Stillness

"Be still before the Lord, all mankind" Zechariah 2:13a


What does it mean for us to be still before the Lord?  What does it look life for us to quiet our souls before the Lord?

When we take time to quiet our souls before the Lord, we allow Him to speak to us.  We allow Him to take us into His beautifully scarred hands and heal the hurts and wounds that have been inflicted on us.  As we release everything to the Lord and simply rest in His presence, we experience a sweetness that words cannot express.  To feel that sweet assurance of being held by the God of the universe and knowing that nothing, NOTHING, can pull you from that is the greatest feeling.  As I sit and allow the Lord to purge my soul, mind, and heart of the stresses and events of the day, I am able to more clearly see and experience God.

I am a worrier by nature.  Big things, little things, important things, insignificant things, it doesn't matter.  So for me to be able to come before the Lord and simply rest is not an easy thing to do.  But oh how incredible it is!!  I cannot describe the absolute joy and peace that comes with releasing those worries to the Lord and allowing Him to take care of them.  To take my focus that has strayed throughout the day to the things of this world and to refocus it on my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  To allow Him to show me even the smallest glimpse of the bigger picture that is beyond my wildest dreams.  To feel His love and His strength flow through me as I join in sweet communion with Him.  How incredible that I, a mere human, am able to experience this type of intimacy with the Almighty God! It completely blows me away! And even more that this is what God desires.  To know that God does not desire my works or my words, but simply desires to BE with me, sinner that I am.

I encourage you today to go somewhere and lock yourself away.  To allow yourself to release everything, both great and small, to the Lord and simply to rest in the love of your Savior.  To allow Him to whisper to your soul and to commune with you. Go and simply BE with your Savior.

Faithfulness: God's Way

The faithfulness of God is a truly an amazing and incredible thing...

Think about it. God is faithful when we are not.  God continues to be faithful when we try to run as far away from Him as fast as we can.  He is faithful despite our mistakes, failures, fears, anxieties, and questions.  Through it all, He is there.  Patiently loving us and calling us to be faithful to Him in return.  It seriously blows my mind.

I've been reading through Isaiah recently which has been totally and completely amazing. In the midst of all the passages on the wrath of God and how He will punish Israel for their unfaithfulness to Him, the theme of His faithfulness, His love to them despite their actions is prevalent.  One of my favorite verses from Isaiah comes from chapter 54.  It reads:
                  
                    "'For the mountains may depart
                    and the hills be removed,
                    but my steadfast love shall not depart from you,
                    and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,'
                    says the LORD, who has compassion on you."

What a great promise this is! No matter what is going on in our lives whether it be hardships from school, relationships, work, family, etc.  the Lord will always be the one thing that never changes.  He will be faithful when are family is not.  He will be faithful when our friends betray us or when we feel as if everything is crashing down around us.  We can look to Him and see His arms of love open wide to us saying, "I'm here. I will never leave or forsake you.  You may run away from me, but I will be infinitely faithful."

Whenever I think of faithfulness, I think of the story of Hosea.  How Hosea's wife was so unfaithful to him. It's crazy to me how I can read what she did and be disgusted by it, but not be disgusted by the ways that I do the same things to God.  I am unfaithful all the time, running to other things or people instead of into my loving Father's arms.

O Lord, may I learn to be faithful to You as You are faithful to me.  May I run always to You first instead of the things of this world to satisfy me.  And above all, may I look to You and You alone to sustain me through it all.

Reflection on 2010

Well, I first want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! I pray that this be the year that we all grow closer to our Lord and Savior than we ever have before and that perhaps this be the year that we will at last see Him face to face in glory.

I thought I should write a post in reflection of the road that I have traveled during this past year.  2010 was a year of many excitements. I was able to travel to Argentina for three months and reconnect with my past and all the people there. This was also the year that I graduated from High School and went to what is (in my opinion) the BEST school there is: Moody Bible Institute.  I thank God every day for leading me to make that decision.

Although all these things were amazing, that is not what I really want to talk about.  I want to reflect on the awakening that has occurred in my life.  The awakening of desire. A desire to fall in love, but not in the way that you might think.  A desire has been awakened inside of me to fall deeply in love with my Creator, my Father, my Savior.  To fall in love with God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.  This desire has led to two others.  The desire to read the Word of God, but not simply to read but to excavate, to dig into it as I have never done before.  To truly study it and then apply it to everything I do.  I must admit, I have been helped greatly in this by my studies at school and by the amazing friends that the Lord has given me at school who are constantly pushing me to live out what I believe (you guys know who you are).

As this desire grows inside of me, I have made enemies.  Well, they were my enemies before but they have become more real in this past year.  I have seen how Satan and his demons attack those that are truly following the Lord.  They creat doubt and confusion.  And because of this I have come to desire and relish my time spent in prayer before the Lord.  I have seen demons flee when the name of Jesus Christ is spoken and when believers cry out to Him.

