God leads... We rest!

Sometimes I get down...I feel like with God running my life, everything seems to go wrong, or he lets me down or I, just plain and simple...don't like not having complete control over my life. I want to be the one making the shots, running the show…but you see, whenever I get into that mind set, something happens... my life suddenly feels worse then before, and I feel like crap...

Why?? That's the big question! Why do I feel this way? Why does God let this happen?? Why do all the struggles in my life feel that much worse when I'm not leaning on God?? Well, the answers in the question...I'm not leaning on God. My youth pastor, Norm, is a very wise man, and just the other day, I was talking to him about this... And he said something that stuck like glue on your hair. He was talking about Joshua and the Israelites’, and the promise land. Now the Israelites’ had to got through a lot of struggles to even get to the promise land and when they got there, the struggles didn't just stop. They had demons among them and those didn't go away either... they stayed too. Why… because God wanted to train the next generation how to fight. So God let those struggles stick with them, so the next generation could learn how to fight. In my case, I'm the next generation and I'm getting trained. We all know physical training is hard...push ups, sit ups, curl ups...all that good stuff. It can be painful, long and exhausting. It’s the same with Spiritual training. It can be painful, long and exhausting. But the end result in both is joy, pride, a sense of accomplishment, and yearning for more. I'm still in the training process and ya, its long but at the end of each day I know who my coach is and he never gives up on me! :) Not even when I feel like I want control over my life, when I want to be the one making the plans.

Now the next part will make more sense if I tell you this...In Venice, Italy, there's gondoliers. They're the guys who steer the boats and they usually are singing as they do it. They’re the ones that lead the boat along the water streets of Venice. Okay so, I was reading this book the other day and part of it impacted me... The main character is Leah. Now at the beginning of the book, she feels like she needs top be in control...with relationships, family, and her life. But things change. At the end of the book God speaks to her and what he spoke, also spoke to me too. It starts with the verse from Zephaniah 3:17: "The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." Then Leah said "I'm not the one supposed to sing." It’s like in her life she’s been the one in control, the one steering, even if she doesn't know which road to go down sometimes... But then she said "I'm not the one supposed to be singing, Jesus is." He's like the Gondoliers... He wants us to just rest in his pocket of grace. He will do all the steering and singing! We don't have to do anything to prove ourselves to him, we just rest and let him take the wheel and steer. He leads; we rest in his pocket of grace! It’s just amazing, we don't do the singing, and he’s the one singing over us!

So when I feel like I want to run my life and call the shots...I need to stop and let Jesus do the singing, I just have to rest. It’s the same with all of us, that’s the most amazing thing! His pocket of grace is never too small; it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Let God do the singing and he will lead you to things you could never imagine!

God Bless! ♥♥

The Glory of God!

I bet we have all seen a plane in the sky with a stream of smoke coming from behind. And it leaves a long trail as it passes through the sky... Sometimes its straight, sometimes it curvy, sometimes it’s colored, but it’s always pretty cool! I just saw one that was like perfect, it was like made for Google Images! But that wasn't what caught my eye, what caught my attention was thinking that that plane it carrying people where they need to go, safely and at the same time it leaving a stream of beauty in its wake. And then I thought, Christians are sort of like that!

We, as Christians are a safe place that people can talk to because of the love of God in us. Kind of like a plane, people aren't generally scared in planes because they know that they will be taken care of. People are generally not scared to be around Christians; sure they might not always feel the same way that we do but I’m sure they feel that level of safety with us. God doesn't hide. He doesn't just come into someone’s heart and then not let himself be shown... He wants people to see him! He wants people to feel safe! And like the plane shows that stream of smoke coming from behind, Christians show Gods love to the world in the same kind of way...it’s amazing, and God's love is shown through it! You can see that stream of smoke all throughout the sky and Christians have that influence with Gods power as well.

God Bless♥♥

Faith in Little Things.

I have always thought that faith is believing that God will do something huge! And like change your world! Well, that can be the case, but what about the small things; don't they require any faith as well??

It says in Matthew 17:20, He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." And, yes, that's saying that faith can move big things but I don't think Jesus said that to just lessen the faith for smaller things. What I think of that verse is that; with just a little bit of faith...we can do the impossible. And sometimes it seems like that impossible is moving the little things. I love how I can go to God and be like...take this burden, I give it to you, I have faith and trust in you!, and he will take it and help us! God is the God of the impossible and whatever is impossible for man, is possible with God. But that requires just a little faith! Sometimes we can let doubt creep in, and that doubt can slowly squish our faith. Because that doubt is not from God, and faith is from God...and we can't have something from God and something from the devil; and think that everything will work out...

