I praise Him that he is our Redeemer...
From Mary Whelchel:
Do you have regrets from your past? All of us would have to say 'yes' to that question, wouldn't we? Who doesn't wish you could go back and do over. Maybe you feel as though all your dreams have come to nothing; there's never been a 'dream come true' ending to your story.
Well, here's good news for you-and me-today. We serve a God who specializes in redeeming our stories, taking our lost dreams and exchanging them for new beginnings. Isaiah 43:18 and 19 says:
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
You know, sometimes we keep asking God to do it our way when he wants to do a new thing for us. That new beginning God has for you could be springing up right now, and you're not seeing it because you're looking the wrong way.
For years I thought there was only one way my dreams could come true. I had a plan and I intended to make that plan work; make it fulfill all my dreams. Since I don't give up easily, that set me on the wrong road for many long years, convinced my way was the only way that my dreams could come true.
Dear friend, if that's where you are today, learn from me. Don't waste years like I did trying to make your dreams come true. Instead, let them go and ask God for the new thing he wants to do for you. Ask him to exchange your lost dreams for new beginnings.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
From Joyce
A Life of Hope, Vision and Passion
by Joyce Meyer
Do you know that God has high hopes and expectations for you? He does. The fact that He invested the life of His only Son to see you set free shows how precious you are to Him. God believes in you more than you do yourself!
I used to think that God was disappointed in me when I made mistakes. But God knows every decision we’re ever going to make, He loves us anyway, and He knows that He can change us if we’ll stay in His Word.
Perseverance Pays
In the early years when we were building our ministry, Dave and I went through a lot of difficult tests. I needed to work on my attitude. We needed to work on our marriage and how we handled money.
For six years I bought my socks and underwear at garage sales. We were totally broke—and I was teaching prosperity!
Not only that, it just wasn’t popular for women to preach back then. We lost friends and had family members who didn’t want anything to do with us.
It was just hard and sometimes I wanted to quit. But today I am so glad that I stuck with God because there are people all over the world who have been helped because of our ministry.
Scripture tells us in Matthew 19:29 that anyone and everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for My name’s sake will receive many [even a hundred] times more and will inherit eternal life.
I know it’s true because that’s what I’m experiencing in my own life right now. If we decide to trust God’s Word and never give up, we will have victory.
Attitude Is Essential
Our attitude has a lot to do with how God works in our life.
God doesn’t reward a negative attitude or self-pity or an “everybody owes me” attitude. Nor does He work through laziness or passivity. God works through faith, but we need to have faith before we can even have hope.
Hope is really a positive attitude. It’s expecting that something good is going to happen in your life. God wants us to be prisoners of hope. In other words, He wants you to believe He can change whatever needs to be changed and that you can do whatever needs to be done.
Pursuing God’s Passion
The Bible teaches over and over again that we’re to help hurting people. I believe that’s God’s passion. He wants us to enjoy our lives and He wants us to have nice things, but He also wants us to remember the poor, the lost and the needy.
Sometimes we don’t realize that one person can really make a difference. We can inspire the people around us just by making right choices. And we can change the world through our prayers, our giving, and by reaching out with the love of God to those who are in desperate need.
You and I can fulfill God’s vision for our lives by living with expectant hope and being passionate for the things that He is passionate about in life.
by Joyce Meyer
Do you know that God has high hopes and expectations for you? He does. The fact that He invested the life of His only Son to see you set free shows how precious you are to Him. God believes in you more than you do yourself!
I used to think that God was disappointed in me when I made mistakes. But God knows every decision we’re ever going to make, He loves us anyway, and He knows that He can change us if we’ll stay in His Word.
Perseverance Pays
In the early years when we were building our ministry, Dave and I went through a lot of difficult tests. I needed to work on my attitude. We needed to work on our marriage and how we handled money.
For six years I bought my socks and underwear at garage sales. We were totally broke—and I was teaching prosperity!
Not only that, it just wasn’t popular for women to preach back then. We lost friends and had family members who didn’t want anything to do with us.
It was just hard and sometimes I wanted to quit. But today I am so glad that I stuck with God because there are people all over the world who have been helped because of our ministry.
Scripture tells us in Matthew 19:29 that anyone and everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for My name’s sake will receive many [even a hundred] times more and will inherit eternal life.
I know it’s true because that’s what I’m experiencing in my own life right now. If we decide to trust God’s Word and never give up, we will have victory.
Attitude Is Essential
Our attitude has a lot to do with how God works in our life.
