"Lord you have my heart, and I will search for yours, let me be to you a sacrifice..."
Okay so if these lyrics are our prayer above, if this is our desire, if this is real...we must be saints of obedience. If I want to be a sacrifice for HIM, then I must obey all that He tells me to do, no matter how streching it is. Obedience brings you closer to God and your spiritual walk will grow immensely. Lately, God has been streching me so much in the area of obedience...AH. It's new stuff...new ways of obedience that I've never had to surrender to, until now because spirit of God is showing new things and bringing me into new situations.
We can sing over and over again about the lyrics above, but how deeply are those words residing in us...how deeply are those words piercing our hearts? Do I really want ME to be a sacrifice to HIM?! How can you know this? By your obedience. Are you obeying Him?! Thats the truth.
"He is jealous for me, loves like a hurricance, I am a tree, bending beneath the weight of his love and mercy..."
7/29/2010
7/26/2010
Speak Tenderly
So I watched this video my friend Jim told me to check out. YOU SHOULD WATCH IT!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhfUzodLRvk
Wow I was just really impacted by it. I can completely identify with so much of it! The one guy says "But God I've let you down so many times" and the other guy (GOD) responds "No, you were never holding me up. I hold you up with my victorious right hand. Don't you forget that in this relationship I hold you up." This really impacted me because so many times I feel like a failure if I don't live up to what I wish I was or something. I question myself, doubt myself, think I could have done so much better with this or that. I look at my failures way too often. This can cause me to be scared when I come to God. So I have been asking God to show me His love and to speak tenderly to me, so that I may know Him as a loving Fathers who is not condemning but loving. SO God show me this in a powerful new way!!!
Also I have been really seeing the places in my life where I want to ask God to change and grow. I need to grow in boldness, compassion, and the list goes on of course!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhfUzodLRvk
Wow I was just really impacted by it. I can completely identify with so much of it! The one guy says "But God I've let you down so many times" and the other guy (GOD) responds "No, you were never holding me up. I hold you up with my victorious right hand. Don't you forget that in this relationship I hold you up." This really impacted me because so many times I feel like a failure if I don't live up to what I wish I was or something. I question myself, doubt myself, think I could have done so much better with this or that. I look at my failures way too often. This can cause me to be scared when I come to God. So I have been asking God to show me His love and to speak tenderly to me, so that I may know Him as a loving Fathers who is not condemning but loving. SO God show me this in a powerful new way!!!
Also I have been really seeing the places in my life where I want to ask God to change and grow. I need to grow in boldness, compassion, and the list goes on of course!
7/18/2010
TRIALS! SONGS! JOY!
So when I transferred to Bethel I got really involved in music and began pursuing this passion of my heart. Well this summer it seemed that music just wasn't one of my top priorities or that it seemed to be fading for a time....so I told my friend Rachel that I felt like music just wasn't so strong for me this summer. Well God is funny haha because in the last month I have written like 6 new "in progress songs" its been crazy haha. Before I struggled writting songs and then all the sudden within the last like 3 weeks when I sit down at the piano it just COMES...rains down! Thank GOD! I said to my mom..."Mom I don't know what's happening, why now?" SHe said, "Jenna it's been happening, in the inside. You have to go through stuff and grow, get revelation and etc, for God to bring these songs out of you." I was like WOW she's right! So everything that I have struggled with in the last couple of months has been beneficial in the sense that it produced an outpouring of new music. Rivers flowing from within...yaya! I am so thankful to God for bringing this out of me. Writing, singing, music are my deeper inner passions and I am SO thankful that God is bit by bit manifesting more of these in my life. THANK GOD. BUT to encourage any of you out there...Sometimes it seems that you cannot see the light or that your struggles are difficult to bear at times...BUT take heart and know that a harvest is coming, an outpourig is coming in your life! Sometimes when we get most discouraged or you are in the hottest flame of the fire, suddenly BOOM God MOVES in your life and you are changed from the inside out. So don't be discouraged as trials come, know that these are producing something in your life. Trust that you have the victory and the sun will shine again. Praise your way thru those trials and may the JOY of the Lord be your STRENGTH...Praise God forever and Amen.
7/12/2010
Oh to be a Proverbs 31 Woman...
So I was thinking about what it means to be a woman of Christ and how that should look, well how that should BE. Of course I was directed to Proverbs 31. I want to be the type of woman described in this chapter. I really want the gentle and quiet spirit mentioned in 1 peter, the unfading beauty that comes from within.
SOooo Proverbs 31 describes "A wife of noble character." There are so many attributes mentioned but a few stuck out to me right now. One, proverbs says that "she gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her household." This resonates with me because the Lord revealed to me in May specific areas in which need changed in my life. One of those areas is waking up in the morning. I got in the habit of not waking up on time, using the snooze too much, and maybe just oversleeping in general, which wastes some of the day! Well the Lord revealed to me that this must be corrected and it's a work in progress YAYAYA!
