Day 7: Drawing Closer to God (Clothed in White)

I was reading this scripture this morning and was able to close my eyes and imagine myself before Jesus. He is handing me a pure white robe. I put it on and embroidered on the front is "Child of God". He is my Father and I am his daughter. How potent and powerful is this when you really feel this in your heart. We often forget that God is our Father and as a father, he provides for us, keeps us safe and loves us unconditionally. I am forever thankful for God's heart being SO big that he would send his son to die for us and take away our sins. The filthiness of our sinful nature is clothed in white and we are adopted into the family. Thank you Jesus for handing me the robe.
Galatians 3:27 And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes.

Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 52

Everyone turned and looked up from their desk when I came in and said my cheery good morning. I imagined the mountains singing and the trees applauding and before opening that door to my office prayed to the Lord again to fill me with His joy and peace. It was so awesome to see the difference in the others when you come in with joy-filled and peace-filled eyes. But my rejoicing over being filled with joy was misplaced slightly. I was glad to have that joyful and peaceful attitude as I worked but the real joy is in the reason that I was filled with that joy and peace in the first place. Jesus is my king, savior and everything. Because of Him, I have been adopted into the kingdom of Heaven and am a child of God. My name is written in the book of life. There is much to be joyful for but the reason I have this joy is because of the one and only Jesus. I will rejoice in Him.

Luke 10:20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 234

My neice did so well for her baptism. It was such a joy to watch parents I know committing their child to God. The baptism was at a much smaller church than I am use to. It was very hard not to be distracted by the differences but in the end I got one message from the sermon that is sticking like glue. Apparently, this church hasn't had a baptism in quite a while so the sermon incorporated the baptism which we don't see a lot at our own church because we are baptizing almost every Sunday. The pastor was talking about what do you say when someone asks you, "what do you do?".  I have heard this question and asked it many times over the last several years being in my business networking group but I have finally learned what the initial answer should be. I am a child of God. We are first and foremost a child of God and because we have accepted Jesus and been adopted back into God's family, we should also think of ourselves as Soldiers and/or servants of Christ. That should be the core of who we are. I have been thinking of my self discover excerise that I adopted and adjusted many years ago when I was struggling greatly with who I was. I created the word wall in which I take sheets of paper and write "I am" statements.  I take each statement and put them in a circular shape on a wall with the central core of the circle being the most important central part of who I am and lesser degrees of that going outward. I found I had negative statements in my core that were hurting who I was so I created positive affirmations counteracting those negatives and posted them around my apartment. After a few weeks of seeing and reading those affirmations, I was able to look at my wall and move out the negatives from my core and eventually off my wall. I was also able to take what I what at that time I believed my core should be: I am special, I am unique and I am human. That core has greatly helped me become the person I am now but I realize that since truly accepting Christ, my wall of words has changed and those core statements should become I am a child of God and a servant of Christ. So, I will be working on creating my new wall down in my basement studio in the days ahead and get my affirmation reminders up and around everywhere.  I will post a picture of my wall once I get it up and going and once I completly and honestly feel my core has changed to include who I am because of Jesus. Thank you Lord for the blessing of my church and for the nugget of truth I got from this little church.

Galatians 3: 26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 122

Nine years ago today my daughter was born 3 months early at 25 weeks. There was fear and worry but there was also God's presence with us. He helped keep those fears and worries at bay and helped us just love our daughter and have faith that she would be alright. God brought us through that time of tribulation of 3 months of hospital visits and the trauma of watching her struggle to breath after the second attempt to get her off the ventilator failed and after at a month old having to have surgery for an opening in her heart that normally closes at birth. Despite it all, the one thing I am always reminded of is the time I came to visit and she had a mark on her back. The nurse said sometimes these birth marks appear and later will go away. I looked more closely at it and it looked like a small fingerprint. I knew right than that God had put his hands directly on Faith and comforted her through her struggle to live. The fingerprints of God are all over our lives. Open your eyes and hearts to see what God has been doing in your life. Happy Birthday Faith! Thank you God for the gift of this amazing child!
Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.