Who Am I?

Since at least the 1960’s the question of who we are seems to be one of popularity.  Many people have often said they need to “find themselves” which leads to them leaving family, job, and sometimes country behind in this search to find what is missing.  Really the answer to what is missing is Jesus!  By knowing Jesus and growing in your relationship with Him we learn who we are through how He sees us, what His plan is for us, as well as, how we share His love for us with others.

I was reading today in Exodus where God comes to Moses and tells Moses he is going to Pharaoh to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.  Moses like many of us asked the question “Who am I?”  Why would pharaoh listen to what he had to say?  Or care for that matter.  I know for myself I often times catch myself wondering why God would put me or allow me to be in a situation where I am not my strongest.  But the answer to this is that God doesn’t need me to be at my strongest.  Because if I am at my strongest then the moment is about me and not about God, it is about my accomplishment and not God’s accomplishment through me.  If I am at my strongest then I don’t allow God the ability to work through me and allow His glory to shine forth.

As Christians, when God calls us to do something what is our most common response?  Do we start with “Here I am Lord send me!” or do we ask, “Who am I?” 

I have noticed as my relationship with Jesus grows stronger I have been saying a lot more of the “Here I am Lord send me!” than asking why me.  Because the why doesn’t really matter, as much as, the fact that Jesus is calling me to do something.  Being a Christian means that when Jesus calls you, you are to be obedient and follow through with what has been asked of you.  God will provide all that you need to accomplish His goal. 

Throughout this last week or so we have had a couple of different events for my mom’s business.  As the days were growing closer to the time when we had to be ready for these two different events we were struggling to make it.  We ran into issue after issue.  Satan was trying his hardest to keep us from fulfilling what God had put before us.  But as one very wise woman told me, Satan tries his hardest right before he is defeated. 

So even though I know that when I say here I am Lord send me that I am more than likely going to encounter moments of hardship and trials will arise in an attempt to keep me from being able to complete what God has put before me.  I also know that if I question Who am I to do this and then because I don’t have faith that God will provide a way to follow through I ignore what God has asked of me I have let Satan win the battle in my mind.  So each day I pray for God to provide what is needed to fight the battles of the day to help me accomplish His goals.  Because ultimately who I am, is a child of God who serves Him in His endeavor to show the world His glory and love!

Dancing with Jesus

I’ve always loved to watch people dance together.  It seems like such a small thing but you can really see those couples that are in sync with each other and those who aren’t.  Those who are overthinking where their feet are supposed to be and those who just go with the flow.  As I learned this weekend at a retreat you can also look at your relationship with Jesus as a dance.

Are you the partner that allows Jesus to lead you or do you try to lead Him where you want to go?  Are you the partner so focused on not making the wrong step that you miss the joy in the dance? 

When I think of being the dancer, I think of how awkward I usually am.  I loose sight of the fun in dancing when I am focused on not stepping on my partners feet, or I am counting out the steps in my head, or the simple fact that I can’t see my path.  When I was younger I really liked line dancing.  It was easy steps to learn, no partner and I controlled my direction.  But dancing with Jesus???  It is the type of dancing I feel most awkward on.  I have to let Him lead, I can’t see my path, I don’t know the steps He is going to take me on, and I tend to overthink is this really the way He wants me to go?

Yet as I learned this weekend, dancing with Jesus is the best place to be!  He puts a song in my heart each morning.  He tells me the steps for the day as I read my Bible and pray.  He guides my path with a comforting hand.   It’s when I try to lead Jesus where I want to go that the steps become harder, I am off beat to the music, I take the wrong path by over thinking. 

More often than not I think we can all get caught up in the struggles that life has to offer us.  We loose sight of that comforting hand on our back that reassures us if we just follow Him we will be ok.  Or we are so focused on what we want that we don’t ask God what His will for us is, we just plow forward to get where we desire to be only to find out it wasn’t really what we desired.

So I'm going to listen to the song God puts in my heart each morning, rejoice in my blessings, and enjoy my dance with Jesus!  

Live For Today!

One of my mom’s favorite verses to quote is “Today is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”  Even though she loves to tell me this especially on the mornings when I really want to be back in bed sleeping as opposed to getting up and going to work, it has an even bigger meaning to my days.  The Lord has really been showing me that I need to focus only on today.  Not to dwell on the past things I can’t change or to worry about what tomorrow might bring, but to focus solely on today. 

When I go down the path of focusing on my past failures I am opening myself up to allowing Satan to play in my head.  Making those failures seem huge, insurmountable, and cause me to be less likely to try for fear of failure.  That fear of failure based on the past can cause us to stop dreaming, loving others, and to stop giving.  We fear the rejection and/or failure that we had experienced.  Just as the worry of what tomorrow will bring can cause us to hold back what we might do today. 

God doesn’t want us to live in a state of frustration, fear, depression, or anxiety.  He wants us to live a bold life of faith in Him that He will be our strength.  We need to focus less on how far we have left to go and start focusing on what progress we have made in our walk with God.  Think about how much you have changed since accepting God into your heart.  

So stop worrying about tomorrow and stop focusing on past failures that can’t be changed and focus on today!  Focus on what God has called you to do today.  Though we are all be tempted to get discouraged at times through our day we have to remember that God is in control and fighting your battles for you!  

When a Little Dab Won't Do

Do you remember the phrase “a little dab will do you?”  When it comes to something really strong?  Like maybe a perfume or medication?  That mentality for something strong doesn’t apply to God!  The importance of reading your Bible every day is to grow in your relationship with Christ.  After all He died for you so why wouldn’t He want a relationship with you? 

