Favorite Verses

   It's harder than people think to pick your favorite verses... I have a ton that have spoken to me at different times over the years and I would have a hard time choosing just one. However, I did narrow it down to three that I wanted to share briefly here.

"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." - Matthew 11:28

   How often are we burdened down by the things of this world? It is so easy to get discouraged when we see what is happening both around us and within our own lives; but when we put all of that aside and come to Jesus... what a blessed rest we can then find. 

"Be still, and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth!" Psalm 46:10

   It is so hard to be still, but what incredible things follow when we are still before the Lord. Peace follows and we can be sure that He is still God. 

"But those who wait on the Lord

Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,

They shall walk and not faint." Isaiah 40:31

   All-time favorite right here! My parents gave me this verse on my thirteenth birthday and it's been given to me again and again by people over the last 9 years. Coincidentally, Isaiah is one of my favorite books. I always loved the imagery of the Lord giving me the strength to fly like an eagle... how amazing would it be to soar above our troubles with the strength from Jesus? When we wait on Him, we can receive that strength and peace to keep going and push past the trials in our lives. 

   Share one of your favorite verses, I'd love to here some!

Blessings!

Abby

Allowing Change

   What makes someone a "great Christian?" Think of someone you would consider a great example of Christ. Do they have any combination of the following characteristics:

loving

wise

patient

gentle

open-hearted

willing

humble

caring

dependable

kind

discrete

truthful

available

sincere

gentle

generous

   Do you think that the person you're thinking of achieved all or some of those characteristics overnight? Absolutely not. We receive Christ in a moment when we accept His forgiveness. He begins to immediately work on those things in our hearts that do not reflect Him, but it requires a little effort on our part. We do not become a "great Christian" without sacrificing things in our lives and striving for that Christ-centered life.

   In Romans 12, we are called to "present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." (v. 1, NKJV) which includes our minds and our hearts, not just our physical bodies. Christ works in our minds and hearts, making them holy and acceptable like Himself. If the Creator of the universe sent His Son to save this group of dirty, sinful people, shouldn't we give our lives back to Him? God is waiting for us to turn to Him and say "Take what is holding me back from giving You my all. Change me completely." Jesus has a beautiful and fulfilling gift of a life with Him, but we have to accept it and the changes it will make in us.

   So... change scares me to a certain extent. I like having a plan, being organized, knowing what's coming up next so when one day (fairly recently, by the way), I felt the Lord telling me that He was changing me, I kind of freaked out a little bit. He wanted to redo me to become more and more like Him but I would have to allow Him to have that control, not knowing what was coming up next. It terrified me, but... I knew I had to: there was a deep, burning desire within me. I was scared, almost petrified. But I realized that if I wanted to be a "great" Christian, it would take a great sacrifice. So I told the Lord "Yes, change me. Go ahead. Take control and begin to change me to be more like You."

Best. Decision. Ever. 

   Yes, it's terrifying. Yes, it seems uncertain. Yes, I don't understand. Yes, I still struggle. But it's fine... God's got me, my family, my friends, my future, etc. Sure the change is still scary and different, but in so many good ways. I'm still me, but I am becoming a more Christ-like version of me. He has placed within me this incredible desire for more of Himself within my soul. When I first began to notice a difference, it almost blew me away. There is a satisfaction and peace in Him that I am finding. I want to read my Bible more. I want to pray for people daily. I want to encourage others and spread His love more than ever. Any opportunities He gives, I want to take, even if they scare the living daylights out of me.

   Nothing in this world can compare to the incredible life in Jesus. Anything this world offers cannot compare to that moment when you realize Christ is all you ever want. You may still love those things and talk about them, but they don't hold a piece of your heart anymore... that's where only Jesus resides. "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Romans 12:2 (NKJV).

   But......

   It would be so easy to let this all slip away. God is never going to let me go, but I could easily let go of Him. There are so many opportunities daily to turn away from this Christian walk and follow the world. I'm not talking about just the larger things, like turning away from our faith and denying Christ. This includes even the small things: role models, types of music, movies/TV shows, daily conversations, things we read, etc. The littlest things make the greatest impacts and those are the things that the devil uses to turn us slowly away from our walks with Christ.

   I'm not telling you to become a hermit and live in silence away from the world, but we have to work at this - if we neglect this gift of life in Christ, it will disappear. Our "Jesus-ness" will fade from our lives. It's like when you spend a lot of time with someone, you begin to pick up on their characteristics. I have a few friends like this: after talking with my one friend who lives down south, I always start to say "ya'll" and everyone knows who I was talking to recently. It's the same with Christ. We ask Him to change us and make our lives more pleasing to Him, but if we don't work at it, it will not last. It requires a sacrifice of time and energy on our parts. It takes work. The reward is worth every moment of effort.

   Look again at the list of characteristics at the beginning of this post. Do you need help with one of the in particular? Do you need all of them? You're in good company. No one possesses every single one, but that's why we need God to continually remake us.

   Lord, change me. Make me more Christ-like. Show me the rewards of the sacrifice. Give a me a deep desire to strive after a life with You.

Blessings,
~Abby

Spirit of the Living God, 

Fall fresh on me. 

Spirit of the Living God, 

Fall fresh on me. 

Melt me, mold me, 

Fill me, use me.

Spirit of the Living God,

Fall fresh on me.

- D. Iverson & L. Alexander, 1997

PS - I apologize for the lack of updates. I was wrapping up a semester by the end of February, then March was ridiculous with work. I will try to update a bit in April. I cannot promise anything as I am starting a new semester tomorrow (actually today), but I will try! 

Above All Else.

Seek the Lord while He may be found,

   Call upon Him while He is near.

