I AM

When listening to music today i stumbled upon this simple little video, and I don't know if it'll do the same for you but it really touched me and made me see God's name "I AM" with a completely new perspective :) His name isn't "I will" or "I have", but "I AM". It's so comforting. While we cry out in prayer our deepest concerns, requests, and "groanings that words cannot express", God is "I AM". He is already there, He is the answer, and was there before we even opened our mouths to speak. When we praise Him and give thanks, He is there and rejoicing with us. Using His name as the reply to our concerns, questions, praises, etc in the same way that He answered to Moses's question just really made me see His name/character differently and embedded a clearer picture of the omnipresence of God.

Happy Sabbath! 

Feed my sheep

“Pour yourself out. Don’t testify about how much you love Me and don’t talk about the wonderful revelation you have had, just ’Feed My sheep.’ ” Jesus has some extraordinarily peculiar sheep: some that are unkempt and dirty, some that are awkward or pushy, and some that have gone astray! But it is impossible to exhaust God’s love, and it is impossible to exhaust my love if it flows from the Spirit of God within me. The love of God pays no attention to my prejudices caused by my natural individuality. If I love my Lord, I have no business being guided by natural emotions— I have to feed His sheep." 


-The Utmost of His Highest by Oswald Chambers

Hole inside or whole inside

"There's a God-shaped hole in all of us,

and the restless soul is searching.

There's a God-shaped hole in all of us,

and it's a void only He can fill"

God-Shaped Hole-Plumb, image by Rizki Syahril from Threadless.com

Alive

Unbenounced to you and me,

Beyond the place of tyranny,

There lies a love that holds us—

In sure and constant watch.

I pass a place of future crashing and

 Far beyond the tongues and lashing

 There lies a blaze that’s burning—

Never to be drenched.

When people live and love beyond themselves,

Hearts betray this bitter world—

There’s bound to be a breaking.

But I can’t sweat for better yet

When all I have is manifest

In who I am, who I was, and what I’m not mistaken.

If this is freedom,

Living and loving hard,

When guarantees are lewd and shard

And I can’t rest on human souls,

Because they’re impractical and bruising…

There has got to be more.

There has got to be something deeper out there.

And I hope that you look and you find,

Because the people are being restored

Where vines and branches sever more

And never has it been so crazy.

Kick the doors to free me

to say that I’m alive and I’m thriving still,

I’ve lost my feet, but I won’t lose my will

You can hurt, but you cannot kill

The raging fires of a man who’s been caught by human lies

Time after time.

Who’s been,

Soaked
and choked
and rung 
by compromise.

Who was once dead

but
is now

Alive.

~Jonah Werner, "Alive"

Praying for others

I was just reading a page from my devotional and it was about Genesis 19:29 ("But God had listened to Abraham's request and kept Lot safe, removing him from the disaster that engulfed the cities on the plain"), and the power of prayer for others. When I read this I thought about my grandma. Every time I see her, and every time we talk on the phone, before leaving she tells me how much she loves me and that she prays for me every single night. And I know that she does. I love her beyond words and it has brought me to tears at times when she tells me this. If I am struggling with anything, whether it's a difficult decision or even something small happening in my life, she will be praying about it, every day. When she tells me this I just think (and this is why it brings me to tears) about all of the blessings in my life and then I wonder how many of these blessing are all because of my Grandma's prayers? How amazing is that? And honestly, I truly do feel that many blessings in my life have nothing to do with me, but have resulted because of prayers from others. And now when I pray for others, I know God is listening and performing miracles and pouring blessings into other people's lives because of my love and desires for them (just like Abraham and Lot's case). It's mind-blowing to realize how much influence and power there is by speaking with God and making our requests known through prayer.

"do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."-Philippians 4:6.

"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." James 5:16

It's all about timing

This blog is about some of my favorite verses I know that I'm continuously drawn back to. :)

"do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." 2 Peter 3 and it also says in verse 15 that "..patience means salvation..".

"Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand." James 5

God's time is not my time, His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. I think when human characteristics, feelings, and thoughts are related to our image of God, it's not an accurate portrayal. With the Lord "a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day". What I experience of time does not relate to the Lord's time, and this is where I am able to find an amazing amount of peace and comfort in my life. How I see time is different than how God does. What feels like slowness to us, is just that, a feeling, "God is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness".


And to what extent of the time we experience is in relation to our emotions and present feelings? It's like they saying "How long a minute is depends on which side of the bathroom door you're on".
 However, I think God sees things from a different perspective of His own. He sees the potential of a seed. I think I need to apply the way God created things to grow -- how the small speck of a seed slowly grows into a garden of vegetables or a towering tree -- to how I see growth in other areas of my life.


Because I cannot rush the growth of a tree. There must be patience, watering it daily, and taking care of the seed, even though no results are seen day after day. If you get impatient with it, and maybe flood it with water and sunshine, it's not going to speed up the process (it could even kill..). When I look at a garden, or the growth of a child, and looking at how God created the speed of the growth process by seeing how things grow in His creation all around me, it gives me a glimpse into the realm of His time.


God created the process of growth to be slow, gradual, and unobservable to the eye if you try to watch it, just like there is no way to watch the entire process of a seed growing into a tree. It happens gradually and over time, and not until many years later do you see the final result. I think God works in us in the same way as growth happens in the nature around us... slowly... gradually... patiently... day by day
I find comfort in these verses, because when I have been praying or feel my prayers are not causing any change, or feel like I am not growing fast enough in a certain area of my life and just feel stagnant, I can remember that God is in a different timezone.


Just because I am not able to see results overnight (just like a seed will not turn into a tree overnight), I know that if God is our gardener, and if we let Him take care of us, and let Him water us with His water of life and shine into our lives with His light of the word, day by day, He is working good. :)

"Be still before the Lord
   and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when people succeed in their ways,
   when they carry out their wicked schemes." ~ Psalm 37

"Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord". ~ Psalm 27

Love

 “The most important one [commandment],” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” ~ Mark 12


I once heard someone say the verse "love your neighbor as yourself", but it brought on an entirely new meaning. How am I supposed to love my neighbor as myself, if I have no respect for myself? I do not mean a self-seeking type of love for self. I mean seeing ourselves the way God sees us and speaking to and treating ourselves with thoughts and actions the way we would treat others and would want to be treated.

How can I experience and give love if I have not found the way to treat myself with love and speak to myself the way our heavenly Father speaks to us? The criticizing words we often speak to ourselves or keeping records of all the times we have messed up, or not forgiving ourselves for wrongdoings... would we speak to another person who is going through a struggle the same way we speak to ourselves?


I truly believe that Jesus gave us the command of utmost importance, "to love your neighbor as yourself", that we are to treat ourselves with the same kind of love that He gives us and for us to give to others.


"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." ~ 1 Corinthians 13

Love is patient. Are we patient with ourselves? Are we patient through failures and disappointments and hopeful? Love does not envy. How often do we compare ourselves to others? It is not easily angered. How often do we become angry and criticizing when we don't match up to what we hoped for? Love keeps no record of wrongs. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I really would like to take this definition of love and apply it to the way I treat myself, the way God treats us, and the way He wants us to treat others.

We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and then to apply His love towards us to ourselves, and towards others.

"Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are." 1 Corinthians 3:16-17