WELCOME, DEAR ONE! SO GLAD YOU’RE HERE.
Before we dive in, a quick note for anyone new here:
ROOTED in Jesus is a branch of Seeds of Exchange that grew out of a simple longing: to create space for people to encounter Jesus more deeply in everyday life. Each week, on Thursday mornings, we gather from living rooms, coffee shops, offices, cars, and kitchen tables around the world to pray, open Scripture, share stories, enCOURAGE one another, and make room for the One who loves us most.
No perfect faith required.
No insider knowledge necessary.
Just come as you are.
We’re so glad you’re here.
Pull up a chair … and join us from wherever you are.
You belong.
You are so very, very loved.
Join us anytime — all are welcome!
To receive the Zoom link for future gatherings, email us:
connect@seedsofexchange.org
This week …
A single word seemed to echo through both of our ROOTED gatherings:
Freedom.
Not the kind of freedom that is often celebrated.
Not freedom to do whatever we want.
But the kind of freedom Jesus offers.
The kind that heals.
The kind that restores.
The kind that invites us out of old prisons and into abundant life.
And perhaps most importantly, the kind of freedom that is worth the journey.
Freedom Is God’s Gift. Following Is Our Response.
During Devotions + Prayer, we reflected on Acts 12 and Peter’s miraculous release from prison.
The story is remarkable.
An angel appears.
Chains fall off.
Prison doors open.
Yet what captured my attention wasn’t the miracle itself.
It was Peter.
Sleeping.
While the church prayed and God prepared a way forward, Peter rested.
There is something deeply comforting about that.
Peter wasn’t striving.
He wasn’t trying to engineer his own rescue.
He wasn’t anxiously rehearsing worst-case scenarios.
He slept.
And while Peter slept and the believers prayed, God moved.
As we sat with the passage together, a question emerged:
How often do we focus on the chains while Jesus invites us to imagine freedom?
Many of us know exactly what our chains are.
Fear.
Shame.
Bitterness.
Control.
Comfort.
Addiction.
Performance.
People-pleasing.
Old labels.
Old wounds.
The challenge is often not identifying the prison.
The challenge is believing freedom is possible.
One line from our Lectio 365 reflection lingered with us throughout the gathering:
Every worthwhile spiritual pilgrimage begins with a vision of myself set free. -Lectio 365
Before Peter fully understood what God was doing, he had to follow.
The chains fell off.
The doors opened.
But Peter still had to stand up, get dressed, and walk out.
God did the liberating.
Peter participated in the journey.
And perhaps that is true for us as well.
From Striving to Abiding
Later that morning during Contend + Connect, our beloved sister in Jesus, Krista Steinbeiser, shared a story that beautifully embodied what we had just explored in Acts 12.
Krista is a former NCAA Division I soccer athlete, coach, author, speaker, Certified Personal Trainer, and founder of IGNITE Training.
From the outside, her life looked successful.
Accomplished.
Disciplined.
Strong.
Yet beneath the surface, she was battling an eating disorder that quietly shaped much of her life for years.
As she vulnerably shared her story, a deeper reality emerged:
Achievement is not the same as wholeness.
Success is not the same as peace.
Performance is not the same as identity.
Again and again, Krista returned to a central truth:
Going from achievement to achievement is not the same thing as inner wholeness, peace, and shalom found in Jesus.
What began as a conversation about anorexia became a much broader invitation.
An invitation to examine all the ways we strive.
The ways we try to prove ourselves.
Earn love.
Control outcomes.
Measure our worth through performance.
Many of us may never struggle with an eating disorder.
But most of us understand striving.
Most of us know what it feels like to believe that if we just do a little more, achieve a little more, fix a little more, then perhaps we’ll finally be enough.
Yet Jesus offers a different way.
Not striving.
Abiding.
Where the River Flows
One image from Krista’s story lingered long after the conversation ended.
She referenced God’s river.
A river that brings life wherever it flows.
Again and again, she returned to this truth:
Wherever the river of God flows, everything will live. -Krista Steinbeiser
What a beautiful picture of freedom.
Not forcing.
Not striving.
Not swimming upstream through sheer determination.
Abiding.
Receiving.
Trusting.
Allowing the life of Jesus to flow through places that once felt barren, broken, wounded, or stuck.
This is the freedom Peter experienced when he walked out of prison.
And this is the freedom Krista experienced as she surrendered her identity, performance, and pain to Jesus.
The Journey Is Worth It
What struck me most this week is that neither story happened overnight.
Peter still had to walk.
Krista still had to heal.
Freedom often begins with a miracle.
But it usually unfolds through a journey.
One faithful step.
One surrendered prayer.
One act of trust.
One day at a time.
The good news is that we never walk that journey alone.
The God who opened Peter’s prison door still opens doors today.
The God who brought healing and restoration into Krista’s life is still making all things new.
The God who calls us into freedom also walks beside us every step of the way.
As we closed our gatherings, I found myself returning to a simple truth:
Freedom is God’s gift.
Following is our response.
And wherever the river of God flows, everything will live.
May we have eyes to see the freedom Jesus is inviting us into.
May we have courage to follow Him toward it.
And may we discover, again and again, that the journey is worth it.
xo,
Sarah DT + The ROOTED in Jesus family of Seeds
Join Us
ROOTED in Jesus gathers every Thursday:
8:30–9:00 AM MT | Devotions + Prayer
9:00–9:40 AM MT | Contend + Connect
To receive the Zoom link for future gatherings, email us:
connect@seedsofexchange.org
Learn More About Krista Steinbeiser
Krista Steinbeiser is a speaker, author, Certified Personal Trainer, U.S. Soccer licensed coach, and founder of IGNITE Training. A former NCAA Division I soccer athlete, Krista is passionate about helping people experience healing, freedom, resilience, courage, and wholeness through a Christ-centered approach to health, identity, and personal growth.
Drawing from her own journey of recovery from anorexia, perfectionism, and performance-based identity, Krista now equips individuals, families, athletes, coaches, and organizations to live from a place of belonging rather than striving—and to discover the freedom that comes from abiding in Jesus.
Krista is also the author of Fueled and Whole and creator of the Sunny Adventure children’s book series, which encourages children to grow in wonder, courage, compassion, confidence, belonging, and faith.
Learn More
🌐 IGNITE Training
🎥 Learn More About the Sunny Adventure Series
Going from achievement to achievement is not the same thing as inner wholeness, peace, and shalom found in Jesus. — Krista Steinbeiser
Watch the Replays
🎥 Freedom Is Worth the Journey | Devotions + Prayer
🎥 From Striving to Abiding | A God Story of Healing, Identity + Freedom with Krista Steinbeiser
