Thus said the Lord

I just wanted to briefly share something that was on my mind a few months ago that I briefly touched on in my blog post from February ::  (The Shortest Month).

When I talked about what it means to deny yourself and what makes me, me?
 This was probably something that I should have included in my brief list but...relationships. They play  huge part in it and make us who we are. We have family and friendships that change us (and these changes are not always in a  good way, been there done that), and there's also the whole issue of romantic relationships.
See I've decided I'm not dating anybody who does not love Jesus with all their heart. So I'm waiting for that person.  While I was thinking about all this it really struck me that denying myself included this... God may keep me single for the rest of my life,  I'm much too stubborn to settle for someone, so the possibility of being 'alone' the rest of my life is quite real at this point. And I had a really intense prayer time about it, lots of crying, and coming to terms with that and then embarrassment that...it seemed harder for me to give up   marriage for Jesus than it was to give up my life for Jesus. And that made me cry some more. He asks for our lives, that includes my relationships.
I know I'm probably not alone in this as a young woman, I'm sure many struggle or have struggled with it, and I'm sure I will from time to time but that's ok, I've got my Prince. ;P


On a more recent note, It feels like a lot has happened since I wrote a post last week,

 I've been getting up and reading a chapter or two ...or five of my bible in the morning, right now I'm reading through 1 Corinthians, but I've also been reading  in Genesis, Zachariah, and John.


I've also found that I've really been hearing God speak to me more lately about things He wants me to do and I feel really blessed that He trusts me to help Him do those things! :)  It's really neat and I'm excited to see what He's going to do with it!

AND  I've just been really joyful this past week, you know why? Because we're prisoners of HOPE! :)

As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.  Return to your fortress,  prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you. 

                                  ~~Zechariah 9:11-12~~

Multi-tasking

You know when you read a good book and you can tell that all the little things are going to come together for a really great ending where it all makes sense?

Well the last month or so God has been speaking and opened my eyes about a few seemingly random little lessons or things in my life and these things are all adding together to bring Him glory, and I'm fairly certain most of it (whatever 'it' is) hasn't happened yet, but that's the neat part!

I know that's pretty vague so I'll fill you in a little bit. So I've been going through a real time of growth with God and during one of my prayer times a little while ago I actually asked God if He would test my faith. Crazy right? 

God's also been speaking to me about being more bold about standing up for Him and being more bold about my faith (kind of funny since that was the other word I kept praying about for my 'word of the year')
And so the next couple weeks after that there were small opportunities in conversations with friends or how I could have acted that would show what He's like. And some of those times went well and some didn't...because I didn't always realize right at that moment that it was a moment to stand up and be a little bolder. And I was reflecting on a few of those things and sort of feeling like a failure and God reminded me of this little verse 

"His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’"

~Matthew 25:23~

So God has sort of been doing two things at once in my life and they're dependent on each other!
 How cool is that?! :)

The Fruit of the Spirit

Just a quick thought on this verse...

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control

~Galatians 5:22-23~ 

The fruits of the spirit are the things listed above, what it looks like when God is obviously guiding someone's life, these are the attitudes, actions and the way to treat others. I could break each one down, into categories and what each one really means, what it really looks like, and I'm sure there's whole books on it, But I started thinking, if we know what the fruits of the Spirit are, then we also know what they aren't... they are the opposite

Which is: 

Hate, depression, anger, impatience, unkindness, wickedness, unfaithfulness, aggressiveness and being unrestrained


We can choose to seek God and the things of His spirit or we can have it choked out by other things and the opposites crop up in our daily life. So... in closing...

 Those who belong to Christ  have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

~Galatians: 5:24-25~

:) 

The shortest month

February is the shortest month, and it's felt like it. It's whizzed by and I feel like I've been far too silent on my blog despite how much I've been learning and thinking about. It's all really hard to put into words but I've just really felt God's peace with me, despite having six assignments due in one week- I'm glad that I've made Him first, I still went to church and volunteered... even though I had to get a bunch of work done, I stopped my work when I -honestly wasn't getting much done and needed to refocus and be refreshed by reading through Matthew or singing along to a couple worship songs or stopping to pray for five or ten minutes, which I know isn't long but just because I want to! And those are always really lovely times AND I realized that time spent praying or being led to pray about something - (when you're told to) is also a huge part of obedience and really fruitful! :) 

The last couple weeks especially I've been thinking about a verse in Luke quite a bit 

~Luke 9:23: ~

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me."

