Perfect Pursuer

Jesus is so good at pursuing you. Have you ever thought of that before?? He knows you perfectly so He knows right when to tell you something important and right when to hold back a little and let you work through something. He knows all five love languages and does each one perfectly just for you!

• He loves to spoil you with the perfect gift for you like a gorgeous sunrise or the beautiful singing of birds or a great big smile from a little nephew just to let you know that He thinks you're really special.
• He knows the words of affirmation that you need to hear. He loves to encourage you and let you know how much He adores your heart. Sometimes He gives them through reading His Word, sometimes through the words of others, and sometimes He just puts them on your heart.
• He is the perfect example of acts of service. He knows just who to bring into your life to serve you at the perfect time. He's so kind!
• As for physical touch, have you ever gotten those goosebumps when singing a really, really good song or when a Truth just overwhelms you? What's the best hug that you can remember from someone? That's Jesus hugging you through His people. :)
• Last but not least, He LOVES quality time with you. He loves sitting and talking with you. He loves to gaze at you and He loves to have you gaze back at Him. He already knows you inside and out, but He loves it when you share more of your heart with Him. And He loves sharing His heart  back with you! Jesus is a big fan of vulnerability :) 

Jesus enjoys loving and pursuing you so, so much. He delights in making you feel special and drawing you nearer to Him every day. Are you missing it?? Ask Him to help you notice the small things He does every day to show you how special you are to Him. I'm sure He'd love to show you! 

Notice: You are noticed!

Another thing that Jesus has shown me about His heart for His Beloved:
[Check out previous blog posts to see what else the Lord is giving me deeper understanding of in this situation.]

Jesus notices every single little thing that you do out of your love and commitment to Him. He doesn't need big fancy stuff all the time. Sure, He'd appreciate that, but He never misses the smaller, everyday stuff that you do either. He notices everything! He sees it and appreciates it and is so delighted in you for it! He knows that loving Him is just as important during the mundane everyday life, as it is during the big high's and low's of life. He notices what we do out of our commitment to loving Him every single day. 

You, my friend, are noticed BIG TIME! :) Believe it!! God sees you specifically & individually. You are the apple of His eye. He loves to look at you and see you gazing back at Him. Take confidence that your efforts are totally noticed and will be rewarded in due time! :)

Grudge-Free Mercy!

Jesus is giving me a deeper understanding of mercy. Has anyone ever told you the difference between mercy & grace? Mercy is holding back from someone what they deserve. Grace is giving someone what they don't deserve.

As for grace, I love giving gifts--especially when it was the perfect thing AND bonus points if it was given on a day other than Christmas or birthday. :) So I feel like I have a decent grasp on grace, not only understanding how crazy-much grace Jesus has given me, but I also love giving grace to others through gifts and other acts of service!

Now, mercy is another story... I think this one is a little harder to grasp for me. This one means that even though someone deserves for me to be angry at them until they give a really good apology, I forgive them before they even say sorry. This means that even though they deserve a righteous punishment for what they put me through, I don't even consider punishing them. Uh...

And really, I haven't had to practice extending mercy all that much. I've never had too much trouble in my relationships. I can think of a few high school instances where people hurt me, but I think I more just forgot about it rather than forgave...So I don't have a whole lot of understanding of mercy. But Jesus is using my "situation" to show me more about this too! And lucky you, I'm passing it on again ;)

Jesus is so merciful! :) He doesn't hold it against us when we choose something other than Him. Sure, His heart is hurt that we didn't choose Him, but the second that we come back, He doesn't need a 3 page apology in order for Him to take us back. He doesn't know what it means to hold grudges. He is just so delighted to have His Beloved back! 

Are you catching on yet to how much Jesus enjoys you? :) I hope so, because it is absolutely true! He adores your heart & devotion to Him! Better believe it!

Love is Patient; Jesus is Patient!

Continuing my little "series" on what Jesus has shown me about His heart for His Beloved (aka-you!) during this "situation" in my life.

