God of grace, I stand in wonder. You have left me dumbfounded by your amazing glory. Who knew zeal and my love for You could come back in such a way as it did. You used the one thing that I thought would lead me away from You, to fall back in love with You.
With that Lord, I praise You!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Friday, January 09, 2009
Wait for the Lord
"Wait for the LORD,
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD"
-Psalm 27:14
"Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when men succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes."
-Psalm 37:7
"Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you;
he rises to show you compassion.
For the LORD is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!"
-Isaiah 30:18
"I heard and my heart pounded,
my lips quivered at the sound;
decay crept into my bones,
and my legs trembled.
Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity
to come on the nation invading us."
"yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Savior."
-Habakkuk 3:16,18
As christians, how often in our lives do we not wait patiently? How often do we just rush into things, because we just want to get things over with or because we want it now. Yet God calls us to wait patiently. He says, blessed are those of us who wait patiently on Him.
It's so funny yet so pathetic how we think by doing what we want to do now is what will bring us happiness, when I have found it's when one waits, then they will find truth and genuine joy. Waiting can be very hard, believe me, I know. I wonder if I will ever meet the guy I want to spend the rest of my life with, I wonder if I ever made an impact in some of my friend's lives enough for them to want Christ as I want Him. I don't hate not knowing where my future will lead, but I hate not knowing if I will ever get what I want, and if what I want will even be worth it to me. I hate not knowing myself in this aspect. It's hard to pray for someone every day for over a year and half and wonder if those prayers will ever be answered in their life, and will they even realize it was me that nagged God to help them...who knows.
Honestly, in many of those things, it may not be my business to know the answers to those questions. If anything, it will be a major blessing if I ever get an answer. Yet what I do know is what God calls me to, to wait patiently for Him. God has blessed me beyond all that I could ever imagine, it would be ungrateful for me to be miserable. Who am I to tell God that I am ready? That I am ready to take on the world? That I can handle this particular sin or circumstance on my own when in reality I can't.
In all honestly at the moment, I am happy, and it's mostly because with God's help (mostly all His help and through other's prayer...very little of my own doing) I have been able to resist temptations, I have been able to fight doubt this morning. As I said in my last post, doubt has been one of the things I've been struggling with a lot lately. It just creeps up on me and strangles all that I have grown up to believe, making me feel miserable and distant from my Lord and Savior. I become insecure in my belief, I feel like I am a fool for believing this stuff, and that those who look at me and think me of always being happy probably find me fake and my beliefs fake, and then I question maybe my beliefs are fake. Maybe they're too much of fantasy and not enough of reality. Maybe it's my age, maybe I'm closeminded, maybe I'm confused or maybe I'm just stupid. lol Who knows...but you know what, I know God will prove all that wrong. I know He will show Himself to me. I often pray to Him now as the father said to Jesus, "help me overcome my unbelief!" When I pray, I know I'm not praying to nothing, I am praying to a loving God, who reveals Himself to me through the Bible. This is why the Bible was made, it's not the answers to all of lifes question kind of book, but it's the answer to the most important life question, and that is, who is God.
One of my favorite passages of Scripture is at the end of Job, when God speaks to Job and his friends. I like to read it when I'm having pride issues, to help humble me. lol Here's one of the lines from that passage,
"Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?
Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me."
-Job 38:2
It seriously makes me laugh and makes me shutter at the same time. Who am I to question God? I love how God says, "brace yourself like a man," because when people use that phrase they look at a man as this strong superior type of person, but when God says it, it comes off as a man being completely powerless and such an inadequate being.
So anyway, that was a rather long yet good sidetrack, but my point being is, I just like you am only human. I have fears, I have tons of doubt, I struggle with insecurities, yet what I know and I hope that you know is this, that through it all, I will wait patiently for the LORD. And by waiting patiently, I have discovered true happiness, and a sense of contentment. Even though I don't know where life may lead, even though I may not meet a guy until I'm 40, even though I may never know if my prayers get answered, I know that God is in control and that He can use me for His glory, and that's the only way I want Him to use me. I honestly aspect my life to become tradgic and hard, yet even though it can be a scary thought, I'm not afraid because I know that God is in control and He's on my side...or more that I'm on His side. ;-)
Well with that I close and hope that you are also waiting patiently on the LORD.
