Sunflower Faith

Archive for May 14, 2008

14 May 2008

Thankful Thursdays

Come join Iris’s “Thankful Thursdays” every Thursday to share your praises of what God has done for you in your life.

Lord, I have to just start out with telling you how I just lift my hands up in awe and worship of what an awesome Lord, You are and how you humble us, refine us and teach us, the lessons in our life, that You know so much better than we do, that we need to learn.

This has been a very humbling week and I praise You, Father, for showing me my weaknesses, showing me my strengths, showing me where and what I need to learn, and teaching me powerful lessons.

I thank You Heavenly Father for the people you bring in my life and for the people you bring out and the way You teach me the life lessons You just feel that I should learn and not what I want to learn.

Mark 6:34, “And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things.”

We are all teachers and we are all students and we have something to learn from each other, and I praise God, the greatest Teacher of them all, for just playing such a huge force in our lives and using our life to change us and to lead us always to Him.

When [Jesus] had washed their feet, and taken his garments, and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”- John 13.12-17

I thought of what Iris had said about friends and it was such a reminder to myself and a check of how I am or was or is and will be to those who are in my lives. God, I lift your name up in praise for friends in my life who both humble me and guide me with loving words and not clanging cymbals.

We are all here under the comfort of your arms as brothers and sisters in Christ; One is no better than the other and all accountable to the other. Thank You Lord, for the friends who keep me forever humble by them and their words.

I’m not perfect. We’re all not perfect and I pray that we forever look up to You as an example and a reminder how we are to be with each other.

I pray you bless them who speak with open and honest words and….and with love; It softens the differences and helps us focus not on us Lord, but to You, and Your plan and Will and remind me of what You desire of us and not what we desire of ourselves.

Thank You Lord for friends who lovingly teach me and show me my mistakes and forgive me .

1 Peter 3:8-11 NIV (New International Version)-Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

For,”Whoever would love life and see good daysmust keep his tongue from eviland his lips from deceitful speech.He must turn from evil and do good;he must seek peace and pursue it.

This is my “code of conduct” I keep on my bible study group forum and for my comments and it serves to remind not only others, but myself, the importance of watching what and how we say things to each other and Lord, I thank You for humbling me when YOU know I need to be humble and for the forgiveness when I err either knowingly or unknowingly and using my life and circumstances to remind me where I need to learn.

Lord, thank You for my husband and how you open and soften my heart and in my walk with You and as his wife and friend. Lord, thank You for teaching me patience where I needed to learn patience, respect where I needed to learn respect, love where I needed to learn love and friendship where I needed to learn friendship. Thank You Lord, for being as patient with me as I strive to be with and for my husband and I pray you keep me humble and obedient to Your Word and guide me to being the wife my husband needs me to be as You see and call us to be Lord.
Father, there has been a lot of “human” experiences and I praise You for both the humbling and pain that came out of it; Through it…I seek You out more and through it, it was a much needed speed bump to keep me in check and remember the all too human factor of being…well…human and how You have conquered all this and are beyond all this and gave me a better measuring stick to use to learn from. Thank You for reminding me, I’m not perfect either and how unworthy I am and can be and how much I need and crave to learn from You to be forever Your humble servant.
Thank You Lord for the innocence of our children and how they teach us to approach you with wide eye openness and not closed eyes cynicism. You are not a Lord that is turned on and off when it’s convenient for us and help us forever be reminded of that through our children. Help me be like my child to always want to “See Jesus” and not just when I am in quicksand.
Lord, thank You for this church we call home; It was part of a lesson in humanity and how we are never perfect no matter where we are and Lord, I couldn’t have it any other way; I thank You for blessing me and my family with a church that cares and a church that struggles and convicts us along the way.
Lord, I thank You for the blessing of this blog and I pray you will bless my heart, my hands, my tongue and my soul and keep humbling this unworthy soul and using this broken vessel for whatever You deemed fit, Lord. Bless those who take their time to read this blog and for the lessons they have in store for me to learn from.

Sunflower Faith | 13 comments | Tags: Memes, Thankful Thursday

14 May 2008

Memes • Word-Filled Wednesday

Word-Filled Wednesdays

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I was looking at this image and it reminded me so much of my youngest. Nothing was impossible, and before my youngest would do anything, she would stop, see if we were there (or just to see if she had any witnesses) and perform her next daring feat.

Nothing is more humbling than that of a child.

They just press on without even questioning (which as a footnote isn’t always that great of a thing), and they approach that same daring action with their walk with God.

My oldest, one day, after being buckled in and we were ready to back out of the garage and go get ice cream began to say out of the blue,”I want to see Jesus.”

My MIL who was with us, chuckled and said,”We want to see Jesus too, but we hope you stay with us a little longer before you go to see Him.”

I thought to myself,”no second thoughts.” “No, I have had my fill and that’s enough for the day.” He wanted to see Jesus now.

I didn’t really stop and think how humbling that would be until I was at a gathering with other church members and during a chat I mention about not wanting to miss a sermon when we would be gone in a few weeks out of town.

The replied was…”wasn’t there a skit about how it’s okay to go on vacation and you don’t have to always be doing something “Christian-wise.”

I stop and thought about it for a second…and I actually felt sad at that thought.

God doesn’t begin and stop at church. We can’t and shouldn’t just pick and choose when God is convenient for us. It’s not a bad thing really if one hungers and wants to keep involve with the ministry and in God’s word. If anything,that’s a good thing..it’s a sign of active growth and it’s allowing God’s will to work in and through us. When we don’t allow that to happen, it gets a little extra harder to make it through the day.

It’s easy to become cynical and disillusioned in a demanding world, but it’s all the more important than to keep the focus on the prize ahead, our Heavenly Father.I realized that when we try to do this all on our own, we will fail; We become disenchanted and disillusioned and the glitter of that gold becomes dull and faded.

Through Christ though…there is that constant push forward…that constant sense of “I can do it.” No matter what happens…God is the energizer, the boost.

That demanding job, the pile of laundry, the crazy schedule…it’s going to work out, but we have to have faith in Jesus Christ and allow Him to take control of the situation not us….and part of that is not trying to put Him on a convenient on and off switch.

I humbly pray to Our Heavenly Father that He humbles me always. That He keeps my paths straight and that I don’t show the arrogance of trying to lean on my own understanding.

I think Micheal Henry’s Commentary about this passage fit perfectly how I felt as I reflected about our Heavenly Father and our need to be more humble to being His servant.

Pride, unbelief, vain hankering after something we have not got, and fickle disrelish of present things, make men discontented even under favourable circumstances. Let us pray for patient submission and hope when we are abased; for humility and a heavenly mind when exalted. It is a special grace to have an equal temper of mind always. And in a low state not to lose our comfort in God, nor distrust his providence, nor take any wrong course for our own supply. In a prosperous condition not to be proud, or secure, or worldly.

This is a harder lesson than the other; for the temptations of fulness and prosperity are more than those of affliction and want. The apostle had no design to urge them to give more, but to encourage such kindness as will meet a glorious reward hereafter. Through Christ we have grace to do what is good, and through him we must expect the reward; and as we have all things by him, let us do all things for him, and to his glory.

Lord, I pray You help this unworthy servant of Yours. Remind me that all I do is in vain without You , without allowing You to work through me and in me and unless it is for Your Glory…nothing can be accomplished. I give praise to You,Heavenly Father, how You allow and use life and circumstances to humble and refine us and help us remember that through You and in You…all things are possible.