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Sanctuary thanks you all so much for your donations. We love hosting Friendsgiving and are glad we could keep doing it this year. We couldn’t have done it without you 💙

... I like that

🫂 yeah, it came for me too....

It's getting late so let me wrap up this thread with some practical tips:
👉 Ask God for opportunities to grow in your faith.
👉 Call up your support system b/c opportunities = obstacles.
👉 Consider whether your church is challenging you or coddling you.
👉 Pray that God would show you the way forward.

I'm remembering the times I prayed for more faith hoping that God would wave His hand and I would have fidelity. Unfortunately it doesn't work like that. We have to be disciplined, and it starts by acknowledging & accepting the challenges of following Christ. ⬇️

In my experience, many Christians are coddled into having faith that never matures into fidelity. There's also the temptation to take the easy way and never seek out maturity. Both can lead to stunted spiritual growth. And when the hard times come, a little faith isn't enough to get through. ⬇️

Once they've matured a bit, kids can start eating solid foods. Similarly, fidelity comes with spiritual maturity. Usually, that happens by repeatedly putting faith into practice and making a habit of remembering what God has done. But this is where we have problems. ⬇️

A little faith won't get you very far when your world implodes. Fidelity will, but it takes time to develop.

Consider Paul's comparison of milk and solid food (1 Corinthians 3). It takes time for infants to grow teeth, learn to chew, and get used to different textures, so milk is the ideal. ⬇️

Faith is typically lauded as this thing you can have very little of yet still see great miracles. Often quoted is the mustard seed parable in Matthew 13:31-32 (which is actually about #evangelism but that's a topic for another day). Sure, it's a great starting point, but it can't be all you have. ⬇️

The quote that inspired this thread: "Childlike trust may not survive when the miracle does not come, when the urgent prayer gets no answer, when a dense gray mist obscures any sign of God's concern." Yancey calls this "hang-on-at-any-cost faith" fidelity, so I will too throughout this thread. ⬇️

We need about $500 to cover meal costs (since this is a community event, and we make all the food ourselves). If you could spare anything, we’d really appreciate it (and donations are tax deductible since we are a 501(c)(3)). You can donate here: welcomeinthisplace.org/online-giving

Hey, fam. So update on this: long story short, we need yall’s help to make it happen. Things haven’t been too great financially for Sanctuary this year. All the leaders got laid off from their secular jobs, and two of us are still unemployed (myself included). That’s where you come in: ⬇️

1️⃣ If you don't know what that something is, ask God.
2️⃣ If you find out what it is, ask the right people for help.
3️⃣ If you're having trouble finding help or you're upset about the whole situation, lean on your loved ones for support.

And don't forget to practice self-care. Shameless plug:

Just like my heat pump was missing a tiny part that affected the whole system, we can be missing something that affects our entire lives. Could be anything from medication for a medical condition to insight into a spiritual situation.

Context varies, of course, but I think these tips might help: ⬇️

Keep in mind that this happened every time I switched my unit into heat mode, not just when it got really cold outside. Thankfully, this issue has since been fixed, and I'm looking forward to a warmer space and lower heating bills.

This brings me to what Pastor Nik encouraged me to write about. ⬇️

Without a piston to help quickly move refrigerant to the outside unit, my heat pump STRUGGLED to keep my space warm. And because it was so inefficient, my unit needed backup in the form of heat strips. Heat strips are also inefficient, and also expensive to run. No wonder my bills were so high! ⬇️

In heat mode, the outside metering device (piston) should restrict refrigerant going outside & cause pressure to drop quickly. (Big pressure changes help move refrigerant through the system.) But my heat pump didn't have this piston—and the lack of such a tiny part was causing big issues. ⬇️