God bless!
In Christ,
Amber
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD"
-Psalm 27:14
"Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when men succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes."
-Psalm 37:7
"Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you;
he rises to show you compassion.
For the LORD is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!"
-Isaiah 30:18
"I heard and my heart pounded,
my lips quivered at the sound;
decay crept into my bones,
and my legs trembled.
Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity
to come on the nation invading us."
"yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Savior."
-Habakkuk 3:16,18
As christians, how often in our lives do we not wait patiently? How often do we just rush into things, because we just want to get things over with or because we want it now. Yet God calls us to wait patiently. He says, blessed are those of us who wait patiently on Him.
It's so funny yet so pathetic how we think by doing what we want to do now is what will bring us happiness, when I have found it's when one waits, then they will find truth and genuine joy. Waiting can be very hard, believe me, I know. I wonder if I will ever meet the guy I want to spend the rest of my life with, I wonder if I ever made an impact in some of my friend's lives enough for them to want Christ as I want Him. I don't hate not knowing where my future will lead, but I hate not knowing if I will ever get what I want, and if what I want will even be worth it to me. I hate not knowing myself in this aspect. It's hard to pray for someone every day for over a year and half and wonder if those prayers will ever be answered in their life, and will they even realize it was me that nagged God to help them...who knows.
Honestly, in many of those things, it may not be my business to know the answers to those questions. If anything, it will be a major blessing if I ever get an answer. Yet what I do know is what God calls me to, to wait patiently for Him. God has blessed me beyond all that I could ever imagine, it would be ungrateful for me to be miserable. Who am I to tell God that I am ready? That I am ready to take on the world? That I can handle this particular sin or circumstance on my own when in reality I can't.
In all honestly at the moment, I am happy, and it's mostly because with God's help (mostly all His help and through other's prayer...very little of my own doing) I have been able to resist temptations, I have been able to fight doubt this morning. As I said in my last post, doubt has been one of the things I've been struggling with a lot lately. It just creeps up on me and strangles all that I have grown up to believe, making me feel miserable and distant from my Lord and Savior. I become insecure in my belief, I feel like I am a fool for believing this stuff, and that those who look at me and think me of always being happy probably find me fake and my beliefs fake, and then I question maybe my beliefs are fake. Maybe they're too much of fantasy and not enough of reality. Maybe it's my age, maybe I'm closeminded, maybe I'm confused or maybe I'm just stupid. lol Who knows...but you know what, I know God will prove all that wrong. I know He will show Himself to me. I often pray to Him now as the father said to Jesus, "help me overcome my unbelief!" When I pray, I know I'm not praying to nothing, I am praying to a loving God, who reveals Himself to me through the Bible. This is why the Bible was made, it's not the answers to all of lifes question kind of book, but it's the answer to the most important life question, and that is, who is God.
One of my favorite passages of Scripture is at the end of Job, when God speaks to Job and his friends. I like to read it when I'm having pride issues, to help humble me. lol Here's one of the lines from that passage,
"Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?
Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me."
-Job 38:2
It seriously makes me laugh and makes me shutter at the same time. Who am I to question God? I love how God says, "brace yourself like a man," because when people use that phrase they look at a man as this strong superior type of person, but when God says it, it comes off as a man being completely powerless and such an inadequate being.
So anyway, that was a rather long yet good sidetrack, but my point being is, I just like you am only human. I have fears, I have tons of doubt, I struggle with insecurities, yet what I know and I hope that you know is this, that through it all, I will wait patiently for the LORD. And by waiting patiently, I have discovered true happiness, and a sense of contentment. Even though I don't know where life may lead, even though I may not meet a guy until I'm 40, even though I may never know if my prayers get answered, I know that God is in control and that He can use me for His glory, and that's the only way I want Him to use me. I honestly aspect my life to become tradgic and hard, yet even though it can be a scary thought, I'm not afraid because I know that God is in control and He's on my side...or more that I'm on His side. ;-)
Well with that I close and hope that you are also waiting patiently on the LORD.
