Be still

Ever since I had my concussion last January God has been teaching me the importance of being quiet. Something that I am not very good at. My life is always bursting with school, work, friends, ministry, culture, media and noise!
I'm the girl who never slows down and is always bouncing around from one thing to the next. My mind is perpetually spinning with one thought after another, with a continuous flow of tasks and to-do lists. While I'm awake there is never even a moment of calm in my mind.

But listen to this simple truth that has been speaking deeply to my heart lately.

"Be still and know that I am God."

    -Psalm 46:10

Friends in the busyness of a new week remember that intimacy with God requires stillness, attentiveness and quiet. We have to get off the busy highway of life to grow closer to God! If our mind is constantly full of other things then when will we be able to hear from God and allow him to gently whisper to us and remind us of who he is!

Dear friends be purposeful in your day and week to be calm and quiet before God. I know it's hard and there's a million and one things fighting for our attention, but it is so worth the effort! I am praying God blesses all of you this week with sweet intimate time with him where you get to pause life and simply be still and know that he is God! He wants to breathe life and peace into your stressed, anxious, overwhelmed heart, will you let him?

Stars

The promises of God 

are as sure as the stars 

they are constant and true

faithful like the dawn

Yet we are quick to doubt 

and prone to forget

when the storms and winds come 

we wonder if God is really there

But just as the stars shine brightest 

on the darkest nights 

God's promises ring loud and true

even through the storms

Some nights are so full of clouds 

that you may not see the stars

but even when the clouds cover them

you know the stars are still there

They are simply hiding behind the clouds 

waiting for the storm to pass 

and when it does they will emerge

and shine even more brightly

reminding you that they are still there 

and haven't changed

This is the same with God's promises

they may be hidden by the storms of life

 but they are true and real

and he is faithful and unchanging 

So even when it's hard to see 

and hard to feel God's hand 

remember to not be blinded by the storm

that's right in front of you 

but instead look past it and see the stars  

and feel his arms wrap around you as he whispers 

Do not fear, for I will never leave you

or forsake you 

Give up on yourself

When you give up on yourself you begin to rely on him. When you are willing to abandon your own little dreams you begin to get excited about his plan. When your way has blown up in your face again you are ready to see the wisdom of God's way 

This is something that I really need to remember, I want to start embracing those moments when I feel like I'm at the end of my rope, and I'm confused, and don't know what to do and I feel like I've done everything that I can and things seem out of my control, to seize them as an opportunity to completely trust and rely on God. To be excited about moments where God has to be the one to move and come through, where I can totally let go of control and realize that he's the one in charge and he has a bigger, more magnificent plan that I could ever imagine. To remember that his way is always better than mine and that even though I might fail, feel hopeless, defeated and want to give up, God is all powerful, never tires and his plans always come through! 

With God there is no better place to be then at the end of myself ...when I am willing to confess how weak I am I am most ready to reach out for the grace that can only be found in Christ

"I'll sing of the wonderful promise

that Jesus has given to me;

'My strength is made perfect in weakness,

My grace is sufficient for thee.'

And lest my poor heart should forget it,

Or ever forgetful should be, 

He still keeps repeating the promise,

My grace is sufficient for thee.

Yes, over and over and over 

My savior keeps saying to me;

My strength is made perfect in weakness,

My grace is sufficient for thee."

The truth will set you free

Sometimes it's so easy to believe lies that our hearts or the world tells us, instead of believing the truth of God's word and what he says. We all have lies that we listen to, so I challenge you to figure out what lies you've been believing and see what God has to say about it, start telling yourself the truth and memorizing scripture to help remind and encourage you and free you from the lies of satan. 



Recently I made this list of lies v. truth for a friend and it ended up encouraging me, so I thought I'd share! 

