Thursday, October 29, 2009

Prayer...again

I am back! I am back! I know, you missed me, didn't you? haha! I have been reading a new book by Donna Partow called "Becoming a Vessel God Can Use". I know, such big words for me but I am learning. Shhh!

I read this the other night and I had to read it again tonight. I think this is something I am going to try out in my prayers but check this out.

"God not only speaks to us thorugh his Word, he can also speak through us, through his Word. How? By turning Scripture into prayer. Every crisis known to humankind boils down to two simple questions: Is God in control? Does God love us? (this seems too simple to me.ha!) If God is in control and he loves us, then there are no crises (WHAT?), only circumstances sent by a loving God to bring us closer to Himself (just what I have been saying all along. uh huh!) By praying Scripture, we can communicate that in a loving way to the people around us. We can be a vessel through which God can speak very directly."

I know some people do this where they are able to take Scripture and turn it into a prayer. Easy for them but I haven't ever seemed to have the ability to do this. I doubt myself and think I am incapable of being able to turn a verse into a prayer to God or I think that the prayer is going to sound stupid. That may sound silly to you but that is what I think. So, I am going to try to put my fears aside and allow myself to do this. To hear God and see how He works through His God-breathed Word in me.

Lord, I pray that I may stand like the tree that is planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither. May all that I do be prospering for You.
Ps. 1:3

We are but God's vessels and are molded and shaped in HIS perfection, not ours. He smooths out the roughness and the edges for His delight and we will shine for Him.


How will it work out? How long will I last? Hang on and lets see how God works in the days ahead. Be warned...I could be praying for YOU!

In His footsteps
Steph

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Laughter at work...haha!

You ever wander through life wondering what do I do and where do I go? Never sure exactly what that one thing is that makes us happy. That one thing that we have been chosen for to do. What is my job here? So often I have wondered this myself? What is my job? What is it that I do that I enjoy the most?


Somebody asked me how work was going tonight and that I would one day find that job that I would be happy at. I am not so sure I will ever BE at the job that I will be happy at. Sounds weird, I know. Shhh! Some people have a job they are happy with and others don't but it is not that God intends for them to be miserable there. Just that God may have a different purpose for me there. To grow through the things He wants me to grow through with Him plus reflect that to others who are there. Showing the kind spirit of God to others through me (well, most of the time. haha!). I am surely not perfect so that spirit is not always easy but God is working on me so that I can be that person that reflects it to others.

I enjoy seeing people laugh and smile. Giving them a hard time about almost anything, even if it is at my own expense (haha!). You don't get paid for that. That is within my soul. I realize tonight that this is what God has given me for others. Even if I am at work, I can walk away from that part that at my desk which holds me back from fully being myself. The voice behind you saying it is not right. I can go make someone laugh because I told them that when they were hired, they were to pay me .60 cents a day so I could get a diet coke. They laughed pretty hard and it made me smile just as well. I could go back knowing the laughter the both of us just got and it makes me smile.

1 Peter 1:17b-19

live your lives as strangers here in reverant fear. For you know that it as not with

perishable things such as

silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty

way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb

without blemish or defect.

What did God give you within that makes you smile?





Growing in His footsteps
Steph

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Blessings...

How precious are the friendships that God gives us along our way in life.

To encourage each other, to laugh with each other, cry on each other's shoulders and tell each other stupid "stuff" that is so important to us.

At times, when you think you are all alone, but then God sends you a smile with a simple phone call or an email from a friend letting you know that she was just thinking of you. There's those silly names (or maybe I am the only one getting called names. haha!) that you call each other and only the two of you know what they mean and where they came from. Sometimes even to sing a silly song just to get you to smile.



Laughing over the times gone by because they were so embarrassing at the moment. You ever made a fool out of YOURself trying to kill a bug in the middle of the night on a weekend getaway with a friend? Ok....good, me neither (ahem!). Hope you never do. LOL!


I have wondered at times what in the heck God was doing by putting certain people in my life and I still wonder about some but others I now know God uses them to build us for Him and each other. It brings joy to my heart knowing He thinks of me that much that He puts these friends in my life. Knowing that I can be an encouragement to someone else and she is to me as well. Reminding each other how beautiful and valuable we are to God and how He never stops loving us even when we took a little detour in the road of life.


I realize today how grateful I am to God for the friends I have and how blessed I am. I am a better person for the friendships He has given me and a better servant looking to Him through them with Him.


