Before my feet hit the floor

Each day when I wake up I pray a very simple prayer even before my feet hit the floor.
"God, I want to see You. God, I want to hear You. God, I want to know You. God, I want to follow hard after You. And even before I know what I will face today, I say yes to You.”
Might you try praying these words tomorrow morning before you start your day? This simple act of surrender each morning will prepare your eyes to see Him, your ears to hear Him, your mind to perceive Him, and your heart to receive Him.
~Lysa TerKeurst

Eyes Toward Him

"I have the type of personality that naturally desires approval from others. But God says, “the fear of man brings a snare” (Proverbs 29:25). So instead of worrying about what people are thinking of me or trying to build up my value in their eyes, I must deliberately choose to uplift, encourage, and exhort those around me - to demonstrate the nature of Christ through my words, example, expression and attitude. I don’t always succeed at doing this - there are still times when I allow insecurity or selfishness to hinder me from showcasing the Gospel to others. But I have found that when I purposefully ask the question, “How can I show Jesus to this person right now?” God gives me the wisdom and grace I need to point others’ eyes toward Him."
- Leslie Ludy

Worship....not Worry

"Yesterday the number of things I had to get done out-numbered the hours in my day. As soon as I woke up, I felt weighted down with worry, I knew I had a decision to make. I could worry about the hows and whens of my day. Or I could focus on one thing at a time, ask God for help and rely on Him to provide peace and purpose in the middle of it all.
I decide to let my worries re-direct my focus with thoughts about Jesus {WHO He is} rather than on who I felt like I needed to be, or what I had to get done.
I laid in bed thinking about what I needed physically and emotionally, and then I thanked God for being those very things: able, loving, patient, wise, compassionate. Gently HIS peace came over me as I positioned my heart and my thoughts to worship instead of worry.” — Renee Swope

Making Him Known

     Recently I have been feeling rather low. Stepped on. Not cared for. Taken advantaged of. Ignored. Forgotten. I have been the emotional/spiritual anchor for my friends for so long, that they have forgotten that I have feelings, emotions, pain, and sadness too. Some of my problems may not be as big or life impacting as theirs, but they are still a big deal and difficult to me.
     Even though I may have every right to feel forgotten and not cared for, I need to push those self-centered thoughts out of my mind. What good do they do anyways? They do nothing but make me angry and depressed. 
     Today's blog post by Leslie Ludy was exactly what I needed to hear today. I recommend you check it out HERE. In this post she talks about how when we try to be seen and the center of attention, Jesus fades in the background. Instead of trying to get some sympathy and attention, we need to jump out of the way and point others to Him. 

"Instead of striving to be noticed and appreciated, we are to take an entirely different posture into every area of our life - one of humility and self-denial.  Whether we are recognized and applauded, or disregarded and overlooked, it should make no difference to us.  A woman who has truly taken up her cross to follow Christ only cares about knowing Him, and making Him known."

A Morning Prayer

O Lord and Maker of all things, from whose creative power the first light came forth, who did look upon the world’s first morning and see that it was good, I praise You for this light that now streams through my windows to rouse me to the life of another day.

I praise You for the life that stirs within me:
I praise You for the bright and beautiful world into which I go:
I praise You for earth and sea and sky, for scudding cloud and singing bird:
I praise You for the work You have given me to do:
I praise You for all that You have given me to fill my leisure hours:
I praise You for my friends:
I praise You for music and books and good company and all pure pleasures.

O You who Yourself are everlasting Mercy, give me a tender heart today towards all those whom the morning light brings less joy than it brings to me:
Those in whom the pulse of life grows weak:
Those who must lie abed through all the sunny hours:
The blind, who are shut off from the light of day:
The overworked, who have no joy of leisure:
The unemployed, who have no joy of labor:
The bereaved, whose hearts and homes are desolate:
And grant Your mercy on them all.

O Light that never fades, as the light of day now streams through these windows and floods this room, so let me open to You the windows of my heart, that all my life may be filled by the radiance of Your presence. Let no corner of my being be unillumined by the light of Your countenance. Let there be nothing within me to darken the brightness of the day. Let the Spirit of Him whose life is the light of men rule within my heart till eventide. Amen.

