Sunday, July 24, 2011

R&R

Been reading a wonderful book by Joyce Meyer called Eat the Cookie Buy the Shoes. My first instinct was to say well no wonder this is a Nee York Times Best Seller! How many times does it take to tell a woman to "eat the cookie!"

The thing is, it has taken me a while longer than it should have to discover the true art of relaxation. It is a talent, and sometimes I have a difficult time of it. I compensate for my worry with to-do lists and hard work. Sometimes I think people will no longer love little old me if I stop being a hard worker. Well that's just pride and prides just as ugly as they come.

The truth is a good woman knows the art and necessity of a little R&R and can lighten up every so often. My mother is known for laughing at her poor children during a tantrum or when we find ourselves the most pitiful creatures on Gods green earth. She doesn't take our tedious troubles too seriously. She knows its better to laugh. She also believes in the power of the cat nap. 20 minutes and she's a new woman. With six kids if she didn't recharge she'd be in the funny farm by now.

So dismiss that negative connotation of rest and recreation and refreshment with These thoughts from Joyce's book::

"rest is not inactivity but the harmonious working together of all the faculties and affection of will, heart, imagination & conscious."



"if the emotions heart will or mind is set against the thing being done there will be no rest. Martha was working, but she resented it so she could not rest. When we have a job to do we should do it willingly not with resentment. It is vital for us to use our free will and choose the will of god when a thing needs to be done. We say in our heart "I will do this as a service to god and I will do it with a good attitude."

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

immeasurably more

wanted to share a few things that have cropped up in my life lately--in Bible verses I have come across & books that I have been reading; all have presented truths i already KNOW, but do i truly TAP into the powersource, the ABUNDANCE that is my Jesus?

as believers in Christ we have the power that raised Christ from the dead, living within us. Paul urges the Ephesians to truly tap into this power when he writes,

"that HE may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be STRENGTHENED with power through his spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that YOU rooted and grounded in love, may have STRENGTH to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and heighth and depth, and to KNOW the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be FILLED with the fullness of God"  Ephesians 3:16-19

as i read this verse, I feel myself getting bigger and bigger, stronger and stronger.  God wants me to have strength? power? he wants little me to know the length, breadth, heighth and depth of his love! he wants happiness and peace, true joy found only in Him! why, if this is true, do i worry over the small things, mistakes made, my inadequacies, grades, what others think, what others say? if i truly was tapped into the power that Christ gives me, and places within me, then I would not worry at all about what is to come.

"Now to HIM who is able to accomplish far more than all we can ask or imagine, by the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever." Ephesians 3:20

In this verse Paul says that God's power, his abilities, his overall-plan is SO MUCH GREATER than even our WILDEST DREAMS.  He is able to do IMMEASURABLY MORE
than what we can comprehend.  Why then do I not ask him? pray specifically for the strength and power that I require to make it through the day, for the self-esteem, for the desire to play hard, for my future-spouse, for whoever and whatever it is I am struggling with, why do I not ask him?

Because of these truths we are called to CELEBRATE and REJOICE in God's goodness.  He desires for us the "abundant life!"  He desires for us bigness, fullness, happiness, joy, freedom---he desires for us a care-free lifestyle that ONLY relying on Jesus can give. 

In college I struggled the most with anxiety and inadequacy.  I felt stretched thin, I felt like I was living hand-to-mouth and day-to-day. I struggled with eating enough food to keep me going. I felt like the less space I took up the better. Smaller, quieter, I didn't have enough energy to ward off what I knew was Satan tempting me to dispair.  Wow. That is hard to admit, but so true.  While I wasn't actively sinning against others, I was certainly not tapping into the power that Jesus had already given me.  He had a big present waiting for me in the corner but I was too tired to notice, or believe.

Still today I struggle with anxiety but I have to actively choose to believe and reopen his gifts each morning.  Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Not in my power, but in God's power.  Reading these verses makes me feel full, powerfull, strong.  it makes me feel happy and joyful.  unafraid. 





Thats why I love this picture of Kurt so much; he is unafraid, unworried, stretched out agaisnt the biggest place he could find. Taking up as much space as he can in a picture//he stands next to a huge ocean and yet he struggles to be as large as the sea.  It is refreshing to me.  It used to bother me how much space he demanded, but now I see what a gift that is.

God can do IMMEASURABLY MORE