The Potential in a Seed

John 15:4, 11 New Life Version (NLV) 

Get your life from Me and I will live in you. No branch can give fruit by itself. It has to get life from the vine. You are able to give fruit only when you have life from Me.  v11. 11 I have told you these things so My joy may be in you and your joy may be full.

Matthew 13:31-32 New Life Version (NLV)

31 Jesus told them another picture-story. He said, “The holy nation of heaven is like mustard seed which a man planted in his field. 32 It is the smallest of seeds. But when it is full-grown, it is larger than the grain of the fields and it becomes a tree. The birds of the sky come and stay in its branches.”

This past weekend I had the blessing of sitting in a room full of 700 women looking for hope and inspiration. I had a beautiful friend that shared about how we are so similar to seeds.  A seed can come in a packet at the store.  If the packet is never taken off the shelf and emptied into the soil, it will just stay a seed.  Once that tiny seed is planted, the potential of the seed begins.  First, the hard outer shell starts to soften, slowly the seed begins to root into the ground.  Once the roots are solid, sprouts begin to show above ground.  The next few pieces of the process are visible to the naked eye.  That is, if #1 I planted the seed and #2 it has the right nutrients to flourish.  

How are we like seeds?  How do we have the same potential as a seed?   You may feel that your seed is buried in dry soil.  The circumstances you are planted in seem hopeless and difficult.  However, if you put a tiny bit of water on that seed, the shell begins to soften.  Your shell needs to soften to grow.  The water in this scenario is God’s love.  When we accept God’s love, our hearts are softened.  If we nurture our hearts with God’s love, His word, a community that encourages and prays over us, we will begin to see something happen both below the surface and above. 

You are a seed.  Are you a seed sitting on a shelf?  Are you a seed that is sitting in dry soil?  Are you a seed that is growing slowly?   Are you a seed that has become dormant in this season?  You may even be going through a pruning season of reflection and growth.  You could be going into a fruitful season.  Regardless of where you are or what you are…you have potential to do anything.  Just wake up each day and know with every morning’s light you are redeemed.  

Enjoy Lauren Daigle’s Power to Redeem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDM3d2IjFTA

Be Blessed!

Strength!!!

2 Corinthians 5:5, 7 New Life Version (NLV)

5 It is God Who has made us ready for this change. He has given us His Spirit to show us what He has for us.

7 Our life is lived by faith. We do not live by what we see in front of us.

Psalm 46:1-5 New Life Version (NLV)

God is our safe place and our strength. He is always our help when we are in trouble. 2 So we will not be afraid, even if the earth is shaken and the mountains fall into the center of the sea, 3 and even if its waters go wild with storm and the mountains shake with its action.

4 There is a river whose waters make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High lives. 5 God is in the center of her. She will not be moved. God will help her when the morning comes. 

The definition of STRENGTH, according to GOOGLE, is “the quality or state of being strong, in particular”.  We have seasons of feeling strong and then other seasons of needing to find strength.  We must find our strength and encouragement in our faith.  For HE will not let us down.  We will face times of trouble.  We will feel the earth shake around us.  The storm will rage and waves will slap us down.  However, if our faith is centered and stays centered, we will find a supernatural strength.  

It is necessary for us to go through those hard times.  We won’t understand them while they are happening or even after they happen.  Those times mold us and become apart of us.  Beth Moore states, in her study title The Quest, the strength we find in Him is supernatural.  “It promotes growth in our faith, increases the size and strength of your spiritual muscle, and improves your soul’s endurance in your arduous journey to the kingdom.”  

My prayer for you today is that He gives you the strength needed.  To give you the supernatural strength and patience only He can supply.  I pray that you feel His presence as He does the heavy lifting.  I pray that you rest when you feel called to rest.  Our spiritual muscle will always stay engaged if we rest in Him.  

Be Blessed!

P.S.

Ladies - I am excited to be co-hosting an 8 week bible study based on the book Ruth.  If you are hungry for a community of women that provides spiritual relationships, we welcome you.  Please respond in an email and I will get that information to you personally.  We will be starting next Thursday, September 27th from 6-7:30.  If you feel a tug on your heart, follow your heart.  That is God whispering to you.  

256 Shades of Gray

Galatians 5:16-18 The Message (MSG)

16-18 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?

Ephesians 5:8 New Life Version (NLV)

8 At one time you lived in darkness. Now you are living in the light that comes from the Lord. Live as children who have the light of the Lord in them.

There are actually 256 shades of gray.  Yeap, there are more than 50 shades.  Got your attention?  When choosing gray as your paint color, it can look so different on the swatch than on the wall.  We can even bring samples of it home, slap it on the wall and it takes on so many different shades throughout the day.  The color tends to lend itself to the lighting in the room as the day rolls on.  In fact, in our last home we had our room painted the color Manhattan Mist (what I thought was a strong gray).  I came home that night and was very pleased with the color.  Then woke up the next morning to find that it actually looked more baby blue than gray.  

