HIS PROMISES

"God is not human, that he should lie,

not a human being,

that he should change his mind.

Does he speak and then not act?

Does he promise and not fulfill?

I have received a command to bless;

he has blessed,

and I cannot change it."

Deuteronomy 23:19

Often times we sit and wonder if life will ever turn out the way we expected it to. Will we ever see that dream come true? Will I ever get to do the things my heart desires? Will I get to leave a legacy for my children to carry out when I'm gone? Will I ever have children? The list goes on and on and on...but what we often forget are the very promises that God has already made to us. Our doubt overshadows the life in each promise given...then we sit and wonder why that promise is no longer visable. Is it out of our reach? Is it completely gone? Gods promises are forever. They never leave us but we are the ones who slowly begin to lose sight of the very thing we dreamed about year after year. That shadow momentarily causes our vision to become blurred and we think that thing is gone but its really still there waiting for us to shine our light on it again, to bring life to something that we felt was once dead. 

If a plant loses its sunlight, it slowly sinks down and hangs for a moment in darkness, but as soon as the sunlight shines bright, it perks up and stretches out ready to wave in the winds of life and hope.

One of my daughters recently brought a package home from school that contained a small pouch of seeds, growing pellets and a sheet of instructions...that's it! I have no idea what to do with this package except to read the instructions and do my best to help her grow this plant. I immediately went to researching what would be needed for this plant to grow. How do I even get started? Now just for the record...I have killed every single plant that has ever been brought into my home. I remember my mother-in-law giving me a fern shortly after my husband and I were married. She told me it would be the easiest plant to keep alive...Lol...nope...dead. I couldn't even keep a fern alive! How was I possibly going to help her to succeed in GROWING a plant when I can't even keep the already grown ones alive...lol. When it comes to plants, I just don't have that green thumb. But nonetheless, I had to learn what would be needed to help this plant grow. It's funny though if we really think about it. What does a plant usually need to grow? Light and water. That's it. The tricky part is how much light and water. Every plant is different. Each one has its specific needs. This particular plant is Bell Peppers and what I learned is that even though it needs plenty of water, you are not to water it again until you begin to see the leaves slightly wilt. But why? Why would I want to see this poor plant begin to look like its struggling and dying? Why not keep it watered and wet at all times? Why can't I just water at the same time every day and be done? Here is what the Lord spoke to me in that moment of questioning...

"Then it will never reach its full potential."

Huh?!

Isn't it amazing how God can take the simplest of creations and teach us a lesson about ourselves? If I overwater the plant then it will drown. If I underwater it, it will dry up completely and shrink to its death. But at that very moment when it begins to wilt I can hear it sweetly whisper to me, "I am thirsty." All it needs is a drink.

In the same way, we thirst for Him on a daily basis. Our life begins to dry up and we shrivel up in the heat of our daily routine. Our struggles and obstacles keep us from stopping for a moment to get that much needed drink. We forget that we need to be watered. In the same way, we sometimes may try too hard to be in Gods presence. We plead and desperately cry for Him to change a situation. "Please Lord, just get me out of this one! Help me father to make it through this and I promise to never do it again!" Sound familiar? We begin to drown from the overwatering because we expected God to move immediately in our situation and it didn't happen as we wanted it to. We are watered in our life when we most need it. Watering doesn't come at the same time everyday, but comes at the most needed time.

I find that my watering moments are sometimes brief moments throughout the day when He touches my heart and tells me to slow down. I have to halt the rush and take a drink. My drink of water comes when I just take a moment to say "I love you Lord, and I thank you for all you have done in my life." Sometimes that moment is just a sip and other times I sit and enjoy a full watering. It doesn't matter how much to me, because God knows just how much I need. I just sit and enjoy the refreshing water being poured into my life.

"You are the light of the world..." Matthew 5:14

It goes on to say that a person would not light a lamp and hide it under a bowl. They would let the light shine for everyone to see. We are that light to the World. When we shine bright for God, we bring life to those around us. Does this mean we have to consistently preach the word to people every moment of the day? Of course not. We are to shine light where there is darkness to help those around us find their way out of that dark place in their life. If a plant has too much light, it will dry up and die. But if it does not get any light, it will wither and die. We shine our light through the way we live. Often times we may not even need to open our mouth to speak, but we shine our light through our actions and that light brings life to those around us desperately searching to see.

