Being Still

Exodus 14:14 (KJV) 'The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.'

Conflict is inevitable. When it comes, our inborn nature is to choose fight or flight. But as children of God, we are challenged to choose another alternative---stillness.

'What does being still have to do with conflict?' you ask. Well let me tell you how they are related in my mind and in my walk with Christ. Stillness has several implications, all of which are helpful.

Stillness is: a state of calm
The most common mistake people make when facing difficulty is to react impulsively and rashly. When you feel anger or panic washing over you like a tidal wave, run to God in prayer. Nothing brings calm like prayer, nor will anything restore your peace like the quietness of conversation with God.

Stillness is: a form of waiting
There is so much wisdom in waiting for some time to pass so you can gain a clearer and more objective perspective.

Google states that the definition of 'wait' is:
 (verb)

1.

stay where one is or delay action until a particular time or until something else happens

--or--

2.

used to indicate that one is eagerly impatient to do something or for something to happen

So be still, wait.

Stillness is: faith in the peace that is coming
Those who trust in the Lord find their security in what they believe rather than in what they see. Learn to trust the Lord's counsel and provision, even when it looks as if things may not pan out the way you prefer them to.

___________________

When everything around you is in chaos, being still gives God a chance to do His best work.

___________________


When I think about where I struggle the most with waiting, sometimes I freak out. Sometimes, and always more beneficial each and every time I do, I pray. I do my best to completely give it over to God. Sometimes that means a simple prayer, and my full reliance on Him and His work in my life. Sometimes that means writing whatever is weighing me down and causing conflict, usually externally, and even sometimes the physical burning of the 'issue' that I wrote on paper, while giving it over to God. I am typically a girl-on-the-go. I like to go, go, go. Especially during the school year, my nights off are for siblings' sporting events, and family events. So that means, my nights off, aren't really nights off. But I like it! I like a packed calendar. But, being so busy, I forget to be still and listen and just be with God.

He has already proven that He can calm any storm, so whatever storm He is letting you be in right now, He is just showing you that you need Him, you need to depend on Him. He is saying, 'I am in control.' Psalms 107:28-29 (KJV) 'Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.'

I find it easiest to be still, when I am alone. Sometimes my 'still' time is at work, but that is quite frequently interrupted and seemingly less beneficial to me and my relationship with God. Find a quiet place, an empty room, maybe your backyard, or if you've seen War Room, and feel like you need something that separate and enclosed, your closet. Find a place where you don't have anything else to worry about. Where you can be you, and God can be God, and you can be one with each other, conversing and hanging out with Him. Being still and relaxing in the Lord gets easier each time I make time for it.

'The quieter you become, the more you can hear.' ~Ram Dass

 

Don't forget...

 Enjoy some of the not-so-random music videos I always post at the end of each blog! :)

 

Breathe ~ Jonny Diaz

Thy Will ~ Hillary Scott & the Scott Family

Yearn ~ Shane and Shane

 

Thanks for reading, and I pray something I wrote reaches someone who needs to hear it today. God bless y'all!

My Tallest Regret

I have a regret, the tallest of all. One I will never forget, one that will never be surpassed. The greatest of my life, and one that has surely lingered. I have blogged before about being content and having given it all to God, but the truth is, whether it be my fault or Satan's, this one thing has never left my mind. There is nothing I can imagine ever doing that could top this sin, but then again that is what I would have said about the last thing I had regret most before this. That's also what I would have said if anyone would have ever said they could imagine me doing what I have done. 

Torment, rage, tears, shame. 

That pretty much sums up the last 5 months of my existence. I blame no one but myself, but this is the truth. 

This post shall remain vague, to protect those that I hurt, but know that I will forever be ashamed of what I have done, and will forever be sorry for the relationships I took advantage of and thus ruined, causing them to end abruptly. 

In the past I have always said that I live with no regrets. I know that things I go through in life can be lived and forgotten, in fact that is most of my childhood, I have little to no memory of most of it. I do not know why my memory of those times is faded to almost obsolete, but it has. That comes as quite upsetting to my father, whilst reminiscing together, that I can never remember the cute little stories he tells me. Some days I am so sure that when he tells me a cute story, it will strike up a memory in my little brain, but not so much. Call it some early and quite serious Alzheimer's if you will. It is legitimate, and I consider it a real hindrance sometimes. 

