Stop the Noise and Just Listen

My family went camping again over the fathers day weekend with 3 other families. That means there were 11 kids all under 10 years old. It was an amazingly fun time! And a miracle that all the kids got along! LOL!

There are so many wonderful things about camping, but what I really love is getting away and into God's creation. There is somthing about sitting in the midle of a quiet lake in a canoe and just listening to the sounds of nature... the wind in the trees, the water, the birds... that brings out the calm in me.

We  are so connected to our things. Our phones, our laptops, our cars and hair dryers that it can be difficult to just be quiet. It takes a real effort to find that quiet these days away from everything we come to depend on. 

But that's just it isn't it. We depend on them. What would we do if all electronics stopped. If cars no longer ran. What would we do with ourselves? Those things are great tools, but I fear that we as a society become so attached to them that we are easily distracted by their instant entertainment gratification and we forget to stop and just listen.

...Listen to the words Jesus spoke... listen to the sounds HE created on this earth... listen to the whisper of the Holy Spirit in our hearts telling us what is right, giving us courage to move forward in our purpose. Do we really listen ever?

The bible talks about Jesus often going off to lonely places to pray. He modeled what we should be doing. I want to encourage you today to actively seek to be alone and quiet with your savior and then really listen to him. What he has to say to each of us is so beautiful, it renews us, and sets us in line to fulfill that purpose he has for us today.

God's Purpose For You Right Now

Christ is coming back soon. And I just really want to be all about HIS business. Our time is short, and I want to do what he has purposed me to do for HIS kingdom. I want to be living out my GOD given purpose on this earth Right Now. It's not a someday thing for me. It's in my everyday walk of life.

I think sometimes we get caught up in life, paying bills, caring for kids, relationships with spouse, illnesses, and on and on... that we forget that God has a purpose for us beyond what life throws at us. His purpose isn't for "when things calm down" or "when we get more money" or "when the kids are older". His purpose for YOU is right now in the MIDST of whatever you are going through. 

If we aren't looking at everything in life through the lens of God's bigger purpose for us, we miss the mark. We are lost. We lose. And we will be unfulfilled. 

But when he is our focus, no matter what the circumstances are, we cannot be beaten. Because our purpose and our hold is not on the things around us, our problems, our needs, our hopes, but on God alone. He is all. And whatever you are going through is just color in the fabric of the tapestry he is weaving of your life. He will work ALL things for you GOOD. Not just some things, not just happy things, not just positive things. But ALL things. 

"In one thousand trials it is not five hundred of them that work for the believer's good, but nine hundred and ninety-nine of them, and one beside." ~ George Mueller

So my question for you is, how will you live out God' purpose for your life RIGHT NOW?

YOU Are My Strength Alone

"I lift up my eyes to the hills--where does my help come from?" Psalm 121:1

Recently Ive been faced with a situation that I have no strength for. I am powerless to overcome it, break free of it, or solve it on my own. 

Believe me I've tried. 

I've gone to the Lord and asked him to fix it, change it, remove it, heal it. But he sees fit to keep it. It kind of reminds me of Paul's thorn. (2 Corinthians 12)

Looking back through my life I see that Ive lived with this thorn in various forms from the beginning. So why won't God take it away? It has nothing to do with me being in sin, but it has everything to do with keeping me FROM one very big sin. 

God uses this thorn to keep me from ever elevating another person to Gods rightful place in my heart. He uses it to protect me. It is a loving thorn. If left to my own I would begin to put others, or even myself, in Gods' place. He loves me too much to let me do that.

You see, he wants me (and you) for himself, and he won't let me harm that relationship for something that is fleeting and dieing. He wants to give me the eternal thing. And he won't let me mess it up. He is faithful and good to complete the work he began in me.

This way he still gets all the glory for keeping me in his hand. God is on my side, what can man do to me?

So I will learn to be trained by my thorn. To think less on the thorn and more on the one who is all knowing and deems it necessary for me to live with it. 

"Thank you Lord for keeping me in your hand and for being completely trustworthy to the ultimate goal of making me beautiful for the day I see you face to face. Come soon Lord, come soon. I need you. and I long for what is wrong in this world to be made right."

Can you see how God is using a thorn in your life?