The thing I love about worshiping God is that it’s an exchange. As you surrender yourself to Jesus and let the Holy Spirit envelope you; as you pour your life out as an offering he fills you up to overflowing more than you gave.
You can’t out give him; so stop worrying about what your giving up and starting focusing on what he’s doing in and through you.
God is endless in his pursuit of us, each and everyone of us has our own special place in his heart. We matter to him.
Even when we feel like no one sees us, hears, us or knows us. He does.
He loves us and will pursue us to our last breathe. He will always seek to show us how much he cares, how much he loves and how much he gave to be with us.
But he is never forceful.
The gift he gave us was choice.
What could be more loving then the right to choose?
No matter how low or lost we feel God is always right there waiting for us to turn to him.
We can feel worthless and unworthy but that is not how God sees us. He sees who he made us to be. Who he paid the price for us to be.
He sees opportunity to reach people through our healed scars, not our old wounds. He sees us. Not our past, not our mistakes but our future.
“Behold, I am making all things new.” Rev 21:5b
Amazing Grace, the classic song that most people know, is one of my favorites because of what it means.
God’s amazing grace that saved, a wretch like me. Every time I hear this song, I want to sing it.
Everyone who has ever lived, except Jesus has done something wrong at some point in their life and needs forgiveness for something.
God’s grace does just that. He forgives us for everything we have ever done wrong. He wipes our slate clean and makes us white as snow before God.
I know I’ve done plenty of things wrong in my life, but He forgave me and made me new in Him. Because of His forgiveness I get a do over, a fresh start, I get to be new in Him.
Often I find memories of my past that try to come back to haunt me. But I know that, that person died on the cross with Jesus. I am no longer that person, because Jesus makes me new and clean with His grace and forgiveness.
Next time you find yourself caught up in your past mistakes, surrender them over to Jesus and let Him remind you that, that person died on the cross with Him and that He lives through you.
The first exegetical (which simple means using the whole text and in context) sermon I ever preached was on Psalm 150, the last of the psalms. It cries out the heart of the book of psalms Praise HIM, no matter what, no matter how you feel, Praise HIM.
Praise HIM everywhere in every way, all the time. With singing, with instruments, with dancing, with focus and undivided attention.
Praising God isn’t about the perfect song or if the band is on key, or if you sit, stand, kneel, dance or jump about. It’s about your heart.
Worship is about God, not us.
Are your words and your actions reflecting God? Are you shining glory on him? Are you taking time to solely focus on God, thanking him, praising him and giving him the glory? That’s what he deserves.
How are you praising HIM?
Praise the Lord.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
praise him with timbrel and dancing,
praise him with the strings and pipe,
praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.
Feeling like you are dry spiritually or not hearing God, is often because we are not making time for Him or listening for the answer. We may be too busy or overwhelmed with all our obligations and responsibilities.
But if we take the time to give God time he makes those obligations and responsibilities easier and even joyful.
Spending time with Him and letting Him fill us up with His presence gives us joy, peace, love and perspective. When we look to Him moment by moment He changes things.
The change He brings may not be a change of location, job or responsibilities, but a change of perspective, of how we view, and react to those same situations.
The thing I love about worshipping God is that it’s an exchange. As you surrender yourself to Jesus and let the Holy Spirit envelope you; as you pour your life out as an offering He fills you up to overflowing more than you gave.
You can’t out give God; so stop worrying about what your giving up and starting focusing on what He’s doing in and through you.
Seek God and let Him transform your life.
This is the simplest and best break down I’ve heard about Speaking in Tongues. Enjoy!
God fights for us even when we don’t see it. He works things out before we even know them and builds a path for us to walk that we cannot see. It can be scary to go where you haven’t been.
My husband and I have lived in seven states in the eight years we’ve been married, and each time we knew God was moving us. Each place, He placed people in our lives for us to reach, love and encourage in their faith in God, and in each place people have influenced us. Because no matter how long or short we we were somewhere God had gone before us and set a place for us, He built connections for us and prepared our way, we were simply willing to go.
