Hi girls!! Look who it is... ME! Yikes, I was even having a hard time logging in because I momentarily forgot what our password and login was.... but I figured it out :)
I wanted to share with you girls what I was reading last week, and what stuck with me. My bible study did a fast the Thursday before Thanksgiving, and we were told to read Philippians 4:2-9 five times and really try to see and understand what God may be trying to tell us. I was ecstatic because Philippians 4:6-7 is my ultimate favorite verse! It is the most powerful and effective verse to me no matter where I'm at in life. If I'm stressed, anxious, confused, happy, grateful, etc, it is an amazing 2 verses. But this isn't what I learned. I saw and read something new in the second part of verse 4:9:
"And the God of peace will be with you."
We have heard this, right? The "God of peace." And I often pray for peace in my heart and mind when I'm especially anxious. But what is peace? I always associated peace with happy thoughts or having life run smoothly, with no problems or altercations. Except, this isn't what peace really is, if you see it in God's terms. True peace is fully knowing, acknowledging and believing that God is in control, no matter what the circumstance may be. Your life could be absolutely upside down, but if you have the faith and belief that our Lord is in control of it, you WILL be at peace. Peace is not what I always thought it was: the absence of problems or stress, and it is not gained by just thinking good thoughts. It's to truly realize that our Creator knows our lives and that He is ultimately in control, no matter what it may seem.
Today marks the first day of Advent. Advent is a word I grew up hearing a lot as a child because to me it meant chocolate. I got an advent calendar every year and got to eat that little mystery shaped chocolate behind the door every day. Not until this year did the word advent have more depth to me.
Advent is a world that means "coming" or "arrival." In the 4 weeks of Advent leading up to Christmas we celebrate both the season of the arrival of Jesus Christ in a manger 2000 years ago, as well as the coming of Christ again. It is two fold celebration for us as Christians because we celebrate not only what has happened already but also the coming of the Lord again. As we wait expectantly for the second coming we are reminded of what it was like for the Hebrews as they waited for the prophecy to be fulfilled in the Messiah, Christ's birth.
Traditionally, there is an advent wreath that contains 4 candles. Originally 3 of these candles are purple to represent the royalty of Christ, and the 4th is pink which represents joy. Today, being the first week of advent, you light the first candle, which represents hope. We start the celebration of advent being reminded of the hope we have in Our Savior because He already came and died for our sins so we can spend eternity with Him, as well as hope that He will return again for us.
I pray this Christmas season we could really dig into the spirit of advent, preparing not just for Christmas as a time of food, family, and presents, but to remember that this is when our lives changed forever. This time reminds us of the day God allowed a sinful, fleshly body to labor a divine child. This event marked a day of hope and deliverance, as well as confirmed confidence in a God who keeps His promises, even if it means coming Himself in flesh.
Miqweh Yisrael, you are our God of hope and in you we find confidence that we have been redeemed. I thank you for the season that we get to reflect and rejoice remembering the coming of your son, Jesus. Immanuel, I pray you would invade our hearts and press into us reminding us of the sacrifice you gave to assure us hope in you. Thank you for being our Savior. Thank you for coming in the flesh, so we could be saved by your grace. We wait for you Lord, with open and expectant hearts knowing your timing is perfect. May we be filled with more of you this Christmas season and may we grow deeper spiritually than we ever have before. We love you so much. In your precious Name, Amen.
Titus 2:13 "We wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ"
Today as I celebrate Thanksgiving my heart is completely overwhelmed by the truth that we have NO good thing besides the Him, the One who has given it all to us and abundantly poured out His blessings on our lives.
I woke up today and had this verse in my head from Psalm 100: "Enter His gates with Thanksgiving, and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His Name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues throughout all generations" - Psalm 100:4-5
We are so undeserving of the blessings that the Lord has bestowed upon our lives, but today we give thanks and remember the loving covenant Yahweh made with His children, the redeeming sacrifice that the Precious Lamb of God gave to us on calvary, and the thick invasion of the Holy Spirit who loves us enough to dwell in our hearts as His home and refine us to be vessels for His work.
Today, I also give thanks on my knees for you girls and how each one of you has enriched my understanding of the Living God in ways I could never repay you for. To you all I say THANK YOU to for being such incredible sisters in Christ and walking this life with me. Thank you for holding my hand through hard stuff, for praying for me and the people in my life, for extending grace when it was not deserved, for encouraging me through every season, for rejoicing with me in times of joy, and most of all for always pointing me to the cross to a deeper understanding of Our Abba Father. I pray blessing would return to you girls one hundred fold for all you have done for me. I cannot thank you guys enough for what loving, powerful, God fearing woman you have been in my life. Today I give thanks for EACH one of you and how your lives have so deeply blessed mine.
