Sharing my quiet time.

Father, I give all praise to You who lovingly created me. I dedicate my life to You! Your perfect love holds my foot to Your path. Where can I look but to You? Who can I follow but You? You are God, my God, and You breathed the breath of life into me! What beautiful tasks you place before me. You are so high and exalted. You see the things that I cannot. Your purpose for my life amazes and inspires me. You are my everpresent help in times of need. You go before me and prepare the way. What a beautiful thing it is to be created to serve You!

Psalm 94:18
When I said, "My foot is slipping,"
Your love, O LORD, supported me.

<3Created by God's own hand♥

Just Stand

Don’t run away, don’t fight, just stand.
This is what I hear from God, just stand.
Don’t sulk and lick your wounds, because this will render you helpless, Just Stand.
Don’t take offense and fight back, because this is not your fight, Just Stand.
I will surround you with others that will encourage you to Just Stand.
I will give them wisdom and words to comfort you so you can Just Stand.
When the enemy comes against you with discouraging words and thoughts don’t make agreement, just stand.
Know that you are who I say you are in Me…worthy, healed, capable, loved, whole and holy, so you can stand.

God showed me this week that it is normal to feel hurt by rejection, but do not dwell on this hurt. Turn my thoughts to serving Him and he will take care of the rest. He placed this calling on my life and His calling for me will be fulfilled.

James 1:12
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

Job 11
"Yet if you devote your heart to him
and stretch out your hands to him,
14 if you put away the sin that is in your hand
and allow no evil to dwell in your tent,
15 then you will lift up your face without shame;
you will stand firm and without fear.
16 You will surely forget your trouble,
recalling it only as waters gone by.
17 Life will be brighter than noonday,
and darkness will become like morning.
18 You will be secure, because there is hope;
you will look about you and take your rest in safety.

Lisa, Kelly, Mario…. Like Zophar the Naamathite when he spoke these words to Job (the whole of chapter 11 was too long to post here, but very encouraging) …..you three gave me words and wisdom to stand. You encouraged me not to run away and gave me courage. I love you and thank you!

Slipping Away….

Psalm 94:18
18 When I said, "My foot is slipping,"
your love, O LORD, supported me.

We go through peaks and valleys in life and in our relationship with God. Not by His doing, but rather by our own nature.

There was a time when I stood upon the mountain top. It was beautiful. I learned the most amazing things and understood so much. I was on the right path. God was gently correcting me, and teaching me to be a better person along the way. I was in tune with Him and hearing Him clearly. By trying to follow his teachings, my life became so much richer.

I was growing and that meant growing pains. Pain? Serious effort?…..I thought my life was going to be blessed? Shouldn’t this be easy? I rebelled. It looked something like this…..Ok God, why always me? Why do I always have to be the better person? This is really not fair! (Childish, I know) His answer was always the same “This is your walk; we are working on your journey. Don’t get caught up in judging others.”

Because of my selfish nature, I grew weary of the gentle corrections, and always being asked to do the right thing instead of my own thing. Now I am not saying that I feel that I am a selfish person….or at least no more so than most, but I believe that because we have been given free will, we sometimes make poor choices based on our own desires and not His desires for us. Oh, I know first hand that His desires are so much better than my own…my heart knows this, but my flesh is weak.

I take comfort in knowing I am not alone in this struggle. The Apostle Paul writes to the church in Rome:

Romans 7:21-25
21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

I have heard it said in church growing up that when you “backslide” it is much harder to make it back to where you were. I always thought that this was a strange saying because if God is always with us, and it is us that turn away from Him, then why would it be so hard to just turn back and pick up where you left off? Well, remember when I said I felt growing pains and rebelled? If the growing pains were more than my selfish nature wanted to deal with at the time when I was seeing first hand how beautiful things could be if I just followed His will………by jumping right back to where I left off, I wonder how quickly I would be overwhelmed by those feelings again when I haven’t been following His will and enjoying His presence for a while.

God is so very patient with me! Even though I turned away, He was waiting patiently for my return and guiding me back, a bit more slowly than before so that I do not falter again.

I feel so very blessed that God does not give up on us! I do not deserve such grace! I thank the Lord Jesus for His sacrifice that poured out this grace upon me!

2 Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

My New Years resolution is this…..This year I will try harder not to grow weary in doing good. I want to give God the respect and faithfulness He so greatly deserves.

Galatians 6:8-10
8The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

I would like to ask my friends to hold me accountable to this resolution. I wish you all a blessed New Year and Pray that you walk on the path that God has set before you. You hold my foot to it, and I will hold yours.