God may not be calling you to move across the country or to move around the world but whatever He has called you to, He has prepared the path ahead for you. Are you willing to follow where He leads you?
God’s presence is the place where we find ourselves. He sees the mess and gives us the grace to overcome it and get out of it. He doesn’t want us to shove it aside or stuff it deep inside or try to fix it on our own. He wants it to be resolved and no longer affect us. So we don’t have to be ruled by our past mistakes or even the mistakes of others.
We get to choose.
Choose to let God’s grace be enough for us and for others. When we forgive, we free ourselves from being slaves to bitterness, anger, resentment and rage. It can no longer have power over us; because we won’t let it.
Finding our identity in Jesus makes us more us than we were before. He uniquely designed each of us and He know exactly what gifts and talents He gave us; to be and do what He designed us for.
When we choose to let God’s grace to be enough we are free to be who He intended us to be. To be loved, strong and confident and not held down; but to soar above the storms.
What was it that attracted you to God?
For me it was His redemption, unconditional love and acceptance. He knew all my junk but still I felt His love and forgiveness the moment I surrendered my life to Him.
What keeps me in relationship with Him, is His never-ending love, grace and beauty. I feel His love each day, His grace when I make mistakes and He shows me His beauty more each day.
We should never stop falling in love with God, just as we should never stop falling in love with our spouse. Each day we need to see them both in a new light, a new appreciation.
God wants to reveal Himself to us more each day, we just have to let Him.
Soaking is a term meaning to literally sit in God’s presence and soak it in. You don’t have to pray or sing or do anything. Just sit and let everything go, all your worries all your concerns, all your pain and frustration and just let him be enough for it all.
If you’ve never tried it, I want to encourage you to put on your favorite worship music station and just let everything go and let God fill you up with his peace, joy, love and presence.
As the new year begins I encourage to make the same decision I did years ago; to surrender your life to Jesus. It can sound scary and intimating but it is truly the best decision I ever made.
I lived for years trying to do everything on my own, striving to try to achieve what I thought I wanted. But even when I achieved some of my goals they fell short of what I thought they would be.
But when I surrendered my life to God he changed everything. He gave me love and confidence to be who he made me to be. He gave me career opportunities I never would have picked for myself that turned out to be just what I needed and he picked the perfect husband for me, one that I never would of picked myself but is the perfect match for me. And he has blessed me in so many other ways in my life in ways I never thought I needed or wanted but were just what I needed when I needed it.
When we try to achieve our own goals we are influenced by others that have the same thing, but when we let God guide us he has already prepared a path for us that we probably would never of expected but is better then we ever could of thought.
Give God your dreams, your desires and your life and let him bless you beyond your belief.
But as for me, behold, I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you.
We should not be afraid to share our faith in God, we should shout it from the rooftops. There is nothing wrong with it and we should not be afraid to share it. Our faith in Jesus changed our lives and we should share that.
Our fear comes from worry or fear of acceptance, but we are sharing about our God who takes those away from us. He came to give us peace, love and confidence and that’s what we should share.
For the days when you don’t know what to say or do, seek God and let him be your guide. Its amazing how much a moment in the presence of God can change everything
No matter what your day was like or what you’re going through.
You can depend on one thing. That God loves you regardless of how you feel.
And because of that love we praise him. Nothing helps you change your focus, mood or perspective more then giving praise to God.
Let the gruff of the day fall off and let your praise rise.
I love introducing people to ministries they may not have heard of I.H.O.P. is one of those, no, not the pancake place. The International House Of Prayer. They have worship and prayer 24/7. This video is of Misty Edwards at their 15th anniversary celebration.
“Let every heart prepare him room.”
That’s what this Christmas season is about, thinking about and being thankful for Jesus birth. Our relationship with God would be so different if he hadn’t come.
But he did and I’m so grateful for the deep intimate personal relationship we each get to have with him.
Christmas heralds us in and reminds us of the humble life Jesus choose to live to give us the opportunity to have that intimate relationship with us.
