Keep Moving Forward!

"I don’t depend on my own strength to accomplish this; however I do have one compelling focus: I forget all of the past as I fasten my heart to the future instead."

Philippians 3:13 

I had an image come to my mind the other day, maybe it was because I do tend to be clumsy!  What God dropped in my heart was this:

When you trip.....you don't fall backwards. Most of the time, you will fall forwards. 

Do you fall? Yes! 

Can it hurt? Yes! 

Will it leave a mark? Sometimes, Yes it can! 

Can it make you stop for a moment? Yes! 

Do you go backwards? No! 

This applies to our spiritual life so much.  The past happens, causing memories we wish to forget! No matter how hard we try though, they will creep up on us. They will trip us up! But when we trip, we don't have to go backwards. We can stay still, fixed in God’s presence. Seek God and allow Him to push you forward. There is never a need to go backwards. God will only push you forward!

Only God's Outcome

“Only  God’s  Outcome”

“Make God the utmost delight and pleasure of your life, and He will provide for you what you desire the most. Give God the right to direct your life, and as you trust Him along the way you’ll find He pulled it off perfectly!”

Psalms 37:4-5

About a month ago I was decorating cookies for a worship night. I had 5 dozen cookies to decorate. I was frosting and sprinkling away.  In the process of carrying the spoon with red sprinkles over top of the white sprinkle container, my hand slipped! To my dismay, all the red sprinkles on the spoon spilled right into the middle of the white sprinkles! What a mess! What a waste! 

I tried my hardest to get all of the red out of it. I scooped and scooped, but with each scoop, it just filtered more into the white. I was mad at myself! I had taken a short cut and ended up with a big mess! Even a week later I was still filtering out the red sprinkles! 

As I looked at the tub of sprinkles with the red sprinkles mixed in, I felt a lesson being dropped into my heart:

When we try to do things in our timing, we hurry the process. That is when the mishaps and mistakes happen. Our hands grow weary and shaky. Messes get made! We try to clean it up, but to no avail! The mess still remains, we can't get it all out....on our own.

We are a hurry society. When we want something, we usually want it sooner than later. We tend to take short cuts to get things done. The worst part though is that we get into a hurry and we forget all about what God’s plans might be! Is it even in His plans? What does His timing look like? 

We try to do things in our own timing. We grow distracted, we grow tired and before we know it, our hand isn’t as steady. We spill things and we make a mess! That is when we try to hurry the process of getting the mess cleaned up and only make it worse! The only one with a steady enough hand to carry the spoon is God!  

Only God has the ability to clean up every speck of the mess we have made. We’ve made the mess trying to make our own way, in our own timing. In the process of us hurrying, we have actually delayed God’s timing and plans! Because now He has to take the time to go back and clean up the mess that we made! And who knows how long it will take to get the last speck of red sprinkles out of that tub!  

Ladies, let God’s will and plans be fulfilled. Let’s not delay His plans and timing any longer. It’s time to give God control. Believe me, I know it’s hard! There will be uncertainty, there will be heartbreak and questioning.  We all hold our desires, dreams and plans so close to our hearts. When we don’t seem them being fulfilled, it is so easy to take control of them to try and see them fulfilled in our own strength. The biggest fear I think we all have is that the plans & desires that we have been holding onto might not actually be what His plans and desires actually are for us. 

But none the less, His plans and desires are better than ours! So don’t hold back. Give Him the spoon. Better yet, let Him use His own! It’s a whole lot more powerful. Let’s get a front row seat to what God has for us! Until the last speck of “red sugar” is removed, let’s resolve to press in, to dig deeper, to desire more of Him!

Relax in His presence more! Listen to His voice more! Seek Him in the stillness and quiet more. Don’t hurry and you will see His plans being fulfilled in His timing! We don't know what the outcome will be or what it will look like. But what we do know, is that it will be beautiful, because it will be His outcome!