Let the wicked forsake his way,

   And the unrighteous man his thoughts;

Let him return to the Lord,

   And He will have mercy on him;

And to our God,

   For He will abundantly pardon.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

   Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

   So are My ways higher than your ways,

And My thoughts than your thoughts. ~ Isaiah 55:6-9

   How many Christians sit every week in a Sunday service and hear the Word of God, but do not listen? How many of them get dragged down in bad times because they rely only on themselves?

   When we seek the Lord above all else, we find Him. Our situations disappear. Our focus shifts from the bad to His good. He does not want to see us suffer, but desires us to seek Him out. When we do this, our thoughts become His thoughts, and our ways His. Our paths become directed by Him.

   This isn't some magical formula that once we change our focus to Him, everything is fixed, but rather, we are in His will and we can have great confidence that He will remain in control.

~ Abby

PS - I'm thinking of creating a spot of this blog to share some of my poetry and writing. Thoughts?

Brokenness.

   How is it already the end of January?! My apologies for not posting in the last few weeks: work is beginning to get busy thanks to the upcoming tax season, I had very little break during the holidays from my four classes so I was catching up with them, plus I had midterms for a few of the classes last week, my mom had minor surgery on her hand, etc., etc., etc.. You all know how crazy life can get just when you think it can't get any busier. Anyway... 

   I wanted to share a thought that I had a few weeks ago. Scars are not pretty, but scars are a part of your story. Physical or emotional, visible or hidden, they are there. We all have them, but what we choose to do with them is up to us. They can remind us of how terrible things were and how broken we felt, but they can also show God's incredible love, mercy, and grace for bringing you through.

   Mandisa is one of my favorite Christian artists, and her album 'Overcomer' has become a huge blessing recently as I have been listening to it again. Her song "What Scars Are For" actually triggered the above thought in my head. Hearing the song and actually paying attention to the words are two different things and I actually listened to the words recently... Whoa. The chorus is below.

"They remind me of Your faithfulness

And all You brought me through.

They teach me that my brokenness

Is something You can use.

They show me where I’ve been and

That I’m not there any more,

That’s what scars, that’s what scars are for."

   That chorus hit me like a train at full speed: being so broken that there is no where else to run to, no one else to turn to but God. Wow. Psalm 51:14-17 says this:

"Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,

The God of my salvation,

And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.

O Lord, open my lips,

And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.

For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;

You do not delight in burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,

A broken and a contrite heart—

These, O God, You will not despise."

   Not only do we feel broken, but we feel guilty and empty. What can I offer God when I have nothing in me? There is nothing left for my family, my friends, myself, so what could I possibly give to Him? Here's the thing. He wants your brokenness. He wants the emptiness of your soul. He wants you when you have nothing left to give. We question why anyone would want us when we are like that but it's what God does. He takes those shattered pieces of our lives and begins to mold them into something that He can use to show His faithfulness and grace. 

   Hopefully, my point was made, but if not, here it is in a nutshell: God wants the broken bits of you to bring glory to His name. Remember that when you have nothing, He is everything. 

~ Abby

2016... Knowing Him.

   How was everyone’s Christmas and New Years? The week of Christmas was ridiculously busy, but in a good way. I had my company’s Christmas luncheon the same day my sister and I had our annual Christmas party! (Pictures to follow.) Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were both quiet and peaceful spent with friends and family and I was even able to get a bit of homework done Christmas evening. A few days before the new year, I was sick with some sort of 24-hour stomach bug and thankfully, I’m beginning to feel better. I’m still a little achy and tired, but overall, much better.

   The year ended on a good note: our college Sunday school class was able to get together for breakfast on New Year’s Eve which was wonderful. We don’t get to spend a lot of time together because so many are busy with jobs, school, or live out of state. But I’m so thankful that we were able to spend some time together. Later that afternoon, my best friend, whom I haven’t seen since the end of July (!!!), drove up from down south and spent New Year’s with me! Finally able to catch up in person and share things that happened in the last five months was incredible, and then we ended the year at my church, taking part in Holy Communion right at midnight. There is nothing like beginning the new year with God.

   Our church’s verse for this year is just the first five words of Philippians 3:10… “that I may know Him…” Our pastor said how, yes we want to know about our God and that in itself is marvelous, but our goal, our resolution, should be to not just know about Him, but to actually know Him. It struck me how I may know Bible facts, I may know characters and stories from the Bible, but how much do I truly know Him?

   Personally, I do not make resolutions, mainly because I have no confidence in myself to keep them. I’ve gone two, maybe three weeks keeping my goals and then I fall off the wagon. As people kept asking me what I was going to do in the new year, I began to think of this year and how many times I failed to turn to the Lord when I should have. Then, someone out of the blue asked what my favorite Bible verse was… of course, there are tons, how could I choose?! I was reminded of the Scripture that I have been given several times over the last eight or nine years of my life.

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary;

they shall walk, and not faint. ~ Isaiah 40:31

   Patience is not one of my strong points (not sure if it ever will be). But my promise for 2016 is to turn to Him in those moments when I cannot handle anything else. When this world becomes too overwhelming and I feel myself falling, I can turn for one more ounce of strength, one more ounce of faith, to my Father. This world does not offer a remedy to those moments and situations, all they can give is a temporary fix, a distraction. But, my God can offer the solution: HIMSELF ALONE. So that became my promise to myself: in my moments of panic, distress, loss of trust, worry, stress, I will take the time to pause, give Him everything, and wait on Him.

   I pray that if you make resolutions, you are able to keep them with God’s help and that you, my dear readers, will grow closer to our Lord. Take time this year to actually know our Creator. Not just know about Him (which is awesome!), but to know Him.

May you be blessed in 2016!

~Abby

(There was no copyright with the picture, but I wanted to note that it is not mine.)