It's a show about nothing, or at least that's how it's advertised.
Well, that's kinda how today is. There are things going on, but really it's nothing to be excited about. It's sunny outside, but chilly. Football games are on, old movies are on, Animal Planet is on (by the way the Hippos beat the Crocs to claim the title as the most vicious). It's all about comfy clothes, fuzzy blankets, nap time. I love these kinds of days, where you can enjoy your family and rest in His Sabbath. So with that said....Love to you all!
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Saturday, January 5, 2008
God's Faithfulness
"Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart." Ps 37:4
This verse has been taken out of context amongst several schools of theology. I've heard it used to promote a "santa clause" type of God, you know the one who will give you what you want if you perform for him.
I've pondered this verse hundreds of times, and if I were to be completely honest, I've tried to use it to my advantage. I can't tell you how many times I've prayed "God, you're my delight, now can I have....?" How easy it is to get sucked into the selfishness of using God for my personal agenda, rather than truly delighting in Him. As if that's not enough, I have pretended to know what the desires of my heart really are. I think that God must have fun laughing at my plans and my thoughts. In retrospect, I have fun laughing at my plans and thoughts.
You see, I have found in my life that as you delight in the Lord, I mean truly pursue Him above all else, He will begin to reveal His truest desires for your life. I believe that He's placed these desires in your heart, and that you just don't know what they are until you're so wrapped up in pleasing God that nothing else matters.
How do I know? It's like this. When I met Paul, I was on the heels of a bad break-up. My heart was mush, and I was convinced that I knew what I wanted. Heck, I thought I knew what God wanted. The truth was, I was so broken-hearted, I didn't know what was real. That is, the only thing I could be sure of was (and is) God's faithfulness. You see, it was during this time that I fell so completely into God's hands. There was nowhere else I could go. His heart was the only safe place for me. It was during this time that I met Paul.
Here's where this verse comes in....Paul is the man my heart has always desired, only I never knew it. He is nothing like I expected, or thought I wanted, but He is PERFECT for me, and God knew that. God, in His faithfulness, awakened my heart and gave me the desires that had been sleeping there in my heart. And now every day, I see God's heart in my husband. Every day I see that God knew exactly what I needed, and what I've always wanted, and He gave me Paul. And I can't tell you how many times I've thanked God that He didn't give me what I thought my desires were. Whew!
What are your desires? What are you delighting in? Let it be Him! God is so good. He is so faithful, and He loves you so much more than you could ever imagine. Fall into Him. Press into Him. It's worth it, not for the gifts He gives, but for who He is.
For meditation.....Jer 9:23-24
"Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories, glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, For in these I delight."
This verse has been taken out of context amongst several schools of theology. I've heard it used to promote a "santa clause" type of God, you know the one who will give you what you want if you perform for him.
I've pondered this verse hundreds of times, and if I were to be completely honest, I've tried to use it to my advantage. I can't tell you how many times I've prayed "God, you're my delight, now can I have....?" How easy it is to get sucked into the selfishness of using God for my personal agenda, rather than truly delighting in Him. As if that's not enough, I have pretended to know what the desires of my heart really are. I think that God must have fun laughing at my plans and my thoughts. In retrospect, I have fun laughing at my plans and thoughts.
You see, I have found in my life that as you delight in the Lord, I mean truly pursue Him above all else, He will begin to reveal His truest desires for your life. I believe that He's placed these desires in your heart, and that you just don't know what they are until you're so wrapped up in pleasing God that nothing else matters.
How do I know? It's like this. When I met Paul, I was on the heels of a bad break-up. My heart was mush, and I was convinced that I knew what I wanted. Heck, I thought I knew what God wanted. The truth was, I was so broken-hearted, I didn't know what was real. That is, the only thing I could be sure of was (and is) God's faithfulness. You see, it was during this time that I fell so completely into God's hands. There was nowhere else I could go. His heart was the only safe place for me. It was during this time that I met Paul.
Here's where this verse comes in....Paul is the man my heart has always desired, only I never knew it. He is nothing like I expected, or thought I wanted, but He is PERFECT for me, and God knew that. God, in His faithfulness, awakened my heart and gave me the desires that had been sleeping there in my heart. And now every day, I see God's heart in my husband. Every day I see that God knew exactly what I needed, and what I've always wanted, and He gave me Paul. And I can't tell you how many times I've thanked God that He didn't give me what I thought my desires were. Whew!
What are your desires? What are you delighting in? Let it be Him! God is so good. He is so faithful, and He loves you so much more than you could ever imagine. Fall into Him. Press into Him. It's worth it, not for the gifts He gives, but for who He is.
For meditation.....Jer 9:23-24
"Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories, glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, For in these I delight."
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
A lesson in humility
This is a lesson that seems to be frequently repeated in my life. Maybe one day I'll get it? This is how it went:
I woke up this morning not feeling superb, so I decided to sleep in a little bit and get to work late (the beauty of flex time). My plan was to get to the office about 9:30, and the office is about 15 minutes away. It was 9:15, and I put Daisy in her crate, grabbed my lunch and was about to head out the door when I realized that I couldn't find my keys. I tore apart the house, and could not find them. I searched the truck (from outside since it was locked) and couldn't see them. Now this has never happened to me, so this was a new phenomenon.
