Gratitude Challenge Day 7: God Chases

 

 

3 Things I’m grateful for — Day 7:

1. God chased me.
2. God caught me.
3. God keeps me.

Chased. Caught. Kept. I’m His! The pictured quote, “Love  is choosing to serve someone and be with someone in spite of their filthy heart” just rings so true to me. That is the love that chases us, the love we show when we chase others in kind. Love chased your filthy heart and chases mine. A.W. Tozer said, “God’s already put me so far in debt that if I were to live one million millenniums I couldn’t pay Him for what He’s done for me.” I mean with every fiber of my being that I owe a debt of love I never can repay. I’m grateful to have such a God and that He has me. Join me in this challenge; feel free to tag or link me! Post 3 things per day for 7 days.

For more encouraging videos or blurbs from me, click these links/icons to follow me on

YouTube or Twitter 

Gratitude Challenge Day 6: God Changes

3 Things I’m grateful for — Day 6:

1. God changes NOT. {yesterday, today, and forever}
2. God changes circumstances. {Fix it, Jesus.}
3. God changes ME. {Wash me, Lord.}

Oswald Chambers said, “Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person’s inner nature.” The more I pray, the more I concede that prayer changes me much more than my circumstances. I’m grateful, today, for an unchanging God who ever changes me. Join me in this challenge; feel free to tag or link me! Post 3 things per day for 7 days.

For more encouraging videos or blurbs from me, click these links/icons to follow me on

YouTube or Twitter 

Gratitude Challenge Day 5: Wisdom

 

3 Things I’m grateful for — Day 5:

1. That God knows ALL things…
2. That God withholds SOME things…
3. That God reveals ANYTHING…

Consider the following Langston Hughes poem:

God in His infinite wisdom ● Did not make me very wise.

So when my actions are stupid ● They hardly take God by surprise.

I’m so grateful I don’t have to know all things; I know the God who knows all things. Further, He said that if any of us lack wisdom, He’ll give it to us liberally, without reproach, meaning we can come again, and again, and He’ll never tire of making us wise (James 1:5). I don’t know who I am that God is mindful of me and would share ANYTHING with me, but I’m grateful! Join me in this challenge; feel free to tag or link me! Post 3 things per day for 7 days.

For more encouraging videos or blurbs from me, click these links/icons to follow me on

YouTube or Twitter 

Gratitude Challenge Day 4: Good News

3 Things I’m grateful for — Day 4:

1. God hears.
2. God sees.
3. God moves.

Exodus 3:8 and Acts 7:34 say the following: I have seen the oppression of my people…I have heard their cries…I am aware of their suffering…and I have come to set them free. That’s music to my ears, my friends, what precious and good news – God hears, God sees, God moves! Join me in this challenge; feel free to tag or link me! Post 3 things per day for 7 days.

For more encouraging videos or blurbs from me, click these links/icons to follow me on

YouTube or Twitter 

Gratitude Challenge Day 3: Sweetness and Suffering

 

3 Things I’m grateful for — Day 3:

1. God’s voice — sweet
2. God’s choice — sovereign
3. God’s noise –suffering 

C.S. Lewis said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures…but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” God’s voice can be so sweet, so gentle. Yet, when needed, He uses noise — suffering — to steer us in the right direction. I’m grateful for the sweetness of His voice and the sovereignty of HIS choice to use the noise. Any which way He has to, He has me. Join me in this challenge; feel free to tag or link me! Post 3 things per day for 7 days.

For more encouraging videos or blurbs from me, click these links/icons to follow me on

YouTube or Twitter 

Gratitude Challenge Day 2: Faithful When I’m Not

3 Things I’m grateful for — Day 2:

1. God keeps promises I didn’t ask Him to make.
2. God answers prayers I didn’t have sense to pray.
3. God speaks words I didn’t have faith to say.

Romans 3:3-4 says, “What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar…” God is crazy faithful, y’all! Faithful when I’m not, when I don’t even know how to be faithful or that He’s calling me to more, He just shows up with more — more of His grace, more of His love, more of His steadfast faithfulness. I’m grateful. Join me in this challenge; feel free to tag or link me! Post 3 things per day for 7 days.

