All too often, I think I can't do this! Working out or life in general, somedays I just want to quit! I don't think I can do it anymore...then of course I look for assurance that I am not alone and for me that means going to God's Word. In Ephesians, Paul is praying for the church at Ephesus...for God's people...in 3:16 he says "I pray that He will use His glorious riches to make you strong. May His Holy SPirit give you power deep down inside of you."
Paul prayed for the people of God that God would make them strong, for the power of the Holy Spirit inside of them to be the source of their strength. So on those days I want to quit, I remind myself, in my own strength I can't do it, none of it...I can't run, I can't diet, I can't deal with the issues life throws at me, I can handle my children or my distant husband....I can't do any of it...it is through the strength of the Holy Spirit deep inside of me that I can not only face, but overcome any thing that seems to overpower me....truly greater is He that is in me than He that is in the world...
Lord, teach me to rely on Your strength for all things, not mine!
Come Join me on my journey to where God is taking me...see what He is teaching me and grow with me!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Transformed or conformed?
Romans 12:2 says "Do not be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may know and do the perfect will of God!" Who would thought, what is in our mind can keep us from walking in God's will. What we fill ourselves with really does effect us and what we do for God!
So the question today is...are we being conformed to this world? Are you being transformed? What are renewing your mind with? What are you focused on? Okay, that was more than one question, but they all tie together...when someone sees you, do you stand out as different from them or are you just another face?
If you say you are not conforming to this world, how are you not conforming...what is different about you and can anyone besides you see this difference??
Lord, let there be something about me that is different, that makes people want to know more and allows me to point them to you!
So the question today is...are we being conformed to this world? Are you being transformed? What are renewing your mind with? What are you focused on? Okay, that was more than one question, but they all tie together...when someone sees you, do you stand out as different from them or are you just another face?
If you say you are not conforming to this world, how are you not conforming...what is different about you and can anyone besides you see this difference??
Lord, let there be something about me that is different, that makes people want to know more and allows me to point them to you!
Monday, October 26, 2009
A High Price
Recently, I shared a post on here about my frustration of Christians picking and choosing what they would believe was for today from God's Word...this goes alone with that post in a way. I shared in that post that a friend had made the comment that she hoped God didn't expect her to dress in dresses or cover her head...she already does enough..
First, I want to preface all of this again with my belief is that we are saved by faith alone in the finished work of the cross...there are no strings attached to our salvation. Everything we do for Christ should come from a heart of gratitude and a desire to be obedient!
All of that said, my DH and I were having a conversation yesterday. God is really revealing new things to us...things that have been in His Word, but we have never paid attention to. I was sharing the above comment with him.
If we were strangers and I threw my son between you and a bullet meant for you, m y son died, but you were saved, how would you feel, what would you do? --My DH ask. I said, I would do anything I could to show my gratitude for your sacrifice. I would want to make sure you knew how much I appreciated your sacrifice...it would never be enough, but I would spend the rest of my life trying to show you what it meant to me.--this was my response.
God sent His one and only Son to die for us! He made the ultimate sacrifice, not out of a sense of have to, but out of His desire to know us and be known by us! There is nothing we could ever do to repay Him, but we can honor Him and we can obey Him...not just as the One who made the ultimate sacrifice for us, but as our Father who loved us so much that He would make that sacrifice!
Who are we to say that anything that God ask us to do is too much? How can we ever say that we are already obeying enough? I think we are too worried about what this world thinks and not worried enough about what God thinks!
I pray we get our priorities in order...Paul told us we could not be men-pleasers and please God at the same time and Jesus Himself said we cannot serve two masters...we will love the one and hate the other...we are also chose to choose this day whom we will serve....we must be willing to make a commitment and come to a place of obedience no matter what the cost.
Lord, Make me willing to humbly obeyYour Word as You bring understanding to me. Bring to my remembrance the price Your Son paid for my salvation and give me a heart of gratitude and a desire to be obedient to You! May all I do bring honor to Your Name! In Jesus Name! A-men
First, I want to preface all of this again with my belief is that we are saved by faith alone in the finished work of the cross...there are no strings attached to our salvation. Everything we do for Christ should come from a heart of gratitude and a desire to be obedient!
All of that said, my DH and I were having a conversation yesterday. God is really revealing new things to us...things that have been in His Word, but we have never paid attention to. I was sharing the above comment with him.
If we were strangers and I threw my son between you and a bullet meant for you, m y son died, but you were saved, how would you feel, what would you do? --My DH ask. I said, I would do anything I could to show my gratitude for your sacrifice. I would want to make sure you knew how much I appreciated your sacrifice...it would never be enough, but I would spend the rest of my life trying to show you what it meant to me.--this was my response.
God sent His one and only Son to die for us! He made the ultimate sacrifice, not out of a sense of have to, but out of His desire to know us and be known by us! There is nothing we could ever do to repay Him, but we can honor Him and we can obey Him...not just as the One who made the ultimate sacrifice for us, but as our Father who loved us so much that He would make that sacrifice!
Who are we to say that anything that God ask us to do is too much? How can we ever say that we are already obeying enough? I think we are too worried about what this world thinks and not worried enough about what God thinks!
I pray we get our priorities in order...Paul told us we could not be men-pleasers and please God at the same time and Jesus Himself said we cannot serve two masters...we will love the one and hate the other...we are also chose to choose this day whom we will serve....we must be willing to make a commitment and come to a place of obedience no matter what the cost.
