LIFE

Andrew and I were talking the other night when our conversation took an unexpected turn. We started talking about trust. Me and trusting. Actually, he did more of the talking and it wasn’t very long. I listened.

You see, as I have been reading the Bible I have been noticing a trend. People turned from God and sinned. Some left God for a long time and others messed up in the middle of their relationship with God. Either way I always noticed one thing, the people came to God and repented. It seemed to be a verbal thing. Each time God always forgave.

As I thought on this trend I started to recognize that there was sin in my life that I had not repented. I had grown accustomed to it and did not repent.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

With this recognition I have started telling God I am sorry more often. This is me acknowledging to God that I know what I have done is not part of God’s loving creation. It also softens my heart to God’s workmanship. It is all part of a loving and gentle relationship. Where I live in the most forgiving loving arms in this whole world! It is when I walk in these arms that I experience life.

This is where God’s love and creativity is able to come alive in me.

That is what I experienced as Andrew talked to me that night. He told me I just need to trust. I told him that I have been hurt before when I have trusted. As he talked to me that night I felt God’s redemptive love working in me. The hard spot in my heart that had begun to soften when I repented was being molded by my Maker. That hard spot in me that did not want to trust was being shown love and is experiencing life.

This is LIFE! This is where I can breathe deep with a peace that has been there to be mine since the beginning of time and promises to always be mine.

Jesus came so that we could have life abundantly.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I (Jesus) have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.  John 10:10

It’s Personal (2)

Psalm 62:8

“Trust in Him at all times, O people;

pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.”

I love what this verse says. It speaks to something I have felt deeply this year.

The verse says pour out your heart to God!

You can’t stand what that person did to you today. You are worried about tomorrow. Your child is sick. You can not break a bad habit.

You do not have to have everything together to talk to God. God can help you break a bad habit. God can teach you a love for time spent with God. God can teach you forgiveness. God can show you how much God loves you.

I have been practicing trusting God with everything. Talking to God honestly about anything. Holding nothing back. If I am feeling it, then I can talk to God about it.

That gets personal and that gets amazing.

Ducks in a Row

Last fall I told you how God spoke to me through another person. I mentioned how this perfect stranger started singing to me my favorite song, Great is Thy Faithfulness, it was a confirmation to me that God had something to say. This is what God told me:

That I didn’t need to have all my “ducks in a row”.

When things were not going the way I planned, when the laundry, toys and dishes were piling up in spots I did not want them…I was stressed and bugged. I needed to learn that not everything had to be just so, that perhaps some mess was A-okay!

God has been the perfect one to teach me this lesson. I have been learning just how much I can rely on God. Completely. And I mean completely. All my ducks in a row could never bring me peace the way God can.

Here is a video I listened to today that reminded me of what God has been teaching me.

“Less stress and more strength. . .blessed are those who dwell with, who get with God. Blessed are those whose strength is found in him.” (Gwen Smith)

This is Love

Love:

God’s greatest commandment for us is to love God and to love others. God was the very first to love.

He is asking all of us to accept the love that he showed us by sending Jesus to die on the cross. Jesus was a sacrifice for our sins. So we could live forever and always with God, now and in heaven.

Jesus’ death made it so that all of us can come receive God’s forgiving love. Jesus tore the curtain that once separated us from coming to God.

This is love. God’s love.

God did not want us to be separated by our sins. So he died so that we might have life with God forever.

This is also the grace that he shows us. While our sin once separated us from God, while we rejected God over and over – God still wants to call us His child. His beloved.

God’s love is making a difference in my life. God shows me His love as I read the Bible and go about my daily life. I can see the difference that God is making in me and my relationships. As I experience God’s love it makes it easier to show love to others. The love that God has given me.

One way that God is answering my prayers is in how I deal with my children. I have prayed to God to help me be more patient, help me in my parenting. God has shown me different things about myself, the Holy Spirit (a part of who God is) and about my parenting. These things together are helping me. I know that it is God helping me and answering my prayers. It is cool how parenting has brought me closer to God and continues to. I am thankful for the love and grace that God has given me. As a friend of mine reminds me, God’s grace is sufficient for me (2 Corinthians 12:9). Where I am weak, God’s love makes me strong.

You deserve the Best

You deserve the best, this phrase from the song bothered me initially. It spoke to me of perfection and that is hard.

I believe God created me. I want to live for what my Creator made me for.

I am thankful that this magnificent God wants to have a relationship with me. He actually wants to do a good work in me.  I have been struck lately how love, joy, peace, faithfulness, peace, kindness, gentleness and self-control are called fruits of the Spirit.

Sometimes I try so hard to be these things.

I was first struck with my need for the Holy Spirits transformation when I listened to James 3 about how no man can tame the tongue. It was reemphasized to me as I listened to a women talk about how she used to struggle with attractions to the same sex. She told us of how God has helped her overcome it and that we can not change ourselves, but God can. That we must surrender to God and she has done this daily. She quoted John 15:5

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

Apart from God we can do nothing.

Psalm 119: 9-10

9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. 10 I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.

God is not calling me to live this life on my own. He wants me to live every step of the way with him. I bring glory to God as I live every step of my walk with God. God gets the best that he deserves as I live every step with God.

1 Corinthians 1:

²⁶ Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. ³⁰ It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. ³¹ Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

I love the part of the song that says “You’ve given such grace I don’t deserve.”

The part of the song that speaks from my heart the most is

“All my heart, all my soul, and mind, I want to live uncompromised”

Let us … Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself. (Luke 10:27)

As we allow ourselves to fall completely and wholeheartedly in love with God, that is the best.

Phil 1:6 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.