For more encouraging videos or blurbs from me, click these links/icons to follow me on

YouTube or Twitter 

Gratitude Challenge Day 1: Jesus Wept

“Jesus wept.” ~John 11:35

3 things I’m grateful for –Day 1:

1. God cares.

2. God’s tears.

3. God’s here.

Charles Spurgeon said, “A Jesus who never wept could never wipe my tears.” I get it. God’s been where I’ve been and won where I’ll win. The bible tells us God cares about the grass, how much more will He care about us? He’s moved with compassion for us, and He’s promised to be with us always. God (the Son), shed tears, cares about your tears, and is right here with you, through it all. I don’t usually post such short blurbs, but felt impressed to share this gratitude challenge on here. I challenge each of you to do the same and feel free to tag me (I was challenged a while ago to post 3 things per day for 7 days).

For more encouraging videos or blurbs from me, click these links/icons to follow me on

YouTube or Twitter 

Life Soundtrack

Find Me:

     

Many of our most powerful life experiences are inextricably tied to healing melodies that have both stirred our souls and lifted our spirits, music that will forever have an emotional impact on us and be indelibly etched into the fabric of our lives. Here’s a compilation of what was shared with me along with my own #lifesoundtrack. I thank each of you for sharing and blessing my life!

“#ThisSongWasOnRepeat when I wanted to give up on any hopes of healing…but God…TUH #butGod“

“When [my sister] Lystra died. “I’m going to be ready” by Yolanda Adams was on Serious REPEAT!”

“#ThisSongWasOnRepeat for much of my senior year of high school when the pain of my past threatened to eclipse God’s plan for my life.”

[FOR THE SAME SONG, DIFFERENT TESTIMONY BELOW:]

“I sang this song outside the office of the professor that took my full scholarship away because I couldn’t sign up for a class she wanted me to take. I was sitting in a desk in the hallway outside her office, singing, when SWAT showed up. She called them because I “intimidated” her. Well, maybe but, I got my scholarship back. #goodtimes“

“After my abortion. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world.”

“When I was pregnant and terribly anxious because of my heart condition I would listen to “He Has His Hands On You”. I also continually return to Keeping My Mind, Promise Keeper, Draw Nigh, and Breathe Into Me O Lord, from the Spirit of David album.”

 

“#ThisSongWasOnRepeat for a number of days my freshman year in college. Some days I couldn’t even muster a prayer. What. a. GOD!”

“Speechless by Israel. Mannnnn”

“#ThisSongWasOnRepeat when my water broke after just 25 weeks of pregnancy with the twins and the neonatologist came by to tell me what I can expect for them (bleeding on the brain, seizures, death, nothing good!) [they’re 4, now, btw, alive and completely healthy].”

“When I was tied up and gang raped, not supported, feeling worthless.”

“When reflecting on the miscarriage of my first child…”

“#ThisSongWasOnRepeat for the four days between my doctor finding a lump and the negative mammogram results.”

“…this was on repeat when my life was completely broken…spiritually, mentally and emotionally and I just couldn’t turn anywhere else.” [1/3]

“But…AFTER THIS….” [2/3]

“And my favorite Andrae Crouch” [3/3]

This I’ve been meditating on for the last month. It’s completely repetitive (lol) but it was exactly what I needed.” [below is the version sent to me and a shorter version; both are great!]

“When I started to fight back against depression on a spiritual&practical aspect when the enemy tried to convince me it was too dark to pray Already Getting Better by William Murphy got me through those rough counseling sessions”

“When God gave me the strength to let go of the guilt of my past Daryl Coley “He’s Preparing Me” helped me understand that the assignment never changed ! God was preparing me the entire time”

“When I thought that because of my depression God finally gave up on me and stop speaking to me Marvin Sapp’s Speak to my heart and his rendition of “I Come to the Garden Alone” became my daily prayers”

“Reflecting on my last suicide attempt, i look back and remember the pain that had brought me to that point. now diminished greatly on most days, that pain almost rendered me unavailable, incapable, feeling unworthy to worship my creator. i truly could see no other way, no hope, no love, rejection , scorn, contempt, guilt……..i just simply could not have morning come one more day. And as my body fell to the ground, i looked into my husband’s eyes. he was afraid. i’ve never seen that look on his face again and i pray i never will. the vomiting, the ambulance ride, the hospital band that read my name but reminded me that i failed yet again. the anger for having to pick myself up and try to live one more time. i didn’t have a song then. didn’t have much of anything come to think of it. But i did have God’s love. Today, i am still amazed by just how much he loves ME.”

“‘Withholding nothing Melody’ more recently has been blessing me EARLY in the morning”

[FOR THE SAME SONG, DIFFERENT TESTIMONY BELOW:]

“The day before I was to share a very personal testimony, I had the thought, ‘I feel that urge to withhold some things,’ and within a few seconds, I saw a friend tweet, ‘Withholding Nothing.’ I felt God’s peace as I honored Him by speaking truth.”

