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Friday, October 31, 2008

Climbing



Visuals…I love to get good pictures in my mind…they help me. Visuals from God especially help me focus and further grasp what I feel the Holy Spirit is communicating to me. It energizes me and sometimes gives me what I need to keep going!!! This may seem weird; but I do sense that the Spirit—who lives inside me because I asked Jesus into my heart, prompts me at different times. Sometimes to either do or say something or sometimes it is to just make me aware of what I am thinking and stir in me to think a new thought.

I love to be out in the world, and in His creation—the beach and the mountains are the greatest places that I feel His communication. I remember this past summer hiking with my girlfriend around Couer d’Alene Lake and we were talking about how far God has brought us individually and even in our relationship. We try to talk weekly and pray with one another. We’ve shared both hard times and really great celebratory times together. While we were walking up this hill and really feeling the ‘burn’ we were amazed to see 2 deer cross our path about 20 feet in front of us…I instantly felt Habb 3:19 come to my mind and felt God speaking to me at that moment and had to agree out loud, “He is our strength—he makes our feet like the feet of a deer and enables us to go on new heights.”

I sense God is taking me higher and with that comes some extreme opposition from my flesh but also from forces that I cannot see, which I know are in opposition to God’s plan for me. Yesterday while teaching physical education to the elementary school kids I reflected back on the day and realized that what kids I remembered were the ones I already know and have a great relationship with; I also had a a few kids stick out in my mind; either the ones who were great helpers and what some may call the ‘teacher’s pet’ or I also cannot get out of my mind the ones who were defiant (there weren’t many for the 30 or so minutes I had each class) or just the class clowns with always something smart to say…the ones I couldn’t help but label ‘in need of attention.”

I thought of how God loves all of us as I thought of these kids and that it is frustrating to grow up in life being in the middle and feeling no attention is given to us and then at other times feeling relieved that there is no attention shown to us—we can get really comfortable sitting here unnoticed.

But, I felt the Spirit shifting my thinking just a bit and thinking of myself as the student and God as my teacher…where do I want to be as far as being noticed by the Teacher? He is desiring to take me on to new heights and I want to agree with a full eager heart…make me a ‘teacher’s pet’ because I desire to not be neither hot or cold…Rev 3:15-16. Give me a heart that acts regardless of what the class is doing and may my motivation always be to give You the glory…my sweet loving God…I want to climb for You!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Gazing as His bird...


In the crispness of this fall morning it is silent as my eyes are drawn to a bird atop my neighbors’ chimney.
There he or she is—God’s creation—basking in the sun; fluttering his wings; shaking his tail; nudging his beak within his feathers as he gazes up at the sun almost thanking it for its warmth.
Then tip toe down off of the chimney prancing down to the edge of the rooftop. I’ve never seen a bird prance like that before…he looked so confident but delicate. Then one last glance up at the source of its warmth before it leaped and spread his/her wings out to fly and glide off the rooftop…
In a weird sort of way I grew fond of this bird in a such a short time...I saw something about myself in this bird this morning. Like this bird—I am His creation—I too enjoy basking in His warmth; I too feel like I can shake off the dust when engulfed with His love; I too nudge myself to acknowledge Him and thank Him for who He is and all He has provided. Then, I too am able to jump and glide effortlessly through each moment…confident and sure…not confident or sure because of anything I can do or have done; but confident and sure because my God has gifted me with faith and His Spirit.
Off to bask in His love and glide through this day…

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Smile!





I’ve recently thought about going back to school to further my education –education on life that is. And I think I want to go back to Kindergarten. I’ve heard someone say once that all you ever needed to know you learned in Kindergarten.
I watch the little hearts of these five year olds and sense their desire for approval and support. They hesitate to share what they know one minute and then exclaim with great confidence the next minute. I so can relate to that! I see simple truths clicking so quickly with my own five year old son and can’t help but pray for his little heart.
Lord, please guard his little heart from this cold-dark world. Enlighten him at just the right times and empower Him with Your Spirit to love-love-love all who cross His path even through seasons when the coldness and darkness seems to be all that is present for a time.