Two parts of this REALLY stood out to me...first of all, the word MUST. We must deny ourselves... it's a command, a duty and it means commitment. At least that's what the Thesaurus tells me when looking for synonyms for 'must'. 

The second part of that that stood out to me was 'themselves'. It makes perfect sense but I got thinking... what makes me who I am? 

That's a tough question to answer really, and that's probably why I've had to take the last couple weeks to even begin to think about it. So I've come up with a short and basic list (I do hope to make it more in depth)

What makes us who we are?

Interests/hobbies
Habits (good and bad)
Thoughts -> 
Words -> 
Actions (these three generally link up)
Talents
Desires/goals
Values
What we love and value in life


This is the basic list, and to truly deny yourself- who you are as a person sounds.. impossible and almost cruel, with a world telling you to 'be who you want to be and don't let anyone or anything get in your way'

But God tells us to do the opposite (surprise, surprise) so as someone who loves and follows Jesus I have to lay down these things and let them be scrutinized by God, so that I learn what needs to change and what can be used better for His glory. 

That's a lifelong process folks, and it's a must! 

Parable of the sower

 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 

 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 

Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 

 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 

 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 

 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown" 

~Matthew 13: 3-8~

I was reading the parable of the sower today and I got thinking about the thorny soil. It never said the soil there was bad, just that there were thorns, so it's still good soil - it's just other things got in the way, Luke's account says those other things that choked it out are worries, riches and pleasure. 

So what if it wasn't choked out - what do seeds  need to grow?

 We've  got the soil part covered, but what about water? Seeds need water!
Jesus mentions that drinking the water He gives  (Living Water) will be ''a spring welling up to eternal life'' 

So the soil where the thorns are, are the people who are more focused on other things rather than Jesus.
And the seed in the good soil producing fruit is the people who are focused and spending time with Jesus.  Have you ever seen any fruit tree in a drought, it doesn't make very yummy fruit without that water eh? 

Coincidentally, plants with thorns typically grow in places without a lot of water. 

There's my thought of the day. 

 

This month

I can hardly believe this month is almost over! I can't believe I've been so silent on my blog because God has really been doing a lot in my life lately!

In my last post I mentioned praying for a word for 2014, and I have it now! God gave me the word 'Obedience' and after quite a bit of struggling with not obeying something God was asking of me for a few months I finally went ahead and did it.

God had been asking me to give up a couple various internet sites that I spent a lot of time on - while there were neat and interesting things on there like art, cool stories and funny jokes, there was also a lot of violent graphic 'art', pictures, pop culture influence, awful sexual jokes and references and posts mocking Jesus. So very early this month I knew I had to quit cold turkey -and I realized this after a quote I read in 'Set Apart Girl Magazine' it said :

 We cannot delay our obedience to Christ until it fits into our schedule or when it is convenient and easy for us 

Which, was exactly what I had been doing...So from that point on I needed a plan of action, I complied a *very*  short list  of websites to go on instead of these other sites because I knew I would be tempted to go on them when I was online. The first three or four days were pretty tough as it was habit to go on these sites for my daily entertainment. But over these few short days my list grew... and kept growing with websites, testimony sites, missionaries and ministries to check out and look at instead of what I was looking at, so my list went from 5 sites (which don't update very often) to a whole page long! And thus far I haven't gone back on those sites in three weeks! Woo hoo! :)


It was also really neat how a couple days after all this internet site giving up I was at a friend's bible study and we were going over John 5.
 We were going over verse 6 where the paralyzed and blind were hanging out by the pool, and Jesus asked a paralyzed man  " Do you want to get well?" 

It seems like a pretty dumb question, the obvious answer is Yes, of course! But I found thinking of my own situation... had I really wanted to give up something- almost an idol in my life you could call it- to be made well?
Answer:  Not really, I was completely helpless like this paralyzed man, and still Jesus told him to 'Get up and walk' and the man  could do it, because Jesus told him to do it,  and he obeyed Him even though he probably thought it crazy to just stand up and walk after being paralyzed for 38 years. How amazing is that!  So if he did something Jesus asked him to - that seemed so impossible how can I not do something He asked of me that was so easy?! So that's what I've learned so far this month!

 Besides that, God has answered a couple prayers that I didn't expect Him to answer so soon or so...abundantly! So that's been really amazing to see! It's been a huge encouragement to just keep pressing on! :) 

Word

So last year I got this idea from another blogger, that I would have a word for 2013 that would be what I tried to focus on in my life for the year, and so I prayed for a word that seemed appropriate and 'Faithful' kept coming up. So my word was faithful, I wanted to be more faithful to God in more aspects of my life.


