The Quiet Place

Living in the midst of pandemic is hard.  Tonight the Lord led me to read about Noah. And it made me think so much. Yes, a pandemic is difficult to live through, but imagine being Noah! He was THE only man on the earth that found favor with God. Imagine how hard it was for him to stay encouraged and not give up and give in to the ways of his culture and surrounding world. Imagine how difficult it was for him to remain obedient in the face of such backlash! I often picture Noah being called crazy and being cruelly mocked for his ways, especially when building the ark. I couldn’t imagine going through that! It would be SO difficult!  Then, even after all of that, he finds himself in a situation so grieve - worthy. Living on an ark in a ridiculously long storm, with imaginably smelly animals, while knowing everyone (minus his wife and children and their wives (praise God!)) he’s ever prayed for, hoped for, loved, was being washed away in judgement. What a great sad silence it mus...

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...

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 blessed me so much lately. I have an amazing church family and an awesome church who is able to provide us with great learning opportunities. The past three weeks I have been attending School of Prayer at my church. It has been such a blessing to sit with my brothers and sisters and learn how to pray. Last night to finish the end of the three weeks of School of Prayer our Pastor shared with us what he knows about prayer and how he prays. It was so VERY valuable to me that I want to share that information here with you.  This is the Pattern of Prayer my pastor shared with us...  Start with Thankfulness: First list reasons you are thankful for the Father, then the Son, then the Holy Spirit, then Angels then your church, then your pastor, then the local churches, then the Word of God, then your family. Next is a prayer of submission (Think Living Sacrifice) After that pray over your mind and thoughts, for protection, removal of distractions, that our minds would...

Though the blog has been quite, this past year has been a season of growth for me. God has met me in ways I never would have imagined. I continue to learn how his love abounds for me and yet I still can't grasp the depth of it. Even when my life circumstances are unsteady God is sovereign; he provides exactly what I need when I need it. He is transforming my heart to be even more compassionate, empathetic, forgiving, and merciful. I don't know yet what he has in store for me but I know it is something quite large and unimaginable. It's terrifying yet exciting to think of what the future might hold; I have found that I continually need to remind myself of God's great love as I shudder at his mightiness. Even though the Lord has revealed to me that he has great plans for my life, I tend to get lost in worries when I see that circumstances and resources don't seem to be adding up in a way that would promote success. I struggle with a very real fear of suffering and di...

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Hebrews 12:2 I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed tonight. I am currently searching for new jobs and pondering the future, dreaming of good things and hoping for the least amount of disappointments. There is a lot of life happening right now and I find myself once again needing to fall into the arms of my savior. I can't do this, I need God's help and guidance. Tonight I turn to these verses as my reminders that God is my helper and he is always with me.  Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain the the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. John 15:4 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners...

This is a good time of year to re-evaluate, to step back for a moment and look at how our relationship with God is and what we can do to grow closer to him. Though the blog has been quite, I have been learning and growing a lot these past few months. So today I would like to share with you some of the most important things I have taken away from church sermons, bible studies, and Holy Spirit reminders.  Recently my pastor spoke on Intimacy with God. He described Intimacy with God to be like a newly married couple driving in an old car. The Husband driving and the wife sitting as close to him as she can. Then one day when they are old, the wife asks her Husband why he is sitting so far away from her. Looking over from the Driver's seat he responds, what do you mean? I never moved. The lesson being that if we are from from God it is because we have moved away from him, not him from us.   We can draw near to God by maintaining Keystone habits. Keyston...

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed." 2 Corinthians 4:7-9  Photo Credit Hillary Read 2 Corinthians 4:1-18   Even in the midst of the darkest circumstances God is good.  That is exactly what this passage tells us. And I love how that last part brings the point home... "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.   For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.   So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." I have learned that even in my darkest places God's hope is there shining through, providin...

He says, “ Be   still ,  and   know  that I am God; I will  be  exalted among the nations, I will  be  exalted in the earth.” Silence is SO not overrated. As I reflect over my restful morning and think of how good all of this quiet time to myself has been, I remember how much I love the quiet. Taking time to rest in a quiet house is just what I needed and I had no idea. The past two weeks have been really busy and even though they were filled with exciting life moments, I am still in need of replacing the energy they took from me. So today I am soaking in these quiet moments and resting. Allowing my mind to contemplate things I don't usually have time to ponder, and allowing my hands to get everything off my to do list so I can further rest this evening.  Something else that I know that I really need to do today is to take this quiet time and spend it with God. These past few weeks I haven't spent much time in the word and I know t...

Founders Note: Today on the blog we have are monthly contributor Sophia, she is sharing her heart on this month's theme Abiding in Christ. You can learn more about Sophia on the about page.  Whenever we go through some thing that we consider a hardship it can do one of either two things  with our relationship with God.  We could either move closer to Him or farther away.   How many times have we become resentful toward God when we were going though something because we thought that He had the power to fix it but didn’t?  I am not ashamed to admit that I have been in the position in which I have been resentful toward God.  Most of the time this stems from the fact that I have tried to make everything work on my own and things kept getting worse.  As a result I continue to worry and have anxiety about my situation.  The Bible teaches us that  “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has ...