God will never forgive me for what I've done 
 Truth- "If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9) 
  We are fully forgiven in Christ 

God can never use me 
Truth- "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)
   God will empower you to accomplish the plans he has for your life  

I am full of fear 
Truth- "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self‑discipline." (2 Tim. 1:7)
  When I am in Christ I have nothing to fear 

If God loved me he wouldn't let bad things happen to me 
Truth- “For I know the plans I have for you”, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)
  God has my best interested at heart in all he does 

I'll never stop hurting 
Truth- "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." (Psalm 147:3)
"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 24:12)
  God will heal our broken hearts

I'll never be good enough 
Truth- "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork,created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Ephesians 2:8-10)

" How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death,[b] so that we may serve the living God!" (Hebrews 9:14)

  Because of Grace we are viewed through Christ's perfection 


No one will ever love me 
Truth- "But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:37-39)
  God's will always love us, with an everlasting love

I'm not strong enough
Truth- "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."(2 Corinthains 12:9)
"Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary."
 God will give us grace and strength when we are weak." (Isaiah 40:31)

I'll never change 
Truth- "Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." (2 Corinthians 5:17) 
"being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 1:6) 

God will finish the work that he has started 

Unfathomable Love

God went through so much for me, because of his love! He left heaven where everything was perfect to come down to a sinful earth where he traded his crown to be born in a stable. He was abused, mocked and made fun of for me, and ultimately he was tortured, betrayed and killed. He gave up his LIFE for me!  

Why? 
Why would he do that for me?
This is the question I ask myself all the time...why? the answer is simple, but life changing 
because he LOVED  ME 

So when I think about all that Christ has done for me...All that he endured on my behalf so that I could be forgiven of my sins and have a relationships with God, why would I ever doubt his love? How can I, when I look at all that he did for me, so that I could be his called daughter. 

God gave up everything for me, so how much must it hurt him when I doubt his love? When I don't believe it? I mean I know it hurts me when those close to me doubt my love and sincerity towards them, so how much more God? You see the thing is nothing I do surprises God, when he died for me, he already knew everything I would do, he knew how I would wander, how I put other things before him and all of the thousands of times that I would sin and mess up. He didn't go into the relationship blindly, no God loved me KNOWING all of my unworthiness and all of my failures! When I fail and make mistakes God doesn't look at me and say "man I wish I had never chosen her and I wish she wasn't my daughter anymore" instead he looks at me and tells me to run into his grace, that it's okay, because that's the why he died for me, because I'm a sinner. He tells me to come and live in the freedom of his forgiveness and love. It hurts him when I'm overcome with condemnation, because that means I'm not believing him, not believing that he is calling me with arms wide open to come and experience his love and forgiveness like never before, not based on anything that I do, but solely on his unchanging character.

It is when I begin to understand God's love for me, that I can then go and truly love others, but first I must see God's unfathomable, extraordinary love. 

God in the Everyday

Recently I've been learning to see God in the everyday moments of my life, because he's there, but too often I miss him! However, the other day God really blessed and provided for me in a small, but meaningful way. I broke my iPod touch  (dropped it on the driveway and the screen cracked). So i obviously needed a new one unless I wanted to be constantly cutting my finger on glass, but with getting ready for college I don't really have the money to buy a new i-pod....so i was looking at used ones online and I found a couple that I liked, they are still a little expensive, but I had enough extra graduation money to make it work. But then I noticed that people were selling iPods with cracked screens as well! I thought hmm....maybe i'll sell my old iPod so that I can get a new iPod. So I put mine up for sale and within 4hours it had SOLD! It was crazy! I got almost enough money from my broken iPod to buy a new one! :) AND on top of that, the same night I was able to buy a new iPod and it was even in the color that I had wanted (the new white iPod touch)! It was so neat to see how God provided for me in such a little way. To see how he cares about the little cares and desires of our hearts and how he seeks to bless us! I want to learn to continue to see God in little moments like these and be grateful and amazed and I watch him provide for and bless me! God is so good and too often I neglect to see how he is working in my life! So grateful for a God who not only cares about the big important things of my life, but also the little insignificant ones like an iPod.

Importance of Christ's Life

“For by the on man’s disobedience the many were made sinners. So by one man’s obedience…many will be made righteous.” Romans 5:19

Christ’s perfect life and obedience was important. His obedience included a life in which he obeyed God’s law in all things at all times. Every day was perfect. Our savior lived in perfect alignment with God’s will and law.

Jerry Bridges says it well:

“For the most part Jesus’s life of perfect obedience has

been seen only as a necessary precondition to his death.

The truth is, however, Jesus not only died for us, He also lived for us.

 That is, all that Christ did both in his life and death,

He did in our place as our substitute.”

We as humans have double guilt. We have the inherited guilt from Adam and then on top of that our own guilt and debt to condemn us. Jesus came and took care of the problem of the debt that we owed.

