Where does my help come from?

Psalm 121 - I look up to the mountains does my help come from there? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth! He will not let you stumble; the one who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed, he who watches over Israel never slumbers or sleeps. The Lord himself watches over you! The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade. The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon at night. The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life. The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever.

Well it’s been a while since I have written anything. I have been so busy with everything going on I haven’t had time to do anything but work, sleep and school work, but today I feel I need to write to just help myself get through this rough time. I have been working overnight for a little over a year now and things at work are great with a promotion looking promising within the next year. I must give thanks to God for all of the blessings He has brought me and the amazing favor that He brings my way. I love how God brings blessing to us even when we don’t deserve it! I should finish school sometime next year and finally complete my goal that I have been working on for almost 10 years. With all of that there are days like to day that I just feel defeated. I have so much on my plate everyday that anything out of the norm at times just overwhelms me…today being one of those days. I took some time off at the end of October which made getting adjusted to working overnight again very difficult. Usually by today after having a few days off I am well rested and ready to start a new week. I go back to work tomorrow and I feel like I haven’t slept all weekend, which doesn’t make me much help around the house. I am very thankful for a supportive husband who picks up the slack in the many areas that I am lacking. I could have never accomplished all that I have if it wasn’t for him (and of course giving all glory to God for His blessing!). 

With the struggles that today has brought with my daily routines being out of whack and struggles with raising a teenage daughter I feel like such a failure as a wife and a mother, but in all of this God is so faithful. As I sent my daughter to her room after a repeat of the same argument we have had almost daily this week and being really frustrated God reminded me of Psalm 121. The words “Where does my help come from?” whispered in my ear. I quickly responded “From You Lord!” The Lord is watching over me, protecting me and keeping me from harm! WOW God you are so faithful! No matter the circumstances you are always there. You never sleep, you never forget, you never turn your back on me! Although I may feel inadequate at times, you remind me that you will not allow me to stumble! All I need to do is turn to You Lord and You will rescue me in my time of trouble! My help truly comes from the Lord!

Although I may still have struggles and my problems aren’t magically whisked away, I know that if I take my cares to Him, He will take care of me and ALL OF MY NEEDS! I just need to turn to Him…cast ALL my cares on Him and allow Him to move. There has been so many times that I have tried to move the hand of God to “help” Him accomplish His will in my life but I have learned that this only makes things worse. I need to trust in God’s timing and allow Him to work things out for my good. (And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. Romans 8:28) No matter the struggles that I face, the things I worry about that I cannot change, God has a plan to work things out in my favor because I love God! Isn’t that amazing? Just because I love God, He causes things to work out in my favor! So I stand on His promises, speaking His words back to Him because He promises that His Word will never return void! (So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:11) So even today as my faith isn’t as strong as it should be….I speak His Word to strenghthen my faith and put His Word into action! 

Thank you Lord because my help comes from You! 

Fearless

Psalm 27:1-6 The Lord is my light and my salvation so why should I be afraid? The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble? When evil people come to devour me, when my enemies and foes attack me, they will stumble and fall. Though a mighty army surrounds me, my heart will not be afraid. Even if I am attacked, I will remain confident. The one thing I ask of the Lord the thing I seek most is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in his Temple. For he will conceal me there when troubles come; he will hide me in his sanctuary. He will place me out of reach on a high rock. Then I will hold my head high above my enemies who surround me. At His sanctuary I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy, singing and praising the Lord with music.

 

My oldest son is about to turn 18. As we have been discussing his life plans and trying to help him with his decisions to go to college or straight into the workforce he decided he wanted to join the U.S. Marines and follow in the footsteps of my husband and my father-in-law. I have to admit at first, this worried me. I began to think about the Iraq war and the possibilities of him being shipped off to Iraq, but instead of trying to talk my son out of it I began to seek God for direction. God was quick to answer and give me peace and some insight into my son’s calling. The Holy Spirit is so faithful to bring complete peace into my spirit. I no longer had a fear for my son’s safety.

Over the next several months as my son began to share his decision with people it began to stir fear within certain people including some of our family members. I attempted to share my peace with them but with no avail. I soon decided that I could not bring peace into people’s lives but only the Holy Spirit is capable of this. I began just pray that God would speak to those that are not in agreement.

As Psalms 27 says, the Lord is my light and my salvation, so why sould I be afraid? The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?

People say we should stand on God’s word and believe He is our everything. Our refuge, our fortress, our provider, our healer. Does that just count when things are going smooth? NO, God is the one who directs our lives and sometimes He asks us to do things that aren’t popular. Does that mean we listen to those around us or should we listen to the voice of God? I’m sure that there were many missionaries who’s friends and families tried to talk them out of going to other countries to preach the gospel. Daily I stand on the promises of the One who holds my son’s future in His hands!

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind (Greek: Making to understand the purpose) 2 Timothy 1:7

These words ring so true to me! Notice that one of the opposite of fear is power? Have you ever noticed how fear cripples you and makes you powerless? God is the God of power and in Him we have perfect peace, the power to overcome and the greatest thing of all love!! Fear is from the enemy and not of God!!!

Thank you Lord for Your perfect peace and Your perfect will in the lives of all of us!

 

Striving to be more

Philippians 1:10 For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return.

What really matters? In all that we read in God’s word…what does it all refer back to? I believe that what really matters is that we reach as many souls as we possibly can for God. So if we understand what really matters how does that change our lives? I believe if everyone REALLY understood what really matters it would change our lives! Would it matter the way people treated us? Would it matter that we didn’t have as many friends as we wished we did? Would it matter that we didn’t get that promotion or if we were successful according to others standards? NO! None of those things would matter. Not to say that we don’t have feelings and that we shouldn’t desire those things but that shouldn’t be our purpose in life. If you desire to be successful in certain areas it should be to bring glory to God and have the ability to speak to people who others may not be able to.