Just as soon as I pray for him; I feel the Sprit nudging me to do the same…I am 7 times the age of those Kindergarteners with 7 times the number of stories and 7 times the number of hurts and experiences and 7 times the number of discouraging moments and so could be prone to crawl inside my own little cocoon. Yet, all the glory to my God…my heart is still just as tender as those 5 year olds and at times my heart seems to be just as vulnerable and at the same time just as light and free because I know YOU love me!
Lord, please help me to rely on You…specifically Your Holy Spirit that dwells within me. Help me to always be quick to forgive this fallen world and love-love-love!
May the desires of my heart be more and more like Your heart and less and less from the selfish heart I was first born with!
While thinking about Kindergarten; and praying for my son’s heart and mine...my son ran up to place a sticker on my shirt. The sticker was a caterpillar that had the word “Smile” on it!
I instantly felt God smiling and loving me. It wasn’t anything mystical or anything that I felt—no direct audible message to my ear and I didnt' see Him standing next to me. But I felt His Presence in a way that I cannot even express in words—I instantly thanked Him and embraced my son in the process!!! (Isn't it so like God to love us and then cause us to love others?)
Only God can transform me and you like that smiling caterpillar on the at sticker…and even though this process takes a lifetime and is full of ups and downs… there is not a human-sized cocoon that we must enter first. Only God is able to empower us with His Spirit and equip us for freedom like the butterflies flying from flower to flower are able to experience while we are still at this phase of life living as hungry caterpillars.
Sometimes I feel like I am wandering in this world so hungry for love and acceptance and when I look to His Spirit to fill this emptiness He so comes through for me!!!

Only in Christ can we be freed in surrendering….God alone can offer us freedom in the act of surrendering!! It makes no sense; surrender and experience freedom? Yet I think my Kindergartener is beginning to grasp this concept...you know somethings I think we grasp concepts better with our heart than with our head.
I don’t know about you…but I have a desire to go back to Kindergarten and learn a few more things…and hear my God with a five year old heart.

Praise you Father that my son knows about You and knows that You love Him! I know he hears Your voice affirming Him now when he is only 5 and I can’t wait to see the man he will become because of Your love that is continually pouring into his heart!!!
Help me to love like you love…and thank you for continuing to heal this heart of mine!

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Taking The First Step


Dear God,
How have I been doing? I feel like what I have desired to do in my head and in my heart I have not been able to do with my hands. And my head feels so foggy and it seems to be seeping into other places and I need it to stop…I need some clarity. Please help me take this step to clear the fog and may I keep going regardless of outside forces.
I am referring to the act of specifically allowing time for my hands to meet the keyboard. A change of schedule sometimes makes things…well out of schedule. I have missed processing my thoughts and please forgive me if I have allowed my passion for writing to wane because of some things that have occurred or maybe because of what someone may have said or done this past week or just allowed my passion to wane because I have had two kids at home while on Fall Break.
Whether I write for the audience of one or many; I know my writing makes my joy complete and my goal is to glorify You. Thank you for empowering me to take this step today to write again; for I feel the fog has lifted.
Thank you Lord for speaking through my dear friend who had no idea I was seeing the fog…when she simply said “Sometimes it just takes the act of taking that first step to lift the fog.”
You are the reason behind my writing…thank you for calling me Yours.
Sincerely,
JGirl

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

J who? J why? J Praise?


I love mornings where I can sit and watch the sun come up and then watch the rays shine through the trees. We also have a windmill in the yard that I noticed slowly starts to spin faster as the morning wanes by.

While glancing out the window gazing at the sun shining on the trees I felt my Lord whispered “Jehoshaphat.” This brought me back to some scripture this morning that I remember reading one morning while camping in the mountains with our friends. It was a déjà vu moment for me as I read on in my Bible and the notes I made in the margins.

I so remember God speaking to me up in the mountains just about four months ago when I read about Jehoshaphat in 2Chron 20. I really felt like God was speaking to me again from these passages; and this is what I felt like He was whispering to me through His Word…
When tragedies big or small come; whether it is a bad hair day or a day where devastating news come from any area of my life; God is standing in my presence. I can and God wants me to cry out to him in my distress and He will hear me and He will save me. Just as a loving mother will run to the cries of her newborn baby, so will my loving God run to my cries.
Through my circumstance God is telling me “Do not be afraid or discouraged!” “This battle you feel you are under right now is not yours but MINE!”