Celebrate him this season with boisterous applause!
O Come, O Come Emmanuel, heralds what Jesus came to do, to set us free!
How often we forget or even take for-granted the freedom he’s given us.
The freedom to be free of guilt and shame. To know joy, peace, grace and love without bounds.
Jesus came to set us FREE!
Let’s Rejoice!
Do you think people knew who he was as he grew up in front of them? Mary and Joseph knew. But when did others notice that something was different about this child.
Jesus choose to be born as a baby, to live as we live. He didn’t come to be worshiped and lifted up. He came to be a sacrifice for us. So that the price could be paid of an innocent life for the sins of all mankind.
He lived a normal life, he was born to normal people. He could of had whatever he wanted but he choose to be like the rest of us. He didn’t live an extravagant life or demand anything from anyone. He came to serve and show us love in action.
In life we seek out love, we pursuit it, we desire it from our friends, family, and others but somehow it is never enough.
No matter who it’s from or how much we love someone, their love for us will never be enough. This is because we are meant to only be truly 100% fulfilled by God’s love. He created us and made us with a God shaped hole that can only be fulfilled by Him.
My whole life I pursued unconditional love from friends, family and others, hoping that I would find that person that filled the void.
But I never found that fulfillment from a person. And even though I have an amazing husband, what bonds us together the most is that we both came into our marriage knowing that only God could fulfill us. That’s why I call my husband the cherry on top of my sundae, because he’s the bonus, the blessing above the fulfillment I get from the love of God.
God’s love is the only love that has ever made me feel complete and wanting nothing. In His presence, He is all I want and all I need.
We can’t earn His love because He gives it freely.
God loves you! What could you lose by giving Him a chance to share His love for you with you?
Thanksgiving is tomorrow!
One of my favorite days of the year.
I love gathering with family and helping prepare a huge meal for us all.
A thought, is to go into this season with thanksgiving to God for the family and friends he’s given you.
Don’t shy away from talking about him tomorrow, in fact I highly encourage trying to make him the focus of your thanksgiving. Maybe even take time out to sing a song of worship to him.
A family I hold dear to sings “O’Come let us adore him” before family meals.
It sounds weird but it brings so much joy and peace into the atmosphere of the room.
Try something different this year, be bold for Jesus and make him the center of the day of thanksgiving.
Here’s a song to start off
Seeking God just for who is, not for what he’s done or what you want him to do but just for who he is.
Spending time with him just because of who he is. Seeking him as a long lost friend you haven’t seen in a long time, with the joy and anticipation of his arrival, the nervous joy that builds up, the disregard for decorum when you embrace them at first sight.
We should seek God the same way each day, when we wake, treat each day like your a kid on Christmas morning, looking for the gifts he has for you that day, the joy of being in his presence the delight in opening up the surprises he has for us and the relief of being able to just rest in his presence.
Just for fun, check this out to change up your Christmas music this year!
This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
—Psalm 118:24
Thankfulness builds joy. Just saying the word brings a smile to my face. There is always something to be thankful for, the sun on your face, the song of a bird near by, the beauty of the trees turning.
Somewhere in some way in your life God is always looking to bless you, to share his love for you, with you.
Thankfulness is about perspective. We can choose to be miserable and focus on what we don’t have or we can choose to find joy regardless of our circumstances.
We all have had times of need and of abundance, but its how we react that make the difference. We should be thankful in all things big or small blessings. Each day we wake up we can be thankful we have life. Each day is an opportunity to change our perspective.
The deep intimacy you experience when surrounded by God’s presence can only be called holy. Holy by Jesus Culture perfectly describes how his presence can engulf us, how intoxicating it can be, to the point of never wanting to leave it.
I call it the ‘jello effect’
When his presence is so thick in the room you feel as if you suspended in jello.
Don’t you want to experience that? Don’t you want to know and be with a God that can melt all your cares away, who can give you such peace and joy that it feels as if it will never end.
That’s the God that I worship.
Yes, he is Holy!
And he invites us into his presence, to the place where our whole world changes because he is Holy.