Going back to His promises in our life, God showed me something else about the plant. Sometimes we try to hard. Have you ever noticed the plants and trees that surround us outside? They somehow thrive on their own, right? They seem to get exactly what they need when they need it. They grow to their fullest potential and even when we forget to water and care for them, God always steps in and rains on the earth at just the right time. He shines his magnificent light on them when they need to fully bloom. Yet he brings the darkness at night to give them a moment of rest. But even in that moment of rest they are in great anticipation for the sunrise so they can stretch out their branches in the morning, wave their leaves in the sunlight and open their petals to receive from him their next blessing whatever it may be.

In the same way, God waters us, gives us light, and pours out his blessings in the proper time. But we must realize that it is Him in our life bringing life to all we do. He fills us up and leaves us in anticipation for that next refreshing. My life may feel dry at times and just as the plant opens up its petal and stretches out its branches, I raise my arms and lift my head to give thanks to the one who gives me life and blesses me with all that I have. Even through the struggles, I thank Him just for walking through it with me. The storms may come, but I still live on. The heavy rains and winding tornados in life may beat us down but they can not uproot us if God is the source of our life.

My daughters brought home their bible lesson from church last week and the topic for this month is Gratitude. It's easy to thank God for the good things, but what I loved about their lesson was that it taught them to thank God even when bad things happen. One of the examples it shared was when we receive a bad grade on a test, we can still thank God that we have the opportunity to go to school to learn. It may seem hard at the moment to thank Him in our disappointment, but we make it through and we strive to do better. I love that lesson. So simple and written for a child, but so profound for us adults who often times need a lesson like that :)

I want to share one more story before I go and I pray it encourage you in your walk with God and remind you of the promises he has for you. Years ago, in 2002, my husband and I took our first trip to DisneyWorld. We went to celebrate our anniversary and just to have fun. God had other plans! Lol. The moment we stepped into that theme park our minds and hearts started running with so much inspiration, vision, motivation, determination, excitement, creative ideas....I can go on and on! It was like a whirlwind of the vision he had for us to accomplish together in our life. We were so excited! As soon as we returned home, we started writing things down that He had spoken to us. We drew things out. We had my dad draw up plans for the building that we wanted to be in. We prayed and prayed and prayed over that dream for years. We almost saw it partially happen with a school we were working for a couple of years later. It was so exciting and then one day it was like we had just given up on the whole vision God had given to us. We became tired. The waiting was weighing heavy on us and just as I shared before, doubt began to overshadow the promise God had given to us. We began to believe that this dream was no longer going to be a legacy that we would one day pass on to our daughters, but now would be a just a dream to pass on. The girls would be the ones to labor through it all and see the fruits of our prayers and their labor. Our question was no longer when but would we ever get the chance to see this dream born?

God showed me something in the spring of this year. We were on our way to visit family in Texas and just like anything else, the memories of when we used to live there years ago flooded my heart. You see, we were in Texas when the vision and dream was so alive. This is where God filled our hearts with excitement for this thing. But in reflecting I knew God was trying to speak. He reminded me of the dream but he also spoke a new thing into my spirit. It was not about when or what or even what building...It was about how. All these years we envisioned this dream in this huge beautiful building, with classrooms and studios. We saw young people finding their purpose and discovering their God-given gifts. We could see teachers pouring their heart and soul into the very thing they had a passion for. It was all about purpose! But we had overlooked our own purpose!

He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation."  Mark 16:15

We were living this dream and never realized it! Everyday for the past 3 years God has placed each one of us...Chris, myself, our daughters...in situations to be an encouragement and blessing to so many people. Lives have been touched, hope has been restored, strength has been regained and relationship with the Lord has been established. What an amazing thing to be used wherever our feet take us. I will never put God in a box because if one day he places us in a building then Praise God for that too, but the focus is not on where, but on how! How will he use us for his glory? This is what our purpose was. To take the gifts he gave us and go into all the world to share what he has done in our life to bring hope into your life. We are seeing his promises everyday. They're not gone! Your promises from God are there waiting to be received. Just ask him how and he will begin to reveal the promise he has for you. I can't say enough how much I love the Lord. We may struggle through it at times but we endure, persevere, press on and finish the race. His blessings are forever!

Be Blessed!

Jennifer

TRANSITION

Going from that place, he went into their synagogue,

and a man with a shriveled hand was there.

Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, 

they asked him,

"Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"

He said to them, 

"If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath,

will you not take hold of it and lift it out?

How much more valuable is a person than a sheep!

Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."

Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."

So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other.

But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.

Matthew 12:9-14

Transition:  a change from one state or condition to another

We must open up our hands and release what we have held onto for so long in preparation for what God wants to give us now.

If our hands are shut tight, there is no room to receive what has been promised to us.

Even in time of transition, people will still disagree, misunderstand and refuse to believe that you are shifting into a new season of blessings but just as Jesus healed the mans hand on the sabbath (which was against the laws of man), and just as he was rebuked by the Pharisees for this miracle, even so will God transition us in the proper time regardless of what man thinks should happen in our life.

We must not miss this time of transition because of a lack of faith either. Sometimes we may not be able to see transition happening but we can feel it coming. Do not deny the spirit of God speaking these things to your heart.

Transition comes and if we refuse to let go of the things of the past and present, then we miss our opportunity to receive the things stored up for our future. We miss that open window of transition in our life and we sit stagnant in that place impatiently waiting for it to come again. Why do you think so many people are miserable? They may not say it but we can see it. They become stuck in a rut because they missed the opportunity to transition smoothly. A ripple of frustration is released and regret settles in.

A transition is meant to be smooth like one color blending into another. They both take on properties/qualities of the other. You can see both colors but the creation between the two is a masterpiece. You see, we often view transition as a bumpy ride, a moment of uncertainty, but God meant transition to be a releasing of ourselves from one season and a receiving of our new selves from a new season. When a tree goes through seasons it takes on some appearances that we might often view as unpleasant. We see the leaves loosen up and prepare to drop in Fall. We see the tree shed every bit of its glory in the Winter leaving an empty shell that looks dried up and deceased, but what we fail to see is the beauty of new buds waiting patiently for the proper moment to release in all their glory creating a masterpiece in full bloom for the Spring.

Transition may not be beautiful but what it yields in time will be well worth the journey through it. I actually enjoy the transition phase. Do I enjoy the shedding of my leaves? Do I look forward to the bare appearance of my life? Absolutely! Because I know God has begun to remove the things which do not belong, he is creating a new canvas for a new masterpiece. My life is not left void in this time of transition but is much lighter without the weight of the past. So I will gladly walk with my head held high as the leaves of my past fall off one by one in preparation for a fullness that I can not even comprehend. It's a fullness in the next season that will gracefully wave in the wind touching every life I meet. Why would we want to touch people with our past? We wouldn't. Oh, and by the way, the moment we walk watching each leaf fall off one at a time, it doesn't happen all at once. Each leaf must fall when it's ready and it will take time. So pray and ask God for patience and grace through this time of transition.

The transition of our own life yields fruit in the end for others to see. When we go through and come out full of grace, others will have the faith to know that it's ok to open up those hands and release what we no longer need in our life and allow God to fill those hands with greatness.

I always come back to this one point at the end of each blog because I just can't help it....

"We all have a purpose for our lives even if we can't see it right away"

I am so heartbroken at times when I hear of young people ending their lives or just desiring to do so. Why has no one spoken words into their life to uplift and reassure them that their life is on purpose no matter their current situation?

My daughters amaze me every time they open their mouth, but one thing I love to hear them say or do is remind people of the power of our tongues. At different times I've heard them say "don't say that, your words are powerful"...to adults! It can be something so simple as "oh this is going to be a bad day" and these precious girls of mine open up their mouth with no hesitation and remind these adults that what they speak will determine the outcome. How powerful is that?! We need to take a faith lesson from our children :)

Remember your purpose on this earth is to touch lives, save lives. It doesn't matter how we do it, because God has equipped us with different gifts and abilities, but we do have a great purpose and our time is not up until we have fulfilled that purpose.

Remember this one thing about the man in the synagogue with the shriveled up hand. He wasn't there looking for a miracle, he wasn't pulling on Jesus begging to be healed but Jesus stepped up and chose him. Jesus spoke to the Pharisees first and addressed their concern, then he told the man to stretch out his hand and the man was healed. The man was in that place at the appointed time of his life, he made himself available, he did not argue, fight or question why him, and he had faith enough to act on what Christ asked him to do. And he never spoke a word. Now that's faith! Walk it out, don't question or complain, just believe. Let God do the rest.

