Thankful

So I'm sitting in my house this lovely night before thanksgiving and I'm surrounded by family I haven't seen in years and the sounds of sleepy babies and little girls playing fairies and I'm just overwhelmed at how completley blessed beyond belief I am. I'm also overwhelmed by the fact that all this blessing came from God. God who gave his son on the cross so that I can live again with him forever also gave me all of these things. I am just so undeserving but also thankful! I know its majorly cliche for me to reflect on this at thanksgiving but come on, I just can't help it. As I type this my heart is swelling with God's love. His love that gave me the sweet little baby cousins who have been smiling at me all day, and that gave me my mom who has been diligently working in the kitchen all day, and the family that encourages me in my walk with Christ constantly. It's just so awesome! I don't deserve any of this, in all actuality I deserve a far worse fate that involves a never ending thirst and burning heat and a whole other surplus of rather unplesant things but instead I get all this joy on earth AND heaven with my Abba. All I can say is it's crazy! I don't understand God's love at all but, I'll take it and praise him for it. What are you thankful for this thanksgiving? Take a minute and thank God for all you've been blessed with. If nothing else thank him for his love:) Happy Thanksgiving.

No more funk:)

Okay so if you read my blog fairly regularly you know that I get stuck in yucky moods that I like to call funks quite often. It's pretty terrible and I can stay in them for days and it really is frustrating. Well I began my week with a terrible Monday in which supposed friends were rude to me and really hurt my feelings and I couldn't shake me upset feeling and I began to just feel beaten up. Well I shared this with my good friend today and he gave me some insight that changed my view on my funks completley. He told me that my funks are just satan trying to attack me because I'm growing and that the attacks will continue until I show satan that I am strong in my God and that he can't get me down and I am going to have joy in everything. Now maybe I should have realized this earlier but, I'm telling you this realization made my day! It's so cool to think that if I have joy instead of letting my funks get me down then I will no longer have these moods! It's just so awesome! He also shared with me the verse Hebrews 11:6 which says "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that he exists and he rewards those who earnestly seek Him." I know that I'm not being faithful when I'm stuck in my funks, instead I'm turning from God and letting satan win which clearly does not please God. From now on I am going to earnestly seek God which means being joyful no matter what satan throws at me:) If you struggle like I do then I encourage you to do the same thing.

The Power of Prayer

Prayer. I talk about it a lot and I most certainly do it a lot. Occasionally it's because I feel like it's my job as a Christian but that kind of prayer is mundane and does no good for my heart or my relationship with God. What I'm talking about is real prayer where I pour my heart out to God and he listens. Colossians 4:2 says "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful." The word that most catches my attention there is devote. Devote means to apply or dedicate oneself to some pursuit or cause. How often do we actually devote ourselves to prayer? Have we dedicated ourselves to it? I know personally my answer to that would most of the time have to be no but, how cool would it be if we all actually did devote ourselves to prayer? Prayer is powerful! I have first hand experience with how powerful it really is and guys it's truly awesome to watch God work in situations of turned over to him in prayer. But lets not just be prayerful, lets pray powerful prayers! Lets devote ourselves to praying the types of prayers we as christians so often avoid because we are afraid God really will answer them. It's time to stop holding so tightly onto this world and our lives here and just give ourselves over to God. Prayer is the best way I've found to do that and powerful prayer is what has led me to the place I'm in today. God wants to hear from us. That fact alone astounds me but, the fact that he wants to work in our lives is the part that's really impressive. Why not let him?

Joy:)

Alright so I've spent sometime thinking about God's will and praying today and while yes I could go on and on about why those two things are so challenging I don't feel led to do that right now(maybe later). Something else I've thought about today is how often I experience spritual highs and lows and how my lows almost always lead me farther and farther away from God. I hate that fact and it makes me feel extremely guilty and angry at myself. Now here is the really cool thing, God always welcomes me back! He really does! He never pushes me away or makes me feel bad, he simply opens his arms and pulls me to him and holds on tight. God really loves you, like a lot! It's demonstrated for us in Luke chapter 15 verses 11-32. It's the parable of the lost son and I've talked about these verses before but the love demostrated by the father to the son really gets me because that's how my heavenly father feels about me. When the father says "But we have to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; He was lost and is found." The fact that this is how God feels when we come crawling back to him excites me! He doesn't get mad, or disappointed he simply gets excited and showers me with his love! He feels me up with the greatest joy I've ever known! I want to let his joy radiate through me because it feels me up to the point that I am overflowing and it's awesome! I challenge you to get back to God and let him feel you up with his love and have his joy feel you up:)