Almost a whole month without blogging...
When I realized this I was disappointed. There is so much I would have wanted to say! So much I wanted to share with you all, and in a month's time I can't even begin to share the lessons God reveals to me.
This blog is a public journal to me. I want to share with you all how my God has led me through my days to find a deeper love and understanding of Him.
Colossians 1:10 says
"...so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God..."
My God is so good, and I have seen so many good fruits produced...so many humbling instances...so many moments of discipline to create in me a pure heart. My God is so good in the bad times, and GREAT in the good!
So, instead of trying to wrap up my whole month's lessons in one, I want to challenge you all...which is what I will challenge myself as well:
What will you give up to have Jesus?
Hebrews 12: 1 says
"However, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares..."
Throw off everything...not just sin...throw off your friendship, your relationships, your marriage, your children, your parents, your job, your finances, your blessings! EVERYTHING that can keep us from running toward the founder and perfecter of our faith!
Now...as drastic as that sounds....I am not saying to put yourself on an island alone and worship God alone. What I am saying is if we are truly willing to call everything around us rubbish in comparison to Christ....I know I don't always...but I desire to. I desire the desire to.
How important is it for me to have my quiet time, and what good things are keeping me from doing so? What is keeping me from sharing my experiences with Christ? What is keeping me from even thinking about Christ in all I do?
How bad do we want it? Do I count everything loss? Not nearly...
So I am challenged. I want to grow deeper in the knowledge of God. In order for me to do this, I must count everything as a loss, cutting loose every weight and sin that would slow me down.
Join me friends. And as always...I love you all.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Perfect Gifts from Above
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of lights with whom ther is no variation or shadow due to change."
What an awesome image that we have from our Father in Heaven! Your Abba Father waits to give you good and perfect gifts directly from Him! How precious and personal is our God to us!
Sadly, I am guilty of taking these gifts and forgetting their value. I take advantage of the years of music that has been engraved on my heart. I take advantage of the friendships around me and forget their worth to me. I even take certain gifts and expect God to make more out of them than what they really were intended to be. It's like God giving me a pocket knife and I try to cut down a tree with it. I expect the gift to do more than it was intended to.
How many times do we do this? Say my passion for music...God gave me songs to sing, but I expected my songs to reach the world far and wide and become famous! Maybe the purpose of his songs through me was to reach one person on Bash on the Farm. That was it...what if?
What if your desire to minister to lost souls gave you a passion to spread overseas....but God kept you in your community and church? Does this make the gift any less perfect? Of course not! God administers each gift to us perfectly. We don't have to tweek any design. It was perfect already.
I don't always believe this in my heart. I am very quick to want more than what God gives me. But I ask myself...what kind of daughter comes to her father and says "Dad, your gift isn't doing what I want it to do. I don't like this."
What kind of daughter would that make me? Especially to my Heavenly Father! If His gifts are perfect, and I'm not happy with them... the problem isn't Him...it's me.
"For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless."
My prayer Lord, Abba Father, is that you would open the eyes of my heart to see your design for the gifts you have given me. I pray that my heart would be changed to find contentment in the life that you have given me. I pray that I would cast aside all worldy desires and find the treasures in heaven to be more desireable and filling to my soul. I ask, God, that you would grant me a joy in what I have and only what you have.
"Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways."
May this be your prayer too. I love you all.
James 1:17
What an awesome image that we have from our Father in Heaven! Your Abba Father waits to give you good and perfect gifts directly from Him! How precious and personal is our God to us!
Sadly, I am guilty of taking these gifts and forgetting their value. I take advantage of the years of music that has been engraved on my heart. I take advantage of the friendships around me and forget their worth to me. I even take certain gifts and expect God to make more out of them than what they really were intended to be. It's like God giving me a pocket knife and I try to cut down a tree with it. I expect the gift to do more than it was intended to.
How many times do we do this? Say my passion for music...God gave me songs to sing, but I expected my songs to reach the world far and wide and become famous! Maybe the purpose of his songs through me was to reach one person on Bash on the Farm. That was it...what if?
What if your desire to minister to lost souls gave you a passion to spread overseas....but God kept you in your community and church? Does this make the gift any less perfect? Of course not! God administers each gift to us perfectly. We don't have to tweek any design. It was perfect already.
I don't always believe this in my heart. I am very quick to want more than what God gives me. But I ask myself...what kind of daughter comes to her father and says "Dad, your gift isn't doing what I want it to do. I don't like this."
What kind of daughter would that make me? Especially to my Heavenly Father! If His gifts are perfect, and I'm not happy with them... the problem isn't Him...it's me.
"For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless."
Psalm 84:11
My prayer Lord, Abba Father, is that you would open the eyes of my heart to see your design for the gifts you have given me. I pray that my heart would be changed to find contentment in the life that you have given me. I pray that I would cast aside all worldy desires and find the treasures in heaven to be more desireable and filling to my soul. I ask, God, that you would grant me a joy in what I have and only what you have.
"Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways."
Psalm 119:37
May this be your prayer too. I love you all.
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