Relax!!

In life it’s not hard to focus on what you don’t have. It’s so easy for us to question and analyze our lives. Then, out of that, comes worry and anxiety. We begin to say to ourselves “Why am I not there yet?” We can even take it deeper than that and begin to question God. The devil is so sneaky in this area. Think about it. If we shift our focus to the future (since none of us know what it holds) then he can run wild in our minds helping us dream up and over analyze where we think we should be. There are times we can even focus our attention on other people’s lives and wonder to ourselves “Why am I not there yet?” It can go on and on and on like this.

In my personal life I have been over evaluating. I think that I should be so much farther along then what I really am. I think that I should be on the road to marriage, have a fancy car, and a lot of money in my bank account. But when I focus on those things I have learned that I tend to lose the blessings of I have today. My focus is stolen away from me. The Lord gave me a simple word from this whole mess (spoken through my Mom) and that one word was “Relax.” I think the Lord was speaking to me and telling me to relax and embrace the now. I did a little bit of digging on this in God’s word and this is what I found.

Jesus directly addressed the issue of worry and anxiety in His Sermon on the Mount:
"So I tell you, don't worry about everyday life -- whether you have enough food, drink, and clothes. Doesn't life consist of more than food and clothing? Look at the birds. They don't need to plant or harvest or put food in barns because your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than they are. Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not. And why worry about your clothes? Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won't he more surely care for you? You have so little faith! So don't worry about having enough food or drink or clothing. Why be like the pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things? Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs, and he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern. So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today” (Matthew 6:25-34).

The issue here is faith. If we have faith in God, worry and anxiety about the details of our lives will be put into the right context. We’ll trust Him to take care of us now and later. If we are wondering about tomorrow, we lose the blessings available today.

Another principle in the biblical book of James reveals the ineffectiveness of worry and anxiety: “Look here, you people who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.’ How do you know what will happen tomorrow? For your life is like the morning fog -- it's here a little while, then it's gone. What you ought to say is, ‘If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that’” (James 4:13-15).

Being in the Lord’s will is the safest place for the believer to be. If God sacrificed His Son for our sin, will He not do the best for us? Therefore, our hope -- a confident assurance rather than "I hope so" -- should be in God's will. Then, we will not waste our time being unduly anxious about what tomorrow may or may not bring. Then we can FINALLY relax and let God's will take it's course. Sounds good to me!!

Worship

Worship is a word that when it comes across most peoples minds they picture a band on a stage with lights flashing and loud music blaring with a body of believer lifting their hands towards the heavens, while experiencing something bigger than them. While, this might be a true vision of a worship experience in a common church today, that is not what worship truly is. Worship is a way of life. It is the way that we live our everyday lives. We as a body have fallen into the lie that a church service is where and when we worship. I hope that we can awake from our deep slumber and realize the truth. The truth being we should be worshipping everyday of our lives without the loud music, guitars, and lights. I’m not saying those things are bad, but when we rely on them to depict worship in our lives, and then yes I think they are dangerous.

The true definition of worship in the dictionary is this: reverent honor and homage paid to God or to any object regarded as sacred. Notice that it also says “or to ANY object regarded as sacred”. Does this mean that we can worship other things in our lives? Absolutely!! Most people do it without even knowing it! However, worship was designed and intended for us to make little of ourselves and much of God. To reflect everyday on just how small we are and how amazingly big our God truly is. The bible tells us multiple ways that we are to worship.

The first can be found in John 4:23. “But the time is coming-indeed its here NOW-when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
Notice this verse is telling us that we have to learn how to worship God from our human spirits. The letter “s” in the word “spirit” is with a small “s.” This means it is talking about our human spirits. The apostle Paul tells us that we have three parts to our being – body, soul and spirit.

I believe the Lord is trying to tell us two things with the specific wording of this verse. First, we have to learn how to worship the Lord from our spirit, which means that we have to learn how to worship Him from our heart.

The second thing is that we must learn how to worship the Lord in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit lives and dwells in our human spirits. The Holy Spirit enters into our human spirits the moment we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and have become saved and born again.

We also find in Romans 12 it says this: “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice-the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship.”

Here Paul is PLEADING to us to give up ourselves in worship. Scratch out our desires, our wants, and even our selves and sacrifice them at the feet of Jesus. Sometimes we must lose ourselves to find God. When we lose ourselves and surrender ourselves over to the Holy Spirit, the supernatural can take place. If we don’t then all we will focus on is what our human minds can fathom which is nothing compared to what God can do when we submit and soak in the Holy Spirit! We have the honor and the privilege of coming into the presence of the Holy Spirit in worship everyday of our lives. We don’t have to go through a priest or sacrifice meaningless animals before God. We don’t even have to say a special prayer to enter into the presence of God. All that we have to do is submit and come as we are. And God is faithful to fill us and restore us in his presence. So I encourage you all to have a heart of worship everyday of your lives!