~John Baillie

Come to Me

    
     Have you ever been in a situation where you're just getting ready for the day, minding your own business, listening to some music. Suddenly a song comes on that you've heard a million times, but something is different about it this time. You don't hear the singer....you hear God. You hear Him telling you exactly what you need to hear, each and every word piercing your heart, bringing you to tears. He isn't telling you anything you haven't heard before, He just brings new meaning to the words. He knows exactly what to say and when to say it.....and I don't know about you, but I think it's pretty awesome that He sometimes chooses to use music to do that.

Jesus in my Life

"I am not a woman who should be labeled unable. I am a woman on a journey of learning how to make sure my reactions don't deny Christ's presence in me.
I am a woman who says yes to God not because my emotions and reactions are always perfect. No, I say yes to God because He is perfectly able to forgive me, love me, remind me, challenge me, and show me how to weather trials in ways that prove His Spirit resides in me.
I remind myself often that people don't care to meet my Jesus until they meet the reality of Jesus in my life." 
- Lysa TerKeurst, "What Happens When Women Say Yes to God"

Beautifully Dignified

 

"The power of Christ upon a woman's life ought to make her different than any ordinary, emotion-driven woman around her.....A woman who comes to know Jesus Christ is given the opportunity to live out beautiful femininity in the fullness of what God intended it to be - radiant, rock solid, and reigned by the Spirit of God..... We may be women with a great capacity to feel, but when we look to our Father to be our rock and fortress, a shelter to whom we continually resort, the One who is mighty and victorious in and through us, we are also women with a great capacity to go throughout each day with steadfast joy, unwavering peace, and a gentle calm that truly makes us different - and yet beautifully dignified - women of the Almighty God."
~Tessa Thompson

A Christ-Centered Friendship

"Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others." (Phil. 2:3-4)

     As I look at the world around me, I am constantly amazed at what the world calls a "friendship". Most friendships today are fickle, self-centered, fake, and emotional roller coasters. Many Christian friendships I know are unfortunately the same way. They are almost worse because they call their friendship "Godly" yet it is no different than the world; they are hypocrites. I believe that a majority of people today, Christian or not, do not understand what true friendship is. True friendship is modeled after Christ and putting the other person first.

     As the verse above indicates, we are to be selfless and focused on the interests of others. "...it is a daily disposition, a constant commitment to purposefully put the other person's needs above your own. When that is our attitude toward our friends, instead of thinking about what we can get out of the friendship, we begin to ask, 'How can I die to my own agenda for this friendship and be Jesus to her?'" Tell me, how many friendships do you see that revolve around THAT mindset? I must admit, I have never seen a friendship like that, not in my life, not in the life of anybody else. Sending little notes of encouragement her, paying for her coffee, surprising her with a memorable gift are all very nice things to do, but it goes beyond that.

     Friendships today are often not truly governed by Christ-like selflessness and because of this there is constantly misunderstanding, moodiness, emotional pain, and drama. Honestly, who really wants that? Yet we all seem to accept it like normalcy and do nothing differently. So, should we not show our feelings and emotions in our friendship? Should we keep it emotion free? Not at all. "...one of the sweetest aspects of a Christ-built friendship is having a shoulder to cry on and someone who will point you to Jesus in both sorrows and struggles." That is the key. Our friendships should not just consist of us running to each other with every single thing that has us upset, filling her ears with our complaints, giving worldly advice, and plotting what should be done about it. It is about us being a friend who points her to Jesus, both in the good times and the bad times.You know what that means though? We as individuals have to be controlled by and looking to Jesus, both in the good times and the bad times. "When two people are controlled and sustained by Christ individually, and then allow that to carry over into the friendship, the natural outflow is a relationship in which emotion, when it is present, only serves to edify and unify."

     We all get on each others nerves at some point. It is bound to happen, we are all human. There is really nothing we can do to stop it, but we can decide how to react to it. When your feelings are hurt by your closest friend, when she takes everything you say the wrong way, when she is selfish, what should your reaction be? Would you lash out and try to get even? Would you give her the silent treatment? Would you cry and put on a big show? Would you gossip about what she did to you? Or would you show her kindness, grace, love, and forgiveness? "The more God shows us our own lack, the more we realize that building a Christ-honoring friendship requires giving the other person as much grace for their mistakes as we want them to give us. (Col 3:12b-13a)" Our reactions as Christians should be totally opposite to how the world would react. We are to follow God's pattern of humbleness and forgiveness. Instead of focusing on your friend's shortcomings, you should really try to see what God is doing in their life, how God is working in their heart.