On a normal day, I could've just called in and said, "I'm working from home", but since my laptop was locked in the back of the truck that wasn't an option. I debated calling in sick, but although I wasn't feeling great, I wasn't really sick, and it always looks bad to call in sick the day after a holiday (unless, of course, you really are sick).
So here's the humility lesson times 3 - First I had to call Paul and ask him to come home from work to let me in the truck. Then I had to call a colleague and let him know I was going to be late because I lost my keys. AND then (here's the worst part) I had to call my team (you know, the people that work for me?) and tell them why I was going to be late.
The beautiful part of the story is that my precious Knight in Shining Armor came sweeping down in his white 205 "horse"power F150 and rescued this damsel in distress. The keys were locked safely in the console of the truck (he had driven yesterday, so I threw my keys in there for safe-keeping, and they were safe!). I got to work at 10:30 (only an hour late) and had a good day in spite of its start (and aside from a few wisecracks about my crazy morning).
I woke up this morning not feeling superb, so I decided to sleep in a little bit and get to work late (the beauty of flex time). My plan was to get to the office about 9:30, and the office is about 15 minutes away. It was 9:15, and I put Daisy in her crate, grabbed my lunch and was about to head out the door when I realized that I couldn't find my keys. I tore apart the house, and could not find them. I searched the truck (from outside since it was locked) and couldn't see them. Now this has never happened to me, so this was a new phenomenon.
On a normal day, I could've just called in and said, "I'm working from home", but since my laptop was locked in the back of the truck that wasn't an option. I debated calling in sick, but although I wasn't feeling great, I wasn't really sick, and it always looks bad to call in sick the day after a holiday (unless, of course, you really are sick).
So here's the humility lesson times 3 - First I had to call Paul and ask him to come home from work to let me in the truck. Then I had to call a colleague and let him know I was going to be late because I lost my keys. AND then (here's the worst part) I had to call my team (you know, the people that work for me?) and tell them why I was going to be late.
The beautiful part of the story is that my precious Knight in Shining Armor came sweeping down in his white 205 "horse"power F150 and rescued this damsel in distress. The keys were locked safely in the console of the truck (he had driven yesterday, so I threw my keys in there for safe-keeping, and they were safe!). I got to work at 10:30 (only an hour late) and had a good day in spite of its start (and aside from a few wisecracks about my crazy morning).
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Can You Believe it's 2008?
Happy New Year to you all....although, I still can't believe that we've entered 2008. Where did all the time go? It seems like it was just yesterday that we were all waiting with bated breath for Y2K to destroy our lives. Now, eight years later, our lives have become ever more dependant on the latest technology.
New Years Day is traditionally known for resolutions, or at least the facade that we will actually change that one thing we dislike about ourselves...really, this year...I'm going to do it...sure, whatever. Realistically, can any of us really say what we're going to do or not do in this next year? The Bible says that tomorrow is never guaranteed, and if we're going to have a tomorrow, it will have it's own set of circumstances to think about (Christi's translation), so can we ever really plan? Sure it's great to set goals, to work to become more disciplined whether with working out, praying more, spending more time with family and less money avoiding them, but when 2009 comes around, what is the one thing that you want to look back and be able to say "I did it!"?
I've been thinking about this for the last couple of weeks. You see, I have a TON of things that I need to change about myself, and a TON more that I would like to accomplish. It's actually quite overwhelming. As I've been pondering these things, I've decided to boil it down to one thing, and one thing only. I want to live each day in the perfect will of GOD, to be directed by HIS Spirit alone rather than my selfishness, to allow GOD to make every call in my life as He's shaping me to become more like HIM! When I sit down on 1/1/09 I want to know that I've done exactly what He wanted me to do, learned every lesson that He wanted me to learn, and to be exactly who He wants me to be.
It's a good thing that He is strong in our weaknesses!
I pray that God blesses you in this new year and may God increase you in the knowledge and revelation of His love!
New Years Day is traditionally known for resolutions, or at least the facade that we will actually change that one thing we dislike about ourselves...really, this year...I'm going to do it...sure, whatever. Realistically, can any of us really say what we're going to do or not do in this next year? The Bible says that tomorrow is never guaranteed, and if we're going to have a tomorrow, it will have it's own set of circumstances to think about (Christi's translation), so can we ever really plan? Sure it's great to set goals, to work to become more disciplined whether with working out, praying more, spending more time with family and less money avoiding them, but when 2009 comes around, what is the one thing that you want to look back and be able to say "I did it!"?
I've been thinking about this for the last couple of weeks. You see, I have a TON of things that I need to change about myself, and a TON more that I would like to accomplish. It's actually quite overwhelming. As I've been pondering these things, I've decided to boil it down to one thing, and one thing only. I want to live each day in the perfect will of GOD, to be directed by HIS Spirit alone rather than my selfishness, to allow GOD to make every call in my life as He's shaping me to become more like HIM! When I sit down on 1/1/09 I want to know that I've done exactly what He wanted me to do, learned every lesson that He wanted me to learn, and to be exactly who He wants me to be.
It's a good thing that He is strong in our weaknesses!
I pray that God blesses you in this new year and may God increase you in the knowledge and revelation of His love!
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