Patience is a gift we always have to call upon

Romans Romans 12:12 Rejoice in our confident  hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. 

I was reading these verses and my initial reaction to be patient in trouble was that is not so easy. I have a misbelief or lie that I am believing that being patient can be easier, depending on the situation. But isn't the Spirit of God living in me? The Spirit that gives me patience is always there so the truth is I can always be patient in times of trouble no matter what the circumstances may be. The first part of this verse sets you up for this truth. Rejoice in our confident hope. We always have the capability to wait on the Lord and the best action plan is to keep our focus on the hope that we can be confident in rather than on the negative things that Satan is trying to plant within us. Fight the battle and always be rejoicing in the hope that Jesus has already given us! We have to acknowledge this fruit within us and accept this gift from the Holy Spirit. When we do this everyday, we can be patient in all circumstances.
Lord, how forgetful I am of the gifts you have given me. Help me to acknowledge and praise you for these gifts everyday. Let the fruit of the Spirit pour out of me in all circumstances. In the precious name of Jesus, I pray.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 111

My mind is reeling from the test results of my APS report on my temperament that I received this morning. It is so accurate.  I can’t even express the value of having something like this. People struggle their whole lives with learning who they are and what God created them to be. This tool is a gift from God and I am so honored to be called to helping people discover who God created them to be. I feel compelled to re-read it and fully absorb who God created me to be and praise him for everything.

Romans 10:15 As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 43

Yesterday I drove my son to Guitar Center and dropped him off and than took my daughter over to Toys R Us to shop with her Christmas money. When I picked up my son, he told me how he had never been in there before and he was a little scared and intimidated about going in but he did it and said he got over that pretty quickly. He found a used guitar he really wanted to get but was short about $80 so we set off heading home and stopped for lunch at Panda Express. After talking it through and confirmation from my husband we knew Tristan had enough money based on what he had in his savings account so we headed back to Guitar Center to buy the guitar. Unfortunately, when we arrived we did not find the guitar displayed and inquired about it. It turns out someone was buying it right than. We had missed it. My son took it so well and was willing to look over his second choice and any other guitars. I was so proud of him in how he handled it all. He ended up buying his second choice and was so thrilled to be getting a new guitar to replace his old cheap starter guitar we bought for him many years ago that wasn’t playing very good anymore. It is moments like these that bring joy to me as a parent. What a gift that is.

Proverbs 10:1 A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son grief to his mother.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 38

I got newsletter in the mail from a ministry called Voice of the Martyrs. It shared about their ministry of getting people to write letters to Christians that are in prisons around the world. It shared one story of a man who was imprisoned because he was selling bibles in China. He ended up getting bags of letters and cards from Christians around the world that gave him hope and strength. He was filled with joy at receiving such a gift when he was in prison. This gift gave him the hope and strength he needed and he brought several fellow prisoners there for murder to accept Jesus Christ. Finding joy in such circumstances is almost unfathomable to consider but we are never alone in these struggles and that is the joy of it. This man prayed to be freed from prison as he was being tortured hourly and heard the voice of Jesus tell him “my grace is enough”. He wasn’t freed at that point but lived on knowing he was not alone and that Jesus was with him. I think the ultimate joy that we are given is in knowing Jesus Christ.

1Peter 2:21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

Happy 2013!

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits-Challenge Day 35

I woke a couple times last night with some pain in my shoulder and my mind turned on and went on a path of thinking about joy. The Lord guided my thoughts to the time when I experienced intense overwhelming joy so much so that I had to stop thinking about it and shove it back inside of me because is was unbelievable the amount of emotion that was produced. I was driving in my car at the time which is always a great place to think and pray but can get you to drive past where you needed to go. LOL.  I was pregnant with my daughter and started thinking about the amazing gift I had received from God in not only coming to know him in my heart, being released from the fears of exposing my past sins to others but the gift of my hearts desire to have a second child. My heart just bubbled over with intense joy and I started pouring out tears. My chest was filled to capacity and it was literally overwhelming the emotion that it brought. That emotion was pure joy. Perhaps it was because of my pregnant hormonally driven state that I experienced it in such an overwhelming way. In any case, it reminds me that joy can be found in knowing and trusting Jesus Christ. I remember when I first came to believe in Christ and understood that I was forgiven in my heart. I grew up believing in my head but was missing the heart piece. When I found that, I was “hot” for Jesus. I wanted to learn all I could. That was motivated by the joy of knowing the gift I had finally connected with in my heart of being forgiven. The initial joy re-visits me often in worship when we are confessing or just singing our praises. I think of the awesome gift of Jesus and am overwhelmed with joy that I with all my sins am a recipient of such an amazing gift.

Phillipians 3:8 Even more, I consider everything to be nothing compared to knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. To know him is the best thing of all. (New International Reader’s Version)

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 2

A key component to having the forgiveness we need is Jesus Christ. We can not do good things and love our way out of our sins. We cannot go straight to God with our sins. There is a large canyon that separates us from God. He is on one side and us with our sins on the other side. But because God loves us so much, he sent his only son Jesus to live among us and die for us. Our sins needed atonement, a sacrifice and Jesus was it. He was a man without sin, the son of God, our Savior and bridge across the canyon. Why did God give us this one and only way to Him? The only answer I have to that is to trust God and have faith in Jesus. Accept the unfathomable love that God demonstrated in Jesus. There is no greater love. Through this love we can seek the forgiveness we need so we can respond back with our love.