God never, ever intended for us to be alone. May you be blessed in the friendships you have today and the ones that will come.

In His big footsteps
Steph


Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Get in, be quiet...

You ever been so exhausted you kind of start losing your mind? I keep losing things that seem to be right where they should be. After I spent time worrying about where I lost the items, they were right where I left them. The only thing I lost was the time and the sanity over trying to find it and feeling I lost it. Lost $10...nope, it was at home. Didn't have my glasses, thought I left them at work. Nope, in the car. AHHHHH!

There is this license plate frame here that says "Get in, be quiet, and hold on". Feel like that is what is going on right now. Like maybe God told me get in to this part of the highway, be quiet, and hold on. I have everything so QUIT worrying about everything outside of the car. But God..."Shhh". How do I keep my focus forward on what You have for me through this when I feel my feet slipping into the sand beneath me. I want to grab at what I think is Your rope pulling me up but ends up being the branch of frustration.

Revive my soul O Lord

making wise the simple.
The sword of your Word
grab my thoughts and not let go.
Let it give me strength in knowing
You are with me and I can trust in You.

One footstep at a time
Steph

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Longing for Him

"For when all is said and done, there is only this to say: No matter how sweet the event, how consoling the moment, there is always a deep longing within us that cuts like a knife. It is a yearning that stirs even when for (or perhaps most often when) the stir is flooded with sunshine and the sky dazzles us with color and light. Then this unutterable loneliness that we feel is in no way justified. Yet in the midst of our gratitude for the beauty of created things, we know in our very bones that there is something yet to be given. The emptiness is the mark and reminder of God. By this sense of what is not, we know what is and what is yet to come." by Nicole Johnson, Fresh Brewed Life

I haven't been able to get this out of my mind since I read this a few days ago. We all have longings. It seems like some longings don't ever go away. At many times, I have had longings besides God such as drinking, drugs, etc., which I filled but ultimately it didn't fill it. Longing to be there for your child when she is hurting. Longing to be accepted when you don't know a single person in the room. Then there is the never-ending longing for love. I think no matter how you look at it, we all long to feel loved whether we admit it or not. Single, married, divorced, whatever...we have an unsatiable need to feel loved. We can even be loved by many people but still have a great longing for it.

God put this desire in each of us. Wanting to know who I am, why am I here, and howcome my butt never looks good in these pants. Why did He do such a thing? So that we quit spinning our wheels and just look to Him for all those answers. He created us with the desire to know Him through His love to know His love.

I never realized just how much God has given us when we seek in His Word to each one of the things we are searching for. He supplies all our needs where everything else is temporary. I may not like the way my butt looks at the moment but He created me just the way I am for a purpose. He takes away the layers of stubborness of "I can't, to I think I can, to I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me". Why am I here? Lean on me and I will direct your paths. But Lord..."Shhh!"

My longing for the love of the Lord is always at the forefront and it is frustrating because I don't have a feeling of it being filled but it comforts me to know that He blesses us through those longings. I get down because I wonder "will it ever go away?" I doubt it! It now encourages me to know it may not ever go away because it keeps me going to know deeper of who He is



In His footsteps
Stephanie

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Fallen

I have fallen and I think I can't get up. Funny how a few words said to me can take me down into a hole and leave me sitting there motionless. I sit dazed thinking the enemy just took me down in one swoop and he still lurks by. He breathes his words in front of me and in back of me so that I can't see the truth. He can even take the truth and use it against me. The truth of knowing that I was standing firm in God's ways and I allowed Satan to get to me so quickly. How does a child of God do that?

"Just settle yourself down" can be so harmless but yet get me down to feeling worthless and defeated. Realizing now that Satan is in every aspect of every thing we do so he may catch us off guard for that one moment to take me down into the hole of despair and my eyes off of God. Satan even uses the people in our lives who mean no harm. May even be someone who "believes" in God so they can distort our thoughts of the Truth. Standing on the rock of His foundation but the mindless words Satan uses are as mighty as the Santa Ana winds causing me to stumble off. The belief of who I am in God and how He sees me and loves me with all my imperfections.

Acts 20:30
Even from your own number, men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.

Then after some time I feel a nudge "Shhh! Get back up! I never said it was going to be easy." He calls me back in letting me know I am still ok. Even in the times of being strong, there are going to be setbacks. The enemy comes like a thief and takes us when we are least expecting it but he cannot get the child that is eternally in God's hands. How blessed we are!



In His footsteps
Stephanie