Saturday Morning Meditations

Sometimes I have no clue how to express in words what my heart feels. It's a frustrating thing for someone who enjoys to write things down, but I am finding that it is also a very beautiful thing for my intimacy with Christ. 

   He understands exactly what my heart feels and wants to say. And that brings tears to my eyes, out of gratitude and amazement at this unrelenting Love of my Creator.

   I encourage you, in your weariness, in your waiting, in your fear, in your joy, in your frustration...wherever you are at, be desperate for God. Know that He knows your heart better than you even do. He is with you. Take time today to just sit with Him, and let Him love you, speak to you, renew you, hold you, carry you...etc.

In my season of waiting, I find that I am continually put in situations where I need to wait, (take this fast I am on for instance...ice cream on Thursday cannot come quickly enough!). But when my attention and feelings are rooted in me just looking at what's to come, yes there is excitement, but then it moves to...'but I can't have it now!' And I become moody and trouble hearted. BUT, when my attention and feelings are rooted in the present and all that Christ is doing in me and in the people around me, I can't help but be joyful, and worship, and pray for what God lays on my heart. The fact that I am waiting, and all my frustration gets forgotten in the moment, because I am fixed on the One who is worthy of all of my attention and praise! 

God keeps putting this excitement within me in this season. I pray that He does the same in you. That you are excited for what God is doing, and what He will do. That your eyes see Him, more than they see yourself or things of this world. That you will worship, with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and allow Him to be with you in the midst of life and that your desperation for Christ will only grow so that you are continuously seeking Him at all times. 

Turn your eyes upon Him, and look FULL in His wonderful face. And the things of this earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His Glory and Grace! 

✌️ my brethren!

#Hope

Today was a gorgeous day. A perfect day for blogging as I was told, so hence, a blog. 

    I had some good time just sitting with Jesus this morning. It was quite blissful. And I was asking God what to even blog about, and what i heard was Hope.

    So here's my thoughts;

This past week, was a real blah week, and quite difficult to keep my mood, morale, and attitude in a good place. I usually can gain a pretty good control of those things, but this week, it was not happening. There were some instances this week though that stood out to me:

        At community night, we had a time of worship. Which was long overdue, and was the first time in what feels like a while that I just cried. I was overwhelmed....by the gifts and value Christ gave to every person in that room. And my heart broke, because the majority of them, don't see it/choose not to see it/doubt it/don't realize all that God has given them...

        Sunday morning church service, during our third worship (music) set I was completely overwhelmed by the Spirit of God. It was during the song stronger. It was an odd thing, but a thing that    Is happening more randomly. I lost control of my body. I can't remember shaking that bad, ever. My hands would not stay still, my knees felt like they were shaking, and all I could do was sing out and proclaim that He is Stronger....because He is.

So what does Hope have to do with these parts of my week? It has a lot to do....because what I feel, is that as the bride of Christ, His church, so many of God's people are lacking hope. And this weekend, where we celebrated Christ defeating death and rising from the dead, it reminds me that we should be full of hope, no matter what season of life we are in, and what trials or joys we are walking through. I see hopelessness everyday, and I am surrounded by people everyday of my life who love Christ more than life itself. This my brethren, is not okay. How can we, who have the Holy Spirit alive inside of us, moving us, guiding us, sanctifying us, empowering us, who have been redeemed and made righteous by Jesus Christ's selfless and victorious sacrifice, and who have been chosen by the Creator of the heavens and the earth, a Holy, infinite God, be so hopeless?!

I beg you brothers and sisters, stop looking at your failures, your past, your insecurities, your fears....and look to Christ. See yourself the way He does, know what He says about you. People watch you, a dying world watches you, they know you proclaim Christ, so show them that He is worth the fight, that there is hope.

If you watch any movie, any tv show, hope is basically the center of what is going on. There is always that one person, who hopes for all the people, that something better will happen or come along. I've been watching recently a lot of the show Once Upon A Time, and Mary Margaret in one scene told Henry that fairy tales are there to give us hope. Hope that things don't have to stay the way they are, and that they won't. 

That is what Christ gives us. Hope. Hope, that life will not stay the same. Our situation, our trials will not stay the same, but that one day we will be face to face with Christ. And that time with Him, will not end. We will get to spend eternity with Him, and with no fears, no tears, no pain. Just the glory of God surrounding us!

So I leave you with the challenge to ask God to fix your eyes on Him so that your heart can hope more and more each day in Him. Also, look up verses on hope. The bible talks a lot about it. Here are a few:

"Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. "Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Romans 5:2-5

"For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." Romans 8:24-25

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Romans 12:12

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13

"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works." Titus 2:11-14

We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, Hebrews 6:19

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 

Hebrews 10:23

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

Revelation 21:1-7

The joy that was set before Him. #endurance

"Therefore, since we are surrounded so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." 

Hebrews 12:1-2 

On Sunday Travis preached on the cross, and the whole time I kept thinking about that phrase, 'who for the joy that was set before him endured...' And I haven't been able to get it out if my head. 

In the past 6-8 months I feel like God's been teaching me what it feels like, and what it is to endure and I probably have only tasted a piece of it. 

   I've always been one of those people to quickly give up. I quit every sport I ever played in all my school years, not because I wasn't any good (I was actually quite athletic) but because I didn't want to endure the practices or the pain and time. I was lazy. For those same reasons, i also quit all my music lessons and choir. I didn't learn commitment until people showed me, by being committed to me. I think endurance and commitment go hand in hand. You can't endure anything, if your not committed. And commitment is a choice. 

Again, for the past 6-8 months, especially most recently, I'm really in a season of WAITING. Which is extremely difficult, and requires a lot of effort on my part to make sure my focus and mind are where they should be, on Christ, and not on all that I am ready and waiting for. Through this waiting season though, I have been learning to endure. Waiting, produces endurance, because if you want to be obedient to Christ in your life and with your heart, you have no choice but to endure and to persevere in the midst of waiting on Him to move you on. Its easy while waiting, to take things into your hands and to become impatient, but that only leads to sin and distraction from the one who holds your heart and knows your steps and holds your future. You have to be intentional and disciplined with your relationship with Christ in these seasons. Always. Because when we have to wait, and we have to endure, our hearts will always try to steer us another direction from waiting. The culture we live in, tells us whatever we want, we can have, and we can have it right now. But God doesn't always work that way. He likes to sanctify us through waiting, to be with Him, to rely on Him, to trust Him and surrender our wills to Him because He is good and will work everything out for the good of those who love Him. 

When I look at Hebrews 12:1-2 and Jesus going to the cross, and on the cross, I can't help but believe that of all people, He truly knows what it is to endure. So why when we need endurance do we not look to Him like Hebrews tells to. He endured the cross, because He knew He had to to save us, He endured the cross because He loved us so deeply, He endured the Father turning His face away because He knew that He would be reunited and seated at the Fathers right hand on His throne. He knew He had to endure, and He did, no matter what insults and torture and pain He had to go through to get there. He saw the joy on the other side. The joy in what was to come, and that helped fuel His endurance. 

   So I ask you, can you see the joy ahead of you in what you are waiting for? And is it worth it? 

Are you focused on what you want or on Christ? 

The ESV Study bible says this about that passage, "the promise of future reward and joy gave Jesus the strength to suffer." Are God's promises enough for you? Because they should be. 

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed." Romans 8:18