The LORD will raise up for himself a king over Israel who will cut off the family of Jeroboam. Even now this is beginning to happen.
1 Kings 14:14
Even now….Even when….our circumstances have us feeling like God’s not working, like He’s abandoned us, He’s behind the scenes doing things we just can’t see. You see, Our God is ALWAYS at work in our life. He’s not stopping until His Plans are complete.
In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:4-6
We tend to lean towards the “see it to believe it” society. We need the billboard on the interstate to tell us where God wants us to turn. Yet, God is all around us, everywhere we go, everyday, doing things we can’t understand or comprehend. He’s guiding us to take that next step into His grander plan that will eventually Glorify Him, where we will one day be able to fully see Him and worship Him face to face.
Our call in all this is to keep believing Even when we don’t see, to trust Even when we don’t understand.
“Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:29
There have been many times in my life where I’ve had to trust God is at work around me because my current situation would seem to say something very different. But in those moments when I TRUSTED Him, Even when I couldn’t see Him at work, He allowed me to feel His Presence through the Peace that He alone gives.
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:19
Don’t give up! Keep moving forward on the path set before you. He is doing something behind the scenes EVEN though you may not be able to see Him at work. Just Wait….it’s going to be so Beautiful!
The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders, he followed the advice of the young men and said, “My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions.”
1 Kings 12:13-14
A kingdom will fall when you seek wisdom from a fool.
Solomon‘s son, Rehoboam, became king in place of his father. Soon after taking the throne the people began to complain, so Rehoboam took their complaints to the wisemen that served his father Solomon. These men recommended he serve his people well now and they would serve him well all their life. But Rehoboam wasn’t satisfied. He didn’t hear what he wanted to hear, so he went to his friends instead. Rehoboam‘s friends told him to deal with the people harshly, to make sure they knew he was even stronger than his father, that he was in control. These friends were foolish, and Rehoboam was made a fool for taking their advice. From their advice the kingdom was split and eventually a kingdom against itself would fall.
It is so easy for us to look for wisdom in the wrong places. When we go seeking wisdom yet won’t except any until it aligns with what we want, it isn’t wisdom at all. Wisdom is gained from learning, attaining knowledge through experience and good judgment or the experience and good judgment of wise counsel.
Often times wisdom isn’t going to be the advice that were seeking but the truth that we are needing to lead a life that is worthy of our calling.
Like Rehoboam, we want to hear what we are hoping to hear, and many friends will tell us just that. But true wisdom comes from one more knowledgeable, that’s been around longer, experienced more life, and sought after God for truth. Sometimes, this is a TRUE friend that is willing to tell us truth even if we don’t like what the truth is, but more often it is a parent, mentor, pastor, leader, teacher, etc. And you will know it’s wisdom if it aligns with God’s word and not the worlds. It gets you thinking.
Do you have something you are struggling with right now? Do you need wisdom to lead you? Are you ready for the truth? Seek advice from someone more wise, from someone who seeks the Lord and is willing to speak truth into you.
The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice. Proverbs 12:15
Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm. Proverbs 13:20
Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise. Proverbs 19:20
Since no one knows the future, who can tell someone else what is to come? As no one has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has power over the time of their death.
Ecclesiastes 8:7-8a
What may come? No one knows. Yeah we close ourselves up in our homes, weigh every decision on the spectrum of fear, and stop ourselves from living freely in the life God has given us.
We have no idea what tomorrow may bring. And we have no way to stop it from coming.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble if it’s own.
Matthew 6:34
Don’t you think that if I knew what tomorrow would bring, I would have stopped some of the hurt that has happened to my family over the years? I would’ve hugged a little longer. I would’ve said more of what I felt. I would have changed the direction our life had taken. I would see my youngest son at his fifth grade celebration this week.
But only God knows the trajectory of this life. He is the only one that can see what is to come and when we will die. And in all his wisdom and knowledge he thinks of us and loves us.
Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me are written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!
Psalm 139:16-17
God ordained each one of our days. He looked down from heaven and knew when we were to be born and when we are to die. Our fear tries to manipulate the days in between, but nothing can stop his plans.
So why do we waste time on fear? Why do we allow our anxious thoughts to take us captive?
There is a big world out there that God intentionally placed us in. He drew up a plan as he breathed life in us to fashion us for a specific purpose in His plan. He desires for us to live fully in that purpose between the 2 dates He has set on our timeline. And there is nothing we can do to move these 2 dates.
If we allow fear to drive us or keep us stagnant, we aren’t able to fully fulfill the purpose He has for us. There is no time for us to fear, only time for us to fulfill our purpose and LIVE.