You're transition is upon you, as is ours. Do not miss the open door to say "yes Lord, I will trust and believe" and watch him move you to a place of new purpose.

Be blessed :)

Do You Know Who You Are? Part 3

"I have told you these things,

so that in me you may have peace.

In this world you will have trouble.

But take heart!

I have overcome the world."

John 16:33

It has been about a month since my last post. I intended on writing sooner but life always has a way of stealing me away from the quiet moments. I have been so eager to finish this series of posts but I am so grateful that God is always in control of our time and will allow us to complete things in His perfect timing. The subject has been "Do you know who you are", and often times this question can seem to offend others when being asked. Why do we become offended? Why is it that we struggle with feeling like we are being questioned about our own existence in this life on earth? Why? Well...because we are.

My husband has this thing about asking me a question that he knows I know the answer to. I usually get defensive and ask him why he's asking me again. Then the problem becomes this issue of me feeling like Im being tested. So I end up getting upset and asking him what he thinks the answer is (why? because we always want to throw it back on the one whos serving it up...lol). His response is to ask me again and when I finally answer, he responds with a simple, " I just wanted to here you say it."  Ugh! Really?! Lol.....Why does this rub us the wrong way? Why do we always feel like someone is trying to back us into a corner when this is not the case at all? All my hubby is trying to do is remind me of the very things that I know I am confident about in my heart but do not yet confidently speak. Sometimes we forget who we are because we forget to speak it daily over our life.

So about a month ago I began this series on "Do you know who you are?" I shared 3 of the 4 points that God placed on my heart to share with you. The first 3 were IDENTITY, PURPOSE and POSITION. To read more about these first three, I would encourage you to look back at the previous 2 posts. The 4th and final point is PEACE. The verse was John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” 

Christ never promised us that our life would be perfect. He never said that if we follow him , we will never suffer or have to endure trouble. But he did promise to be with us every step of the way. His word says that he has already overcome the world. He died for our sins that we may have everlasting life. When we trust and have faith that God will see us through any trouble or hard time we may have to endure, then and only then do we find peace. Peace is not that moment in our day when our children are napping, our hubby's at work, and we find a moment to sit and relax. True peace is when we can be surrounded by total chaos and know that in that moment if we call out for Gods help, He will be there to intervene and show us the way. True peace is knowing that we are walking each day in anticipation for His next move and nothing can discourage us. True peace is knowing that wehave found our Identity in Him, we are walking in our Purpose on Purpose, and we have found our Position in life. That is when we have found peace. The world will keep moving at a fast pace, life will go on, we will encounter new challenges, trials, and people, but we will be at Peace because we know who we are and what we are here to accomplish.

I receive a daily devotional in my email everyday and I read it whenever I get a chance throughout the day. One particular morning I opened up my email and saw that days devotional had arrived so I took a moment to read it. It was very specific about why the church needed us in it. It talked mostly about serving in ministry and not sitting on the sidelines. We must use our gifts for The Lord in the church it said. And as I continued to read, it spoke of how when we sit on the sidelines as spectators, the body of christ suffers. It also spoke of how local churches are dying because of Christians who are unwilling to serve in the church.

I completely agree that serving the body of Christ is very important. We all have a part in helping the body to function, however, God has created us to serve in different ways. When we look through Gods word, not all ministry and serving took place inside the church. If we ministered within the 4 walls of the house of God all of the time, then the rest of the world would never have a chance to know Him as we do.

After many years in ministry, I believe I finally understand my Identity, Purpose and Position. My husband and I served so many years in different ministries both separate before marriage and together after we met. We both grew up in church thinking that we had to serve in every capacity possible. We used our God-given talents to minister to others. We gave and gave and gave and it was always very rewarding to see others come to know Christ because of our sacrifices but we still felt somewhat out of place. Have you ever done something and you knew it touched or blessed someone else, but you still felt like you were missing something? God still used us in great ways but we were only fitting into this tapestry of ministry by looking for an open space to fill rather than asking God where He needed us to be. You see, we can live life filling in the gaps where someone else may not yet be or we can ask God to direct us to the place in which He created for us to be. A tapestry has many beautiful colors but what happens if I am a purple thread trying to fit into the blue stitches already sewn? I may help in holding it together but if I'm just a single thread not in the proper place I will eventually unravel and leave the rest of the tapestry with an open gap needing to be filled again. We have to find our proper place and then we may operate to our fullest in what God has created us to do.

