God heart

God is Lord of your heart. He knows your deepest wishes, your biggest dreams, those parts of you that you never show the world because if you did it might call you crazy, or psycho, or just lame. God is a God of the small and the big. Those little dreams you have, however insignificant, are important to Him. He knows the desires of your heart. Wait for Him. Draw near to Him and He’ll draw near to You. Let Him surprise you with how big He is. Enjoy being HIS. Don’t let the world tell you that you have to read your Bible for so many minutes or pray for so many hours a day for Him to hear you and draw near. Those things are good. In fact, they’re necessary and incredible and should be practiced daily, yet…wow…we all mess up. We go for weeks, perhaps months without truly digging into the Word, without spending passionate time in prayer, instead glancing at a verse here and there and praying tiny little prayers about needs and wants, sometimes for others, but if you’d admit it, mostly about you and your struggles and pain and frustrations. That’s a frustrating place to be. Because you know you can be better. And you want to be. But your flesh gets in the way and you give in to it too much, you know this, yet you still do it because it’s comfortable. It is a war against our flesh. But we can let the frustrations and feelings of unworthiness bog us down. Keep fighting. Keep praying.

Let the King of the Universe love you for who you are, not what you do.

Because He’s calling out to you to see Him every day and to hear His voice. He loves you with endless passion. I wonder if we could see the heavenly realm, if we’d be horrified by the extent of the battle fought for us every day. Satan is sneaky. Those feelings that you’re never going to make it, you’ll never be good enough, you’re not pretty enough, you’re insignificant and no one really truly loves you…those are LIES. I am talking to myself just as much as anyone here. Seriously, it’s a battle.

One thing I have really been impressed upon doing lately is just to let myself enjoy being with God.

I don’t have to do anything. Just simply be. Rest. Soak Him in. I don’t think we give Him enough chance to really get through to us in our days. We’re always going, going, going, off to the next thing. Ignoring, truthfully, because we don’t want to have to take the time to focus on Him. It’s such a battle!!!!! But remember, Jesus wins. Truth, love, grace–it triumphs. God is good. He loves you so much. Let Him simply love on you today. Listen to Him. Talk with Him. Rest in Him. He’s waiting.

Do you KNOW how BIG God is?

Have you ever thought about it? I mean, REALLY thought about it? Try to envision all the layers. Start with yourself here on earth, then look at the sky, then envision the atmosphere, the stars, the galaxies, the space that goes on and on and on and on…then look back and see if you can still see the Earth. Yeah, it’s pretty big, our world, but it sure is small in comparison to the scope of grandeur that is the universe God created. I mean, think about it…we’re really pretty teeny-weentsy-tiny. And then THINK. GOD…who created ALL of that…LOVES you and me. I mean, WHOA, right? If I’m so tiny and He created me and EVERYTHING around me, then who am I? How can I begin to even comprehend Him? And then it all zooms back into focus. This God loves me so much that He sent his SON to DIE for ME. Oh my goodness. I can’t even comprehend it. It’s too much for me.

I’m going to share with you the message from Louie Giglio at the Desiring God conference I attended last month. It rocked my world majorly. I had heard him do things like this before, giving us the magnitude and scope of our universe and how big it is, how small we are, and how huge God is…but THIS…what’s in this video is something I had never even THOUGHT of before. It is unbelievably awesome. I had to pick my jaw up and off the floor quite a few times. And you know that feeling when your soul just wells up inside of you in response to something that’s too much for it to bear? Yeah…that was me. Jaw-dropped…soul lept…hands raised in response to a King and a Creator who is so incredible, so huge, so magnificent, that no words or description or act of worship seems close to anything He deserves.

Just watch. Please watch the whole thing. And don’t stop until the end. It just gets better and better and better.

You’ll have to click the link below…it won’t let me embed it on my blog 😦 but it’s soooo worth it. Thanks for watching!

The Global God Who Gives the Great Commission

Psalm 91

Psalm 91 gives me chills! It is an incredible psalm and an incredible promise. Wow.
God promises He will protect! Yes, He allows things to come into our lives that we most often don’t understand why…and it hurts and is really hard…but through the storm and through whatever we face, He’s been there, He is there, He’s right by our side. He doesn’t take war from soldiers, they still have to fight, but He is right there with them throughout the battle!

Every morning I wake up, I need this reminder. It’s a daily battle, but God is right there with me. With you. He never left you. He’ll never leave you. It’s a constant battle to believe that I’m worth it…that He still loves me like He did yesterday. But no matter the feelings, it’s the TRUTH. We can rest under the shadow of His wings because He is with us, protecting us, caring for us, carrying us, and no matter what happens, we are His. Ahhhh…love it.

I could read this every day and not grow tired of it. It is SO encouraging to me, and I hope it encourages you today, as well!

