God Is Able

I haven't been on in a while because of busyness but God has been talking to me still. This last week He has been reminding me that He is able. He is able to provide. He is able to protect. He is able to come to my aide. He is able to heal. He is able to conform me to His glory. When I draw near, He is able to save me. He is able!

The one 'He is able' scripture that has really struck me is in 2 Timothy 1:12. It says, "For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day." I am not sure I can accurately put into words all that I am learning from this scripture, but here is some of it.

God has been dealing with me lately about focusing on Him and not on my needs and trials. He is wanting me to entrust my life, my husband, my family, and everything to Him. He has promised that He will guard what I entrust to Him (whatever I don't give to Him, He cannot guard). I am understanding that the only way to entrust these to Him is to turn to Him, focus on His will, do His bidding, and let Him worry about my life. This is not easy; at least for me. I want to sit down and figure out how to make everything work right in my life and God is telling me that worrying is NOT my job. My job is to learn more about Him, pray, and do His will (which, of course, is teaching others about Him).

I must say that I struggle with entrusting my family and their well being to God. I really want to be the hero in this scenario. I want to be the one that get the credit. I ask myself why this is so important and realize that it has to do with pride. In order for me to lay my everything before God and into His trust I need to swallow my pride, admit that I am not God and cannot guard my everything, and give it to Him to guard.

Lord Jesus, I ask that you give me and anyone who reads this the strength to be able to set aside our pride and turn our everything over to you so that You can guard them like You have promised in your word. Thank You that You will guard what we entrust to You and that You are willing to show us when we take back things to fix them on our own.

Amen

As God Changes Us

We ask for pray as God changes us. As he asks us to give up more of us and take on more of Him, we are learning what Jesus went through as He served His disciples during His hardest trial on earth. I, personally, am realizing that I need to be willing to serve others more, give more, and comfort more when I am going through trails in my life. As I was reading My Heart's Cry by Anne Graham Lotz the other day, I came across the phrase, "Please, just give me MORE of Your dirt on my Hands." I realized that the blessing come from giving your last $10 when you need to put gas in your car, giving your neighbor some time to talk when you wish to just go home and crash, or just giving your child 10 more minutes in the day when it is least convenient. Now I am asking God to give me those times that I can get my hands dirty for Him. I need to become less focused on my problems and more focused on His desires and others problems. I need to be willing to bless others even when I maynot have the time, money, or energy.

Lord, help me to reach out to others even when I don't want to or don't think I have the resources. Help me to become God oriented and less circumstance oriented. Most of all...

Please, just give me MORE of Your dirt on my Hands.

Thank you, Jesus.

James 4:10

"Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you." John 4:10

I was doing my Bible study yesterday and was directed to this scripture. I sat there for a while and thought about this scripture. Why would I do this? Because I realized that I didn't really understand what it meant to "humble myself in the presence of the Lord." I had to admit to God that I don't think that I fit this scripture. How could I, I didn't understand it. I did pray for understanding.

Today, I was reading about Jesus' death on the cross and the circumstances leading up to it and it all of sudden dawned on me... Jesus humbled Himself before the Lord. He humbled Himself to the point of death. He did not argue with His accusers, He did not have a debate, He did not try to free Himself. He willing did what God wished for Him to do; give His life on the cross so that we could have life. Would I be willing to lay down my life so that another could have life? I really have to ask myself this question. There will be a time, I really believe, where I may have to be willing to do just that. How many Christians, even today, willing, humbly follow the Lord even to their physical deaths, and yet, I can't even follow Him to my pray closet some days.

If you ever wonder about our lives as Christians are in the United States you must read the DC Talk book Jesus Freaks. We live a very sad, selfish life-style compared to the Christians in this book. These people are willing to serve Christ to the death and we Christians in the U.S. are concerned about doctrines and carpet colors. We need to get back to Who God Is and why we serve Him and not worry about whether we are Baptist, Lutherans, or Pentecostals. I want to be a Jesus Freak.

My pray is that I can become so humble in the presence of the Lord that I will one day be humble and willingly enough to follow him to a physical death so as to win others over to Him.