Sunday, May 20, 2018

Facing Fears!

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I lived through this war. I can take the next thing that comes along.”  —Eleanor Roosevelt

 When we feel anxious about something, we often avoid it.   This doesn’t fix the problem in fact many times I can make the problem worse by trying to ignore it or avoid it.    The Sunday school class I am in is reading a book called Unafraid by Adam Hamilton.

I just wanted to share some of what I thought were the important pints that stand out.  Especially now when we’ve just had another school shooting and the news seems to never be anything good or positive.  (This is one reason I rarely watch the news)

 The reality is everyone worries about something. We all have things we fear. And most of us will have seasons when anxieties and fears simply overwhelm us. Fear is a powerful emotion that shaves all of us in profound ways we often don’t fully understand.

 Often we fear things that will never happen yet real or imagined, DR. spears have power. Sometimes our battles with fear take a more serious turn, becoming a debilitating struggle.

 The Bible is filled with stories of people who fears got the best of them.  The one I find most interesting is the Inrealites story found inNumbers.   The Israelites allowed their fear to keep them from the promised land for 40 years !  40 Years!! I can’t even imagine!

Or can I?
Fear False Events Apperaing Real

 We spend a lot of time and emotional energy worrying about and fearing things that will never happen.

 Most of the things were afraid of or not nearly as frightening as they seem, but the only way will learn this is to face her fears with Faith-Faith that will survive the roller coaster, faith that our parish it will open and allow us to fall slowly to the earth.

Face your fears with Faith
Examine your assumptions in light of the facts
Attack your anxieties with action
Release your cares to God

Don’t fear, because I am with you;
Don’t be afraid for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
I will surely help you;
I will hold you
With my strong righteous hand.
Isaiah 41:10


Whenever I’m afraid,
I put my trust in you-
In God, whose word I praise.
I trust in God; I won’t be afraid.
What can mere flesh (people) donto me?
Psalm 56:3-4

The Lord is near. Don’t be anxious about anything; rather, bring up all of your requests to God in your prayers and petitions, along with giving thanks. Then the peace of God that exceed all understanding will keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus.
Phillipians 4:5b-7

We can focus our imagination on all the things that might happen, and by inflating the threats are obstacles we face, he turned them in the Giants. Or we can focus our imagination on the presence of God-through prayer, singing hymns, sharing our struggles with close friends, and other spiritual disciplines-and trust that we will since his love and mercy holding a snake. When we imagine God’s presence and power be fine we can begin to live with courage and hope.


 We have some power over our fears !   I think for me the biggest thing is learning that I’m not alone in this life.  God has surrounded me with some amazing people, whom I can go to with my fears, my anxious thoughts and feelings and receiving Kerg God has surrounded me with some amazing people, whom I can go to with my fears, my anxious thoughts and feelings and receive encouragement from them.   I Also have Gods word and truth.   There so many scriptures that talk about not being afraid do not fear because God is with us I just have to remember that.

 The next time I start to feel overwhelmed with anxiety and fear I  need to dig into those scriptures, those truths from God and allow Him to take over my thinking.

My prayer for you is that you’d have Godly advice givers, and strength to be vulnerable and share with others.  We were not meant to live this life alone!

Have a Blessed day!
Chrisitna

Insider Information

 Have you ever known something that you couldn’t tell other people until the time was just right?

 That’s how I think of the Holy Spirit inside of us is.  The spirit knows, what’s best for us, what path we need to take, what’s ahead. But sometimes the spirit can’t tell us those things we have to wait.   Sometimes our way in is because were not ready to hear it, sometimes are waiting is because God’s not ready to review it to us. Sometimes, we can’t hear the spirit.  Whatever the reason the spirit is still there waiting speaking to us showing us who God is !

  I’m currently reading the book Discerning the voice of God by Priscilla Schreier and leading as a Bible study .   I really have to pace myself with reading this book because were doing just a chapter a week .  

Last week we read chapter two and one of the stories in this chapter really summed up for me what the spirit does in us.  Priscilla gave an example of an airplane flight she once took.   Well she’s on this flight it’s suddenly seemed to drop out of the sky it caused a panic on the plane people imagine the worst in as quickly as that happened to paint the plane stabilized . And that’s when the pilot got on the loudspeaker telling all the passengers know what had happened. You see the control tower had a radio the pilot and told him he needed to send quickly because there was another plane coming directly for him and even though he couldn’t see that plane coming for him he trusted what the control tower told him.   Had the pilot not obeyed the control tower the story wouldn’t have a happy ending that it does. Those passengers had a very uneventful flight the rest of their flight.

 The Holy Spirit is to us with the control tower is to the airplane pilot. The spirits ability to see what we cannot, and then communicate information to us based on his knowledge, provides us with insight we could never obtain through on board instruments alone. And yes, sometimes what he asks of us put us in a place of discomfort that at the same time seems unnecessary from our vantage point, but trusting him and responding to him is always in our best interest.

1 Corinthians 3:16 says  Do you not know you are a temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you?

 This means that the spirit is in us!   This means that listening to him is an exercise in hearing from within-not being directed by external stimuli that divert our attention away from his direction.

He’ll give you for example, a red light of conviction, telling you to stop. Or a yellow light of caution, instructing you to hold back and wait a second. Or a green light of peace and permission, encouraging you to go ahead. When the spirit does this, celebrate!  It’s a living proof that the Holy Spirit is in there, working, guiding, changing your conscience from the inside out. Even if his direction seems momentarily uncomfortable, remember that he sees the whole picture. He is the control tower. He is protecting you from the disaster of your own uninformed inclinations. He steering you safely into God’s will, and he has your best interest in mind.  It’s living proof that the Holy Spirit is in there, working, guiding, changing your conscience from the inside out. Even if his directions seems momentarily uncomfortable, remember that he sees the whole picture. He is the control tower. He is protecting you from the disaster of your own uninformed inclinations. He steering you safely into God’s will, and he has your best interest in mind.