     How are your friendships? Are they Christ-honoring and Christ-centered? Are you being a Godly and selfless friend? If not, are you willing to be? Perhaps you are willing to be, but none of your friends are want to change. "If any of our close friendships are not pressing us on into a deeper spiritual life and shaping us into selfless, others-focused friends, it may be time for us to ask God what practical things we could do to change them so that He, and not the joy of a kindred spirit, is the prize." It is not going to be easy, but it will most definitely be worth it. It may not happen right away, but God will bless you for your perseverance and your want to change and be more like Him, even in your friendships.

"A friendship that purposefully makes Him the center and draws both people closer to Him will become a beautiful testimony of patient graciousness, humble servitude, and selfless love- spurring others on toward that same, single-hearted pursuit."

*All quotes are from the Set Apart Girl article "A Set Apart Friendship" by Tessa Hershberger and Amy Meyers in the Jan/Feb 12 edition.

A Picture of Set-Apartness

"They say there is a young lady...who is beloved of that Great Being who made and rules the world. They say that He fills her mind with exceeding sweet delight, and that she hardly cares for anything except to meditate on Him. If you present the world to her, with the riches of its treasures, she disregards it. She is unmindful of any pain or affliction. She has a singular purity in her affections. You could not persuade her to compromise her true Love even if you would give her all the world. She possesses a wonderful sweetness, calmness, and kindness to those around her. She will sometimes go about from place to place, singing sweetly. She seems to be always full of joy and pleasure, and no one knows exactly why. She loves to be alone, walking in the fields and groves, and seems to have Someone invisible always conversing with her."
-Written of Sara Edwards by Jonathan Edwards, her future husband. 
(from Marriage to a Difficult Man by Elizabeth Dudd)

Desperation

Below are some notes and thoughts I jotted down while listening to the sermon Desperation: Do We Need Him? by David Platt. It was an excellent sermon about prayer and made me realize how much I truly underestimate the power of praying to the Almighty God.

Why do we pray?
1. To express the depth of our need before God.

Why is Jesus always praying?
When you look at Jesus' ministry in the Gospels, what did he do as a man that was apart from His Father actually doing that through Him? Absolutely nothing. There is not one thing that Jesus did on His own. It was all in dependence on the Father

If Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, said that He can do nothing by himself, who are we to think that there is anything in our lives that we can do on our own?

Our conviction in prayer- We can do NOTHING without God. 

What was fundamental in the early church has become supplemental in the contemporary church.
Is prayer in your life fundamental or supplemental?

2. To explore the mystery of intimacy with God.

People tend to think that the main purpose of prayer is to ask God for stuff, for help, for protection.
This could be why so many of us have stopped praying as much, because when nothing happens or nothing changes, what's the point in praying or not praying? We try it, unsure if it is going to work or not. How we have learned to pray misses out on what it's really all about. 

When praying, we need to be desperate for someone, not something. What if God has fashioned this whole thing called prayer for you to ultimately enjoy Him and to feast on His goodness, grace, and mercy personally. What if there's something mysterious that happens in these moments that transcends anything else that could happen in our lives.

The most important thing in the world is your personal intimate relationship with Jesus. Everything in our lives flows from this one thing. 

We need to set aside a time. Intimacy just can't happen when we are running from here to there.

 We need to go to a place. This is why we see Jesus setting aside a time, even going to a solitary place. Going to a place where you can be alone with God, undisturbed, without distraction, will revolutionize your life because there is an award from the Father in that place that can't be found anywhere else.....intimacy with Him. 

3. To experience the power of being used by God. 

If God knows everything and is in control of everything and if His plan is going to be accomplished....why do we need to pray? 
God's sovereignty also means that He has ordained prayer to be a means through which He shows His power and His glory most clearly to His people. He has designed it to where you and I are apart of His whole plan. He designed it to where we get the help and He gets the glory. 

In the end.....if all we take away from this is that we need to pray more.....that we are going to strive to become a woman of prayer, then we are no different from any other religion. We live in a world where everybody prays. 
There is no power in prayer. The power of people who connect with the living God almighty is unstoppable.
We need to pray like we can do nothing without God's intervention.