Faith.

What's faith?

It's not asking, questioning, doubting... when God brings us to a place where we must trust Him and are only told minute details, if any at all.

What's faith?

It's trusting, letting go and surrendering, without question... despite how bad one may not want to or how scary the situation. When Abba says let go, we must have faith He'll be there to catch us.

What's faith?

It's listening to that still small voice in the midst of a loud chaos, and holding on... faith is faith, and faith is a choice.


Peter, Andrew, James and John... Jesus called out, saying nothing more than a promise that He'd make them fishers of men. Without question they each immediately left what they were doing and their life to follow a stranger because they had faith (Matthew 4:18-22).

Sometimes all an impossible situation needs is a little faith.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And lean not on your own understanding.
-Proverbs 3:5 (NKJV)

Surrender.

Genesis 22:1-18

After all the storms that Abraham had to endure before his promised son was born one could imagine the immense love he held in his heart for this child whom he'd waited for so long. Then God told Abraham to offer Isaac as a burnt offering to Him.

I can only begin to imagine the thoughts plaguing Abraham on the way up that mountain..how difficult and trying the journey was. Still harder as he prepared the alter with his trusting child at his side..and yet the hardest part I know had to be when Abraham raised that knife to sacrifice Isaac, who I doubt was as calm as we see in Sunday school coloring pages...


The journey is always difficult, those precious moments right before the breakthrough are the climax of pain...when following Abba's will however, He always provides-no matter how the outcome may appear.

Karar.

Why do we drag through worship? Don't tell me we don't. We all spend the entire week too busy to read a couple pages of our bible then we get to church and raise our hands through a couple songs, sometimes putting aside our list of things to do.

While God judges the heart and, of course, not saying that worshipping with our hands raised is wrong... there's more to it! 2 Samuel 6:14 tells us that David danced before the Lord with all his might; the Hebrew word for danced here (Karar) means WHIRLED! Oh, to completely release every anxiety and just let loose before our God...

When David's wife pointed out how ridculous he'd been, he was quick to say "... I will be EVEN MORE undignified than this (vs. 22)" meaning if he was hit with the glory of God, he wasn't going to suppress it! There was nothing that could hold him back!

Hallelujah!! Let us not be fearful of who may be watching but dance; let us WHIRL with all our might with our treasured Bridegroom!!

Where'd the Bride go?

Warning: VENT!

You know that spotless, beautiful and pure Bride that Jesus is going to come back for one day (Matthew 25:6)? Well in the midst of this black world… I can’t even catch a glimpse of her light radiating sometimes; which is weird, because it should be as obvious as the afternoon and midnight.

So that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,
Philippians 2:15 (NASB)

Check out these two testimonies from a book I read (Lies Young Women Believe):

This would be lie #11: "It's not really sex."

First- "We're really into purity- my boyfriend and I. So, we try to speak about it at events and stuff. We tell people that they can just do what we do. Just have oral sex."

And- "Honestly, there's not one guy in my youth group who I haven't kissed or touched in some way. Some of them got farther than others, but I have a line I won't cross. I've never had sex."

WHOA. Something ISN’T being preached in Church. Half truths are whole lies; we need to start hearing the TRUTH and ALL OF IT.

For teenagers to be coming into church just to leave and mess around, I’d say there’s no conviction… seeing as the Word is guaranteed to convict (Hebrews 4:12) then I’m left to guess there’s not a whole lot  of (or at least ALL of) the Word being talked about. All I’m seeing is a lot of confusion on things that should have a very clear line (in this case immorality). I want conviction; it's the most loving way I could ever be disciplined sometimes. It's a GOOD thing!
For anyone unsure why à Conviction vs. Condemnation.

We are the Church, the Body of Christ, His Bride. It's time to start acting like it because I'm seeing way too much blending and compromising with the world going on...

Wheat vs. Tares

Jesus told a very important parable about the Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew 13 (13:24-30).

While servants slept an enemy came and sowed bad seeds in a man's crop and it came to be noticed as they sprouted. The servants asked if they should remove these tares, as they are poisoness to peopole; the master said "‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them;" (vs. 29) the two are near identical until the FRUIT appears!