God doesn’t reward a negative attitude or self-pity or an “everybody owes me” attitude. Nor does He work through laziness or passivity. God works through faith, but we need to have faith before we can even have hope.
Hope is really a positive attitude. It’s expecting that something good is going to happen in your life. God wants us to be prisoners of hope. In other words, He wants you to believe He can change whatever needs to be changed and that you can do whatever needs to be done.
Pursuing God’s Passion
The Bible teaches over and over again that we’re to help hurting people. I believe that’s God’s passion. He wants us to enjoy our lives and He wants us to have nice things, but He also wants us to remember the poor, the lost and the needy.
Sometimes we don’t realize that one person can really make a difference. We can inspire the people around us just by making right choices. And we can change the world through our prayers, our giving, and by reaching out with the love of God to those who are in desperate need.
You and I can fulfill God’s vision for our lives by living with expectant hope and being passionate for the things that He is passionate about in life.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Surendering to God by Rick Warren
The Barrier of Pride by Rick Warren
It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. 2 Corinthians 3:5 (NLT)
Life is a struggle, but what most people don't realize is that our struggle, like Jacob's in Genesis 32:22-32, is really with God! We want to be God, and there's no way we're going to win that struggle, but we try anyway.
A.W. Tozer said, "The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven't yet come to the end of themselves. We're still trying to give orders, and interfering with God's work within us."
We aren't God, and we never will be. We're humans, and the times when we try to be God are the times we end up most like Satan, who tried to be equal with God, too.
We accept our humanity intellectually, but not emotionally. We give mental assent to the idea, but when faced with our own limitations, we react with irritation, anger, and resentment. We want to be taller (or shorter), smarter, stronger, more talented, beautiful, and wealthy.
We want to have it all and do it all, and become upset when it doesn't happen. Then, when we notice God gave others characteristics we don't have, we respond with envy, jealousy, and self-pity.
What it means to surrender. Surrendering to God is not passive resignation, fatalism, or an excuse for laziness. It is not accepting the status quo. It may mean the exact opposite: sacrificing your life in resistance to evil and injustice, or suffering in order to change what needs to be changed. God often calls surrendered people to do battle on his behalf. It's not for cowards or doormats.
Surrendering is not putting your brain in neutral and giving up rational thinking. God would not waste the mind he gave you! God does not want robots to serve him. Surrendering is not repressing your personality. God wants to use your unique personality. Rather than being diminished, surrendering enhances your uniqueness.
C. S. Lewis observed, "The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become - because he made us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be. It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own."
It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. 2 Corinthians 3:5 (NLT)
Life is a struggle, but what most people don't realize is that our struggle, like Jacob's in Genesis 32:22-32, is really with God! We want to be God, and there's no way we're going to win that struggle, but we try anyway.
A.W. Tozer said, "The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven't yet come to the end of themselves. We're still trying to give orders, and interfering with God's work within us."
We aren't God, and we never will be. We're humans, and the times when we try to be God are the times we end up most like Satan, who tried to be equal with God, too.
We accept our humanity intellectually, but not emotionally. We give mental assent to the idea, but when faced with our own limitations, we react with irritation, anger, and resentment. We want to be taller (or shorter), smarter, stronger, more talented, beautiful, and wealthy.
We want to have it all and do it all, and become upset when it doesn't happen. Then, when we notice God gave others characteristics we don't have, we respond with envy, jealousy, and self-pity.
What it means to surrender. Surrendering to God is not passive resignation, fatalism, or an excuse for laziness. It is not accepting the status quo. It may mean the exact opposite: sacrificing your life in resistance to evil and injustice, or suffering in order to change what needs to be changed. God often calls surrendered people to do battle on his behalf. It's not for cowards or doormats.
Surrendering is not putting your brain in neutral and giving up rational thinking. God would not waste the mind he gave you! God does not want robots to serve him. Surrendering is not repressing your personality. God wants to use your unique personality. Rather than being diminished, surrendering enhances your uniqueness.
C. S. Lewis observed, "The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become - because he made us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be. It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own."
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Things to think about...
God has been talking to me about freedom in Christ... We have the choice to be free by choosing to obey. God's freedom isn't the world's freedom. God's freedom involves love. The world's 'freedom', or actually bondage/slavery, involves me, me, me.
Here are some other thoughts from Mary Whelchel...
We find freedom by making commitments. Think about it: You found freedom from the bondage of sin and the prospect of hell by making a commitment to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. You found freedom to prepare yourself for the future by committing yourself to get an education. You found freedom to have an income and support yourself when you made a commitment to take a job. Freedom truly comes through commitment.