These past to 2 years have been the first time that Chris and I have not been consistently active in any ministry. We do have a home church that we attend and I have to thank God for bringing us to a house that speaks His on time word to us every time we are there, but I also believe this has been a season of rest and a time of receiving His word. But this is where I have to mention the devotional I received in my email. We can not always assume that the call on our life must be within a church. We have to search our heart and find out from God our personal Identity, Purpose and Position and walk in it. In this season of rest from ministry, God revealed and launched us into the place where we should have been and I can honestly say that God has used both Chris and I and our testimony to share with so many people outside of those 4 walls who Christ really is and how much He loves us all. Some of these people have begun to attend our church, others have a new home church of their own and others we still have the great opportunity to witness to.

Do you know who you are? When we pray each morning on the way to school, our daughters have a word they speak to themselves before they even get out of the truck. We say, "God, help us to be the greatest example of your love today to every person we meet." There is so much truth in that and to know that every day we have the opportunity to love others with the love of God. That is what makes them want to know Him more. Our example and purpose outside the church is just as powerful as the word of God received inside the church. The body operates on the inside yes, but it is the outside that the lost see. Serve God and His people the way He has called you to do so.

When we find our Identity, Purpose and Position.....We find Peace.

Ask Him to give you direction and Know Who You Are In Him! Be blessed!

Do You Know Who You Are? Part 2

"For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and

wonderfully made;

Your works are wonderful,

I know that full well."

Psalm 139:13-14

The last time I wrote I began to share with you the four things God had placed on my heart about discovering who we are in Him. Do we truly know who we are? Are we partially sure of who we are? Is there a doubt in our minds that we are who we are? These questions, I'm sure, consume us at times. We struggle to make sense of the chaos around us because we're not quite sure where we fit in and on top of all that, who wants to be in the midst of chaos. Finding our place in life and knowing who we are is knowing who God is and what He has created us to do and be.

In the last post, I shared with you about Identity. Our Identity is the qualities that make us different from one another. The biggest thing that can keep us from discovering our identity and knowing who we are is our insecurities. Every time I think about God creating us individually, I envision a picture of Him sitting at a potters wheel, spinning the wheel and carefully sculpting the clay. What hard work that must be. Not one piece of pottery can be duplicated to look exactly like another.  I remember when Chris and I first got married, I was teaching Art and going to school in the evenings and on Saturdays. I was taking drawing classes and decided I wanted to try something new, so I signed up for ceramic class. It was a credit needed as well so I just figured I'd get it out of the way. Well, needless to say, I fell in love with clay! I came home every night excited to tell Chris what I had been working on. I even brought home my work at times. We had even at one point considered purchasing a Kiln to keep in the garage so I could continue my creations after the classes where over. I had one problem though...I was not very skilled on the pottery wheel. I could never keep the clay wet enough. At times it was too wet...ugh. And then there were those moments that I had no control whatsoever on the speed of the wheel. My foot every time suddenly become as heavy as a sledge hammer and the clay would eventually go sliding, and often times, flying off the wheel. I felt frustrated every time I had to sit at that cursed thing. 

There was another student in my class who could sit at the wheel and make the most beautiful pieces. He was so graceful in shaping that unique piece of pottery that would soon become a one of a kind masterpiece. Why couldn't I do that? Why was it so natural to him and for me it was such a mess? Piece after piece would come out of the kiln shaped and glazed to perfection. And here I stood watching and hoping I could one day create such masterpieces. But here's the irony in all of this. I wanted so badly to create the masterpiece but I didn't even enjoy sitting at the wheel. How could I make something so beautiful from sitting in a position I so much disliked? I didn't even enjoy the wheel. My passion was sitting at a large table surface with a 6lb block of recycled clay and hand-building my masterpiece. I began to build pieces using a coil method that allowed you to create a base shape, roll pieces of clay into coil shapes and then carefully shape them around the base building from the bottom up. These pieces too were unique, just as those thrown on the wheel, but created in a different way. I had found my position in pottery building. I was amazed at the things that were coming from these hands of mine and so excited to see that God could use me in a different way. Later that semester, one of my pieces was chosen to go on display at the student exhibition.

You see, I thought that just because I couldn't sculpt the way someone else did, I must not have had the same ability as they did. It wasn't about the ability, it was about the technique. I had the ability, but God just created me to operate in a different way. 

