Using Our Lips To Glorify Him
What are your lips saying today? Are they glorifying God or putting man down?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtNWW5sB0UU]
Shake Them Every Way But Loose
I’m a 27-year old college student in a class full of 18-year old kids who have no idea what life looks like yet. I used to be one of them. Today I found myself filled with aggravation, compassion, frustration, and mercy.
Before class started there were the usual, “What did you do this weekend” conversations. Two beautiful teenagers sat next to me discussing just how drunk they had gotten the weekend before. They reminisced of their Jack and Coke and Jose Cuervo moments. They laughed and gossiped about how ugly girls were hitting on their boyfriends. At first judgment filled my mind as I started to shake my head at them. Then compassion took over. I used to be there. I found myself praying for them as the professor made her way to the front of the classroom.
I wanted to grab a hold of them and shake them until sense filled them up. I wanted desperately to play the tape of my last 27 years of life so they could see what mistakes they could avoid. I wanted to protect them from drunken nights of “praying to the porcelain god”. I wanted to protect them from being taken advantage of by older men that would fill their minds with false hope in order to have some fun. I wanted to protect them from quitting college after one year because they were too afraid of success to finish. I wanted to protect them from the future heartache I saw playing out in the stories they think are funny now. Oh, if only they could see!
I can’t keep them from that. I can’t protect them. But I can pray.
Join me in this prayer of gratitude for all the works God has done in our lives. Thank you Lord for redemption. Thank you for forgiveness. Thank you that you love me with a never-ending love. Thank you for truth. Thank you for trials. Thank you for tests. Thank you for grace and mercy. Never let me forget what you have done for me. Never let me forget the pit I fell into that you had to pull me out of. Thank you for reminding me that you will never leave me or forsake me. Thank You.
What Do You Most Desire?
Is God your hearts desire? Join me for a video blog as I discuss the need to earnestly seek God.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuGNaIhXEtE]
Turn Up The Volume!
Today I went on my first shopping adventure alone in 12 months. It’s the little things in life we take for granted. I went to the store with a list that I intended to follow completely. I hate shopping! The less time it takes the better. My list:
- Downy
- Air Freshener for my room.
- Air Freshener for my car that has been closed up for a year.
- Non-expensive birthday gift for a friend.
I strolled down the clearance aisle and marked two things off my list: room freshener and birthday gift. I strolled along slightly rocking my head side to side as I heard a new song in my head. Then I saw a cheaper freshener. $.98 beat $1.98 (I’m starting to squeak when I walk.) I stuck the previous one on the shelf, grabbed an apple cinnamon freshener and went on my way.
Then I heard it! That still small voice whispering in my ear. “Put that back where you got it.” I kept pushing the cart and moving along as if I wasn’t hearing anything. It didn’t work. “Put it back.” I have learned over the last year that when God is speaking to me I should really listen. But the fleshly rebellion in me tends to say otherwise. So, I argued with that small voice. “It’ll be fine. Someone will put it back.”
Then he kindly reminded me of the word honor as he said to me again, “Put it back. You know it’s the right thing to do.” He was right. I parked my cart in the middle of the aisle, walked back to the shelf and delivered the item back to its original home, two aisles down.
Really? How much time did I waste by arguing with God, who is of course always right, when I could have put it back and been done with it? Stinkin’ rebellion!
Ok, I listened to the still, not so small voice by the time I did what I was supposed to do. I went on about my shopping. In the process of searching for the Downy I passed by the grocery department. There were cakes, cookies, potato chips. Did I mention there were cookies? Oh, the candy aisle! First I picked up the Hershey’s bar and did what any woman who is thinking about eating chocolate would do – I checked the calorie count. Then I saw the M&M’s. There were Snickers and Reese’s and Heath’s oh my!
But I heard the still small voice again. “Put it back.” Seriously?! I had just settled on the M&M’s after carefully looking at the calorie count on each fantastic chocolate wrapper. I was being smart about the whole deal. I thought, it’s my Wal-Mart gift card. I should be able to buy a candy bar if I want. “Put it back.” Flashbacks of the four miles I had run earlier this morning went through my mind. I put the chocolate back (in the same place I got it the first time), and grinned at my obedience this time around.
