WorshipFULLWednesday...No Longer Slaves

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline."

~2 Timothy 1:7

"I'm no longer a slave to fear.  For I am a child of God."  Can I get a HALLELUJAH?! And an AMEN?!  I need to know this.  YOU need to know this.  Satan wants us to doubt, fear, question, worry, and weaken in our present circumstances.  Why?  Because when we do, we separate ourselves from the power of God within us and we separate ourselves from God.  

The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.  ~Psalm 28:7

See, God has come to save me. I will trust in him and not be afraid. The Lord God is my strength and my song; he has given me victory.” ~Isaiah 12:2

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. ~Isaiah 40:31

See! This is the power God desires us to have.  This is truth.  He knows our present circumstances, and He knows if we trust instead of doubt, if we trust instead of fear, if we trust instead of question, if we trust instead of worry; and if we trust instead of weaken, then we have the power we need, the STRENGTH to have the victory over our present circumstances.  Seek Him and PRAISE Him!  

Praise Him when it seems hopeless!  Praise Him when it seems hard!  Praise Him when it hurts!  Praise Him right now! Praise Him!  Because our God IS GOOD.  Our God IS TRUSTWORTHY.  Our God IS LOVE.  Our God is MIGHTY.  Our God STRENGHTHENS.  Our God SAVES.  And YOU ARE NO LONGER slaves to fear. YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD. Hallelujah! Amen!!

Choose God.

"When the author walks on to the stage the play is over.  God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else--something it never entered your head to conceive--comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left?  For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature.  It will be too late then to choose your side.  There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up.  That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it before or not.  Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side.  God is holding back to give us that chance.  It will not last for ever.  We must take it or leave it."~from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (emphasis mine)

C.S. Lewis really got me thinking today.  Life is a string of choices.  Every choice has a consequence. Most of the time we know where a particular string leads us; sometimes we are surprised.  The consequences range from simple to complex, from right now to later, from immediately aware of it to didn't really see that coming.  But there are also some areas of our lives where we have no choice.  For example, I have no choice that the hair on my head grows curly.  No matter how I cut it or if I take a straightener to it, the fact is, my hair will still grow out curly.  I also don't have a choice that I'm 5'9".  I can, however, choose to be taller by wearing heels, but the fact of the matter is that when I take off my heels, I'll still be 5'9".  

God has given us choice.  He did design us in His divine image without consulting us on the design.  (Can you just imagine if we did have any say in our design?!)  However, He has given us the freedom of how we choose to take care of His design.  He also has given us the freedom of whom we follow.  We all--every single one of us--will follow someone or something!  We were designed to.  Even great leaders of nations follow someone or something.  

"But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve...But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

Joshua 24:15

Think for a moment that you suddenly became blind with no chance of ever seeing again.  The choice of going to see what Paris looks like from the Eiffel Tower is gone.  The choice to see your baby smile for the first time is gone.  The choice to see the display of colors hidden in the corals and underwater caves of the Caribbean Sea is gone.  Your bucket list of things to see and do have become extremely reduced and limited.  This is how it will be when Christ returns.  

We will no longer have a choice of who we follow when He returns.  Right now we have a choice.  Who we follow will determine where we will be for all eternity.  Your choice is: Christ or not Christ.  It's as simple as choosing: right or left; up or down; on or off.  Some of you might be thinking, "Well, I have a hard time even making those simple choices!"  Let me help you out, then: Choose Christ.  You'll never regret it.  And when He does return--and He will!--or when He decides to take you from this earth, you'll never mourn the loss of ever having the choice again.  You'll be standing behind your choice with joy and thanksgiving.  In fact, if you choose Christ today, you won't have to wait for that joy and thanksgiving.  You'll be living it.

Don't wait or delay in choosing whom you will follow.  Choose God. He has already chosen you.

More of God

If you know anything about who God is, you would know His timing is IMPECCABLE, perfect, spot on.  You would also know that not only is His timing perfect, but what He provides at that precise moment is also perfect.

My small group takes a break over the summer months as many of us travel and our schedules are a bit more difficult to match up, so I had been thinking about what Bible study we would do when came back together in August.  I had several in mind, but none of them seemed like they were "the one" we all needed to hear.  Do you know what I mean?  Any of the selections I had thought of would have been great and we would've certainly gotten a lot out of them, but none of them felt like they would hit us in the deep core of our beings, where we needed to be hit with the truth the most.  I briefly (and I mean briefly like a passing thought) prayed about it.  Without any effort God directed me to our next study.  Don't you love when He does that?!

The best part about being directed to this next Bible study that my small group will be doing is that God provided me with the opportunity to be a part of the launch team in promoting this new Bible study for women!  How awesome is that?!  Truthfully, when I applied, I did not think I would be selected to be a part of the team.  I doubted and came up with every reason why I wouldn't be selected.  How often in life do we sabotage ourselves like that?  Didn't God Himself pick out people who appeared "Least Likely to Be Used by God" for His great purposes?  Remember Saul/Paul?  He was killing the very people He later risked His life to save for the kingdom of God.  And what about Moses?  He was very self-conscious about His leadership skills and speaking abilities, yet God chose Him to speak to and lead millions of people.  Why does God do that?  So that His glory is shown; so that He is known.  The less we are, the more He is.

