Trusting God.
Two words that seem to be a lot harder than they should be. But… why? This is the question that I have been wrestling with for the past few months or so. Actually, I think the question of “why” is something that I have been dealing with my whole life-- If I could be so honest. I know that trusting God is the best possible thing that I could ever do. I know that trusting God will give me a peace that passes all understanding. I know that God has the greatest intentions for me. I know that His will is perfect. I know, I know, I … know. But do I really? People always say, “take heart… God is good” or, “it will all be okay, just trust in God for this one…”. It’s almost as if the phrase “trust God” has just become something as ordinary as when someone sneezes and the response is “God bless you.” Do we really take the time to think about the two words: TRUST GOD?! For me, not so much. I think in order to fully wrap my mind around trusting God, I need to turn to His word. I need to fill my mind with verses that remind me of His trust and of His faithfulness. It’s one thing to remind myself to trust God, and it’s another thing to actually put it to action, by reminding myself of the promises and plans and will of my Father in Heaven. God brought me to this verse this week and there is no mistake… I NEEDED IT :) It’s amazing. It has changed my pattern of life these past few days. It has caused me to live more in the “moment” and to depend on Him more and more. I guess you are wondering what it is, huh ?
"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7.
If you haven’t read 1 Peter, go read it after you’re finished with this! OR at your earliest opportunity. It is wonderful writing, straight from the breath of God.. and it will rock your world. I found this quote to go along with this verse, read it and be blessed by this man’s wisdom!:
"Not only will He never leave you--that's the negative side of the promise--but He cares for you. He is not just there with you. He cares for you. His care is constant--not occasional or sporadic. His care is total--even the very hairs of your head are numbered. His care is sovereign--nothing can touch you that He does not allow. His care is infinitely wise and good so that again in the words of John Newton, 'If it were possible for me to alter any part of his plan, I could only spoil it.'"
WOW. God? You are beautiful.
May 13, 2011
May 5, 2011
sitting, waiting, wishing
no this is not a jack johnson post :) I was emailed this and thought I would pass it along. IT IS GREAT WISDOM. Read and be blessed!
(I promise I will post an original Em post soon... school is in the last few days and finals are crazy!!!)
-Lysa TerKeurst
“Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.” Psalm 27:14 (NIV)
Have you ever wondered if the dreams tucked in your heart will ever come to be?
Me too.
I still remember sitting on my bed as a young girl and staring down at an old typewriter my dad brought home. I was fascinated with the way the keys struck the paper. I started to string together words — sentences — paragraphs. I whispered, “Maybe one day a whole book.”
But the whisper got buried in a tangle of other things.
All the while the Lord had a plan. A hope. A future. If only I would seek Him, I would find Him, if I would seek Him with all my heart. Not just my Sunday heart. Not just my quiet time heart. But, seek Him in it all.
Seek Him.
Surrender to Him.
Trust Him.
Turn to Him.
Obey Him.
Say yes to Him.
Realize how significantly God can use inconvenience, interruption, and unlikely twists. Instead of always praying, “God bless me,” I started praying, “God unsettle me. God inconvenience me, interrupt me, and redirect me.”
The road was bumpy and hard. There were years of quiet service with no light on the horizon that God would ever use me beyond my own mailbox.
While others were chasing dreams, I was scraping dried up Cheerios from underneath the sticky farm table. And in that place I learned so much. “Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD” (Psalm 27:14, NIV).
Maybe you are in that place right now? Waiting and wondering if your calling will ever come to be. The road ahead seems so long… almost impossible. Sweet sister, take heart. The years of quiet service are a treasure. God must develop our character in the quiet if we’re ever to be used effectively in public.
Yes, there were years of quiet for me. And those years were so very crucial. There was a rich purpose to the wait. There always is.
Then one day I saw a lady share her story at my church and I dared to whisper to my husband, “Could I? Should I try?”
His smile said, “Yes.”
And I remembered the old typewriter. The words. The sentences. The whisper of a book. Of all the moments that rushed by long forgotten, that one snagged in the corner of my mind and lingered.
