I first need to start by saying that I count myself among the most blessed of people. I am connected to the best people in the best church and we are covered by the BEST Pastor. Our last 3 services have been so strategic and so encouraging and so freeing (maybe that's not a word, but you got me..) Last night we had the opportunity to "be as free as we want to be" and it was great to just hear so much of the Father's love and encouragement flow through the mouth of the father of the house.
It's funny because I've started this new thing in my quiet times where I have been writing down my prayers just to be able to go back and see what I had been praying about earlier in the week, and it's been amazing to see how faithful the Lord has been in working things out, even in a matter of hours and days. I've said it a million times and I'll say it a million more, HE'S FAITHFUL! But last night as I was taking notes during service in my journal, I noticed that that morning's prayer had a lot of the same things written in it. Things like "re-evaluate relationships the right way" and "humility and wisdom during this season of transition" and it was so amazing to see how the Lord really heard what I had to say and then the entire service was about it. It really blew my mind.
I've been in a transitional period for a little while now and it's interesting how adamate we are about holding on to what we want to work out in the natural versus just letting GO and letting the Lord move in our relationships and life the way that He wants to and needs to. This morning, during both my personal time and the time that we had in devotions at work, I was reminded of three small words that really shifted things in a huge way: Abide in me. That's all. Just abide in me and I will be in you. The realization that I had in all of the alignment between my time with the Lord and corporate time with the Lord in the past couple of days is that I can't do it on my own. I don't get to choose what's covenant and what's seasonal, and the more effort I put forth in trying to figure it out on my own, the more exhausted and frustrated I am when things aren't working out the way I planned. Then there's those three words: Abide in me. If I abide in Him and let Him handle all the details, He'll work through me.
I'm so candid this morning with you all beacuse I think it's important that you hear this. Be encouraged today knowing that if you'll really just surrender it all and stop trying to function through your clouded vision and frustration, the Lord will abide also in you and provide all the wisdom that you need to be where you need to be. The Lord will only use what you'll give him, and although being in a season of transition has me very vulnerable, I know that in order to move higher where He wants me, I've got to let it go and let Him move.
Oh and know this, the things that the Lord ordains as sacred, He protects. He has designed your covenant relationships to carry an element of protection. Just keep that in mind as you remember to abide in Him.
Have a great day friends!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
things i've learned over the years.
1. People will always like you more for being yourself rather than trying to be who you're not.
2. Life is so much more meaningful when you do something adventurous with it.
3. The blue ridge mountains are my home, and truly where people vacation.
4. Few things are more scary than snakes.
5. Nothing compares to laughing with your best friends, especially over nothing.
6. You have to go after what you want for yourself.
7. The biggest sense of accomplishment resides in doing something nice for someone else.
8. Cherish time with your parents and brothers and sisters. That is time you will never get back.
9. My dad's early encouragement to be independent and my mom's constant encouragement to learn from my mistakes have made my life so much more fulfilling.
10. One encounter with the Lord will change your life forever.
11. What people say and what people do don't always match up. Even those with the best of intentions set unrealistic standards.
12. You will fail people and people will fail you. The reality is that it makes you stronger.
13. Successful friendships and relationships require mutual generosity, constant forgiveness, and flexibility always.
14. There is an incredible season of growth after graduating college.
15. People deserve to be forgiven, honored and respected, no matter how they've let you down.
16. Things that you invest in automatically take more effort, but they will always yield more fruit.
17. Never lose the ability to laugh and be joyful!
18. Be so careful about what you say and who you say it to.
19. The time to be blessed is right now. You can have the good in life. You don't have to wait because every day that you wake up breathing is blessing enough to call your life "good".
20. You can never be too thankful. You can never have too much grace. You can never forgive too many times. You can never be too welcoming. You can never display too much honor. You can never give too much respect.
21. Learn to live as if today is the day that something will shift. Be expectant and hopeful always.
22. Love really does persevere through all things.
23. Always respect your parents. You may not agree with them but they gave you life and funded at least half of it.
24. Make sure that you are speaking into people's potential and that you are pouring out seeds that are worthy of growth. Make sure you are speaking well because life is on the line.
25. You are never too important to say thank you. Always be grateful, even of the smallest things.
2. Life is so much more meaningful when you do something adventurous with it.
3. The blue ridge mountains are my home, and truly where people vacation.
4. Few things are more scary than snakes.
5. Nothing compares to laughing with your best friends, especially over nothing.
6. You have to go after what you want for yourself.
7. The biggest sense of accomplishment resides in doing something nice for someone else.
8. Cherish time with your parents and brothers and sisters. That is time you will never get back.
9. My dad's early encouragement to be independent and my mom's constant encouragement to learn from my mistakes have made my life so much more fulfilling.
10. One encounter with the Lord will change your life forever.
11. What people say and what people do don't always match up. Even those with the best of intentions set unrealistic standards.
12. You will fail people and people will fail you. The reality is that it makes you stronger.
13. Successful friendships and relationships require mutual generosity, constant forgiveness, and flexibility always.
14. There is an incredible season of growth after graduating college.
15. People deserve to be forgiven, honored and respected, no matter how they've let you down.
16. Things that you invest in automatically take more effort, but they will always yield more fruit.
17. Never lose the ability to laugh and be joyful!
18. Be so careful about what you say and who you say it to.
19. The time to be blessed is right now. You can have the good in life. You don't have to wait because every day that you wake up breathing is blessing enough to call your life "good".