He told them instead "Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, 'First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.'" (vs. 30)


Jesus was not talking about Christians. Not sinners and Christians, but the legit disciples from those who do their "Sunday duty." We're soon coming to a close on this earth; whether it's 10 days or 10,000 years is something on my Abba knows, but it's coming quickly. We're already seeing signs of the harvest! The line that was so long unapparent is becoming clearer and clearer.

Church, dear church.... sweet and precious Body of Christ, when will we respond to our Bridegroom's voice? Do we not hear that He is soon coming? Let us not sleep! ARISE!! It is time to wake up.

"And at midnight a cry was heard: 'Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!'"
Matthew 25:6 (NKJV)


Let us not be so prideful to think we're not the tares. We must humble ourselves enough to cry out and ask Abba to expose anything in us that would suggest that. We are not called to be 50/50 or even 25/75... we're called to be 100% for Him, and if any part of us is not for God, than we are against Him. The death of flesh is painful and costly, but to let it thrive is much worse off.

Seven times we are warned.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Revelation 2:7, 2:11, 2:17, 2:29, 3:6, 3:16, 3:22 (NASB)

Know Jesus.

Imagine a husband and wife just committed themselves to one another. On their honeymoon though, the wife doesn't give herself to her new husband.

Not on purpose of course, she's just trying to set everything else up:
Making sure all his lunch is ready for the next day.
The reservations are in place for dinner tuesday night are still intact.
Keeping the house orderly so he doesn't have to stress out...

She does everything she can to make him happy. There's only one problem, she's neglecting the relationship itself. This happens so often with Christians... we lose the intimacy with our Bridegroom and then neglect it while trying to fix everything else that touches the topic.


Let us not be so prideful to think that we are above Jesus saying "I never knew you" to us on that day (Matthew 7:23).

Girls, you are beautiful.

Hey girls,

I've got a thought for you.. instead of thinking about your "faults" negatively. Look at them in a more postive light.

Instead of: "I hate my freckles/curves/eyes/hair/etc."
Realize: "My husband is attracted to my freckles/curves/eyes/hair/etc."

Because we are created perfectly in the site of God.. not only does our looks fit who we are and our lifestyle, but it also fits who God's made us for.

Isn't it amazing how intricate God really is? He is our perfect potter, we're just clay in His hand; yet He looks upon us and says: beautiful.

Get Desperate

It's time to get desperate. It's time to get extreme. To DIG IN to our prayer lives and the Word of God. To further our relationship with Jesus. He's not our buddy ol' pal.. He is our bridegroom, take it seriously. If you weren't giving all out for your future spouse they wouldn't take you seriously on wanting to be married.

God's on the move. I've been saying this since the start of 2011, He's making changes; He's pruning His garden. If we don't get desperate then we're going to be spit out (Rev3:16). I dont just mean in our prayer lives either..if you want to be saved then God's going to call you out on it and you have to be serious to take that call.

Noah was a man of God. he built an ark in the middle of the desert because he was serious; if he hadn't been then he would've been drowned out in the judgment along with the very people who picked fun at his desperation.

How serious are we? We need to decide now.

Attitude

Attitude, to me, is more important than the facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people say and do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company, a church, a home. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are in charge of our attitudes. -Charles Swindoll

This is so true. We are called as discples of Christ to hold onto a thankful heart no matter what is going on in life.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. -1 Thess. 5:16-18 (NKJV)

Start this morning with a thankful heart and continue to let your heart be open to the daily blessings and praise God for them throughout the day! It could change your outlook, and your attitude.

A Guy's Perspective -

One of my guy friends wrote this up, emailed it to me and asked what I thought. I called him FLIPPING OUT because I've been waiting for God to use a guy to call girls out on modesty for awhile now!!

So girls read up, because this is something we need to take and listen to seriously.
--



This is for the girls out there.

