The Quiet Place

Tonight I opened my Bible App up to this verse image.  This tugged at my heart because I have been hearing the pull and yearning of God calling me back to himself. I so desire to pour more of myself and my time into Jesus. Yet, I see how I fill my time with tasks and entertainment day after day. I see myself struggling to give God my time and full attention. Yet my desire for intimacy with my creator increases, eventually this desire does pull me into Jesus and his word. I’m thankful for that. Today for the first time in awhile I opened up His words, the words of my God and spent a little time with him. I’m glad I did that but even that time was interrupted by a phone call. Sometimes I look at everything happening and I look at myself and I feel so imperfect. I feel guilty for not managing my time better, for not being better with my finances, and for not giving God the time that somewhere deep in my heart I truly do want to give him. I just wish I could handle it all perf...

In  December of 2013 I found myself attending an all night prayer meeting to support a friend. I thought I was just going to go, support my friend and see the guy I liked at the time. It turns out God had MUCH bigger plans for my heart that night. We arrived the all night prayer meeting around 11pm and entered a very beautifully filled sanctuary. I had the opportunity to pray for others and witness the healing power of Jesus. Little did I know that a few hours into that meeting the Lord would move my heart to full surrender. You see sisters I had been struggling for years with sin and bondage. I was so stuck I didn't even know it was possible not to be stuck. But that night I lifted my shortcomings to the Lord and asked him for freedom and forgiveness. The Lord was faithful to that prayer and set me free. For the first time I experienced the depth of Gods love and grace. He healed me from the mess I was in and made my life and heart more fruitful. It is a moment I will never forget...

Something I've been learning this week is that amidst the struggle, God is sovereign. God used a brave young woman from my church to help teach me that. Last night I watched this sermon from a favorite series my church did back in January. On the link I posted, this sister of ours shares her testimony and struggle. The most powerful thing for me from that sermon was that she dared to share her struggle while currently in the midst of it. And though she is struggling, God has used her life to teach and transform the lives of a great many. If that is not a testimony to how great the grace, mercy, and power of our God is, I don't know what is. Moreover, it shows the unlimited grace given to us for our struggle through Christ's sacrifice on the cross. "But think about this: while we were wasting our lives in sin, God revealed His powerful love to us in a tangible display—the Anointed One died for us." Romans 5:8 VOICE Dear sister, God's grace is suffic...

T hat's my word of the y ear, G race .  Grace w hen I feel overwhelmed , grace when I 've had a crappy day , and so on. M ost importantly grace from a lovin g , perfect , God who will never le ave my side. No matter what pain I may face or how overwhelmed I feel, or how far away I run f rom hi m. He is alwa y s there to offer me grace.  2nd Corinthians 12:9 is a great reminder that his grace is sufficient for us . I love the message version of this verse which says: "My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness." It's a reminder that we don't always have to get it right, yet he still loves us. His grace is enough, it's all you need- that resonates with me so much, and reminds me that it's all I need to get through the day.  So this year I want to daily be reminded of his grace and love for me each and every day. I want to remember that he still loves me even when I think I fa...

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...

Founders Note: Today on the blog we have Meg. She is sharing her heart on this month's theme Beauty in the Brokenness. You can learn more about Meg and her blog on the About page.  When I think of the idea of “beauty in the brokenness” I think of adoption.   The earthly adoptions of our boys, and our adoption by God into his family have shown us so much beauty in the midst of brokenness, in ways that have helped us see the crazy grace God wants to give. I think a lot of people realize how amazing adoption is, but don’t even understand half of it, and when you get to see that part of it, it becomes this thing you get so excited about and want to shout about from the rooftops. Everyone gets that adopting a kid is great. But why? What’s behind it that makes it so great? God and the redemptive power of grace. Preparing a way for His plan to be made known in a beautiful birth mom,   a sweet baby, and a new family about to be formed. We’ve had the p...

Happy August! This month's theme is... I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26  This is one of the first verses that I came across when I started out to write this post. At first I wasn't sure how I would relate it to this month's theme, but after some thought, I've realized that this verse is perfect for August. If you've been keeping up with the blog, you have probably heard me mention about a thousand times this year that life has been a bit hard for me. A lot of that has to do with what God has been doing in my heart. During my time at Grad school, God brought me out into the wilderness where I was alone. And as you can imagine, being alone is a really difficult thing. Some say that loneliness is the worst feeling in the world to live with. But what I realize now is that God brought me to that broken place so that he could ...