Even the absence of sin is not a ticket to an audience with God. We need more than a removal of guilt we need a savior who can give us the perfection that we can never attain. An absence of sin seems impressive compared to the dirt in our hearts, but God requires much more than a blank slate, he requires righteousness and perfection.

The death of Christ is what removed our debt and returned us to a balance of zero, while Christ’s obedience is what put unimaginable wealth in our bank account; it is because of Christ’s life and perfect obedience that we are granted perfect righteousness before God

Justification by faith alone means that we’re justified by the works of Christ alone.

So yes we should be very grateful for Christ’s death on the cross, but we need to be just as grateful for his obedient life as well! 

Meekness

So at my high school awards ceremony I received the Outstanding Character Award and part of the definition for it is "showing meekness before God" I read that and I was like what in the world does meekness mean? So I figured since my school feels like i'm "meek" I should find out what that means. 


Soo I went to my favorite dictionary  m-w.com and this is the definition that I received: 

 enduring injury with patience and without resentment : mild  deficient in spirit and courage : submissive not violent or strong : moderate 

I'll admit when I first read the word meekness and looked at the definition I wasn't sure what to think, but I didn't feel like being called meek was a compliment, I felt like it was saying that I was weak. 

Then I realized, meekness is a fruit of the spirit so it must be a good thing that God wants us to cultivate. God also says "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. (matthew 5:5)" so obviously it's a good thing and something that I should strive to be.  SO what does it really mean to be meek? What does it look like to live that out in your life? These are the questions that I've been pondering and digging into God's word to try and figure out. I don't have it all together, but here are the thoughts that I have read and come up with:

-Prautes, according to Aristotle, is the middle standing between two extremes, getting angry without reason, and not getting angry at all. Therefore, prautes is getting angry at the right time, in the right measure, and for the right reason. . . . [I]t is a condition of mind and heart which demonstrates gentleness, not in weakness, but in power. It is a balance born in strength of character. 

-A meek person has a tender conscious with a godly sorrow for their rebellion against God 

- resistance to evil in defense of God yet they react with patience, kindness and gentleness when others attack him.

-A willingness to bend their will to God's 

-Opposed to pride and arrogance 

- A willingness to put himself in second place and submit himself to achieve what is good for others.

Examples of Meekness in the Bible: 

A. Abraham. 

1. He was God’s chosen to be the father of the Jewish nation. Through him the Messiah would come. But he was also meek.
2. Instead of demanding his own rights, Abraham sought to keep the peace between his herdsmen and Lot’s. 

B. David.

1. He was God’s chosen to replace King Saul, whom God had rejected because of disobedience. He was a mighty warrior and a great leader. But David was also meek.
2. Look at how he mourned the death of Saul, who had sought repeatedly to kill him

 Meekness may appear to men as weak, but in spiritual reality it has great strength. 

Okay this blog post has kind of been all over the place, but that's because I'm still trying to wrap my mind around what it means to be truly meek I still have so much to learn.  But I'll end with this really good quote by A.W. Tozer that was really helpful to me!

"The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God's estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of God of more importance than angels. In himself, nothing; in God, everything. That is his motto."

Insanity Turned into Peace

Soo these past two weeks have been complete chaos!
Literally I've been treading water trying to stay on top of everything and trying to keep a good attitude throught it all, and I'm not gonna lie it was hard! It was hard to smile and be joyful when all I felt was pressure, stress and burdens.
To not complain when it seemed like everyday the teachers just kept pilling even more homework onto my already unreasonable load.
To put God first above everything even when I felt like I had no time to spare for God, there was too much to do and i was gonna have to stay up half the night just to get it all done.
To stop to enjoy my friendships & the beautiful moments of life even when my head was swirling. (it was hard not to ignore my friends when my to-do list was ten feet long)
To trust God that he would give me the strength to complete everything
To see that the end was near and there was light at the tunnel.

Yes all of these things were VERY hard to do! When you in the middle of a trial or overwhelming situation it's hard to look up, out! It's so easy to get caught up in yourself, and to start to throw yourself a little pity party. To sit there and sulk, to complain about all the homework, to complain to your friends about how much you have to do and how unreasonable people are being, to get frustrated with people who are not doing what you want! and quiet frankly its easiest to simply give up and despair.

But that was my problem, I was getting so self-absorbed. I was completely self-focused and ONLY thinking about me! I started to ignore my friends, to push God to the side, and only care about myself!

