SUNDAY SONG

Jeremiah 29:11-13
“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. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

Job 29:21-22
“People listened to me expectantly,
waiting in silence for my counsel.
After I had spoken, they spoke no more;
my words fell gently on their ears.”

God is good. He is faithful. He provides. I am truly grateful for all that He has done for me and is yet to do.

He is the same God of the Old Testament…the God of miracles and supernatural provision.

So thankful for that fact.

Have a blessed Sunday!

Real Love

There is nothing (so I am told) like the love of a parent for a child. I cannot imagine the pride and joy…all of the hopeful expectations. I also cannot imagine the heartache felt when a child experiences disappointments that, as a parent, cannot be controlled. However, I don’t think anyone, even most parents can imagine the pain of an ill child.  No one wants to have those thoughts, and thankfully, most parents do not have to experience this pain.  Unfortunately some do.

I was moved in an immense way by a song I heard the past week. I’ve heard it a few times. It was written by Matt Hammitt of the band, Sanctus Real. His son Bowen was born with a heart problem and had a very rough start to life. God was faithful to the Hammitt family. Matt Hammitt wrote a song for his son, and I want to share it with you.

Imagine:  the love in this song of a man for his son is only a taste of the love that God has for us.

HERE IS an ABC News interview with the Hammitts. (Embedding is disabled, so you will have to click on the link–amazing platform for their testimony.)

Here is Hammitt’s song, “All of Me”:

Giving thanks…

I’m thankful for. . .

A God who loves me no matter what, a heavenly Father who is wise and patient…who meets all of my needs and exceeds my expectations…always.
A family that cares about me, and who, over time, has become closer instead of drifting apart…a true blessing.
My friends…they care about my spritual growth and make me feel like I have worth and that I matter. They mean the world to me, and I thank God for them…I do…in my prayers fairly often.
The past year, I’ve had a lot of hurts. Through all of that, God was faithfully by my side to ease my pain. He will always have a plan, and even in my hurts, He has what is best, laid out before me. For that, I am very grateful. When we think things look bleak and that our circumstances won’t improve, God steps in and makes things 10 times better.
Thank you, Lord, for loving me and for giving your life to provide me with eternal life.  Thank you for being a never ending source of strength.

It is my wish that you all have a wonderful, relaxing and blessed Thanksgiving.

Philippians 4:6
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
Psalm 107
“Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his faithful love endures forever!”
Colossians 2:6-7
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

SUNDAY SONG

Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

James 5:14-16
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another,that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Matthew 7:7
Ask, and it will be given to you seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

I am going “old-school” this week with my song choice. I remember singing this song quite often in church…before praise and worship songs became the norm.

There is something to be said for the lyrics of this song, so I am including them. We can take everything to God…we can’t hide anything from Him, so it would be futile to think that He doesn’t want us to just give everything to him…good and/or bad.

We all have our weaknesses and flaws…He wants them. We all have moments of sheer joy and victory…He wants those, too.

So glad for the truth brought to light in this song.

Have a blessed Sunday!

What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful,
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness;
Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy-laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,
Thou wilt find a solace there.

Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised
Thou wilt all our burdens bear;
May we ever, Lord, be bringing
All to Thee in earnest prayer.
Soon in glory bright, unclouded,
There will be no need for prayer—
Rapture, praise, and endless worship
Will be our sweet portion there.

Another song…been going through my mind…one of those weeks.

Song time

Lots of thinking, today…

The past few weeks, I’ve been asking God to make me into the godly woman I need to be.

Lately, I’ve felt like I am becoming more and more self-absorbed. Pride creeps in, and I think I haven’t really noticed that, in me, until now.

To be honest, I don’t know how it happened. I do know that how much I am concerned about myself and how others view me, rather than see me as an extension of God’s love is bothering me.

As I was sitting in church, today, I kind of got lost in thought. I was thinking about how some people just seem to be a beacon of selflessness and an example of God’s love. There is a pure gentleness and natural love coming from them. I don’t see that in me.

Don’t get me wrong, I want to be those things. I want to be all about others and their needs before my own. In reality, if I do that, God will see to my needs and will bless me…but why can’t I get myself out of my shell to love on folks as I should?

Simple answer:  Fear.

Fear of rejection. Fear of not measuring up. Fear of doing something wrong, even out of good intentions. Just stupid fear. I can see it in how I fear about my appearance, and how I fret over how others will see me. I see it in how I fret over how people will react to what I say or do.

Fear is not of God, and to top it off, something I never thought of is that all of this fear and fretting has lead to self-centeredness and pride. even a lack of modesty.

The things that I want in life are walking six paces behind fear, pride and the self-absorbed nature that comes from it.

I want God-centered relationships that are based on His love and provision, not what I can do, but that I am being used to provide love and care, because it is a calling from God.
I want to share my blessings and talents; however, there is a lot that I keep to myself…out of fear.

I want those around me to see God through me, and to want Him in their lives in a very real way.

When I do things to bring attention on myself, it no longer becomes about God, whether it be in how I am dressed, how I’ve done up and fancied my face or even in how I do my job.

Pride is pride. I need to be more about gratitude, love and service…all with the quiet, gentle spirit I am supposed to have.

All of this began with a seed of thought about modesty…it led from modesty of appearance ot modesty of thoughts.

I hope this is the beginning to me becomming a better person. I am grateful that God has taught me this lesson and that He still thinks I’m worth the work.

He is so faithful, and I am so blessed.

Just some thoughts…

I am sitting in a diner, after attending our early service. It is packed, and I am wondering how many know God, how many even care, and how many only know God through bad experiences with Christians who look down their noses.