I've talked with several girls about clothing - and how it affects a guy's mind. There are two options: a girl understands how what they wear affects guys, or they don't understand. Sounds obvious right? Not really. Because if a girl understands how what they wear affects guys, then they either do one of two things: keep wearing the same type of clothes in order to have guys look at them, or change the type of clothes they wear so that guys don't look at them. Unless a girl truly understands it, then she won't do either.

Now you may be asking why I'm saying this, or if you know why, you're probably thinking it doesn't apply to you. The thing is, a teenage boy's mind(not meaning his spirit - I mean his flesh, lower nature) is CONSTANTLY looking for something related to sex. Once we become born again, we want what God wants. And we'll begin to fight this urge.(If we don't, then we're probably not born again) From my own experience, at first it was terrible. I couldn't control myself almost at all. But then once I became born again, God stepped in and helped. Now I'm to the point where I win most of the battles - however, that doesn't mean there aren't battles, and it definitely doesn't mean the battles aren't TOUGH.

Read the rest at his blog --> Scattered Thoughts. :)

Promises

How do you see words? Are they just something used for communication? To get your point across? To express your emotions? I'm sure it's been at least one of these at some point. Something we need to consider is the power in words. We throw them around way too often, when we should be treating everything we say as a promise or a vow.

Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 talks about how we need to fear God and keep our vows; vows aren't something we ought to take lightly. A vow means: to promise something solemnly and seriously; or, a solemn promise to perform an act, or carry out an activity.

When you make a promise to God, don’t delay in following through, for God takes no pleasure in fools. Keep all the promises you make to him. It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it. -Ecclesiastes 5:4-5 (NLT)

An example is prayer.

My Heart shall not Transgress

You have tried my heart;
You have visited me by night;
You have tested me and You find nothing;
I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.
Psalm 17:3

After reading this verse I found myself thinking about the last part..and Abba led me to the verses Matt 12:34, 15:18 and Luke 6:45. All three basically say that what is in one's heart will be confessed.
So it is our hearts we ask God to redeem and purify, and from the inside the outside is also cleansed. As Jesus cleared up in Mark 7 about the heart of a man. So we must purpose [be determined] that our hearts would not transgress [do wrong; overstep a proper limit]. And God has indeed given us a set of rules (not to be bossy!) to keep, that way we can get the BEST out of this life before our eternal one.

For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. Romans 10:10

Motivated by Love

Why do medals matter so much? Why does outdoing and coming out on top of others mean so much to us? are we not supposed to have an attitude of SERVANTHOOD as Christ had (Matthew 20:28)? Maybe I'm wrong..but this is troubling to me.

What's someone going to say when they see another who claims to be a Christian viciously fighting for the finish...passing by someone who tripped and fell; deciding to see how they are after claiming the prize. how's this showing our compassion at all (1 Peter 3:8)? How's that love? We do it all the time though; we would much rather make sure we're all good before going to help someone else up. We need to stop and realize we're imperfect. It's okay to reach out to someone else who is hurting while we are hurting... it doesn't always have to be after we've gone through the healing process. It's just got to be in God's timing.

Compassion, humility, servanthood... Christ was motivated in all He did by love; and we are to follow His example. Remember souls are at stake here, so let's not get so wrapped up in the world that we lose focus on what matters.

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NASB)

But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
-Jude 21 (NKJV)

Blind Faith

I was a counselor at a camp this last week. Now we were there a day early and the adult staff had given us team challenges. Which meant we had to work together as a team to reach a common goal; learning to trust/rely on each other.

One of these involved putting together a board that'd been cut into a puzzle. We had to put it together..wasn't too hard. Then we had to put it together with all but one of us blindfolded. Where only the blind people could touch the pieces. I remember sitting there having to concentrate fully on the one person, listening for if he called my name at any point to do something, and then I had to make sure to follow his voice to a T, so to speak. I had to make sure I wasn't getting distracted by the other team members who would accidently bump me with their hand or knee. Sometimes he'd tell me he was grabbing my hand (or would just grab it on more than one occasion) and use my hands to do what he needed done. Once he even asked me to get up, then I had the task of listening to make sure I didn't step on anyone else, or the board already laid out (which by the way I COULDN'T SEE where it was!).


