"In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding,hemade known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ." Ephesians 1:7-10
To say this week has been a hard week would be an understatement. I have sat on the sidelines while people I care about have their world turned upside down. I feel helpless because I know all too well the pain they are going through. I have cried so many tears this week for these sweet people and their heartache and for the heartbreak it has resurfaced for myself. But a sweet coworker and friend reminded me this week that sometimes our world seems like yuck, muck, junk, broken, sadness, hate, anger, and all kinds of other junk but from Gods perspective everything is lining up to create something beautiful.
I think in our hard and broken weeks and daystar from our prospective we see a giant mess that can't be salvaged, but God sees beauty! All we can see is the storm, but little do we know the clouds are breaking and the sun will soon be out again.
Dear God, in the dark painful sad broken moments of this life let us not cry out in anger, but let us cry out for you to shine your light and make beauty out of our ashes and redeem the broken. Lord we praise you in the storm we know all things have its timing and that you are sovereign and can turn any situation into something beautiful to you be the glory. Amen
Today a good friend giggled as she read my check in badge for work "Prayer Partner". A year ago she and I went on a mission trip together and I refused to pray out loud. At the time I felt like my prayers wouldn't be good enough and was afraid of stumbling on my words. Fast forward to present time my job allows me the privilege to pray out loud with people almost everyday. Funny isn't it? How what we consider a weakness God turns into a strength and allows it to be a way to bring him glory. A lot of parts of my new job terrified me only a year ago, but God pushed me out of my comfort zone and now I love everything about my job! Each day I get to be there for people in their weak and vulnerable moments or in their happy joyful moments and it is all thanks to God alone. I just had to hand over my weakness to God and He turned it into a strength and something I love to do each day. 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 Corinthians 12:9 The truth is we don't know what our future holds, but we know who holds our future and all too often does He like to turn our weakness into strength and allow it to bring God glory. "May we be a canvas for displaying God's powerful works of grace." (shereadstruth.com) Let us all turn over our weakness to God so he may make it our strength. Let us be grateful for our strengths, weaknesses, and talents all the same. Let us be guided by God to the future he has planned for us, because it is good.
"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10: 23-25 We were put on this Earth to do life together and to support one another. The truth is we don't do much of that. When someone hurts us or does wrong by us it's hard to want to do good deeds for them or love them. I will be the first to tell you forgiveness is something i'm barely getting the hang of. Take a minute and think about the bad days and hard times and also the good times wouldn't it be incredible if you could be there for someone who has done you wrong in their hard times? How God honoring is that? To love someone despite what they have done to you. "If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,but do not have love, I gain nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 If we can't love our fellow brother or sister in Christ in their time of need who will? We need to put aside our pride and humble ourselves and reach out in forgiveness and love. Maybe you aren't ready to talk to this person yet pray for them! I can not even begin to explain to you the power of prayer and when you are ready reach out and be a reflection of Christ love. You can be the one who helps them. You may have the answer they've been searching for. Just step out in faith and pray both hearts are in a good place to receive Christ love and forgiveness.
Psalm 27: 13-14 " I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
I'm pretty good at being alone and when I say that I mean i'm content with doing things on my own. I am a very independent person and sometimes that can be a downfall, but I have found that in my alone time my patience has grown. I won't lie and say i'm super patient and have no trouble waiting, but I have changed the way I see my alone time and that makes it a little easier to be patient. I think in our alone or single time God grows us in many different ways if we would just open our hearts and eyes and realize this alone time is a gift not a punishment.
What do should you do with alone time/ singleness?
I think this question has many answers and we will cover a few!
First and most importantly I think this time in your life needs to be for reflection on your relationship with God. Maybe you have a great relationship with God and maybe the relationship is not what it could be either way is perfectly okay because we can always grow in our relationship with Christ!
Maybe that looks like joining a bible study or reading a devotional or committing to uninterrupted prayer time everyday, whatever it looks like for you make the commitment and follow through.
Secondly I think we should use alone time to reflect on the qualities in a mate we are not willing to compromise on. I have found that failed relationships can happen for one of two reasons- you were not equally yoked or one of you compromised on a "ideal mate" quality that you shouldn't have. (These go hand in hand.) I've been told many times by married friends that it is a good idea to keep a list of qualities that you are NOT I repeat NOT willing to compromise on in a mate. I have a list of my very own and as I grow in my faith my list has grown and changed. I think this is idea is genius! If you know you can't compromise on going to church every week why on Earth are you dating someone who will not go to church with you?
Side note: Missionary dating is not a good idea.
Lastly, I think we need to remember that being alone shouldn't be seen as a burden it's a blessing. If God really didn't care He would let you date all the wrong people whenever you wanted, but He loves us much more than that! He puts people in our life for specific reasons I think we learn something from everyone we meet or we teach them something. If you take that perspective and apply it to your failed relationship, what was God trying to teach you or what did you teach someone else? Interesting isn't it?
Give God the glory for letting you grow in your waiting for the right person. God's always looking out for us. He is growing you and growing your person, but right now your just not ready to be a part of each other's lives yet. Don't worry God's timing is always perfect and his plans are always perfect too!
