Encouragement from Him

From Philippians 2:1-4...
"If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."

I was just thinking how this is the purpose of the blog...if we are united with Christ, we should not be bogged down in the sorrow of sin, but we should be shining as lights for Him and be encouraging to others! Someone spoke to me today about how rehashing my sin to others is not an encouragement, but is in fact discouraging and can even be a stumbling block.

So I want to renew my purpose for having this blog be an encouragement to one another--ya'll are admins, so feel free to edit or delete my posts if they are not glorifying to God! But girls, look at how much the verses say we have received--encouragement, comfort, fellowship, tenderness and compassion...how can we not be filled with gratefulness and joy for what God is doing?? Let's purpose to seek Him wholeheartedly!!

Minor testimony, but still wanted to share it...I had an interview on Wednesday for an events planning training program, and one of the parts of the interview was to fill out a personality survey. On the survey, we had to rank ourselves 1-5 on various categories, then the interviewer asked about them. So, near the end, there were 2 categories of "how religious are you?" and "how politically liberal are you?". I ranked myself, then waited for the question on those. I had to pray though, because I could just imagine myself rationalizing, 'well, I put a 5 but really, if something falls on a Sunday, I could make an exception. And I'm not very politically liberal, but what does that mean anyway? If you have a gay wedding to do, I guess I would just quietly not do it. Not really a big deal.'--I tend to try to please people at any cost. So I prayed God would help me be bold and non-compromising and when she went over the categories, she said "Oh ok you're very religious and conservative. That's actually good to be on that side of the extreme" and kept going. Anyway, just a little praise for God preparing my heart to stand for Him.

"This is All That I Can Give...That's My Everything"

Tonight at Beautiful Minds, Sharon said something to the effect of, how much do we need God? How much do we want Him in our lives? A little bit of need? Or do we really truly NEED Him? Are we able to say to Him, God take all? Like the widow who gave her two coins, are we able to give Him everything we have, no matter how pitiful??

Then I go to the blog Bring The Rain (audreycaroline.blogspot.com) and this song by the David Crowder Band comes on:
Lord I'm tired
So tired from walking
And Lord I'm so alone
And Lord the dark
Is creeping in
Creeping up
To swallow me
I think I'll stop
Rest here a while

And didn't You see me cry'n?
And didn't You hear me call Your name?
Wasn't it You I gave my heart to?
I wish You'd remember
Where you sat it down

Chorus:
And this is all that I can say right now
i know it's not much
And this is all that I can give
yeah that's my everything

Bridge:
I didn't notice
You were standing here
I didn't know that
That was You holding me
I didn't notice
You were cry'n too
I didn't know that
That was You washing my feet


See the chorus? Our lives are nothing. There is not much we can bring to Christ. We don't have some great gift to bring. All we have is our pitiful lives. But He wants us to bring that--to bring our everything.

I am only starting to see a little piece of what God requires of me. Girls, what are you willing to give up? Consider the things He may ask of you:

*He may ask you to be single for the rest of your life. Can you submit that to Him?

*He may not grant you children. Can you submit that to Him?

*He may direct you to be a missionary in another country. Can you submit that to Him?

*He may take people away from you that you love. A breakup, a friend forsaking Christ, a child dying. Can you submit that to Him?


Tonight we learned about how Oswald Chambers was in a relationship with a girl he loved for eight years, and then gave her up because she was not God's will for him. Would you be willing to give up someone you loved for Christ? Completely give up your wishes in order to be in submission to Him?


SURRENDER ALL AND BE BLESSED!!

Self-centeredness

Hey Sisters,

Just really quick, I wanted to share something that God spoke to me. Again, through C.S. Lewis ;) (I just finished Surprised by Joy).

Lewis pointed out that there is a difference between being selfish and being self-centered. We can be selfish--taking everything for ourselves, always acting in our own best interests--without being self-centered. And we can be self-centered--Always talking about ourselves, thinking about ourselves, focusing on ourselves, without being selfish. Do you see the difference? And he pointed out that, while both are wrong, it's far less pleasant to be around someone who is self-centered than someone who is just selfish.

Well, this really convicted me, because even though I'm usually (usually, not always) willing to give up something for something else, I'm still always thinking of myself. Pride (seems like everything goes back to pride, huh?)

I know in my friendships I've often been self-centered. I often end up talking about myself--partially because I want to, and partially because I'm too lazy to think of questions to ask the other person.

I tend to see everything by how it relates to me, how it involves me. Instead, I want to forget about myself, and see God and his people.

Hehe, just thought of that song we used to sing in Junior Church:

JOY, JOY, this is what it means:

Jesus first, myself last, and others in between! ;)

Living in Joy

Hi Gals,

With all that has been going on the revival, it seems easy to get caught up in excitement. However, I have really found that I tend to get depressed by how much there is for me to change. And I feel as though, even if I do change, I will have to work hard at it for the rest of my life to live in the way God desires. And it seems like life cannot be happy. But, last night God really spoke to me and showed me...Satan takes away joy, not obedience to God. He deceives us and makes us think, "There cannot be joy in doing God's will." But, praise God! He is more powerful than Satan and He GIVES joy! Even when things are difficult, the Holy Spirit can give us power not only to do them, but also to have JOY in doing.

I don't know if ya'll struggle with this, but I have found great peace in God. And now, when Satan comes to tempt me to get depressed and to feel like I can only obey and never have joy, I can say to him, "The Holy Spirit gives us power to obey quickly, exactly and with JOY." Hope this helps you feel encouraged in a time where a lot of sin is being revealed and a lot of hard work needs to be done to change it.