Anyway, I want to say that we really don't comprehend 2 Cor. 5:7 until we understand being so lost in the dark the only thing we can do is rely on Him soo completely. It's scary yes, but He can be trusted.

For we walk by faith, not by sight.
-2 Corinthians 5:7

Called to be (His) LIGHTS

"Do all things without complaining or disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, Children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,"
-Philippians 2:14-15 (bold/italic mine)

Now I believe this means faithful lights. The next verse (16) says "Holding fast the word of life ..." We have to be digging into the Word, plugging into Holy Ghost (our POWER source) because we are not called to walk around with candles in these dark coming hours! Candles are fine in a house but they do no good flickering in a wind storm! You know those football stadium lights? Floodlights!?

http://www.officialpsds.com/Stadium-Lights-stock4376.html
orginally uploaded by TheKidJoe

Come on!! THAT'S what I'm talking about! We've got to be lighthouse lights sending a CLEAR signal NO matter how many waves are crashing against us! Throw out your candle and plug into the real thing! And remember that when we're seeking God out wholeheartedly, He is going to answer.

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

But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deuteronomy 4:29 (NKJV)

You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:13 (NKJV)

Matthew 16:25

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
Matthew 16:25 (NKJV)


When we're running around trying to save our own necks, we're going to lose our minds. The thing is, this is way too much for us. There is no way we can do everything we need to right and perfectly, with clean and pure motives to gain top prize; in order to save ourselves. It's not possible.

However, when we surrender ourselves to our King, admitting and accepting that His only son died for us... whether or not we chose to live our lives out for Him, He died so that we might have that chance.. JUST THE CHANCE of saving ONE person was all that Jesus needed as He took on the role of a bondservant to share the same dream His Father did...and that was us. We are the apple of God's eye (when we accept Him) because when we do that we are covered in Jesus' blood (1 Cor. 1:30). He sees us and He sees His Son; we make Abba's heart SKIP BEATS (Song of Solomon 4:9)! Hallelujah... how can we turn away from such a passionate love with hearts not stirred to action? Not only that, but when we give up our life, our dreams, our everything, we gain life; and not just a better understanding and appreciation for the world around us... but eternal life. How can we not see that everything AWESOME in our lives, is still ... nothing ... compared to our God (Romans 11:33, 1 Tim 6:17, Isaiah 40:18).


But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ...
Philippians 3:7-8 (NKJV)

Check it out!

UPDATE:

Guy friends!!!!

I majorly encourage a read through of this blog:

http://stronginwisdom.blogspot.com/2011/04/chase-for-womens.html

AND read this "follow up:"

http://stronginwisdom.blogspot.com/2011/06/dance-cutting-in-for-eternal-impact.html

(Girl friends, check it out, a guy who chases you like this IS a guy you deserve -and nothing less!)

Conviction vs. Condemnation

Abba's working on getting a new blog out from me!! ... But for now, here's another one from another awesome woman of God in my life!!! How cool is God? Let me answer that for you: WAY COOL!


A truth Abba showed me today: Conviction draws us into God's presence while condemnation drives us from God's presence.When we are truly convicted by the Holy Spirit we are then drawn into God's presence with a repentant heart to find forgiveness and cleansing. When the enemy heapd condemnation on us because of religion and legalistic mind sets it makes us feel so unworthy and so inadequate that instead of running to God's grace we run from HIM. This is exactly why the enemy uses condemnation against us, to keep us from God's presence! Religion confuses us so we are unable to tell the difference between conviction and condemnation and so as a means of survival many times people raised in religion/legalism will learn to ignore the condemnation, instead of fighting it with the Sword of God's Word, while at the same time ignoring Holy Spirit conviction. Conviction is our friend! It brings us to our Source of strength and salvation and keeps us from destructuive sin!

"Holy Spirit we need You to teach us the difference between the two!"


Oh hallelujah that we might strive towards God instead of away from Him!

Never Give Up Praying!!