I have noticed that too often today we are quick to judge. We see someone in an outfit we may not have chosen and we chose to judge them. Words have so much power and the generation we are raising up I fear won't know that judgement and hatred and bullying are not okay. So I challenge you to change your way of thinking! Don't worry I'll be doing it too. Instead of judging or "hating" on someone think of something positive about them. Maybe your accountability for this change in thinking means you need to say it to that person. Why can't we be a more uplifting generation? Why can't you tell a friend she looks beautiful and her response not be something negative about herself? Why can't we build each other up instead of tearing each other down?
The truth is your just as gorgeous or handsome as I am in God's eyes. He doesn't care if you wore make up today or if you didn't fix your hair or if you mustache is over grown! Who cares!!! God doesn't care about those silly worldly things he cares about our hearts. What if instead of outter beauty we could see people's inner beauty and that inner beauty was on display for all to see? Would we still be quick to negativity?
About a year ago I had a chance to see Jamie Grace in concert and first of all girl can sing, but secondly I just love how she talked to her audience. I watched as two young girls probably elementary age worshiped along to every song it was incredible. Jamie took a break and talked with her audience about how as women we should be the ones building each other up not breaking each other down and how we are all beautiful in God's eyes. Yes in a worldly sense our beauty looks different than one another but God sees us the same and at the end of her talk she asked those two little girls if she could borrow their phone and she sang a song and recorded them and took selfies with the girls. I was so impressed I wished in that moment that more people thought the way she did!
I encourage you to tell the people in your life that they are beautiful and lovely and handsome and kind and selfless! Spread the love I promise it feels so much better then spreading the negativity!
1 Peter 3:3-4 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.
I believe that God has a plan for each of us perfect, detailed, and unique just for me and you! Due to our human nature we try to plan our own lives and not let God be our guide and direct our plans. I can say for certain the last few years of my life have looked nothing like I planned, but I can also tell you that I am so incredibly blessed that they didn't.
My plan was to graduate high school spend two years in San Antonio and get a Bachelors in Kinesiology move back home and put my degree to good use. Oh but I tell you God had much bigger dreams for me. I moved to San Antonio and had a less then stellar time prayerfully made the decision to move home and spend more time with my Grandmothers. I moved home and after four months took a part time position at New Hope the next month my world was turned upside down with the loss of my Gram. But once again God knew what he was doing I was surrounded with love and support at work that I don't think I would have gotten working anywhere else. Last summer I accepted a full-time position as a New Hope Staff member I have had countless "Godpurtunities" during my time on staff and have recently transitioned into a different position on staff. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be where I am at today, but the truth is God DID!
No matter how hard we try to plan our life out somethings always going to go off script. You can have it all planned out when tragedy strikes and sometimes life just happens and our plans don't happen like we thought. I think our planning is almost fighting against God in a way. I thought I knew where I was going and I couldn't have been more wrong! We all need to get over ourselves and let God be the author of our plans. He has our best interest at heart and he knows how the story ends...SPOILER it ends good!
So stop fighting against His will and surrender your life and your plans over. I promise he can do the unimaginable with your life! We just need to trust God, because the truth is he is always going to take care of us.
John 3:30-31
He must become greater; I must become less.”The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all.
A modern definition is the way in which two or more concepts, objects, or people are connected, or the state of being connected.
Our relationships are very important, but more importantly is which relationship are you putting above all others? Well the right answer is your relationship with God. If you have a relationship with God and you are constantly giving over your other relationships to God I promise the outcome is so much better. No I do not promise you will never have a bad relationship from that point forward and I'm not promising you won't get hurt. Both sides of the relationship need to have their eyes focused on God and even then the outcome is not always good. If you are in a relationship just because that is not a good reason to be involved in any type of relationship.
The truth is we need to be first seeking a relationship with God and through Him we will meet others who also put their relationship with God above all else. It is when we do this that we can truly grow and encourage one another.Think about it, if you know that God is the creator of all things and that he wants good things for you is someone without a relationship with God going to encourage you to pray in times of trial? Or will they tell you to run to worldly things for comfort and peace?
I don't know about you but the best relationships I have are with like minded Christians.We encourage each other to pray in times of trial and we constantly pray for one another and with one another. We all put our relationship with Christ above the rest. I want all my relationships to be that way.
Why wouldn't you want your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, or wife to put their relationship with God above all others? I most certainly do. I love how the Bethke's so eloquently explain why we should be in a relationship. After all the end goal for dating relationships should be marriage. Throughout the course of the relationship you learn about each other and you have opportunities to grow as individuals and as a couple. Not everyone is in a dating relationship, but most of us have been at some point or another. During this time of our life we must grow in our relationship with God and grow our nondating relationships. It is my belief that when we stop focusing on finding "the one" we find the real ONE, God. We find a beautiful crazy love relationship in God and in the middle of all that He puts someone in your life that is also in a crazy madly deeply in love with Him.
Tonight I heard something that really stuck with me, The most important thing we can do about a worry or something we have been praying about is to let someone else pray for you!
