10.8.13

Colossians 3:18-19 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting for those who belong to the Lord.  Husbands, love your wives and never treat then harshly.

My Thoughts

It is amazing what God does... just yesterday a dear friend of mine was talking about doing what her husband asked her to do.... and how God blessed her.  Then this morning I read these verses.  So heartwarming.

My sweet friend has three little girls who needed shoes.  Her husband, who loves and cherishes her, told her, "Don't get the shoes just yet we can't quite afford them."  So she waited a few weeks, even though she didn't really want to.  But she knew that she was suppose to submit to her husband.  Finally, well it felt like finally to her, he said, "You can go get the girls some shoes now."  When she got to the store where she gets her girls shoes (she likes to get nice shoes so they will last). The shoes she wanted were on sale for 75% off.  She said that she had never seen a sale that good at this shoe store.  God blessed her for submitting to her husband...and she was able to get 3 nice pair of shoes for the price of one pair.  That means that she had money left over. 

God watches over us, and He knows when we are doing what He would have us do so that we  honor Him.  He honored my sweet friend and her husband who loves her.  

We live in a world today that teaches women to be independent of their husbands.  It also teaches men that it is funny to put down their wives.  But what if we lived like God says instead of how the world tells us to act?  I know that my sweet Robby likes to take care of me... no he loves to take care of me. It is important to him that he takes care of me.  As a man it is important to him to provide for his family.  when he does that he feels good about himself.  To him that is the most important job that he has on this earth.  When I am dependent on him, when I submit to him, it makes his life have a purpose.  When I do that it also frees me up to love him, to concentrate on loving him. The more I have learned to let Robby take care of me, and the more that I take care of him the better our lives become. When we meet the needs of each other instead of always trying to meet our own needs our relationship flourishes. When I do what Robby ask of me....and when Robby treats me with love (which he always does)... God makes sure that our needs are met.  God softens my heart towards Robby and He softens Robby's heart toward me.  

Look back at my sweet friends story about the shoes... She waited like her husband asked, he loved her for it... they were both blessed in the end.    

 

10.7.13

Jeremiah 6:16 This is what the Lord says: "Stop at the crossroads and look around.  Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it.  Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls.

My Thoughts

I was really struck by this verse when I read it. This is what this verse says to me. It says that there is always a choice to choose to do what God would have us to do.  That we should not plow forward into anything... we need to stop and think about our choices.  Our decisions  should be based on  God's word.  It also tells me that if I have not found rest in my soul that I need to take a step back and re-examine the choices I have made. If I have not found rest, I most likely have made a choice that is not godly.  It is important that I understand that I will find rest for MY soul... there may be people around me that are not always happy with my choice, but God will give me peace when I choose to follow Him no matter how people respond.

The more that we understand how to recognize God's plans for us, or the Holy Spirit's promptings when we choose a wrong path... the better we are able to do better in the future.  God tells us in His word that He will grow us until the day of Jesus' return.  We don't need to beat ourselves up when we mess up, we need to learn from our mistakes how to do better.  When we ask God to forgive us, He does so we grow better when we are able to forgive ourselves and move forward. 

Today I have learned that when I don't have peace in my soul, I need to take time to talk to God about it and grow from my mistake. What a blessing that our God is the God that forgives, that loves us and teaches us to do better. The God that give us rest when we follow Him. 

10.5.13

Psalm 77:10-12 And I said, "This is my fate; the Most High has turned his hand against me."

But then I recalled all you have done, O Lord; I remembered your wonderful deeds of long ago.  They are constantly in my thoughts .  I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works.

My Thoughts

In the verses before this Asaph is wondering where God is, then He remembers the stories of old. How God is always with us, we leave God. God doesn't leave us. After Asaph remembers what God has done, after he reminds himself of God's greatness and how God keeps his promises Asher starts praising God again. History brings Asaph back to God.

When we praise God it brings God near to us!  As we praise God, God's peace falls upon us because He is near.  Asaph brought God close again. He could not find praise for the moment but He could find praise for the past.  The past brought back Asaph's faith. The stories of old were important to Asaph current situation, not because of Asph'a situation but because they restored his faith.    

It is important for us to put the stories of the Bible in our hearts along with the stories of our own lives and the lives of the people around us. That way we know that we know that we know that God was there with us, helping us. We know that God helped the Israelites, God has helped us before, God has helped our friends and our families, God will help us now.  We need those stories to draw on when we are attacked by Satan. We need those stories to draw on when the stresses of life pile up around us. We need those stories to draw on when sickness strikes.  When we are not feeling very thankful, when we can't find God.  Then we can pull up those stories, they are important to us, they are important to our survival. When we pull up those stories we have something to send up praises for, a time when we knew God was present and before we know it we will once again feel God's presence and we will be able to draw from His strength.   We all have those moments in life that are so hard we can't seem to find God, even if He is right there with us. Moments where the trauma of life is like a dense fog and we can't seen anything clearly.  That is when those stories are most important... those stories are like turning on a fog light and then we see God standing right there in front of us, knowing He was there all along.

10.4.13

Jeremiah 3:23b Only in the Lord our God will Israel ever find salvation.  

My Thoughts

I read this and thought of the United States and our government. We put our faith in our government instead of putting our faith in God and letting God take care of our government.   Colossians 1:17 tell us that God existed before anything else, and that God holds all creation together.   He will hold our country together if we depend on Him, if we put our faith in Him.  Each time that we turn another part of our lives over to the government we are saying, "Government, I depend on you."  When what we should be doing is putting all our faith in God and saying, "God I depend on you."  Only in God will we ever find salvation.  

