My words and His

Sometimes I wish my prayers were as deep as the words I type or penciled.  Today I stopped and read the words I wrote to The Lord .. even though I know He knows everything in those words and beyond it still felt different.  I often re-write words that I've read as its an effective means of meditating on them for me.

Sarah Young's Jesus Calling for Kids today:  "Never Stop Praying"
Always be joyful.  Never stop praying.  Be thankful in all circumstances. -1Thes5:16-18
"Never stop praying.  How is that even possible?  Try thanking me for every blessing you encounter in your day.  Not just your meals.. - but when you finish a class, when you get to see your friends, even when you face the 'hidden blessings' of troubles or challenges.
If you are serious about learning to pray at all times, then thank Me in every situation.  Don't get hung up on saying the 'right' words - prayer doesn't ave to be fancy or formal.  Just say 'thank You' and mean it.  This is a great starting point for all your other prayers too.
When you're caught up in thanking Me, you won't have time for worrying or complaining.  This will make you much happier.  You will be training your mind to keep talking with Me.  And that's really what 'never stop praying' is all about.
Come close to God and He will come close to you. <3 [Recognize that you are] sinners, get your soiled hands cleaned; [realize that you have been disloyal] wavering individuals with divided interests, and purify your hearts [of your spiritual adultery]. -Jam4:8  {Convicting}

May the God of your hope so fill you will all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of The Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing with hope.  <3
Yesterday the question was asked what motivates you.  I can give a lot more words to define what it is, of course, but one simple word that came to mind was hope so this really resonantes with me.

Being glad and letting today mark a new adventure (this school year) with Him

But he said to me "My Grace is all you need.  My Power is strongest when you are weak."  So I am very happy to brag about how weak I am.  Then Christ's power can rest on me.  Because of how I suffered for Christ, I'm glad that I am weak.  I am glad in hard times.  I am glad when people say mean things about me.  I am glad when things are difficult  And I am glad when people make me suffer.  When I am weak, I am strong. -2Cor12:9-10

Sarah Young's Jesus Calling for Kids today, An Adventure with Me:

On that day you will realize that I am in the my Father and you are in me, and I am in you. - John14:20

"Living your life while depending on Me is a great adventure.  Most people - grown-ups and kids alike - scurry around trying to do things their own way.  Some are huge success; others fail miserably.  But both miss out on what life is supposed to be - an adventure with Me.

When you give control of your life to Me, I open your eyes so that you can see Me at work in the world.  Where others see "coincidences", you see My wonderful work - even miracles at times  And where others see only an everyday happening, you see Me. 

Live each day just watching for what I will do next.  You are in me, And I am in you - and through Me you learn to truly live.  This is the amazing adventure I offer you."

"In Him we live and move and exist.  As some of your own poets have also said 'We are his children.'  "Yes, we are God's children." -Acts17:28-29

You have received Jesus Christ as Lord  So keep on living in Him.  Have your roots in Him.  Build yourself up in Him.  Grown in what you believe, just as you were taught.  Be more thankful then ever before. - Col2:6-7

What this means to me .. leaving the past school year and camp (negatives in emailed questionnaires despite actual happenings, perceived success, what parents and administrators said, did and decided) and the greater tragedies in my life beyond behind, believing in Him in me, in what He can and will do.

I've got to live this year day by day resting, receiving and reflecting His Joy.  I think He's got an adventure in store this year and I'm excited to be in it, not alone, with My Christ .. the Man who loves me and my (His) children like no other ever has or ever will.  I am thankful for the all those He has encouraged me through,  how He has provided for Grant especially and Sophie too again and has entrusted me with 18 more of His children this year. My daily prayers this year will be for them but also for me to I allow and purpose to show gladness and happiness in all the things I do and say as how I do these stands for more than what I actually do.  Yet, working as if working for and serving Him and giving Him control of the rest.  Look out, I think we're going to see amazing things!

What a day

Today was uh, a bit of a roller coaster :T which by the way I found out I can still ride. Well, smaller ones at least since no one would ride bigger ones at Sea World, TX with me. Ok, if I'm being honest it felt more down hill than up.