Jesus is so, so patient. He will wait & wait & wait & wait...Time is not an issue for Him--He lives above time! So even though you may feel like it's been way too long since you've come to Him, He doesn't notice that at all. He is so very understanding of your situation. He knows how hard this relationship with Him can be. He knows better than we do that we are fighting a battle for this! He just loves to be the one place where you can come to find Someone who completely  understands and just longs to offer you mercy. 

Are you having a hard time believing this Truth? Talk to Jesus about it. Tell Him it's hard for you to believe that He really is so patient & understanding. I'm sure Jesus would love to prove it to you. ;)

EVERY Situation

I have a piece of paper in my Bible with a quote from Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest. Ever heard of that devotional? Highly recommended :)
This quote is super challenging and I have yet to do it completely--but I'm also certainly not a saint yet either! But I'm slowly figuring out how to see EVERY situation in the way that Chambers describes...

"A saint sees every situation in which he finds himself as the means of obtaining a greater knowledge of Jesus Christ, and he has an attitude of unrestrained abandon and total surrender about him." 

Some of you may know about the situation I'm in right now. Some of you may not have a clue...But basically all you need to know is that I've really set my heart to see this situation as a way to know and understand Jesus more. A lot of these things I'm seeing are things that I've known and understood pretty well beforehand, but now I've really felt in my own heart on a whole deeper level. I know these are what Jesus is like, but I also feel it for myself. What a wonderful combination!

So anyway, here's one of the things that Jesus has shown me about His heart for His Beloved (aka-His Church--both corporately & individually!)

He LOVES it when you talk to Him about anything. He wants so badly just to hear your voice. It truly delights His heart when you talk to Him. It doesn't even really matter all that much what you talk to Him about, He just so enjoys having a conversation with you. He missed you! 

What a great Truth, huh? Like I said earlier, some of you may understand better than others how Jesus has given me a deeper understanding of this, but regardless, I hope you believe this Truth of how Jesus feels about YOU personally! AND I hope you stick around for more, because there's a lot more wonderful Truths where that came from that I'd love to share! :)

Dear Future Self,

Dear Future Self,
      So you're feeling anxious again, huh? Hasn't God proven to you enough times by now how completely trustworthy He is? He never changes and He's always faithful so you can STILL surrender to Him and lay everything at His feet just like you've done in the past. 
      But don't come back and pick it up again either--leave it there! Now take a deep breath and just rest. Tell yourself over and over again that God has everything under control until your heart really believes it.
      Oh, and another thing--please stop trying to DO stuff. Waiting is NOT laziness--it's actually one of the hardest things to do! Don't you trust God's timing? Don't you think He would reveal His plans to you if He wanted to?
      Don't let Satan try to convince you that you can't hear God's voice--you're His sheep, aren't you? And Jesus promised that His sheep know His voice! Hold on to that promise. God WILL let you in on His plans in due time. Until then, just enjoy this time of rest.
      Enjoy His peace and enjoy learning new things about Him! Most of all--seek His kingdom first! God's always been faithful; He will be again.
                           Much Love,
                     Danae of Spring 2013

Lesson still being learned...

So I'm back to this blog again. Miss me? ha ;)
Anyway, I just found the following in my drafts folder. I don't know when it was written, sometime last summer I presume. Interesting how I'm still trying to learn the same lesson. BUT I can also notice a difference! God is ever so slowly, graciously, and patiently working on my heart. This waiting thing is REALLY hard to learn for me. The Lord is such a good teacher. :)
So here's what I wrote this past summer...

I don't enjoy being patient. I mean, I can be--but it's not very easy for me. I wouldn't call myself a controlling person, but I like to know what's going on. I like to be able to plan ahead so that I can help to avoid any possible issues or obstacles. Patience is ESPECIALLY hard when I don't understand what I'm waiting for. How am I supposed to plan then? It puts me out of my element--not so comfortable.