Music For You:

*I Give You My Heart by Hillsong

Power-less

“Power-less”

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,”

Ephesians 3:16 NIV

I had been fighting a head cold. My head had been clogged and when that happens, my brain doesn’t seem to function well at all! When I finally got in bed that night, I grabbed my charger cord, plugged my phone in and went to bed! I got up the next morning, unplugged my phone and went about my morning routine. As I sat down to drink my coffee, my phone’s low battery screen came on, only 10% was remaining. I thought to myself “what in the heck, I plugged it in, it had charged all night!”

So I went back to my room to get the charger for my phone. When I went back there, my usb charger cord was just laying on the floor, the power adapter plug was no where to be found. How in the world! I plugged my phone in and did not even notice that the USB cord wasn’t even attached to the adapter! What was even worse was the adapter was completely gone. I didn’t even notice it! I had not been very observant at all! My lack of observance had left my phone dead & me on a search for the power adapter.

I finally found the adapter, and as I was holding the USB cord and the adapter in my hand, God dropped this into my heart “a power cord without any power, is powerless.” How true is that! I had my phone, I had the USB cord. They are both very important items. They were plugged into each other, but I had become so mindless and busy that I didn’t realize the most crucial item was missing. Without those items being plugged into the adapter, the USB & the phone are worthless, powerless. 

A lot of us live our lives exhausted. We tend to go, go, go until our “batteries” are almost dead! Daily, we go from task to task. Routines take over and we become busy. We think that we are still being charged. But what we don’t notice is that we aren’t plugged into our power source anymore. Somewhere amidst our busyness, we unplugged from God, our power adapter. 

The cord and the phone are still in our hands, so we think that we’re good. But, without being plugged into the power source, eventually our batteries will run out. It isn’t until our “batteries” begin flashing & the warning screen comes up that God can get our attention. What are some of those  warning signs? Lack of the fruit of the spirit in our lives! Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Those are the first to go when my power is being depleted! The lose of those tend to immediately send us on a search for The Power Adapter, the reason why we aren’t charging. God!

I dont know about you, but there are alot of times that I see the “Low Battery 20% Remaining” or even the “Low Battery 10% Remaining” screen on my phone. Sometimes it’s not until night time, but sometimes only a couple hours have gone by! Ladies, this doesn’t apply only to my phone battery though! God is my power source, my power adapter. When my battery is running low, I need God to recharge me! How does he recharge? There are so many ways! Going to Him in prayer, spending time worshipping Him, reading His word and just listening for His voice.

I am thankful for the warnings that our phone gives us!  But I’m even more thankful for the signs that God gives us when we aren’t connected to Him.  From now on, when I see that warning pop up on my phone, I am going to use it as a reminder to check the connection between God & I! 

Are you plugged into The Power Adapter, God? Is it time to do a check-up to make sure that you are connected to The Power Source, God? Don’t let yourself be left powerless! We need to make sure we are plugging ourselves into God’s Power Adaptor daily so that we aren’t left with our batteries depleted!

Music For You:

*Mighty is the Power of the Cross by Chris Tomlin

Mess Ups & Mistakes

“Mess Ups & Mistakes”

“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Hebrews 4:16 NIV

We had a hilarious thing happen in our house the other day. It sent my daughter, Sarah and I into hysterical laughing.  My son, Bryce was sitting on the couch doing his school work.  All of a sudden his cell phone starts ringing. He proceeds to answer it. It was a local number, he never gets any phone calls so he assumed that it was a telemarketer.

Being the goofy & pranking kid he is, he answered the call by saying, “how dare you interrupt me when I'm doing school". I heard a male voice kinda confused on the other end.  Then, Bryce proceeds to hang up, quickly!

Me, being momma and being curious to who it might have been decided to Google the phone number. It was Pioneer Career and Technology Center. The school Bryce is enrolling into in the Fall. Oh My Goodness! Sometimes I don’t know what I’m going to do with that kid!!!!

The look on Bryce’s face was priceless. When he realized that it was not a telemarketer, but instead it was a man he was going to have to speak to daily for the next 2 years! He was mortified to say the least.  Then the number called back again. At that point Bryce was just frozen and didn’t answer the call.

