The Quiet Place

God is at work in me constantly. I am feeling that truth right now more than ever before. He continues to baffle me with his love and mysterious ways. He continues to speak to me things I feel unworthy to know, teach me things I am most grateful to learn. Today I wanted to take some time and share with you what is happening in my heart right now. The past few weeks or maybe even before that, I have been dealing with a big bear called anxiety. Anxiety started to grasp me so much that it was difficult for me to get through the work day. At one point I even debated cutting my day short a few times. I never did leave the office but the consideration of it because of anxiety was definitely a red flag. You could say that this anxiety was brought on by a plethora of things but generally speaking it seems that my current life challenges were overwhelming me. Even though walking through this challenge of anxiety has been completely not fun and at times extremely hard; I am grateful for what ...

God has been really working on my heart lately. Recently he is teaching me more about his deep love and true forgiveness. Showing me that the depths of his mercy are certainly far greater than the depths of mine and indeed greater than I could ever imagine.  God showed me that in my process of attempting to forgive, pride was my barrier. (You'd think it would be obvious right?) Well it wasn't obvious to me right away. But in his gentle and pure grace filled way, God showed me that his forgiveness, and my forgiving someone, has no "buts" about it. God is calling me to love like he loves. And that means I can't hold on to any "buts". I can't say "Okay God, I'll love them since you asked so nicely, but... I'm going to make sure they know what I think." Nope. That's not how it works. God is showing me that I have to give up any and all rights I have in the situation (aka pride). There is no entitlement in forgiveness. Forgi...

Founders Note: Today on the blog we have a guest post from Kristy. Kristy is new to the blogging world so be sure to check out her blog  here ! Image via unsplash.com I went through a rough patch recently where I failed to feel connected to God. When I went to Him in prayer I found myself tongue-tied and would lose motivation to continue the conversation. Add on the fact that I tend to get embarrassed or ashamed when I don’t succeed at something right away and there it was: the perfect recipe for a lacking prayer life.  I knew that I was supposed to be praying, but I just couldn’t motivate myself to endure another round of silent stuttering. Instead I mumbled my way through quick prayers at dinner and before tucking myself into bed. It was incredibly frustrating. I remember scrolling through the internet trying to find answers but not finding articles that really touched on my problem. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to share with God- it’s just that I felt like...

Founders Note: Today on the blog we have a guest post from Dee. Dee is sharing her heart on this month's theme Pride. You can learn more about Dee in her Bio at the end of the post.  Pride is a spirit and like every other spirit it has an agenda to hinder our walk and relationship with our Heavenly Father. One of the first well noted instances of pride in the bible is the fall of Lucifer due to his desire to be like the Most High. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven , I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:   I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. (Isaiah 14:13-15)

Founders Note: Today on the blog we have a guest post from Sandra Gilmore. Sandra is sharing her heart on this month's theme pride. You can learn more about Sandra in her bio at the end of the post.  Have you ever been disappointed with God? Ever left God out of your day, not by deception from our enemy but on purpose? Ever wondered what fueled this journey in the wrong direction? It might be summed up this way: hide with pride. Remember the story of Jonah and the whale? In quick review, Jonah was given an assignment by God to share His Good News to the folks in a town called Nineveh. God had a tender heart toward these folks even though they did not regard or reverence Him. He wanted Jonah to go preach to them. Jonah didn’t want any part of that. He ran away from the assignment instead of toward it and ended up in the belly of a great fish. He stayed there three days and three nights before he was released on the beach near Nineveh. After such an ordeal...

When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became  proud ; then they forgot me.   Hosea 13:6 Photo Credit Hillary Today I want to take some time to share with you what I have learned in my struggle with pride.  #1 - God humbles the proud.  #2 - Humility is awesome.  #3 - God is good. 1.   God humbles the Proud : I've discovered that I sometimes, okay maybe a lot of times, relied on my own strength to get by in life. While I have been able to get by for some time on that strength, in the end I found myself exhausted, overwhelmed, and short of what I needed to get through.  2. Humility is awesome:  Humility doesn't always feel good at first. Right at that time when my strength runs out and I am tired. I am really tired. That is when I remember to turn back to sit at the feet of Jesus and ask for help. 3. God is good: God Answers that prayer. After all, he knew what I was up to. God knew...

Happy June! I don't know about you but I am SO ready for the summer! I'm very blessed in that my current job allows me the summers off. I have two busy weeks left of work but then I am home free. I don't know what the summer holds but I am very excited to find out. What I do know is that this month we will be discussing Pride. I am looking forward to digging into scripture and writing something awesome to share with you guys. I hope that you will stick around to read it! Blessings, Hillary P. S. Picture to come!

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’   The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no commandment greater than these.” -  Mark 12:30-32 Pride is something that I really struggle with. I was reminded of this tonight as I laid in my bed reading day 14 of the she reads truth "Sermon On The Mount" study. Tonight's reading was about not judging. And while being nonjudgmental is a strength of mine, I'm not perfect. Sometimes I can be really harsh on people when I think about them in my head. It's definitely not something I'm proud of (no pun intended). The problem is, not only is it unfair and wrong for me to judge someone for what they think or the way that they behave, but it can come out in the way that I treat that person. That is even worse. While we do need to use judgement in life to make good decisions, that doesn't give us the authority to co...