Lately, I've been struggling like crazy to trust God for the things in my life that are really important.
I feel that it's easy for me to trust God with feeding the children in Africa and it's easy to trust God to love me, but when it comes to what I'm suppose to do today I get confused. Everyday we make so many decisions and they all impact our lives in huge ways. Choices we make in our relationships with our parents and friends can change the quality of our lives. If we make the right decisions then we will live a great life, or if we make the wrong choices our lives are going to take a nose dive. I had been getting so caught up in trying to make sure I didn't make a stupid move that I was driving myself crazy. Then I found this verse:
Proverbs 3: 5-6
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding.
6 Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.
I realized after reading this verse that I don't need to be freaked about every choice I make. I need to trust God to lead me.
SO WHAT?
God will only lead us if we stop trying to run our own lives. If you are tired of spending most of your time wondering if you are making the right choices, then just STOP! Stop trying to make your own life happen and start trusting God. Lean not on what you think you should do. Take time to let God speak to you and make sure you take time to listen.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Captivating-For the Girls
FOR the GIRLS!
Over the years we’ve come to see that the only thing more tragic than the things that have happened to us is what we have done with them.
Words were said; painful words. Things were done; awful things. And it shaped us. Something inside of us shifted. We embraced the messages of our wounds. We accepted a view of ourselves. And from that we chose a way of relating to our world. We made a vow never to be in that place again. We adopted strategies to protect ourselves from being hurt again. A woman that is living out of a broken, wounded heart is a woman who is living a self-protective life. She may not be aware of it but it is true. It’s our way of trying to “save ourselves.”
And, we also developed ways of trying to get something of the love our hearts cried out for. The ache is there. Our desperate need for love and affirmation, our thirst for some taste of romance and adventure and something to be wanted for is there. So we turned to boys or to food or to romance novels, we lost ourselves in our work or at church or in some sort of service. All this adds up to the woman we are today. Much of what we call our “personalities” is actually the mosaic of our choices for self-protection plus our plan to get something of the love we were created for.
The problem is, our plan has nothing to do with God.
The wounds we received and the messages they brought form a sort of unholy alliance with our fallen nature as women. From Eve we received a deep mistrust in the heart of God towards us. Clearly, he’s holding out on us. We’ll just have to arrange for the life we want. We will control our world. But there is also an ache deep within, an ache for intimacy and for life. We’ll have to find a way to fill it.
(Captivating, 74-75) Eldredge
So What?
God is here to captivate your heart! Find your love and significance in the God that desires to have a relationship with you!
Take a look at your heart today and see what hurts have shaped you into the woman you are today. Write those down and start to give those hurts to God! Allow God to come in and give you freedom.
Over the years we’ve come to see that the only thing more tragic than the things that have happened to us is what we have done with them.
Words were said; painful words. Things were done; awful things. And it shaped us. Something inside of us shifted. We embraced the messages of our wounds. We accepted a view of ourselves. And from that we chose a way of relating to our world. We made a vow never to be in that place again. We adopted strategies to protect ourselves from being hurt again. A woman that is living out of a broken, wounded heart is a woman who is living a self-protective life. She may not be aware of it but it is true. It’s our way of trying to “save ourselves.”
And, we also developed ways of trying to get something of the love our hearts cried out for. The ache is there. Our desperate need for love and affirmation, our thirst for some taste of romance and adventure and something to be wanted for is there. So we turned to boys or to food or to romance novels, we lost ourselves in our work or at church or in some sort of service. All this adds up to the woman we are today. Much of what we call our “personalities” is actually the mosaic of our choices for self-protection plus our plan to get something of the love we were created for.
The problem is, our plan has nothing to do with God.
The wounds we received and the messages they brought form a sort of unholy alliance with our fallen nature as women. From Eve we received a deep mistrust in the heart of God towards us. Clearly, he’s holding out on us. We’ll just have to arrange for the life we want. We will control our world. But there is also an ache deep within, an ache for intimacy and for life. We’ll have to find a way to fill it.
