Bekah Blankenship | 1 Peter 5

Hello friends! Bekah here. As we come out of doumenting our gratitude and settle into the advent season, I am praying for really precious encounters with Jesus for all of you.This is about so much more than painting amazing things in our Bibles and jourrnals, this is about letting God paint His Word in our hearts and minds in a new way. I am so excited for this season of expectancy and growth.

Today I’m sharing a page that was absolutely not the norm for me, in hopes that you’ll always find yourself in these posts and be encouraged. I tend to be most comfortable when I’m sketching, painting, and lettering but I completely neglected my good friends- pencil and eraser- for this one. I purposed to show you that even if you feel like you’re not the best illustrator/ lettering queen, you can still use stamps and stickers and have them speak to your style and artistic voice.

I found myself reading in 1 Peter 5, about casting our anxieties on God because He cares for us. I knew instantly I wanted to use Melissa’s gorgeous bike stamp because it feels so carefree and fun. I started with her stamp and built the page around it with letter stickers, then went back and filled in with watercolors and finished off with my favorite technique- tracing over everything a few times with zero precision and lots of mess. Glorious mess. I had a particularly fun time stickering all of these amazing words, because I was so taken by them. I have heard lots of the promises of God for lots of years- since I was tiny. But it’s the in between stuff that’s the real meaty goodness, isn’t it? After the author encourages us to cast our cares on God, he issues a warning. Be watchful. The devil is out prowling around. Resist him and stand firm. Know that your brothers and sisters throughoutt the world are suffering too. “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” Wait… after? After I’ve suffered?  We often find ourselves questioning the faithfulness of God in our suffering. I for one have definitely shaken a fist or two at my circumstances and tried to figure out what went wrong. How, with all the care casting and anxiety resting, how could I still be feeling all the things and suffering, Lord?? It’s temporary. The God of grace that called us, me and you, He will himself do all of these things- restore, confirm, strengthen, establish. Wowzers. I journaled a mess onto the page over this one, friends. I ran out of room so I went back and wrote over the top of it all, twice, and then some more and added the hash marks to cover it and because I love it. Let me tell you something, there was something beautiful about pouring my heart out on that page knowing only Jesus and I could see it. It was in that moment that I understood that casting all my anxieties on Him didn’t mean that I didn’t have them, it simply meant that I trusted Him and only Him with them. I pray this finds you casting your anxieties in hopes of seeing the aftermath of your suffering.

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