So tonight I have been thinking about surrendering to God's will~

But how do you know what God's will is? It is something I have struggled with. Then God showed me just how easy it is to know what His will is in my life~

1. I have to actually ASK Him what His will is in my life~ Go to God in prayer and ASK
2. Then I need to LISTEN~ God doesn't usually speak to us out loud
Instead, God tends to speak to us through our "conscious", through what we read,
through friends, sometimes even through strangers.
3. After that I need to do what He has told me to do. ACTION
4. Then go back to God in prayer to make sure I stay on the narrow path of His will.

I don't know what God's will is for me tomorrow~ I know what it is tonight. I know that I have to listen to the Holy Spirit when He speaks to me so that I am able to stay in God's will...

This whole being a Christian thing~ it isn't easy. God asks a lot of us~ we need to surrender to Him, be obediant to His word, and follow a narrow path. I finally after years of bible reading, going to church, and all that~ FINALLY I am getting it. To not be OF this world just to be in it~

I need to live in such a way that those outside the faith see there is something “different” about me. When we walk in LOVE~ when we do as God has instructed us~ there is no way that others could mistake us as being part of this world we live in. They will know we are set apart fro the world.

I still struggle~ by no means am I there yet. I still deal with things of the flesh. Wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony are still part of who I am. However I continue to go to God and work on these...

God's will is that I overcome all of these and live in the light of His word!

Peace and Tranquility

1 Peter 3:3 & 4
Your adornment must not be merely external—braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.

A conversation with a friend had me thinking about this verse~ we were discussing how there are some people where, the minute you meet them, you know~ REALLY KNOW~ that they are Christians. Before they speak, before there is action... just in seeing them you know.

Their gentle and quiet spirit, that adornment of GOD is so present in their face that it doesn't require words or actions to convince you of their faith.

Then there are these folks who act as if they are Christian, they have the words, but there is a harshness about them that makes the words and actions in conflict to the appearance.

In Romans 6~ Paul talks about how as sinners we were slaves to sin but as Christians we are slaves to GOD. I sat wondering how, when I know there are these people who wholeheartedly want to be Christians and for all outward appearances seem to be doing the Christian thing but lack that something, I guess that Peace (Phil. 4:7). God's Peace...

It really had me thinking...

Paul, again in Romans 6 talks about how the "old man" is dead and a "new man" is born... so if we are new, died and born again, how is it that parts of the "old man" the sinner is still in us?

Why are there these inner conflicts between making choices for God's instruction or sin? Some of it is things we do not even make concious decision about. What comes to mind is the spirit of judgement~ when we make judgement on a situation or person. I know for me this is something I do without thought unless I am making a negative judgement and then the Holy Spirit works on me telling me not to do it.

I feel like a failure~ that I still struggle with my sinnful self instead of being set free from sin and doing only what God requires... it makes me question my salvation... is it real since I still struggle with sin?

James 1:5~ If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

So I am going to God, asking HIM to discern these things that I am conflicted by, to show me HIS truth...

Come Just as You Are

The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.

The story of the butterfly

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly.
One day a small opening appeared.
He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours
as it struggled to squeeze its body through the tiny hole.
Then it stopped, as if it couldn't go further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly.
He took a pair of scissors and
snipped off the remaining bits of cocoon.
The butterfly emerged easily but
it had a swollen body and shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch it,
expecting that any minute the wings would enlarge
and expand enough to support the body,
Neither happened!
In fact the butterfly spent the rest of its life
crawling around.
It was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness
and haste did not understand:
The restricting cocoon and the struggle
required by the butterfly to get through the opening
was a way of forcing the fluid from the body
into the wings so that it would be ready
for flight once that was achieved.

Sometimes struggles are exactly
what we need in our lives.
Going through life with no obstacles would cripple us.
We will not be as strong as we could have been
and we would never fly.

The story of the butterfly really hit home for me this morning~ it is like in Zachariah 13~

The Shepherd Struck, the Sheep Scattered
7 "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
against the man who is close to me!"
declares the LORD Almighty.
"Strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered,
and I will turn my hand against the little ones.
8 In the whole land," declares the LORD,
"two-thirds will be struck down and perish;
yet one-third will be left in it.

9 This third I will bring into the fire;
I will refine them like silver
and test them like gold.
They will call on my name
and I will answer them;
I will say, 'They are my people,'
and they will say, 'The LORD is our God.' "

Today I know that all I have gone through, all that I will go through, all of it is to form me into the person God desires me to be~ all I have to do is submit to his will, go through the struggles, and become the person I will be...

Blessed as I am, I still struggle with things of the flesh and desires that are not of the heart and always the people in my life are also having these struggles~ I go forward today knowing that all this really is to make me more pleasing to my GOD!