The Real Need

Psalm 66:19-20
19 but God has surely listened
and has heard my prayer.
20 Praise be to God,
who has not rejected my prayer
or withheld his love from me!

She is, a mother, a wife, a teacher. She came from Ecuador looking for hope for a life better than the one she left behind. She found a place that would pay her more than 100 dollars a month. She could now feed her family and make sure her 17 year old son had an education and an opportunity to make something of his life. Her husband works two jobs carpentry and newspaper delivery. They get up every morning at 2 am and both of them pack and deliver papers. "The newspapers don't close down they are open on holidays and every day of the week" she explained. She said where she came from people who were doctors could not find work they drove a taxi or worked as a janitor. This is the woman I have worked with for the last three days. In these last three days she has touched my heart so deeply. Why does she work with kids when she has a degree in business management? She told me how her mom (who passed away from breast cancer) was a teacher and how she loves working with children. She is working with the children to teach them Spanish and to work on her English now. However, there is more than just the surface of this amazing woman. She gives everything she has for her family. She does everything she can for her job. She lives with a lump in her breast that she will have to have removed. She prays it is not like the cancer that killed her mother.

I believe strongly that God will hear her prayer. Here is a woman who came from nothing to give her son a life he can have opportunity and make something of himself. She explained to me how her son was so fascinated people throw away so many things. Where she came from no one threw away anything. I never knew a more humble and giving person. She has nothing to give but herself and she gives all of herself to her family and to her job. She does ask for a lot. She doesn't even ask for healing in her body. She just has faith that God will take care of her.

I learned something in the last three days. I learned that God loves a heart that is humble and that doesn't beg. I learned that God wants us to try our best and give our all and just know that He will provide for us and take care of us. We need to realize that when the bible says to ask for something in the name of Jesus it doesn't mean "Dear Lord can I please have a Wii or a Xbox360" God wants us to only ask from faith and only believe what we "need" to happen.

So tonight as you say your prayers before hitting your head to the pillow think about my coworker from Ecuador. How much do we really have? What are you believing God for that you "need"? It could be for something like healing in your heart from hurt in the past. For God to bring you to a place where you can allow love to enter in your life again. Whatever you need believe it in Jesus name... have faith and you will not want. :)

John 14:14
Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!

Tune In To God

Psalm 66:17-18
17 I cried out to him with my mouth;
his praise was on my tongue.
18 If I had cherished sin in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened;
How often I used to think that God was not listening to me. No matter how I prayed I felt He didn't answer me. Then when I came to realize all the times I've done the same to Him I felt ashamed. Why do I expect God to listen to me constantly complaining... constantly asking Him for things with an amen at the end? I don't listen to Him sometimes when He tells me not to do something sometimes I do it anyway. There were times that I've secretively lived in the midst of the miry clay and when I called out to God I could not hear His voice I could not even know that He heard mine. However He held on tight no matter how deep I sank. I wonder how many other girls have cried out to God while they were living in sin and wondered why God wasn't listening? When we get our hearts right with God ... we will feel God closer and hear Him more clearly. We are really the ones with the head phones on listening to what the world wants us to hear what they think is okay to do. We need to switch channels and listen to His will in our lives... even if it means changing things we have been avoiding removing from our lives because we think they make us feel good.

Time to tune in to God's word and focus on it so that when we face the world we will stay firm in the truth. Let the things you listen to be the right things. Let the choices you make be the right choices. May you hear God more clearly now that you are tuned in.

Matthew 6:33 AMP
33But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.

It's Payback Time!

Psalm 66:15-16
15 I will sacrifice fat animals to you
and an offering of rams;
I will offer bulls and goats.
16 Come and hear, all you who fear God;
let me tell you what he has done for me.

When I think of everything that God has ever done for me and compare it to everything I do for Him I think of the scale in the science center of a preschool classroom. The children would load one end with rocks (what God has done for us) and the other side with plastic counting bears (what we do for God). God's gifts weigh more than we can ever imagine or compare to. Anything we do for Him will never be as much as what He has done for us. Now to make it even deeper. God sacrificed His son for us His only son.