So I arrive at the statement "The best kind of friend is a praying friend."
For a moment I allowed myself to take for granted the fact that at any given moment I know I have friends praying for me and I am praying for them but when I heard someone say we should allow others to pray for/with us I realized just how fortunate I am to have such prayerful friends.
For those without prayerful friends, first and foremost you have the most important person praying for you and hearing your prayers, God. Secondly I think often times we don't give our fiends the opportunity to pray for us about specific needs or circumstances, because we don't want to open up and be venerable. Well the truth is when we bottle these things up we are essentially robbing our friends of the opportunity and you never know what may come of allowing them to pray for you.
For those fortunate enough to have prayer warrior friends thank them and be a prayer warrior for them as well! Don't be silent. If you know a friend who has a need and you've been praying and they did not specifically come to you for prayer let them know "Hey I've been praying for you please let me know if I can do anything" A small little "I'm praying for you" can be so impactful on someone's life. I know I am so thankful when I hear a friend say they've been praying for me or read a message that I've been prayed for. I hope that I am letting my friends know that I am constantly praying for them.
Today I read a quote that said "What if just doing your job was the answer to someone's prayer?"
Soak that in for a moment.
What if the receptionist answering the phone is all someone was praying for that day?
What if the honest contractor was all that potential customer was praying for?
What if a God fearing teacher was all the mom prayed for her young child?
What if just doing the "mundane" otherwise known as our jobs was what someone in the world was praying for?
That's pretty profound to me!
I can say that everytime an ambulance passes me with lights and sirens I pray for the EMTs in that ambulance I pray God gives them the ability to do their job to the best of their ability no matter the outcome. I pray that our officers can keep us safe and be able to return to safely to their families every night. I pray for the teachers educating the youth of our world that they see the importance in their job. I pray for many people and their occupations, but I wonder do these people know that getting up in the morning and doing their job they are answering my prayers and probably many others as well?
Work can become mundane and we can forget that we are doing something important even if it doesn't feel like it. Colossians 3:23-24 says "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." Are you working everyday as though you are working for the Lord? We all can! Everyone is capable of using their God given talents to honor our sovereign God!
The photo is of a barber who on his day off visits homeless people in parks and gives them a haircut. I can guarantee you that this man is an answer to a prayer, because a simple haircut can allow these people to feel like everyone else.
"For you created my in most being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."
Psalm 139: 13-14
I can tell you with 100% certainty that I am a Woman made up of flaws, crazy, a touch of OCD, silly, a love of Christ, a thirst for knowledge, a love for people, and many more things. This verse is one I have to remind myself of, because I am my worst critic. My hair is never done right, make up never looks good enough, my work never feels perfect enough, my knowledge of Christ always feels sub par, like I said I'M MY WORST CRITIC!
But the truth is God made us flaws and all and I think that's just so incredible! Think about it "For you created my in most being" it doesn't say I only made the good parts of you and that other guy is responsible for your junk. How cool? God knows we each have our own junk and that some days we're going to be a hot mess and other days we're going to be a flat out mess nothing hot about it and He loves us just the same! God knows that we are humans and we have a sinful nature, but our sins are forgiven and in God's eyes no sin is worse than another. So why do we hold on to them and forget that we are God's precious creation made flawless in His eyes? "You knit me together in my mother's womb." Have you ever made anything before? I'm sure you have - imagine if you created this beautiful flawless work of art and everyone was in constant judgment of it, that would be hurtful. Well I believe that's how God feels when we judge others and even worse when we judge ourselves. We are essentially saying his creation IS flawless and it's NOT!
"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." This part has to be the turning point in the way we think! We know full well that God makes no mistakes and I assure you he didn't start making them with you! What if in those human moments when our self talk is getting negative or we have an itch to judge someone based on their sin we stopped and said God I am fearfully and wonderfully made you made no mistakes with me or anyone else for that matter help me to see myself and others the way you see us. Help me to encourage myself and others. Help me to see my "flaws" as intentional blessings that make me Me! Allow me to avoid judging others based on their type of sin let me see sin the way you do and help me to avoid sinful nature in my daily life. I give my negative self talk, judgments, and sin over to you, Amen.
Today I was a part of a friendly debate about the biblical "purpose" of Men and Women.
In modern society women are typically supposed to be the homemakers, we bare children, cook, clean and submit to our spouses. From the Women's perspective we have it much harder then men.
Look at the science behind the pains of labor its almost unfathomable. Constantly worrying and planning our future simultaneously with our children futures. Hormones, PMS, periods, menopausal need I expand on these subjects? But today I heard a wonderful rebuttal as to why men really have it harder then women, and the answer was this.. Men are biblically speaking supposed to be leaders of the home and one day they will stand before the King of King's and have to be accountable for their leadership of their family and women will not. Truthfully isn't that all the more intimidating then baring a child, or balancing work and wife duties, or fill in the blank with any duty as a woman?
This was a hard truth I had never thought of from the male perspective, and I believe it should motivate us even more to keep the men in our lives in constant prayer.
Lord make the men in our lives bold leaders in your name. Give them courage to walk in your will and bring you all the glory.
