Count it All Joy

We are either waiting for the Lord to bless us in some way, or we are waiting for the other shoe to drop.

He gives, and takes away (Deut. 32:39, Job 1:21). Learn to Enjoy the blessings (James 1:17), and praise God through every trial (1 Peter 1:6-7).

"For I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:11-13

Are you going through trials right now? Take heart; "Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows." Matthew 10:29-31

Read also Matthew 6:25-34 for further encouragement! God provides for our every need!

Are you feeling blessed at this time of your life? Don't wait for the other shoe to drop. Do you think God is some kind of bully that when He sees you enjoying life, He wants to ruin it? He's not! He enjoys giving good gifts to His children (Matthew 7:11)! Make sure you give God the credit.

Blessings and trials are not always what you expect them to be. 

Do not look at your neighbor and think "oh he/she has it so much better than I do!" They may be prospering financially, but is their family walking with the Lord? Maybe they have lost a loved one, or have dealt with sickness and disease.

So many look at finances and think God is not blessing them, that He doesn't love them dearly. That is not so! Look at your life, look for the blessings! Do you have a family that loves you? Do you have friends that build you up? Does your church feel like home? If so, consider yourself rich indeed!

Can financial success be a blessing from the Lord? Yes. Is it the only or the best blessing from Him? No. In fact, it is the least.

It is so easy in the midst of hardship to forget the countless blessings God has already given us. I've started a "blessings jar" to remind myself. I keep a notepad beside it, and every time God blesses me I write it down (the date as well!) and place it in the jar. I encourage you to give it a try!

Be content in trials and blessings, but look extra hard for those blessings!!!

XOXOXO,

Random fact #12- Dr. Seuss coined (created) the word nerd in his 1950 book "If I Ran the Zoo." 

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Broken to Beautiful

Let me just start with this:

Guilt is from the devil.

Is that a little too bold for you? Perhaps you think I believe we should never feel bad for anything we do. That is not the case. But-

There is a difference between repentance, and guilt.

The one is combined with God's great love and forgiveness, the other hopelessness. If you know of a sin you committed, repent and accept His forgiveness.

Why do we hang on so tightly to guilt? Because we feel we deserve it, and you're darn right. In fact, we deserve Hell. But guess who loves us too much to leave us to our own stupidity? You guessed right; our Heavenly Father.

What does this deserved guilt get us? Do we get brownie points for extra humility? No. Our own guilt rips us away from the arms of our Lord! We end up feeling like we can't enter His presence until we're good enough. If that's what you're waiting for, then you've condemned your own self to Hell. 

Newsflash:

You can never be good enough, in your own strength!

That's when something beautiful happens! Jesus took our guilt on Himself, we are clean! Unfortunately it took me years to figure out just exactly what this meant.

You know how after a while, the paint in your room gets chipped and scratched? Maybe even stained, permanent marker? Some sort of food? So what you do is paint over it, you just cover it up. That's not what He did! He tore down that disgusting wall, and constructed a whole new one! No dings, scratches, or stains! Perfect, blameless.

Last week this information, finally, traveled the 18 inches (or in my case, 10 inches!)  from my head, to my heart. Believe you me, the effect was...boundless!

I AM GOOD ENOUGH.

Let me say that again, You are good enough...through HIM!

He re-built you, He bleached you, He scrubbed every inch of you until you were squeaky clean!

Share the hope!

Tell people about that ugly wall, and when they see the new you? They'll want what you have! Share with fellow Christians too! It is always so exciting to see God work in others lives!

Take this away with you today:

Let go of the guilt, and let God.

XOXOXO,

Random fact #11- The length of an elephant is the same as the tongue of a blue whale!

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Knight in Shining Armour

The guys who read this post will find it ridiculous, but I'm sure you ladies can relate!

As a girl gets older, she starts thinking along the lines of "I wish I had a boyfriend...or a husband, just someone to take care of me."

I had been immune to this for a long time, to me, relationships were a bother. The past year or so...not so much!

A few weeks ago I found myself complaining to God:

 "God, you just don't understand. I know that you can fill my emotional and spiritual needs, but you can't take care of my physical needs. Are you going to clean the snow off my car? What if my car breaks down? Or I get stuck in a snow bank? Or...some guy tries to kidnap me?! I know you CAN show up physically, but I totally know you're not going to. I love you, but it's just not enough."

Well let me tell you what, He had a few things He wanted to teach me! These things happened in short succession:

1) I was at a coffee shop for a few hours, went to start my car and it had more than a few inches of snow on it. I grab my snow scraper, and as I go to brush off the car, a total stranger rushes out. "Hey, let me do that for you, you shouldn't have to." He took the snow brush  right out of my hands and did it himself!

2) 6:30am, I get stuck in my driveway. "See God?! What'd I tell you? I'm stuck! Are you going to come rescue me? I guess not." I hop out of my car and look at it in despair. No brothers home. Dad's on a business trip. The neighbor guy (the nice one anyway) is gone. Arrrghhh. A voice came out of nowhere "excuse me miss? Can I help you? Would you like me to give your car a push?" I startle, then turn around. I'm thinking "what the heck? This is creepy...where did he come from? Hopefully he won't murder me..." So yeah, he pushed my car out and went on his merry way!

3) Today I was stuck in a friends driveway, yeah I know...I have a thing with driveways. Well my dear friend tried to dig me out, didn't work. We start walking back to the house, when I decide to turn back and grab my coat. I get to the car and hear a guy call "hey! Are you stuck? Want me to pull you out?" I look up to see a guy in a Jeep. "Um...yeah, really?! Thank you, that would be amazing!" He latches the hook onto my car, pulled it out of the driveway/ditch and said "lucky I came along at the right moment!" No, it wasn't luck, it was God!

So as you can see, God not only provides for our spiritual and emotional well being, but also for the physical! Never doubt He can take care of everything you need! Never again will I feel like I NEED a boyfriend or husband. If God chooses to bless me with one, so be it. If not, I will be content with everything He sees fit to give me. He is my true Knight in Shining Armour. 

He is more than enough!

XOXOXO,

Random fact #10- If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee. (Ok, seriously? Who sits around trying to figure that out anyway?! lol)

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Sugar Coated

Don't believe everything you hear from professing "Christians."

Almost every lie has a little bit of truth in it, unless you are looking very closely, it is too easy to overlook the lie!

Here's a couple I've heard of late:

"Hey! Live a little, God wants you to enjoy your life! Why not go have some fun? Make some mistakes. God wants you to make mistakes so He can forgive you!"

 Is there any truth in this? Yes...but more than 80% of it is a lie! Seriously? He wants me to intentionally make mistakes so He can forgive me?! Pretty sure I sin all the time accidentally...and besides that, do you realize we were born in sin (Psalm 51:5)? 

"You don't know heartache until you've had a boyfriend break up with you. You will be heart broken by someone eventually, and the older you are the worse it gets. You should get a boyfriend really quick."

 Okay, about 10% of this is truth. Yes, someone will break your heart eventually, but that doesn't necessarily mean it has to be because of some romantic fling you had. My heart was broken at a very young age, my beloved grandmother died. My heart has been broken many times since as other loved ones have left me as well.

My point here is to be careful. Put everything everyone tells you through a filter; your God filter. Take the truth, throw out the rest!

Line everything up against the Word.

XOXOXO,

Random fact #9- More people are killed each year from bees, than from snakes!

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