Seventeen years later, I wrote a book I thought only a handful of people would ever want to read. The message I never dreamed I could live. A book about my raw and secret struggles with food and how I learned to crave God above all else. My mess, touched by the Messiah, turned into a message.
And after years of waiting, I find myself staring down once again. This time my tears leak over one little square inch of newspaper… the New York Times bestseller list. An unlikely nod from the world that very rarely even looks in the direction of a Jesus message.
Today I whisper, “Thank You Jesus… thank You for the years of quiet service. Thank You for Your reminder to wait on Your timing. Thank You for healing me and allowing me the honor of breathing hope into so many other women with the same struggles. It was all worth it. Every day spent waiting, learning, developing and trusting. And in the end, the great joy isn’t hitting a best seller list. The great joy is discovering how good and necessary times of waiting really are.”
Dear Lord, thank You for Your perfect plans… Your perfect timing… and the perfect way Your development happens in my times of waiting. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
(I promise I will post an original Em post soon... school is in the last few days and finals are crazy!!!)
-Lysa TerKeurst
“Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.” Psalm 27:14 (NIV)
Have you ever wondered if the dreams tucked in your heart will ever come to be?
Me too.
I still remember sitting on my bed as a young girl and staring down at an old typewriter my dad brought home. I was fascinated with the way the keys struck the paper. I started to string together words — sentences — paragraphs. I whispered, “Maybe one day a whole book.”
But the whisper got buried in a tangle of other things.
All the while the Lord had a plan. A hope. A future. If only I would seek Him, I would find Him, if I would seek Him with all my heart. Not just my Sunday heart. Not just my quiet time heart. But, seek Him in it all.
Seek Him.
Surrender to Him.
Trust Him.
Turn to Him.
Obey Him.
Say yes to Him.
Realize how significantly God can use inconvenience, interruption, and unlikely twists. Instead of always praying, “God bless me,” I started praying, “God unsettle me. God inconvenience me, interrupt me, and redirect me.”
The road was bumpy and hard. There were years of quiet service with no light on the horizon that God would ever use me beyond my own mailbox.
While others were chasing dreams, I was scraping dried up Cheerios from underneath the sticky farm table. And in that place I learned so much. “Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD” (Psalm 27:14, NIV).
Maybe you are in that place right now? Waiting and wondering if your calling will ever come to be. The road ahead seems so long… almost impossible. Sweet sister, take heart. The years of quiet service are a treasure. God must develop our character in the quiet if we’re ever to be used effectively in public.
Yes, there were years of quiet for me. And those years were so very crucial. There was a rich purpose to the wait. There always is.
Then one day I saw a lady share her story at my church and I dared to whisper to my husband, “Could I? Should I try?”
His smile said, “Yes.”
And I remembered the old typewriter. The words. The sentences. The whisper of a book. Of all the moments that rushed by long forgotten, that one snagged in the corner of my mind and lingered.
Seventeen years later, I wrote a book I thought only a handful of people would ever want to read. The message I never dreamed I could live. A book about my raw and secret struggles with food and how I learned to crave God above all else. My mess, touched by the Messiah, turned into a message.
And after years of waiting, I find myself staring down once again. This time my tears leak over one little square inch of newspaper… the New York Times bestseller list. An unlikely nod from the world that very rarely even looks in the direction of a Jesus message.
Today I whisper, “Thank You Jesus… thank You for the years of quiet service. Thank You for Your reminder to wait on Your timing. Thank You for healing me and allowing me the honor of breathing hope into so many other women with the same struggles. It was all worth it. Every day spent waiting, learning, developing and trusting. And in the end, the great joy isn’t hitting a best seller list. The great joy is discovering how good and necessary times of waiting really are.”
Dear Lord, thank You for Your perfect plans… Your perfect timing… and the perfect way Your development happens in my times of waiting. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
May 2, 2011
Osama.