I was not prepared for what washed over me this morning in church?!  I just could not stand/sit there by myself front and center while tears kept coming.  I don't think I've walked out of service before but a dear friend ran into me in the restroom and knew exactly where I was.  "Heather, are you believing the lie that you are alone?"  Her blessing me with the Truth again and letting me soften like a child in her mother's arms was cathartic.

I was still challenged to sing when I went back into service (upstairs in the back .. a place I hadn't been in a long time) but mustered all I could in those moment to get out a few important lines/words of trust and praise.  Then I struggled again at home.  Talking to my grandmother was hard too .. feels like we are trying to hold on.  I took a nap hoping it would help my emotions and immediately asked if He was there when I woke up.

Through out the evening messages uplifted me .. lifting up another in hard times, one from a parent last year hoping to find me well and telling me of her son "having a lot to tell about me" and his success this summer "with all the skills I had taught him".  If she only knew everything I've been contending with.  Another linking me in .. curious if might be a lead to something else The Lord is working on.  We'll see.

Then on the radio tonight as I ran to the store:
"Sometimes the unthinkable happens .. and maybe that husband or wife has walked away .. 'I might not be able to see the plans you have for me right now but I trust You.'"
Next .. something about leaving the past behind.

Finally, tonight from Intouch's devotion for today:

If we focus on the sin rather than God’s plan for restoration, then our entire spiritual perspective gets off balance. Emphasizing the sin directs all the attention to self—what I have done, how I  have acted, where I  have been. This self-centeredness will never lead to the peaceful assurance of salvation that the Lord has provided. When we focus on ourselves, we leave little room for God.

Rom8:6 is .. good .., because the Lord would have us focus not on our problem, but on His solution.  The apostle Paul boldly declares that God saw our dire situation and acted on His own initiative to rescue us.

The heavenly Father graciously handed salvation over to us as a free gift. And when the Lord gives a gift, there is no one who can ever steal it away and nothing that can interfere with its permanence (Rom8:35-39). That’s the assurance our God wants us to have.

So thankful for His love .. and that He peruse us and find us wherever we are and speaks.

Be Thou My Vision

Be Thou my vision,

O Lord of my heart;

Nought be all else to me

Save that Thou art

Thou my best thought

By day or by night,

Waking or sleeping

Thy Presence my light

Riches I heed not

Nor man's empty praise

Thou mine inheritance

Now and always

Thou and thou

Only first in my heart

High King of heaven,

My treasure Thou art

"Jump In with Both Feet"

From 5th actually, but going back to this because was so good to hear ..

Look at the new thing I am going to do.  It is already happening.  Don't you see it?  I will make a road in the desert.  I will make rivers in the dry land. -Isa 43:19 [ICB]
Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth; do you not perceive and know itand will you not give heed to it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. [Amplified]

From Sarah Young's Jesus Calling 365 Devotions for Kids:
"You will never be in complete control of your life.  It just isn't possible.  You want to feel completely safe and secure.  But even if you plan out every detail, the world will mess up your plans.

So, just stop trying to be in control.  Stop trying to make your life completely safe and predictable - and boring!  Instead grab My hand and jump in with both feet.  I am the One who loves you completely and wants only the best for you.  I want your life to be an amazing adventure - filled with new things.  But first you have to let go of old ways of doing things.  Then, grab hold of My hand, and look for all the exciting new things I've prepared for you!

Rom8:38-39 (two days in a row, today from Intouch 33-39)
Ps 56:3-4 - What time I am afraid, I will have confidence in and put my trust and reliance in You.  By [the help of] God I will praise His word; on God I lean, rely, and confidently put my trust; I will not fear.  What can man, who is flesh, do to me.

What's up with the moments when my feet don't follow, much to my chagrin.

I am not good ..

.. at goodbyes, particularly when I care apparently.
They make me nervous/anxious and I turn away, abruptly or possibly even seeming cold
But, it's more like I'm frozen temporarily .. preventing me from looking back ..
Still, waiting .. hoping ..
And yet I keep walking .. trying to listening .. wanting to find reassurance ..
But then .. ..  and what if .. and I'm left, thinking ..
I've prayed 'help me not to miss any thing Lord/HS' but still at times my tendencies prevail.
Call me, help me grow beyond this too.