Some people may be able to gracefully shape and mold the life of others in a quick spin of the wheel and then there are those who must be built from the bottom up because they have been broken and torn apart. God showed me love and compassion for the people and because of that I know my purpose and position in helping to rebuild others who have been broken. The amazing thing about clay is that it can be recycled. Remember I mentioned that I had been using recycled clay for my projects at school? The clay had come from broken pieces that didn't quite turn out the way they were expected but I was able to take that broken clay and reuse it to build something beautiful. And guess what? We are not perfect! After the clay would go through the firing process, I would remove it from the kiln and there would often times be a crack or two but the piece was still beautiful, imperfections and all. No one is perfect, but we can all be rebuilt.

I had originally intended on covering only one point in todays blog but God works in his own way :)

Point 2 and 3 of knowing who you are, are Purpose and Position.

Do we know our purpose in life? Purpose is the reason for which something (or someone in this case) exists. What are you purposed to do? What are you designed to do? Our purpose in life is always bigger than us but we have no need to fear it. David didn't fear the giant when he set out to accomplish what God created him to do. He didn't flinch or step back. He stepped forward in confidence that God would be there with him no matter what he faced. We each have a purpose. What is it that makes you feel like your fulfilling life? When living for God what brings us Joy? What do you love to do? These are all great questions to ask ourselves but they are not the only indicators of why we live on purpose. We ARE on Purpose...everyday of our life. 

I read so many stories of people who have done so much in their life and then before they pass they feel as though they have accomplished nothing. Why is that? Did they know their purpose or where they only cruising through life unaware of their God-given purpose? How can they be so well known, wealthy, and admired and yet feel as though they lived alone in the darkest of places with no understanding of life; no meaning? We can be successful at somethings and still be out of our purpose. I read another story recently of a young man who had passed away in a car accident. He was only 16 and a great football player for his high school team. The story shared that in his journal he had written that God had blessed him with the gift of kicking so that he could have the opportunity to share his belief in Christ with others. While alive, he did just that and some of his friends did come to know The Lord, but it wasn't until after his death that a great number of people had given their life to the Lord both during and after his funeral all because of his witness while alive on this earth. This kid was truly living His purpose and he knew it. And even now after death, the memory of his life brings salvation to the lost.

The third point was Position. Our position is the proper or appropriate place in which we belong. What is the position that we are supposed to be in? What role to we play? A position is intended to help fill a space needing to be filled because the rest of the space can not properly function when there is a gap or missing component. If we are out of position, then we affect everything else around us. I remember about a year ago the girls and I were at an event with Chris for his job. While he worked, we walked around to visit the many other businesses out there to see what goodies we could gather from each table. We came to a chiropractor table and of course they were offering free spinal evaluations (I hope I said that right...lol). I allowed the doc to check my spine and upon evaluation he mentioned that one of my discs was slightly out of place. I guess I looked a bit concerned cause he immediately began to reassure me that it was normal but just needed to be realigned. Boy did God begin to speak word to me about the realignment of our life and priorities, etc, etc, etc! But let me get back to what I found out from the doc before I get lost on another subject :) He continued to tell me that certain discs will affect certain areas of the body and that this particular disc was the one that affected the circulation in my arm and some other areas as well. What amazed me was that everything he was saying was true. I had just shared with my husband a couple of nights before that I couldn't sleep on my left side because every time I did my left arm would go numb within seconds. It was so strange. I completely understood the connection after speaking with the doctor. I was going to have to realign that disc or else it would continue to affect the other areas of my body that it was connected to. We must find our position in whatever it is that God has called us to do and we must stay there until he says move. If we don't and we step out of position (or alignment) then we affect those around us and cause more disruption to the body, team, or group that God has connected us to. 

So first we must define our Identity, then discover our purpose. Then we will be able to find our position and operate in it to the fullest of our ability to help those around us discover their own Identity, Purpose and Position. 

We will operate in our greatest potential when we know who we are, and truly know who we are in God.

I love this scripture and I shared it at the end of the previous post but I have to share it again. I pray it blesses you.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11

Do You Know Who You Are?

"For we are His workmanship,

created in Christ Jesus for good works,

which God prepared beforehand

so that we would walk in them."