As much as I hate to admit messing up like that, that's how I learned and how God taught me.

He showed me that it's not all about me (shocking I know)! That my friends were in the same boat as me and instead of tearing them down and tempting them to join in my complaining/selfish/pityparty I needed to look to see how I could encourage and help them instead! To uplift them and help to brighten their day and show them God's love when they needed it!

I also realized that even the most mundane task like taking a quiz is something that God has given me to do, and everything he has given me to do is important. I need to work hard and pursue excellence and do everything for God's glory, to do my best to bring him honor and praise!

I also learned that God pours out so much grace and strength on us! Seeing all that God has allowed me to accomplish and get done even when I was freaking out about it all, is so amazing and I know it is only because of his strength, because on my own I couldn't have done it! This verse has really come alive to me!

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weakness, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ then I am content with insult, hardship, persecutions, calamities, for when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Sometimes this mess in life is the gift that God uses to bring me closer to him. He is enough for me and during these crazy days it is God alone who carries me, and because he carries me alone, only he can receive he glory and all my praise and thankfulness! Today I know deep down that the hard seasons don't minimize God, but they magnify His goodness. Here is where I learn to know Him more.

Memories

Memories--Recollection, recalling events and moments, remembrance

Memories are such an interesting thing. Remembering joyful memories of the past makes me happy , thinking about funny moments make me laugh, recalling God work in amazing ways strengthens my faith, remembering the moments of tears makes me sad.

It is amazing how many emotions can be brought about by simply remembering the past. I believe God has given us memories for many reasons

-God wants us to remember where we have come from and to see how far God has brought us.To encourage us by seeing the growth and change that has happened.

-He wants us to see that he delights to bring us blessings and joy through friendships and fun times. To remember the laughter in the days of saddness.

-God wants to show us his faithfulness and how he has provided for us in the past, to increase our faith for the future by seeing how God has answered us in the past. Remember his faithfulness to us, gives us faith for the future.

-Memories also keep us humble, increase our faith and encourage our hearts, bring smiles to our faces, give hope for the future and help to teach us lessons and reveal more of God's amazing character to us.

*Genesis 9:16-- remember God's promise

*1 Chronicles 16:5-- remember God's wonders

*Ecclesiastes 12:1-- remember your Creator

*Luke 22:19--communion is for us to remember what Christ has done

*Psalm 105:1-2-- recount God's wonderful deeds

Memories are important to God (he's the one who created them in the first place), he wants us to remember and to tell others of the great deeds that he has done! So that not only will your memories give you hope and faith, they will help others to trust God and see more of his amazing greatness as well! :) So treasure your memories they are a gift from God!

My Random Easter Thoughts

Easter has never been a huge holiday for us.

Besides wearing the cute easter outfits and doing the Resurrection Eggs when we were little it, it just was never something that was a big deal for us.

If I'm honest I've never really been that excited about Easter. I never a huge easter bunny or chocolate fan and I've grown up in a christian home my whole life and have been hearing the story ever since I was a baby! I'm most definitely not proud about that fact, but it's the truth.

Around the holidays I usually look at all of the blogs that I follow seeing if anyone has posted a twist on the current holiday, or if they have any cool new insight or perspective to share....as much as I love seeing new perspectives and such, I was thinking about the Easter story last night and I realized how simply, yet amazing it is!

The story is so powerful and deep in and of itself that there is no need to find a new way of saying it, because we will never fully comprehend or get to the depths of it. It is such an amazing story that is is impossible to wrap your head around it.

Why would a Holy and perfect God come down and go through all of that for ME? A sinner who despised and rejected him...It's true love, nothing else would have driven him to give his life for us! how many of us are willing to go die for someone that we know? Who would go die for a criminal? Yet that is what Jesus Christ did for us!

It's so crazy because you feel so worthless, but yet you are worth more than you could ever know, so undeserving, but so loved and cherished at the same time!

When you realize your sinfulness, how you hated God and were enemies with him, that YOU were the reason that he had to come and die, and go through such suffering and pain....it breaks me! Why me? I am so undeserving! I just can't understand, it shows me how real and true and deep his love really is! If Christ was willing to give up his own life as a sacrifice for me, how can I ever doubt his love for me? This love drives me to give my life for him, it's the reason that I want to live my life to glorify my God and to give him all that I have to bring him praise & to serve him only!