As Paul writes in many of his books, his purpose was and is to encourage the body of Christ to be more like God…to love more…to serve more…to be a better witness. When we change our outlook and change our focus on what’s important God will begin to bring those things into your life that you desire or our desires will change to align with Gods. Either way, God will bring peace, fulfillment and happiness into our lives no matter what the circumstances are.

As the body of Christ, what really matters? That we love more, serve more, and do the best we can every day to follow in the footsteps of the One who died for us. Let’s stop telling people what to do and start showing them how to live. As the old saying goes and is SO true…YOUR ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS!

Let’s show the world what really matters!

Motherhood – Remembering the Reward

The righteous person behaves in integrity – blessed are his children after him. Proverbs 20:7

I often times struggle with the choices my children make…not understanding where I went wrong. Did I miss the chance to disciple them in the right way? Was I too hard or not hard enough? So many times I struggle in parenting although my husband and I are very united in our parenting I worry about my children’s walk with God into adulthood. I think now that my oldest is so close to being 18 it has really brought those concerns to the forefront. I am sure I am not the only mother who struggles in this area…but it is a scary thought at times to even think about my child making his own decisions in life when I watch him make such wrong choices now.

Then I began to stand on God’s word instead of worrying about my children. God says if we are righteous than He will bless our children!! That is an awesome concept! If we listen to God’s instruction to raise our children according to His Word our children will be blessed! So my husband and I have decided…no longer will we continue to parent the way we were. We are doing things a little different and allowing God to work in his life. We are united together in righteousness and integrity…living the example and learning to discipline along the way. There are still rules he must follow and consequences when he breaks the rules but I stand on this scripture…that our righteousness and integrity will bring blessing on his life. I don’t need to worry about him because God is in control and He will guide my children and bring wisdom to them as we continue to pray blessing and wisdom over them!!

I hope this helps other mothers as it has helped me and brought great peace into my life… Thank you Lord for your wisdom through your word and the peace of the Holy Spirit.

God Uses Martha Too

I was reminded today that God uses us even in the mode of “Martha”.

I was praying today…”God help me to make time to spend more time with you! You know my heart. You know I love you and my life is yours but since I started working again I feel the constant struggle to find time to bask in your presence. Please show me how!”

During my break time at work today, I just happen to walk along side one of my employees and we began to talk about the things of God during our break. God lead our conversation into something that she was struggling with and I was able to share a portion of my testimony to help strengthen her faith! It was amazing! It was so encouraging to me as I was able to encourage her!

I am amazed at how awesome God is that He knows my heart and my passion and continues to use me in some really cool ways even when I feel like I am not doing all that I should in my relationship with God! I have not walked away from God I just don’t feel like I spend enough intimate time with Him. It is a constant struggle to make the time to stop talking and begin to listen….but even through it all, God amazes me time and time again by bringing people to me that need encouragement.

Thank you Lord for the grace you show me and using me everyday to be a light unto the world!

Recognizing the “real enemy”

I ran into a dear friend in the parking lot of the grocery store (don’t think I ever go there without running into someone I know), and we were just discussing our faith and encouraging one another when we began to discuss offenses. It really made me think about my faith and my walk with God. Why is it that we are so easily offended these days? As a Christian, God instructed us in His word to weep with those who are weeping and to turn the other cheek so I just don’t understand how there are times in my life that things offend me. Then as I was reading through my daily devotions I came across this scripture.

The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds– 2 Corinthians 10:4

Our true enemy is not people we have conflict with…it is the enemy that plants the seed of offense. My friend and I were briefly discussing the Bait of Satan by John Bevere which is a great book that helps people deal with offense (I recommend it to all!!). There are so many times that we allow Satan to trap us in the bait of offense. Today we live in a “have it now” society and we have the mentality that because of what we’ve accomplished or who we are that people should treat us a certain way, but Jesus said we will suffer for his namesake…We should be so thankful for what Jesus has done for us!

I try to remember everyday that I may be the only “light” some people see and although I am not perfect, I try my best everyday to be who He has called me to be, a woman forgiven by His grace. As He has forgiven me so that I may show grace to those around me. I pray that God perfects my spirit a little more everyday so that I may become more and more like my Savior, but until then I will continue to seek Him for mercy and grace so that I can do the same for others. God has called us to LOVE!! Let’s remember to show the love of Christ to all those around us, especially in the most difficult times of our lives!!

Being Who God Made You

I have brought You glory on Earth by completing the work You gave me to do. John 17:4

I have to admit there are many times that I look at others strengths and accomplishments and desire to follow after their ideas or to be more like them but when I do I can never measure up or never seem to accomplish the end result…why? Because God didn’t give me that job! Too many times I find myself wrapped up in something that God never intended for me.

Due to our fast-paced world we replace God’s will with church work or other busy work instead of truly listening to God’s voice. It may be a good cause. It may have a good purpose, but is it God’s will? What is God’s will? What is our true passion? Sometimes we have to say no, not only to other people but to ourselves and what we allow ourselves to get wrapped up in.

As I begin the process of transforming Martha, I have to remember that I am not Mary. God did not create me to be Mary but I can’t allow my busyness to distract me from the TRUE calling of God on my life and making the time to still sit at His feet and listen to His voice.

At the end of everyday, I pray that I will be able to say “I have brought glory to You God by completing the work You gave me to do!

Transferred all posts…

Hello all my friends! I have transferred all my posts here. The format is just SO much better!!

 

Love you all!!!

Terree