365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 102

The fruits of the Holy Spirit won’t be within us without first having faith. Faith is the beginning point that we have to go back to over and over again. Faith can be on shaky ground or as is told in the bible seeds in rocky soil. We must be proclaiming our faith through our words and actions everyday and especially in our prayers. Abraham had so much faith in God that when God told him to move his family 800 miles to another country, he did it and when he told him to sacrifice his only son Isaac, he did it but thankfully God stopped him before Isaac was killed and gave him a lamb to sacrifice instead. Jesus displays faith and obedience on an unfathomable scale. He came from his home in heaven, from the very presence of God to become a man on earth.  Why did he seek his alone time with God? He missed him. He missed being in his very presence but he did what God asked of him. I have had a small glimpse of what it must have been like for Jesus to have left the presence of God to be in this world. When I was in the hospital back in 2003 for 4 ½ weeks hoping to keep Faith from being born to early. Those weeks were filled with Spring snow storm, one after another. The snow kept many of my friends from coming to visit me. I was mostly alone in my room day in and day out. Actually, I wasn’t alone. I was communing with God as I had never done before. Without being able to even get out of bed, I was in a situation where all I could do was pray to God, read the bible and think of Him. Many months after this experience, I realized I was suffering from grief from the loss of that extreme closeness I felt with God during my stay in the hospital. How Jesus must have grieved as well! It puts a different perspective on what Jesus did for us. He came from his home down here to be with us in our fallen world surrounded by sin. How willing would you be to leaving your home and everything you have there to follow God and do his will? Faith is a life-long pursuit. Keep at it so those fruits can ripen within.

Hebrews 11:8 By faith, Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 44

The news has been depressing with all the talk about the government and budget crisis. I have often heard a politician say we have to be thinking about our children because what we do today will affect their lives. This made me think about what am I teaching my children, how well am I preparing them for their lives, are we laying a good foundation in faith so they will stay the course with the Lord as they grow up and become adults? By far the greatest blessing you can give to your children is a solid foundation for their faith. My foundation ended up cluttered with weeds that tangled with any real growth and overcame it. It wasn’t until my mid thirties when I went through the clash of my past sins with my current desire for a second child. This challenge led me to weeding the personal garden of my soul. I had to clear out all the weeds of sin and have since continued to go back in and pull those weeds that pop up so that my growth in faith continues. The Lord says we are to be talking the talk, walking the walk and communicating all that we know of Him to our children. These years when they are young are the times we as parents can prepare the soil and plant the seeds. A good garden will always do better when the soil has been prepared well. So no matter what may happen with our country or our physical life here on Earth, my children will hopefully have good soil and those seeds will blossom and I will teach them how to go to God for forgiveness and keep the weeds in the garden out. My children are such a blessing and have given me such joy and it is my hope and prayer that God will equip me to be a good gardener and keep preparing and richening their soil so the seeds being planted will blossom. Lord, help me to show them that you are the Way, the Truth and the Light. For their joy in you will be my joy too.

Proverbs 10:28 The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 348

I heard the news of the outcome of the election and went to the bathroom and cried. I am saddened by the direction our country is in and looks like will continue to be in. But I went to bed and woke up several times during the night with different words of songs coming to my mind. In the end, God helped me to get passed this moment in our history and see the bigger picture of his plan. He is in control and Jesus has already overcome. The war has already been won. Our real battle isn’t getting the right person elected but reaching each individual person out there that doesn’t know Christ or a “believer” whose view is warped or stagnant. If anything, how the vote went shows how much work we have to do for the hurting right here in our country. But it’s not about relying on the government to help the hurting. It needs to come directly from the body of Christ.  We have to be the example and teach that all our needs come from God and our reliance should be on Him. I am praying for the Lord’s guidance in how to reach out to the hurting, the disillusioned, the stagnant Christians and help them have their needs met through the body of Christ and not through the government.

Pslam 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 347

Today we find out the course of our country. It is a great blessing to be able to have the freedom to vote. Every vote really does matter and we really can’t say we are truly democratic if only a percentage of us our actually voting. We all have a say. If you haven’t already, take the time to get out and vote. Thank you Lord for our freedoms we have in our country and for knowing it is not something to be taken for granted. God Bless America!  And a quick happy birthday to me!

2 Corinthians 20-22 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.