Maybe you can't relate to me so much in that first paragraph, but possibly in this: I think God can be the hardest Person to wait for. It's not very often that I know what I'm waiting for when it comes to Him. He might give me a glimpse or small nugget of an idea, but that's about it. Throughout the last couple years especially, I've realized that God has always pulled through for me. And yep, you guessed it--always in ways beyond what I could have imagined. It's just all about trust.
Trusting God that HE knows perfectly what's going on.
Trusting Him that there's a reason that I don't know.
Trusting Him that waiting on Him is a way for me to learn trust even MORE.
Trusting Him that His plan is perfect in all this.

This is like my Summer of 2012 self inspiring my Spring of 2013 self.
Three cheers for technology that saves writings forever in cyberspace!! :)

How Did Isaac Feel??

I don’t know if you’ve noticed before that Abraham gets a whole lot of credit for his faith throughout the Bible. And rightfully so—don’t get me wrong! But have you ever thought about how Isaac felt in all of this? He wasn’t just another animal that Abraham was told to sacrifice—he was a human being! With thoughts and feelings—something I’ve been wondering lately is just what were those thoughts?

These are just my own ideas formed from my personal thoughts along with my conversations with others in the past few days. This is what I’ve got so far…

The story is from Genesis 22…
“Then one day, God tested Abraham…” nothing about Isaac here, but I don’t think that means he wasn’t going to be tested anyway.

God tells Abraham to “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and offer him as a burnt offering…” Notice that God doesn’t say “Take your son and offer him as a burnt offering…” No, those extra words in there about Isaac being Abraham’s only son whom he loves [dearly] are definitely there for a reason. It’s like God is telling Abraham that He knows how much Abraham loves his son, Isaac; He knows that this is a really big deal and a really big thing to ask of Abraham.

Regardless of how tough this is on Abraham, Isaac is still asked to be sacrificed. It doesn’t matter if he feels like the most loved son in the world or totally rejected by his father—he’s still being sacrificed!

Anyway, Abraham admiringly obeys God’s command and the very next morning he heads out with his servants and his son, Isaac. I don’t think Isaac knew about the command yet because when it’s just Abraham and Isaac headed up the mountain, Isaac finally asks his dad where the sheep is that they’re going to sacrifice.

Abraham tells Isaac what he truly believes: that God will provide a sheep. Of course, Isaac had no reason not to believe his dad at that time. But what about when Abraham started tying his son up? What about when he had him lay down on the altar? What about when Abraham raised the knife above his head? What were Isaac’s thoughts then? I have a guess:

I trusted you, Dad, why are you doing this? I thought you loved me dearly!
God, why would you tell my dad to do something like this? Do you really want this for me? I thought you had better plans for me than this. 

I don’t mean to make any assumptions about Isaac here, but I guess those are just my guesses about what he must have been thinking while he laid on the altar waiting to be sacrificed.

We know God’s will for Abraham and what He told him to do. What did God tell Isaac in response to his questions? Again, I don’t know for sure, but I have a guess that it was something like:

“Be still and know that I am God.” 

I think that Isaac heard those words because that is exactly what he did. He could have refused when his dad started tying him up. There’s no physical way that Abraham could have kept Isaac there—after all, Abraham was over 100 years old at this point! Isaac could have rolled off the altar at any time. But he didn’t. He was still. He let his dad sacrifice him. He quietly laid there while his dad, who loved him dearly, raised the knife above his head. Wow.

“Be still and know that I am God.”

Trials that I go through in life sorta pale in comparison to nearly being sacrificed by your own father, huh? If Isaac can be still and know that God is in control, then surely I can, too.

I’ve often prayed for faith like Abraham, but I’ve started to pray for the grace to be still like Isaac now, too! Join me & start praying now so that you're equipped when your trials come! :)

Moving :)

I've moved HOME! :)
as in my blog has temporarily moved to H.O.M.E.
as in I'm writing for House Of Missions & Equipping for the summer...(or maybe longer?)
as in God has blessed me with this neato opportunity with a ministry that seeks to be a House of Prayer (Is.56:7)
Check it out!
As in check out the blog AND check out the HOME building. You won't regret it! ;)

blog: http://homeministry.blogspot.com/
website: http://www.sc-home.org/

More Specifics Please :)

Any of you remember reading that on your school papers? Not only do specifics help teachers know that you understand what you're learning or help spruce up a mediocre story, but specifics are great for drawing you closer to the heart of God!

