Happy Valentine's Day!

"For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, I am strong."
2 Corinthians 12:10

I'm reading Habakkuk and have been studying it in depth for several days now. It's a very interesting book!

satisfaction

"I want you to be all mine. I am weaning you from your other dependencies. Your security rests in Me alone -- not in other people, not in circumstances." - Jesus Calling


"The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms."
Deuteronomy 33:27

His will

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord"
-Isaiah 55:8

Do you ever want something so badly that you decide it must be meant for you? I have and it's so rediculous that I just go out and plan my own day and my own will when I know that God's plan for me is so much better than my plans for me. God knows what is best for us because He created us.

I have to trust Him with my life even thought at times I really don't want to. At times, I think I know what is best for me, but I don't know my future, God knows my future, and He has better in store for me. That is what the Bible tells us and that I have to trust.

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for peace, and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

trust

If we trust God with our lives then -and only then - we will have peace.

"And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Jesus Christ"
Philipians 4:7

and the worst part is

before it gets any better we're headed for a cliff,
but in the freefall i will realize I'm better off when I hit the bottom
-paramore

rhetorical questions

It's so easy to think negatively. It's so easy to say life is terrible. And it's so easy to ask "why me?" I know I've asked that many times. But really, were we expecting life to be perfect? Were we expecting things to be easy?
Even Jesus suffered and He had a completely sinless life.

1 Peter verses 18-24 says
"Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when ou sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because CHRIST ALSO SUFFERED FOR YOU, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He commited no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he sufferend, he did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed."


There is sin in the world and that makes life hard, but Jesus gave us so much to be happy about. There is no use being upset because life is hard. How will that make things better anyway?

new beginnings

So, I know, I start this like four days ago and already I haven't written every day. Oops. Things have been a little hectic around here. I found out some tentative, but still upsetting news and I just didn't feel much like writing, to be honest.
Today, my mom is super sick... (we're hoping it's not some type of the flu, but it's a 24 hr virus) and to make things a little more interesting the power blew. I'm not sure what happened, but it was our house and a few houses around us. It was out for a good thirty minutes at least. My mom was fortunately feeling a little better at that time and we lit candles all around the house. Candles are soothing so it was probably a good thing for her.
I'm doing this 2000 peice puzzle and today as I was packing (I'm going back to Huntsville tomorrow) I realized that I was nowhere near finished with it and I was hoping to be finished before I went back so I did that for a while and got a bit done but still am nowhere near finished. I'll never be able to finish it anyway before Skylar chewed up like four peices beyond recognition. It's like every time I work on it a couple of peices get knocked on the floor and I can't see them because they blend in with the carpet. Well, Skylar finds them like she's on a easter egg hunt and tries to eat them. Fortunately I've caught her before she has actually swallowed any (I hope at least...)

Okay, so quotes of the day starting with the 9th.

From Jesus Calling (see previous blog entries for details),
"One of the main ways I assert My sovereignty is in the timing of events" (p. 10)

January 10, 2010
"For where you treasure is, there your heart will be also."
-Matthew 6:21

January 11, 2010 (today)
From Jesus Calling,
"If you keep on stating your concrens to Me, you will live in a state of tension. When you thank Me for how I am answering your prayers, your mind-set becomes much more positive. Thankful prayers keep your focus on My Presence and My promises." (p 12)

and

"Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving."
-Colossians 4:2

Praise the Lord for His constant presence. Amen.

Hope

Have you ever thought about hope? I don't know if I ever really have before tonight. My quote of the day today comes from the devotional book I have been reading, Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. Oh, before I type the quote I should mention that the devotional is written as if Jesus is speaking directly to the reader. In Young's personal daily devotionals she would take time to really listen to what God was saying to her and she wrote what He was saying down. It sounds a little odd at first, but everything is bibically based and has references to the Bible.

