Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Zeph. 3:17

The Lord your God is with you,
    the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
    in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
    but will rejoice over you with singing.


This is one of my all time favorite verses! Check it out in context here. Or in the AMP version here!

Take a moment and really think about this promise here. God takes great delight in YOU!He is rejoicing over YOU. He is singing over YOU. Do you really understand this?? We all "know" God loves us, but do you really, really believe this deep down in your heart? Do you believe this is specifically true about you or only others? Ask the Holy Spirit to give you deeper revelation of His heart for you. Ask Him for a glimpse of His smiling down at you and delighting in you! 

Ask Him to help you fully, truly believe this. Although...you'll actually never be able to fully comprehend His love because Ephesians 3:16-19 tells us this:
I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Some of you may remember the songs from my CD this past spring. Well, I'm working on another one! Almost every song on there is written from God's perspective. Check these out and ask Jesus to help you believe that those words are being sung over you! :) 

Come to Me by Bethel
Love Song by Third Day
Draw Near to Me by Bethel
Beloved by Tenth Avenue North
More by Matthew West

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Matthew 9:15

And Jesus said to them [John the Baptist's disciples], “Can the friends of the Bridegroom mourn as long as the Bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the Bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.” 

Notice, Jesus doesn't say, "Then they might fast." He says they will. They being His disciples (aka-you & me). Jesus' disciples will fast. Jesus said it; it'll happen. But do you right now?? 

Remember this post? I don't know how many of you actually found time to listen to it. But maybe  you'll find time to read the notes HERE.

If you can't find time to read that, then at least read this...

We do not fast to motivate God to pay attention to us, but to receive the affection He already has for us—it is not to move His heart, but our own. Fasting lessens our spiritual dullness.

Jesus established the New Covenant by His death and resurrection, in which the Spirit comes and dwells in every believer. Then, fasting took on a whole new dimension, because the indwelling  Spirit revealed the depths of God to the disciples (1 Cor. 2:10; Heb. 10:19-22). 

A mourning heart is fiercely discontent and desperately hungry for God—this is the Bridegroom fast. We refuse to accept the current state of our spiritual barrenness and dullness.

The Bridegroom fast is primarily centered on desire—both understanding God's desire for us and awakening our desire for Him. When we fast, God changes our desires and increases our desire for Him. Once we taste the nearness of God’s presence, we cannot live without more of Him.

Fasting positions our hearts to be expanded; as we encounter Jesus as our Bridegroom God, our spiritual capacity to receive from Him increases. Fasting before our Bridegroom God is a catalyst to increase the depth and the measure to which we receive from the Lord. We receive greater measures of revelation at an accelerated pace, and with a deeper impact on our hearts. 

Seriously, how can you not want to at least try fasting now?? Don't fear it. Just ask God for grace to get you through one day of not eating physical food. He would love to help you grow deeper in your walk with Him. :) Here's some prayer-songs to listen to during breakfast, lunch, and supper. :)

Mourning for the Bridegroom

I Miss You

I Will Waste My Life + Do You Know the Way You Move Me?

Remember...basically every blogpost I write on here is just as much for me as it is for you. Whether you've never fasted before, have been fairly regularly for a little while, or have been for 20 years--we can always, always use some encouragement to fast. Satan hates spiritual disciplines. He hates what fasting does to our hearts. He will do everything in his power to convince us that we don't need to fast and that it's not for us. I can guarantee you that you will always be able to find an excuse not to do this. But Jesus told us that we will fast. So my final question for you is...Who would you rather listen to? :)

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Sty

I have a sty. Do you know what those are? It's like a big ole zit on your eyelid. Except unlike zits, there's no pore that you can just pop it. They look like a zit, but they're worse. Mine's right under my left eye. If you read about it online, they'll tell you that they should go away in about 48 hours. Ha! Mine's going on over 4 weeks now.
Just look at that nasty thing! 

When I first got it, I worked really hard at getting it to go away. Nothing helped. So after about 2 weeks, I popped it on my own. Yes, I know they tell you not to, but I'm not dropping a bunch of money on a doctor's visit just to pop it! :) So it popped...but didn't completely go away. It got better, but it's definitely still there.

And so, over a month later...I was poking away at it with my usual tools this morning and I was thinking to myself. "This would be a great blogpost topic!" Are you curious why??--Read on! :)

This sty is a little annoyance in my life. A minor imperfection on my face. But yet, when I have time in the morning or night, I am very diligent and faithful in doing anything I can to go away. The main treatments include...laying on the couch with a warm washcloth over my eye. I think this is supposed to help with the swelling and just soften it up.

For a while that really did help, but after 10 days past the suggested time of disappearance, I decided more drastic measures were needed. Plan B: Have you ever poked your skin--especially sensitive skin by your eye with a safety pin? It's paaaainful. But I continue to do it because I want that thing gone and I will do whatever it takes! I've also spent plenty of time staring that thing down in the mirror--just examining it and trying to figure out how to make it go away.

