365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 245

We are well aware of how there are many sides to an issue especially when it comes to politics but I was reminded of how we are also divided when it comes to God. There always seems to be someone with another perspective that does not mesh with your own. I am sure that how we are made as unique individuals is the reason for this but I am also sure that God is the one and only way that we can be unified in spirit. Unfortunately, this takes every person on Earth opening their hearts to Christ. We won’t see this unity of spirit this side of Heaven but we have the hope of being a part of this unity in Heaven. Perhaps, with lots of prayer and working on our own spirit we can see a glimpse of this kind of unity within our own circle of family and friends.

Acts 23:6  Then Paul, knowing that some of t hem were Sadducees and the others Pharises, called out in the Sanhedrin, “My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 205

Today is the day we honor and celebrate our fathers. My Dad is the kind of guy who doesn't talk much except for those things that really interest him like politics, sports or their traveling adventures. We actually have that in common. I, too, tend to not be a big talker except when it's regarding those things that interest me the most which are God and scrapbooking. My hubbie will testify to the times I get on a soap box about something, too. I do have my talking moments. But in the end it's not the talking that really counts but the listening. How well of a listener am I? I tend to be a very focused thinker. I can multi-task like all women do so well but it's got to be with less-brain focusing activities. This makes my listening a bit more challenging when someone is trying to communicate something to me. My focus has to be directly on the person talking so I can fully take in and process what they are saying to me. To truly be listening to God is very much the same way. We have to have our focus on Him. This, like everything else, has to be an intentional thing that we commit to doing to really receive the blessings that will flow when our listening ears are in-tune to God. What are you doing everyday that puts your focus soley on God? Make today the first day you commit to one way you are going to focus on God, be it in prayer, reading scripture or a devotional, singing worship songs, journaling or faithbooking. Have a blessed Father's Day! Glory be to our God and Father of All!
Proverbs 23:22 Listen to your father, who gave you life...

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 55

I woke up today and just wasn't sure about what I wanted to praise. Nothing was coming to my mind. There are SO many things to be thankful to God for. I generally go with whatever comes to my mind first and I keep thinking about the polotical stuff going on that I see on the news. It's enough to make anyone want to go live somewhere else. The problem with that is America is the best place to live. I think it can be very easy to forget all the benefits of the freedoms we have. And yes, we are free to crumble about our country's politics and be frustrated. So, I am praising God today for that freedom, for reminding me that we live in a country that has been blessed to have these freedoms that we often forget and take advantage of. So today I will wear red, white and blue and try to remember that altough the negative political campaigns will continue for months to come, we have the freedom to turn off the TV and not listen, crumble if we want to, be frustrated and when it's time go out and vote.
Romans 8: 20-21 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into glorious freedom of the children of God.