Did you know that there is NO opposite color of gray?  I googled it, and I believe everything I Google ;)  “Colorless gray has no opposite color. It doesn’t exist.”  Most grays have a touch of one or more colors.  Ok, so how does this all tie into a Thoughtful Thursday message…

It is so easy for us to blend in and melt into different shades.  We tend to go along with the flow of things and change our thinking along the way.  While changing, we can easily just change into another shade of gray.  God doesn’t want us to melt into another shade of gray.  He wants us to be bold and look different.  He wants us to take on a bold color in the color wheel and be that color.  Yes, there are times we are more a blue than a yellow, but God did not put us here on Earth to become a shade of gray.  What color are you today?  If you are finding yourself a shade of gray, I pray that you take time to silence your life, open the word, and find your color.  “Without rain there would be no rainbow.”  Gray is not in the rainbow, but it is necessary to have rainy seasons.  Don’t let the rain flood your hearts.  Look for the rainbow because it will be there.  Grab your color!  Grab it boldly!  Shine Bright!    

Be Blessed!

Decorating Our Heavenly Home

Psalm 84:4-12 New Life Version (NLV)

4 How happy are those who live in Your house! They are always giving thanks to You.

5 How happy is the man whose strength is in You and in whose heart are the roads to Zion! 6 As they pass through the dry valley of Baca, they make it a place of good water. The early rain fills the pools with good also. 7 They go from strength to strength. Every one of them stands before God in Zion.

8 O Lord God of all, hear my prayer. Listen, O God of Jacob. 9 Look upon our safe-covering, O God. And look upon the face of Your chosen one. 10 For a day in Your house is better than a thousand outside. I would rather be the one who opens the door of the house of my God, than to live in the tents of the sinful. 11 For the Lord God is a sun and a safe-covering. The Lord gives favor and honor. He holds back nothing good from those who walk in the way that is right. 12 O Lord of all, how happy is the man who trusts in You!

I have a confession.  I may be a little obsessed with Chip and Joanna Gaines.  (Side note - If you haven’t watch “Fixer Upper” on HGTV, find a way to watch a few of those episodes and you will understand what I am talking about. In fact, I have read her book and have Chip’s book sitting on my table to read next.)  When we first moved into our house (2 years ago in November), I envisioned what I wanted it to look like.    However, my mind likes to dream and our wallet restricts.  Slowly, over time, I’m making this house our home.  Recently, I was blessed with some beautiful antique bookshelves from my dad’s mom and pop 1950’s soda fountain pharmacy.  Now I’m slowly decorating and putting things on those shelves.  Basically, I’m playing house.   This is our forever home.  But truly, it is not.  

I write the paragraph above not to highlight my blessings, but to highlight my Earthly thinking.  This is home, this planet, is a temporary home.  The purpose of this home is to take what He puts in our hands and move forward with His purpose in mind.  We are pilgrims that are set out to do His works.  When I read the verse above, I see 

“Blessed am I when my strength is in You, when my heart is being troubled.  As I pass through hard times, help me make it a good place.  Give me strength with each step.  I know that you will carry me through.  Show me my part in this season.”  

So for now, I will enjoy playing house.  Not my just physical house, but my spiritual walk.  Making what I have beautiful.  I will place each item carefully the shelf and then if I feel led to move it, I will.  I will place each moment at His feet.  He will give me guidance as to where I should put it on His heavenly shelf.  God has a home for me (of course designed by Chip and Joanna Gaines) in heaven.  ;)

Be Blessed!

Stop Believing the Lies

1 John 3:1 New Life Version (NLV)

See what great love the Father has for us that He would call us His children. And that is what we are. For this reason the people of the world do not know who we are because they did not know Him.

1 Thessalonians 5:9-11 The Message (MSG)

9-11 God didn’t set us up for an angry rejection but for salvation by our Master, Jesus Christ. He died for us, a death that triggered life. Whether we’re awake with the living or asleep with the dead, we’re alive with him! So speak encouraging words to one another. Build up hope so you’ll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind. I know you’re already doing this; just keep on doing it.

Lies!  We tell ourselves lies constantly.  This past weekend I was asked this question, “What lie have you been telling yourself?  Are you still believing that lie?”  Take a moment and really think about that question.  Do you tell yourself that you aren’t worthy, you are fat, you are ugly, you aren’t…the list goes on.  Insert a few of those lies in the blanks in the verse below:

Galatians 3:28 New Life Version (NLV)

28 God does not see you as _____________. He does not see you as a___________ or as a _________. He does not see you as a man or as a woman. You are all one in Christ.