(Captivating, 74-75) Eldredge
So What?
God is here to captivate your heart! Find your love and significance in the God that desires to have a relationship with you!
Take a look at your heart today and see what hurts have shaped you into the woman you are today. Write those down and start to give those hurts to God! Allow God to come in and give you freedom.
The Reason For The Warrior -Guys
GUYS READ
Our God is a Warrior because there are certain things in life worth fighting for, must be fought for. He makes man a Warrior in his own image, because he intends for man to join him in that battle.
One day the young man Moses, prince of Egypt, went out to see for himself the oppression of his kinsmen. When he witnessed firsthand an Egyptian taskmaster beating a Hebrew slave, he couldn’t bear it, and killed the man. A rash act, for which he becomes a fugitive, but you see something of the Warrior emerging in him. Years later, God sends him back to set all his people free, and, I might add, it is one intense fight to win that freedom. David also fights, battle after battle, to win the freedom of his people and unite the tribes of Israel. Something in the man compelled him, that same something that wouldn’t allow Lincoln to simply sit by and watch the Union tear itself apart, wouldn’t permit Churchill—despite the views of many of his own countrymen—to sit by and let the Nazis take over Europe unopposed. For he knew that in the end they would have England, too.
There are certain things worth fighting for. A marriage, for example, or the institution of marriage as a whole. Children, whether they are yours or not. Friendships will have to be fought for, as you’ve discovered by now, and churches, too, which seem bent on destroying themselves if they are not first destroyed by the enemy who hates them. Many people feel that earth itself is worth fighting for. Doctors fight for the lives of their patients, and teachers for the hearts and futures of their students. Take anything good, true, or beautiful upon this earth and ask yourself, “Can this be protected without a fight?”
(The Way of The Wild Heart , 140,.141) John Eldredge
What are you willing to fight for today? Your relationships, your God, your Fusion, the bag boy at Kroger that doesn't know God?
God wants you to realize the battle is all around you....can you see it?
We need to start fighting now because our time is now! If we want to live in God's purpose for our lives today we need to fight for it and those around us daily!
Our God is a Warrior because there are certain things in life worth fighting for, must be fought for. He makes man a Warrior in his own image, because he intends for man to join him in that battle.
One day the young man Moses, prince of Egypt, went out to see for himself the oppression of his kinsmen. When he witnessed firsthand an Egyptian taskmaster beating a Hebrew slave, he couldn’t bear it, and killed the man. A rash act, for which he becomes a fugitive, but you see something of the Warrior emerging in him. Years later, God sends him back to set all his people free, and, I might add, it is one intense fight to win that freedom. David also fights, battle after battle, to win the freedom of his people and unite the tribes of Israel. Something in the man compelled him, that same something that wouldn’t allow Lincoln to simply sit by and watch the Union tear itself apart, wouldn’t permit Churchill—despite the views of many of his own countrymen—to sit by and let the Nazis take over Europe unopposed. For he knew that in the end they would have England, too.
There are certain things worth fighting for. A marriage, for example, or the institution of marriage as a whole. Children, whether they are yours or not. Friendships will have to be fought for, as you’ve discovered by now, and churches, too, which seem bent on destroying themselves if they are not first destroyed by the enemy who hates them. Many people feel that earth itself is worth fighting for. Doctors fight for the lives of their patients, and teachers for the hearts and futures of their students. Take anything good, true, or beautiful upon this earth and ask yourself, “Can this be protected without a fight?”
(The Way of The Wild Heart , 140,.141) John Eldredge
What are you willing to fight for today? Your relationships, your God, your Fusion, the bag boy at Kroger that doesn't know God?
God wants you to realize the battle is all around you....can you see it?
We need to start fighting now because our time is now! If we want to live in God's purpose for our lives today we need to fight for it and those around us daily!
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