Yup. It's true. I am convinced that being specific with God is one of the best ways of falling more in love with Him.
Just exactly what do I mean? Let me be more specific. ;)
I don't know about you, but I have been raised in a loving, Christian home, church, and school. I knew that God loved me and I knew that I loved God. But if anyone ever asked me WHY I love God, I'm not sure what I would all say. I do know I would have said that I love Him for saving me from my sins so that I get to spend eternity with Him instead of hell. I also would probably even say that I love Him for giving me a family and friends and food and shelter. But that sounds a bit like I love a pop-machine-god, doesn't it? It sounds like I love what I GET from God rather than loving HIM--loving His character, loving Him regardless of what He does or doesn't give me only because of WHO He is.

Before my senior year of high school, I had to read The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne before going on a three week long serve trip to Mexico. I can still remember a quote from that book that struck me big time. "If there were no heaven and no hell, would you still follow Jesus? Would you follow Him for the life, joy, and fulfillment He gives you right now?" Quite the question, huh? It's a good reality check to ask yourself what is it that gives you life and joy and fulfillment? Is is the THINGS you get from God or is it God Himself? Does simply being in God's presence and talking with Him give you joy and fulfillment? Have you ever even experienced that before? Oh, I so hope so, because it's absolutely wonderful.

Seriously, though. This is important. Because if God Himself (not what He gives) doesn't give you joy and fulfillment, then that's a sure sign that you need more specifics! (PLEASE!)
But don't look at this as a task assigned by your teacher to spruce up your essay. In no way is this intended to be some boring assignment. Being specific with God revives your spirit in ways you will experience noway else. Give it a try! It is anything BUT boring. Can I suggest going through the alphabet and writing down at least one word that describes God? But don't stop there--because I know most of us are pretty good and knowing all the different names of Jesus. Keep going into the specifics of WHY He is...
Awesome
Beautiful
Compassionate
Discipliner
Exciting
Faithful
Generous
Holy
Inspirational
Jealous
King
Lovely
Master
Never-changing
Omniscient
Passionate
Quiet
Rabbi
Sweet
Trustworthy
Unconditional
Vine
Warrior
Xalted
Youth-giver
Zealous

Specifically write down what God has done in YOUR life that has revealed how He is each of the things you wrote down. Do not look at other people's lives. You don't have to. God works in your own life PLENTY. And that's a guarantee. It's just a matter of looking in the right way. If you go through life saying "I love God because He's so awesome. He's so holy, etc" then plain and simple, you will not grow in your love for Him. Your HEART needs to connect with these words and they're not going to unless you reflect on WHY.

Think about it. This love relationship with God is resembled in the relationship between a husband and wife. When the couple first starts courting, they're not going to move onto marriage unless they've seriously reflected on what it is they LOVE about their lover. They need to have gotten specific about their lover's character traits. If I loved my boyfriend only because of the things he's given me, that is NOT love. I love him because of WHO he is. And I know who he is because I have specifically thought about it. And I DO love the things he has given me but it is because they point to his generosity and his thoughtfulness and his sweetness. I know I would seriously be hurting his heart if I told him I loved him because he gives me things. So I'm gonna guess we're hurting God's heart if we tell Him the same thing.

So I'm not doing that anymore. I've gotten specific with God and tell Him exactly why I love who He is. And let me tell ya, it's the best thing! God loves to show me even deeper parts of His character and I can't help but be even more captivated. After all, He created me that way! Isn't that cool? I sure think so. :)

Alright, I think I've made my case. So here's my last little bit of encouragement to go get specific so you can find out just how captivating Jesus really is. :) I can guarantee that He won't let ya down.