Be still.....Shut up and Pray

          Today I was watching my cheese melt to my meatloaf for a meatloaf sandwich.  It is kind of how we are with God whe we are obeying God we tend to melt and change form.  So you would start out as a square piece of cheese but when you are in his word everyday you form into the person he wants you to be.  For instance like when the cheese is in the microwave it melts and forms itself around the meatloaf.  So why can't we be like the cheese in the microwave.  Well we can.  We need to ask God to change us.  God change me and make me into the person you want me to be.  Use me teach me.  Be still and know that he is there.  I have this friend and I like to call this friend Isiah.  Well Isiah said that it is good to just be still and listen.  So I am reading my book The Power of a Praying Wife and as I am reading it, it says to be still and not speak acutally it says "Shut Up and Pray."  It also says it is better to not speak sometimes, and that sometimes when you are speaking it can sound like nagging.  Which by the way doesn't work.  Nagging, hastling, and even speaking doesn't work.  So I need to learn to keep quit sometimes.  And you know what I hate admitting that my friend Isiah is right but they are.  Also as I was reading this in Stormie's book, something came over me and I shut the book because I knew my friend was right.  Well I would likt to say thank you to God and thank you to my friend Isiah.  I want to be the woman and wife that God wants me to be.  But I have got to remember that I can't change things only God can change things because he is in control.  The Bible says, "A fool vents all his feelings, but a wise man holds them back" Proverbs 29:11.  I am the fool right now and i want God to change me into the wise man.  The Bible also says that "Do not be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God.  For God is in heaven, and you on earth; therefore let your words be few"  Ecclesiastes 5:2.  I need to learn when God is telling me to be quit and pray, instead of running off at the mouth that I like to call "Word Vomit."  I have a lot of that.  So God teach me when to speak and when not to speak.  Be still and know that he is GOD!!!

You've Got a Friend in Me!!!

          So first let me first off start saying that I am sorry to Shirley for throwing myself a pity party this week about friends.  Okay any way I was thinking about my friendships and got a little down because for some reason I felt like I really didn't have any.... What is wrong with me, when I went out to the clubs and bars I made friends no problem.  But now I feel like I can't really make them.  Well I was wrong.  I have friends in fact Jesus is my best friend and so is my husband!!!! I have the many new friends I have met at East Pointe and through the bible study.  So everyone thank you so much for being my friend!

P.S. I know its really short tonight but I will have more wisdom to share later.

God is in Control

          So let me first start off by telling you guys that my mouth can sometimes get me in trouble.  So the first day I started my devotional in Jesus is Calling book, I found out something very interesting.  That when God is trying to get your attention he doesn't stop he is always doing it.  Well it first started out with my parents I guess, that my mouth gets me in trouble basically its not what you say its how you say it, also my facial expressions speak a thousand words.  Then I met Mike and he has told me the same thing.  Now when your parents tell you this your like "whatever" they are my parents.  Well when the man you love tells you this then you start to believe it.  Now when you are out to lunch with friends after church and two other people tell you then that should make you think about it for real.  Well of course I am really stubborn and need to work on that as well, but anyway I didn't listen to them.  Well of course August 2, 2011 mark the date, God spoke to me through my devotional and it was about my mouth.  How crazy is that, that when I turned to that page the first words are "WATCH YOUR WORDS DILIGENTLY."  Hello! Its even in all caps now if that is not telling me something then I don't know what is.  So I have learned to pray "Help Me Holy Spirit."  So this is something I need to work on. 

          So are you keeping up there are two things that I need to work on stubborness, my mouth (James 1:19 My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry), and now its not letting God take control of my life.

          I have a really hard time with that one...okay maybe all of them but I need to remember at all times that God is in Control.  You see I am going through a situation with my job and wasn't quite sure what to do.  But with prayer and the help of my wonderful husband.  I am going to stay there until I find another job.  Because God has something bigger and better planned for me somewhere along the road.  My hardest thing is remembering that, you see I get stressed about things like that.  I am a stressed person and a worrier.  But if we can, including me, remember that he is in control and he will guide us on the path that we need to take.  We just have to be willing to let him have is way in us. 

I love you all and Goodnight!

Because He is Holy

          So I have been struggling a lot lately.  So I was sitting in Bible study tonight and was thinking of the things that I was struggling with.  And I forgot that I needed to lay everything down at the feet of Christ and he would take care of everything.  So this was the first night that I had been there that we had worked out of the book "The Prayer that Changes Everything - The Hidden Power of Praising God."  First of all let me say that I really needed this tonight, I needed to know this so that I could praise him in everything I do.  I also needed to know how to be Holy.

           So let me first off tell you that Julieanna found this scripture that I needed to read and it was amazing and it spoke straight to me.  It was Lamentations 3:25-36.  It said "The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.  It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.  It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.  Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; let him put his mouth in the dust-there may yet be hope; let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults.  For the Lord will not cast off forever but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.  To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High, to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve."  I really needed the first line, "The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him."  Well bingo there it is.  I am saying that it is God's will, that everything in my life is God's will but I am really not practicing it.  I praise and worship him at Church and try to in my everyday life.  But I am not having that quiet time with God in a daily devotional.  I need to spend time with God.  (Which happens to be another God thing.)

          So then we kept on throughout the lesson and then I found a prayer that I wanted to start praying.  I was reading aloud to the group of women and I felt a layer of warmth come over me while I was reading this and hit me that I needed this tonight I needed this lesson to make me realize that I need to spend more time with Him.  So it says;  "Holy, holy, holy are You, Lord, and worthy to be praised.  I worship You and thank You that You are perfect and lovely and pure and wonderful.  The beauty of Your holiness is awesome beyond words.  Thank you for wanting to impart Your holiness to me.  Lord, I need your holiness to penetrate my life and wash away anything that is unholy in me.  Take away any attitude, and hidden sin of the mind, any activity or action that I do which is not what You would have for me.  I know You did not call me to uncleanness, but to holiness.  Show me the way to holiness in my own life.  Make me into a holy person who is separate from anything that separates me from You.  Enable me to reject whatever is not Your best for my life so that I can be a partaker of Your holiness.  I don't want to limit what You desire to do in me because of any sin or impurity of character.  help me to be holy as You are holy.  Establish my heart 'holy and blameless' before You.  Give me clean hands and a pure and humble heart."  And of course this makes me think of a song that I have fallen to my knees over because it was an amazing song.  So I waited before I shared it because we needed to finish the lesson.  So then I saw another scripture in our lesson. Which read;

"Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?  Or who may stand in His holy place?  He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully." - Psalm 24:3-4

That was it....I have tell them about the song Give us clean hands.  This song has been sung by a bunch of people but my favorite version is that of Mark Shultz.  This song has had me on my knees balling my eyes out asking God to give me clean hands and a pure heart.  So here is the song.

          Okay so on a side note.  When I said earlier that this was a God thing.  We just spoke on Wednesday night that we needed to be doing a daily devotional with God.  That we needed that quiet time with him.  Why am I so stubborn?  Why can't I listen when God speaks to me the first time?  Instead it took me 2 times for me to listen to him. 

           So Lord I pray that you can give me clean hands and a pure heart that I may start learning how to be Holy like you are Lord.  Also give me the discipline to start spending more time with you on a daily basis.