So what is God calling you to do TODAY? Trust Him today and don’t let fear STOP you from walking out that door and living the life God has for you.
Be Brave and Live Fully.
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the LORD, because you know that your labor in the LORD is not in vain.”
Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves. Psalm 127:1-2
Doing for others is my favorite thing
But doing too much, and a crazy side it brings.
My calling and my thorn, may be one in the same,
But that’s why God placed REST, into my Life game.
I’m a Type 3, on the Ennegram Test,
Checklists and projects are me at my best.
God created my mind, in such a way,
That 1000 things to do, is easily accomplished in a day.
When I labor in vain, thinking only of self,
I labor until I cry, like Buddy the sad Elf.
But when I do the Lord’s work, even when I’m tired,
He gives me strength to succeed, like Shadrach in the Fire.
He wants us to work, and He wants us to Rest,
But Following His lead, is when we’ll do our Best.
He is the builder, we are just His helpers along the way,
So why do we step in front of Him, when instead He will give us strength and rest to Seize the Day.
When your people Israel have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you, and when they turn back to you and give praise to your name, praying and making supplication to you in this temple, then hear from heaven and forgive the sins of your people Israel and bring them back to the land you gave to their ancestors.
1 Kings 8:33-34
We all sin, you know, do something against what God wants us to do. And God, in His love for us, forgives us of our sin. But sometimes our sin takes us captive, it blindness to the light and we get stuck in our enemies land. We see no easy way out, we feel bound by the chains of our sin, and we, essentially, become enslaved.
But God, in all the darkness, He is still light. And even in captivity, he can bring hope. If we turn to him in our deepest sin, in our enemies land, and we pray for forgiveness, God is quick to forgive.
Jesus replied, “very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but his son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
John 8:34-36
No one is too far gone.
Don’t second-guess it, don’t think there’s no turning back now; you aren’t lost in your enemies land. God gave His Son to set you free and bring you home. He has a place for every sinner who’s been saved in His kingdom. Forgiveness from His Son gives you Sonship in His family and a place at His table. God can and He will bring you home as long as you pray to him, ask for forgiveness, and turn from your sinful ways.
He’s waiting on you. What are you waiting on? Turn to Jesus, BE SET FREE, and Come on Home!
“The word of God came to Solomon saying, “About this Temple you are building—what’s important is that you live the way I’ve set out for you and do what I tell you, following my instructions carefully and obediently. Then I’ll complete in you the promise I made to David your father. I’ll personally take up my residence among the Israelites—I won’t desert my people Israel.”” 1 Kings 6:11 MSG
We can build all the temples we want, we can wear the cross and the t-shirt, but unless we live according to the way God’s set for us, we won’t experience all the goodness and promise He has for us.
God knows we are sinners. He knows we have fallen short of His Glory. That’s why God forgives us freely when we ASK for forgiveness. BUT what He desires for us is a life fully connected to Him-remaining In Him; an Abundant Life that only comes when we are walking in Obedience to His Word and His Ways, as His Holy Temple.
“But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don’t take yourself too seriously— take God seriously.” Micah 6:8 MSG
I know we feel like the world is “going to hell in a handbasket” and that we are in our “final days” but even if we are, even if it is, God doesn’t want us to just pray for restoration and blessings over the world, He wants us to get to the core and the core starts right here with us, with me, with you.
God is calling each one of us “Christians” to individually start a Revival within ourselves. To look within us, see the log in our own eye, the hypocrisy, the judgement, the gossip, whatever it may be, and get right with Him so we can be the Holy Temple God desires to dwell within.
“You realize, don’t you, that you are the temple of God, and God himself is present in you? No one will get by with vandalizing God’s temple, you can be sure of that. God’s temple is sacred—and you, remember, are the temple.” 1 Corinthians 3:16 MSG
So, how can we build This Temple in such a way that His Glory SHINES out and His Promises come about? RENEW our minds, become a LIVING SACRIFICE, look within our life – no one else’s – and live a life that is pleasing to the LORD – one that only His Word defines. And how do we know what HIS WORD defines……READ IT, LISTEN TO IT, DWELL IN IT.
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” Romans 12:1 MSG
I don’t have it ALL together, my temple is a little out of wack (chaotic at times) but I’m working on it daily.
Then, when the world see me, when the world sees you, when the world sees us, they will see the Beautiful Temple of the Living God and they will want to know Him and be transformed into His Temple as well.
Dance, dance, dear Shulammite, Angel-princess! Dance, and we’ll feast our eyes on your grace! Everyone wants to see the Shulammite dance her victory dances of love and peace..