Even though there are things that I may feel God nudging me to do and of course I will be blessed in obeying His commands; yet I am not fighting the BIG FIGHT…this battle is not mine to fight; but God wants me to take my position as His daughter and stand firm and see the deliverance that the LORD will give me! Hallelujah!!
I think I need to hear that one again…it is in verse 17…”You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you!...Oh (Fill in your name)…I filled in mine. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you.”

I so desire to sit back in awe and watch our LORD win the fight! Will you pop some popcorn and sit back with me and watch this story unfold in your own life?

So what is our position and what did Jehoshaphat do…I was so blessed in remembering this…our job…our focus…our position…our duty…our joy is in bowing to our God “faces to the ground” and upon arising may we sing praises to the LORD! May we have faith in the LORD…so that we will be upheld; have faith in Him and we will be successful! The Lord has given us cause to rejoice…may we be blessed in doing so!! Verse 30 talks about the peace that Jehoshaphat’s kingdom found in praising Him in the valley….the Valley of Beracah (the Valley of Praise)…May we too praise Him in all things at times when we are resting on the peaks and highs of life and also the lows and valleys of this life.

I never realized the importance or the call I had as His daughter to praise Him in all things; yet as a young mom and still young in my faith I would do this daily. Whether it was a good day or a bad day with my sweet babies I had time everyday where I played my favorite worship/praise music and I held them tight and danced in my living room with them praising my Heavenly Father for anything and everything I could think of!!! My boys are much older now and we still love to praise and worship together…and every time we do my heart feels lighter and more full of joy.

I think I will take my position…how about you? Will you sing praise with me?? I’m ready to pop my CD’s in and dance with boys.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Rock On! With Our Lord, We're Unshaken!

Just the other night I watched my brother play in a concert, he has been playing the electric guitar for quite a few years now and recently started playing with a group of kids his age led by a few adults who have taken to teaching them…and encouraging them in their musical pursuits.

It was such an awesome thing to watch! My brother is approaching 15 and is exuding many of the qualities of a teenager. He even had a red hair piece put into his hair to add to the rock-band persona. As I watched him play I felt like his second proud mother! I had flashbacks of holding him as a baby and remembered him as a toddler dancing the night away as my little ring-bearer at my wedding almost 13 years ago…

My brother played so well, and just looked so natural. As I watched him, I also watched my own boys and nephew as they only took their eyes off of him to imitate and play their own air guitars. Their smiles from ear to ear and participation with the music exuded their love and support.

Afterwards we hung out with my brother for awhile and I talked with my mom and she shared the day’s events leading up to the concert and how nervous and insecure my brother was and that he even had second thoughts about playing—after talks of being so excited about it weeks earlier; I was shocked! My brother--insecure about playing the guitar?? He is so good and sometimes—like a normal teenager, talks like he knows he is so good. How can he be insecure???

Hmmmm….as I asked that question to myself in my own head I felt myself resonating with that. Aren’t we all insecure? I felt God agreeing with me as He knows I so often am talking to Him about my own insecurities.

I remember talking to a friend recently who spoke to a large group of people and it is not something that she is eager to do; but she told me how God gives her the strength every time. ..this led me to think about something recently that I was pondering about my own security…
I used to battle with insecure thoughts constantly; and it still tends to rear its ugly head and the enemy so knows how to push my buttons. I don’t think it is any coincidence that the times of my greatest struggle with insecurity were also my greatest memories of being used by God. God gave me the desire to speak up in front of hundreds—almost thousands of people when He wanted me to speak and He covered all of my insecurities. God is so grand and led me to scripture that speaks of His great love for me and my ability to be secure in Him. God alone is strong enough to suppress my insecurity whenever it seems to surface in my life.

I feel like there is a meter inside measuring my insecurity/security…I think extremes of either one are dangerous. I never want to be so down on myself or oh so sure of myself. I can easily pull out all sorts of books and make my lists of things to do; some things that God even wants me to do to stay balanced in this—yet I just seem to hear Him constantly whisper His desire for me to be connected with Him. When I am His friend; just like any other friendship; I am able to listen to His wisdom and advice that speaks to me secure words of who I am in Him.

