Use Wisdom In What You Ask For!!!

If any of you have been around me within the last year you know that I have been praying for another place to live. At first I was wanting to see about buying a house and I prayed about it, but I didn't feel it was a wise decision. God kept dealing with me about what I had and to clean house. I had blogged about that before where he had me cleaning out things not only in my life, but also in my home. I have had to be a good steward of what I have had and take care of it. Sometimes we want things but we don't use wisdom about it and then we get ourselves in over our heads and then we want to ask God why didn't you provide for me. Sometimes what we want and what isn't always what we should have. Maybe one day God will choose to bless me with a house but until that time I am satisfied with what he has provided me with and the wisdom to know when not to jump into something head first and drown. I started looking for another apartment this week because I felt like God has taken the reigns off so to speak with the go ahead to look. I went and looked at one yesterday and feel in love with it. It has everything that I want and its not much bigger than what I have now, but its in the same neighborhood and Olivia doesn't have to switch schools. I went and turned in the application at 12:30 today and by 12:55 I got a phone call saying that I had gotten the apartment. God works fast!!!!! I didn't ask for much more than I thought I needed and he provided and has also given me the finances to be able to do it. I am thankful that he showed me to use wisdom in this. Its not always easy to sit back and wait for something because we always want instant gratification. I am truly amazed at how things have changed over this past year and thankful for all that he has shown me and given me. I cant wait to see what this year holds.

Reflecting 2010

After spending alot of time this weekend reflecting and looking back on 2010 I found that God has drastically changed my life in ways I never would have expected or imagined. Its easy to look back and see what he has done for you, but sometimes while we are in the midst of going through all the changes we don't see what it is he has been doing. In a years time God has brought me to a new church, gave me some wonderful new friends, promoted me at my job, has blessed me financially to be able to do for others when he calls upon me to, and so many other little things that we don't often think about as well. I have had a truly blessed 2010 even though it may have seemed a bit rough going through some of the changes I have to say through it all God truly blessed me more than I ever could have imagined. I'm not sure what lay ahead for 2011, but whatever it is I know that God is truly there with me and taking care of me and my family. I just hope that whatever he blesses me with I can pass it on to others so that they can know of his love, because without him I would truly be lost.

Change....Do We Really Want It?

With the year being almost over alot people sit and reflect what they want to change about themselves. In reality most people never really change anything about themselves when a new year begins. Some people say they want to lose weight and they half heartedly go into it and begin trying to exercise and eat right, but their drive to want to lose the weight fizzles out. They may start off strong and doing all the right things, but they find it difficult and uncomfortable to do. That's just an example of what many of us do because when it comes to bring about change in our lives we say we want it, but do we really? If most of us would be honest with ourselves and others we would admit that we do not like change we like things to remain the same. Its more comfortable to remain the same than to put forth the effort to bring about real change in our lives. We do the same thing in our relationship with Christ. We say we want a deeper more intimate walk with him and we start off trying to do that, but then the desire fizzles out of us. We start to pray more, read more, fast, and try to listen to what it is he wants from us, but then we get lazy and caught up in what we want to do and lose the desire to want it anymore. We get in a place of comfort and laziness. I have been guilty of this many times in my life and I'm not very proud of it, but I recognize it and ask God every day to help me not let my desire for you fizzle out. I want his help in keeping that desire burn for him, because I know that I cannot do it on my own. We should ask this daily of him and not just because a new year is getting ready to begin. Take a good look inside yourself and see what it is that is holding you back from a deeper place in him and ask him to help you keep that desire going for him in your life. Its not an easy thing to die to our selfish nature and I wish I could say it gets easier, but I do know one thing God will never stop helping you keep that desire burning inside you if you truly want it. We have to push self out of the way and let him take over.