But now, I cannot seem to forget! It is not that I don't want to, though this is unusual for me, I never have wanted to forget much about life, I want to retain and remember it, I am tired of having no recall of moments, 'important' or not. But I mean, even the tiniest of tiny details, never leave my mind. The first time I felt offended by people saying things may be getting messy, and I need to be careful. The first time my father warned me not to get too close, because it would only end in hurt. The moment I read a letter from my momma, after all was said and done, and those that knew anything about any of these details in my life, knew this sin was not being partaken of anymore. I remember the rage I felt, and how mad I was that I was being stuck at work having to deal with the emotions rolling through me, 4am, unable to call my mom and ask why, unable to call or text my sister or best friend to vent. I remember the pent up anger. 

Now thinking back, I do not feel sorry for myself, in fact in that moment, I didn't even feel sorry for myself, just anger. But now, I am sure I have caught a minute glimpse of what I inflicted upon the people I love who suffered due to the sin I was in. 

I know that as I read my Bible more, as I pray more, as I hang around and absorb the wisdom of those who have been Christians longer than I, such as those peers I admire most in church, I know that this will someday too be moved to the 'not regrets' pile in my memory bank. 

Someday this will be easier to talk about, someday this will be easier to share, in hopes of helping someone else through what I have put myself and some close friends through. I know this will take a long time, and in fact, for me, may take longer than your average Christian woman, but I know, I just know, He has a plan for me. Sometimes it takes some self-convincing. 

Sometimes I doubt myself, my faith in God. I don't doubt His ability to help me in the ways He best sees fit, I just doubt myself. I doubt my ability to ever talk about this situation with a smile, I doubt my ability to ever forgive myself. I doubt a lot of things, and in doing so I know I am doubting God, but I also know that growth must happen in order to overcome these doubts. Spiritual and emotional growth, and both must be worked at to attain, and both impossible without His hand in my life. 

I believe that there is a lesson for every hard time we face in life, and I have learned not only one, but numerous, beginning with this:

Healing comes with the rain just as much as the sunshine, be patient and trust God. 

If you find yourself failing, maybe miserably so, and maybe in repetition, you are not alone. I am right there with you, and have been for quite some time. You know the struggle is real, as do I, but let's not continue to resist God's helping hand in this, let us pray and seriously seek His guidance and helping hand in our healing and restoration. I read a quote today that said, (paraphrasing) {Don't pray a 10 cent prayer and expect a million dollar answer, you have to work at it.} How? Pray harder, pray more frequent, pray honestly, pray willfully, pray to a knowing God, pour out your heart, empty all of it's contents for Him to examine and reassemble as He wishes in His time.  


Don't pray wistfully, pray diligently.


'If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' 1 John 1:9 (NKJV)

'Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, (14) I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.' Philippians 3:13-14 (NIV)

 

"I am a mess I am a wrecking ball,

I must admit that I still don't get it all." 

- Press On-Building 429  <--click to watch the music video   
 

Twenty16: Not Introducing a New Me, but a Better Me, Through Him

Ready or not, the entire last year of your life has ended, welcome to 2016. I don't know about you, but I could write for an hour about things I did last year that made my life (and others' lives) more challenging than necessary. As I look back on 2015, every challenging moment, that sticks with me, was existent only because of something I had done or something I had chose to make worthy of my putting forth an effort to. If you missed it, that was all about me. There wasn't a lot of God involved in those decisions. Don't get me wrong, I pray. I read my Bible, I go to church at least every Sunday morning. If I am off Sundays, I put forth my best attempt to be present for the Sunday evening Bible studies. I attend our ladies' Bible study when I am off Thursday evenings, and I attend our ladies' prayer coffee when I am off Tuesday nights (it is Wednesday mornings dark and early at 0645). I absolutely love to be a part of these smaller groups, I thrive on them. I enjoy reading and studying more and more of God's Word. From the time I start getting ready, until I leave the event, drive home, and park in my driveway, all I can do is smile! I get excited to attend, and I always leave refreshed and having learnt something new. That is all God, and I thrive on Him!

And yet: when Satan is knocking on my heart or making his way into my mind and life...sometimes I don't even realize it, I let him set up camp and hang out for awhile. That has come back to bite me. Things occurred in my life in 2015 that I have vowed to myself, and others, will never ever happen again. I seriously hurt a friend of mine emotionally, and that was never my intention. I have never in my life planned to hurt someone, as I suspect most people don't. Sometimes it just happens, we make decisions everyday: I did not always make the appropriate or best one. I believe good comes through every mistake God lets us make in our lives, I have learned my lesson, harshly (rightly so), and with consequences (rightly so), but nonetheless learned. I sometimes pride myself on being a good person, (though that alone is already a sin) I do believe I have a good heart, a heart set on being kind to others and building other people up, but we all make decisions, simply put, I made some wrong ones.

