Great Blessings

“Great blessings belong to those who don’t listen to evil advice, who don’t live like sinners, and who don’t join those who make fun of God. Instead, they love the Lord’s teachings and think about them day and night. So they grow strong, like a tree planted by a stream— a tree that produces fruit when it should and has leaves that never fall. Everything they do is successful.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭1:1-3‬ ‭ERV‬‬

We read in Psalms 1 the simple promises of a full and blessed life following the Lord. Is there anyone who does not want a life of strength and blessings? Why are there so few who find this? In verse 2 the secret is to love the Lord’s teachings and think about them day and night!

Are you willing to pay the price to inherit this? To live with no regrets? To face the future without fear of what it holds? Begin today, January 1, 2019. Do not go another day without running after the Lord. Commit to read his word everyday. If you haven’t read the entire Bible from cover to cover, what are you waiting for?

I'm reading the @YouVersion plan 'Eat this Book: One Year Bible with Daily Psalm'. Check it out here:

Eat this Book: One Year Bible with Daily Psalm

1 Year

Following aspects of the traditional Jewish order in the Old Testament, this plan offers a sustainable reading pace, allowing you to experience first the Old Testament and then the New Testament in one year. Each day, you’ll explore an average of four chapters, and you’ll close your time in prayer by reading a Psalm.


Eat this Book: One Year Bible with Daily Psalm

Suggestion...invite someone to join you on this journey. You Version has the option to invite someone to hold you accountable. You will change your life and possibly someone else’s. Happy New Year! Praying that 2019 will be the most wonderful year of your entire life.

Your Own Strength Will Fail You

“He said, “This is the message from the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Your help will not come from your own strength and power. No, your help will come from my Spirit.’ This is what the Lord All-Powerful says.”
‭‭Zechariah‬ ‭4:6‬

What an incredible reminder to us! When we face an army, small or large, our strength will be provided by the Spirit and not by our own power and strength.

For about 5 years, I have attended a strengthening class called Body Pump. I get excited about the progress I have made to lift heavier weights. The last couple of weeks, I have increased my squat weights again. I am able to do all the push-up routines on my toes and not my knees. I have come a long way from my old self.

However, do you think for a second that I can actually be a worthy opponent if I was attacked by a 6 foot guy? No way. How foolish it would be for me to think I have the strength to defeat an enemy with my strength! I would need someone to fight for me.

We need to be the same way when we face our enemy..the accuser, the liar, the deceiver. We absolutely cannot defeat him in our own strength. We need more power and wisdom. We need someone right there beside us to fight for us.

Do not continue to fight your battles with your own strength and wisdom. You will lose every time. Get in the Word! Develop an intense prayer life! You have to have different weapons to fight our adversary.

“The weapons we use are not human ones. Our weapons have power from God and can destroy the enemy’s strong places."
‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭10:4‬

By the way, I do not lift weights by myself. I am in a class with 30 other people. I have become a part of a group of friends who care about me and they notice when I am absent from Body Pump. They acknowledge if I am lifting higher weights and they praise me and encourage me. When I use the heaviest weights for squats, they lift the weights off my back when I am done.

Same thing with a small group...you attend until you are a part. You learn everyone's name. You acknowledge when you see growth in their life. However, the most important thing you do is to pray for them when their load is too heavy.

What Really Matters

You will not be in heaven two seconds before you cry out, “Why did I place so much importance on things that were so temporary? What was I thinking? ~Rick Warren 

Today make a list of all the material things that you will NOT take with you when you die. Houses, cars, retirement portfolio, clothes, furniture, etc. Continue to make a list of things that make you very happy but nonetheless, you will NOT take them with you. This list may include jobs, travel opportunities, favorite tv shows, FaceTime and Instagram, hobbies, maybe even favorite foods that you can not give up for some reason. 

Lastly make a list of people that you love more than anything else on this earth. Tricky part here is that you must decide if you will see them in heaven or not. Parents, spouses, kids, family members and friends would be on this list. 

Realize that the material things and the earthly things that bring us happiness simply will not be there. Our retiremnt savings will disappear....in a second. The amazing house that you spend a lifetime decorating. The car that we maybe spent too much on and we are straddled with a monthly payment is not there. We have a better transportation in heaven:).

Facetime or Instagram will not be anywhere but for some reason we check it once an hour and determine our selfworth with how many 'likes" we got. Food...oh, glorious favorite foods. The food that we simply cannot give up even if we know that it has a death grip on us, will not be needed in heaven. That piece of cheesecake will not be there and we will wonder why the fascination with it existed In the first place. The older I get, the more I want to eat to exist and not exist to eat. 

Let's get to the people part. When we walk into the gates of heaven, there will be no more chances to cry out and pray for the salvation of that loved one that we wanted to spend eternity with. On the other hand, when we see our loved ones that preceded us, it will seem like it was only a second snice we last saw them on earth. Then we will understand that when God took them a little too early, they were at the greatest place and we should have been so excited for them. God maybe wondered why we got so angry at Him because He knew we were going to see them "tomorrow." 

