Choosing WHAT to Believe

“God’s providence is His constant care for and His absolute rule over all his creation for His own glory and the good of His people…the twofold objective of God’s providence: his own glory and the good of His people. These two objectives are never antithetical; they are always in harmony with each other. God never pursues His glory at the expense of the good of His people, nor does He ever seek our good at the expense of His glory.”

“The doctrine of God’s providence clearly affirms that we can trust God. God does care for us and he does constantly—no just occasionally—govern all the affairs of our lives.“

 “As God’s rule is invincible, so it is incomprehensible. His ways are higher than our ways (see Isaiah 55:9). His judgments are unsearchable, and His paths are beyond tracing out (see Romans 11:33). The sovereignty of God is often questioned because man does not understand what God is doing. Because he does not act as we think He should, we conclude He cannot act as we think He would.”

Jerry Bridges, Trusting God

We have a choice each day in what we are going to believe. Depending on what we choose to believe our days, inevitable our lives, will be be greatly directed by what we choose to believe. 

In my current circumstances I can choose to believe in God's sovereignty and providence, or I can choose to believe the lies that so easily entangle my heart and mind. I have found myself, all too often, choosing to believe the lies. I have been choosing to look at my current place in life through my own understanding. When I look at my life through that lens I believe that where I am at in life is not good enough. I start to believe that God is not in control of my life and doesn't have good things in store for me. This does nothing but breed insecurity within myself, a doubting heart and a frantic mind. I think we have all been there before.

The great thing is we have a choice not to live our lives this way. It is our choice to believe in God's sovereignty or to lean on our own understanding. I don't know about you but God has always been faithful in my life. He has always come through. He has never failed me. I have to start fully trusting and taking steps of faith in that trust even when I don't understand. Leaning on my own understanding has never gotten me far. I don't understand a lot of what God is doing in my life right now. I don't understand a lot of why the world works the way it does. If I am honest, I really I don't understand that much about life. What I do understand and know is that God has never let me down. I would venture to say that in your walk with him he has never let you down. He is in control, even we don't understand what he is doing. He is not only in control, but he has our good embedded as part of his plan to bring about his glory. We have to believe this! We have to trust this! 

I am choosing to believe in his trustworthiness and not my understanding.  I can rest in knowing he is faithful with my good in mind. I can have a believing heart and a claim mind knowing God is in total control of my life. I can be content and accept where I am at in life right now, not because of the circumstances, but because of who God is. I am learning to be content, but not based on what I have or don't have, but based on God's sovereignty and providence. My good is a part of his plan.

I'm trusting! I am choosing to believe!

not a child's fairy tale

"When preached purely, His Word exalts, frightens, shocks and forces us to reassess our whole life. The gospel breaks our train of thought, shatters our comfortable piety, and cracks open our capsule truths. The flashing spirit of Jesus Christ breaks new paths everywhere. His sentences stand like quivering swords of flame because He did not come to bring peace, but revolution. the gospel is not a children's fairy tale, but rather a cutting-edge, rolling thunder, convulsive earthquke in the world of the human spirit."

Brennan Manning, The Furious Longing of God 

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
      He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
 for through him God created everything
      in the heavenly realms and on earth.
   He made the things we can see
      and the things we can’t see—
   such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
      Everything was created through him and for him.
  He existed before anything else,
      and he holds all creation together.
 Christ is also the head of the church,
      which is his body.
   He is the beginning,
      supreme over all who rise from the dead.
      So he is first in everything.
 For God in all his fullness
      was pleased to live in Christ,
  and through him God reconciled
      everything to himself.
   He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
      by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

Colossians 1:15-22

These words from Manning and Colossians stir up a fire in my heart. I hope they do the same for you. We have so much more to live for and we have the power of Christ behind us. If we really take hold of these truths nothing can stop the glory God can produce with our lives. 

The power of God lived out through Christ to include us in eternity...earth shattering!  This is not a child's fairly tale. It is the only story that matters.

     To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. 

elusive joy

“If we don’t rejoice today, we will not rejoice at all. If we wait until conditions are perfect, we will still be waiting when we die. If we are going to rejoice, it must be in this day. This is the day that the Lord has made.” 

“Nothing is too small if it produces true joy in us and causes us to turn toward God in gratitude and delight” 

I love this thought. Recently joy has been elusive in my life, especially right now when my circumstances are not as I want them to be. This quote is taken from John Ortberg’s book,The Life You’ve Always Wanted. This quote helps joy not to be such an escaping idea.