Lord, Make me willing to humbly obeyYour Word as You bring understanding to me. Bring to my remembrance the price Your Son paid for my salvation and give me a heart of gratitude and a desire to be obedient to You! May all I do bring honor to Your Name! In Jesus Name! A-men
Don't Limit God
Recently God really began to speak to me about not limiting what God can do in my life and through my life. I am the type of person that likes to be involved and active in everything I do. Until the last few years, I was actively involved in ministry and then a change in churches, changed that. I have been frustrated because I felt like I was just sitting there on Sunday mornings...you know just another face, a number, but really don't belong. Don't get me wrong, I love my church and God is growing me there, I have just had a hard time with not having a place there.
Anyway, all this leads up to I was limiting how God could use me. I was waiting for a person to ask me to do something, but God had already called me to something and I didn't need anyone to ask me to do it. Because of my limited vision of how God could use me, I was limiting what God could do through me. Psalm 78:39-41 says do not test God, the word for test there can also be translated "Limit". Do not limit God...that tells me we can limit God! We can refuse to do what He wants us to do and we limit Him. We are also told in Proverbs 23:7 that as man thinks, so he is...
I am not advocating name it claim it thinking...I am trying to say that we limit what we can do for God by what we think we can do...His vision for us is so much bigger than ours will ever be, we need to start looking through His eyes not ours! My Pastor says is you can do it on your own, it is probably not God's plan for you...His plan will require you to depend on Him to accomplish it, it will require faith! God will take you out of your comfort zone!
For my life, my limits on God were seeing my ministry as only flowing through my church. During my MIA from here, God showed me that my minsitry, at this time, is hands on with my family, being my husband's wife, keeping the house to please him, dressing to please him, and being a godly mother to my children...training them in His ways and preparing them for His plan for their lives, teaching them not to limit Him!
The other part of this revelation was my writing. God told me to share His Word through my writing. Right now this is here, but I am trying to not limit what God may do, or where He may lead with this...I want to see this plan through His eyes and not limit Him!
To apply this to you today, how are you limiting God in your life? Where do you think He may want you to be, but can't see yourself there? Take some time with God today and ask Him to show you where you are limiting Him in your life and then ask for a glimpse of what He wants to do!
Father, help us to not limit You and Your plan for our lives by our small thinking! Help us learn to depend on You to do what we see as the impossible because through you all things are possible! IN Jesus Name! A-men
Anyway, all this leads up to I was limiting how God could use me. I was waiting for a person to ask me to do something, but God had already called me to something and I didn't need anyone to ask me to do it. Because of my limited vision of how God could use me, I was limiting what God could do through me. Psalm 78:39-41 says do not test God, the word for test there can also be translated "Limit". Do not limit God...that tells me we can limit God! We can refuse to do what He wants us to do and we limit Him. We are also told in Proverbs 23:7 that as man thinks, so he is...
I am not advocating name it claim it thinking...I am trying to say that we limit what we can do for God by what we think we can do...His vision for us is so much bigger than ours will ever be, we need to start looking through His eyes not ours! My Pastor says is you can do it on your own, it is probably not God's plan for you...His plan will require you to depend on Him to accomplish it, it will require faith! God will take you out of your comfort zone!
For my life, my limits on God were seeing my ministry as only flowing through my church. During my MIA from here, God showed me that my minsitry, at this time, is hands on with my family, being my husband's wife, keeping the house to please him, dressing to please him, and being a godly mother to my children...training them in His ways and preparing them for His plan for their lives, teaching them not to limit Him!
The other part of this revelation was my writing. God told me to share His Word through my writing. Right now this is here, but I am trying to not limit what God may do, or where He may lead with this...I want to see this plan through His eyes and not limit Him!
To apply this to you today, how are you limiting God in your life? Where do you think He may want you to be, but can't see yourself there? Take some time with God today and ask Him to show you where you are limiting Him in your life and then ask for a glimpse of what He wants to do!
Father, help us to not limit You and Your plan for our lives by our small thinking! Help us learn to depend on You to do what we see as the impossible because through you all things are possible! IN Jesus Name! A-men
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Take God Out of Your Box!
We sing about, talk about a God that is powerful...He can move mountains and calm stormy seas, heal the cripple and make the blind to see. He not faced death, He conquered death and rose again...this is the God we praise...but where is He in our lives?? If we truly belive that God is all powerful and we believe the Bible is true from cover to cover and Jesus is the same yesterday today and forever...where are the miracles??Where are the answered prayers??? Where are the dreams come true???The healed hearts??? Where is the difference in us and in the world??? I think it is in the box...the box that we keep God in..you know what i am talking about....that safe place He resides...we might open the box on SUnday, or in a crisis where we have tried everything but askiing God...but day to day...we keep Him in the box and the reality is the only way others know that we are followers of Christ is because we have told them...they see no difference, they don't see God moving in our lives or our lives are not different from theirs...so what is there to draw them to God?? We are called to be aliens in this world, to be different, to be set apart...that is way beyond the surface, to being different to the core of who we are...the only way to live this life set apart for God as aliens in this world is to take God out of the box! We as believers need to take our limits off of God...He can do more than we can think or imagine...but we won't even dare to think He can or may be we don't think He cares... His love is amazing and His desire to move in our lives is real and overwhelming! He can meet us right where we are and He will, but He will change us and challenge us tobecome more like HIm...letting God out of the box means getting u ncomfortable....we have not arrived...we are on a journey and it is an adventure and it is fun at times, scary at times...but we are never alone...will you destroy the box that you have God in...let Him free to reign in your life...to direct your steps, meet your needs and yes challenge the core of what you believe about Him....He is still powerful and He still changes life...can He change yours today??
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