Abraham was a serious man of God and only ever wanted to please God. He had a great heart and even though he messed up a couple times he still devoted his life to God completely. Everyone knows Abraham couldn't have a son ... and that God provided Abraham with a son it was a miracle. Issac his son grew up to be a boy any father would be proud of. Abraham was very proud to be a father and I'm sure it delighted him very much to have someone who he helped to birth into the world. Well, God told Abraham to sacrifice Issac to Him. Abraham didn't complain or anything because he knew that Issac was God's to take. Abraham obeyed God and was about to sacrifice his one and only son. The son God had blessed him with. Thankfully God at the last minute provided a ram for Abraham to sacrifice instead. Isaac must have known how much value his life had. Isaac would have been a more valuable sacrifice then the ram but God had different plans for Isaac. God wanted to use Isaac's life as a sacrifice instead. Isaac through his salvation devoted his life to God.

That ram for us was Jesus just when we are on the edge of the pit of fire God provided Jesus so we would not have to burn. Because Jesus' sacrifice was so valuable it covered everyone. Anyone who calls on the name of Jesus and asks for Him to enter into their lives will be freed from having to burn in the fire eternally. Instead we now can sacrifice our lives to God.

So how valuable is your sacrifice? Are you giving God your all? Christ gave His all for us even when He was alive He helped heal people and feed them spiritually and physically. Jesus washed peoples feet even though it beneath his call of duty. There were no limitations to the sacrifices Jesus' made. So let's not limit our sacrifices. Let's give our all.

Romans 5:8
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Vow ... Not Vowel

Psalm 66:13-14
13 I will come to your temple with burnt offerings
and fulfill my vows to you—
14 vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke
when I was in trouble.

The "I"'s don't have it.

Vows are something that society has confused with vowels. Our pride is the thing that keeps us from fulfilling our vows. When we let the "I" get involved and only think of the "I" things get messed up. We have fathers/husbands that leave their children/wives that have made vows under God on their wedding day. Why because they don't want to face the responsibilities that marriage has to offer they get too caught up in their self, their "I". There are other kinds of vows people ignore also... vows of celibacy vows of honor... the list goes on. Even pastors today are entering into churches who have taken vows to live a godly lifestyle but somehow get away with not. This saddens me but it's not too late.

In this scripture David, a man who vowed so much to God and then royally messed up to gain earthly treasures and a woman... is remembering now that he had a vow. It is finally coming to his attention that he messed up but he wants to make it right with God. God is a God of second chances. He will allow us to come back to Him broken and humbled and get our life back to where it should be.

God is a God of mercy, He does forgive... but it's not just about repentance and forgiveness. We have a vow to God. When we ask Christ into our hearts we are vowing to serve Him completely and surrender to His will. We are no longer in charge of our own bodies. We are under His authority. If we break that vow we break God's heart. Why wouldn't we want to fully serve Christ after everything He has done for us after He gave His life, after He suffered so terribly. He walked through fire for us so we would be able to avoid the flames of eternal damnation.

What lies behind us now lies behind us, in Christ there is only our future. I have made mistakes in the past where I have not kept vows that I've made to God. Through repentance He has healed me and I continue to walk forward in purity and truth to honor and praise Him.

Remember it is a vow.... not a vowel... so keep the "I" out of it.

Take your vows seriously and everything we should do ... should be done as to God... under Him... for Him. Let's receive the forgiveness and get our lives back on track.

Ephesians 2:8-10
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Through the Darkness

Psalm 66:11-12
11 You brought us into prison
and laid burdens on our backs.
12 You let people ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water,
but you brought us to a place of abundance.

It seems that I had a day today that I thought I would never get through. I felt that God was trying to teach me resilience and appreciation ... and I think I finally learned. When I found out I lost a close friend from high school... and when I felt like no jobs are out there for me right now it was so hard to see hope. It was so hard to not take on that victim mentality that Satan tries to play on us. I even let it gloom the time I got to spend with my boyfriend. The few precious moments we have in life should not be wasted in a pity party or in a victims attitude.

Yesterday my best friend was reminding me we aren't victims we are survivors. We need to really seriously stop dwelling on our past and start putting our eyes on our future realizing there is a light ahead no matter how dim it may seem now. God has a plan and even when it feels like we are walking through the valley of the shadow of death, God is with us! He walks with us and comforts us through every trial we go through.

