He goes before me.

"The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." Deuteronomy 31:8

This week I was reminded of how much God cares for me. I walked into a situation where I was scared of being humilated because my thoughts had run away with me and I was aiming for something that wasn't there, i.e. I doubted my hearts desires and I doubted the promptings of the Holy Spirit. But I took the plunge nonetheless and of course, God proved faithful.

So there I was, ready to be made to look stupid or be disheartened, and then I find out that God had already gone before me to prepare the hearts and minds of the people I was going to see and to confirm with me that the promptings I was following were from Him.

I had a moment where I was just totally blown away at the thought of God speaking to someone about me.
I mean, God has spoken to me about other people to encourage them plenty of times but I've never really thought about it in this way; God cares about me and loves me so much that He would talk to someone else, about ME!... just to confirm what He has already spoken to me.
He doesn't have to do that... but he does it anyway, because He loves us and doesnt want us to be confused or frustrated in the plans He has for us.

I think sometimes we worry about how we are going to see Gods plans for our lives come to pass and we take each step as if it is dependent on us.
But that isn't the case. (Thank you, Lord)
You see, if God tells you to walk from one side of a bridge to the other, I think He'll provide the bridge... Don't you?
If God makes a plan for your life you can rest assured that He will go before you and pave the way and then He will be there for every step of it.

So we should take each step not as if it is dependent on ourselves,
but as if it is dependent on Him,
He will never leave you nor forsake you.

Get lost.

Have you ever been in a situation that, when you're in it, it seems hopeless and completely controversial to what God has promised, yet once you're out of the situation you see that really, God was using it all along to get you to where you are now?

One thing I love about God is that He will take you down any path to get you to where He needs you to be.

These last few days I've had this reoccurring thought... "What if I just walked and got myself completely lost? What an adventure it would be to find my way back again." I kept pushing this thought to the back of my mind thinking nothing of it but then I came across one of these life quote picture things and it gave my weird thought a bit of a meaning.

"Travel often; getting lost will help you find yourself."

It's so true that when you're put into the unknown and sometimes the uncomfortable, you discover things about yourself that you never would have discovered had you not gone through it.

I think we sometimes stick to what we know to be comfortable and 'normal' and never explore the rest because we're scared of the weaknesses in us that may show themselves. But Jesus said to Paul "My strength is made perfect in weakness." and then Paul goes on to say that because of this;

"I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then I am strong."

We have a magnet on our fridge that says "A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water." Similarly, it is in the unknown, the unfamiliar and in the uncomfortable that we see the strengths and weaknesses in a person. But by Gods grace, we can know strength in our weaknesses because He is our strength.

So why not go and get totally lost, challenge your character, find out who you really are and then let God use every part of that person to bring His Kingdom.

New Years Resolution

So we've successfully made it to the end of the 1st day of 2012... It seems like quite an appropriate time to blog.

Everyone decides to make some kind of New Years resolution around this time and lets be honest, most will power through for a couple of weeks until they have to make some kind of compromise and suddenly that chocolate that you gave up is now sat on your hips.

All jokes aside, the New Year is always a good time to take a step back and take a look at where you've been, where you are now, and where you are heading. Last night, (not to brag or anything) but we really did have the best party ever. When the night was over I could feel my cheeks aching because I couldnt help but smile the whole night!

The place looked great, the food was great, the music was great, the company was fabulous!  & You'd think that was enough to get me excited but the truth is, I've never been as excited as I am now about the potential that this year has.

Up until now, i've lived my life in yearly stages, September to September. Every year has been planned out for me by school planners and programmes but right now I'm learning that I'm not confined to yearly change. Change can come next month, next week, even tomorrow. For some people, this might seem quite scary. I know I like to have everything planned out. I'm one of those people who will happily make a list to plan out my day. So the thought of not knowing what the near or distant future holds could potentially scare me.

However, I can't remember ever being as excited for life as I am now. For me, 2012 holds so many uncertainties, nothing is concrete.  But there is one thing I'm sure of, and that is that I serve a God who is first of all good and has the perfect plan for my life. So I have no reason to be scared, instead I put my full trust in Him who is without limits. That's not to say that I'm going to sit around and wait for something good to come my way.

Proverbs 16:9 says "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." Trusting in God for my future doesn't mean I take a back seat and just go along for the ride. God delights in making plans with us. I planned to go to university next September to become a midwife. I didn't get in to any of the Universities I'd hoped to and suddenly the whole career path I had planned seems a million miles away. I should be worried right? Wrong. I made a plan, God's directing my steps.