AH! I love being blessed to know these amazing people!!!

Here's a post that a beautiful woman of our Most Holy gave me permission to put up!

Today as I sit & think over what the Lord has been saying to my spirit, I wanted to share it with you my friends...to never give up praying.  We will often spend time praying & if the Lord doesn't answer in what we think would be a "timely manner", then we give up on that prayer. In Luke 18:1 It says "He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart." In your life I am sure you have felt like I have before, that you pray & pray and  nothing seems to happen, and you are tempted to give up or do give up, why then do we not have our answers from the Lord right away? One thing for sure is the Lord that wants to see us press into Him in prayer, to seek Him with All our hearts; so He can be found... sometimes it's for the character of perserverence in our own life; to see perseverance grow in us so we can stand through the "storms of life"  & another thing is that prayer is such a battle because the enemy of our soul doesn't want to be defeated and when God's people pray he IS defeated! Remember the widow in scripture who persistently prayed & finally received her answer. Don't lose hope, don't give up! I have a wonderful, precious, faithfully praying friend...she had prayed  for her husband to become a true believer in Christ for over 25 years, she many times felt overwhlemed & like she would lose heart; but she asked the Lord to help her persist in prayer & just 2 months ago the Lord came to Him in such a powerful way & set him free from sin & death through his acceptance of Christ into his heart! He thanked her for never giving up praying for him, just think if she had stopped, Praise the Lord she NEVER GAVE UP!! What a powerful picture of faithful praying. May you & I be counted as True, Faithful, Persistant PRAYERS!!

Giving Up

A friend of mine sent out this quick revelation to me and a few others. I loved it so much I asked him if I could post and he said I could!

Hey guys, so I opened my bible to a random page and it was the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac. Ok, we all know the story, Abraham had his son, Isaac, when he was about 100 years old, which was a miracle(since Sarah was about the same age) and etc., it was really awesome. And then God tested Abraham. God also tests us and our faith.

And this was a real doozy, God asked Abraham to kill his own son. I'm sure Abraham loved Isaac more than anything(dunno how he felt about God) and to kill him...that would be the same, actually worse, than say, us killing our best friend. BUT God told him to do it, and so he did it...except God stopped him.

And then after Abraham had submitted to God's will completely, God said "Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

So you see, when God tells us to do something, it's a choice. Abraham could have said, "No! I refuse to do this!" But he bowed down to God and did what he was told. We also have that choice. The thing is though...if we say no, then too bad for us. We failed God's test. OR we can say yes, and then God will say, "NOW. NOW I know that you follow me."

God's Word!!

You know what I love best about God's word? No matter what's up in my life, it applies. His word never changes. My sword is always ready and at hand! I have listed just a few statements that has a verse to back it up.

There are so many many more though (statements, along with verses)!

• We can trust Jesus as our Savior (John 3:16).
• We can trust that so long as we hand Him over all our storms in this life He will take care of them (Psalm 107:29).
• We can trust that God is a just judge (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).
• His word stands forever (Isaiah 40:8).
• We can trust that He thinks of us kindly, with love and that when we call, He will answer (Jeremiah 29:11-13).
• That when all our friends aren't living right, we can through Him; by standing firmly on His word (Psalm 119:9).
• We can trust the Word of God is our sword. Our weapon in battle against the forces we cannot see (Hebrews 4:12; Ephesians 6:12).
• When we have confessed our sins, noting the wrath of God Jesus endured while on that cross and accept Him into our hearts, we can trust He's always with us, even to the end of age (Matthew 28:20).

God has shown me how to take hold of promises like these and make them my prayer during hard trials, or even joyous occasions!

During a hard time for example, one verse was Proverbs 3:5. Because "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding"  became so ingrained on my heart, Satan absolutely could not use the trial I was going through to bring me down.. my King was too busy using it to bring me closer to Him!

And for a joyous moment was the last part of Psalm 33:1. I was just skimming through my bible one day (quite recently) and came across it: "For praise from the upright is beautiful."
How could I not absolutely melt at that? Through Jesus I am made righteous; and to think that when I praise God, He condsiders the words of appreciation and song on my lips... beautiful? Well hallelujah!