"Let your weakness be a door to My Presence. Whenever you feel inadequate, remember that I am your ever-present Help. Hope in Me, and you will be protected from depression and self-pity. Hope is like a golden cord connecting you to heaven. The more you cling to this cord, the more I bear the weight of your burdens;thus you are lightened. Heaviness is not of My Kingdom. Cling to hope, and My rays of Light will reach your through the darkness" (p. 9)

I had never thought about hope in this way. I had never really thought of hope as something powerful. I thought of it more as a verb. I have hoped for things in my life: an A on a test, a white Christmas, a life not to be lost, a better job, etc. But those are are things all things that I can't control by just having hope. With God, it's all different and hope relates to trust. When I have hope through Him, I'm also putting my trust in Him. I'm hoping for Him to be the Comforter, the Provider and with this hope I'm trusting Him with my life. But the thing about having hope in God is that no, I still don't have control over the situation, but God promises if I have hope in Him, He will be there for me. He will protect me and deliver me.

So let's be honest,

This past semester has been spiritually rough on me. I can't place my finger on exactly where I began struggling, but struggled I did. I think I started out the semester already a little shaky, spiritually that is, and as the semester went on it got even harder on me.

Anyway, for Christmas I asked for a new Bible, like a journaling Bible kind of deal because I love to take notes in the margins of my Bible. I love to write down my thoughts or something I hear in a sermon that just really speaks to me right in the margin of my Bible so when I look at it later I am like "oh, yeah, I remember that and I still think it's cool!" haha. It sounds silly like that, but it's true! So I got this new Bible for Christmas, but my parents also gave me a devotional called "Jesus Calling" by Sarah Young.

I had already realized at this point that my walk with the Lord was a little off track and I knew that I wasn't happy with where my life was going. I knew that I needed the Lord to be the core of my life and that's kind of how what lead me in the direction I am in now.

A lot of times I just forget to trust the Lord. It's like "oh, I'm not feeling Your presence like I used to? well, I guess I'm gonna listen to my own voice then" which is not something I have physically said, but more of a subconscience thing. Still, the next thing I know I'm living for myself and wondering why I am not happy.

Also, a lot of times I'm so negative about everything. I'm so quick to jump to conclusions and to see the glass as "half empty". It's easy to do.

Okay, so the point of all this though? I have been reading this devotional book that I got for Christmas along with the Bible I got for Christmas and there's always at least one quote I find that really just speaks to me that day.

So it got me thinking, surely if this quote is something that helps me through my day it will help others through their day. Which got me started thinking about this blog I am trying to write. Ever since I started it I have been thinking "I just don't know what to write about," but today I thought to myself what if I wrote my daily quote in this blog?

So that's what I am going to do :) Feel free to express your opinions by comment also.

So what spoke to me today?

"For He has not depised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and He has not hidden His face from him, but has heard, when he cried to Him." Psalm 22:24

This quote just really spoke to me because it's so easy to think that you're life sucks because of this or that and nobody cares. But the Lord really does here our cries which is why we should "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Jesus christ for you"
1 Thessalonians 5:18.
If we remember to constantly thank God for all that He has given us (which is a lot. If you don't think so, get over yourself and look around you! Just to be bluntly honest....) we will remember all the wonders God has given us. I think this will also make us feel joyful to be a follower of the Lord and to trust Him even when it feels like everything is falling apart.

I would encourage you to also read the whole chapter of Psalm 22 because I did and it just really touched my heart today.

-art

night owl

I can not sleep at night. I just can't. I sleep very well during the day though. My body is very screwed up. The coffee I had around 9:30 didn't help either. Dang.

Starting over

So this blog originally started at something else, but I've decided to change it. Hence all the posts being deleted. No, I haven't given up on my work-out journey. I just got bored with writing about it. The fact is there was nothing really interesting about it. This blog will be more dedicated to my life, my thoughts, my opinions. It will be me.

Writing is something that I'm very passionate about. It's something that I really love to do. It puts me at peace. It clears my head. But let me be honest... I'm scared to death to put my writing out there to be critized. Not that I care what you think about it, but the fact is that I put my deepest thoughts into my a lot of my writings and it can get very personal for me. And I'm honestly just scared of putting that out there because I feel like once it's out there anybody can use it against me to hurt me.

But I think thats why I want to do this too. To get over that fear. In the great words of Rise Against (my all-time favorite band), I can't spend my life waiting to live.