Lord, I praise you from the depths of my soul for the work you have done in and through us this last year. God your grace has covered us in ways which we could not ever comprehend. We stand before you with grateful hearts today knowing full well that everything good in our lives comes from You. We have NO good thing besides you. I praise you God for these girls and how you have used them to push me to fall deeper in love with you. I ask that you would continue to bless these friendships and that your Holy Spirit would invoke a deep hunger for more of You in our lives. May we always remember to come before you with a Spirit of thanks and a grateful heart for all your work in us. If your grace was the only gift we would ever receive, that alone would be enough. You have given far beyond what we deserve, and we stand before you and thank you for all you have poured out on our lives. We praise you God for loving us unconditionally and showing us what it looks like to reflect you. Thank you for all that we have all that we are. It is only by your grace. We love you. Amen.
Mathew 6:7-13 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, fr they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. This, then, is how you should pray:
"Our Father in heaven hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."
"Give us this day our daily bread." Wow, that line has a whole new meaning to David and I right now at this time in our lives. We literally thank God everyday for providing us with our "daily bread". Finances are very tight right now that it is not an option to look ahead to the end of the month, the end of the week, sometimes even the end of the day. There are times the money just isn't there and we don't know what we are going to do and yet day after day after day God is providing for our daily needs. David's free internship randomly decided to give him a Christmas bonus last week, right before rent was due! We have had random people who do not even know we are tight on finances send us a check saying I felt led to give this to you. My old boss just found a research job she needs me to do from home that pays! Everyday God is giving us literally just enough to buy for that day, whether it be groceries, my medicine, or rent for that day, these checks are coming on the exact day we have something due.
It has been an amazing place to be in, to be literally 100% dependent on God. To go to bed knowing rent is due tomorrow and knowing we don't have it in our account...David and I have read these verses over and over and that is our prayer every night, we know God knows what we need before we ask him and we know he has been faithful to provide in the past and will be faithful to provide today. And everyday he has. It has NOT been easy but there has been something really beautiful about being in such a place of dependency on God. He has been humbling us and working on our hearts so much and uniting David and I together in our faith.
As I was thinking about these verses the other night I realized "Give us this day our daily bread" does not literally have to mean "provide tangible food for us" it can be any area in our lives we are struggling. If you are struggling with anxiety, what to do with your future, what job to get, who to marry, where to live, how to overcome a huge obstacle, whatever the problem, I encourage each of you to pray this prayer with all your heart and watch how God will step in and provide for you. Let God be your daily bread. If it's too scary to look ahead to the end of the week and makes you anxious, then don't don't even look to the end of the day. Look to God and expect with faith that God is going to get you through this day and fill you with HIS perfect peace. I know we all know we are supposed to give our worries over to God, blah blah blah...but seriously just do it! No more excuses! No more saying you can have this area of my life but not this part. How can we expect to see God's miracles and feel his peace if we don't give everything over to him?
I was in a place where I was so stubborn that God literally had to FORCE me here haha I don't have a choice right now to give it over to him or not to. There is nothing left for me to hold onto! I have no way of providing for myself so God will. I wish I had not been so stubborn and would have given my heart and fears completely over to God sooner but he knew the only way to make me really see was to completely strip me of everything and humble me. And I am so thankful he has!
I am praying this prayer over each of you ladies today. I am praying we give our fears, hearts, sins, finances, lives, everything over to God and watch him provide day after day after day just how we need. God has not forgotten us ladies! In fact, I have never felt closer to mine and David's life than right now. We have no jobs, no money, a baby on the way, by the worlds standards, he has forgotten for us and not provided. But we know that God loves me and David so much that he has not given up on our hearts. He is doing whatever to takes to humble us and make us dependent on him. I thank him everyday for choosing us and not giving up on us. He has never been closer to our hearts than now and for that I am so thankful! I love each one of you and pray you can release whatever it is holding you back from giving everything up to God right now.
I was driving yesterday when a huge Pepsi truck pulled out in front of me. Ever get super annoyed that YOU have to be the one behind the semi? There was no way around and I couldnt see anything in front of me. I was already running late so with the anticipation of every stop light, I was totally annoyed. I kept straining my neck to try to look over the truck or around it, as if 2 inches were going to get me 12 feet above or around this truck, yet no luck.
I thought about what I was doing I thought to myself, "Really Natalie, what difference does it make if you can see where you are going. It isnt going to change whether you stop or go at each light. Just follow the truck. Its gonna tell you what you need to do."