Founders Note: Today on the blog we have are Monthly Contributor Beka. She is sharing her heart on this month's theme, Joy. You can find out more about Beka on the "About" page.  I don't know about you, but I definitely struggle with keeping my emotions in check and my thoughts focused on Christ. I'm pregnant, and my hormones have been all over the place! Although that is no excuse, it does make the battle a little harder to fight when I'm already prone to fall in this area. Emotions are a tricky thing when it comes to us as women. It is so easy to be controlled by them and to lean toward thinking thoughts of loneliness, misery, and depression when there are actually so many reasons to be joyful!  But what do you do when you really can't find reasons to be joyful ? When everything seems to be falling apart in your life? Sometimes our circumstances are less than ideal. When a friend passes away, when the bank account is empty, when ...

Founders Note: Today on the blog we have our monthly contributor Meg, she is sharing her heart on this month's theme Joy. You can find out more about Meg on are About page.  (photo credit  @rendcollective-Twitter) Have you guys heard the song “Joy” by Rend Collective? It’s one of those songs that you can’t help but fall into worship, full of complete happiness and praise, feeling your whole self dancing with joy. Take a minute and have a listen: Did   you feel yourself dancing a little?   Don’t lie. For real though. Those lyrics! They’re amazing right? “We’re choosing celebration, we’re choosing freedom.” Because sometimes, in the depths of despair and hard times, all we CAN do is CHOOSE to remember that there will eventually be joy again and that God is there to comfort us. In THAT we can rejoice. How about “we’re dancing to the rhythm of your heart.” Have you ever thought abo...

Founders Note: Today on the blog we have Melanie from Running to the Father sharing what is on her heart. You can find out more about Melanie in her bio at the end of the post.  Photocredit: Watchdog.org Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope...( Zechariah 9:12) This past week has been hard. Far too many reasons to count. The lies have been stronger than the truth. Scripture has danced before vacant eyes and bounced off my hurting heart. My hands have been open and longing. My soul desperate and tired. Prayers have been sighs and moans. I could go on and on about frustrations. We've had a new social worker for almost each month we've had Little Bitty-- 4 workers in 5 months. Confusion, chaos, dropped balls. We've gone to court 3 times-- arranging for my gracious mom to come from out of town to keep the kids. Each time we've returned home with no trial. Court has been rescheduled 4 times. I hate family court. My fractured past colliding wit...

Founders Note: Today on the blog we have are newest monthly contributor  Buife Nomeh. She is sharing her heart on this month's theme forgiveness. You can find out more about Buife on the about  page. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ( I John 1:9, KJV). 'I am a sinner' Eww! Okay, I know how we love to be humble about our salvation and honestly, we should be remembering that we are saved by grace, not by our own doing (Ephesians 2:9). Having being saved by God through grace in Christ Jesus, I think it is unfair to God and to Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross to still call ourselves sinners. I will understand it when we say I was once a sinner but I AM?...no, no, no. Let's read a few scriptures. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17,  KJV). For w...

"It's okay to not be okay. You just can't stay there." - TobyMac Facebook Status This quote was exactly what I needed tonight. This semester and past year or so has been a little tough in general. It's not easy moving to new places and making new friends. I have been learning that first hand. Although it has been hard it hasn't been all bad, don't get me wrong there. I just mean that I needed that quote tonight because I needed to be reminded that it's okay to feel disappointed or sad or angry, and to feel like your a hot mess. I have certainly had my fair share of those feelings the past year and a half. The important thing to remember is that you can't linger in it. Lingering in are bad feelings only makes us feel worse and become bitter or depressed. We need to take these feelings to God and ask him to help us.  1 Peter 5:6-11 6  Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.   7  Cast a...

Blogger's Note: Happy Friday Friends! Today I wanted to take some time and dive into Purity month with you here at The Quiet Place. The topic of purity is something that is close to my heart. I realize that the daily battles fighting to stay pure are difficult ones. It isn't always easy saying no to the things that we know we should, especially when all are friends are participating in the same things. But living pure IS possible, and SO SO Good! Dive into scripture with me this month as we take a journey to discover what purity is and what that means for us as Christian women. Today we'll begin with... Ephesians 4:17-32 Instructions for Christian Living 17  So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer  live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.   18  They are darkened in their understanding  and separated from the life of God  because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hea...