Looking back through my journal over the course of the past year I realized (with complete horror) that there was a lot of things that I was not faithful about, lots of compromises and distractions and (here comes the horror part) many of them were completely willful. Yes, I knew at the time (and even more-so now) that maybe some of these things I should have been determinedly running away from when tempted by them  but I didn't. So as I read over my journal I felt over whelming shame of all these things in my life that weren't allowing me to be faithful to God, and I just felt like I had failed - and dismally at that. So I failed, but I also grew from it.
I realized that although I might not have been faithful, God had been faithful to me! Every time I went against Him He brought me through lots of trials, traps and temptations even though I didn't deserve  it. 

So it's been really amazing to look back on that! I've been praying about a word for this year and currently have two that seem to be popping up so we'll see what the final outcome is and what God does this year! :) 

• I'd encourage others to try this out and let me know what word God gives you and what happens through the year! 

Whether it is favourable

Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with everything the Lord your God sends you to tell us.  

Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the Lord our God.” 

~~ Jeremiah 42:5-6  ~~

What a great attitude to have! To do what God says whether we find it favourable or unfavourable. Except in this case, the army officers inquiring as to what they should do, truly had no intention of listening to what God said. They asked, and knew what God wanted to do and still chose their own way, going to Eygpt rather than remaining where God had told them to.

My reaction to things like this that I read in the Old Testament is usually something like 'you dummies, God just told you not to do that!' But every time I remind myself that I do that same thing. I know what God says and still choose not to listen, I still choose to do what I want or what I think might be best. 

And that's an attitude I want to avoid. 

Wonderful Counsellor

...And he will be called

 Wonderful Counsellor, 

Mighty God, 

Everlasting Father,

 Prince of Peace. 

~ Isaiah 9:6 ~

I like this verse a lot. Because God really IS all these things, but I've learned some  things the past few months that make one of His titles even more interesting. 

In my program we're taking a interviewing and counselling course. But what's really neat is the fact that, counselling, though there are types of questions and different skills to use to get people to open up and share the one outstanding factor is this: 

'The therapeutic relationship' 

Yep. you read that right. The number one most important thing - is apparently having a good,  trusting relationship with the counsellor. **

**(This is actually in my counselling textbook) 

And... I imagine it works the same way in the spiritual realm as well with 

the Wonderful Counsellor! 

:) 

The price of a soul

Just another simple little drawing

Based off Matthew 16:26 .......

No crazy meaning to the drawing, it's just what came out when I put my hand on the page after reading this verse.

Zoomed in a bit

What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 

Joy, Humility and the Path Unwinding

You know, I have had an amazing couple weeks, I've just been spending a lot of time with God and reading the Bible. I actually have no plan for what I want to write here... This is just going to be typed out and unedited (so if it doesn't make a lot of sense...well sorry but that's my thought process)

Firstly I have felt really encouraged to keep being a light to the world where I am this past week and encouraging others to grow in their walk with God as well!

This past Sunday at church we had a really powerful church service and 6 people gave their lives to Jesus. Myself, a friend of mine, other church members and the pastors all went and prayed for these 6 people whose names I don't even know but in the flurry of tears of joy and hugs it was such a joyful and peaceful moment to be in and the rejoicing of the angels in Heaven over these people just makes me so joyful!
It was also quite powerful for me on Sunday because I remember I was in the same place two years ago today - being asked if we were going to give our lives to Jesus.

I've also just had several moments the last week to just let God really examine my life and some of the small things that I have felt convicted in and to pray about them. I had a really humbling moment last Saturday at a friend's small bible study group and we were singing 'How deep the Father's love for us'
And I remember about two years ago when this was the only Christian song I listened to besides amazing grace and I remember never being able to sing the line 'I will not boast in anything - no gifts, no power, no wisdom- But I will boast in Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection'.  I had forgotten that line was even in the song - and I can sing it now, but I used to think that was pretty extreme- to only boast in Jesus? I've learned it takes a lot of humility before God to sing that, something that was a huge issue for me a couple years ago - but now I realize that He's so completely worthy to be boasted of, because what is more important than Him? :) 

You know, I really think I'm falling in love with this Jesus guy... I mean... I was planning our future together earlier this week and thinking of all the amazing things He can show me as I go through life - from (hopefully one day) marrying a man that is in love with Him and exemplifies Jesus's qualities, to one day being a mother and understanding the tragedy of what it would have been like for the Father to give up His Son and just seeing my life unfold and one day being able to look back at how He's knit my life together - even at this point- and how my journey is changing and unfolding, it's just awesome! :)

Praise God!