Keep believing that there is hope and keep holding your head high. Realize when we are at our weakest God is still strong. When we can hardly speak we can still call on Him. He will bring us to those green pastures and lead us beside still waters. He will bring us "through" so keep moving forward.

Psalm 23:4
4 Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,[a]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

Too Blessed to Be Pressed or Stressed

Psalm 66:9-10
9 he has preserved our lives
and kept our feet from slipping.
10 For you, God, tested us;
you refined us like silver.

Today my best friend and I were in the gym talking about how to tell the difference between an attack of Satan and a test from God. No matter if Satan is attacking us or God is testing us He will keep our path straight as long as we look to Him for guidance and proceed after His will in our lives. The place where we slip is when we take our eyes off of what God wants for our lives. We start feeding our flesh instead.

However God does allow "U" turns and He is forgiving. He will pick us out of the miry clay and set our feet back on His solid rock. We can rely on His promise that His mercy is new every morning. God wants us to get our lives together. God wants us to learn from our mistakes. He doesn't dangle them over our head to remind us of them but He does allow us to remember them so we can learn from them. He is a loving Father and wants what's best for us.

After convincing my friend that she does not need to settle for an abusive relationship ever again and she now knows how to detect one I am praying for God to put the best guy He has for her into her life at some point when it is His will. It seems I've seen a lot of women "settling" lately. Girls God didn't say He has "those" plans for you. God has great plans for you plans for hope and a future, plans for good and not to harm you! When we settle we are not trusting in God we are not realizing He has created us to be worthy. We are not in-line with His will and although He will pick us back up again... you may not like how He does it. Rest in God's arms and trust in Him don't make a move without His peace and blessed assurance.

Love you all!

2 Corinthians 4:8-9
8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed

Getting Chiseled

Psalm 66:7-8
7 He rules forever by his power,
his eyes watch the nations—
let not the rebellious rise up against him.
8 Praise our God, all peoples,
let the sound of his praise be heard;

For some reason when I was reading this verse I was given a picture from the book the Odyssey. There were sirens who sang so beautifully that it lead men to their death. The captain, knowing he was only mere flesh, had his crew tie him to the mast and resisted temptation going through the storm. He knew that if his crew saw that he could do it they would be inspired they would not abandon their ship, and they would get through the most dangerous storms and temptations ever. I was forced into reading this story in one of my secular English courses but in a secular school they tear it apart and make it into something to do with the worldly undignified junk. However, I felt God speaking to me as I read.

Last night in church our pastor was talking about Michelangelo and how when he created David so beautifully people asked him how he did it. Michelangelo's response was that he just chiseled away until everything that didn't look like David was gone. Our pastor explained that we were designed to be like Christ and God would chisel away anything that kept us from being like Him that was in our lives. I thought of my present storm. That song "Lead Me to the Cross" that has been in my head for weeks now. I remembered how imperfect I am and how much work my Master had to do on me.There is still so much to chisel away in my life. I remembered the captain of the boat who allowed them to hang him to the mast to save his people from death and I thought of Jesus. I thought of all the temptations He resisted. From the mast he could watch over his people. From the cross Jesus watched over us. I remember today how He said "God forgive them for they know not what they do".

Isn't it like that when we are lead into temptation? We go into it blindfolded most of the time we don't even realize what we are getting ourselves into. Everyone I love has offered me advice on how to deal with situations differently if I was ever in the situation of being falsely accused again. However, God spoke to me Himself last night and made more sense making me realize Christ too was in my shoes. God told me to turn the other cheek. I know it hurts to be accused of horrible things that aren't even true and it can certainly cause anger to rage up inside you. However, when that anger comes on me I have to allow God to chisel it away from me to make me beautiful again. I am sure that Jesus felt some temptation to become angry when He was nailed to the cross. I am sure He resisted that temptation and turned the other cheek. God blessed Him for that and God blesses others also for turning the other cheek. It hurt yes but we have been called to be persecuted we have been called to be martyrs for Him. We can't let our flesh grab us and pull us into being like the world. We have to stand firm on His word.

Matthew 16:24-27
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life[a] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.