Being a Christian, I am aware that the sins I commit will be forgiven, in fact, have already been forgiven. That is not why I sin nor is it why I continue to defy God's commandments and will for me. I am human, I was born with sin. Though I now have been washed clean by the blood of Christ, He still gives me the right of choice. Daily, I have to make a choice to live for Him, to do everything for His glory. Sometimes I don't stick to that initial choice. Sometimes other emotions and things in life come in and fog my vision, and the path I chose when I rose out of bed may now be less clear or less desirable to me (enter Satan stage left) Sometimes the higher road requires some work and discipline, and sometimes I choose to not be cut out for it. I shouldn't, I have no excuse to do so; God has provided me with all the tools I could possibly need to fight the devil off and continue down the right path each and every day. Yet I opt out of trusting Him, out of using those tools to fight my way down the path that may require more work that day, for decisions and opportunities that make me happier in the moment, choices that were easy to make incorrectly because the devil made them more appealing and the struggle less overwhelming. Trusting God and praying is the most important thing I can ever do when being faced with a choice between right and wrong; nothing I do will ever be easier than praying to the One that is always listening. In addition to His omnipresent self, the Lord has also blessed me with a way-beyond-fantastic support system of believers all around me; a quick drive, or a couple touches on my phone screen, and someone will be there for me. 

The Bible says, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" {Romans 8:31b}


So why do I fail so easily, so often?


The Bible, in the book of John says, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." {John 10:10 NIV} 

I have quite brutally suffered from letting Satan come in and try and run my life because of the decisions I have made, but not anymore! I gave that to Jesus, and have tried my best to not be that person anymore! I do not believe that today I am a totally different person from the person I was on December 31st, 2015; it being a new year does not make a new person. But throughout the past few months, God and I have been working together to bring a better me to the playing field, a better me to show His love to others. God has pushed, poked, and prodded me, using His Word, family members, friends, and my church family, to help mold me into the person you would find within me today. I can only pray and continue to strive to be an even better person, because even still at this moment, my past mistakes lurk, and sometimes steal my joy! But I must refuse to let Satan win! I will fight the good fight with the One who can never be defeated.  Going to church, attending the extra activities that my church offers, that is not what makes me a Christian, it is my believing in Him and what He did for me dying on the cross for my sins, and me living my life for Him that makes me a Christian.


Strangely Dim by Francesca Battistelli ---> hear it here!!

Greater by MercyMe ---> hear it here!

#letgoandletGod #easiersaidthandonesometimes #praypraypray

Field Guide to Heaven

Romans road to salvation

 

The road is marked by a selected group of verses from Romans in the New Testament. If you walk this road, you will hopefully end up understanding how to be saved, and why it is necessary. If you are already saved, then you will have at your fingertips and disposal everything you need to help bring others to a relationship with our Father. This road defines who needs salvation, and why. How God provides us with it, and how we receive it, and the results of doing so. This road is not as long as you think, and it all starts with a single step of faith.

Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;"
Admit that you are a sinner. We are all sinners by nature and by choice. No one is perfect, no not one. And all of us fall short of God's holy standards. So who needs this salvation? Everyone. Why? Because we are sinners, we fall short, we do not deserve, yet if we ask we will receive it.

Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Understand that you deserve death for your sin, and ask God to forgive you for your sin. We receive eternal life as a free gift. Repent and be saved.

Romans 5:8 "But God commendeth His love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
Give your life to God. His love poured out on the cross for you is your only hope to have forgiveness and change. His love bought you out of slavery to sin. His love is what saves you, not religion, not attending church. God loves you. He demonstrated His love for us, His enemies.

Romans 10:9-10 "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
We must trust and surrender to Jesus Christ. We must confess it with as mouths as well as believe it in our hearts.

Romans 10:13 "For whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
Call out to God in the name of Jesus. There is our assurance of salvation through Jesus.

If you believe these words put forth by Jesus, pray to Him, tell Him, and then be sure to seek out a Bible-believing church that will nurture and help you grow in your relationship with God in your newfound faith. It is vital for your spiritual health. Be sure to tell someone, let someone know of your exciting news, find someone who is saved to help show you how to jumpstart your growth. Then shout it from the mountaintops, proclaim it to the world, for none are worthy, no not one, but all are in need of this Savior.