Hi you all!! Hope your weekends were fantastic! In light of the death of Osama bin Laden, I thought I would share with you all some thoughts on it. It seems that there are so many opinions being thrown around about this subject. My friend Lauren addressed the topic so beautifully in her blog. Check out what she wrote:
I’ve been seeing a lot of tweets about Osama bin Laden’s death tonight.
Some people are ecstatic about the fact that he is dead. The majority of the Christians that I follow on twitter have been tweeting about the fact that it’s inappropriate to rejoice in the fact that bin Laden is now, and forever will be, in hell. They’ve been quoting Proverbs 24:17: “Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice.” And yes, I agree with that. Osama bin Laden’s eternal fate is sealed and my heart breaks for the fact that even such a man will spend an eternity without God. And I realize that Christ died to forgive all sins, even great ones like those bin Laden committed, if he had chosen to believe in Christ for the forgiveness of his sins. I know too that I am a sinner Christ died to save just like Osama bin Laden. “But for the grace of God, there go I.” I deserve the lovingkindness of a Savior just as much as Osama does.
But to only consider that and to simply feel sad for a man like bin Laden is not considering the other characteristics of God. Yes, God is loving and longs for all of us to come to him, but he is also a God of justice. The fact remains that bin Laden was a man who desired to cause the death of many, many innocent people. He was the founder of al-Qaeda and was in great part responsible for the attack on the U.S. on September 11th. (I wrote a post last year about 9/11.) He was a man who proved that he was capable of committing great evil. He hurt many families and caused one of the greatest national catastrophes known to this generation. The greatness of his sins demanded justice. Though rejoicing in bin Laden’s eternal destiny in hell is of course inappropriate, it is more than appropriate to realize that the sins he committed against God and no one else have been punished, and in God’s perfect timing no less. It is appropriate to rejoice in the fact that our God is just and his will has been done regarding Osama bin Laden. It is appropriate to be happy that one of America’s greatest threats to national security and a strong symbol of the fact that terrorism is still alive is now gone.
Be sure tonight while you think about your response to the death of Osama bin Laden that you are balanced in your view of the character of God. Consider his love for all people, yes, but also consider the justice of our great God and the perfection of his will for history.
I’ve been seeing a lot of tweets about Osama bin Laden’s death tonight.
Some people are ecstatic about the fact that he is dead. The majority of the Christians that I follow on twitter have been tweeting about the fact that it’s inappropriate to rejoice in the fact that bin Laden is now, and forever will be, in hell. They’ve been quoting Proverbs 24:17: “Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice.” And yes, I agree with that. Osama bin Laden’s eternal fate is sealed and my heart breaks for the fact that even such a man will spend an eternity without God. And I realize that Christ died to forgive all sins, even great ones like those bin Laden committed, if he had chosen to believe in Christ for the forgiveness of his sins. I know too that I am a sinner Christ died to save just like Osama bin Laden. “But for the grace of God, there go I.” I deserve the lovingkindness of a Savior just as much as Osama does.
But to only consider that and to simply feel sad for a man like bin Laden is not considering the other characteristics of God. Yes, God is loving and longs for all of us to come to him, but he is also a God of justice. The fact remains that bin Laden was a man who desired to cause the death of many, many innocent people. He was the founder of al-Qaeda and was in great part responsible for the attack on the U.S. on September 11th. (I wrote a post last year about 9/11.) He was a man who proved that he was capable of committing great evil. He hurt many families and caused one of the greatest national catastrophes known to this generation. The greatness of his sins demanded justice. Though rejoicing in bin Laden’s eternal destiny in hell is of course inappropriate, it is more than appropriate to realize that the sins he committed against God and no one else have been punished, and in God’s perfect timing no less. It is appropriate to rejoice in the fact that our God is just and his will has been done regarding Osama bin Laden. It is appropriate to be happy that one of America’s greatest threats to national security and a strong symbol of the fact that terrorism is still alive is now gone.
Be sure tonight while you think about your response to the death of Osama bin Laden that you are balanced in your view of the character of God. Consider his love for all people, yes, but also consider the justice of our great God and the perfection of his will for history.
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