So many people think that they are good to go for the whole week as long as they go to church on Sunday morning.  It’s that “little dab will do you” mentality.  I used to be one of them!  The relationship I had with Jesus then compared to the one I have now is a completely different one. 

When I thought going to church on Sunday morning was enough, I wasn’t worshipping with my whole heart.  It wasn’t that I didn’t believe or didn’t want to hear the message or that I didn’t like the music.  It was that I thought it was enough just to be there.

But as my faith and trust in God has grown over the last several years, I have come to find that on Sunday I get to hear a message from the Bible that speaks to my heart.  I’m getting a little (sometimes big) nugget that will bring me closer to God.  It often times will relate to what I have been reading in the Bible even if its not in the same part of the Bible, but I’ve then been given confirmation on what God has been teaching me through my daily reading!

One of the main lessons I’ve learned is that God doesn’t want you to face things alone.  Whether you are facing issues with debt, depression, loss of a job, loss of a spouse or someone close to you, illness, or any other problem, God wants you to have perfect peace.  But the only way to obtain that perfect peace is to trust Him to take care of the situation for you.  He wants you to rely on Him to get you through it!  If you think about it we had some great examples of this in the Bible.  King David in 1 Samuel 30:6 “David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters.  But David found strength in the Lord his God.”  When David spent time in prayer, when his heart and mind were fixed on God, David always came through.  It was when his mind was fixed elsewhere that he failed, that he faltered.  It didn’t mean that God didn’t love him and forgive him, David had lost sight at that moment, he had taken his eyes off the one thing that gave him perfect peace… God. 

When it comes to having my heart and mind fixed on my situation I have often wondered how to change this?  It seems when I have bills coming due or any other thing that I could focus on and worry about I would find myself stewing over it.  Thoughts of how I could make it work out to be ok.  But in reality there is nothing I can do to make it ok except give it to the one who can.  Meditating instead of on things I can’t change to meditating on things that I have faith in.  Knowing that the time I spend in prayer, reading my Bible or singing worship music in my head I am finding my way to perfect peace through the situation because God has it covered.

Step of Faith

Have you ever felt like you just got thrust into a place you didn’t want to be?  Where you feel that you are in a race that you can’t possibly keep up much less finish what has been placed before you?  In your efforts to try and just get to the finish line of what has been place before you, you find you’ve gotten off track?

It seems that many times over the last few years, as I have grown closer in my relationship with God that I have had many “races” set before me.  Each task He has put before me, I seem to have the same reactions at the beginning.  Lord, I can’t do this on my own!  But He isn’t asking that of me.  He is asking me to do what He has placed before me with faith in Him to get me through it.

One of my favorite Bible verses is:

‎"The Lord your God is with you, 
He is mighty to save.  
He will take great delight in you, 
he will quiet you with his love,
 he will rejoice over you with singing." Zephaniah 3:17

In whatever circumstance I find myself in, God is with me.  He is Mighty to save!  He is stronger than anything else I can think or dream of to get me through my circumstances.  I will delight Him by being thankful for what He has done for me.  I will be comforted with the love that He shows me every day!  When my faith in Him has gotten me through what I could not do on my own, He will rejoice over me.  How amazing is that?  God who is so much more than you can ever imagine loves us so much that He will rejoice over us with singing! 

So when you find yourself veering off course, when you feel like you can’t go any further on your own… don’t!  Ask God to help you, ask Him to do what you can’t.  He’s already there waiting for you to simply ask Him to help you!  A great example in the Bible of this for me is the story of Peter when he walked on water to get to Jesus.  He stepped out in faith but then doubts started to get to him.  He didn’t keep his focus on Jesus being able to do all things including Peter walking on water.  But when Peter cried out for Jesus to save him, Jesus didn’t hesitate; He was right there ready to step in.  

God's Plan vs. My Plan

Joyce Meyers wrote on Facebook a few weeks ago, “Get God’s plan before making your own”.  This really hit me up along side of the head, I happened to read it shortly after thinking that God must really be getting a laugh out of me making my plans that day, nothing had gone as I had planned.

Lately God has really been speaking to my heart about plans… His vs. mine.  I am a planner; I have a plan for each day to know what’s the most urgent thing to the least that needs to be dealt with.  But do I get God’s plan before I make my own?  How much different is God’s plan for my day?  He’s been reminding me of all the times I have listened to Him and followed what He tells me, as well as, those times that I haven’t.

Looking back on those days when I listened, I see how things just seemed to fall into place.  It wasn’t me trying to force it to be right, it just was.  Then there are those He reminds me of when I didn’t listen.  He reminds me of how things went wrong, how I was full of stress, frustration and anxiety over the situation.  So why do I let my feelings of anxiety or let myself worry about how to get everything done and not listen to what God is telling me? 

It seems I forget that God has a plan for me.  I get too caught up in what I have going on right that minute to pay attention to what God is saying.  What I’ve noticed is this, when I start my day with reading my Bible the sense of peace I get carries me through the day.  I’ve had my quiet time of reading and reflection.  I have a sense of being able to do all that has been put before me because I know that God will never leave me or forsake me.  And that to do list I created doesn't have so much pull over the direction I am heading in that day.  His plan for me is greater than I can even imagine and I am just a small piece of the puzzle.  I can combat that sense of stress, frustration and anxiety with the Bible verses I am memorizing this week and by having faith that if God is for me who can be in victory against me.

“He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”  Philippians 1:6

“Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.”  Psalm 146:5

  Faith as defined by Max Lucado “is a conviction that He can and a hope that He will.”  Going forward each day I am putting my faith in God’s planning rather than my own, knowing that His plan has my best interests at heart.