So when thinking about the Easter story this weekend think about this quote:

"Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something

done by us."

Think about your sinfulness and how much you grieve God in just one day! How you were were

the cause for his death. When you make this story personal to your own life it brings it to a new

level and your really begin to become grateful and realize what a huge gift it is, and what a great

price it cost!

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. ~ 1 Peter 1:3

Easter means that this life on earth is not all there is. Jesus went “to prepare a place for us” in His Father’s heavenly mansions for all eternity. Jesus died for our sins, paying our penalty, so that we could be forgiven. He was resurrected, to prove that death has no hold on those who repent and accept Him as Savior. This life on earth is a prelude to eternal joy with our Lord. Easter is a celebration
of our eternal destiny.

Expect

Expect...it's a funny little word that I've been thinking a lot about lately and it just keeps coming up. To expect something is to look forward to, to anticipate, to consider something to be probable or certain.

Expect great things of God!

Why is it so hard to expect God to come through and expect him to do awe inspiring amazing things? Maybe it's because we've been taught not to raise our expectations so that we aren't disappointed people have told us to keep our expectations realistic so that we aren't let down. But that's not how it works with God. Our God is SO great, and powerful that it is foolish not to expect Him to come through and do amazing things!

God is in control of everything, which means we will never have to worry about being disappointed! Our God is able to do far more abundantly than we could ever ask or imagine! He wants us to expect great things of Him and he wants to blow us away with is amazingness!

Expect more of God! Expect Him to show you life changing things every day! Wake up ready to listen to what God has to say to you! Ready to experience more of his love and grace!

God is there and ready to reveal himself to you, we just have to be ready to listen and expect God to show us more of himself daily!

Are you ready to take Jesus at his word? He says that if you ask, you will receive. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened. I suspect we expect little things from God. We don’t really expect God to change things. We just expect him to help us cope. We have not because we ask not. We do not believe God will deliver, so we do not give him the chance. I challenge us all to pray expecting God to do amazing, miraculous things—things you can scarcely imagine. God can do it. He will do it!

"Now to him who is able to do immesurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations for ever and ever amen." Ephesians 3:20-21

[Prayer] Part I

So this year...my only resolution was to study prayer and pray more! Prayer is such an amazing gift and one that I take for granted so often, I mean we get to talk to the creator of the universe ANYTIME we want, and he will ALWAYS listen to us, and answer our prayers! God is the only person who is there for you 24/7 who always wants you to come to him and wants to hear about your life, God genuinly loves it when we talk to him, and in order to have a deep growing personal relationship with God we must pray to and talk to our father. it's just like any friendship, the more you talk, and the more you pour out your heart to someone the closer you become.

I get discouraged sometimes when I realize how little I pray, but I'm seeking to read, and study and practice prayer daily and I am praying that God will help my life to be one characterized by constant communication with and dependence on my Savior and Maker the God of the universe!

1 Thessalonians 5:17 pray without ceasing

....I'll continue to write more posts on prayer and I journey through becoming someone who constantly seeks the Lord! Can't wait to watch how God works in my life and see the amazing things he does through my simply, and inadequate prayers.

Overwhelmed

Its been over a week since I last posted...because life has been a little crazy! So much going on!

OVERWHELMED that sums up how I've been feeling.

but God has been so faithful over these past few days, and has given me little bits of encouragement and strength to keep going. For example

I had an awesome time just fellowshipping with God at Epicenter on Sunday

I got an encouraging e-mail yesterday from one of my admissions counselors:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

(Proverbs 3:5-6)

"He has been faithful in the past when you have felt overwhelmed and He will be faithful this time too"

My homework load has been a lot lighter this week (praise God)!

Hugs (its amazing how much of a difference a simple hug can bring)

Simple reminders of God's truth and love...and somehow instead of being stressed and weary I have found peace and strength this week! Something that could only have come from God!

"The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart

leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song” (Psalm 28:7)

I just need to keep leaning on God, because he has always been faithful!

(hopefully i'll have time to write a blog post sooon!)

Sweet Promises!

I want to remind you brothers of the gospel I preached to you. (1 Corinthians 15:1)

Paul emphatically takes us back to the gospel and back to the blessings we have in Christ in order to push us deeper into a knowledge of His amazing grace. So, below is a list of promises that are just some of the many afforded to us if we have trusted Jesus. You don’t have to earn these truths, you don’t have to work hard to gain these truths, you simply have to receive these powerful gifts we have in Jesus. Note they are all in past or present tense.