The lies that we tell ourselves may not be evident to those around us, but they burn inside of us.  They burn until they scar us to the point of where it is a permanent mark within us.  

The lie that I had been telling myself is that I’m not a leader.  I am just a normal gal with not much to offer.  I am someone who may have good ideas, but not good enough to act on them.  I have been working on breaking the chains of that lie for a while, but have really felt more freedom from that lie more recently.  However, when reflecting on WHERE this lie came from, it came from experiences from childhood that rolled into my youth and continued into my adult life.  Then it hit me like a ton of bricks, my daughter had started falling into that same rhythm.  ENOUGH!  I’m not going to let that be the lie that she rattles around in her head.  I’m stripping that lie away and modeling what it is to be a leader not a follower.  We are children of God and He never wants us to believe those lies.  You are not a slave to those lies because you are a child of God.  Enjoy the song below and stop believing those lies.  

“No Longer Slaves” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8TkUMJtK5k

Be Blessed!

PS  My father put a little reminder on my mirror growing up reminding me daily that I am a child of God.  My mother had this framed with a picture of us on my wedding day.  Keep reminders around you that help you break through those lies.  

Drifting

Hebrews 6:19-20 The Message (MSG)

18-20 “We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God…”

John 14:1 New Life Version (NLV)

“Do not let your heart be troubled. You have put your trust in God, put your trust in Me also.”

Philippians 4:7 New Life Version (NLV)

7 The peace of God is much greater than the human mind can understand. This peace will keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

As a child, I loved to fish with my dad.  Some of my most favorite memories were of us, on the lake, in a little fishing boat.   I always remember him steering the boat and driving for what seemed like hours.  I didn’t know where he was going or why he ever picked the area he would pick, but I trusted him.  Once we found the “perfect place”, he would throw the anchor overboard. Now the anchor would either keep us in place or we would begin to drift.  He never let us get too close to the shore, but if he wasn’t paying attention we would drift further than he would want.  Quick actions would have to happen to make sure we didn’t hit bottom.  

This summer was a summer of being anchored.  Anchored in my life with my family, my friends, my business, and most importantly with Him.  I felt firm in my place.  However, I have looked down for the briefest moment and now I feel as though my anchor has shifted.  I have noticed that I have drifted away into waters that are a little rougher.  This is what I was called to do, but I am feeling a little lost and disconnected.  

God is steering our lives in the direction we need to go.  We need to keep our focus on Him and know that there are times He wants our anchors to shift and drift.  In those moments, we need to stop and try to understand what He is trying to tell us.  We may not understand immediately, but He will not let us hit bottom.  We just need to fix our eyes on Him.

Enjoy Francesca Battistelli’s song titled “Strangely Dim”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBEOc2zZREU

Be Blessed!

Rapid Rivers and Stepping Stones

Isaiah 43:2 New Life Version (NLV)

2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. When you pass through the rivers, they will not flow over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. The fire will not destroy you.

Romans 8:28 New Life Version (NLV)

28 We know that God makes all things work together for the good of those who love Him and are chosen to be a part of His plan.

Our faith walk will always be an adventure and/or a journey.  One that takes us to places that may seem dark and overwhelming.  One that takes us to moments of anxiousness and confusion.  One that takes us to moments of celebration, excitement, and happiness.  

This summer God placed a vision on my heart of what my faith walk has been and continues to be.  So as all good teachers do, I’m going to tell it in story form.  

Imagine that you are standing on the banks of a river.  This river is not a calm flowing river, but a river that rushes in front of you.  A river that has waves and ripples that come crashing into anything that it meets.  The whirling of the rapids can be exhilarating and spectacular to watch.  However, you have to cross this river on foot.  There is no steady foothold in sight.  You take a deep breath and pray.  As you open your eyes, a stepping stone comes to surface.  This stone is one that is not covered in moss and is not going to waver.  It is a sturdy place to step.  You take your first step, trying not to let the rapids falter your balance.  The minute you look to one side you loose focus, and anxiousness begins to take ahold of your mind.  You close your eyes, pray, breathe, and then open your eyes to see another stone has been placed before you.  Just like the stone you’re standing on, this one is just as secure.  You continue to take one step at a time.  As you are crossing this river, you continue to have moments of anxiousness.  You may even fall into the river, but then pray that He pulls you out so that you can continue to move forward.  

Our faith walk, if not aligned with Him, will falter.  We have to continue to realign our vision of what His purpose is for us.  The waters may be running all around, but keep your heart and head steady.  He will not let you drown.  

Enjoy and let the lyrics of this song wash over you.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GGFb6LcX3U

Be Blessed!