Not always, but often I feel God nudging me to do some things that are a little uncomfortable, and I tend to feel a little insecure about myself before I do them—whether it is speaking in front of a large group or just going next door to talk to a neighbor. I am learning that stepping out and following these promptings that seem a little less than desirable at times…I am blessed and have the opportunity to stand in awe of my God and His love for His people.

How about you? Are you secure? Are you holding back out of insecurity? Are you feeling imprisoned by insecure feelings or shaken by any particular circumstances? Get into His Word and break free from those chains that bind you and wrap yourself in His love!

One of my favorite truths, from Psalm 16:8, “I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”

I also found it interesting that in my search for the word “security” in the Bible, the word was only found in the Old Testament and mostly pointed towards people’s longing for security and safety. I wonder if it isn’t found in the New Testament because God’s plan is for us to find our security in and through Jesus. Hmmm…may we look to Him who can and desires to secure us in every way! May we live secure in Him and then love all with this secure love…I think we all could benefit from being touched by others with this secure love. I know my brother-just a regular teenager has benefitted from others in his life who have loved him and encouraged him to rock on--may we rock on an be rock-stars for Jesus!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Pondering...


Just pondering this morning; desiring to say from my heart, "May I live in awe of the Lord our God." (Jer 5:24).

This is what God whispered to me this morning...

"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."

You can hear Him say this too; in His Word...Jeremiah Chapter 6 verse 16


Help me Father to live and love out of this resting soul of mine--the soul You have created.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Focus...

Just a couple of weeks ago my husband and I were out shopping for a new camera. We were looking at all of the different options and one of them being the optical zoom. I remember my son being particularly fascinated with looking through the camera and focusing on things and then zooming in and out.

I felt God nudging me to remember this moment this morning as I was feeling Him prodding me to remember to stay focused on Him. My prayers this morning included this particular cry, “Oh Lord, may my focus be on You Lord and what You have for me!”

The word focus has been resonating in my mind and I went searching through the scriptures for this word and I found that focus also means: center; the heart…and there in the old and new testament were these words “Love the Lord Your God with all your HEART, with all your soul, with all of your mind.” It is found in Deut 6:5 and Matthew 22:37.

The word is referring to our literal heart in the Greek and I just picture that camera focusing in on what stirs us to act…it is at the center of all we think, feel and do in our day. I so need to be aware of where my heart is and constantly need to take my heart issues to the Lord.

Often times I’ll be honest, I think my heart is doing okay…but when I think about and definitely when I think God is convicting me to think about my heart I realize that there are things connected to my heart that I definitely struggle with…one definitely being my thoughts. And any negative or critical thought s that I have about myself or anyone else definitely communicates a heart issue…

So what am I thinking…I’m not telling (just kidding)—but honestly, the depth of what I am thinking I cannot even put into words and that is between me and God and I can tell you that we talked about it this morning. But I will share that God is definitely bringing me to a place where I can firmly be planted in the soil of His love to grow and prosper regardless of anyone else around me.

Psalm 139 states that He hems me in-behind and before, He has laid His hand upon me; and I do feel like He has gently and lovingly hedged me in with a protective covering of His love. Just as in my flower bed I cannot place the flowers too close together or the roots get entangled and soon one of the flowers gets strangled to death and dies…so I too must have space between me and my fellow sojourners. He has a particular plan for each and every one of us and although He allows are shoulders and lives to touch in beautiful ways…He does not want us to be seeking life and joy from anyone else’s portion of His soil but He wants me to focus on His particular soil set apart just for me. (And yes He has a part set just for you too!)

I am remembering a recent girls’ trip this year where some girlfriends of mine went for a walk on the beach and one friend in particular asked God to bring dolphins So they could see them on the pier. I missed seeing those dolphins because I chose to go have my own walk with the Lord and had the most incredible time with God and was so excited that He sent me ladybugs without me even asking for anything in particular—I just asked for some time with Him. Well you can imagine when I connected back with my girlfriends I felt a little silly—dolphins are much more exceptional than ladybugs in most people’s book and I began to compare my ladybugs with the dolphins. Why? This is such a heart issue and I’m sure it had to break God’s heart because He sent those ladybugs just for me and yet I was left longing for dolphins…

You know God is so gracious and at a future visit to the beach He blessed me tremendously with a spectacle of dolphins and this time I was with my family and I got to share with my boys a great lesson of being careful to not allow our hearts to yearn for what He has for another. My oldest son recognized this right away….when He said, “Yeah mom we shouldn’t covet.” (Why do children seem to just get the simple truths so easily and I feel it takes months of repetitive learning experiences to get it?)