“Can this be on the life soundtrack list? It’s just… so…relevant. to like, everything.”

I was truly, truly honored to share this day reflecting and worshiping with those who shared. I heard familiar echoes of overwhelming Love telling of a God who reaches into impossibly bleak situations and makes all things new. I hope you’re blessed by this playlist! All of the songs are compiled into a single Youtube playlist HERE.

Find Me:

 

ALL That Is Within Me

ALL that is within me…~Psalm 103:1

Today, I was reading a post from a blog I follow (iChristian) where Steve Rebus asked what the phrase, “I am loved” means to us. Out of the provided list, I chose the first one:

“The whole of me my body, mind heart and soul, that is my strength, my thoughts my deepest longings and all my emotions are loved by God.”

others included:

• God knows me AND loves me (not God knows me but loves me)
• I am loved for who I am. Completely, Utterly, For Ever.
• Others may dislike me, but God loves me
• I may hate myself, but God continues to love me
• He loves me for what I am and what I will be.
• He loves me because he understands me.

The first one stood out for me because I remember being so angry with God for not answering my prayers in the way I wanted Him to, for not being the God I wanted Him to be. My anger propelled me into a space of absolute honesty and kicked open the door for true intimacy with God. I came to a sudden realization that God could handle all of me, all of my emotions, all of my joy, all of my pain, all of my desires and disappointments, all of me. I’d determined I wanted to bless the Lord with ALL that was within me, as the psalmist says in chapter 103. Even when I was feeling empty, I felt God calling me to bring my emptiness to Him. Some days, all that was within me was anger, some days – just streams of endless tears. But the bible says, “all that is within me, bless His holy name.” So, I believed that even my honest anger would bless the Lord, that even my endless tears would glorify His name because that was all that was within me. That was all that I had!

God does an amazing thing when we allow Him to have ALL of us, when we choose to bring ALL of ourselves to Him to bless His holy name. He meets us there, there in the brokenness, there in the pain, there in the anger. God can handle all of you, and He wants you to bring your all to Him so that ALL that is within you can bless His holy name.

“Keep your wants, your joys, your sorrows, your cares, and your fears before God. . . There is no chapter in our experience too dark for Him to read; there is no perplexity too difficult for Him to unravel. No calamity can befall the least of His children, no anxiety harass the soul, no joy cheer, no sincere prayer escape the lips, of which our heavenly Father is unobservant, or in which He takes no immediate interest.”

 ~E.G.W., Steps to Christ, p. 100

Greater Works

“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.” John 14:12

By the time I got situated with the twins on my lap in a congregation that was standing room only, I heard the ending of the church administrator’s address: “…and remember, Jesus didn’t need Twitter or Facebook to spread the gospel…” O_O

WHAT was this man talking about, and why? Apparently, I’d missed his directives to turn our cell phones off out of reverence. I proceeded to tweet updates to both Twitter and Facebook, sharing the word as impressed. At the end of the service, his snippet made more sense as he instructed the congregants to turn their cell phones back on.

“Ohhh,” I exclaimed, “that’s what he was talking about when I first sat down.” I shook my head, and shook my head, and shook my head some more. Yeah, Jesus didn’t have a Twitter or Facebook account, but aren’t we supposed to be doing GREATER WORKS? Why are we comparing ourselves to the technological limitations of old, when we have more opportunities, and thus, should be doing MORE?  My mind definitely simplified his theory. After all, if Jesus didn’t have the internet, we shouldn’t be streaming sermons live, either, right? O_O

All jokes aside, I just think it’s supremely important for us to keep in mind how it’s possible for us to do greater works and the reason we’re to do so in the first place. I really can’t imagine doing things more powerful than Christ did when He walked the earth, but I know there’s more time, more people, more suffering; thus, we have greater opportunities. The reason we can do these greater works is the same reason Christ did, they weren’t His Works, they were the Father’s works. The purpose was for the Father’s glory and that others would believe, as Jesus said in John 14:10 & 11, “…the Father who dwells in me does His works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.” He proceeds to say in the following verses (12 & 13), “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

The same sentiment is recorded in John 5:20, “For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all that He Himself is doing. And greater works than these will He show Him, so that you may marvel.” The Father loves us; He loves you. What’s best for you is that God be glorified, so out of His love for you, He will empower you to do greater works so that He can be glorified and others will believe. In verse 36, Jesus continues to remind us, “But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.”

The reasons and methods are clear. We will do greater works for His glory and our good, and we will be able to do them because they are not our works to do, but the works of our Father who loves us.