"So often our passion's come from our pain."

How true this is.......
I had the wonderful blessing of attending a Beth Moore conference with one of my girlfriends. We had such a relaxing time(we went a day early) of fellowship and bible study. We also had a few awesome surprises! We had the wonderful blessing of meeting Beth on two occasions and going back stage! She was very kind and handles her "fame" with such grace and love. I know it has got to be tiring to hear " I wrote you a letter and haven't heard anything"(over heard a conversations she had with other ladies) or someone wanting to tell her what is going on in their lives, in detail, but she was sweet in her responses.

The conference itself was even more of a blessing. It is continually amazing to me how Scripture and the Holy Spirit works, and how the Lord can speak through someone like Beth but it feels like she knows exactly what current events it applies to in your life. But it's impossible for her to know over 3,500 woman's life in detail. So you know that it's the Power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit at work. It's so incredible to see and experience the Spirit working in my own personal life but also in 3,500 people!

She spoke out of John 16: 12-24 on Anguish and Joy She had 8 points
1.) With God, there is an odd tie between anguish and Joy.
2.) With God, anguish and joy can coexist.
3.) With God, anguish and joy can trade places.
4.) With God, anguish can morph into joy.
5.) With man, anguish can be like the mind in labor.
6.) With God, anguish is ment to lead to a birth.
7.) With prayer, our pending joy won't just be big, it will be COMPLETE!

8.) With Jesus, ALL anguish will turn to joy in a little while.

There was SOOOO much in between it would take me forever to type it! But I think some of the things she said that spoke to me the most were; how if we let our anguish in turn into anger, even though it might be justified because someone has caused our anguish, if left alone and not dealt with you just camp out on your anger. Then it becomes sin and we become stuck in our pit just where satan wants us. But if dealt with , with the Lord's help He can take that anguish and bring us great joy! And can even turn into a ministry to glorify Himself! It was just what my heart needed to hear. So many of us have painful pasts. Weather because it was self inflicted or it was brought on by someone else hurting you or both. Either way it's painful and hard to get victory over. For some of us the enemy uses our pasts to keep us beat down and to torment us, to keep us so focused on our pain that our focus is off of God. Guilt is such a powerful tool for the enemy. It was so encouraging how she said that she is living breathing proof that,  victory can be accomplished only with the Lord's help and through our pain can come our passion in a ministry to glorify Him! What a blessing! My prayer for my own life is that the Lord can bring me out of the bondage in my life and make the enemy sorry he ever messed with me. What great hope there is for us when we make a mess of our lives! God truly is SO good!