Hope others see love and care from me. I want others to see God’s love and I want to be a blessing to others. Sometimes I do not feel so successful in those pursuits.

SUNDAY SONG

Philippians 4:4-9
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Proverbs 4:23-27
23 Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it.
24 Keep your mouth free of perversity;
keep corrupt talk far from your lips.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead;
fix your gaze directly before you.
26 Give careful thought to the paths for your feet
and be steadfast in all your ways.
27 Do not turn to the right or the left;
keep your foot from evil.

Ever grow weary? I hate to admit when I feel weary, because it makes me feel like a failure, like I’m not trusting in God enough, like I’m not showing enough faith to believe He has everything under control–I know He does, but that is how I feel when I get world weary.

Today, I am posting two passages, which might not look that related from the outset, but the more I thought about it, the more I think I can make a connection. When we get anxious, maybe because God is silent and we feel that silence like a ton of bricks, we tend to lean on our own reasoning skills as to why–maybe even before God has answered a specific request made in prayer–in his time.
In Philippians it says that when we concentrate on God, and make our requests known, then we do not have to be anxious. (Trust me, I know from personal experience that this is a hard one.)  Then, in Proverbs 4 it states that we need to keep our eyes on God’s path for us, watching for all of the things that could cause us to stumble…guarding our hearts from various types of heartbreak in the process.

See…they are so related, because if we steady our eyes on God, do not manke decisions out of anxiousness, do not allow the distractions of the world get to us and our walk with God, He is there–listening, putting His perfect will and timing into place, and we are in place to receive those things, rather than off in the metaphorical wilderness somewhere.

This is hard for me, lately. I’m not going to lie. However, I find when I trust God more, the more I feel some spiritual warfare hitting me, so I guess that is normal. I just have to keep reminding myself of God’s power, His perfect will, and of His perfect timing….and wait…wait some more…and not allow the distractions that would trip me up, get to me.

PROVERBS 3

I have off from work the next two days, and I cannot tell you what a good night’s rest has done for me after a few weeks of little sleep, a fair amount of stress and struggles with not feeling well for various reasons.

This morning, I was able to read my Bible with “untired” eyes. I hate when I try to read and can’t absorb anything. Studying the Bible shouldn’t be that way…at least that is my humble opinion.

So, now I will attempt to continue my study of Proverbs. Each chapter has so much to offer…at times overwhelmingly so. It is hard to just focus on one spot, but today, I reigned myself in a bit to do so.

Proverbs 3:1-10 (CLICK HERE for the full text.)

1 My son, do not forget my teaching,
but keep my commands in your heart,
2 for they will prolong your life many years
and bring you peace and prosperity.

Comforting, huh? This is one of those conditional covenants we see throughout the Bible. Often, I wonder (me included) if we see God as a “giver” without condition all of the time? He does require our obedience and that we seek Him. Both of which, I confess, are not as consistent as they should be. I think that is why the next section of the Proverbs 3 is important.

3 Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Then you will win favor and a good name
in the sight of God and man.

If we do things to please God, not that our salvation is rooted and based on our works, but if we obey and seek Him, we will reap the benefits of a blessed life, and when we are blessed by God, it is only natural that God work through others to bless us. Thus, as the verse extols, we will find favor with God and man. Of course, we should care most about God’s favor, as He is our ultimate judge. What others think or believe about us needs to take a backseat. God should be first and foremost.  Again, though, don’t we get caught up in our fears of fitting in and worrying about acceptance? If you think about it, doesn’t that worry put others before God? It is something I struggle with, and that I am working on.

5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.[a]

7 Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the LORD and shun evil.
8 This will bring health to your body
and nourishment to your bones.

When I was choosing the verses to focus on for this post, these four were the ones upon which I had decided. I have been trying really hard since about February or March to discern when I am over-thinking things, or to discern when I am trying to be wise beyond my depth to do so…you know “leaning on my own understanding”. In the past eight or nine months it has been my desire to know God’s will versus mine, to know when He is prodding me to move or stay, even so far as to discern how to handle things within my family, that fall at my feet.

It can all be very overwhelming. I don’t always trust my ability to make descisions or to say, “God has called me to do this, that or the other.” At the same time, I can’t be some lump taking up oxygen. I can remember when there was a time that I would have thoughts of, “By the time I am 30, I will be or do such and such, and then by time I am 40, everything will be in its place, because of what I’ve been able to do, because I decided on those things.”  I imagine those of you reading this just got a chuckle out of what you just read. It is utter foolishness, isn’t it? I can almost hear God saying, “Good luck with that one.” Heh.

One of the things I have realized in the years between 25-42…God has everything set up for me. It doesn’t mean I quit thinking and choosing what I believe, based on God’s commands and precepts. It means that I should not rely on my own understanding of things in life and rely on my own wisdom. I think it would be rather foolish to think I am wiser than God and that I know what is best for me. When I look back on my past, I have evidence enough that I can be quite misguided by my own desires.

Thank God for His mercy and grace…In my mind, I was never good enough for college, would never have a house and that I would never get beyond the mistakes I made in my past; however, God is the one who knows absolutely everything, and He deemed, otherwise. Had I relied on my own beliefs and understanding about who I am, who I am in God would have never come forth. He did everything in spite of my nearsightedness.

9 Honor the LORD with your wealth,
with the firstfruits of all your crops;
10 then your barns will be filled to overflowing,
and your vats will brim over with new wine.

The final two verses are something I am working on. No, I am not wealthy, but we all have talents and other areas that we can give God, to honor Him and to bless others.
When we choose to honor God and bless others with our talents and the other blessings God gives us, He will multiply our blessings…He will, as Psalm 37 states, give us the desires of our hearts.

I hope you all have a blessed day. Thank you for reading this.