They are already true even if you don’t acknowledge it. If you are in Christ these all apply, so rest, accept, and live in light of them.

You are loved | Ephesians 2:4
You are forgiven | 1st John 2:12
You are healed | Isaiah 53:5
You are new | 2nd Corinthians 5:17
You are secure | Hebrews 6:19-20
You are no longer under condemnation | Romans 8:1
You have the Holy Spirit | Ephesians 1:13
You have every spiritual blessing in Christ | Ephesians 1:3
You will never be abandoned | Matthew 28:20
You are partakers of the divine nature | 2nd Peter 1:4
You are pursued | 1st John 4:10
You are clean | 1st Corinthians 6:11
You are holy | Colossians 1:22
You are blameless | Ephesians 1:4
You are His | Titus 2:14
You are made in His image | Genesis 1:27
You are written on the palm of His hand | Isaiah 49:16
You are free | Galatians 5:1
You are filled with a Spirit of power, not of fear | 2nd Timothy 1:7
You have Jesus as your advocate | 1st John 2:1
You are justified | Romans 5:1
You are not on trial anymore | Colossians 2:14
You have a Father that graciously gives all things | Romans 8:32
You have Him interceding for you at all times | Romans 8:34
You are a Child of Him | 1st John 3:1
You are His bride | Ephesians 5:31-32
You are His friend | John 15:15
Your old self is buried with Him | Romans 6:3
You are raised to new life | Romans 6:4
You are dead to sin | Romans 6:7
You are in union with Jesus | Galatians 2:20
You are a member of His body | Romans 12:5
You are chosen | Ephesians 1:4
You are hidden with Christ in God | Colossians 3:3
You are a branch of Jesus | John 15:5
You have perfect access to Him at all times because of the blood | Ephesians 3:12
You are God’s poetry/workmanship | Ephesians 2:10

Maybe copy and paste these into a word document that you print out and put in a place you will see every day. Maybe commit to meditating on a few each day, marinating in its implications. Or, maybe open the Word and find the countless ones not even listed here that add to the list!

(wonderfullymadeblog.org)

Even in the calm...

"Oh no you never let go...through the calm and through the storm

oh you never let go of me."

What a comfort to my soul! Often we focus on how God is always with us in the storms, darkness and trials of life, and he is and that is an awesome truth, but today a new thought hit me. What about when everything is going okay? when we're happy and there is no big storm? Does God leave us to go through life by ourselves and then when a storm or bump comes he swoops down and helps carry us threw and then he leaves us again? Thankfully that's not what he does. God is with us holding and sustaining us all the time, no matter what circumstances we are in. I don't know about you, but I am so glad that I don't have to live one week, day, hour, minute or second without my heavenly father guiding and sustaining me. I know I can't do this life on my own even the "easy" parts. So today I am dwelling on the fact that even if I am not in a storm right now, my God is still the good, sovereign, faithful God, who is always with me. He is still holding me and leading me and giving me the daily strength I need to glorify him with my whole life!

Let that encourage you today, as it has me! & thank God that he is ALWAYS with us!

sunshine&hope

The beautiful weather after the yucky rain this morning (I even wore a short sleeve shirt!)

Sometimes God speaks to me and teaches me things in the smallest, little mundane moments of life...when I am open and actually slow down and listen he is always teaching me and showing me truth.

This afternoon was one of those times...I was driving up the street to the gas station, to get some study snacks for my sister and I. As I pulled up in the drive-way and got out of the car I couldn't help but enjoy the beautiful rays of sun as they shined down on me. I just stood there for a minute in the air that was cool, but warm with beams of sun rays hitting my arm,everything just seemed SO pretty! Then the thought hit me...this was the exact opposite of what happened early this morning. I came outside to go to school and it was dark, dreary and rainy. There are nothing pretty about it, but then 6hours later the weather had completely changed and the sun was out and the rain was gone....this reminded me of how God always brings "the sunshine" into our life. We may be going through a hard time, a trail, sickness, stress or just the everyday burdens of life and that's like the dark rainy days. But God will never leave us there he will always bring light and hope to even the darkest circumstances (he never leaves us he's always holding us & giving us strength). It's just like He brought the sun light out after a dark gloomy morning! :) Some how good is going to come out of it all! Persevere and rejoice knowing that God will use whatever circumstance you are going through for your good and in the end it will bring God glory and make you more like your amazing creator and savior!