 So how do we know that it’s really the spirit talking to us?

 He wants you to know Him and to know what is the right thing to do. And because He’s fully aware that you and I are not always very good listeners, His pattern is to say things more than once, and more than one way, so that if were genuinely trying to listen and respond to His direction, we won’t miss Him.  This applies not only to the major decisions we need to make but also to the smaller details of life.

 Priscilla gives us the tools of the 5 M’s to correctly hearing Gods voice.

1.  Look for the Message of the Spirit.

  • Intentionally take time to listen and pay close attention. 


2.  Search out the Model of Scripture.

  • Stay Immersed in Gods word.
  • Carefully consider what you are hearing
  • Keep your eyes open when reading His Word


3.  Live in the Mode of Prayer

  • Take what you are hearing and direct it back to God.


4. Submit to the Ministry of Eli (wisdom).

  • Seek the counsel of a mature beliver


5.  Expect the Mercy of confirmation.

  • Look for God to use circumstances, scripture, and other believers to confirm His direction for you.  





God want's you to know His will.  Listen, Listen deep. Listen early and often to the Spirit within you.  That is how you start to hear Him. 

Praying you and I will hear from Him, and know with out a doubt it is God speaking!  

Have a Blessed Day!  

Christina 




Monday, May 7, 2018

Listen! God’s in Charge, Not You!

This past week at work was crazy!  We had stormy weather which in turn makes for some stormy behaviors from kids and adults alike!  I was exhausted by the time Friday came, and I am sure it showed in my words, thoughts, and behavior.  On top of all of this, I have really been trying to start each day in prayer and reading a devotion/scripture.  I did pretty good with that, but boy does Satan like to push his lies in on you when you are pushing out the bad and living for God.   

We started our new Study Monday Night and I was encouraged by those who were able to be there, and for what I believe God will do in the lives of those who are attending.  

Chapter One in our book: Discerning the Voice of God. starts with this scripture in Ecclesiastes.  


5 Watch your step when you enter God’s house.
    Enter to learn. That’s far better than mindlessly offering a sacrifice,
        Doing more harm than good.
2 Don’t shoot off your mouth, or speak before you think.
Don’t be too quick to tell God what you think he wants to hear.
God’s in charge, not you—the less you speak, the better.
Ecclesiastes 5:1-2


WOW!  Talk about really getting to the point!  God's in charge not me!  I could have just read that and stopped there!  But my goal is to grow, and to deepen my relationship with God.  I really want to hear from Him.  And I know I can't do that if I am not spending time with  Him, in His word, and with His people.

As I read through chapter 1, so many things stood out to me like:
If I wanted to hear, I had to listen!
Creating time, space, and opportunity to hear God is paramount for those of us who desire to sense His spirits conviction to receive his detailed guidance, and to discern His intimate leading.

 If we want to be able to sense His direction, we must slow down, quite our hearts, and listen for the way His Spirit communicates.

When reading His word, it means approaching it with an open mind and heart that’s not already bogged down with my own opinions and ideas of what the text is saying.

In the regular rhythms of life, it means being willing to wait and watch, to sense where God is moving before I hurt to make a decision. It means not having all the answers I’d like to have but not becoming frazzled by that, staying quiet and patient as He gives me what I do need to know...

If we’re always impatient, we leave little space for Gods direction to resonate in our already crowded schedules.

Take into your heart all my words which I will speak to you and listen closely.
Ezekiel 3:10

One of the most common reason we don’t hear from God is perhaps the most obvious: We’re not listening!

I believe the most practical way we can begin to discipline ourselves in this area is our prayer lives.
We need to deliberately carve out time in our prayer life to be still and listen for Gods voice.

 Deliberately listening for God’s voice seems to be a lost art these days .  Let’s be honest, listening period is a lost art.

 We think all of our bustle and busyness and the pursuit of Christian living somehow makes Him more likely to speak to us once He recognizes how hard were willing to work for him   Oh how wrong we are with this kind of thinking!

 The enemy win the victory every time we let our jam-packed schedule is invade the sanctuary for quiet time with God .   And we allow it to happen, we set a precedent that the rest of our lives seem to end up following.

 This is why I’ve been so deliberate the last two weeks, making sure that I am in his word and spending time with him before I do anything else each morning .  I know however, that I definitely have a lot more work to do in this area .   Some days I feel like I rushed through my time with Him so I can get onto the next thing.

 Listening to God is a purposeful activity that we are supposed to start doing.  It is the investment of time we was make in order to yield the spiritual  dividends we so desperately need .

Carving out time in prayer to purposely listen for God’s voice-His voice and nothing else-retrains us so we can hear the spirits whisper and gain the ability to hear him clearly.
Stopping to listen to him enables us to become familar with what a sense of God’s presence feels like well in large in our understanding of his plans for us, seeing them emerge into the light.

Until we intentionally discipline ourselves to be still and listen, we’ll miss most of what He is saying.

 So how do we do that?

For me I need to remove any distractions, this includes my phone, computer, and that never ending to do list.  Fight the urge to get up and move, to redirect stray thoughts as soon as they pop in my head.

I am still working on this every time I sit to have quiet time with God.  It has to be intentional.

How do you intentionally listen for God?


My Goal this next week is to slow down, speak less, listen more, and spend uninterrupted and  intentional time with God, in His Word.


Have a Blessed Day!
Christina