All you have to do is open the door and let him into your life, and believe in Him.
Take a moment to listen to this song and open yourself up to God, take down all the barriers and just focus on him.
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Focusing on God and heaven may seem like your taking a break from reality. In some ways you are; being in the presence of God can make you forget about everything else and just focus on him.
But it also helps us to change our perspective.
When we allow ourselves to get caught up in all the things in the world we can lose sight of God and what he has for us.
Focusing your mind on things above isn’t about being disconnected from reality its about changing reality.
God is all around us, he created everything and if we take the time to slow down and look and listen he speaks to us through his creation. Sometimes it’s through nature and sometimes through people. No I’m not crazy.
I’ve just found that if I take the time to ask God to teach me something, he often does it through his creation.
When I first made the decision to turn my life back to God I became an intern at my church. At the start of the internship we went on a retreat to a beautiful lodge in the woods. Once we got settled we each took sometime to be alone with God. I decided to take a walk in the woods.
I was walking down a slight hill, having to watch where I was stepping because there was no path.
As I walked I noticed all the dead leaves and broken branches. I asked God where he was when I had turned away from him, when I had let so many of the dreams he’d given me die.
He explained that even though I had chosen to ignore him, he was there the whole time for every bad decision and wrong choice, but he helped guide me from some major pitfalls, just like I was avoiding stepping into some deep holes in my walk in the woods.
On my return walk back up the hill God showed me all the plants that were growing up through the leafs. He explained that even though I had chosen to ignore him for so long he had planted seeds along the way and that they would grow and produce now that I had turned back to him.
God will use the circumstances around us to teach us if we simple take to the time to acknowledge him and learn.
We often under estimate the impact of resting in Gods presence. When it’s what we need most.
When we are at our most desperate, when we feel lost or unsure. That’s when we need him most.
We don’t need to fix our problems before we go to him. Going to him is how we fix our problems.
Instead of dwelling and worrying. We should be dwelling in his presence and letting him show us his perspective that melts away the worry and anxiety. For nothing is too big for him to handle.
God is faithful, he will never leave us, stop loving us or abandon us. We are the ones who leave him, ignore him or straight deny his existence.
He always wants to love us and be with us.
We put him in a box or give him limits by saying he doesn’t care, he’s too busy, or he can’t do that.
Nothing is impossible for God.
For nothing will be impossible with God.” Luke 1:37
This verse is Elizabeth who became pregnant in her old age talking to, Mary the mother of Jesus, about her miraculous concept of Jesus.
This verse gives me strength because we have been trying to get pregnant since we got married in 2015. And even though I have not been blessed with a baby yet. I still trust God, I still love him and I still worship him. Because he is a good, loving God and I know that he has given me the dream to have children and he will bless me with them. But that doesn’t mean that I abandon him or just curl up in a ball and become bitter and angry because I don’t have what I want when I want it.
Instead I ask him ‘What he has for me right now?’ What do you want to teach me through this?’ ‘What do you want me to do in this time?’
In the six years from surrendering my life to Jesus and when I meet my husband, I wanted a husband through out that time, but God used that time to teach me, to change me and to invest in the lives of others. I could of done all that I did within a marriage but we would of had a lot of issues, we would of fought a lot, hurt each other and I would not of had the time to invest in the others like I did during that time. God knew what he was doing, his timing is perfect.
So I trust him in his timing now. He’s given me the call to write, so I write this blog and I working on getting my first of many books ready to submit for publishing. I preach and speak at any opportunity given, because I love to share what God has done in my life and that he can do the same and more in others. I use the time he’s given me to do what he’s called me to.
What constraints have you put on God? Are you holding yourself back because you think God can’t do it through you? What does God have for you right now in this moment? Ask him.
Just because you don’t have what you asked God for right now, doesn’t mean he’s not giving it to you.
His timing is perfect. He know what we need when we need it. Trusting his timing can be hard if we focus on what we don’t have. But if we focus on what he is doing on our life right now, what we are waiting for won’t take as long as we think it will.