Ephesians 2:10

It has been some time since my last post. The first of the year has a strange rush to it. It seems that everything is in fast forward when the new year rolls around and before you know it an entire month has passed! Where did January go? I have missed writing and was looking forward to this day, day after day :). So here it is, the middle of February and I remember the last time I wrote God had given us a challenge. That challenge was to find a jar/container of any size and begin to focus daily on our blessings rather than our hurts, wrong doings, frustrations, and pain. Well, I hope you found a huge container! With a family of 4, our jar is filled to the top but not quite to the point of overflowing yet. To my amazement though was the fact that this jar was to be our blessing jar for the entire year...Oops! What now? Lol! I was tempted to change the rules a bit and empty the jar out monthly just to make sure it would fit. Then I shared my idea with my hubby and here is the response I received from him...

"Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."  Luke 6:38

What an amazing word! We are so used to seeing the middle of this verse about "good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over," but the beginning is what stuck with me this time. It says "Give, and it will be given to you." I cannot tell you how much this jar of blessings has not only been a blessing to us as a family, but it has blessed others as well. When people enter our home and see our jar of blessings on the counter, they can't help but to ask what it is. I usually let my girls explain to them what it's there for. Throughout the month of January the girls would have their friends over after school from time to time and the question would come up again and again. The true blessing in this is that a child never left our home without putting their blessing in the jar. At the end of the night when I would go to write my blessing, I would stop and pull a couple of blessings out to read and it would be those that the girls friends had put in. They were thanking God for their teachers, saying they were grateful for their friends, some even said their blessing for the day was that they had a chance to play. Oh how simple they were but yet, so profound. Why do we struggle so much in searching the depths of our heart for a daily blessing? Why is it so hard to thank God just for the breath we take each morning? Our blessings each day may be so small and simple but even in its simplicity we are still reminded that yes, we are indeed blessed. If you took the challenge please send me a message and let me know how God has blessed you and your family already even in this first month and a half. God has only begun and I am so looking forward to watching those blessings in our jar spill over. Then I will have the great opportunity to see the scripture come to life when I have to press it down, shake it together, and watch it run over...over and over again!

I started this post with one of my favorite verses. 

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."   Ephesians 2:10

I love this verse for many reasons but most recently it has become the word I remind myself of constantly. We are His design, created in the image of Christ for be like Christ and do great things on this earth, because whether we believe it or not, God already had the blueprints of our life drawn up and the plan written down. Our purpose was etched in the fibers of our being never to be altered or removed, but we must choose to walk in that purpose. 

Do you know who you are? I do...I didn't always know. At times I thought I knew, but not until recently did I realize who I really was. People may try to tell you who you are, they may even try to change your God-given plan but Gods plan always eliminates the inaccuracies of man. There are 4 things that I would like to share over the next couple of posts that I continually evaluate in my life to know who I am in God:

1) Identity - This is the qualities that make a particular person different from another. What makes you different from everyone else? There are so many scriptures in the bible about our identity in God and I encourage you to study them on your own, but there is one thing that will rob us of our identity and that is our insecurities. When we allow our insecurities to cause us to shrink back, we begin to forget who we are in Christ. 

What is your identity? What makes you different? Know who you are and walk in the character of Christ. Knowing who you are will launch you into your purpose He has already written for you.
I would encourage you to make a list of all the things that define who you are and makes you different from anyone else.

Do you know who you are? I am a child of God, living on purpose with a purpose, and so excited about being as different as possible from the rest of the world. We ARE Gods workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do great things, which He prepared for us to do before we were even born.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11

There Is Always Hope PART 2

Job 14:7-9 

"At least there is hope for a tree:

If it is cut down, it will sprout again,

and its new shoots will not fail.

Its roots may grow old in the ground,

and its stump die in the soil,

yet at the scent of water it will bud

and put forth shoots like a plant.

 Today is the first day of the new year and often times this day can represent a day of new beginnings or that breath of fresh air. For a moment we feel no stress, anxiety or worry because we are at the beginning of a new opportunity to leave the past behind and walk towards our dreams and aspirations for what the new year holds for us. Not a care in the world, we have our minds made up and no one can change that...then tomorrow comes...dum dum dummm dum! Oh why couldn't we just stay in today forever. Our hopes of a new beginning are crushed and then the bad begins to outweigh the good all over again. Why? 

Because we allow it to! 