Now he had some cleaning up to do. He was so embarrassed and He begged me to clean up this mess he created. He did not want to have to call this man back and talk to him.  I knew that there was a valuable life lesson here for him to learn. I can’t fix everything for Him, I can’t clean everything up for him when he makes messes. But I can be here to encourage him and give him advice on how to fix it.

So Bryce picked up his phone and called Pioneer, twice! The first time he called he spoke to the receptionist and she transferred Bryce to who she thought might have called him. But when the voice mail came on Bryce was too afraid to leave a message. So he hung up. Being the nice momma I am, I insisted that he call back. So reluctantly Bryce called back and went through the whole conversation again with the receptionist. He was transferred to the gentleman once again who called him and then finally Bryce left a message.

As parents sometimes we want to rush in and clean  up the mess for our kids. But sometimes, we need to sit back and let them figure it out. Does it mean that we ignore it? No! We stand by and root them on, encourage them, guide them and give them wisdom.

So what’s the life lesson? We will mess up. We are bound to make mistakes. We will do things that leave us embarrassed and frozen! We are human and that is our tendency. We will beg God to fix things for us!

God feels the same way that we feel as parents! He can fix everything for us. But sometimes God will not fix everything for us. Sometimes God wants us to learn the lesson in the middle of the mess. Like any loving parent, sometimes He wants us to learn from our mistakes.

We have to be willing to admit our goof ups and be willing to clean them up. We can’t be afraid to go to God! We can’t be afraid to talk to God about it! He already knows what we’ve done anyways! God is still there with us through it!

God will be with us as we clean up our mess ups. He will be there to encourage us. He will be there to guide us, advice us and to give us wisdom. We just have to listen. And we have to do it!

Music For You:

*Lord, I Need You by Chris Tomlin

Comforter

“Comforter”

The other night I was trying to sleep when all of a sudden I was just overcome with sadness. I couldn’t sleep, all I could do was just tell God I was sorry and ask for forgiveness. I had been so busy that week. There were so many noises going on inside of my head.

When I did have some quiet time, I didn’t choose to fill it with God. Instead I choose to fill it with mindless activities. And I could tell it in my spirit. There was just this unrest in me.

I had been busy and I chose to be busy. If I’m busy then its easier to not focus on what’s hurting me. I had a lot hurting me and I didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t want to deal with it.

That’s when I felt God whisper this to my heart. “Do you truly let Me comfort you?” To honestly answer that question, at that moment, I would have had to say no.

Do I go to God and talk to Him about what’s hurting me? Yes. Do I read scripture to encourage me and to help pull me through? Yes. But, do I just sit and let him wrap his arms around me & just love on me? No. By nature, I am a doer. I pray, I read scripture, I pursue God. But one thing I don’t do well is doing nothing.

That’s when I realized that there are times that we don’t have to be doing something. Sometimes in the middle of the hurt we just need to sit at His feet. And when we do that, it allows Him to comfort us.

When your child is hurting, I know as a momma I want to know what’s wrong! I want to hug and kiss them and tell them it will be okay and that we will get through it together. That comforts my child. Why would God, our Heavenly Father be any different.

“Whenever my busy thoughts were out of control, the soothing comfort of your presence calmed me down and overwhelmed me with delight.”

Psalms 94:19 TPT

The song “The More I Seek You” dropped in my mind as I was writing this devotion, specifically this part:

“I want to sit at your feet. Drink from the cup in your hand

Lay back against you and breathe, feel your heart beat. This love is so deep, its more than I can stand. I melt in your peace, its overwhelming”

These words made me realize that when I think of seeking, I think of it as us doing something to find what we’re looking for.

Then this hit me! When my kids have a hard day, they don’t want to have to come home and clean their room, or do dishes. Those are tasks that take them away from me. My daughter especially wants to be with me. She wants to cuddle on the couch and just be with me.

This made me stop and realize that the doing that God  sometimes desires the most is just us sitting at his feet & resting in His presence. Us laying back into God’s embrace and letting Him comfort us. When we truly let Him comfort us, we will find overwhelming peace. Overwhelming peace that takes away the hurt, the fear, the anxiety and all the questions.