God bless!
In Christ,
Amber
Thursday, January 01, 2009
God Speaks
I realized how much I love the Prophets. I've been struggling a lot with doubt lately, in who God is as a "person". It's hard to read the Old Testament and the brutality of Scripture and think, "this is a compassionate God?" but what I realized is that in the earlier books, one the world was barbaric and brutal, two, they were records. What I absolutely love is the book of the Prophets because you aren't reading records of human history, you are reading God's mind towards human history. You are reading God's thoughts, who He is. You are looking at God's side of the story, and as you read the stories of Moses, or in Judges or from 1 Samuel to 2 Chronicles you wonder what kind of God is this, He sounds pretty demanding, but then you read Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Ezekial, and so on and I am amazed at who God is. How compassionaite He truly is, how gracious a God He is, and that He hasn't changed, because He does not change.
I was reading the story of David and Absolam, and then Moses having to deal with the rebellion and grumbling of Israel, and reading how God dealt with these things. Then I went to Hosea and read God's heart towards rebellious Israel, and I said to myself, God speaks. He spoke before this of course, you read God's words to Moses and to David through the priests, but that was through records. It's basically an overview of things, but then read after Song of Solomon and it's no longer man that records, it is God's turn to record. God speaks.
It's the most beautiful poetry and words to read, they amaze me.
Then after the Old Testament you don't hear from God anymore, for 600 hundred years I do believe, no prophets, no nothing. Then all of a sudden, the Messiah is born. God speaks again.
It's so powerful when He speaks, so shuttering, yet so awe-inspiring, so comforting.
After Jesus ascends into Heaven, we don't hear from God again in that way. All we have is Scripture until He will one day speak again to us through Jesus in the day of vengeance. (Isaiah 61:2) I wonder how that will be seen, or heard, by people. Probably in the same way Jesus came, or in the same way He spoke through the Prophets, it will be shuttering, awe-inspiring, and comforting to those who fear the Lord and have been preparing themselves for His return.
What a fascinating and amazing story. God's story that is. Some think God doesn't remember us, He has forgotten us, because why would He let bad things happen? Let God speak. (Isaiah 49:15) You will feel foolish like I have so many times when I accuse God, (btw foolish is only the tip of the iceburg of how it feels) yet you will also be amazed at His Wonder and Majesty of how Just and Good He truly is.
With that all I gotta say is,
God bless and let God speak to you this year :-)
In Christ,
Amber
I was reading the story of David and Absolam, and then Moses having to deal with the rebellion and grumbling of Israel, and reading how God dealt with these things. Then I went to Hosea and read God's heart towards rebellious Israel, and I said to myself, God speaks. He spoke before this of course, you read God's words to Moses and to David through the priests, but that was through records. It's basically an overview of things, but then read after Song of Solomon and it's no longer man that records, it is God's turn to record. God speaks.
It's the most beautiful poetry and words to read, they amaze me.
Then after the Old Testament you don't hear from God anymore, for 600 hundred years I do believe, no prophets, no nothing. Then all of a sudden, the Messiah is born. God speaks again.
It's so powerful when He speaks, so shuttering, yet so awe-inspiring, so comforting.
After Jesus ascends into Heaven, we don't hear from God again in that way. All we have is Scripture until He will one day speak again to us through Jesus in the day of vengeance. (Isaiah 61:2) I wonder how that will be seen, or heard, by people. Probably in the same way Jesus came, or in the same way He spoke through the Prophets, it will be shuttering, awe-inspiring, and comforting to those who fear the Lord and have been preparing themselves for His return.
What a fascinating and amazing story. God's story that is. Some think God doesn't remember us, He has forgotten us, because why would He let bad things happen? Let God speak. (Isaiah 49:15) You will feel foolish like I have so many times when I accuse God, (btw foolish is only the tip of the iceburg of how it feels) yet you will also be amazed at His Wonder and Majesty of how Just and Good He truly is.
With that all I gotta say is,
God bless and let God speak to you this year :-)
In Christ,
Amber
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