamiliar element of cultures somewhere else in the world.
Maybe we need to rethink the word.
Maybe addiction is more relevant to our modern minds.
Unlike statues of gold, addictions can be much harder to recognize, but they’re just as insidious.
Some addictions are big and ugly and obvious. But most of them aren’t. Most start as good gifts, designed by God for our enjoyment and use.
But they become addictions when we find our identity in them.
When we panic at the thought of losing them – even temporarily.
When we can’t stop thinking about them.
When we look for comfort, peace or healing in them.
When they drive and control us.
That’s what happened with my writing. I had taken it up as a hobby several years ago. It was a refreshing way to process my thoughts and emotions and a means of sharing with others what God is doing in my life.
But I’ve grown to love the feeling of completing a piece and meeting a deadline. I get excited when I hear how God ministered to someone through my words. I enjoy reading comments and feedback.
Those good things, however, took root in my heart and seeped into my identity. They began driving and controlling me like a task-master.
What started as a good gift became an addiction, an idol.
When God showed me this, I asked Him what to do about it. Not all idols can, or even should, be completely discarded. I’ve wrestled with a food addiction for much of my life, but I certainly can’t quit eating.
As I prayed, Jesus reminded me of this verse: “…Take every thought captive to obey Christ” 2 Corinthians 10:4-5
Just as my thoughts need to obey Jesus, the gifts I’ve received need to be under His control as well.
My writing needs to obey Jesus – the time I spend on it, the projects I undertake, the very words I say.
My eating habits should obey Jesus – what I eat, when I eat, how much I eat.
My parenting ought to obey Jesus – how I speak to my kids, the way I train and discipline them, the activities we chose to do as a family.
My role as a wife needs to obey Jesus – how I talk to and about my husband, how I respond to him, the priority I give our relationship.
My people-pleasing personality should obey Jesus, so that His pleasure is my heart’s desire and satisfaction.
My use of time needs to obey Jesus.
Absolutely every area of my life needs to obey Jesus.
Because this is what following Him is all about – my whole self living in full surrender to the God who invites me to find rest in Him. Rest from the idols that drive me, rest from the law that condemns me, rest in Christ’s work and rest in the nearness of God.
While idols and addictions consume those who cling to them, Jesus offers the abundant life for which our souls were created. (See John 10:10.)
How about you? Are there any idols lurking in the shadows of your soul? Any addictions strangling your abundant life?
God loves us too much to let us continue worshiping at the feet of things that will destroy us. Will you bring your idols to Him and let Him show you how to bring them under His control? 
I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments! Please respond below.
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by MeredithNMills | Aug 22, 2017 | grace, Hope in the Midst of Heartache, Identity in Christ, Loneliness, Uncategorized, Waiting, Walking by Faith
by Meredith Mills
@dazzledbytheson
We saw it, and it was dazzling.
Like millions of other people, we traveled into the totality zone of the Great American Eclipse. We spent the afternoon camped out in the heat, hanging with some of our dearest friends, eating Moon Pies and Sun Chips and Cosmic Brownies.
A sense of anticipation hung in the air as the sun and moon aligned.
From behind our super-cool (ahem, functional) glasses, we watched the sun grow smaller bit by tiny bit until only a sliver remained visible.
And then it happened. The event everyone’s been talking about – the moment of total eclipse.
It nearly took my breath away.
Light radiated in all directions from the enormous dark spot in the sky. For nearly two minutes, heaven and earth seemed to stand still.
We saw what is normally imperceptible to the human eye – the sun’s corona. On normal occasions, the corona goes unseen because its light is so much dimmer than that of the sun’s surface.
But yesterday during the eclipse, we saw the radiant crown of the sun.
Life is a lot like that. Sometimes it takes an eclipse – a deep, dark shadow, to see the dazzling glory of the heavenly Son and to know Him in previously unexperienced ways.
It’s easy to enjoy God when life is bright and happy. Brilliant beyond words and more dazzling than our sun, the light of Jesus fills every corner of our earth. Unsurpassed in beauty, unrivaled in strength – this is our God. He rejoices the hearts of His children and fills our lives with good things.
But sometimes sorrow eclipses our God. Life can get so dark we seem to lose sight of Him. We may even forget what He looks like or wonder if He’s been a figment of our imaginations.
But there in the darkness, in the quiet place of our pain, God waits to reveal His heart to us. He invites us to experience His tenderness and find depths of comfort of which we’ve only ever heard tale.
Like the sun’s corona during an eclipse, God can be seen in breathtaking beauty during our darkest hour.
Has life eclipsed your God? Have you lost sight of His goodness and love for you? Have faith, fellow Jesus lover. Just as the sun is unchanged though hidden by the moon, our God is unchanging and constant. He delights in you. His love is steadfast and His tender mercies are new every morning.
How have you experienced Jesus’ beauty during dark times? I’d love to hear – please comment below!
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by MeredithNMills | Jul 18, 2017 | grace, Hope in the Midst of Heartache, knowing God, Uncategorized, Walking by Faith
by Meredith Mills
@DazzledByTheSon
Last week, my hubby was out of town for a business convention, which left me home alone with the kids. We had a good time together, trying to stay busy and not miss Daddy too much (hard to do!) Two days in a row, we drove out of town to meet friends at the zoo. 
That was exhausting, but super fun.