I'm sure you've got a favorite verse that God has opened your eyes to at some point, feel free to share them in a comment!! I love sharing testimonies!

WHO is Worthy of all My Praise?

How is it that we can put our all into singing:

"I will give You all my worship,
I will give You all my praise..
You alone I long to worship,
You alone are worthy of my praise"

in a moment that we hear it playing on the radio, yet when a commercial comes on we flip to the next station to sing along with a song about some (for us girls) perfect guy or one who just deserted us? Or (for guys) a girl's body? Getting to the bottom of that bottle? Fate? Guitars?? I mean they have a song about anything you could think of these days.

Some would say I'm overreacting, however I don't think so. What is our worship to God after all? A sacrifice. Why is it so? Because it's our time. If we're not giving that time to God then who can we say we're giving it to??

What we speak is powerful; is not to whom we're directing our voice -whether in song or not, even more so? It is our responsibility to come to awareness of just how much power is in our words. After all, all that Abba had to say was "Let there be light" and there was (Genesis 1:3). It's what started everything, and He granted speech to us as well.

Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth;
Keep watch over the door of my lips.
-Psalm 141:3

We Are God's Garden

(http://www.gardens-to-go.org.uk/nymans_wall_garden.htm)

Gardens are beautiful things. With flowers blooming everywhere, their colors bursting forth in pinks, reds and yellows; surrounded by the dark rich color of the dirt they sprout out of!

However gardens left unattended become unsightly and grow weeds. Weeds left unattended get stronger and harder to pull out. This is what happens to us.

Twisters, floods & hurricanes, oh my!

Abba woke me up these last couple mornings to read certain chapters in Isaiah (29, 30, 33, and 34). We have become like Egypt... a fallen, fallen nation.

"Woe to the rebellious children," declares the LORD,
"Who execute a plan, but not Mine,
And make an alliance, but not of My Spirit,
In order to add sin to sin;..."
-Isaiah 30:1 (NASB)

Foolish ... to the World

When God told Isaiah to “Go, and remove your sackcloth from your body, and take your sandals off your feet,” (Isaiah 20:2) He did so.

Romans 8:35 asks us “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Shall nakedness?? No.

1 Corinthians 3 reminds us “… the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.”

When God asks us to do something seemingly foolish and stupid, are we going to deny Him? Isaiah could have said “No Lord! I don’t want to walk around naked (who does?)!” and God would not have forced him. Instead however, Isaiah realized that what the world may point and laugh at, God uses for a bigger purpose. Because Isaiah recognized the foolishness to be wisdom of God it is, Abba uses him to get a point across.

“And the LORD said, ‘Even as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot three years as a sign and token against Egypt and Cush, so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush…”
-Isaiah 20:3-4

How willing are we to hear and then to act upon those orders without questioning ourselves into disobedience?

Romans 16:20

A word of encouragement:

And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet ... shortly.
-Romans 16:20

Don't give up in the last half hour!

God placed #1

In the midst of a load of confusion this morning, I was randomly flipping through the bible when I felt God nudge me to stop.. I stopped on Malachi 3 and found myself reading verses 16-18, but rereading 16:

Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another,
And the Lord listened and heard them;
So a book of remembrance was written before Him
For those who fear the Lord
And who meditate on His name.
(NKJV)

I was expecting an answer of comfort for my confusion, He gave me an answer of what to do in the midst of my unknowing, and peace... When we are so overloaded in our own troubles and problems, God becomes some sort of wish bank, or fairy god-mother. We have to take our focus off "this&this&that" and say, "okay God.. let you be my focus right now, no matter what, I trust you with the outcome."

Psalm 37:4 (NASB)
Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.

Notice that God didn't say "I will give you the desires of your heart and then you shall delight yourself in Me." No no, we must first make Him our number one then He will give us what it is we crave.... and if it's Him [as our] first [desire], we get Him so abundantly! How awesome is that? Well I don't know about you but for me it's WAY awesome!