Song of Songs 6:13
A gifting is sometimes hard to recognize depending on how we see ourselves, but a passion is always felt and should be used as fuel for the purpose we’ve been given.
Maybe you’re like many people and you’re now asking, ‘well that’s great but I don’t even know my purpose.’ I’ll make it short and simple, essentially we all have the same purpose… To shine the light of Jesus to a hurting and broken world…a.k.a., glorifying God.
You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven..
Matthew 5:14-16
Our purpose is defined, but it’s our passion that should fuel our purpose.
You’ve probably felt passion at one point or another in your life. That feeling of exhilaration, a twinkling in your eye. When you’re exercising your passion, whatever it may be, you feel alive. Like a job that you love, you’re working hard at, but it never feels like hard work. You enjoy it so much that it feels as if you’re not working at all.
When you feel this passion, it’s like a fuel that should be utilized to glorify God. You should do whatever that thing is in a way to show others the way to the cross. These passions can turn into a full on gifting that may one day lead to a calling because God wants to use us in the way he gifts us, not how we gift ourselves.
His gifting’s to us come as passions, they come on as things that bring us joy. And I say this with all vulnerability that only my closest friends know, I’ve struggled with Joy ever since the loss of my youngest son. It’s not that I don’t have it and I know it’s a choice, but joy comes when you are doing what you love, that thing you’re passionate about. You know where my joy comes from? The place where my passion comes to life. Helping others.
I find passion and helping others.
Not helping myself, not having fun, but actually helping others. Mentoring, writing, leading, Bible study, speaking, physical help, getting of myself to whatever the need may be. That is the passion that fuels my purpose, and that is when I experience Abundant Joy.
When I am doing what I’m passionate about I’m like the woman in Song of Songs, Song of Solomon, dancing my heart out with Helping Hands to others.
Where is your Passion? How can you use it to fuel your purpose to dance your heart out to be a Light for Jesus? Go do it! Go use your passion for the Glory of God.
Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal and so dishonor the name of my God.
Proverbs 30:8-9
There’s a striving for more that dishonors God and there’s having too much that turns our dependence from God. Yet, just like Goldilocks, there is ‘just enough’ that proves our trust in God alone.
Maybe it’s like this all over the world or maybe it’s like this just here in America, but many feel like they never have enough, they want to keep up with the Joneses and so keep striving for MORE. In the striving, the site of God is far off, the willingness to do whatever it takes to have more overrides it. Some of the things may be illegal, but more so, some of the ways may be legal but not Right. Like taking from the poor to give to ourselves, like utilizing money designated for people in need to help deepen our own pockets. Yet, when we do this we are dishonoring God. We are telling Him we don’t trust Him to give us what we need, that His Will for us is not good enough. In doing so, we are hurting those we’ve been called to help.
And yet, there is also MORE than enough. With more than enough we tend to forget God, we forget that He was the one that provided and only see how we have provided in our own right. We feel no reason to depend on Him because we have more than we need and we think we can do it all on our own.
In both circumstances, we minimize God and maximize money. We idolize the god of money and forget the God of Creation, Salvation, and Eternity.
Even Jesus knew our tendency to turn to not enough or more than enough, and so He tells us to pray for Just Enough.
“He said to them, “When you pray, say: “‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’” Luke 11:2-4
Our daily bread, our manna, just what we need when we need it. Just Enough. Jesus wants us to depend on Him, to trust in Him, because He gives to us out of love and He knows what we need.
Even Paul recognizes the desire for more and in having much, yet in all of this He acknowledges the Giver and remains content in both, not wanting more and utilizing all he has for God’s Glory.
“I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:12-13
Just Enough is the basis of trust in and glorification of God the Father. Knowing that Just Enough is more than enough from Him. Out of His LOVE He provides all we need. When we find contentment in Just Enough we find Joy and Gratefulness in all we have.
Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.
Proverbs 19:21
We all want to run ahead; we all find a passion in our heart. And if we have enough drive, nothing will stop our start.
I can see it in you, I can see God moving within you. I know you can do whatever your heart desires, but if you don’t allow God to lead, the path will be more difficult than He has planned for you.
How do I know, you may ask, because that was my route.
All my childhood, I was encouraged and told I could be whatever I wanted to be, and I fully believed that and I still do, just see that promise in a different way now. If you know me well enough, you know I’m driven and won’t stop until the project is complete. But even as driven as I am, things didn’t turn out as I first expected them.
My expectation was to be an actress, then to be a surgeon (neurosurgeon to be exact), then a broadcaster, and then a counselor.