“The Lord is my best friend and my shepherd. I always have more than enough. He offers a resting place for me in his luxurious love. His tracks take me to an oasis of peace, the quiet brook of bliss.” 

Psalms 23:1-2 TPT

One thing that I needed reminded of was that I needed to let God comfort me. And when I did, the tension, chaos & questions melted and were replaced with His perfect peace.

Music for Reflection: The More I Seek You by Kari Jobe

Just Keep Going!

“Just Keep Going”

“Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, 

I am he who will sustain you. 

I have made you and I will carry you; 

I will sustain you and I will rescue you.”

Isaiah 46:4 NIV

This past summer my dad took us to Michigan on vacation.  My only request was to go to Sleepy Bear Dunes. I had heard how breathtaking it was and how beautiful Lake Michigan was at that spot. 

We had finally arrived at the Dune Climb at Sleepy Bear Dunes!  We climbed over the first big dune and we thought that we would see the lake, boy were we all wrong!Everywhere we looked all we saw was more & more dunes. SAND EVERYWHERE! Some of the dunes were small, but most of them were MASSIVE.  We soon found out that it was a 3.5 mile round trip through deep sand and over steep dunes. As we journeyed, we were hot, tired, sweaty, and our muscles were screaming at us.  Part of us wanted to stop.

Thats when I sensed God whispering:  “If you don't keep going you'll never know what you're missing up ahead.  Why justlook from a distance when you can take the extra steps to be able to feel it and touch it and see it close-up.” A lot of people can see the view from far away but you have to have the endurance and the will to seek it out. It's the same thing in our spiritual walk. We encounter things that leave us exhausted, sweaty & hurting. But if we don't have the endurance to keep on going, one foot in front of the  other on our journey, we will miss what's ahead.

Along the way my daughter, Sarah, who has Type 1 Diabetes didn't think she could make it any farther. So my nephew Brandon, stopped, picked her up and carried her up the hills that she could no longer climb. He was hot, tired, & didn’t think he could make it either. But he picked her up and carried her off and on until we made it to the lake. That was an amazing visual of what Jesus does for us.  We are all on journeys in our life. Sometimes the journeys are long and hard. Sometimes we don't think we can go any further. We are at our weakest. But Jesus is right beside us, encouraging us and sometimes carrying us when we don't have the strength to make it any farther.

Once Sarah knew that she was being carried and didn't have to walk the rest of the way by  herself, she didn't have to rely on her own strength. Her whole countenance changed. How her spirits were lifted. She was no longer sad and weary & tired. She began smiling and realized she was going to be able to make it to the end. 

And oh what a magnificent view we saw at the end. To see the beauty of Lake Michigan, to feel the cool water. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss any of it.

Music For Reflection:

*Press On by Mandisa

Headphones

Headphones

“Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track.”

Proverbs 3:5 MSG

Headphones have been a pet peeve of mine lately. Nothing can annoy me more  than when I think I am having a conversation with someone, only to find out they had headphones on the whole time! Then I have to get their attention and start the conversation all over again. Or, i end up not even having the conversation at all. That drives me nuts. 

Or, you are having a conversation with someone and you are making all these plans. Then the other person around you decides to take off the headphones and then they start asking all these questions about what is going on. Only because they couldn’t hear you when you were making the plans. That drives me crazy! 

My son has gotten to the point now that he will listen to his music with one ear bud in and one ear bud out.  That way he can still hear me & still hear his music. But I wonder how that really works out. Your only half listening to the music and half listening to the things going on around you. Neither is getting your full attention. 

When my family is talking to me they want my undivided attention. They not only want me to hear them. But they want me looking at them when they talk and they want me responding to them when they speak.

This made me stop and think. When I talk to God I want to know He’s listening to me. I want Him to respond when I talk to Him. 

Does God feel the same way when He’s trying to talk to us? Does it drive Him nuts when we totally miss the conversation? Does it drive Him crazy when we ask all kinds of questions because we missed out of what He had to tell us? Is He yelling, “Would you just take the headphones off all ready?”

We can all tend to not hear God’s voice. At one point or another we can find ourselves in one of these categories. 