Second, Proverbs says "she is energetic and strong, a hard worker." This also speaks to me because the Lord has been teaching me about channeling my energy, or to even just make the decision to be energetic when I don't feel like it...to be a hard worker! yaya! This was shown to me through starting to do yardwork. I LOVE IT haha. This of course is still a work in progress. Recently I have been trying to exemplify the hardworking and energetic person while babysitting, to make every moment count and put my energy into these kids...show them the Love of God, even if they are difficult at times.
Thirdly proverbs 31 says "...she laughs without fear of the future." This is dynamite for me. I'm not perfect and often I do worry about the future, BUT the lord is really showing me how to just trust Him with all my future and how to find joy..ahh I feel like laughing without fear of the future right now! I know the plans God has for me are GOOD and I don't need to worry HAHAHAHAAHA yes! :)
Anyways so I am super excited that the Lord has been correcting me to be more like the woman described in Proverbs 31. I am glad I read this chapter tonight...God continue to craft and fashion my heart to be more like you...to one day be "a wife of noble character"
<3
SOooo Proverbs 31 describes "A wife of noble character." There are so many attributes mentioned but a few stuck out to me right now. One, proverbs says that "she gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her household." This resonates with me because the Lord revealed to me in May specific areas in which need changed in my life. One of those areas is waking up in the morning. I got in the habit of not waking up on time, using the snooze too much, and maybe just oversleeping in general, which wastes some of the day! Well the Lord revealed to me that this must be corrected and it's a work in progress YAYAYA!
Second, Proverbs says "she is energetic and strong, a hard worker." This also speaks to me because the Lord has been teaching me about channeling my energy, or to even just make the decision to be energetic when I don't feel like it...to be a hard worker! yaya! This was shown to me through starting to do yardwork. I LOVE IT haha. This of course is still a work in progress. Recently I have been trying to exemplify the hardworking and energetic person while babysitting, to make every moment count and put my energy into these kids...show them the Love of God, even if they are difficult at times.
Thirdly proverbs 31 says "...she laughs without fear of the future." This is dynamite for me. I'm not perfect and often I do worry about the future, BUT the lord is really showing me how to just trust Him with all my future and how to find joy..ahh I feel like laughing without fear of the future right now! I know the plans God has for me are GOOD and I don't need to worry HAHAHAHAAHA yes! :)
Anyways so I am super excited that the Lord has been correcting me to be more like the woman described in Proverbs 31. I am glad I read this chapter tonight...God continue to craft and fashion my heart to be more like you...to one day be "a wife of noble character"
<3
7/09/2010
Reality Check
For the last 3 years I have attended a Christian college, surrounded by people of like faith and such. This past year at school I was surrounded by so many vibrant and seeking Christians that I was continually built up and encouraged in my fatih. It was easy to talk about God, we ALWAYS did. Almost no converstation went undone without the mention of God.
Now for the last almost 4 weeks of summer I have been working at an academic camp. There are a few Christians here, but not everyone. I guess it's been weird for me to adapt to the new atmosphere, but I know this is part of growing and this is reality. I won't always be in a bubble of encouragement and around all my friends who believe in God and are really expressive about their faith. This is reality, this is how life is...so to adapt is important. I have just been learning how to be ME in the midst of a lot of people who value different things or have a different faiths/religions than me or even those who don't beleive in God at all. It's been a few years since I have been in this environment. It is here that I seem to find out where I really am in my walk with God because I don't have the comfort of the norm.
"I don't wanna sing to air- I wanna sing to the Man that has eyes like a flame of fire!" ~IHOP
Now for the last almost 4 weeks of summer I have been working at an academic camp. There are a few Christians here, but not everyone. I guess it's been weird for me to adapt to the new atmosphere, but I know this is part of growing and this is reality. I won't always be in a bubble of encouragement and around all my friends who believe in God and are really expressive about their faith. This is reality, this is how life is...so to adapt is important. I have just been learning how to be ME in the midst of a lot of people who value different things or have a different faiths/religions than me or even those who don't beleive in God at all. It's been a few years since I have been in this environment. It is here that I seem to find out where I really am in my walk with God because I don't have the comfort of the norm.
"I don't wanna sing to air- I wanna sing to the Man that has eyes like a flame of fire!" ~IHOP
7/05/2010
Distractions
When God is trying to do something big in your heart or in your individual ministry there's a good chance attacks and distractions will come to get you off track....Wow this summer so far has been full of it...BUT I'm not complaining, I'm learning how to rise above everything and keep my focus on the SOURCE and not the circumstances. It's been an interesting journey, but has proven to bring growth and development in some areas of my life. I haven't been perfect at it, but that's where Grace steps in! :) I am going to keep chugging along here with the JOY of the LORD and keep my eyes fixed on Him, asking for HIs help within all the mix and relying on His strength thru me to accomplish that of which He set me out to do. THe Lord is good and SOOO good to me.
Recently I have been really reflecting on how awesome of friends I have. Lots of them build me up in Christ and help refresh me :) Thank you encouraging friends for everything, may you be blessed bc of your good friendship to others! :)
Recently I have been really reflecting on how awesome of friends I have. Lots of them build me up in Christ and help refresh me :) Thank you encouraging friends for everything, may you be blessed bc of your good friendship to others! :)
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