This lesson also repeated itself again in my son’s lives as my youngest son is growing so fast and learning so many new things; so often I see him afraid to venture out because he sees his brother can do so many more things than he can because he is older. I am trying to teach him to not pay attention to what his brother can do; but to focus on what he can do…he looks up to his brother so much and often leans on him for support…but I see little glimpses of him growing and pushing up through the dirt and God is hemming him in; teaching him and just the other day he said with such conviction as he was trying to do something that his brother has already mastered, “God loves me, I can do it!” Those are powerful words from a five year old…words of extreme FOCUS…words that have stuck to my heart!

Praise you Father for the reminder to stay focused on You and Your love for me…

”You are my portion, O Lord; I have promised to obey your words. I have sought your face with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise.” (Psalm m119:57-58).

Thank you for reminding me that “You love me and I can do it!”

Monday, October 6, 2008

Rah! Rah! Sis-Boom-Ba!



Open the barnyard kick out the hay…we’re the girls from the USA!! Oh, this totally makes me smile as I have memories of singing this with the schoolgirls in my neighborhood as a child.
Cheering and memories of being a cheerleader have been on my mind this week (although I much more enjoyed playing the sport and getting in there to play I loved cheering and still love being an encouragement to others). I had a dear girlfriend remind me this week to be my greatest cheerleader—she was encouraging me to seek within myself my own encouraging words. I don’t think that I seek complete affirmation from others but it sure does help at times and I truly want to live where words from others whether positive or negative don’t define me. My God defines me and I want to live that truth out in my life…
In meditating this week on this I was reminding myself of my most precious girlfriends who encourage me and love me and also remembering my freshman years of cheerleading…I was relating to the days of feeling so empty and insecure inside and yet had the make-up on, my hair done and my cheer uniform on with the smile and cheer voice yelling as I encouraged others whether I was at school, at the pep rally, or wherever!!
I was trained in school spirit and taught how to best display leadership as a young teen; yet was dealing with such emptiness inside my own heart. I hate to admit it…but I so see the possibility of portraying it on the outside and not exemplifying it on the inside. I know I need to seek to empty myself every morning and be filled with Him and when I don’t do this…the day has potential for disaster.
Christ draws us to be filled first on the inside…I am sure of it! His Word talks so much about emptying ourselves and filling us with Himself. His Word is given to us and heals us it says in Psalm 107…and right now in studying the Psalms of Ascent the entire message is to pour our hearts out to God allowing ourselves to be emptied of our fleshy desires and then seeking Him and asking Him to fill us with His love and goodness…
I so desire this!!! I want to be transformed from the inside out and feel I am definitely on this journey with Him and can honestly say when I seek Him I am different every day and ever-changing…being transformed to be more like Him. I am Free in Christ and His Spirit is in me…(2 Cor 3:17). I love the next verse; it reminds me of this weekend and getting to spend some precious time with some dear girlfriends…verse 18 says, “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” I am remembering the heart-to-heart…REAL conversations that filled my living room this past Saturday night and picturing the masks on our faces and our willingness to be vulnerable and allowing our true selves to be revealed…these girlfriends are brave and free with me (YOU GIRLS SO ROCK FOR HIM!!!)—they know what it means to ask Christ into their hearts to reveal not only to themselves but to others the radiant glory of our Lord. They are and I too am by no means perfect…but Christ lives in them and our hearts are surrendering to Him and I believe He has called us together to continue to encourage one another in this.
I know this is deep…BUT I felt God was tying these things together for me…this girls’ night was not just a deep pore cleansing for our faces…but a reminder for us girls to keep seeking Him to fill us…admitting our pride, our susceptibility to having harshness in our hearts and our need of repentance and cleansing from Him—as much as we need to care for our complexion and our nails we need even more to care for our hearts and in the overflow of that the hearts around us!
Oh Lord, we surrender to you transforming us...I praise You for these precious girlfriends who cheer me on in the Lord…please help me to keep cheering myself on towards You and as I do that may it naturally encourage those around me.
In the spirit of cheering I yell this one out to the Creator of me who has already fought for me and has already won the game…thank you for the blood and the FREEDOM found in its covering...I love you my Jesus! I am yours!
Go Go! G…O…F…I…G…H…T Win!