I remember when I first read this verse about the tree. I had seen it many times before but this time I READ it and I finally understood it. I shared with you last time about Job. His life was full of tests and trials and when it seemed like it just couldn't get any worse...it did. And yet he still had hope for a life of restoration. If you didn't get a chance to read "There Is Always Hope", I encourage you to go back and read it in the November archives. We are that tree that at times in our life has lay dormant and cut down. We appear to have no more life and it seems as though all hope is gone, but all the tree needed was a whiff of that wonderful water. In the same way our chopped down spirits need just a whiff of Gods everlasting water. He gives life to the lifeless and allows us to grow once more.

There is so much to share and I hope that I can encourage you with this word.

The roots of a tree may dry up but just as the scripture says, "yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant." It doesn't really matter who or what chopped you down in the past but what does matter is that there is still life in your stump. A seed will not grow until it is given the necessary things needed for a successful growth. It waits to be put in the proper place, in some type of soil. Then it sits patiently waiting for water. At the first touch of that water the seed begins to open. And lastly, a seed needs warmth. It cannot grow until these three needs are met. We are much like this seed and even more so like the tree it becomes. But we tend to forget that before the tree grows above the earth, it must first grow below the earth. Even though we can not see the roots of this tree growing we have to have faith that something great is taking place and creating the foundation of what will serve as the anchor to hold that tree in place. The roots grow deep beneath the surface to do everything they can to keep that tree from becoming uprooted when the storms come. We are that tree and we feel the winds and rain in life but our root system is what determines whether we become uprooted or withstand the storms of life.

My heart weighed heavy with the picture of the stump that was left from the severe beating it had received. It had been chopped down and roots dried up but there was still hope. Have you been chopped down? Did someone, something or even just hard times weigh heavy on you? Or maybe our own actions at times caused us to let our branches hang low giving the enemy an opportunity to take a good reach and pull with all his might. We did not allow God to prune us and cut away that which did not belong in our life and so we allowed diseases to overtake our roots, which in turn killed the body of the tree.

My encouragement to you would be this. You may be cut down, feel defeated, or even left with no hope but remember this...Gods word did not say at the drop of water, it said "at the SCENT of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant." God wants to restore your roots but you must want it too. Our roots are the life giver to our tree. They are what anchors us to the foundation that God has set for us. But we must allow the things of God to be what runs through our feeder roots to the body, not the things of the world. If we allow negativity in, then negativity is what we become. We must take in the positive so that even the living things that surround us will have the opportunity to experience restoration and a reviving of their spirits. 

Remember this as well...

Just because we can not see the restoration of the roots taking place doesn't mean that it is not happening. This is true faith...when you can look at a person and by faith see the change and restoration that God is doing in their life and wait patiently for the first sign of a sprout of new life. New life has begun but be patient and soon we will see the stem of hope rise up from beneath the surface. Not hope for us...because we already know what God can do, but hope for those around us that if He can do it for me, then He can do it for you.

I want to close with a challenge for all this new year. In the midst of all the New Years resolutions I would like to share with you what God placed on my heart to do with my family and I hope that you would join in with us too. I went out today in search for a glass container. I found a vase but you can use whatever you choose. Today we will begin by writing down all the things we are praying to see God do in our lives this year as a family. Everyday for the rest of this year we will each write down one great thing that God has done for us on that specific day and date it. Into the container it will go. When we focus on the blessings in our life, no matter how big or small they are, we begin to allow God to bring restoration to our roots. Our container will say "Restoration of our Roots" on the outside of it and each day will be a reminder of how God is continuing to restore us all. This will force us at the end of each day to focus on the positive no matter how tough the day may have been and when the year is up we will be reminded that God is always there for us even in the midst of struggles, change, and trials.

I chose a glass container for 2 main reasons:

• For starters, I have nothing against journals, but being one who enjoys journaling, I find that it is very easy to set that journal aside and forget about it from time to time as life gets busy. With  a glass container/jar, I will have to stop and write something every evening when I walk past and see it staring me in the face from my kitchen counter :)
• and 2nd, I will love seeing my blessings from God grow day after day and know He loves me more than I could ever imagine.

I would encourage you to join me in this challenge and see what God does to restore the very roots of our foundation in Him.

I would love to see your blessings grow as the months go by so please share a picture with me if you can. Our container is pictured  at the top of this page and waiting eagerly to be filled :)

Be Blessed! and Happy New Year!