Peace

I was just playing a worship song and I loved the lyrics.

"My peace I give unto you; it's a peace that the world can not give. It's a peace that the world can not understand; peace to know, peace to live, My peace I give unto you."

It really fits in with my recent mind wanderings. I was thinking about how Christians always say that God will never give us more than we can handle. I often catch myself thinking that I am no Job and there is no way I could go through certain things. The Bible also tells us that with God anything is possible. Luke 1:37 -- "For nothing is impossible with God". With God on our side we can handle anything. It may not always be gracefully for we are imperfect. So, when I look at Job and think that I could never go through that I know that isn't the truth. I can go through it and God can refine me on the way through. In the meantime I pray for peace in my circumstances and find that God is giving me that peace. There are days that are more of a struggle but there are also days where I am incomprehensibly at peace. What are your giants this week? What are you battling? God will be by your side guiding you through because with God it is possible to endure and overcome!

How do you Worship?

There are two different kinds of worship. Individual and corporate. I am a very emotional person. In corporate worship I often cry. That is very hard for me to do because as emotional as I am I also don't like showing those emotions. I've come to realize though that it is through my tears that I can worship God. They may be tears of joy, sorrow, forgiveness. When I am on my own there is one specific way I love to worship but don't get to do often. I love to worship God through the piano. I am no Mozart, shoot I'm not really that good, but when my fingers touch those keys I am able to convey exactly what is in my heart. I am able to go before God's throne with my heart wide open. When I was in college I frequented the chapel almost every night to play on the beautiful grand piano. How I miss those days! If only I had a piano available to me. Someday when we have our own place we will invest but for now I take any time I can get. Right now I am listening to a piano solo and it is speaking the heaviness in my heart but that will need to be shared later, after the kids are in bed.

Sin -- forgiven but forgotten?

As I was driving back home Sunday night I had some time for thinking as all of the kids were out cold in the back seat. I was thinking about sin, specifically the forgiveness of sin. Every single day it seems like there is something that needs confession and forgiveness. The bible tells us that when we seek God's forgiveness that we will be washed whiter than snow. The ultimate forgive and forget. So why then do we hold onto our past sins? I know there are quite a few that I have a hard time letting go. It occurred to me that it is a way for Satan to try to stick his foot in our Godly walk. He knows that he can't win us over to his side but he still wants to reak havoc in our lives. What better way than to continually throw all of our sins back in our faces? The perfect way to halt us on the path of righteousness and invite us to wallow in our past. Maybe recognition is the first step to casting off any stronghold that satan tries to place on our lives. If we understand that being plagued by past sins is not from God we then know that it must be from satan. The second step would be praying for a release of that stronghold which if we pray in God's name will be granted. If we state to God that we will no longer wallow in the sins of our past but learn from them and move on God will provide the strength we need to do so. This is my challenge for the week. I need to seek out God, repent for the last time of the sins that hold me back and continue on my journey to righteousness.

Birthday dinner conversation

My husband and I actually had a date, out of the house, away from the kids, just the two of us! Doesn't happen often but we enjoy it when it does. We were discussing spiritual growth in the past year when Chris asked me where I was spiritually. I never realized how hard of a question that was to answer. There is always room for improvement. We must always strive to do better as Christians. I'm not where I want to be but I'm working on it. I'm praying more for sure and I can thank my Christian sisters for that. Praying for their needs has led me back into a life of prayer that I have desired to have and was putting off. I, however am not in the word as much as I should be. We were then talking about worship and how God created everyone with different worship styles. How true. If we all worshipped the same way it would not be reflective of the creative God we worship. The conversation then turned to how we witness. I have heard it commented about people being "quiet" Christians. I would probably say that about myself as well. It's just my personality right? But I was thinking about my mom and the growth that I have seen in her life in the past fifteen years or so. She is by no means an outgoing type of person. She hardly speaks up and she doesn't like confronting people. In her spiritual growth though the Lord has equipped her to share the gospel and to pray outwardly for those around her. She will pray with complete strangers and offer a bibilical word of encouragement for most everyone. Is it her personality to do so? Definately not. I was thinking then about the scripture to go forth and make disciples of all nations. It doesn't say outgoing people spread the word or those that like to talk go spread the word. It is a calling for every single person that is reborn in Christ. God calls all of us to be outgoing in our faith. He will provide everything we need to do so. It is through spiritual growth that we gain the confidence to witness. I want to be like my mom! Right now in my life I am usually scared to speak up. Usually scared that people will think I'm a religious freak. Scared that I might sound seriously dumb! Scared, scared, scared. Why do these things even matter? Really? I may be uncomfortable but what if I am the only person that someone will ever hear the gospel message from? God will hold be accountable for all the missed opportunities. Will He love me less? No but we are still called to spread the word. I pray that as I grow spiritually the word of God will overflow from my heart and mouth and that I will forget what men think and instead focus on what God thinks.

Say what Lord?

In an attempt to grow my spiritual life I need a place to write. My handwriting is aweful and I do like to go back and look at things occassionaly lol. The Lord is working so strongly in our little family right now and it needs to be recorded :) So, that's that.