God even gives us an instruction book, the Bible.  It is never changing. It is always the same.  It tells us if you do this, then I will do this.  It is the same as when my grandmother read it and it is the same as where her grandmother read it.  It tells us how to have a good life, how to have a great nation.  We just have to pick it up and read it and act on what it tells us.  

The wonderful thing about God, about His word, is that we can each profit from doing our part.   We don't have to wait for people to decide together. We each get to decide for ourselves to do the "if's".... when we do the "if's" God begins to do the "then's" in our lives.  What I do matters and what you do matters.  God sees all of our efforts.  We just have to put our faith completely in God.   

10.3.13

Philippians 4:8-9 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing.  Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

My Thoughts

We can kill two birds with one stone here... Psalms 50:14 tells us, Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God." So if each day we make sure to spend the day being thankful, we will be fixing our thoughts on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely and admirable. Things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 

God ask us to do this, I believe, because He wants us so totally aware of what He does for us so that we will depend on Him more and more and more.  And He wants us totally dependent on Him, because He loves us so much.  And God knows He can do so much more for us that we can ever do for ourselves.  God wants to do so much for us!  But because God gives us free will He only does these things for us if we invite Him into our lives to do them.  The more we fix our thoughts on good things, the more we know the good things are from God,  the more we will invite God into our lives and the better and better our lives will be. 

Some people come to know God and their whole lives change over night.  They "get it" all!  And they get it all at one time.  For most of us, I think, we get parts at a time.  We invite God in ... then we limit what He can do in our lives because we have invited Him into the guest room only.  We have not given him reign of the whole house.  Then we add rooms that we will let Him into.  What we don't get until we get to know God, really know God is that joy comes when we let Him into the attic where we have stored everything of value, and into the  basement where we have hidden all the things we want to forget about. 

Peace and love and change comes when we give God every part of our lives.  Not leaving one single thing out. And we can be most thankful when we aren't hiding anything from God.  We can better fix our minds on good and noble things when we are not busy trying to stand in front of the basement door. When we are not busy making sure we have locked the windows to our deepest darkest secrets. When we give God ever thing then we can fix our minds on the wonderful!  When we give God ever thing we can see joy in the ordinary.  We can be content with where God has us and know that He has so much more in store for our lives. 

Today I dare you to make a list of 100 things that you are thankful for. Yes 100.  Because then you begin to get past the obvious things...and you start remembering to notice the things we so take for granted, like the fact that we just flip a light switch in the dark!  Or that ................................... you fill in the blank.  Don't forget when you make the list to add, the Thank you God part! 

I find that when I send up thank you's to Heaven, joy falls down on my soul!

10.2.13

Proverbs 24:16 The godly man may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.

My Thoughts

I look back over my life and think how easily I was knocked when when I was not walking with God like I should be.  Now that I am in constant contact with God, talking with Him daily, reading and learning and renewing my mind daily I am amazed at how hard it is to trip me up. Things that use to overwhelm me are just no big deal at all.  There have been a couple of big things to come along... and God gets me through to the other side.  And when He stands me back up on my feet, I am standing strong, happy and filled with joy! God has done so much in my life that I can not even imagine trying to get through a day again without Him.   

It is not enough to know who God is.  We have to spend time with Him.  That is how we get to know God. That is how we are able to call out to God.  That is how we know what we can ask for from God. I use to hope that God would answer my prayers.  Now I know that God will answer my prayers, because I know God enough to know what to ask for and how to ask.  The better I know God the more of my prayers that get answered. Each day I am more amazed at just how much God loves me.  And this verse tells me that even when I fall, I will get up!!  I love that!

10.1.11

Isaiah 62:6-7 O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on  your walls; they will pray day and night, continually. Take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord. Give the Lord no rest until he completes his work, until he makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth.

My Thoughts

My sweet Robby is on vacation this week, so I read this verse to him and we had a chance to talk about it.  I love when we do that!!  I thought of how Jesus is sitting next to God praying for us all the time, interceding for us! He is our watchman, then I paid close attention to the next line, it say, "take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord." We need to be in pray continually! 

Robby and I talked about the things we can do and pray, and the things that we can't do and pray.  He can paint and build (he has a house project going on right now) and pray while he works.  I can clean the kitchen and pray. I can sew and pray. I can solder jewelry and pray. There are times all through out his day at UPS where he can pray as he works. 

Then there are the things that distract us from prayer.  The TV... I can not watch TV and pray.... I can't pray if I am busy with idle talk and gossip. I can't pray and surf the Internet or read.  I can stop and pray while I surf but I can't do both at the same time.   

This verse tells me to be in constant prayer.  I am learning that if I am not learning about God, I need to be praying to God. If I am not busy acting in love towards others because I love God, I need to be in prayer.  I never, ever need to let my mind be idle, it needs to be busy with God.  Communicating with God in all that I do.  Busy sending prayers up or taking wisdom in, so that when I am called to act I am filled to the brim with God. 

As I wrote this I though to myself, "You know, if I am busy praying all the prayers that I need to pray, just think of what prayers Jesus can pray over me, because He is not busy taking up my slack!" 

You might be asking what I have asked myself, "What can I pray about alllllll day long?" I am learning that "thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, God" is the most amazing pray that I pray!