I instantly was reminded by God, this is the story of my life. Here is God SO much bigger than I, ahead of me and I am always trying to see around or ahead of Him. I just wanna be in control. If I can see, I think I have it all under control. The thing is though, is if I just follow Him and trust He is gonna lead me, I can relax and knowing He will make the best decisions for my life. I was totally challenged by this big semi, being a physical representation of a role God's plays in my life. It was just a good reminder to remember that we dont need to see and know everything in our life. We dont need to know right now what is lying ahead of us, because God can see it and He will lead us there when the time is right. Until then, I will follow obediently and confidently knowing Our God is the wisest driver on our road of life :)
I just got Chris Tomlin's new CD " And If God is for Us" It is SO good and this song " I will follow you" totally goes in line with what the Lord was teaching me. I love the words to this song. I pray you guys are blessed.
Love you girls, and praying you will trust God enough in your own lives to follow Him blindly knowing He will provide and lead you.
I wanted to share a link with you. My friend Tiffany is on the World Race (an around the world missions trip), and her blog BLOWS MY MIND! Its incredible to see how God is moving on this trip and how often we close ourselves off to the rest of the broken world because we are too busy with our own lives. I encourage you to read at least one of her blog entries.(Believe me you wont stop at one) You will see in her beautiful writing a God fearing woman who is deeply in love with the Lord and who's only desire is to bring His love to the world through whatever means necessary. There is some pretty intense stuff on this blog, but I think we could all benefit from reading it. God is moving. All the time. It is so cool to be reminded that He is the Father of all the children of the world, and He desires His children's love so so deeply.
I pray you guys are blessed by this blog like I have been. And please, keep Tiffany in your prayers as she fights for God's Name to be lifted high in all these broken and desperate countries. THANK YOU!
2 Chronicles 16:9 "For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him."
This verse really stuck out to me in my reading today. I constantly pray for God's strength and wisdom and direction but too many times I forget the step before that...keeping my heart fully committed to God. I know that God is calling me to focus more on Him and less on what he can do for me. Short post but that's all I have to say! I'm gonna let the verse talk for itself! Praying over all of us girls today that our hearts are united with the LORD and FULLY committed to Him. Love each one of you precious ladies so much! Love Megs and Baby Boy
I wanted to share this video with you girls. These girls I found on Youtube and it was SO the Lord who brought me to them. I may be there biggest fan. The way the praise the Lord with their incredible voices just kills me. Its SO overwhelmingly beautiful! If something can sound this good on earth, I cant even imagine what heaven will sound like. You should watch all their videos. They ALL bring me to tears and to my knees. You will be so blessed to worship with them.
This is their latest video. This song is SO gorgeous. Just listen to the words and be encouraged to run hard into the Lords arms today.
“So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31
In my daily life I often find it hard to glorify God doing small mundane things. I have no problem if I am sitting reading my bible.
But as soon as I get up from my devotions, I seem to lose the intimacy that I felt with the LORD earlier.
By the end of the day my devotional time is a distant memory. I often go to bed feeling like I have not spent time with God. Does this ever happen to you?
We have to work, grocery shop, clean, drive, go to meetings, etc. But we are also told to do everything for the glory of God. How can we live our lives while at the same time worshiping?
I heard a story recently about how a person spent the best times of worship at a copy machine? Do you feel lost? So did I. The person went on to say, that as he would make copies he would pray and talk with God.
Talk about doing everything for the glory of God! I desire to be that person, someone who is always worshiping God.
I love that in this scripture it says, “Whether you eat or drink.” It is talking about the mundane things of life here, it is not saying don’t do these things, instead it says while you do these things, “Glorify God!”
Worship: A natural tendency of every man’s heart. Worship is the expression of the desires of your heart. We worship what we value, what is important, what we love. Worship is never ending, you are always worshiping because you were created to worship. God is the only one who deserves or is worthy of our worship.
“I will praise you, LORD my GOD, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.” Psalm 86:12
Prayer: God I pray that you would enrapture us in your perfect love. Let everything that we do in our daily lives lead us to a deeper connection with You. Forgive us for not always glorifying you in our words or actions. God I pray that you would captivate our hearts. Let us not go astray, protect us and keep us close to You. In Jesus’ holy name. Amen!
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8 This is why it[a] says: “When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.”[b] 9 (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions[c]? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
When I was in South Africa I learned about a philosophy taught by Nelson Mandela called, Ubuntu. It is an African term which essentially means “I am because of who we all are” It’s a term used to describe community, respect, peace, love for one another. When I learned about this then I never realized how close this fits in with the gospel. We are a part of the body of Christ, but we cannot work alone. It is through unity in Christ we are able to come together in the name of Jesus.
