You say to me,Lord, "My grace is sufficient for you,for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses,so that Your power may rest on me."
(2 Corinthians 12:9)

Sunday, November 21, 2010

"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!



Tuesday, October 5, 2010

To hear Him Say"This one's mine"

Proverbs 3:11-12 "My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline and do not resent his rebuke, 12 because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in."  
Hebrews 12:4-7 " In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son." 7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?"
 
Sometimes it is hard for me to understand why the Lord would want anything to do with me! I am so stubborn, controlling and selfish and takes me awhile to get what He is trying to tell me and sometimes a few smack downs for me to obey! How frustrating I must be! : ) While I don't fully understand it, I am so unbelievably thankful for it. I stand in awe at the little understanding that I do have of His love. The older I get and the more I grow as a Momma, my understanding of how deeply the Lord loves me grows. He uses the situations and circumstances that I have with my own children as a reminder and a picture to me of His love for His children. Especially in the area of discipline.
Last week was a great example and showed me such a picture of God's Love and Grace!Out of me having to discipline my daughter Hannah came an opportunity of me being able to share the plan of salvation with her! In which she excepted the Lord! What a truly AWESOME and exciting time for me as a Momma! And also a time of reinforcement to me that He wants me to be at home!
This week continues to be an especially hard one. I have had numerous situations that the Lord has showed me that I HAVE to address, and it has required some major action(even obedience on my part) and also A LOT of prayer. The Lord placed a realization on my heart sometime ago that if I truly deeply love Hannah that I will  not only want her to obey me outwardly but also want obedience to start in her heart, because that is truly what's best for her. As I have continually prayed  for guidance, sought some other godly parental advice, and in His word, the Lord as affirmed in my heart that this is the direction He wants me to go in the area of disciplining my children. It begins in the heart! The bible talks repeatedly about the heart " our heart is desperately wicked,(Jer.17:9) out of our mouth the heart speaks(Matt. 12:34), if a man looks and lusts after s woman in his heart he has committed adultery.(Matt. 5:28)"  It talks about our heart needing to be cleaned,pure(Matt. 5:8),molded and changed. Alot good and bad begins in our hearts, So I think our hearts are of huge importance to God. It is our jobs as godly parents to shepherd our childrens hearts and seek the Lord in how to do this. This lesson has been just as hard on me as it has been for my little Hannah.

Yesterday, for the first time(well the first time I was paying attention lol) I got a tiny glimpse and a little better understanding of what it is like when the Lord has to discipline His own children and why He does it. It's easy to sit there and say "yes I know why" it's quite another to actually KNOW why. I finally got what I knew in my head to travel downward to my heart!! And the Holy Spirit kept reminding me of the scripture in Proverbs and Hebrews the whole time I was going through the situation with my daughter. "He disciplines me because He loves me, I discipline her because I love her." The pain of being disciplined and the pain of the disciplining. I have experienced both, by my earthly parents when I was a child and by my Heavenly Father now. I know that there will be more to come because I am hard headed and a bit of a control freak and unfortunately so is my Hannah. But I just love the picture that the Lord placed in my heart of this mother daughter relationship and of our Heavenly Father and daughter relationship! That is supposed to be how we as parents view it He created it this way. I just pray that I will not so quickly forget, and the Lord will keep my heart tender to His reminders and continue to deepen my love and understanding in both my relationship with my daughter and my relationship with Him.



Take this world from me
I don't need it anymore
I am finally free
My heart is spoken for

Oh and I praise you
Oh and I worship you...


Covered by your love divine
Child of the risen Lord
To hear you say "This one's mine"
My heart is spoken for

Now I have a peace
I've never known before
I find myself complete
My heart is spoken for


By the power of the cross
You've taken what was lost
And made it fully yours
And I have been redeemed
By you that spoke to me
Now my heart spoken for