Hi Friends- what a truly incredible day it's been. I've just been so blessed and encouraged by the love of the Lord. God is SO good! I have a lot of ramblings to share... and half of this probably won't even make sense. But enjoy and for what it's worth - it made sense to me? :-)
I'm currently listening to the Mars Hill sermon from yesterday. SO GOOD! It speaks of the need to be humble, especially in positions of leadership. As Jesus says, If you want to be 1st - be last. God gives grace to the humble, but opposes the proud. Do you realize that in our American society we are some of the worst people when it comes to humility. We think we're better than others. We lift ourselves up over others - and our 'self-esteem' is what is our motivating factor in life. Often we're told, "we can't love others until we love ourselves". The truth of the matter is that until we're humble before the Lord and are loving Jesus 1st and foremost - we can't love others. AMEN!!! Jesus needs to be #1 on our list of priorities, and as we learn to love Him more and have His plans take place in our lives we'll know how to love and serve others better.
There's a song by Brandon Heath that speaks of this, saying "give me your eyes for just one second, give me your eyes so I can see...". As we draw near to the Lord - He shows us how we can touch the lives of those around us. He lets His desires become our desires. As it says in Ps. 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." As we delight or draw near to Him, His desires become our desires. I'm SO incredibly blessed by this word. God has big plans for our lives, if only we would let Him use us in the way He's called us to be used. That we may have His eyes to bring people to His light and blessings.
End of 1st train of thought. :-)
Next....
We often don’t like what the Lord tells us. Whether it’s His firm answer of “no” or “it’s not time, wait it out” we find ourselves frustrated with the answer we receive and try and convince the Lord to tell us something different.
A great analogy is that of a parent-child relationship. Have you ever noticed how kids will ask for something, and the parent says “no” or “later”, only to have the child come back again in 5 minutes and be uber nice or persuasive – but asking the SAME question again? The fact of the matter is that if the Parent knows best, and loves their child, they will stick to their original answer, no matter what or how the child does to persuade them otherwise. The parents stick to their guns out of LOVE and PROTECTION for the child.
This is the same thing with the Lord. We can keep going back to Him and begging him to answer our prayers or give us our demands. But just like any good parent, He’ll keep telling us to wait for a later time or that no, the prayer will not be answered in that specific way. The thing is, God sees the big picture. He knows what we need before we need it. Our finite human minds cannot comprehend the pros and cons of every situation in our life, and some things are taken out of our life to protect us and bless us in some other way.
Jesus speaks specifically of this in John 6 by telling the Jews to “stop grumbling among yourselves”. What I feel like he’s saying is, “Stop trying to convince me that you know better than I do what’s best for your life.” I bet the Lord just sits up in heaven and laughs because we try so much to demand things from Him. How in the world are we able to even understand what’s best in our lives, when we don’t know what tomorrow holds for us? It's called Trusting God. Because the fact of the matter is that we don't know what tomorrow holds. We don't have the power to understand or comprehend the Plans and Ways of the Lord. Just as a child trusts that his parent has his best interests at hand - we should trust Christ and His word, that He has our best interests at heart in all that He does for us.
Trust is us placing our confidence, faith, and hope in the Lord. Letting him be the director of our lives, not ourselves. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In ALL your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." - Prov. 3:5-6 That means that we need to let Christ shine and have ALL the areas of our life. Even those areas we feel like we can't give up because they are too dear to us. The success, the job, the title, the friendships, the material things, the relationships - everything - needs to be surrendered to Jesus for His purposes. So that through our surrender God can use our gifts to bless the lives of others.
SO GOOD! God is SO Good and worthy of Praise! Amen!
Song of the moment: Lifehouse = Everything
Find me here
And speak to me
I want to feel You
I need to hear You
You are the light
That's leading me
To the place
Where I find peace again
You are the strength
That keeps me walking
You are the hope
That keeps me trusting
You are the life
To my soul
You are my purpose
You're everything
And how can I stand here with You And not be moved by You
Would You tell me how could it be Any better than this
You calm the storms
And You give me rest
You hold me in your hands
You won't let me fall
You steal my heart
And You take my breath away
Would You take me in
Would You take me deeper, now
And how can I stand here with You And not be moved by You
Would You tell me how could it be Any better than this
And how can I stand here with You And not be moved by You
Would You tell me how could it be Any better than this
Cause you're all I want You're all I need You're everything, everything
You're all I want You're all I need You're everything, everything
How can I stand here with You And not be moved by You
Would you tell me how could it be Any better than this
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