The Quiet Place

Tonight as I sat in the light of my freshly decorated "halls", I couldn't help but think of all of the things that 2020 has brought (and has yet to bring!). This year has been quite the challenge to say the least. For me, 2020 has been year of great streching. God has pulled this clay of mine and folded it over and over again. This year God also brought me to my knees in humility, literally. Everyhting He did in me was SO needed! And I'm extreamly grateful for all of it. God's word says, " No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace  for those who have been trained by it. " (Hebrews 12:11). I'm grateful to now have a measure of experience in God's discipline. His discipline though painful at the time, has brought me SO MUCH JOY, PEACE, and fruit from His throneroom. I am a much better person today than I was before 2020, and I know that as I continue to yeild to God...

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...

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...

Pursuing righteousness is a very real struggle. Sometimes it feels near impossible. We get lost in the busyness and shuffle of life, we get discouraged by our failures, feel frustrated with our own inability to change; especially when we know what choices we should be making. Romans 7:15-17 comes to mind every time I think of this struggle,  "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me." These verses encourage me because they remind me that my failures do not become me. God does not define me by my shortcomings. He knows that I will mess up on a daily basis and still calls me daughter. He loves me for who I am, not what I have done or what I will do. I am his, and that makes me an heir to the kingdom, a beneficiary of his great inheritance.  God's love is unconditional . Dictio...

For we have been reconciled to Christ we are no longer slaves to the ways of this world we are slaves to the ways of God. (A personal paraphrase of Romans 6:17-19) My pastor shared tonight of a man who was on an island fighting for Japan in World War Two. The man was so loyal to his mission that when people sent word to him that the war was over he did not believe them and thought it was a trap. You see everyone on the island had surrendered except for three people. The thing is the man ended up fighting for thirty years after the war was over because he was hidden in that island and he saw every attempt that people made to inform him that the war was finished, as a trap. He even killed 30 innocent people because of it. When someone was finally able to reach out to this man and peacefully inform him that the war had been long finished, the man was so sad that he had missed out on thirty years.  This story is so sad, frustrating, and disappointing because this man fou...

The Lord told me that the theme for March this year is Pursuing Righteousness. So I thought it would be cool to google some images with that as my search. Then I found these two beautiful verses.  I'm not sure what God is up to, but I hope you will join us here on the blog this month to find out.  Lets work on Pursuing Righteousness together. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenword in Christ Jesus. Phillipians 3:14