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Thank You

Just need to say thank you to God for His Word...
"One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life." (Psalm 27:4)

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

FREEDOM


God continually shined down His love yesterday…I know He does everyday…don’t misunderstand me…I know it is always there; but YESTERDAY HE SHONE TO ME!!! I saw the sun’s rays in new ways, my kids exclaimed of His love and even brought home craft magnets of the sun that they made at school, my girlfriends cried out His love, my husband expressed His sweet love but most profound was expressions of His love found in His Word…I could post pages of what I wrote from studying from His Word in Deut 16, Exodus 12, John 10 and 1Cor….so much that I am still a little overwhelmed with His love still this morning….I am thankful for some upcoming time off to allow this teaching to soak in.
Oh to be overwhelmed with God’s Word…I woke up this morning and read with fresh eyes Isaiah 40:8
“The grass withers and the flowers fade,
But the Word of our God stands forever”

Have you ever been overwhelmed? I know in the Word it talks about people being overwhelmed with a lot of things…whether it be their sorrows or their amazement of Jesus I intend to go search that out in the Scriptures more; not to just say that I did; but because God has stirred my heart with this thought of overwhelmant (I know I made up this word J)
I don’t know if I am the only one…but I know that if I am overwhelmed it is my first innate response to shut down. Praise God I don’t stay there but when I am overwhelmed I usually tend to procrastinate which then leads to more and more reasons to be overwhelmed…it takes sometimes an act of God to get me to sit down and figure out a plan to get things organized (which is so crazy to me because I love order and organization) so that the overwhelming situation can be broken down and manageable.

My husband and I recently attempted to organize our study and that project turned into a greater mess; because you see we somehow managed to move the clutter mess from the study into another room and at the end of the day we found that 2 rooms now needed to be organized.
How does that happen? Sometimes I think I am tempted to do the same thing when accepting God’s love for me; specifically, I mean… take what I know is true about His love for me and then procrastinate. Is this makings sense? I think I jump ahead of accepting His love and think that with accepting this love that I will need to do x, y and Z for God…but I put off x, y and Z for whatever reason. I know the truth is that He loves me and died for me and saved me and that it is by His grace alone that I am saved Eph 2:8-9…I cannot do anything to earn His love…it is free! I just have to accept Him…and His free gift of love!
I was reminded of FREEDOM when listening to Nicole C. Mullen’s song “Freedom.” She sings: I’m on a journey…I’m looking for a plan, to rest my burdens, far from this tyranny….Up on Golgatha, hanging upon a tree. They say the God-man died for my liberty. He heard me crying from my captivity. And so he came down; came down to deliver me….FREEDOM!
Sometimes I wonder if we forget that with accepting His love and all that it means to accept His love for us…we are blessed with Freedom. Are we shying away from TRUE FREEDOM or….Do we shy away from His love because we know we will be compelled to love back and that means work of some kind in our puny little minds? In John 14:21,23-24 we read the hard truths that those who love Jesus will keep His Word and make our home with him. What does this mean? God speak to us….I think I know but it may be different for everyone.
Yesterday my son came home from school and shared with me some things that edified God’s hand was at work in his little heart. Just as I am teaching my boys as best I can—and I know I fail and I don’t do it perfectly—but I am so trying to instill in them a heart of obedience for our God…doing the things that we know God wants us to do and then reaping a life full of blessings…a life full of FREEDOM!!!
This picture of my son pretending to be the statue of liberty this summer while we were camping with friends reminds me that God is forever nudging all of us to accept His love, obey His commandments so that we may live full…abundant lives….LIVES FREE IN CHRIST!
So whatever I have to do Father…help me to obey; give up whatever I need to in order to accept your love fully. Help me to combat the lies with your truth…because I know a life without your love is just not what you intended for me—for it is nothing but empty. Help me to accept Your gift of FREEDOM and live out this FREEDOM in my daily life!