Okay, okay--don't stop reading! I'm not just gonna keep going on about my sty. I want to make the connection now to sin in my life. What if I was as diligent about removing an actual imperfection from my life? What if I did whatever I could day in and day out to keep myself from going down the wrong path? Am I willing to go through pain--physical or emotional--to get rid of every bit of sin? Am I taking time to "soak my heart" with Jesus? Am I taking time to really examine myself and ask for the Holy Spirit's conviction? These are the questions that came to me while poking at and staring down my sty this morning. :)

Please don't misread me--I know that it is by God's grace that we are cleansed from sin and it's not on our own works. But Phil. 2:13 tells us that "God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him." He is the One who is making it even possible for us to have both the ability and the desire to remove sins from our life. But are we doing what the verse just before commands? "Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear." 

That's the tough part, huh? God is giving us the desire and power to please Him, but He expects us to do our part, too. He didn't make us into robots who have no choice but to do what He wants. He gave us choices. He wants us to choose to obey Him out of reverence and fear. Jesus also says "If you love me, you will obey my commands." He also wants us to choose to obey His commands, because we love Him.

I want to be someone who, the moment I am convicted of a minor annoyance or imperfection in my life, I immediately step up and do whatever is necessary to get rid of that from my life--no matter how painful. I don't want to be a woman of compromise--saying that I'll get around to that when I have more time or saying that it's not that big of a deal or even comparing myself to others and thinking "Well at least I don't do that!" I want to be someone who will spend hours in front of the "mirror"--examining myself and trying to figure out the root of the problem and how it will go away. I want to be someone who will sit quietly, soaking in Jesus' presence as He softens my heart and brings me to true repentance--a wholehearted choice to step off the wrong path and come back to the straight and narrow. The path of choosing to love Him.

My encouragement for you as you start this new week is that you take time to sit in front of the "mirror" and examine yourself. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you your "sty" and thank God for giving you the desire and power to do whatever it takes to remove these completely from your life. Ask Him to help you make a wholehearted choice to work hard at staying on the straight and narrow path of loving Him.


Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Hopelessly Weak

All through junior high and high school, if anyone ever asked me my favorite verse, it was always 1 Cor. 13. I think I liked it because I thought it had beautiful wording and it was just great verses to live by and to strive for. For high school graduation, my aunt wanted to cross-stitch my favorite verse on a book mark for me. Good thing she was creative enough to get the jist of that passage on a little bookmark. :)

And actually, that passage has quite a significant role in my personal testimony. I've been reading a book called The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee, and the chapter I just finished reminded me of that again. In the chapter, he talked about Romans 7 and how humans have this constant battle of doing what they don't want to do and not doing what we want to do. He talks about how this battle is important & essential because it breaks us down and shows us how weak we are to follow the Law. Every Christian needs this battle in order to finally let Jesus come in and do it for us.

This is exactly the case for me with 1 Cor. 13. Often times, when reading that Scripture, I would put my name in place of the word "love." Danae  is patient. Danae  is kind. Danae  is not easily angered. She keeps no record of wrongs...etc. For a while, I was reading that passage every day, and trying to focus on one section. I would think things like "Okay, today I'm going to be really patient. Today I'm not going to get easily angered..." But it seemed like the harder I tried to be patient, the more impatient I actually was. I was feeling just like Paul in Romans 7-- "Oh what a wretched woman I am!" It was so frustrating!

Watchman Nee writes in the book,
"The more we try to keep the Law, the more our weakness is manifest and the deeper we get into Romans 7, until it is clearly demonstrated to us that we are hopelessly weak. God knew it all along, but we did not. So God had to bring us through painful experiences to a recognition of the fact...This is why God gave us the Law."

This couldn't describe my personal experience any more accurately. I was trying sooo hard to be loving. The harder I tried, the worse I was at it. Finally, during spring semester of my freshman year, through a variety of experiences and conversations, it all clicked for me. You could say God graced me with a revelation! I finally realized that I wasn't the one who was supposed to be loving better. It's Christ living in me! I finally realized that the only way I'm ever going to be a better lover, is if I stop trying and surrender to Jesus doing it through me. I was clearly demonstrated to that I was hopelessly weak. God knew it all along, but I didn't. I thought I had to keep trying harder. If I really loved God, then I should be able to love others, right?? Not when I'm trying with my own flesh. I was brought through painful experiences, especially during my freshman year, that brought me to a recognition of that fact. I'm so thankful for them! I'm so totally amazed at how much Jesus transformed my life in such a relatively short amount of time all because of that humbling revelation.

I would still say that 1 Cor. 13 is one of my favorite Scriptures, but for a totally different reason. It's one of my favorites because Jesus used it mightily in my personal testimony. It's one of my favorites because it helped me see how hopelessly weak I am. It's one of my favorites because it is a great verse to live by, but not on my own strength. It's a passage that can only be followed when I'm fully surrendered to the Holy Spirit working through me.

I don't think it's any coincidence that 1 Cor. 13 was always my favorite passage. I think God's always given me that desire to really love well. Before my revelation, I always wanted to be good at loving...but I was pretty awful. Now, by God's grace alone I can humbly say that I love to love. I love to give words of affirmation, do acts of service, and just make people feel special!
During fall semester of my sophomore year, these are the words God gave me through someone:
"You have a lot of love to give and have it within you. You will receive more His love and you'll tell Him you love Him and He will just give you more and you’ll pour out more. It will be an endless cycle of love. God wants to pour His love over you so that you can give more and receive more and give more and on and on. You really have lots of love."

Praise Jesus with me for His testimony in my life! It's my prayer that you, too, have found yourself to be hopelessly weak and realize that only through complete surrender can Jesus' life be made manifest in your life.