Something Beautiful

I really can't believe how cool it is for being almost August. Rain helps, but still.  I have been enamored with clouds lately. I can't seem to gaze at them enough. They just draw my attention and cause me to worship the Creator.  My vacation is almost over. The day started with a nice long quiet time, followed by coffee and baking cookies, a little trip to town with my sister, making fish and rice for lunch, doing books, working on a project (which I will share with you at a later point).  Prayer has been filling my days lately. Prayers for wisdom. Prayers for friends. Prayers for family. Prayers of surrender. Prayers for humility. Prayers for a quiet heart. Prayers for guidance. Prayers of praise and thanksgiving. Prayers of delight. Prayers of adoration. Prayers of silence.  In two days I go back to hot weather, but the reprieve has been a blessing. I can only pray that rain will follow me home.  

There are times when I feel like I have few words, which trust me is rather unusual for me. I'm usually the person who has a quick response or a comeback on the tip of my tongue. But there are just times where I have few words. I feel like I have been in one of those seasons lately. I have been listening a lot lately, soaking in a lot, and saying little because the words just aren't there.  I think sometimes they have to just mull around in my head for a while, like a good stew, until the flavors get just right. Lately the things that have been in my mulling are mostly pleasant. I have been thinking upon God's character, His faithfulness, His goodness, His love, His generosity, His mercy and grace. I have been storing up little moments where I can see Him, feel Him, know that He is near. I have been humbled by His goodness. I have been holding fast to Him and His promises.  I love when God gives me new expressions of His consistent character. I love when He draws me to ...

I am overwhelmed at how different my life is from where I thought I would be at this time in my life. I am overwhelmed at how different my life is from where I was two years ago. I am overwhelmed at the goodness of the Lord. I am overwhelmed at how His plan for my life is trans-rational (that's a new word I learned yesterday meaning that it is beyond our understanding).  My path seems so clear now looking back, but the way was far from clear when I started out. It started with a seemingly irrational decision 4 years ago. I decided to abandon all to God, and I do mean ALL. I gave up my plans for how I thought my life should look. I gave up my plans for who I would marry and when. I gave up deciding what I would do and where I would go. I surrendered.  I remember when people asked me after I graduated (and still had no idea what I was doing with my life) what my plans were, and all I could do was shake my head and say I don't know. A dear friend encouraged me that God would ...

"I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage, wait for the Lord!" - Psalm 27:13,14 Yesterday morning when I was hanging out with God I felt Him whisper this promise into my heart. This is a promise that I have often felt Him give to me, but yesterday was different. Yesterday I felt like He was saying that I would see a fulfillment of that promise, that I would see His goodness in the land of the living.  I had no idea all that was going to happen yesterday. I had no idea how I would see the goodness of the Lord, but I went about my day with that promise deep in my heart and fresh on my mind.  God is so good and so faithful!!  I took my licensing test, and I just flew through it. I passed, and not by a little. I was on the high end of the scale. I cried in the parking lot, tears of gratitude and thanksgiving, tears of love poured out....

The Bible has many warnings against pride, arrogance, and selfishness, but it never warns against confidence. In fact it declares the opposite. "Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised." - Hebrews 10:35,36 It says not to throw away our confidence. It says that confidence has a great reward and that when we endure in doing God's will that we will receive what has been promised. I don't know about you, but I like God's promises, and I like receiving what He has promised.  I think this raises a very important question. What does it mean to be confident? How is that different from being prideful and arrogant? Confidence (noun): firm trust, the state of feeling certain about the truth of something, a feeling of self-assurance arising from one's appreciation of one's own abilities or qualities ...

You know how sometimes in your conversations and prayers and devotional time there is a recurring theme that comes up over and over again (hence the recurring part)? Well right now one of those themes in my life is God is able.  He is able to provide for our every need. He is able to heal all our brokenness whether that be relational, spiritual, mental, physical, or emotional. He is able to bring rain when there is none in the forecast. He is able to do far more abundantly than all we could ever ask or imagine. I am amazed at all the times in the Bible where I read about someone's faith in God and it says that they believed that God was able. I feel like we have lost a lot of that,that we no longer believe that God is able to meet us right where our hearts are, right in the deep longings and desires, right where the hurt lies. We don't ask God to do impossible things because we don't believe that He can do impossible things. God is able to break decades of generationa...