My friend has been talking about His voice over the past few weeks. Every time she would talk about it I was amazed at how far she had come over the last few months. She’s been listening! Today was a test for me, even though it may seem small. I heard His voice and for a brief moment I turned the volume down. I’m so thankful he is such a forgiving God and has already wiped the episode away.
Elijah listened to the gentle whisper.
Do you have the volume turned up?
Be Still..
We have good days and we have bad days. We have weaknesses and strengths. We have turbulence on this ride we call life. But in the midst of it all, I choose to keep joy. I choose to keep joy!
I stare at the tear stained words of Zephaniah 3:17 as I take a break from letting the crocodile tears flow as I grasp my Bible tightly in my arms. I just want to be close to Him. Right now my mind seems to be going at a pace too fast to focus on what God is trying to show me in His Word. All I can do at this moment is hold onto this book for dear life – it is my saving grace! The words may be blurred. My mind may be racing too fast, but if this is the only way I can feel Him near me at the moment, then that’s what I have to do.
I miss God. I’m missing Him terribly! It seems I don’t get as much time with Him as I used to. There were days in my schedule that one more Bible study was going to drive me nuts. One more ½ hour of prayer was going to put me to sleep. Now I’m striving to find the time to spend with him; looking for that quiet place for just five minutes to be with Him.
The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. – Zephaniah 3:17
He is quieting me with His love as I write this. What does that look like? I intended to come downstairs, open my Bible and just read. I was going to enjoy the quietness awaiting me. But that’s not what it looks like. The tears have stopped because my roommate has joined me. But He is still quieting me with His love. My Bible is next to me. My back propped up against three pillows. My feet dangle over the side of the bed. The fan blows on me. And sweet music plays in my ear. For right now this is my idea of stillness. I’ve looked forward to it all day.
My mind still hasn’t slowed down enough to bring the words together, but every so often I rub my fingers across the now dried pages just to touch it – to remind myself that I am still close to Him.
As my mind slows down His Word starts to come to me.
- The Lord is my strength and my song. – Exodus 15:2
- I have loved you with an everlasting love. – Jeremiah 31:3
- Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord, is the Rock eternal. – Isaiah 26:4
Tonight I have experienced some sadness. I’ve experienced anxiety. I’ve experienced fear. But my joy has still remained. Do you realize that you don’t always have to be happy and have a smile plastered on your face to have joy? I haven’t always known that. My joy remains because I know God loves me. He loves me when I’m crying out to Him. He loves me when I’m ignoring Him. He loves me when I get too busy. And He loves me when I coming running back to Him in desperation. He loves me – it’s that simple. Thank you Father!
“Shhhh,” He says. “Be still and know that I am God.”
Just Keep Waiting…
Do you ever have those moments where you wait for something so long you finally just come to terms with the fact that it will never happen? The older you get the more you move it to some empty shelf space in the back of your mind to collect dust. You see it every now and again when you do some spring cleaning, but there it sets, still on the shelf.
Tonight that moment came for me. As I sat in regret over the Doritos and French Onion dip that I had eaten, my guilt was rising up inside. Condemnation was written all over me. Then I got the call.
My grandpa, who I hadn’t spoken with or seen in a year was calling me. I didn’t recognize the number on the caller id or I probably would have dropped the phone before having the chance to answer it. “Do you know who this is?” he asked. I knew immediately – his voice is pretty recognizable. I didn’t know what to say. “This is your long lost family down in God’s Country,” he said. Then he said he saw some pictures of me and couldn’t believe it was me.
Then came words I never expected from a man whose approval I wasn’t sure I would ever receive. He thought I was pretty. He couldn’t believe those pictures were me. “I’m proud of you.”
That dusty shelf in my mind was clean and looked as good as new. My waiting days were over. One of the things I wanted so badly that I had almost given up on had just actually happened. God knew exactly what I need at exactly His right timing.
He’s good like that, and I have one more shelf in my dusty old mind cleaned off. Thank you Jesus!