I've had my fair share of faith...but also my fair share of doubt. And I know for a fact that that doubt won't improve your faith at all. But it’s starting with the little things, the things that may not seem important. In Luke 15:8-9 it says, "Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin." A coin, a little coin, not $100, not a miraculous healing, not even 2 coins... 1 coin! God cares about the small things; he cares about that woman finding her coin, or finding 1 lost soul, one forgotten son/daughter. In Matthew 18:13-14 (Parable of the lost sheep), "What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost." The man left the ninety nine other sheep to find that little lost sheep. The little ones, the forgotten ones; God cares!

1 coin, 1 sheep, God helped those people find them. They had faith, and God worked on it! They didn't need mountains and mountains of faith, just a small, little bit and God moved! Prayer requires faith as well, not heaps and heaps, but faith. I've been praying for a healing in my family since I could talk... and even though all my prayers had just a little bit of faith in each one, when you add them all up, I have mountains of faith! God moves on those little bits, and all those little bits add up... to great wonders, done for His glory and his glory alone!

God Bless♥♥

Sometimes being a little scared can lead you to do greater things!

Do you ever get those butterflies in your stomach? When you're nervous or scared? I used to be in Manta Swim club, a competitive swimming club. And before every swimming race, I would get those annoying butterflies! Then as I got onto the stand, they would get even worse, and then as I dived in...They would all go away! I would be in the water and everything would be fine. And then I would get out and get nervous again, about how I did, and if I got a good time, etc...

Is it ever that way with God? We’re a little nervous, a little scared, have big butterflies flying around in our stomachs. And then we dive into Jesus and his perfect plan for us and we feel safe, we feel secure, we feel God. Sometimes it might look like what’s set before us is huge, so huge we might feel like we can't handle it. Those stupid butterflies won't go away! And then we feel helpless, insecure, and afraid. But God's plan for us is not to be afraid, it is for us to be strong and faithful and willing. God's plan for us is perfect and sure we might feel scared and nervous but sometimes that makes us stronger! James 1:25 says "But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does." So I put this scripture in my own words and I thought of this... if you look into God's perfect plan for you, the plan that gives freedom and strength, and do not stop in doing this...Also not forgetting what you have been taught but putting that into action- you will be rewarded and blessed in what you put yourself into and dedicate yourself too.

Do we ever think God's plan is better then ours? Or do we think our plan is better then his? I'm sorry to break it to you, but God's plan is WAYY better then ours ever could be! Because He is perfect, his plan for you will be also! Isn't that an amazing truth? When we feel like our world is falling apart, we can trust in God's plan to pull us through! It may not always be easy or carefree, it may be tough and hard but believe it or not it will be perfect and we can hold God to that truth! It’s hard to believe that a "tough" and "hard" road would be perfect but because its Gods plan and God's plan is perfect, we can believe it! I've probably said it half a million times but I think we all need it drilled into our brain, God's plan is absolutely, completely perfect and nothing can never ever change that!

God Bless! ♥♥

Walking with God.

Do you ever notice how a spider walks? It goes a little way and then stops, and then continues. And then it does the same thing until it gets to the place it wants to go... Have you ever wondered why its movement are so jerky, so slow moving?... Maybe its being careful, or maybe its just naturally cautious. Or maybe its scared, scared of the huge world it lives in!

Are we sometimes like a spider? Taking small, little steps and stopping often to check out the area. Are we nervous of something that might be around the next corner? Have we so little trust? Our trust seems to sometimes be the size of these steps we're taking... I wonder sometimes how a spider would act if it had a bigger spider walking in front, or if it was in a group of spiders?... Would it go faster, would it go slower? Would it be less careful, or less cautious? What if we had someone walking in front of us?? God is always walking in front of us, behind us, beside us...do we still slow down, do we still be as cautious as we think we should be?

Maybe its because we can't actually see God that we're not totally in complete trust with him all the time?? Why can't we ALWAYS trust him? Humans kinda live in a warped world. Even with someone guiding us we still are like "is it safe?" or "will something jump out??" We find it very hard to trust. It can be the same with God, we don't know where he's leading us...we're scared because maybe of a previous disappointment or slip up... we're scared things won't turn out right. But what we may not always realize is the God's plan is for the best, his plan for us is AMAZING! Jeremiah 29:11 says, " For i know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans for welfare and not for evil. Plans to give you a future and a hope."

So we don't need to be afraid of where he is leading us, because he will always know best. And you know what is the most amazing thing?... He isn't just walking ahead of us, he's walking right beside us. Loving us, caring for us, helping us, and guiding us. He knows best, so let him take your hand and walk right with you all the way home!

God Bless!