Giving Is What Its All About

I have had the privilege for the last year to go to a church that knows how to give back to those who are in need. Its not just at Christmas time when they do it they give all year long. We partner with a ministry called River City Love Squad which feeds, clothes, and ministers to those who are homeless or they don't have much and need a little help. I was so blessed to have such a small part in helping this year for their Christmas dinner that was held at our church this year. They bused in lots of homeless and families that were in need. We all pitched in and helped prepare food for them, organize blankets, clothes, lunch bags, Christmas gifts for them. I was so moved by seeing how many people are in such need. God gave me a dream that I was to bring specific items with me that night to the dinner. I had this dream several nights in a row prior to that night. I was to bring a brand new coat that I had bought for myself, my favorite blue scarf, a blue necklace that a very good friend of mine gave me, and my bible which has a blue cover on it. I asked God why would he want me to give my bible away to someone. He said are you willing to give up everything for me and to help someone who doesn't know me and is in need. I said yes I am. When the day arrived I wasn't sure who I was to give it to or anything, but I knew God would show me when the time was right. There was little lady I saw being prayed for up at the front at the end of the service and God tugged on my heart and said that is her. I went up and found her and her name was Toni. Her husband had left her and she lost everything and was homeless. She only had the clothes on her back she came in with. I introduced myself to her and shared with her the dream God had given me. She cried and hugged me tight and said God sent you to me your my angel. I couldn't hold back the tears and just stood there and held her for a long time. I gave her the coat, the blue scarf, and blue necklace and she said God knew that blue was my favorite color. She put it on and said I will never forget you and she prayed for me that God would bless me as he had done for her. She was grateful for what he had blessed her with and wanted to share what she had just been blessed with as well. I couldn't hold back the tears for the rest of the night. Whether you believe in God or not I am sure you believe in helping others. I work for a great company and for those of you who are reading this if you take anything away from this I hope it is to look around you and see who it is in need and do what you can to help. We are all just a thread away from being homeless ourselves, but we don't think about it that way. We are a blessed country, but we complain when we have to sit in traffic, we complain because our food is too cold when we order it, we complain because we have to stand in line at walmart too long. Think of it this way. You are blessed to even have a car to drive to get to where you need to go. You are blessed to have the money to go to a restaurant and eat. You are blessed that you can go to walmart and get things that you need or just want. I have been humbled working with my church this past year with the River City Love Squad and seeing how my life could have been if I was in there place. Merry Christmas to everyone and God Bless you all.

Stop The Excuse Game!!!!!

Its time that Christians stop using excuses as to why they don't spend time with God in that secret place every day, why they don't tell others about Jesus and how he died to save them from going to hell, why they aren't doing more than they are now. Christians play the excuse game quite often and I was and am guilty of it as well. We get so caught up in me..me...me...me...oh poor is me that we forget our purpose. God brought us out of the messes we were in and brought us life..a new life of peace, grace, and hope. Why would you not want to tell everyone you know about that?

CRAZY LOVE!!!!

I am getting ready to start listening to the book "Crazy Love" on cd. When you think of Jesus and all he has done for us doesn't that make you just fall more and more in love with him? If it doesn't then you need to stop and take a minute and just think of where your life was at before you let him into your life. I know if it were not for his love for me I would be in any number of situations in my life now. If you don't know him and haven't accepted him into your life then take a moment and just say a simple prayer and ask him to come into your life and to help you clean up all the junk on the inside of you. It doesn't take this big long prayer with alot of words its just simply saying Jesus come into my life and save me. You would be amazed at the people in just the United States alone that do not know about Jesus and have a personal relationship with him. We always think about people in other countries that haven't heard the gospel, but we take for granted that people here know of him. The truth is there are many people who don't and we pass by them every day and never tell them how he died to save us all. Make it your priority to show others of the Crazy Love that you have for him and that he has for us.

Something Extraordinary On The Inside

Well I can definitely say that God has been doing something extraordinary in me because I have been so emotional now for the few months or so. I can feel him tugging at me all the time and leading me to do things out of the ordinary for me. I have come to the point now where I don't care where I am at if he asks me to do something for someone, say something to someone, or just to fall on my face in the middle of a crowd I will do it. When you are at the point like that you know that you really don't care what the world thinks of you and that all you care about is what God has and is doing in your life and you want to share with others about how much he loves them. Don't let anything keep you from sharing his love to others. You carry the light of his glory in you and it needs to shine bright and continuously so that the people who are in darkness can find their way to him. Don't let yourself get full of junk on the inside cuz it takes root and it hardens your heart and keeps you from what it is God has for you to do.