"For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning." Psalm 30:5

abide in me...

"Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine you are the branch, whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."

John 15:4-5

This is such a sweet promise that Jesus offers, if we simply abide in him, seek our strength and life from God alone then we will bear great fruit! However, how often do we try to do things on our own, we feel like we can handle situations or ministry opportunities without God and his grace and wisdom? How foolish are these thoughts? If we do not abide in God then we can do NOTHING and we will not be able to bear any fruit. Jesus has paid a way for us to come to the father and be in him, so let us take advantage of that free gift and bear fruit for Jesus, no more striving and trying to do it on our own, that only leads to frustration, discouragement and dissapoinment! Seek Jesus today and abide in Him completely! Once you've experienced the joy, peace and strength that only he provides, you'll never want to go back!

Jesus time...

Time with God has become onw of my favorite things to do...even though I don't spend nearly enough time with my savior as I should!

((warning this is kind of long))

Right now I am studying the book of Ezekiel! I know it seems like such a random book of the Bible to go through, but I wanted to start studying books that I don't know very much about and well Ezekiel seemed like a good place to start! ;)

In case you were wondering Let me tell you it's a pretty awesome book! On the surface it may not seem to be I mean the whole first part is about how God is going to judge and destroy Jerusalum, but you know what? Through the 17 chapters that I have read so far God has taught me so much and it has been so neat to see! I get so excited to read more, because I just can't wait to see what God is going to reveal to me next!

Just read Ch. 16...God is talking about the Faithless Bride.

"When I passed you I saw you in your blood 'Live' I said to you in your blood, 'Live' I made you flourish like a plant of the field and you grew up and became tall." (v.6)
-God has given us everything and has saved our life

"I clothed you...I adorned you...and your beauty was perfected through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord....but you trusted in your beauty"
-we dishonor him and don't follow him like we should

As I was reading through I couldn't help but realize that that's me! I was completely dead in my trespasses, in utter despair and without hope, until God saw me and said 'Live' He saved me and gave me a new life, one full of joy and peace! He brought me from death into life! Yet how often do I forsake my savior? How often do I trust in myself and try to do things on my own instead of clinging to God and seeking His strength and help? I go my own way, I wander and I don't give God the glory and honor that he deserves! I seek man's approval above the Holy God. I don't praise him for all that he has done for me, instead I seek my own glory and honor and try to steal his throne.

It brings me to tears to realize how often I rob God of glory that rightfully belongs to him! Thankfully I serve a gracious, loving, forgiving and merciful God! No matter what I do he still loves me just the same! I mess up....and I'm going to keep making mistakes, but there is hope and forgiveness and he is always there to gently lead and guide me back to himself! So although I may not always love, serve and honor my savior, creator and father like I should....he is full of grace always ready and willing to forgive me and help me! What an amazing God!

"You may think that God is no better than you. In other words, you couldn’t imagine forgiving someone seventy times seven, so you can’t believe that God would. If this is the way you are thinking, then you are believing a lie. God is not like us. His forgiveness is not like ours. Don’t use your own weakness as the standard by which you understand God’s greatness! Just listen as He reveals Himself in His Word."

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." Ephesians 2:4-7

Thoughts from last night....

God is so amazing! Sometimes I forget that...sometimes I am stupid and try to do things on my own. But why? Last night I was feeling really stressed out and overwhelmed by the amount of things that I needed to get done! When I get like that I usually just need to take a break, so I decided to just go to bed & spend a little time with God (Always a good idea)!

I laid in bed and just spent half an hour praying to God and giving everything over to him and I could just feel the huge burden lifting off of me! I was no longer stressed out, instead I felt relief in trusting God and knowing that he would give me the strength I needed!

Then today was amazing! Don't get me wrong it was still an absolutely CRAZY day, but I wasn't overwhelmed! Somehow I felt peace in the midst of the chaos, something that obviously was a gift from God. He is so faithful he always comes through! why don't I trust my Heavenly Father more readily? Why do I still insist on trying to do everything myself?

I need to learn to surrender to God and give ALL my burdens to Him!

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” [Matthew 11:28-30]