Yet many people find it very difficult to make any kind of a commitment. Why is it so hard? One reason is fear of failure. Someone has said, 'Fear of failure and humiliation go a long way in limiting how much someone is willing to risk committing to a course of action.' It's true that commitment brings with it the possibility of failing, but lack of commitment means you never have a chance to succeed! Of course there will be failures, but the road to success is always lined with some failures. Like all fears, this fear is a tool of the enemy, which he uses very effectively to cripple us and keep us from the good things God wants to do for us and through us.
Another reason some find it hard to make commitments is the fear of boredom. We've been conditioned to being entertained a lot in our technological society, so the idea that we might have to endure something which is not as much fun or as exciting as something else, can paralyze us and prevent our involvement in things that really could be meaningful. And then there's the reality that we refuse being committed because we're lazy and we just don't want to put out the effort!
I think one of the most common reasons people refuse to be committed is that we've cluttered our lives with so much stuff that we just 'don't have time' to do things that are perhaps much more important. But it's important to stop and ask yourself why you are so busy that you can't take on other commitments. Is it because you allowed yourself to be pushed into things that really weren't what God wanted you to do? Maybe we need to de-commit to some things that really aren't so important.
Is commitment really that necessary, you may ask? Isn't there something else, something less scary? No, there is no way to ever be what God intended you to be and do what God intended you to do except by personally committing yourself to something or someone. Sitting on the fence, waiting for something better to come along, fearing the responsibilities of commitment will not bring you contentment or fulfillment.
Here are some other thoughts from Mary Whelchel...
We find freedom by making commitments. Think about it: You found freedom from the bondage of sin and the prospect of hell by making a commitment to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. You found freedom to prepare yourself for the future by committing yourself to get an education. You found freedom to have an income and support yourself when you made a commitment to take a job. Freedom truly comes through commitment.
Yet many people find it very difficult to make any kind of a commitment. Why is it so hard? One reason is fear of failure. Someone has said, 'Fear of failure and humiliation go a long way in limiting how much someone is willing to risk committing to a course of action.' It's true that commitment brings with it the possibility of failing, but lack of commitment means you never have a chance to succeed! Of course there will be failures, but the road to success is always lined with some failures. Like all fears, this fear is a tool of the enemy, which he uses very effectively to cripple us and keep us from the good things God wants to do for us and through us.
Another reason some find it hard to make commitments is the fear of boredom. We've been conditioned to being entertained a lot in our technological society, so the idea that we might have to endure something which is not as much fun or as exciting as something else, can paralyze us and prevent our involvement in things that really could be meaningful. And then there's the reality that we refuse being committed because we're lazy and we just don't want to put out the effort!
I think one of the most common reasons people refuse to be committed is that we've cluttered our lives with so much stuff that we just 'don't have time' to do things that are perhaps much more important. But it's important to stop and ask yourself why you are so busy that you can't take on other commitments. Is it because you allowed yourself to be pushed into things that really weren't what God wanted you to do? Maybe we need to de-commit to some things that really aren't so important.
Is commitment really that necessary, you may ask? Isn't there something else, something less scary? No, there is no way to ever be what God intended you to be and do what God intended you to do except by personally committing yourself to something or someone. Sitting on the fence, waiting for something better to come along, fearing the responsibilities of commitment will not bring you contentment or fulfillment.
Monday, June 21, 2010
longest day of the year...
Today is the longest day of the year...the summer solstice...
I have dreams of resting in the ocean, waves lapping over me...watching the moon go down...
(again)...
xo
I have dreams of resting in the ocean, waves lapping over me...watching the moon go down...
(again)...
xo
We are often in a hurry when God isn't.
From Rick Warren:
"We are often in a hurry when God isn't. One of life's frustrations is that God's timetable is rarely the same as ours. We are often in a hurry when God isn't. You may feel frustrated with the seemingly slow progress you're making in life. Remember that God is never in a hurry, but he is always on time. He will use your entire lifetime to prepare you for your role in eternity."
Lord, please help me to be patient and accepting of Your time.
"We are often in a hurry when God isn't. One of life's frustrations is that God's timetable is rarely the same as ours. We are often in a hurry when God isn't. You may feel frustrated with the seemingly slow progress you're making in life. Remember that God is never in a hurry, but he is always on time. He will use your entire lifetime to prepare you for your role in eternity."
Lord, please help me to be patient and accepting of Your time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)