#ArmorOfGodStudy
http://bit.ly/AOGLaunch

The less we are,

 the more He is.  

As I write these words, I realize how challenging this--being less--is for me.  I have to ask for your forgiveness if any part of this blog glorifies me.  My intention is to glorify God.  I'm at constant warfare over how to make Him more and me less.  I know it involves a daily (even a second-by-second) surrendering of self.  This is the battle we all face.  This is the war we are in. Which brings me back to the excitement of this new Bible study by Priscilla Shirer that's coming out August 1: The Armor of God.  God has fully equipped us to fight in this ongoing spiritual warfare, and I CANNOT WAIT to find out more about this "equipment" and how to use it in my daily battles!  God's faithful provisions are perfect, and His timing impeccable.

Click on this link (see below) to find out more about this Bible study for women and join me in fighting for the cause of Christ!

http://bit.ly/AOGLaunch

All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory. 

~2 Corinthians 4:15~

THaNksGiviNG Thursday...It Is Well

"It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, proclaiming your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night."

Psalm 92:1-2

I am deeply thankful for worship music.  It is what inspires me to be in the right mindset, it motivates me, it uplifts and encourages me, it brings me peace, and it gives me reason to give thanks and praise to God for all He has done and even what He has not done in my life.  If there's something you're in need of right now, turn on some worship music.  Let the Spirit fill you and guide you.  Most importantly, if anything, allow yourself to simply worship the Lord.  He is worthy of it.  

To give you a place to start, here is Kristene DiMarco & Bethel Music with "It is Well"... 

May God keep you always in His perfect peace.

Directed Steps

"A person’s steps are directed by the Lord. How then can anyone understand their own way?"

~Proverbs 20:24

When my friend Amy and I got off the plane and through customs at the San Jose del Cabo airport in Baja California Mexico, we didn't know what to expect.  We just knew we had to find the exit and a ride to our resort.  We had gone through our last checkpoint and started walking only to realize we did not know where we were going.  There weren't any signs.  

We entered a section of the airport that I would name, if given the opportunity, "Beware: White Overload and Vultures."  This was the only way to go.  So signs or not, we were heading in the right direction.  The "vultures" were timeshare salesmen and women.  They were lined up in a row (behind the counters and in front of them) on either side of us from the moment we stepped into this section until the moment we actually exited out of the doors of the airport, and everything was white.  The walls, the floors, the counters were all white, and, again, there were zero signs to give direction or explanation.  It was all overwhelming and intimidating to say the least.

It's so easy to feel lost and confused without direction.  Satan stands by and waits to devour us at our most vulnerable moments.  Meanwhile, God is there already at work directing our steps.  He's just waiting for us to follow Him.  Sometimes we hesitate because we are unsure about where He's taking us.  Sometimes we refuse because we are afraid.  Sometimes we decide to go our own way because then we at least know and understand and have control over the direction we are heading.  But if we were to let go of the need to understand, face our fears, and step out on faith to follow God, then we would discover a life worth living for and many beautiful things we wouldn't have otherwise experienced.  

Amy and I did make out of the airport and safely to our resort.  God put the right people in our path to help us, including one of the "vultures" who set us up for a shuttle ride and who failed to win us over with his sales pitch. We had an amazing time in Cabo, and I know that if I were to fly there again, I would be so much more confident walking through the "White Overload and Vultures" section.  My advice to you is to not let uncertainty, fear, or confusion to keep you from following God's plans for you.  He is good.  All the time.  Trust Him and see where He takes you!

Truth.Love.Hope.

Here’s the truth.  I love deeply.  I’m not ashamed until I’m shamed, and when you love deeply, the wounds are deeper when your love is rejected.  It’s hard to recover from such wounds.  It feels some days like they’ll never heal.  But I don’t lose hope. 

Hope has been my one constant friend.  Hope has wrapped its arms around me in the deepest despairing moments of my life.  Hope has shone its brilliant light in the darkest corners.  Hope hands me the key to unlocking the courage to love once more. 

Thankfully, we all have a God who loves deeply.  Not only that, He is Hope.  He is a healer of wounds.  He binds up the brokenhearted.  He fills in those deep, hidden places with His love where human love cannot reach. He gives us the power, acceptance, and affirmation we need to feel strong, secure, and worthy. 

There’s someone out there who needs my deep love and who will return it just as deeply.  There’s someone who won’t be afraid of this kind of love because it takes only the bravest of souls.  There’s someone who won’t hold back, who will take risks, and who will not be ashamed to love deeply. There is someone.  I know it.  I have Hope.

“And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”

~Romans 5:5

Failure Impossible

 "For no word from God will ever fail." 

~Luke 1:37

It is impossible for God to fail. (Hallelujah!)  What He promises, He gives.  What we fail to do is remember and trust.  We search for ways to make His word work for us.  We use Him like a wish-granting genie.  We fit Him into our lives only when it's convenient.  We fail time and time again to make God "God" over us.  And yet, He waits.  He waits to fulfill His promises to us.  He waits to show us His everlasting love.  He waits to prove to us that while we might fail, He never does.  

What we can do and should do is wait on Him.  He is everything we need.  He is good.  He is love.  He is.  

Therefore, wait.  "For no word from God will ever fail" (Luke 1:37).  So while you wait, read His Word and BELIEVE. TRUST. OBEY. Good things really do come to those who wait.