It's Not About Me!!!!

I have had a pretty interesting week. I feel like I have been attacked and messed with all week long. It’s been a constant battle for me in the mornings. I feel like I have been told that I can’t do anything right, that I might as well quit while I am head. WELL, it’s a dang good thing that I don’t my live based off of my emotions!! I live based on the perfect will of God in my life. I might feel the pressure from time to time but I know that God is in control. I understand that he is preparing me for something amazing. My heart has never been more stretched, torn, and polished in my entire life. I find myself asking what you are up to God. Through all of this I have come to this conclusion.

IT’S NOT ABOUT ME!!! I have felt the past few weeks that I have been waking up and the devil has been right there in my face trying to make me run off my emotions. How I am “feeling” about me. It’s seriously like I was one of those whined up toys and every time I came before God in the morning I would come with an “It’s all about me” attitude. Man, I have I been convicted. I keep asking myself, “How did I fall into this trap?” I dove into God’s word and this is what he began to lay on my heart.

One of the things I think the enemy wants us to do is have a selfish attitude about ourselves and about God. Think for a second, our selfish attitudes can cause division and separation between us and other people in our lives. It can impact our walks with God to the point that we forget to ever ask God what HE wants, it ALWAYS turns out to be what WE want. It becomes all about us. It becomes about our emotions and how we feel. Do you not think that God already knows and cares about how we “feel”? His word tells us that he knows us better than we know ourselves. I know he does. So I feel like we need to get past the constant “whining” and “bickering” toward God. God tells me in Isaiah 61:2 that he is my comforter. Though my heart is broken and it hurts, he is my comforter. He comforts me in my time of mourning. In verse 3 he talks about how he will bring joyous blessings instead of mourning. So I strongly believe that I don’t have to wake up and whine to God about my feelings. He is already taken care of them. I need to learn to come to peace with myself and the fact that HE is my joy and my strength and HE is all I will ever need. It gets even better! In verse 8 the Lord says that he is a God that LOVES justice. So I know and can have peace that God will show justice to all those who do me wrong. I really have nothing to worry about. Besides isn’t worrying doubting God? I choose to put my confidence in God. Philippians 3:3 tells me that my confidence should be placed in Jesus and not in human efforts.

Please, I hope you all understand that I am not saying that there is anything wrong with crying out to God in pain because your heart is hurting. Believe me I have done my fair share. All that I am saying is do not make your quite time all about you and your feelings. I encourage you all to open up your hearts and allow God to heal your emotions and serve justice on your hearts. Take your relationship to a deeper level and start asking God what HE desires for you. His word tells us that all of our desires where nailed to Jesus’ cross. God can speak to your hearts it you only open it up and LI

Joy!!

Well, this is my first blog. The Lord really impressed on me that I needed to start doing one of these things because Facebook doesn't allow me to write everything that's on my heart in one status update. So now I am free to spill my heart and not be limited. Also, to have what God is revealing to me in writing so that I can always go back and reread it to remind myself of the constant pressing forward that I am feeling. Plus, it helps me to write these feeling and little revelations down so that I don't forget them.

God truly gave me this revelation today. During some quit study time. I read over a scripture that a dear friend of mine sent to me because they felt led to do so. Later today I opened up the word and began to read that scripture(Philippians 3:12-16). After wards, I go back a few verses to read and did some studying through out the Word. God immediately spoke to me. The past couple of weeks I felt the enemy trying to attack my joy. I began to think about this and pray about it and this is the revelation that God gave me. I hope that it encourages you the way that it has encouraged me.

"Superficial happiness" is dependent on our circumstances. Christian joy is clearly different; it is rooted in a person's personal relationship with the Lord, and it is resilient even in the midst of suffering or even death. Joy comes in knowing that whatever happens, God will use everything for our ultimate good(Romans 5:3-4). Believers also have joy from the dynamic presence of God's Spirit in their hearts. The real secret to a joyful life is in being continuously "filled with the Holy Spirit"(Eph 5:8). The life and attitude of believers are not defined by outward circumstances, but by their relationship with a living God who reigns over all their circumstances. It's amazing to me to see that Jesus spoke more to his disciples about having joy in their hearts(John 15:11). It seems to me that the enemy is trying to attack the one thing that pretty much gives us life and that's the joy of the Lord. I mean think about it, "The joy of the Lord is my strength"(Nehemiah 8:10)?? I would think that if I am strengthened by the joy of the Lord, then the devil would do anything in his power to prevent me from obtaining that joy on a daily basis. The thing is that, I have to fight for it!! Sure, I believe there will be days when I wake up and have my coffee and feel joyful and peaceful. I also believe that there will be days that I will have to fight for that joy and protect it. Defend it at all costs. My heart bursts with joy knowing that I must be doing something right. The devil can feel the heat of what God has on the horizon for me. This feels me with joy and makes me a happy camper. :)