Matthew West, Podcaster Jamie Ivey Talk ‘Chasing Holiness’: ‘So Much Grace’
By Movieguide® Contributor
While it can often feel like life is out of control, podcaster Jamie Ivey explained how we can rely on God in these times and receive His grace to realize it’s okay that we don’t have everything figured out.
“Honestly, the shortest answer to why we can’t have it all together…number one, we have these expectations that can never be met,” Ivey told Christian artist Matthew West. “We live in a broken world. Both you and I are people of faith, and so we have this understanding, this knowledge that the world is broken and that sin entered in, and it causes us so much havoc.”
“So there’s that reason, is that we have unrealistic expectations, and then also, Matthew, I think we have areas of our lives that we, just, we’re trying to live up to other people’s standards and sometimes. I can’t get it together in certain areas of my life because I’m looking at Sarah over here in…Washington, and she seems to have it all together, but we have two different lives,” she continued. “And so, I think that we’re not looking at our own lives.”
Despite the impossibility of ever really having it all together, America is obsessed with this goal, leading to the explosion of self-help. Unfortunately, many of these books and programs teach that greatness and strength are found within us all rather than pointing people to Jesus, the only place where true perfection is found.
Ivey is stepping into this sphere with her new book “Why Can’t I Get It Together?” where she encourages her readers to focus on holiness rather than micromanaging themselves.
“‘Why Can’t I Get It Together?’ is a book that doesn’t just empathize with your struggles but offers a practical path to laying them to rest. This isn’t just another self-help book; it’s a roadmap that invites you to kick those unrealistic expectations to the curb and rest in the transformative truth of God’s love,” she said on Instagram.
“This self-help is so just over the moon and so just over the top with so many things, and I think that we don’t actually have the ability, by ourselves, to get ourselves together,” Ivey said. “I talk about chasing holiness, and the reason I said chasing holiness is because I think we are chasing a lot of things in life. You know, we’re chasing what the world says we should be. To use your funny example, we’re chasing the next cold plunge, you know, the next infrared sauna.”
“And none of those things that we just said are bad in it of themselves, but sometimes we chase expectations that we can’t meet, we chase ideals that we can’t meet. Within just the North American church, I feel like we’ve been chasing a lot of things that don’t line up with Jesus’ holiness,” she continued. “And so, for me, I said, ‘What’s the better way?’ And the better way for me is I want to have my eyes set on holiness.”
It is also important to understand, Ivey believes, that this idea of wanting to feel put together has been going on for all of history. Throughout the Bible, we see people mess up and feel shame for their mistakes. However, God shows grace towards them and invites them back into his family.
“We’re not alone and we’re not the first people to deal with this,” Ivey said. “This has been happening since Genesis chapter three.”
“And so, it just gives me this comfort of like, okay, so I might stumble and I might fall and so did people that like touched Jesus and hugged Him and walked with Him,” she continued. “There’s so much grace for us.”
Ivey frequently speaks about comparison and what true success looks like.
“I can’t help but always talk about the way we define success and how that hinders us, holds us back, and makes us feel like failures. You get to decide what your success looks like,” she posted. “Don’t let social media decide that for you! Stop looking around at other peoples lives and look at your own life!”
Movieguide® previously reported on West:
Christian singer-songwriter Matthew West just released his new track, “Don’t Stop Praying.”
“‘DON’T STOP PRAYING’ is OUT NOW,” West posted on Instagram. “Every year I land on a personal theme that becomes a mission statement for my own faith journey. This year’s theme is don’t stop praying.”
“We’ve all been to a place where discouragement can make us wonder if God really hears our prayers,” he continued. “I wrote this song for anybody who’s ever felt like giving up or losing their faith. I couldn’t be more excited to start the new year off with this new song. I hope it encourages anyone who hears it to join me in a commitment to prayer in 2024.”
“Pray for our families, for our friends, for our enemies, for our nation, for our world. God hears the prayers of his people, so don’t stop praying,” West urged.
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