“Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.” // John 16:24b I remember walking out of the movie theater as a freshly turned sixteen year old and feeling a sense of wonder and awe that I hadn’t before. I had just watched the movie La La Land for the first time and left with a newfound excitement in my heart. That night, I stayed up in my icicle-lit room with lime green walls until the wee hours of the morning to write my first poem. That scribbled together poem wasn’t anything magical or awe-inspiring. But I remember the happiness that took root in me through having an opportunity to create something beautiful through words. Jump forward a few years, I am still writing poetry sporadically. The biggest change between now and then is that I have discovered the radical importance of prayer in my life. I was recently sitting down to pray and felt the Lord speak in my heart: I talk to the angels about you. Through these words, I found myself being drawn into the Lord’s love and filled with a joy like none other. Those words were more beautiful than any poem I could write. In that moment, I was brought back to the reality that the Lord is madly in love with me and finds my life beautiful—a fact I easily and often forget. I didn’t sense that He talks to the angels about what I’ve done or what I will do. Simply about me. For every moment that I spent jotting together a few words that I thought sounded nice together, the Lord was desiring to remind me of His profoundly intimate love. Sister, the Lord is desiring to fill you with good things and give you fullness of joy. He desires it despite the fact that we do not deserve His goodness and love and turn away from Him every day. Even so He is always waiting for you to ask. What will you ask Him for and open yourself up to receive from Him today?

She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. // Mark 5:33 I sat there in front of the monstrance in the deserted adoration chapel feeling empty, worn out, and tired. As a struggling perfectionist, I was tired of never quite feeling like I could be enough. I felt worn out each time I saw my brokenness and all the ways I perceived myself to be failing. Ultimately, I felt as though I had run out of the Lord’s grace and had to just run on empty because there was nothing else to do. As someone who is quite passionate about people knowing they are loved, I had spent a lot of my life speaking of Jesus’ love to those around me. But somehow, at that moment, I didn't have what it took to speak it to myself. So there I sat in front of Jesus, feeling like I had nothing to offer. Deciding there was nothing else to do, I chose to pour my empty heart out. I told Him the truth. I let Him into the ache of constantly feeling the need to be perfect. I spoke to Him about how I felt so empty. I cried tears that I had held back for years. And then, I felt Him speak truth to my heart: Your brokenness doesn’t scare Me, so why do you let it scare you? I realized that I had spent so much time running away from my brokenness, rather than running with it toward Jesus. In reality, that’s all I really needed to take with me. Sister, your brokenness is a place to let the Lord encounter you. He desires to hear the truth from your lips, let you touch even just the threads of His clothes, and most of all, heal the brokenness and wounds that afflict you. Healing happens when we let Christ into our fragmented and weak hearts and tell Him the whole truth. Your brokenness doesn’t scare Him, so don’t let it scare you. Fall down before Jesus and tell Him the whole truth. Listen to today's audio devotion.