I never realized, until recently, how much I let the conditions in my life dictate my joy, or lack of joy. I‘ve always been a very positive person and many around me would say a joy-filled person. Looking back over my life much of that was because I was okay with the conditions in my life. Now, they have not always been easy conditions, but I was always at peace with my conditions. Since I was at peace with what the conditions were in my life I found it easy to have joy. I found it easy to spread that joy to others. I found it easy to pull joy out of those around me who were joy-less.  I found it easy to be thankful for all that was in my life, even the times that were hard.

I’m afraid I have come close to making a 180° on this joy issue. Now, that I am in a place where I am not completely sold on the conditions that are my life, I have less joy. I still have joy, don’t get me wrong, but there has been a lot less of it lately. I am realizing that this is due to me basing my joy off of my circumstances, and not on Christ.

While I may not be getting everything I want right now, God is giving me many wonderful blessing to help cultivate that natural joy he has created me with.  I naturally have a joyful outlook. It's weird and feels unnatural to find joy elusive, but that's why I love this quote. It reminds me that there is joy in everyday life. Joy is NOT elusive for those who follow Christ. God gives you and me things each day to cultivate joy deep within us, and to draw us closer to him.

This is not a new lesson, but one that I am learning in a new way. To reflect on that fact that every day God is giving me something to give me joy brings me joy. Looking back on to today there have been some moments that have not just lead to joy, but brought real joy into my life. This joy has caused me to turn to God with graduate and delight.

Here are two things that brought me some joy today. 

I got to spend time with my sister today. My sister and her husband have been hit left and right with hard conditions in their life recently. It is amazing to see them trusting in God more. I have seen their faith grow leaps and bounds through these trails. It really is a beautiful thing to see and it brings me great joy.

 Coffee…I had a great cup of coffee today. Coffee always makes want Christ more. I know that might sound funny. But whenever I have a cup of coffee I want to sit down and have a real conversation with someone. If I can’t do that I want to sit down with a good book and my journal. Those are all things that cause me to reach out to God more. It is the little things that get me. 

Today is the day the Lord has made! 

Cease striving and know that I am God

(Psalm 46:10 NASB)

"I've decided that if I had my life to live over again, I would climb more mountains, swim more rivers, and watch more sunsets; I wouldn't only jettison my hot water bottle, raincoat, umbrella, parachute, and raft; I would not only go barefoot earlier in the spring and stay out later in the fall; but I would not devote one more minute to monitoring my spiritual growth. No, not one"

This quote is taken from Brenna Manning’s book The Furious Longing of God. This quote has brought much peace and rest to my soul. I am blessed to have read this quote. During this time when I am daily striving to see the blessing I sometimes get discouraged when I don't see them, or at least when I don't see new ones. I think this is partly due to that fact that I, no matter how hard I try not to be, am a byproduct of American culture and a lot selfish.

On those days that I get upset when I don't see the blessing, the positive side of life, I can turn into Miss. OVER analysts. I try and reflect on my day to see if there is any sin, any blatant disobedience, or any disciple that I need to do more. I do this because if there is any offensive way in me I want it gone (Psalm 139:23-24). I want away with it, so that God can be even more in my life. While this is not a bad thing to do, I too many times get caught up in the striving to get rid of the offense. More than not this striving produces anxiety, worry and guilty.  The silly thing is I can't get ride of it, and neither can you. That is what Jesus came for (Ephesians 2:8-10).

I need to stop striving to be the person who is step up perfect to receive abundant blessings. I need to strive after Him. In Christ is the abundant blessing. I need to stop monitoring my spiritual growth so much. At the end of the day if I grow closer to God, and helped someone else draw nearer to Him then it has been a blessed day.

Christ died in our place to produce in us a life a freedom. When we are consistently monitoring our spiritual growth we start to produce a life of bondage to the things that constitute a spiritual growing life. This is not what he died for. It is not bad to monitor our spiritual growth, but in this season of my life I need to stop monitoring, stop striving. I need to start letting God be God in my life. I need to let him love me, and out of that love live my life.  This thought, this old idea, to let God be God gives me room to breath, room to rest and room to live.

Sooooo here is to letting God be God!! One moment at a time I will learn and live in the truth that seeking God for God’s sake is all I need.  Knowing that God is God is more than enough!

let today be today

When I look back over the past week I have so many great things to be thankful for. The #1 thing that comes to mind is that I went on a CRUISE with 7 of my friends!!  It was such a blast...every single minute!!!

This was one of the greatest vacations ever!!