Lord, I am forever in awe of the love you have given to us through the gift of your son, Jesus. I believe that Jesus is your one and only son who came to live among us, died on the cross for our sins, rose from the dead and is seated by your side right this moment. Help me to live with faith and cross the bridge that Jesus has provided today and all the days to come. In your precious name, Amen.

1 John 4:9-11 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

This is a fatihbook page done a few years ago that shows the canyon between us and God and Jesus as the bridge.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 325

It’s Stewardship season and with that comes the sermons on giving. I am not the best at tithing but have improved over the last couple of years but I have tried giving in other ways like being a Sunday school teacher, bringing food donations to church on the first Saturday of every month and getting the family to raid their closets to weed out clothes for the clothing drives. I am in a season of life where doing anything with my time is tough because my kids and family is where my time is spent. The sermon yesterday was about you guessed it, time. I really liked how our pastor said that we can start with giving our time in prayer and worship. In thinking about this, I realize that what I do everyday with the 365 Days of Praise Challenge has been a form of worship. I have managed to give of myself everyday to write up a praise for the day and hopefully have passed some blessings on to others who read it. In giving my time this way, it has been one of the greatest blessings to me. So, if you are in a season of life like me where spare time is hard to come by, think about starting with just 5 minutes everyday to pray and/or worship the Lord. Time is our greatest gift to God and each other. Find a way to give some everyday.

Eccelesiates 3:1-10 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; ...

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 302

Today is the first official day of Fall. We all have our favorites and mine has always been the Fall. I think because it is more of a drastic change than the Spring is.  Spring doesn't seems to come all at once. First you see the daffodils, than the tulips than some trees start to bud and the grasses start to change from yellow to green. But the Fall is much more dramatic and sudden. That first colder weather pattern that moves through tells all the trees and grasses your time is about done. You wake up the next day and suddenly your whole world has changed. The temperature is a nice mild 50 degrees, the trees are changing colors and the mountain has its first bit of snow on it. I think we can feel that way everyday with Christ Jesus in our hearts. Everyday we are made new. We can ask the Lord for forgiveness for our sins of the previous day and be washed clean of them. Thank you Lord for this gift of a new day, a new beginning everyday. We so need it! If you are living in a place without hope, than its time to look to the one who gives us hope everyday like a mountain with fresh snow.

Ephesians 4:22-24 To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 262

We celebrated my hubbie's birthday with my brother and his family yesterday. I am so proud of who my husband has become over the 16 years of our marriage. Nobody is perfect and everyone has things they can improve upon but over time we can see the growth and the wonderful changes that occur within someone. I caved in and decided to let my husband open one of this gifts for this birthday even though its not until this Wednesday. Its always fun to open gifts in the company of people you love and who love you. I gave him the choice of the predictable gift or the "oh my gosh" gift. Well, all the kids wanted to see the "oh my gosh" gift and started chanting in unison "open it, open it, open it". My husband was so sweet and gently ask our two young neices to help him open the present. It turned out to be a great "oh my gosh" moment. He totally did not expect to get an Xbox. It turns out he had contemplated getting one since getting his bonus in July but decided he needed to use the money for debt and house things. It couldn't have been a more perfect gift and the perfect time.  Jesus is our perfect gift given to us everyday. He is within us and we can call on the Holy Spirit to bless us with the gifts we need for that day and the rest of our lives. Thank you Lord for your perfect gift to us and for the gift of my husband and being a witness to his growth in you.

1 Peter 4:13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 126

One word can mean so much. I have a workshop all ready to go based on John 16:33 that I originally designed to be used for Easter photos. The constructive critisim at my master mind group on this workshop was it's after Easter, why not do something geared towards Mother's Day so that people could make a gift out of it if they want. That was a good point as they want this first workshop to be successful. So, I went home feeling these doubts and wondering how I could tweek this workshop. I didn't come up with much after a while so I told God that I would let him work on me in my sleep. A fresh perspective in the morning with a brain that is awake and ready to go can do wonders along with the Holy Spirit leading me. The word "overcome" which is a stand out word in this verse and the workshop project started coming into my head again and again so I looked in the concordance for overcome and overcomes and read each verse with that word. That word right there is the gift! I am excited about this first workshop and will keep praying that God will lead others to it and that it is successful.
Rev 3:21 To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 8

Our sermon on Sunday was about the often skipped through part of the gospel of Matthew on the geneology of Jesus. It's a lot of names to read through. A significant part to this geneology was the inclusion of 4 women. It these times for the Jews they did not include women in this type of thing with the exception of if they were godly women who in one way or another made the geneolgy better. The four women in Matthew's genelogy were not considered 'godly', some were obvious sinners like Tamar who plays the harlot to get her dead husband's father to sleep with her so she could get pregnant. Than, there is Rahab the harlot and there is another woman who is only named by her associations and we know to be Bathsheba who commits adultery with David. And finally there is Ruth, who was what we might consider a 'godly' woman but in her time she was only seen as a Moabite, a foreiner and enemy of the Jews. The inclusion of these women in the geneology of Jesus is already showing us the gift of grace in a suprising way. I am praising the Lord today for His glorious gift of grace and for seeing this truth in His Word. Though I am a sinner, I am forgiven.

John 1:17 For the Law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.