1. Are we the one with ear buds in and totally missing out on the conversation?  
2. Are we the one late to the conversation trying to figure out what we missed while we had our ear buds in?  
3. Are we the one only listening half because we still have an ear bud in one ear? 

All of these situations cause confusion to us. They leave us wondering what we might have missed out on. They leave us questioning plans & what we might have really heard or not heard. Or we miss out on the conversation that we could have been a part of. 

What are we missing out on hearing from God? What exciting plans and dreams, what blessings are we missing out on? God desperately wants us to hear Him. He wants us listening. He doesn’t want to have to repeat Himself. He doesn’t want us questioning and trying to figure out what He wants. And He does not want us to only listen half way either, but completely. He wants & deserves our undivided attention. 

It’s time we take off the “headphones”. It’s time to put aside all the distractions. Its time to turn off the other noises. A dear friend of mine told me recently, “Dig deep. Whether you've had a great day so far or not, God has more. Keep digging!” 

Ladies, don’t let a bad day cause you to put headphones on. Don’t use them to block out & escape the world. Let the bad days & the good days cause you to dig deeper to hear God’s voice. Keep digging till you hear it. Because God has more for you to hear! 

Scars

I was having a conversation with somebody close to me. They asked me if I ever had times that my faith wavered. I responded that there are times that I grow discouraged and weary. But in those times I have to believe that God’s plans and timing are better than mine.

Then they began talking about how they have repeatedly cried out to God about past wounds. They have prayed for so long and they still remain. Sometimes it makes them wonder if there is a God looking out for us.

Your past is a part of you, it forms who you are. For good or for bad. God can’t completely take away your past. Where there is a deep wound, scars will always remain (at least here on earth). But He will allow you to use your scars to reach others. Scars can remind you where you have been.

I have a scar on my knee. It’s a pretty nasty scar from my childhood. I had cut myself running in the yard with my cousins. My cousins and I had a bright idea to fix it ourselves. I had seen my sister get stitches and I wanted no part of it! So, we snuck inside to the bathroom and tried to fix it ourselves. By the time my mom found us, it was too late to get stitches. The cut ended up healing. But since the wound was pretty deep, it left a pretty good size scar. Every time I look at it, I remember what happened. But one thing about the scar is that it no longer hurts. There is no pain there, only memories.

It’s that way with our past scars. God will heal you and the pain from the wound will go away. But sometimes the scar remains. They remain not to cause you more pain, distress and distrust. They remain so that you can see them and remember what God has brought you through. You can see your scars and remember the pain. Or, you can see the scars and remember the healing.

It all takes time, when you are wounded there is a healing process. Don’t allow your faith to waiver in the moments of discouragement & weariness. Don’t allow the pain to make you lose your faith. Allow the pain to let you seek God. Let Him heal you. Choose to see the healing! Choose to remember the good that has come from the scars!

Don’t get caught up by the scars that remain. Allow them to remind you of where you have been and who you might be able to help now. Don’t allow your scars to paralyze you. Your scars can be the very thing that reaches the next person for Jesus.

“The Lord is close to all whose hearts are crushed by pain, and he is always ready to restore the repentant one. Even when bad things happen to the good and godly ones, the Lord will save them and not let them be defeated by what they face.”

Psalm 34:18-19 TPT

Celebrate!

"Celebrate"

We were all gathered in the family room one evening watching a football game. It came to a play that resulted in a touchdown for our team. I was wondering why Jason and Bryce weren’t more excited. That’s when I realized that the referees were reviewing the play. My husband and son were discussing and deliberating the touchdown. They were wondering if the touchdown would be upheld or not. I was just kinda shocked and I said “geez guys, it’s not your job to question it, it’s your job to celebrate it.”

I paused in that moment. Wow, what depth that statement had. We go through life questioning everything. Even when good things are happening!

Good things happen and instead of taking time to celebrate in that moment. We delay the celebration. We look at what might be wrong. We dissect things apart to make sure that it is for real and won’t let you down. Then once we feel that nothing will go wrong, that’s when we finally celebrate. Why do we do that? Why aren’t we CELEBRATING good things right when they happen? 