“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” Proverbs 16:9
In each of these expectations I would plan out my future and what it should be like, but God would turn me from one direction to the next. He would use each of my choices to teach me what He had planned for me. Through college and circumstances my direction continually changed and looking back I can see how God continually used all things, the good and bad, for His purpose in my life.
The one consistent desire in my heart through every change was the desire to help others, to bring healing and hope to others.
In 2003, I began stepping out of my own way and willingly let God step ahead of me. Over the next 8 years I released my future to Him and He did a work in my heart that allowed to begin to see and feel his desire for me come to life. I began helping women heal and heed to His Will.
In 2011, He physically moved me to a path that would extend upon helping women and now move into hurting children as well. That leading allowed me see the whole of society in a totally different way and grew me over 8 years in more ways than I ever knew possible and in some ways that hurt more than I wanted. But in all the hurting, healing, and hoping, I was fulfilling the desires He had for me and I was fulfilling my childhood desires of helping and leading others to Him.
When I laid my life aside and picked up His plans for me, I was filled with more Joy than I could have ever expected. My dreams and desires were still there because His desires for me were always my main desires down deep within my heart. But my heart had to be broken wide open to truly be able to see His desires for me.
“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.” Proverbs 16:3
Now I’m able to see God work out healing and hope in people all around me —friends, family, strangers— wherever I am, somehow through me, but all because of Him.
Since I have let Him lead, my desires are fulfilled through His plans, my heart is filled with Joy on each step He gives me to walk. I do whatever He desires to do because God has purposed me to.
You can be whatever you want to be as long as you lay yourself aside and let Him lead.
All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.
Proverbs 14:23
One thing I have learned, in love, life, work, play, in everything, hard work always brings a reward, so never give up.
Never stop trying, never stop learning, never stop giving YOUR ALL because God is working something in you to do a mighty work wherever you are. And if you stop, if you give up, you will start dying, for not doing is dying.
There will be people, there will be leaders, even worse spiritual forces of evil that will try to make you feel worthless, powerless, exhausted, so minuscule in the scheme of things, but even the smallest things have more than enough power to overcome.
Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.
Proverbs 6:6-8
Just coasting through, allowing someone to work for you to live, giving up, all these things lead to a lazy life, a life with no purpose and no plan and a feeling of defeat. One day you will wake up and wonder where all your life went and why you’re even here. But God, he purposed you to work hard.
The diligent find freedom in their work; the lazy are oppressed by work.
Proverbs 12:24 MSG
Working hard at all things you are given to do will bring you joy.
Growing up on the farm my dad gave me one of the greatest gifts, a few rows to grow onions. We planted them, we watched them grow. At harvest time we had to wake up in the earliest hours before the sun came up in the cold and heat to pull them, wash them, bundle them up and take them to market. I smelled for days, my nail beds and skin could never get clean, my feet were cracked and filled with dirt (no I didn’t wear shoes), my clothes were ripped, stained, and smelled to hog Heaven, I was a MESS….But then I got paid. The pay for a young child was good, but what was better was the little bit I bought for myself and the tons of gifts I was able to buy with my own money for others. It was the greatest lesson of hard works reward, and not just a reward for me but how I was able to give to others as well. And that was just a catapult into my life.
I used the lesson of work that my dad gave to me in all my life, not just work. When I didn’t make the cheerleading team the first year I tried out, I worked hard for over a year, went to every game to watch the other cheerleaders, physically, mentally prepared for tryouts the next year and not only did I make the team but I became a captain. When I couldn’t test well for my SATs, and I had my mind set on a school and scholarship, I went to class after class, I read books, I did whatever it took to get the score that I needed to get into the school I desired and the scholarship that provided for all of my education. When in the honeymoon year of my marriage, I didn’t think it was going to work, I felt like giving up, I turned the give up into a get up and work at it. I turned to God, I read scripture on marriage and wives, I read books on respect and love, and my marriage transformed, and my love for God grew even more.
I’ve utilized hard work in all aspects, because it may sound easier to give up when someone or something is letting you down, when life gets to hard, when you failed, when you get put down, but it’s not. It’s in the hard work that God is going to reward you with something even better. God gave us work (6 days to be exact) and rest (1 day is enough). He called us to work for Him, for Life, and that is what I for you. I want you to experience the reward of the work at whatever you do. Whatever it be, in whatever facet of life, love, work, play, in all things, work with all your heart and allow God to fill you with all you need and give you your hearts desires.
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Colossians 3:23-24
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:58
Running 2 Fly 