Psalm 91

¹ Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.^[a]
2 I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
³ Surely he will save you
from the fowler’s snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
⁴ He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
⁵ You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
⁷ A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
⁸ You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.
⁹ If you say, “The LORD is my refuge,”
and you make the Most High your dwelling,
¹⁰ no harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
¹² they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
¹³ You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
¹⁴ “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
¹⁵ He will call on me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”

Seriously. Chills.

Oh the lies of the enemy!

I am a woman. And BECAUSE I am a woman, I am bombarded by the same issues that have long been a part of this world. Woman is seen as beautiful. She is the pinnacle of beauty. From the beginning of time, she has been drawn and painted and sculpted as intricate, delicate, mesmerizing art. She is soft on the eye. Her form is pleasing and easy to look at.

Thus, in comes sin, warping the senses, twisting into lust what is innocently beautiful and perfect, thus degrading what is beautiful. Sin changes mindsets…and it causes a beautiful woman to look in the mirror and yearn for perfection for something that she doesn’t realize is already perfect.

I struggle with body image just like every other girl I know. It is a common attack on women, and I can only imagine the devil thrives on tormenting women. He knows how beautiful we are, how much God loves us, and the sweet, strong power we hold within that beauty that is a God-given gift. We are a testimony of God’s goodness. A mirror to the world of His infinite beauty. We are created in His image! And Satan wants to mar that image. So he causes us to believe we’re fat, we’re ugly, no one will like us or date us or love us or cherish us because we have (in our eyes) too much pudge in this area or that, our lips or eyes or chin or ears or hair aren’t perfect, so we stand in front of the mirror day after day, crying in desperation. We change our hair color and style it differently each day. We go through countless changes of clothes. We put on heels, we slather on the makeup and the hairspray, and we think that that defines us…that that equals beauty.

And all the while, God is whispering, “Oh BELOVED! If you only knew how breathtaking you are…how beautiful and mesmerizing and radiant…my precious daughter! How I love you!”

Sometimes, during those times I’m standing in front of the mirror, hopelessly lost in thoughts of disgust at myself…I realize the lies that Satan is feeding me. He’s gleeful in his attacks, and I’m making it way too easy for him. So I throw back my head, raise my chin, straighten my shoulders, look straight in the mirror, and declare OUT LOUD, “I am a daughter of GOD! I am BEAUTIFUL! No one else sees what I see. God created me in His image. I am stunning. God loves ME!” I declare truth over myself, and in that instant, it’s as if the blinders are lifted and for a second I can see me as God sees me. Innocent and beautiful and mesmerizing.

Don’t give in to the devil, ladies. He enjoys feeding you lies that you’re ugly and no one will want you. That is NOT TRUE. You are a daughter of the MOST HIGH KING, created in HIS IMAGE, set APART for His GLORY, DELIGHTFUL & PLEASING & STUNNING as you REFLECT HIM.

Go out into the world and SHINE for Him!!! 🙂

Here are couple other blogs I’ve come across lately on this same topic…definitely inspired my blog and encouraged me, which I hope they do for you, as well! Love you all!
http://lindsaydobner.theworldrace.org/?filename=world-race-beauty-101
http://nataliedache.theworldrace.org/?filename=identifying-idols

Brainstorm session

So I’ve been thinking about this blog a lot lately and getting excited. The possibilities seem endless. It’s very likely that I won’t blog every day. But who knows? I’m relying on the Lord’s leading. We’ll see where He takes me. (I’ve been saying that a lot these past couple days!) I have all of these dreams and ideas. I sense big things in the works. It’s so hard to wait…because I get this inkling of God working behind the scenes, and it’s like I can sort of, kind of tell what He’s doing, but then it seems that the little glimpse is immediately enveloped by a fog…and I again am left to wondering what He’s up to.

I’ve been pondering a few ideas. As a travel writer by day and missions-writer-wanna-be by night, I’ve realized I should probably showcase some of my work on here so you can see what I’ve done and what I’m capable of. I’m not looking to impress anyone (but I do secretly hope you like something I’ve written :))

I also feel the need to help whoever reads this understand more about the issues that face many people around the world today…such as sex trafficking, the AIDS/HIV crisis, genocide, hunger, poverty, oppression, lack of clean water, etc etc etc. There are quite a few exceptional organizations at work today that deserve to be highlighted…so I’m hoping to feature many of them here…possibly as weekly/daily highlights and help you get involved, which would make me so happy!

After I published this blog on Saturday, I received an AWESOME idea from a friend of mine…he suggested this could be a place where I would provide you with resources to use your gifts and talents to get the word out about these issues and help you and others discover ways to get involved. When he told me that…I sat back and thought, “Wow. That is an amazing idea.” Totally a God thing. I would love for that to be a direction/theme for this blog…we’ll see where God takes it! :)It’s something I have to wrap my head around and ponder and pray more about…because I totally don’t feel at all worthy to be a resource for others (only by God’s grace!).

If you have any suggestions and feedback on things you’d like to know about, I’d love to hear it!