This Season's Prayer

All of You is more than enough for all of me.

God, thank you for providing me with everything I need each day. But most of all, thank you for being who YOU are and Your unfailing love for me.

For every thirst and every need.

You know what I desire and need to be the woman you want me to be.

You satisfy me with Your love.

But Your love is all I need to find peace and feel complete.

And all I am in You is more than enough.

Thank You for making me who You wanted me to be. I am Your daughter and that alone all I need to be.

Where you lead me, Lord, I will follow.

God, please direct me. I want to follow the path You have laid down for me. I want to play a part in YOUR story, not just mine. I want to remove my plans that don't align with Yours. I am stepping out of the way to let You work.

Where you lead me, Lord, I will go.

I am submitting my life to you. You say the word and I will obey.

Come and heal me, Lord, I will follow.

Father, remove my doubts and fears. I know I can do anything as long as You are with me.

Where you lead me, Lord, I will go.

My life is in Your hands Lord. Use it as you please. 

More than all I want, more than all I need.

Yes, there are things I desire in this life, and you know what each of those are. But more than any of those things, I want You.

You are more than enough for me.

I love you with everything I am.

Amen.

The Character of God - 2

This week we continued our series on God's character. Ask yourself this question...are my views of God biased because if my earthly father?

We looked at a clip from The Blind Side (which is one of my favorite movies...Sandra Bullock's character is my mom made over...and probably how I will be).

Our belief this week is that God is a Loving Father. We studied the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. Prodigal means "wastefully extravagant" We look at the younger son in this way, but what if we looked at God in this way? "Wastefully extravagant" can be a good thing.

When we look at this story, are there times when in our lives when we have been like the younger son? Have you ever come to God and admitted you had a bad past, then try to work your way back to His love? Are there times when you look like the older son? You are following all of the rules, but you feel like God is holding out on you?

The father has compassion for both of his sons, just as God has compassion for all of us. We need to relate to the father, not just the sons.

Here are some ways that we should believe that God is a Loving Father:
1. The Father runs after His sons and daughters.
2. The Father restores the identity of His sons and daughters.
3. The Father celebrates his sons and daughters when we choose to be with him and he does it extravagantly (The Prodigal God).

So when I look at my relationship with my earthly father, I can't help but feel extremely blessed. He has fit the above description my whole life. My disconnect is that I haven't always seen God in that way, which is not fair to either. Now, I want to be thankful for my earthly father, but to see him as a reflection of God's love (even though God's love is even more abundant and something I won't fully understand while I am here.)

God is With Us

This week we started to learn about the Character of God, specifically that God is with us.

We see God most when bad things happen to us, even though we often feel like he is not there. (Psalm 22:1-2)

We learned about a Thriveline...when you go through your life and identify the highs and lows, then what you learned in those times. (Note to self - do this!) Then you can start to see patterns in your life.

We looked at the story of Jonah, and how he acted during his time of struggle. Through this story, we learned a few things that the world teaches about struggle.

The world says - when hard times come, we should panic and run away from God. Brokenness isolates us and takes us away from reality. (No one else has ever goner through this, you can't understand...been there, done that.) It causes us to compare with others (You don't know, someone has had it worse.) It also upsets us even deeper and we make it into something bigger than it was (yep, done that too).

Here is the important thing...God is revealed in the low points (Romans 12:2). They cause us to reach out to God. He works for the good of those who have been called to Him (Romans 8:26-28). Bad times get ME out of the way to see God. No matter what we've been through, we need to remember that God has been through it too. (Luke 23:44-46; Psalm 31:1)

So, when I look at this in my life, it is right on. Every struggle has brought me closer to God. Not only that, but most of the time, I cause every struggle by trying to control that situation. Yep, lesson learned. I am sure I am going to get in the way again, but I am excited that it will be another way for God to reveal himself to me!

We Need More Tebow

Before you get into this, let me start out by saying I am not taking the evangelistic celebrity approach to this. Also, my other disclaimer is that I am totally jumping on the bandwagon and am OK with admitting that. Yesterday in service, we had to tell a stranger our favorite color, then our favorite team left in the playoffs. My answers: pink and I don't even know who is in the playoffs anymore. So I am not going on the football approach to this either.

Instead, I am looking at Tebow in a way that every girl my age thinks about men...the future husband. NO. I am not saying I am trying to marry Tebow (although he does make enough money to support my lifestyle :) ). I just think there are so many attractive qualities in him as a Christian man, that I wish guys I knew would adopt some of them. Ok, maybe they are more attractive in Tebow because he does come with the dollar figure attached. But I am opening this up for discussion. These are just my thoughts on what makes a man like Tebow attractive and what qualities I hope my future husband has like him.

1. Tebow loves God more than anything else. This is clear in the way he talks about him all the time. I think as his audience, we have seen that because of his love for God, God has used him in wonderful ways. I want me future husband to love God this much.

2.  He is consistent in what he says. Not only does he love God, but he never backs down or changes his mind. I definitely want someone who is consistent in thought, opinion and action - a man with a clear direction. That is someone you can rely on, trust and follow.

3. He takes responsibility. Ok - I don't know this for sure, but as a quarterback, he has to take responsibility for certain plays/throws...you know, those football things. He in many ways is the "head" of the offensive line. He is able to lead others. I don't think I need to say much more about that.

So you are probably thinking, "This girl is an idiot." I have been reading/listening to some things that spurred these thoughts. I encourage you to read/listen to these when you have a chance. Over the past few months, these things, along with many conversations with friends,3 have really put more perspective on relationships for me.

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