Casts a a new light on things like suffering or disappointment or losing a loved one. Makes me want to rejoice that "God is making me new" when I am disciplined for my good. Makes me want to have clearer vision and not cloudy vision. And understand that "things we see are here today and gone tomorrow." 

“So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 MSG

Do not look right or left

“Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that’s where life starts. Don’t talk out of both sides of your mouth; avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip. Keep your eyes straight ahead; ignore all sideshow distractions. Watch your step, and the road will stretch out smooth before you. Look neither right nor left; leave evil in the dust.”
Proverbs 4:23-27 MSG

The longer I live and the busier life gets, I must watch over my heart. I feel like I am the person that these verses are describing sometimes. I do talk out of both sides of my mouth. I have an incredible amount of careless banter!!! I struggle to not gossip, but sometimes I just gossip. I hate to tell a white lie but I know that I do!

The answer lies in this verse...keep my eyes straight ahead and watching my step. As women we all know about looking right or left. I will be walking along in life with my eyes fixed on Jesus and out of the corner of my eye, I see something that looks a lot more exciting and I veer to the right. Maybe a longing for another girl's life that looks a lot more relaxing or more fulfilling or just simpler. So I travel that way and let jealously simmer in my heart.

For just today, let's keep out eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Let's don't turn left or right. Protect our heart against useless wandering off the path. Protect our heart with all the energy that we have. And then that is where the joy of the Lord will seep in.

Do you want to be isolated from God?

“Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.”
1 John 2:15-17 MSG

These things:
1) wanting my own way.
2) wanting everything for myself.
3) wanting to appear important.

Isolates me from God.

Fear of Exercise?

“The Spirit God gave us does not make us afraid. His Spirit is a source of power and love and self-control.”
2 Timothy 1:7 ERV

As I am writing this post, I am taking Ibuprofen and alternating ice and a heating pad on my legs. I feel like I am a 100 years old! I missed two weeks of Body Pump(extremely rare for me to miss). When I returned on Monday to work out, I was faced with the consequences of missing for two weeks...sore muscles. 

But then I read this verse. God does not give me a spirit of fear. He is a "source of power." He will provide the power that I lack to move about and play with my grandsons and help me to rapel on a school trip and think about riding bikes when I am old. He gives the power and courage! Let me be totally honest. I do not like to hurt like this. I want to give up exercise forever. So the power that I am experiencing is from Him, not me. 

The verse also mentions that He gives "self-control." The definition of self control is to "control one's emotions and behavior in the face of impulses and temptations Self control is necessary to achieve goals and regulate our behavior." We need to ask boldly and often for a spirit of self control. Our own control is pathetic. We choose the wrong path most of the time. 

If you are facing fear about starting an exercise program for any reason...age, years of inactivity, physical limitations- read this verse. Ask God to remind you of His part. Quit focusing on your part. Start today and let God get the glory when others see you displaying courage in your exercise program.

Trust Him in the Storm

“A very bad wind came up on the lake. The waves were coming over the sides and into the boat, and it was almost full of water. Jesus was inside the boat, sleeping with his head on a pillow. The followers went and woke him. They said, “Teacher, don’t you care about us? We are going to drown!” Jesus stood up and gave a command to the wind and the water. He said, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind stopped, and the lake became calm. He said to his followers, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?””
Mark 4:37-40 ERV

When will we ever understand what Jesus is saying here? When will I ever stop being afraid? When will I start completely trusting in him, even in the middle of storm? Jesus slept during the storm! That is how peaceful he was in the middle of life-threatening situation.

Lord, I want to trust you in the middle of a financial storm, a health storm, a family storm, a marriage storm, a "I'm exhausted but I have too much left to do" storm. Like it or, the storm will become calm. It will end. I want to trust him right in the middle of the storm before I see how it turns out.

Power comes from the Lord

““Joseph is like a wild donkey, like a young donkey by a spring, like colts grazing in a pasture. People attacked him and made life hard for him. Men with arrows became his enemies. But he won the fight with his mighty bow and his skillful arms. He gets power from the Mighty One of Jacob, from the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,”
Genesis 49:22-24 ERV

i am mesmerized by the book of Genesis. I start every year off by reading through the Bible. I am always a little sad when I reach the end of Joseph's life in chapter 50.

We can learn a lot from Joseph's life. It says, "people attacked him and made life hard for him." His life was REALLY hard. Reread Genesis if you need a reminder. But he "gets his power from the Mighty One." It's okay if we whine a little and say that life is hard. Job spent 40 chapters whining about his life and he gets a book in the Bible wriiten about his life:):):).

But don't miss the key...Joseph drew his strength from the Lord, from the Shepherd, from the Rock. We would do well to follow that example in our lives today.