(watch this then the read the rest :))
1 Corinthians 12:12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
God chose each one of us as an individual to be a representation of His Name and His love in our lives, but we are a part of the church as a whole. It is through our own God given ministries in life that we are able to work together to win lives for the kingdom of God and teach others about the love of Christ. We all have people the Lord put in our lives to expose truth to. Are we doing this? Are we representing the gospel? Living life with Ubuntu in mind?
In the scripture above it say in verse 3 “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” Those words “make every effort” is translated in Greek as “ Spegatso.” Spegatso means “do whatever it takes,” “by all means”, “whatever the cost”. I know in my own life, I don’t go all the way very often because I am hindered by my own insecurities, fear, laziness, etc. I can think of a thousands reasons. But God calls us to make EVERY effort, to share His love, to share His peace, to share His Word, so that we fulfill our calling as Christ followers.
Girls, even in our relationships with one another, we are who we are because of what we are together. We learn from one another. We experience God in new ways because of how each other has seen or experienced God. We are a body. We need to be working together at all times, growing in the same direction. We are so blessed to fellowship to grow in.
As Nelson Mandela says in the video, when a person comes in the village for food and water, once he stops, he doesn’t have to ask for food and water, the people just give him food and water.
The same should be in our lives. We are given this gift of salvation. People in our lives should not have to ask for it. It should be the first thing we offer in and through our lives when we come in contact with others. It is a high calling to be a Christ follower, and its comfortable and not easy at times, but I desire to know what the fullness of the measure of God is like and through following Him we get to experience that. So its all worth it.
Lord, we praise you for you are the perfect example of love. We desire to walk in your ways and practice “spegatso” taking every means necessary to follow your will and take opportunities to share the gospel. Give us the hearts to serve you and be boldly proclaiming your name. May we be convicted individually, to pour out on to the whole body, encouragement and motivation to expand your Kingdom. It is in you and through you we are whole. You are the only way Jesus and we acknowledge that today knowing you are the one we desire to reflect. We love you, give us opportunity and a heart to lead others to your Name. Amen.
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives;he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."
God has really been placing these verses on mine and David's hearts through this period of job searching and finances. I just love how he tells us that we are sinners and evil yet we know how to give gifts and love to those we love, so why would we ever doubt that our God and Father, who loves us more than we know, would not take care us! It may not be the way we have planned or how we thought we want, but we are finding comfort in knowing God knows JUST what we need and how to take care of us! He will not give us a stone instead of bread! Hope these verses speak to you ladies in your lives right now. God is so good and so faithful! Love you all, Megs and Baby B!
We have all heard the song "Refiners Fire" - purify my heart, let me be as gold and precious silver. I have sang it a million times and not until the other day while reading my devotional did I understand why we were compared to the refinement of silver and gold.
Malachi 3:3 "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver"
"As silver and gold need to be refined before they reveal their beauty, so do we. The process of refining includes the melting down of the metal by fires designed not to destroy the metal, but to bring forth its beauty.
The silver is crushed into small pieces and placed into a crucible. The silversmith places the crucible over the fire then watches carefully as the silver melts. Eventually, impurities rise to the top of the crucible. The silversmith scrapes them off carefully. Then a hotter fire is built. Again, the silver is subjected to more heat. Under intense firing, more and more different impurities are released.
The silversmith never leaves the silver unattended in the fire because too much heat may damage the silver. Each time the fire is amplified and impurities removed, the silversmith looks at himself in the melted silver.
At first his image is dim. However, with each new fire his image becomes clearer. When he visibly sees himself, he knows all the impurities are gone. The refining is complete!"
The same things happens with our relationship with the Lord. His goal is NOT to destroy us but to stretch and refine us. We are put in the fire so our impurities will be exposed so we can reflect our Maker! Praise the Lord He loves us enough to refine us! Sometimes in this process we can feel overwhelmed being in the fire. But it is in fire we are challenged to rely on Christ. It is in the fire we are tested. It is in the fire our faith is grown. Its refinement as its best.
1 Peter 1:6-8 says "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire- may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy."
Lord, may you refine us like silver and gold until we reflect your image. Thank you for never taking you eyes off of us until the process is complete. We acknowledge today that we trust you in every circumstance that we are put in knowing that it is all part of the story you have written for us. I ask that we would remember that the joy of the Lord is our strength, even when we are burning in the fire. Help us to be reminded that your love burns so deep for us and that in all things you work for the good of those who love you. I praise you that you love us enough to refine us and that you desire our hearts to reflect yours. May we be aware of the refinement you are doing in our lives today and obediently walk down the path where you desire to lead us. We love you Abba.
Hi girls!! Look who it is... ME! Yikes, I was even having a hard time logging in because I momentarily forgot what our password and login was.... but I figured it out :)
