Slapped in the Face

The other day a friend of mine asked if we were still friends. I asked why wouldn't we be. They replied with some nonsensical reason. I got pretty irritated.

Embrace Differences

I'm taking an course that's walking me and fellow students through the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens book, by Sean Covey. It's definitely been eye-opening, but I'm not on here to rant about all that it's taught me. Just a piece that Abba opened my eyes up to...

Afire

Who doesn't love a summer night, under the stars, near a warm fire? Whether it's a more soothing atmosphere of a couple adults relaxing together around a small campfire, or a group of teenagers talking it up around a huge bonfire; it seems that summer nights need a fire to set the stage.

Just Stand.

Sometimes all God asks us to do is make a stand. Such as shown in 2 Chron. 20:17. God told them, as a multitude was on its way to take them out, that they wouldn't need to fight in the battle. He did instruct them to "position themselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord!"

Something I noticed was they still had to make a stand.. God could have said "I got this, you just sit tight." but He didn't. He asked them to position themselves and watch that He would come save them. We don't even know how close Abba lets the enemy get! Just that they took the leap of faith and He was faithful.

Psalm 91:2

Have you ever had a situation that seemed all around rocky? Where everywhere you look there's mass confusion. Waves are sky high, lightening is flashing through the dark, rocks are behind you threatening destruction. And you just have no idea what to do or where to turn first? I've definitely had that lately. As I sat tonight with my bible, praying in my heart, trying to figure out where to go next.. He brought me to Psalm 91:2 which says:

I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust."

Oh the peace! Don't you love how God speaks to us through His living word? Hallelujah, He IS GOOD!

BURN flesh, BURN.

Solomon went up there before the Lord to the bronze alter which was at the tent of meeting, and offered a thousand burnt offerings.
-2 Chron. 1:6 (NASB)

Wow... and to think there are days where all my flesh wants to do is sleep in! I think this simple verse gets passed over a lot, but whenever I come to it I have to pause. I can see Solomon, with the sweat on his brow and soaking through his clothes... muscles straining... just throwing sacrifice upon sacrifice to the burning alter.

Not because he figured God would repay him (i.e. he would get something out of it), he didn't even know God was going to come later that night (verse 7)! All Solomon knew in that moment was that he was overwhelmed with LOVE for his Lord and this was his way of showing that!

Nowadays of course, we don't sacrifice animals thanks to Jesus covering that, but we do lay ourselves down to die daily, this is the attitude we ought to have about our own flesh burning...and how sweet an aroma to Abba it is!

Brief Warning

I was in the bathroom from 2-3am sick. You see whenever I stop eating what I need and take in too much junk my body will let me know its time to detox - warning me to wake up and live right.

This time though was only partially about physical health. In the last two years, I wandered from the path I was so passionately on. I became drained. I couldn't reach out anymore... its only in the last two difficult weeks that I've stumbled back towards home.

Why am I sharing this with you? Because God showed me something in this drastic morning wake up call.

God's going to call out His chosen. It's our choice whether we follow that call... Do we dare think that He will call a second time? You better cut that pride out. If God gives you a wake up call... WAKE UP. Do not hit that snooze button mumbling five more minutes... because He might just let you sleep. Don't risk it.

-- I'll be going more into this soon using Song of Sol 5:1-6.

Actions speak louder...

Allow me to share a particular conviction on my heart (in my personal life! I'm not yelling at ya'll, I promise haha. [If you are convicted though... what's that tell you?]).

--
We are responsible for the words we speak. We are ACCOUNTABLE. If you give instruction to another, you ought to be living that same instruction out yourself.

If you tell someone else that dating isn't right, you had better not be dating. If you tell another person that they should be digging into God's word, then YOU had better be digging into God's word. If you tell someone to quit their whining and press on... you got it, you should stop whining and just press on.

"But what about circumstances... what about different situations... there's all kinds of reasons-" No. There's all kinds of excuses. Either your word can be trusted or you're a hypocrite. As children of God we had better not be hypocrites in this world, because we're supposed to be reaching out to it. You wouldn't listen to one, right? So don't be one.

Remember that actions speak louder than words.

I repeat-- God #ONE.

Why is it so important to put God first? I'm sure there are many, many, reasons to this question.. I woke up this morning with one in particular on my heart and it has to do with: desire.

When we wake up and make an effort to put God before absolutely anything else, whether its reading His word, listening, or praising Him for awhile (as He deserves!), we're sacrificing. Time is precious to us, it is a sacrifice when we set things aside for Him. It is our actions saying "I love You Lord and I'm willing to put You first even when I don't feel like it..because my desire is to please You! My desire is for You."

This just.. naturally balances life. Its how its supposed to be. How exactly?

There's more peace because priorities are correct (God on top!). You're not scrambling around for some "filler." See we all have a God hole in our heart, it can't be filled with anything but God. When we try to fill it with anything else its like trying to fill in a circle with a square or a square with a circle:

As you can see, there will always be gaps remaining; we attempt to stuff things in the gaps to get us through... but it will never completely satisfy. Moreover it'll take more and more to get to that point of "satisfied;" satisfaction never truly comes, but the distraction will do its job.. for a little while.

Keeping Abba on top is important because He is our Creator... everything about us, our lives, our other relationships, our thoughts, little things we do each day... everything about life flows first from Him. We cannot truly embrace it when we have not first embraced Him.

But now, O Lord, You are our Father,
We are the clay, and You our potter;
And all of us are the work of Your hand.
Isaiah 64:8 (NASB)

Just a thought.

Hey! It's been awhile. So I thought, why not share this quick revelation Abba showed me while I was talking to a friend the other day? :)