I still hold on to His promises and the vision He has given me. So I will do what I do best and continue to make my plans and allow God to direct my steps. You see, He loves me so much that He would willingly give me the desires of my heart. He may take me on a journey to get me there but I know that He works all things together for my good and for His glory.

I hope you're starting to understand why I'm just a little excited right now.

Whether I reach my goals the way I expected or not doesn't really matter because I can stand firm on the promises of God that He has a good plan for me that gives me a hope and a future.

So my new years resolution is this;

Not to compromise on the promises of God but to keep moving forward into all that He has for me.

What's yours?

I am useful.

"In a large house there are vessels not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. ²¹ Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.  ²² Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart."

2 Timothy 2:20-22 

 

Gold & silver or wood & clay...I know which one i'd rather pick.

Vessels are objects designed for the purpose of holding, or containing something. Here, in 2 Timothy, Paul uses an illustration of vessels in a house. I know that my house contains many vessels. For example, a vase to put flowers in, a glass to put a drink in, I even have a penguin hot water bottle to put hot water in. But along with all of those there is also the toilet that all the waste goes in, the rubbish bin where all our rubbish goes, and the sock bin with a multitude of odd socks (pet hate)! So even in my own home, I see that some vessels are for honorable use and some are for dishonorable use.

God has chosen us to be His living vessels. But, because He loves us, He will never force us to be used by Him. He has given us the choice. As vessels, we are designed to be filled. It is up to us what we fill ourselves with. We can either choose for God to fill us by His Holy Spirit and be used for noble purposes or we can choose to be filled with the ways of the world and used for ignoble purposes. The choice is as simple as that.
Ask yourself this; what are you storing in yourself? We are constantly inputting into ourselves - through our eyes and ears. So to fill ourselves with Him we are to read our bibles and fill ourselves with the Word. We are to be in fellowship with God and learn how to have His heart and mind.
However, it's important that we are first clean. As a dirty bowl would contaminate any food put in it, we will contaminate any good thing God wants to use us for if we are not first clean and holy. We do this by getting rid of the 'self'. We die to ourselves and let Christ live in us because the blood of Jesus cleanses us of all unrighteousness. By denying ourselves every day and choosing to be filled with Him we are preparing ourselves to be filled and used by God whenever he wants to use us.

So it all comes down to this; do you want to be a vase or a toilet?
The only thing that makes them what they are is what goes in them. So cleanse yourself from all unrighteousness so that you can be a useful vessel of honour for the purposes of God.

Overcomer

I've noticed that some people have this image of Christians being the people who are untouchable. They are always happy because nothing bad could ever happen to them. They could never be depressed because they have the joy of the Lord. They could never be in need because God provides. They can never have a problem to deal with because God loves them and causes them to be successful in all they do.

Well, it's true - God is and does all of those things. But being a Christian doesn't make us immune to what the world has to throw at us. Jesus tells us that we will face trials.

This false image of being a Christian puts a lot of pressure on a person who is facing a trial in their life. People feel that they have somehow messed up if they are unhappy or they have a problem area. They struggle through by themselves because they dont want to be seen as 'the bad Christian'.

So, i'll share a secret with you. One of the biggest lessons I had to learn growing up, was that sometimes, it's ok to not be ok. I used to be that person who would walk around with a smile on my face yet behind closed doors I was battleing depression. I didn't let anyone in because I didn't want to be the one who was always throwing the pity party. I wanted people to see me as the girl who's always happy and never has a complaint about anything because thats what being a Christian is all about, right? Wrong.

I wasn't going to beat depression by positive thinking and trying to cover it up. The first thing I had to do was recognise that everything was not ok. But, I would be pretty miserable if I just stopped there. The next step was to find the BUT in the situation. This is where it comes in handy to know who Jesus has made me to be. For example, everything is not ok BUT I am an overcomer, I have the Joy of the Lord. I am a child of the King - therefore, I am royalty. And the list goes on. The revelation of who we are in Christ has the power to set us free from every stronghold. You see, it is ok not to be ok aslong as you don't set up camp there. I learnt the power of confession. I learnt to speak life and truth over my life instead of feeding the negative thoughts and situation.

