Consume Me From the Inside Out: A Prayer

{by Samantha Roose}

Prayers don’t have to be complicated they just need to be said.  

They don’t need to be long they just need to be real.  Prayers don’t have to be fancy or positive they just need to be heartfelt.  A prayer doesnt not need to be a well thought out, memorized recitation; it’s just you soul speaking to your Creator, explaining the hurts and disappointments, questions and joys, struggles and victories.  A prayer is a conversation between you and God— the One who made you, then bought you, then freed you. Talk to Him like you’re talking to a friend.  It’s okay not to sound smart; just start talking and sharing.  Sometimes the simplest prayers are the dearest to God’s heart.

This is a prayer of mine in response to “The Inside Out,” by Hillsong United.  I’ve been teaching the choreography to one of my dance classes over the past couple weeks.  As a result I’ve been thinking about the words quite a bit lately.  And now they’re becoming 'the cry of my heart.'  

A thousand times I've failed
Still Your mercy remains
Should I stumble again
Still I'm caught in Your grace

Lord this is who I am, and this is who YOU are.  I don’t know what I’d do if You didn’t catch me in Your grace again.  Thank You for always catching me one more time.

Your will above all else
My purpose remains
The art of losing myself in bringing You praise

Oh, God more than anything else I want Your will in my life.  Please teach me to master losing myself completely to You because it’s so hard.  Thank You for being patient with me while I learn and fail and learn and try again.

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame

You are from beginning to end.  Your light was here before the world began and will continue to be when the world is no more.  Never ending, Your glory knows no bounds—even nature proclaims Your praise.

My heart, and my soul
I give You control
Consume me from the inside out

How can I not give You my heart and my soul?  Take control of all that I am. 

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
And the cry of my heart is to bring You praise
From the inside out
Lord my soul cries out

Your light shines even in my darkest moments.  Your glory never ceases in comforting my soul when I am without hope. 

This is the cry of MY heart: that I might bring You praise in everything that I do; in every word that I speak; in every breath that I take; in every step that I make; in every thought that I think.  Lord I don’t want to live a moment that You are not glorified in my life.  

Glorify Yourself in me from the inside out.

Read more ...

Insecurity, Authenticity, and a One-Size-Fits-All Halo

{by Hailey Sadler}

There are lots of good things to hide behind.

I was very young when I learned this important fact of life. Things like doors, sofas, or rows of clothes in the depths of a closet if you didn’t mind the smothering sensation of choking on the smell of shoes. These things came in handy if hide-and-seek was the name of the game, or you wanted to scare an unsuspecting sister into screeching. [Not that I ever did that; I was a model child.] The funny thing is, I still look around and see there a lot of good things that we use to hide behind. Things like make-up…school work…a packed social life…or spirituality...

Read more ...

Defined: Our Purpose

in·side out adv. 1. with the inner surface turned outward 2. as completely as possible; thoroughly, from every perspective.

synonyms: altogether, backwards and forwards, completely, comprehensively, entirely, fully, head over heels, in full measure, outright, through and through, totally, unconditionally, unreservedly.

I like that definition of “inside out.” But it also makes a very good definition of our purpose:

1. To live unashamedly, with the inward transformation our hearts turned outward. Not hiding it, not dressing it up in pretty church clothes, just being it.
2. To live for real for Christ: backwards and forwards, entirely, fully, totally, unconditionally, unreservedly, as completely as possible. On some days, as “completely as possible” may be not very completely at all. On some days it won't even look like living for Christ; it might look a lot more like living for yourself. And that is because... none of us are perfect. Or even close. While the whole imperfect thing can be somewhat tedious, it’s really ok... because that’s not our purpose anyway. Our purpose is to passionately pursue living for Christ as completely as possible, and to apply that purpose to every area of our lives, to our every perspective.

Being “inside-out” doesn’t mean you have to be one of those gushy people who pour out every detail of their hearts and lives to you in the first five minutes you meet them [thank goodness]. Being inside out just means that who you are with one group of friends is the same as who you are with a different group of friends. It means you don’t change what you believe or who you are for anyone else.

 It means, as difficult as it sometimes can be, there is no distinctive line between who you are in Christ and who you are in front of the world.

*******

[With over 400 hits, including quite a few international views, yesterday was a pretty exciting day as InsideOut was officially launched! I hope each of you will continue to frequent these pages and participate in conversations through the comment section.] 

Read more ...

InsideOut Girls: Living For Real For Christ

{by Hailey Sadler}

Fake things drive me crazy. Fake smiles. Fake nails. Fake sales where everything is 90% off except the one thing you want to buy. Fake flowers, which always trick me. [I do like costume jewelry…which is technically fake jewels…. but hey, even then the real thing is better!] The worst, though, has to be superficiality in regards to the Church. There is just something sickening about faking what should be so real. It makes me think of  Revelations 3:16, “Because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew you out of My mouth.” I know for me, I want it to be either hot or cold, either totally for real or not at all. No lukewarm, in between, or pretending about it. Why is it, then, that this fakeness is so prevalent among Christian girls? I’ve thought about it a lot, and I’ve come to conclude that there are basically two types:

First, there is the Inside Girl. The Inside Girl is a Christian, and usually from a Christian family. But apart from the cross necklace around her neck, she walks, talks, acts, dresses, and lives exactly like her typical worldly counterpart… or at least she tries to. She cares a lot about being accepted and cool among her peers. The Inside Girl’s inner transformation has had no outward translation. Her inner life with Christ carefully does not touch the outside of her life, at least not in ways that would make her different or stand out.  

The Outside Girl is the complete opposite. For her, it is all on the outside. She is all leafy foliage and no root. The Outside Girl has a life that looks great and Godly; she knows all the “Christianspeak”, she signs her emails “joyfully His” and is probably involved in some sort of ministry. But there is no real joy in that “joyfully His”. Something is missing. She has chosen the “better part” with Mary of Luke 10:38-42 but in her heart of hearts, she doesn’t believe it is truly better. Secretly, she envies her worldly counterparts and the lives they “get” to live.

 Are you either of these girls? Both are the extremes, but do you recognize either attitude in yourself? I know I have tried elements of both at different times in my life and if you haven’t found this out already, I’ll let you in on a secret: it doesn’t work. Not really. Not if you want it to be authentic at least. It will only end up leaving you empty, unsatisfied, searching for something more. The ones who are totally and completely for real for Christ are InsideOut Girls. I have known a few. I hope you may find some of them in the pages of this blog. These girls are not always white-hot for Christ; like most people, they move constantly between these poles... being sometimes hot, sometimes, cold, sometimes lukewarm. What makes InsideOut Girls different isn't that they are consistently perfect specimens of what it means to live for Christ for real. What makes them different is that they are wholly honest and wholly unashamed.They may not be the ones who seem the most “spiritual” at first, but there is something about them that is different, something dynamic that draws you to them and makes you want whatever it is they have. They are who I want to be. They are living their lives from the inside out.

I hope you’ll join us here on our journey towards becoming InsideOut Girls who live for Christ for real in every area of our lives. It would be cliche and probably an exaggeration to say this blog will change our lives, but hopefully it will bring us all a little closer to the One who is our Goal. Because He can change our lives. And I can tell you one thing it won’t be. It won’t be fake.

Basically, if you want to smell the flowers I promise they’ll be real. 

Read more ...