Today was back to business. I feel as though a lot has been thrown at me today, and if I'm honest it has been a hard day. I restarted this blog as a tool to help me seek the positive. To see the good that is around everyday if we just take the time to look. To record the blessing of a mighty God in my life. To record the beauty of Love rushing into my life. Today it has been hard to see the goodness. It has been hard to look past the negative. It has been hard to believe that where I am in life is not where I will aways be. What has helped me get through today has been this verse...

In the swarm of anxious thoughts and negative feels you have to tell yourself to STOP. You have to tell yourself to slow down. Don't take yourself so seriously. Let the past be the past, tomorrow be tomorrow and let today be a day that you grow closer to Love. Being still and just knowing that God is God, that he is who he says he is, is enough. Today I am thankful for the reminder that to get rid of the negativity I need to sit down, take a deep breath and remind myself of who I belong to...I belong to God.

Here is some of my #selftalk today

I belong to God. God loves me unconditionally. God wants me to have a life of joy and peace. ALL my significance is found in Him. ALL my security is found in Him. My significance is NOT caught up in anyone but GOD. To get through today do the next moment in love. I belong to God. He is more than enough. I belong to God.

I need to have the phrase "I belong to God" tattooed onto every part of my DNA!

Fire in My Bones

I LOVE this verse. I had to memorize it in college for my Old Testament class. When I learned it then I loved it, but as time goes on my understanding has deepen and my love for this verse has grown. You see, I have always felt called to do ministry as a fulltime vocation, but where I am at in life this is not a reality. I have a job but we are under strict orders to NOT speak of anything religious. This is hard for me (not because I want to talk about religion, doctrine and all that stuff) because of the truth of Jesus that is burned onto my heart. Yes I can show people I work with the love of Jesus through serving them, having a good attitude and all that...BUT...that's not enough for me. There is in me a burning fire shut up in my bones; a fire that's deepest desire is to connect people with Love. I have grown weary of holding this in. I try my best with where I work to let Jesus shine through and he does. It is not enough for me to work a job that's main focus is not Jesus. Yes, he is the main focus of my life, but I need that to also me the focus of my job. There is too much of him in me to do any other kind of work then spreading his fame. I need to be in a place where Jesus is my job, my number one mission, and my number one focus. I know that God has called me to do fulltime ministry, but until he provides the means for that I will expectantly wait.

This verse speaks boldly to my soul, because in so many ways this is what I am crying out. I cannot wait for the day when all will not have to be shut up in my bones. I am growing weary of hold him in.

Back to the business of looking at the blessing of today. I count it a blessing that I have discovered Henry's!!

Henry's is a small coffee shop/cafe in downtown Indy. I have a strong affinity for coffee shops. This one is off the beaten path, so I intensely fell in love with it when I first found the little place. Also, they have a killer chicken pesto sandwich for lunch. I ran in today and picked up some coffee and lunch. I didn't have time to stay, but just being in there for the few minutes it took to make my order definitely brought some happiness to my day. Henry’s just brings some extra spark of happiness to my life.

I hope you've found some extra spark of joy in your life today!

HeyTell

Blessed. I am really blessed to have some amazing people in my life. One of these people is my cousin Candice!! She is AWESOME with a large side of goofy!!

(This us back in 2007 at my sister's wedding. As you can see by the photo we know how to tear down a dance floor!)

Candice is one of those people that I just love being around. Being with her is never dull and is always encouraging. We live in different states so we don't get to see each other much...BUT...Praise the Lord we live in such a hip time with our swanky technology. Today we took hold of the techy-world and communicated in all kinds of swanky ways. This is was my personal fav...

If you don't have heytell...get it!!

Today, I am thankful to have people, like Candice, in my life. Another person I am thankful for is my friend Robin. I found this in my phone today, and it brought a huge smile to my face. It's the little things that make my day!

I am thankful for the Word

I've said before that I am pushing out the negative in my life. One of the ways I am doing that is by putting in more and more of the Word. If you need more joy, more peace, more rest put more of this book in your life. The more goodness you put in the more goodness comes out. I couldn't make it without this book.

Well, those are a few of the blessing both big & small that have made today and good day!

Guster or Bust

Yesterday was Monday and I did NOT have to work. I didn’t work so I could spend some time with my friends and go to my very first GUSTER concert!! It was more than awesome! I loved every minute of the show!!

It is a blessing to have great friends, good music and perfect weather. It is an even better blessing when you can enjoy it all at once!!!

Today, I am thankful for mornings with this one!

This dog…Rory…is the greatest dog in the world!! She really does make every day better. She is great company to have around...ALL DAY!!

Those are what I am seeing as blessings in my life today. I am looking past the negative and holding onto the blessings of today. I’m looking past the blessings and seeing the one who gives them all. It is a beautiful sight.