Sometimes we can pray and pray until the cows come home that God will change a situation in our life, but sometimes, I believe that God wants to teach us something through every situation. He doesn't want to just bail us out whenever things get hard. He wants us to learn how to overcome. 1 John 5:4 says "For whatever is born of God overcomes the world." and therefore I have chosen to believe that there is never a bad situation in my life, but simply an opporunity to overcome and step into more of who God has made me to be.

Tough Love.

"I love you and there's nothing you can do about it."

I heard this quoted on Scrubs today and it made me laugh. It was said by a gospel preacher in a lighthearted, fun way (of course, it was scrubs) to a congregation of people, but it was said with a confidence that it was the truth. He had a big grin on his face that made you believe that whatever you did, no matter how much you rejected him, no matter how much you might hurt him, he'd still stand there with that same grin, loving you, until you relent and give him a big hug - and he'll just carry on loving you.

*This is just how it played out in my head*

But this is how God loves us.

God loves you and there's nothing you can do about it.

The amazing thing about Gods love for us is that it is unconditional. That means he loves us without condition. There is nothing that we have to do or can do to earn His love. Not only does he love us unconditionally, His love is relentless. His love never fails and never gives up. So no matter how many times we may fail or dissapoint, reject Him or give up on Him, He'll never give up on us, He'll never stop loving us. Some of us need to realise that it is not actually possible for God to stop loving us. If God were do anything other than love us, he would have to go against His very nature and give up being God. Rest assured, He'll never do that.

Equally, some of us need to understand that this isn't a love that we can walk all over. God is far from a push over - you can't pull the wool over His eyes. If we have a real understanding of His love for us, we can't help but love Him back! Imagine someone telling you they love you and that they'd give everything for you - would you turn your back on them? Thats all He wants - a people that He can love and who will love and obey Him in return.

“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the LORD.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people." Jeremiah 31:33

He'll never force us to love Him, he won't put pressure on us or manipulate our hearts. He desires a genuine love from His children and so He will love us until we can't do anything but love Him back.

So what if you already know all this and I'm just preaching to the choir?

Well, how about being like that gospel preacher on scrubs?

How many people could you stand infront of and say;

"I love you and there's nothing you can do about it?"

We're called to love as God loves. We love because He first loved us.

There is not a single person in this world who is worthy of Gods love, yet He's made us worthy by choosing to see us through the blood of Jesus. So we can't ever stand infront of any person and deam them unworthy of Gods love because we've all fallen short. It is simply by God's grace that we are able to know such a love. Therefore, there is not a point when someone can do something so awful that God would stop loving them and why should we do any different? If we want the world to know and see Gods love, we need to love with Gods unconditional, relentless love.

There is nothing you can do that will make me stop loving you. 

I Promise.

A couple of weeks ago during a time of worship I was challenged and encouraged to truely believe in what God has spoken over my life. Here's what happened;
As we were worshipping I had my hands raised and the song we were singing came to an end but we carried on singing in the Spirit. My arms started to ache. Naturally, I would put my hands down but this time I felt that I should keep them up.  But as I kept it up, my hand started to throb. It felt like it was swelling or it was on fire or something and in my head I was like, "what does this mean? should i go pray for someone or something?" But I knew it was the presence of God and therefore I didn't want to loose that feeling. By this time my arm was aching really bad but I didnt want to loose that feeling and the more I focused on what God was doing, the less attention I paid to my aching arm. As I asked God what this feeling meant He said "There will be times when you'll feel like you need to give up but remember what you've seen and that is what will hold you there." This spoke into a situation in my life where I felt like giving up. But His word has proven true. The more I remember words God has spoken to me and remember what I have seen and what I know of God, the easier it is to face every situation and not only 'face it' but completely turn it around for His glory.


Hebrews 10:23 says "Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise." One thing i've noticed is that one of the simplest yet most powerful attacks of the devil is sowing doubt. He causes Christians to doubt what they have heard or what has been promised to them, causing them to question themselves and God. But this verse tells us that we need to hold tightly to the promises of God - without wavering - sure of what we hope for, certain of what we don't see. (Hebrews 11:1) When God speaks to us, we can be sure that what He has spoken is true and will come to pass because of what is said in Isaiah 55:11; "so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." It is impossible for God to speak without something happening and it is impossible for His word and promises to be unfruitful. This truth alone should get rid of any doubt that we may have.

So... In conclusion, i'm learning to trust in the promises of God, to trust my judgement and back myself. All from an attitude of faith, not doubt. After all, It is men and women of God who stand firm on the promises of God, showing intergrity in all they do, that will forcefully advance His Kingdom.