2010 was not the easiest year of my life, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.  God has never felt more real to me than He does right now.  I have never had such a network of people that are holding me up before the throne of God and daily pushing me to grow closer to Him than I do right now.  And I have never felt so much life, joy, and peace as I do right now.  I thank God for 2010 and for the work that He has done in me and through me.  I thank Him for the trials and the struggles that have brought me to this point.  I thank Him as well for the experiences He has given me and the times of joy in my life.  And I thank Him once again for the people He has placed in my life: my Moody friends.  All of you have helped me grow in ways you cannot imagine.  But most of all, I thank Him for choosing me and for saving me... for never giving up on me... and for loving me with an everlasting love.

Whispers

We've all heard it.  It's that little voice that is barely audible, but just loud enough to drown out everything else.  That voice that we don't even realize we hear until the message it is telling us is soooo ingrained in our minds that we think it is part of us. It speaks so quietly that we don't even realize it.  It whispers things in our ears that make us second guess ourselves and the work that we are doing for the Lord.  The more we listen, the easier it becomes to believe it. What voice am I talking about you may ask?  The voice of the Father of Lies... Satan.

He only has a small bag of tricks, but he knows how to use them.

It is interesting that as I talk to people, I hear the same lie over and over again in their lives.  You see, Satan loves to tell us that we are alone.  That we are the only ones that feel the way we do.  That if we share what we are feeling with anyone else, they won't understand or worse, they will think us weak for it.  If we share with anyone else we will be vulnerable, placing our heart out for them to see... and what if they throw it on the ground to trample underfoot?

What. A. Lie.

You see, he knows that if we feel alone we will also feel insecure about the ministry the Lord has given us.  He knows than an insecure Christian, is a weak Christian, and those are his favorite kind.  These are the kind that doesn't really have to worry about, because he knows that they are highly unlikely to go to someone for help.  He has them right where he wants them to be and he loves it.


I ask you, what lies has the devil been whispering to you?  Has he been telling you that you are alone? Has he been telling you that what you are doing for the Lord is not enough?  I beg you... do not listen to this lie of the devil.  Do not allow him to make you think you must distance yourself from other believers for fear of rejection or of being misunderstood.  Do not allow him to make you think that you are alone.  The Bible tells us to share our burdens, our anxieties, our hopes with each other.  That, along with the grace of God, is what allows us to live in unity with one another as the Body of Christ.

Walking on the Waves

Life is full of storms.  I've been experiencing one in my own life these past couple months.  I've spent much time in prayer begging God to calm it or to change things and have felt no answer.  It seemed at times that He was not there or was not listening to my desperate pleas for help.  I was sinking... and I heard no answer. No comforting whisper, saying "I am still here. I still care."  The storm and the voice of Satan and his demons were too loud.  Those voices drowned out the one voice that mattered.  The voice that was trying to tell me "I love you. I am doing this for a reason.  Your work for me is NOT in vain."

It's interesting that the Bible records two literal storms that the disciples experienced.   The first is in Matthew 8:23-27.  In this passage, Jesus has just spent an entire day preaching and healing people.  He is exhausted and so when He gets in the boat with His disciples to cross to the other shore, He falls asleep in the bottom of the boat.  While they are traveling across a big storm arises and the disciples are scared out of their wits.  They look to Jesus for help only to find that HE IS SLEEPING!! They cry out to Him saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!" (verse 25).  Jesus then commands the waves and the winds to stop! With a single word, He calmed the great storm that had the disciples so afraid.  You see, God can calm the storms in our life.  It may seems like He is sleeping, but HE IS THERE! He is ALWAYS with us, even when it seems like we are alone.

The other storm that the disciples experienced takes place in Matthew 14:22-32.  In this passage, the disciples are crossing the sea by themselves.  A great wind comes and they are desperately trying to keep the boat afloat.  All of the sudden, they see what they think is a ghost coming towards them.  It is Jesus, walking on the water.  They are amazed!! I mean, come on... wouldn't you be? I know I would.  And then what does Peter do?  He says, "Lord, if it is you tell me to come to you on the water." (verse 28).  Jesus tells him to come and Peter steps out in faith.  However, he takes his eyes off of Jesus and starts to sink... but Jesus saves him.  They then walk back to the boat TOGETHER.  Not until they reach the boat does Jesus calm the wind.

You see, sometimes God doesn't calm the storm.  Sometimes, He asks us to step out onto those stormy waves and walk on them.  However, He never makes us go alone.  No, He is always there holding our hand as we walk on those stormy waters.

I mentioned the storm in my life earlier.  I was begging God to do what He had done with the disciples in the first passage.  I was begging Him to display His mighty power and change the situation I was in, or at least do something amazing through me.  And then this weekend I realized that maybe God does not want to calm my storm right now. Maybe He is asking me to take a step of faith and walk on the waves of this storm with Him holding my hand.  There will be times when I sink... that is inevitable.  There will be times when I feel like I am about to drowned.  But the thing is, HE WILL NEVER LET ME DROWN!! I may come close to drowning, but He will always pull me up to once again walk on the top of the waves.

He may choose to calm the wind and the waves in the future, but for now I will trust in Him and walk hand in hand with my Heavenly Daddy through this storm...