This week..

It takes me a few days to see where He's going or to get the picture sometimes but reflecting at the end of the week is something I enjoy.  This week ..

Monday: From Sarah Young's JC4K: Hold My Hand !!!
I smiled from ear to ear reading this after My favorite things here.
He alone is my rock and salvation; He is my fortress, I will not be shaken. - Ps62:6
"Hold my hand - and trust Me. .. I am the only One who can satisfy those longing deep in your heart."
Fear not, for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen and harden you; yes, I will hold you up and retain you with My right hand of righteousness and justice. -Isa41:10

My soul wait only upon God and silently submit to Him; for my hope and expectations are from Him. -Ps62:5

And: For my eyes are ever toward The Lord, or He will pluck my feet out of the net.  [Lord] turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.  The troubles of my heart are multiplied; bring me out of my distresses.  Behold my affliction and my pain and forgive all my sins [of thinking and doing]. -Ps25:15-18

May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthed and reinforced with mighty power in the the inner man by the [Holy] Spirit [Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality].  May Christ throught your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permenant home) in your hearts!  May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love, That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God's devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it]
-Eph3:16-18

Tuesday: You Make Me Sing ;) (From Sarah Young's JC4K):
We will rejoice over you with singing. -Zep3:17
"Remember that I take great joy in you - you make Me sing!"

Thursday: For Your Protection (Sarah Young's JC4K):
"Don't worry about what's ahead  Don't think about the past or the future.  Just focus on right here and right now - with Me.  
I created time to protect you.  Because I am timeless, I can see your entire life from beginning to end - all at the same time.  But I knew that you couldn't bear to see your whole life all at once.  So I created time to hide your future from you, to protect you.
You can do nothing about the past, so just let it go.  You cannot know the future, so put it aside.  Meet me here and now - in this moment in time.  Trust that I am with you, watching over you wherever you go."
And behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you may go, and I will bring you back to this land for I will not leave you until I have done all of which I have told you. -Gen28:15

But this I confess to you, however, that in accordance with The Way [of The Lord], which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, still persuaded of the truth of and believing in and placing full confidence in everything laid down in the Law or written in the prophets; Having [the same] hope in God which these themselves hold and look for, that there is to be a resurrection both of the righteous and the unrighteous.  Therefore I always exercise and discipline myself [mortifying my body, deadening my carnal affections, bodily appetites, and worldly desires, endeavoring in all respects] to have a clear (unshaken, blameless) conscience, void of offense toward God and toward men. -Acts24:14-16

Friday: I Am Good (Sarah Young's JC4K):
Examine and see how good The Lord is.  Happy is the person who trusts The Lord. 
-Ps34:8
"I am good.  Walk with Me today and see that for yourself.  The more time you spend with Me, the more you will see just how good I am.  And I promise to do only what is good for you.
When hard times come, many people start to doubt My goodness.  But troubles are just part of living in this imperfect world.  And I can use your troubles to grow your faith.
I know that doesn't always make sense to you.  You won't always understand the 'why' of things.  .. When you don't understand, just trust that I Am Good - and that I always work for good in your life."
For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways says The Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than your ways and My thought than your thoughts. - Isa55:8-9

Add to that: This charge and admonition I commit in  trust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with prophetic intimations which I formerly received concerning you, so that inspired and aided by them you may wage the good warfare.  Holding fast to faith (that leaning of the entire human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence) and having a good (clear) conscience.  By rejecting and thrusting from them [their conscience] some individuals have made shipwreck of their faith. -1Tim1:18-19

But The [Holy] Spirit distinctly and expressly declares that in latter times some will turn away from the faith, giving attention to deluding and seducing spirits and doctrines that demons teach.  Through the hypocrisy and pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared (cauterized). -1Tim4:1-2

The latter takes me back to extra challenge today, to walk through with what The Lord had given me.  Tried to remain as gentle as Christ and remember what and how He's taught me to pray .. "forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" especially.

Tomorrow?? <3