Seeing Goodness God’s Way

Sometimes our spiritual vision can get distorted.  Through the difficulties we endure, we slowly adapt our thinking to believe life does not have much for us.  We let our outlook be enough to get to the next day.  We expect hard times; we expect failure, we think nothing in our life will ever change for the better.  Thus a pattern of thinking takes place. No longer do we hope for the best but we always plan for the worse.  This is not a life of faith.

It was not the case for King David.  Despite the trials and difficulties in his life, he reminded himself of God’s goodness. For David, it was not a fanciful notion.  It was what he knew in his very heart. God’s goodness was what he believed. In peril, in betrayal, in war, in death, in sin, in abandonment, in loss, in heartache, David believed that God is good and he would see God’s goodness in his life.

We need to change the way we see our lives. But more importantly change how we see God.  God is good. He wants to reveal His love and His goodness to you as much as He did to King David.  David made a choice to believe, regardless of his surroundings and circumstances.  At times, David’s life was not easy, it did not make sense. But he chose to believe God.

Believing must come before you can see a change.  It is a decision you have to make in order to go forward.

Choose to believe now.

Believing is a choice of expectation.

Expect goodness.

 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Psalms 27:13 (KJV)

The Practical Life

 

Living a life that is honoring to God is not grand or glamorous. It takes days in and days out. It can be without accolades or praise.  Sometimes it can be very ordinary and mundane.    Sometimes it can be rather dull and boring.  Sometimes it is just rather…..Practical.

Our faith walk with God should reach every aspect of our lives. It is not meant to kept for Sunday’s best. A life lived for God should be real, every day, hands on life.  A practical life reflects a profound respect for God, which become instilled in our hearts and fashioned in our minds, it is who we are. It is mirrored in what we believe and how we live life.

We no longer follow the crowd, instead we show our love by the way we put aside our own needs so we can make sure others are taken care before ourselves. We choose to listen carefully to others and speak with kindness and thoughtfulness.  We make time to visit the sick and help the poor. Our reward is a job well done and joy it brings to others.  Our peace and contentment comes from knowing we are sharing love with one another.

The Practical Life is not being a rock star or a socialite but it is snotty noses and dirty diapers, an extra turn in the car pool, filling in for a sick co-worker and working overtime, shoveling the neighbors drive way, washing laundry at 10 o’clock at night, taking a second job to pay for braces.

No, living a life that is honoring God is not grand or glamorous, but it can be found in….

Real

 Every day

 Living….

 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Galatians 2:20

We Have A Promise

 

God gave was a promise to Abraham.

Abraham believed and then he walked where God told him.

Sometimes all you have is the promise God speaks. We hold on to this word, waiting and hoping to see it come to pass.  Yet it seems the only thing that passes is time.  So, disappointment, discouragement set in and finally we become despondent.

Why?

Because we used the world’s standard to measure heavenly values.  Promises broken and disappointed hopes on earth have nothing in common with God’s promises. His promises are true and forever. This is how Abraham had unshakable faith; His faith was not based on his human perspective, rather he saw with his spiritual sight. Many times we expect the worse and plan as if the promise won’t happen!

We may only have that word God has spoken.  But when the days seem long that is the time to hold on to our promise with all our might,  He has written our lives, which includes what He has spoken to us and the fulfillment of that promise. Hold on to that promise! Keep trusting God! Believe Him for big thing!

If you feel you are still waiting … keep believing.  Do not give up, for God has promised- it will come to you!

 

No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

Romans 4:20-21

Spring- the Awakening

The sweet song of birds

A tune of merriment

Uplifted melody of Praise

The fragrance of the morning air

My hearts stirs

Hope exchanged from despair

Vision breaks through

The sights of leafy green

New life rising from the earth

As nature again quickens

Faith awakens my soul

God renews my life, my heart once again

The Challenge: God’s Will Be Done

What if we really let God’s will be done in our lives? What would that look like? What would my life be like? Would we be in the same place, have the same relationships, same career? Sometimes it takes discovering what it is to live in God’s Will.

While it is easy to tag “Thy will be done” on our prayers, at times we may not lived with complete abandonment to His will in our lives. We want God to bless our own endeavors, yet, we decide what the best course our lives should take when it may not be what God has planned.

It is a scary premise to live totally trusting in His care. This is what Abraham did. He trusted and staggered not at God’s promises.   We can have desires in our heart but never pursue because of preconceived ideas of what we think is God’s will.  It is God who puts those desires in our hearts, we need to receive them and pursue those dreams to fulfill them!

 

Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalms 37:4

 

When we chose to live in God’s will, our lives may begin to take a new path. We start to align with what God has purposed for us.  Living in the fullness of God’s Will and His Word changes us. It brings to light what was in our hearts already and opens us to receive the richness of His promises and blessings.

So here is the challenge, let us make every day, every moment, every prayer, God’s Will, be done. Let us embrace it, receive it, be hope filled in it, trust it, know what He placed in our hearts is His will!

 How much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!  Matthew 7:11

 

My Ebenezer Stone – The Stone Collective

It might not be much to look at.  Greyish brown, small oval, smooth with little holes covering it. It might even be a fake stone- just concrete. But my little stone has great meaning to me.

I found it.

When I was seeking the Lord for an answer, when my questioning if I had heard God came as rapid fire to my mind, the Lord was ever patient with me. He had me to brought the victorious passage in Joshua 4- the memorial of the Crossing of the Jordan-the stepping into the Promise Land.  A story of bravery and hope- the fulfillment of a promise and the beginning of a promise, yet my heart could not take in all depths to these scriptures.

I found it.

When I felt more like Rapunzel, toiling away beneath mounds of paperwork, forgotten in my workplace, one day my hand literally felt something below the papers I was sorting. What was it, a rock, a stone- inside this office?  I didn’t see it when I came into the room, yet there it was – now in my hand.  The Ebenezer, I needed to hold to.  My direct reminder of God’s word, a stone – just like the one Joshua picked up in the Jordan.  I held on to it. I kept it at my desk for weeks, slipped it in my purse for months and now it rest on my nightstand. Reminding me that….

I found it.

When I needed to hear and feel the reminders from God.  When my thoughts were buried underneath the churning worldliness of corporate life, God gave me a physical, tangible remembrance of all He had for my future.  I had not yet come to realize, know or understand, but He was stirring my faith for what was to come.

My Ebenezer Stone, this plain small rock, is precious to me.  It has brought me encouragement, comfort and strength in the past and now bringing a forward a promise. It is the marking of a promise and a fulfilment of a promise.  God has for each of us an Ebenezer Stone if we will just look for it. Will you take the time to find yours?

I found mine.

Want to join in on The Stone Collective? Create your own Stone and link up Live it out   #TheStoneCollective”

Hope, Believing and Faith

 

Between Hope and

Believing is the

bridge of Faith….