This week it is my pleasure to welcome Shontell Brewer to this space. Shontell has a radical on fire heart for God. Radical obedience to God may look different than you think and it may shake some people up. My prayer for you is that she challenges you to live this one life with purpose loving and serving an audience of one!

Be sure to check out the podcast we recorded! Shontell Brewer: Teacher and Anti-Trafficking Advocate

Please welcome Shontell Brewer to By His Grace today!

It Riles People 

by Shontell Brewer

Ever been accused of riling things up?

I have.

Try choosing a ministry other people aren’t on board with. Try pointing out heavy truths of slavery and oppression taking place on the streets of your town. Try moving to a state or a city or a neighborhood that people don’t quite understand. Try selling all of your stuff and giving it away. Try walking to a church in your neighborhood and calling those in the pews your “people” whether or not that church has the coolest VBS and worship program. Try leaving your church to spend your Sundays in a different way. It riles people.

Everyone wants an explanation. Suddenly people are huddling in close to you wanting the inside skinny on why you’re really leaving. Simply stating that God is doing something with you isn’t enough. Don’t even try it. Well, try it. And good luck with it. It riles people.

Suddenly, everyone feels they are closer to you than he or she ever truly was. You can’t quite remember becoming close enough with them for this conversation. They don’t say it, but they mean, “I know you aren’t around gossiping, but obviously you will tell ME.” They are riled.

You find yourself at a birthday party and people want to hash it out. They are riled. People pull you out of service and need to know if something happened. And to that we should always be able to say, “Yes.”

Yes. God is at work here. Prepare to be riled if you aren’t in cahoots with his plan. And be ready to be a lone reed if you are. Click To Tweet

Every day and every minute you are trying to stand before God and hone in on his still small voice. You want nothing more than to lock eyes with The One Who Calls You. You find your grasp is a white-knuckled fist upon his robes. And you are low and humble and crying more days than not.

In the end, do you know what you will discover?

You need to know that when people get riled up it is much more their issue and much less your problem. You aren’t riling anyone, actually. What is happening is the Holy Spirit is about you, and rather than meet that with support, their fear jumps up. And then rather than meet their fear with grace, we sometimes find that we are afraid of that very thing they are talking about. And if we aren’t careful we begin to reverse the work God is doing in us.

We are no longer out on the waves, eye to eye with Jesus and his deep grace. We are swimming back to shore, walking up to our chair in the corner, and pulling a towel over our face to block out what we left and what we are now missing. It’s a sham.

That fear? It’s a sham. God says, “Grace abounds in deepest waters. Join me. Look in my eyes and feel my heartbeat in time with yours. This is when your doubt subsides and you are strong in me. This is how you know me. Most importantly, this is how others will know me- when they watch you.”

So rile them up, my friends. Look them all straight in the eye and stand firmly in your calling.

Just watch what God can do with that.

Shontell Brewer is a writer on her blog Nonsense At Its Finest. By day she works as a classroom teacher, and weekends are mostly spent as an advocate for the steadily growing anti-trafficking movement in Nevada. As a licensed pastor, she speaks around the country to youth, mothers, and churches. A wife for over twenty years, she and her husband have spent most of that time raising five kids. Together the family runs a monthly outreach in their home: a come as you are dinner called Taco Tuesday. Keep up with her day to day nonsense, books, and speaking engagements on Instagram. Her book, Missionary Mom, was released fall of 2018.

Hope you enjoyed hearing from this week’s guest and look forward to introducing you to Kate Battistelli!

My last few weeks have been busy attending the Blue Ridge Christian Writer’s Conference and with the launch of The Struggle is Real: But So is God. It debuted at number 1 in Adult Christian Education on Amazon, but more importantly, people’s lives and hearts are already being changed!

The Struggle Is Real, But So Is God is a

6-week

journey through the Bible that will:

Equip you with empowering wisdom.

Help you grow spiritually by claiming God’s promises as your own.

Teach you how to declare scripture over yourself to strengthen your inner being.

Show you how to conquer challenges by activating God’s Word in your life.

#thestrugglebiblestudy

It is available for sale on Amazon.

Much Love,