8.10.2010

Day 2 &3- Hearts and Fear

I am writing this in the midst of the sounds of my girls playing and laughing and realize just how truly lucky I am to have the sweet children in my home, to have my home, to have my family, my country of so many freedoms, to have a car, a church, a store 3 minutes away, a neighborhood that is safe, a swimming pool around the corner, neighbors who are friendly, and many many more luxuries that we take for granted every day. I have been asking the Holy Spirit to impart to me what to pray for Bryson and conviction in the hearts of leadership and banishment of fear for following the Lord whole heartedly and what that means keep coming to mind. SO that's what I am praying for. God has dealt with fear in my life before, many a time. I am not a worrier or a fear driven person, I am a little more unaware and almost ignorantly blissful if you will most of the time lol... so when fear does set in i know that it's not from actual circumstance but something put in my mind to distract me from trusting God, from seeing things clearly, and sometimes from making wise choices in really important times.

2 Corinth 4:6
"For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. "

It still is amazing to me that God made so many references to light and dark in talking of our relationship with Him. he gave us light that would live inside of us, that even in the dark we might not be in fear or taken over by it... but that everywhere we go would be illuminated the truth of who He is and that would change lives, including our own!

John 10:16
"I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. "

This verse really broke my heart i heard it in church one Sunday, a day when i was really facing fear of Bry going on his trip and it was so convicting to me to realize that God has ppl out there who He wants to bring under His care and they are waiting to hear from Him...that made my heart for the lost change dramatically and really give me a new desire to share His love with any and all who might be like a sheep looking for a shepherd.

Ppl who desperately wanted to belong to something, have a family, have a purpose...they have one in Christ.

Jerm. 24:7
I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and "I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart. "

Some people think that God is disconnected (looking over but never reaching out), or a spiritual vending machine (you put prayers in you get hings out, you put time in you get your hearts desire)... or even worse that He doesnt really matter or care about you. I love this verse because it's just one of many that fill the whole bible that God loves us deeply and wants us to know that. He can change lives, change hearts, and He is like a loving Father, a father some have never had, who wants to take us into His arms and comfort us, hold us up, and give us all things good.

I prayed for my heart as well as anyone else who might have forgotten or never really known JUST how much God loves them...

Romans 8:28-32
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? "
~~~~~
He has given us so many great things, salvation and eternal life are the two that are most precious and yet, very rarely through out the mundane tasks of the day do I thank God for those, or anything else we have so graciously been given. Today I think that's what my hearts focus is going to be on...thanking Him for all this and more!

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