Well, one reason is because we are skeptical. We are skeptical because of things that have been done in the past. We are skeptical of other people. We are skeptical of other people’s actions. 

In other football games that my husband and son had watched, touchdowns had been reversed, taken away. For some teams, they had celebrated early only to have the points taken away. What a let down!

But I have good news! Life isn’t a football game. When something happens that we should celebrate, our referee, God, is not going to stop everything & replay past mistakes or review what you have done to make sure it’s worthy of a celebration. God is not going to let us down. So celebrate when it matters.

I can honestly tell you, I don’t remember who the teams were that played that night. I don’t even remember why the touchdown was being reviewed. The one thing I did remember was the most important thing! The reason they should have been celebrating in the first place, the touchdown! 

“Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?
There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands.”
Isaiah 43:19 MSG

Don’t wait to celebrate! God is doing things in our lives. God is doing things in our churches. God is doing things in our homes. God is doing things everywhere. Even this very moment!! Are you watching? Are you listening? Look for it! Then celebrate it. 

Don’t live your life in replay, reviewing everything that might be wrong or could go wrong. Celebrate! God is doing something new! That makes me so excited! Don’t miss out on it by watching replays and dissecting it to make sure it’s for real! Don’t miss out on what God is doing in your life and around you. Celebrate it, don’t question it. Need a reason to celebrate, look no further!

“The Lord your God wins victory after victory and is always with you. He celebrates and sings because of you, and he will refresh your life with his love.”
‭‭Zephaniah‬ ‭3:17‬ ‭CEV

Restoration and Awakening

“Restoration and Awakening”

That’s where he restores and revives my life. He opens before me pathways to God’s pleasure and leads me along in his footsteps of righteousness so that I can bring honor to his name.

Psalm 23:3 TPT

I also love this version:

True to your word, you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction.

Psalm 23:1 MSG

I cant believe 2018 is almost here! Every year as I begin a new year, I try to keep my ears & eyes open to what word or words God might have for me. As I go into 2018 it seems like God has really been impressing on me 2 words, restoration and awakening.

I was wondering how these 2 fit together for me. That was when I came across this quote from Passion Translation:

“PROPHETIC WORD: I will restore your mind and your heart as you come before Me. Crooked things will be made straight within you. For everything I do for you I do inside your heart, healing your spirit and soothing your soul. Come and find My heart and I will restore your heart.

Greater passions will rise within you to feast upon My Word and drink of My Spirit. The hunger I give you will bring you deeper into My grace and My love for you. -Brian Simmons”

Thats how it fits for me. But I also felt God impress upon me this. When God restores, when He brings us back, when He reinstates us, when He abolishes all that is wrong, that is when we can finally awaken. He can revive us and we can rise up to be who He created us to be.

We can not be awakened unless we are restored first. I think of it as an antique piece of furniture. Antique furniture has so much character and they were so beautifully and ornately made. But lots of times because of how old they are they can look worn, they can be missing pieces and/or they can have scratches and dents. They need to be restored to their original beauty.

Any of you that have restored furniture or watched furniture being restored know it’s not an easy job. It takes time and dedication. Their are steps to follow. You have to strip off the old finish, sand down the imperfections and then once that’s all done, you can begin to stain or paint it. But when you stand back and look at your completed masterpiece it is worth the process. It has finally once again become a beautiful antique piece of furniture. It has been awakened & revived to its full potential and beauty.

The owner of the antique table could have left it alone. He didn’t have to take the time to restore it. The item was still serving its purpose. It was still furniture, just a little beat up, a little scarred up! But it hadn’t been living up to its full purpose. It had so much more potential than to just serve its purpose. It had the potential to be beautiful, to shine, to be flawless.

We can be held back so much by our own scars and flaws. And don’t we all have them! Don’t just serve your purpose. Let God revive you & awaken you as we go into 2018.

I want to end this a different way. Ladies, I want to challenge you. I challenge you to take quiet time with God in the next couple days. What words might He have for you in 2018. I would love to hear what your words might be!