20. You can never be too thankful. You can never have too much grace. You can never forgive too many times. You can never be too welcoming. You can never display too much honor. You can never give too much respect.
21. Learn to live as if today is the day that something will shift. Be expectant and hopeful always.
22. Love really does persevere through all things.
23. Always respect your parents. You may not agree with them but they gave you life and funded at least half of it.
24. Make sure that you are speaking into people's potential and that you are pouring out seeds that are worthy of growth. Make sure you are speaking well because life is on the line.
25. You are never too important to say thank you. Always be grateful, even of the smallest things.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
a presence-shifted mindset.
Have you ever thought about how it is that you access the presence of the Lord? Ok, ok, so this question seems a little bit unanswerable because we all access the presence of the Lord in different ways and at different times, but there is a reason behind the question.
Think about it this way: we seldomly have to try hard to access the presence of the Lord. He makes Himself readily available to listen and speak and advise and forgive whenever we decide that we want to take a moment to get in His presence. We never have to sit down to pray or spend time with God and ask before we start if He's there or if He's listening, because we always know that He is. But do we take the presence of the Lord for granted?
What happens when we're in a new place, an unfamiliar place, or the dreaded dry places and we don't know how to access His presence? I mean, sure, it's easy to access the presence of the Lord in the places that you always access Him. Most of us do our quiet times at relatively the same times in the day and usually in the same places. Most of us participate in church services on a fairly consistent basis. Most of us know that when we do those things, we have the ability and wisdom on how to access the presence, so it doesn't require a whole lot of effort on our part. But what happens when your season changes? When your surroundings change? When the people in your life change? Do you still know how to access the presence?
The presence of the Lord is a powerful thing, and when we move beyond our emotions and comfort levels, we see and witness things in the presence that can't be explained by human standards and mindsets. It's imperative that we realize that our atmosphere doesn't shift the presence but that the presence shifts our atmosphere. We don't have to create a place to invite the Lord to show up and then He shows up...but He shows up and then we honor him in whatever place we're in. This is why sometimes we'll be driving and be overwhelmed with the presence or in a totally new place (mission trip in another country or visiting family in another state) and be overwhelmed with the presence.
Remember that you don't NEED a shift of atmosphere to access the presence. The presence never fled from a place, you fled from your faith to access the presence. We need to know that we have unlimited access to the things of God. He craves time with his creation and likewise we should crave time with our Father.
It takes faith to activate our potential. We have the potential to constantly exist as a part of the presence of God. There are definitely moments where we will feel the presence in stronger ways than others, but as long as we find our faith and believe that where God has placed us, He's placed us with purpose and He's right there with us, we will never believe that a place determines the movement of the Lord.
It's a prideful thing to think that we determine where the Lord shows up in our own lives based upon where we are and what we're doing. But it takes humility to realize that where ever the Lord covers, He resides, and He covers all things.
Be challenged today to not be so prideful that you take the presence of the Lord for granted, but be encouraged knowing that you can access the presence at all times. He is jealous for you.
Think about it this way: we seldomly have to try hard to access the presence of the Lord. He makes Himself readily available to listen and speak and advise and forgive whenever we decide that we want to take a moment to get in His presence. We never have to sit down to pray or spend time with God and ask before we start if He's there or if He's listening, because we always know that He is. But do we take the presence of the Lord for granted?
What happens when we're in a new place, an unfamiliar place, or the dreaded dry places and we don't know how to access His presence? I mean, sure, it's easy to access the presence of the Lord in the places that you always access Him. Most of us do our quiet times at relatively the same times in the day and usually in the same places. Most of us participate in church services on a fairly consistent basis. Most of us know that when we do those things, we have the ability and wisdom on how to access the presence, so it doesn't require a whole lot of effort on our part. But what happens when your season changes? When your surroundings change? When the people in your life change? Do you still know how to access the presence?
The presence of the Lord is a powerful thing, and when we move beyond our emotions and comfort levels, we see and witness things in the presence that can't be explained by human standards and mindsets. It's imperative that we realize that our atmosphere doesn't shift the presence but that the presence shifts our atmosphere. We don't have to create a place to invite the Lord to show up and then He shows up...but He shows up and then we honor him in whatever place we're in. This is why sometimes we'll be driving and be overwhelmed with the presence or in a totally new place (mission trip in another country or visiting family in another state) and be overwhelmed with the presence.
Remember that you don't NEED a shift of atmosphere to access the presence. The presence never fled from a place, you fled from your faith to access the presence. We need to know that we have unlimited access to the things of God. He craves time with his creation and likewise we should crave time with our Father.
It takes faith to activate our potential. We have the potential to constantly exist as a part of the presence of God. There are definitely moments where we will feel the presence in stronger ways than others, but as long as we find our faith and believe that where God has placed us, He's placed us with purpose and He's right there with us, we will never believe that a place determines the movement of the Lord.
It's a prideful thing to think that we determine where the Lord shows up in our own lives based upon where we are and what we're doing. But it takes humility to realize that where ever the Lord covers, He resides, and He covers all things.
Be challenged today to not be so prideful that you take the presence of the Lord for granted, but be encouraged knowing that you can access the presence at all times. He is jealous for you.
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