Obedience

I learned this week that obedience to God is tough.

That seems pretty obvious maybe, but I've never had much of an issue trying to obey God in most of the big areas of my life. I choose not to go out and party or get involved in anything that God would disapprove of because I want to honor Him.
But that was easy - that stuff isn't my scene anyway.

I recently gave up TV in the last month because I didn't want it anymore and God had been putting it in my mind to just cut it out. So I have and I don't miss it. And that was easy too.

But this past week was something a little more difficult.
Not that what I may have gone through was huge, I'd just never been tested before.

It was a small issue that I hadn't realized I was so involved in and I knew it probably wasn't best for me.
 But I know what I'm doing right?

Well part of me was praying for intervention for God to do something before it became an issue and the other part was saying 'Go away I know how to handle this'

But God is just really good to me and decided to intervene the next day! And yes... I was upset. I was still convinced I could've handled it.

But deep down I knew that I needed to listen and trust God's plan rather than walk myself off of His plan.

The second difficult part about this obedience thing was my attitude towards it. It's been fluctuating back and forth between being sad and being glad. And again I tried to control that- to reign it in, cheer myself up.
But I was doing it in my own strength and that wasn't working. So my go to verse this week had been this:

My flesh and my heart may fail,

    but God is the strength of my heart

    and my portion forever. 

~Psalm 73:26~

This is where

You know when you question where you should be and are scared it's not the right place?
Well I'd thought about it a couple times since starting college.

But over the last week I've just been giving it to God and every time He's just calmed me and I'm completely at  peace with where I am and am not going to doubt where I'm to be.

To confirm this more, last Thursday one of my professors told the class that this year there were hundreds of applications to the Social Service Worker program and the faculty that teaches the course had to gather, sit down and hand pick the 75-80 students that were accepted!
Isn't that crazy?!

 '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.' 

This verse popped into mind during my prayer time last week and I didn't think much of it because that's not what I was thinking about at the time. But today as I sat down to just have some quiet time it came to mind again and I realized I really am at peace right now because that verse is true! :) 

Simple drawings

Something I drew: 

Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him...

Colossians 2:7 

I don't normally read the NLT version of the bible but I really liked how this verse was worded.

And I just thought it was so simply put and lovely that I had to draw something simple and lovely to go along with it. 

So the roots are growing down into Christ/ the Rock
 (if you can tell that's what the tree is growing on) 

And I decided to add more symbolism and draw fruit growing on the tree. Get it? :D

Just wanted to share that!  :) 

Where His heart is

There's always worry when choosing a career path.

In 7 days I will be moving away from home and heading to school to become a Social Service Worker.
I'm really excited about my classes and am eager for school to start.

The last couple months I've been having times of second guessing a lot of things. Things along the line of:

'What if I can't handle the heart break of all the people with needs as I become a social worker?' 

But it doesn't matter. I have Jesus to lean on.

He would go help those who are sick, hungry, hurting. Listen to them and care for them in every single way  He can.

The problem is me, I  don't want to have to experience other's heart break, suffering and problems as they try to handle life. I have my own share of it too. 
But that's the selfish part of me talking.  

But this is where Jesus's heart is. With His children.
And so it should be close to my heart as well.
To help others with needs. It's what He would do.
And so that is what I will do.

God works in *funny* ways

After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”

“Yes, he does,” he replied.

When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”

“From others,” Peter answered.

“Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

[Matthew 17:24-27]

 

Can you imagine that? Jesus literally just asked him the craziest thing... Go fishing and you'll find enough money to pay the taxes in the fish's mouth. That sounds completely bonkers. But Peter listened, he obeyed and what happened? Jesus proved (again) that He is enough. He could've handed Peter the money - but He asked him to trust His plan and I'm gave Peter a hilariously strange story - that would also make me laugh 2000 years later!


* I posted this on my Facebook as well and thought I'd share on here*

:) 

Concerning angels

 "Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?"

[Hebrews 1:14]

~~~

So I was reading this during my prayer time at the boardwalk today and I got thinking about the similarities in job descriptions of human and angels. 

Firstly, God made humans 'a little lower than the angels' and so (to me at least) it makes sense that we have some of the same 'jobs' such as worshiping and ministering to others.

It's hard to convey in words how cool that thought is. Just let it sink in. 

That's all!