One night, while the kids were tucked safely in their beds, a car drove by our house and cast creepy shadows on my bedroom window. In my mind, I knew the shadows were caused by the tree outside. But fear began to invade my heart. “What if’s” flooded my mind as this mama bear thought through how I’d defend my babies in case of danger.
It’s crazy how that happens. There was a logical explanation. Nothing really to be afraid of. But sometimes our emotions are stronger than our minds.
Thankfully, however, the Holy Spirit is stronger than both.
As I lay there in the dark, I prayed that God would shield and protect us. I envisioned a large superhero shield covering our home and angels standing around our property.
Then I went to sleep. We all awoke the next morning, safe and sound.
Psalm 28:7 says, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and He helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I will praise Him.”
I love this description of God. He doesn’t just give us a shield. He is our Shield.
He stands between His child and the onslaught of the enemy. He absorbs and extinguishes the fiery dart blows.
This, however, leads to an obvious question. Does this mean bad things should never happen to His children?
We need only look around to see this isn’t the case. Christians suffer like the rest of the world. Probably even more, if you ask imprisoned believers and those tortured for their faith.
Is there a contradiction between faith and “real life”? Is God really our Shield when awful things happen?
Since God doesn’t change (James 1:17), we can trust that He never stops being our Shield, though His protection may look different at various times.
- Sometimes He shields us from physical harm
Like those times when I’ve narrowly avoided a wreck.
Or when we’ve prayed for healing and He grants our request.
Or that time when I was a young adult living at home and my family happened upon a crime scene. Somehow our car ended up inside the police blockade, a would-be burglar laying shot on the ground a few feet away. That frustrating delay twenty minutes earlier may have kept our family out of the line of fire.
- Always He shields us from the enemy’s fury
Satan hates Jesus. He also hates those who follow Him. Quite honestly, we’re no match for the devil. Yet the devil is no match for our God.
God stands between us and the enemy’s wrath, never abandoning us to fend for ourselves. Never leaving the devil to do anything he wants with us. (See Job 1-2, 42 for the interaction between God, Satan and a man named Job.)
- Always He shields us from God’s righteous indignation
Our God is pure. He hates and punishes sin. But Jesus, the Sinless One, stands between His children and God’s anger. On the cross, He bore every ounce of the judgment we’d incurred through our sin. Through faith in Christ, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
In every circumstance, God is our Shield – protecting us from things seen and unseen. Sometimes He prevents tragedy. Sometimes He walks though it with us.
What do you think? How do you reconcile the apparent contradiction between God as our Shield and the trials that we face? How have you seen God act as your Shield? Please comment below. Let’s get to know Him better together!
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by MeredithNMills | Jul 4, 2017 | abiding in Christ, fear, Hope in the Midst of Heartache, Identity in Christ, knowing God, Uncategorized, Victorious Living, Walking by Faith
by Meredith Mills
@DazzledByTheSon
I’ll never forget what I saw that day.
I had heard of slavery, but to me it was a remote problem – a shameful period in our nation’s history and a distant atrocity in far-away lands.
And then I saw them. Flesh and blood people trapped in the insidious web of human trafficking. Sex slaves and beggars lining busy streets. Drugged children and lepers waiting for alms. Victims of human cruelty and depravity.
I saw real-life slaves that day. I looked in their eyes and felt as though I gazed into their souls.
And my heart broke into a million pieces.
So this is what slavery looks like.
The powerless trampled by the powerful. The weak exploited by the strong.
No mercy. No hope. No means of escape. Only the monotony of a slave’s daily existence.
The event I describe took place during a mission trip to Bangkok, Thailand several years ago. It is burned in my memory, tucked away in the deepest corner of my heart.
Yet in reality, it’s a picture of my life. I’ve experienced sin’s heavy chains, enslaving me to destructive habits I despise but keep on doing.
And I’ve felt the crushing condemnation of a Law I can’t keep, no matter how hard I try.
I know the tyranny of a master who cares nothing for his slaves.
But thank God, Someone came to my rescue. Someone stronger than my old master. Someone rich enough to pay my ransom. Someone so relentlessly loving He’d exchange His own life for mine – and yours.
This is God our Redeemer. Lavish in love. Extravagant in grace. 
“He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins. He showered His kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding” (Ephesians 1:7-8 NLT).
Let that sink in for a minute. Our God is rich, abundantly wealthy…in kindness and grace.
He looked on us in our wretched slavery, when we had nothing to offer Him, and He loved us.
He wanted us.
He knew we’d broken His law. He realized we’d not always love Him in return. Yet He loved us and was delighted to make us His own.
Do you feel it? The overwhelming realization that, no matter what, you are wanted.
I’ve spent the past several days reading through Ephesians one. Our Redeemer’s abundant generosity is striking. For those united with Christ:
- He has given us every spiritual blessing.
- He loved us, chose us and decided to make us holy – all before He uttered creation’s first life-giving words.
- He made plans for our adoption so we could be close to Him, though we were once His enemies because of our sins.
- His richness of kindness and grace compelled Him to pay our ransom and purchase our freedom.
- He poured out abundant favor on us, showering us with kindness.
- His incredibly great power works on our behalf – the same power that brought Jesus back from the dead.
Abundance. Riches. Greatness. This is the lavish love of our Redeemer.
Have you experienced it? Do you know His redemption? If not, I invite you to check out In Case You’re Wondering.
If you know Him, I rejoice with you in the freedom He gives.
How have you seen Him as Redeemer in your life? How does His redemption affect your daily life? Please comment below. Let’s get to know Him better together!
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