"Let This Blessed Assurance Control"

When I least expect it - that's when You come on by and completely amaze me with Your power, Your love, Your care, and Your devotion.  You never leave me and you always take care of me. I'm not sure how I manage to obtain your favor for the view from where I sit shows me complaining on a regular basis and then in return You bring forth not discipline, but blessings. As if to say to me "I hear you, My child, and here is what I will do for you - here is a job so that your insecurities may whither away. That phone call you've been hoping for? Here it comes. The money you have been needing for school? I will provide that." 

I mean, woah! Mind blown. I'm so amazed and humbled at Gods love for me and how He fulfills my every need even when I am most undeserving.

Why do I always doubt Him when He comes through for me in ways such as this?

"O how marvelous! O how wonderful! Is my Savior's love for me!"

"I think I can, I think I can.."

You'd be amazed what you can accomplish when you turn your "I can't"s to "I can"s.  Suddenly everything becomes possible when you realize your own strength and what you're fully capable of.  The God of the Universe made you and gave you all of the gifts you have today. If you dwell on that and remind yourself that He is Perfect in everything He does - then you'll see how useful and amazing you really CAN be

Food for Thought

Oh, Corinthians

“That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:10

I'm committing this verse to heart today. I am currently learning that no matter how "weak" I may feel - Christ makes me stronger still.

I am Blessed

Over the course of a day or two I've been hit with a lot of unexpected life-changes/alterations/things and people from my past that I thought were no more suddenly resurfacing. Needless to say it's been a lot to take in and I've been feeling particularly inclined to be discouraged in my current life circumstances. However, all of these changes and new uncertainties have a way of directing my eyes to the Lord and reminding myself that He is fully aware of everything that is going on in my life. And, more importantly, that I'm not alone in it all. 

Last night, upon finishing my nightly prayers, I began to dwell too heavily on all the bad going on in my life and how it's been affecting me personally. When that feeling became too heavy to bear I was struck with a thought, an idea. So I got up out of bed, grabbed a 3x5 card and began to pen everything I'm blessed with as well as what God has given me. Before I knew it I'd taken up a whole note-card and I began to think "the positives in my life are far outweighing the negatives" and its as if a burden was lifted from me.  I have so much to be thankful for. I have everything I need because my God is taking care of me. How can one not be encouraged after realizing that?

To God be the Glory. :) 

Crucified with Christ

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galations 2:20

I was thinking on this verse the other day and reflecting on just how powerful it is. As I picked it apart in my mind it began to carry more weight. Through Christs death on the cross, on my behalf, it is no longer I who is living, but rather its Christ living in me.  I will never be who I could have been prior to my meeting Christ. At least that’s the conclusion I came to in my mind and the more I allowed myself to dwell on it the more my mind was blown. Crazy concept!  

I also love the last part of that verse as well. Christ loved me so much that he gave himself for me. As it says in John 15:13 - “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” We’re surrounded by all different kinds of love on a daily basis – the love shown by serving, friendship, a kind word, ect. But the greatest kind of love? Meaning one dies in order that they might save another - that was shown for me.. Insignificant, pitiful, nothing more than ordinary me. The God of the Universe looked at me and said “To Me, you’re worth dying for.”  Well, if that doesn’t send chills down ones spine I don’t know what would. He considered me worth dying for so then why do I willfully choose not to live for Him? I’m completely and totally indebted to Him for saving me and yet days go by where I live only for myself and my needs and what I want. It’s painfully selfish. I want to be the kind of girl who takes Ephesians 4:1 (“live a life worthy of the calling you have received”) more seriously and attempts to live it out every chance I get. Regretfully I fail more than I succeed, but it does not decrease my desire to live that way. It’s a daily battle but the rewards for living in such a way are incalculably amazing.  

A pennys worth of thoughts

We all look for it. That love that consumes us as much as we want it to, it’s as breathtaking as we expect it to be, as memorable as we always wished it’d be, and most importantly – worth it. Whether we’re waiting for it or it’s currently in our grasp. Either way at some point or another we were or are in pursuit of it. We’re brought up to assume it’s going to take the form of someone of the opposite sex. I personally blame Disney and just about every disastrous movie that exits Hollywood. But it is what it is.  Yes, as a girl I am waiting for that “prince charming” that every fairytale told me I needed to wait for. So, okay Disney, I’m waiting..and waiting…and waiting..and, honestly, how much longer do I have to wait?

When the waiting gets dull and boring as if to be watching paint dry on a wall, that’s when the questioning begins. They are quite silly questions, mind you, but regardless they find their comfortable and most familiar spot in our lives and then decide to linger for a while. How kind of them. If you are unfamiliar with what sort of questions I’m talking about then, first of all, please tell me what rock you’ve been living under that has sheltered you from these most crippling questions.  Secondly, let’s revisit for a moment as to what these questions are. They go something like this “what’s wrong with me? Why am I having to wait longer than that person who just got engaged – they’re ridiculous and yet they’re about to be married” I think you get the idea.  But these questions, doubts, rather, are debilitating at the least and if given less than 5 minutes to dwell on such questions before you know it we’ve decided we’re just about as pointless as they come and merely a waste of oxygen on this earth.  Is this necessary? Not in the slightest.

This brings me to my most recent question - as a Christian I have that exact kind of love. So why is it the hardest one to give myself over to? Strange concept but nonetheless it’s settled in my mind and prompts me to dwell on it for a moment.  I’m not intending to be creepy as some people who make some public proclamation that “Jesus is my boyfriend” – no. I am not that ridiculous with it. But in some sense it does pave the way to the point I’m trying to make in so much as when you’re in a relationship you long to be with that other person. In the same sense, God wants that with me. I find it strange that the one person who desires to be close to me, to care for me, is the one I so willingly push away. Somehow I got it in my mind that if I can’t see/feel/touch/smell him – that he should then mean nothing to me and just be a mirage.  However in the past He’s always reminded me that if I give everything over to him that He will fulfill the desires of my heart (i.e. my “prince charming”) Simple concept, no?  In my life this has been proven to be true time and time again. The more I devote myself to Him, the happier my life becomes and the more things fall into place. Sometimes it’s exactly how I’d hoped it would be and other times it’s surprisingly, yet perfectly, different from any expectation.  And in that I earnestly strive to find contentment and peace because its always worth it in the end - and that’s all we’re really striving for, right? Something, or maybe even someone, worth living for.