katie rose writes

Tonight, in the midst of packing and pain, organizing scarves and shoes (the most plentiful things in my closet by far), following a delightful evening with my family at the movies ( Lincoln-- so very good!) and dinner, my mind wandered, as it so often does. But tonight is different, because it is New Year's Eve. My mind, even with the distractions of packing and movies and music, is fixated on this upcoming year and what it holds. So God orchestrated a certain song to come on in the middle of all of this and bring me to my knees to lay down my anxious anticipations and accept His peace to surpass my need to understand the ramifications of the year that lies behind and of the year that awaits. "Called Me Higher" by All Sons & Daughters: Lyrics: I could just sit I could just sit & wait For all Your goodness Hope to feel Your presence And I could just stay I could just stay right where I am  and hope to feel You Hope to feel something again And I co...

This morning, I got moving early. I'm not normally an early bird, especially not this year, but my alarm went blaring off at 7 AM. To many of you, that's probably not all that early, but for someone who has had almost 365 days of blissful, tranquil mornings undisturbed by everything except the sun, it was loud and it was early. And I was dreaming (which never happens), so it was a very much like a freight train going off instead of my phone. I digress. But I laid awake for a few minutes, my dog totally confused as to why this was happening (she jumped right along with me when said alarm resounded in the dark), thanking God for some good sleep. Then I got moving. And when I get moving, I get moving. I got ready and got the dog ready to go to the groom. So I took her there, grabbed some coffee at dunkin dounuts, filled up the car with gas, went by the bank which, it turns out, doesn't open until 9, so I left and came back home. I sat down with my coffee, Bible, and Esther ...

A few weeks ago, I watched a video devo from Beth Moore on Jeremiah 17:9-10. If you would like to take a quick 20 minutes to listen to it, you can check it out here . It really goes by quickly, but it taught me a lot and has a lot to do why I'm writing these words now. I watched this video and God began to do a work in my heart, through my Esther study just a few days after praying with Beth Moore in this video that I would "lean in" to hear God's voice in how my heart is being deceived. I'm going to take a few moments to summarize what she brought out of the text in Jeremiah. So if you don't have time to watch the video, no worries, I'm gonna hit the high points. First, the text: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? "I the LORD search the heart and test the mind..." This is one of those verses that is often quoted, but not fully understood, especially in the light of Christ. We are so...