In His Word Wednesday- Sin

Sin.

Why is it SO HARD for us to keep ourselves from sin? From sinful thoughts? Why is there always that nagging thought that maybe we shouldn't step out in faith because we might get hurt? Why is it we doubt ourselves when we want to call a friend who may need encouragement?

Why do we have 'that still small voice' but then we also have another voice... one that makes us doubt things that could potentially be a working of God?

One word for that 'other voice'. SATAN.

This is reality here folks. We know that there is a God. And we know He is the Ruler of all things, and the Maker of all things. He KNOWS all things! But, Satan is also there. And he wants to further HIS OWN kingdom.

How does he further his kingdom? Making us second guess ourselves. Making us open our mouth when the Lord tells us to keep them shut.

Satan has a BIG MOUTH.

Heb 11:32-34 "And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets-- who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. "

1Peter 5:8 "Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. "

Have you eve noticed that Satan has no power but his mouth? He can't DO ANYTHING without people. And he has to try to convince us to do things for him.

Beth Moore has a great study of the Fruits of the Spirit, "Living Beyond Yourself". And I would like to highlight a point she makes in one of her studies:

She says we need to look to Daniel for an example (Dan. 6:3-11).

• Get down on your knees and pray.


• Give thanks to God.


• Persevere in the things God has taught us to do.

So, if we are in doubt where the message is coming from, wait until you KNOW you hear God's voice. I think God would rather wait on us to be sure we heard HIM, rather then think we heard Him, and act on things that the lion wants us to do...

Let's shut the lion's mouth.

For other words of encouragement, God's Word and prayers, go and see In His Word Wednesday HERE.

Proverbs 31 Study

I hold the Proverbs 31 Woman, as a woman who's standard's, we, as women, need to follow. Or STRIVE to follow.

She has many qualities, that are very desirable to us, but more desirable to the Lord.

I encourage you to read Proverbs 31.

You will find that this woman has many traits. Elizabeth George wrote "Beautiful in God's Eyes". In her book, she outlines the different characteristics that each of us should strive for. They are as follows:

• Her Character
• Her Value
• Her Loyalty
• Her Contribution
• Her Mission
• Her Heart
• Her Provision
• Her Discipline
• Her Vision
• Her Work
• Her Confidence
• Her diligence
• Her Mercy
• Her Preparation
• Her Handiwork
• Her Husband
• Her Industry
• Her Clothing
• Her Words
• Her Management
• Her Family
• Her Praise
• Her Faith
• Her Reward

Wow. So many qualities.... Are we good in each of these??? Would each of these areas in our lives be pleasing to God??? Ouch. I can personally say, I have a long way to go. A LONG way.

Starting today, I want to cover each of these qualities, as outlined in Elizabeth's George's Book. If you have this book, get it out, and follow along! If you don't, I encourage you to get it. You can go to her site HERE and check it out. She has some very decent prices.

So, my first question for you is, which qualities of the Proverbs 31 woman, do you want to improve on? Which verse convicts you the most?

I hope you join me everyday, as we review these qualities, and strive for God's understanding in who HE wants us to be.

New Covenant

Jer 31:31 " The LORD says, "The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 32 It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Although I was like a husband to them, they did not keep that covenant. "

The Old Covenant was the Commandments that God gave to Moses.

Jer 31:33 The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

I will put my law within them? This would be the Holy Spirit, would it not? God does not change, but He does make (obviously) new covenants. He didn't abolish the old, because the Old serves as a reminder (Heb. 1:3). He made a New Covenant, He gave us His law written on our hearts and in our minds. So with the Holy Spirit living in each one of us, we know right from wrong. We don't need a list to follow any longer.

34 None of them will have to teach a neighbor to know the LORD, because all will know me, from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the LORD, have spoken."

We can know the Lord, WITHOUT a person having to point things out or teach us. We can believe and be saved. Then we can read His words, and understand them. Why? Because of the Spirit, because God is living in us! How awesome! How exciting! We need only Him to gain understanding (Gal. 3:20). He lives in our hearts!!!

Even more exciting, now because of Christ dying on the cross, and now the Holy Spirit in us, God no longer remembers our wrongs.

And now because we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, He shows us the way, He directs our paths. We can choose to listen or not to listen. To truly be saved, means that we follow in God's Ways, we desire to serve Him. We listen to the Lord in us.

Thank you God for making the New Covenant with your people! Because You know how sinful and how inadequate we are. Thank You for confirming to me time and time again of Your goodness and Your grace. Thank You for living in my heart and allowing this me to be a temple for You and Your words. Thank You for Your Comfort and love. Please continue to give me a desire for You and serving You in any ways that You see fit, Lord. I love You so much!!!

Our Priorities

Yesterday was a good day for me! I actually felt like I accomplished quite a bit. I got woke up by a very sad teething baby at 4:45 AM. I had my alarm for 6:20 AM, so I could throw in the Baked Oatmeal (it takes 30-40 minutes to bake). I got up, put it in the oven and layed back down. Then up just before it came out! Perfect! I got the boys up, served them their oatmeal. I started my laundry early... Of course like most days the momentum slows when my hubby is around. (After typing that, he wanted me to cut his hair! So, I just got back.). And some days, there just IS NO momentum. It's like I'm fighting against SOMETHING, just TRYING to get things accomplished!

And how can I, how can WE, not feel like failures when we don't get done everything that a super mom or a super wife should get done in a day?

God calls us to be a lot of things (good wives, mothers, daughters, homemakers, hostesses, planners, etc, etc, etc....), but what if we have a bad day? Or a day that could just be SO FILLED with stuff, we just don't know how to keep our heads above water? WHAT DO WE DO???

The first time a woman emerged onto the scene, in the Bible, what does it say about her?

Gen 2:18 Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."

God wanted a helper for man. We are called to be OUR man's helper. I always joke with my husband that I am his secretary, but that is kind of what PART of our roll as a wife is! Taking care of the affairs of the household for the boss.

Also, God says this:

Mat 22:36-40 Master, which is the great commandment in the Law? Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

So His greatest commandment is the we first LOVE HIM! An all consuming love (with our heart, soul & mind!). The second is that we love others, as ourselves. And then it says, "On these two hang all the Law and the Prophets". Everything that we do comes back to these two commands. God first, others second- ALL THE TIME. If we follow those two things, that is everything God commands of us all summed up!

So- back to our original question. What are the most important things? What if I can't accomplish everything?

Well, from these I think we can see that God requires that HE be first in our lives! So each day our first priority, should be that we spend time with Him! And a lot of time, all day long!

The second priority should be our Husbands. God created us FOR him, to be his helper! If that is why we were created, we need to fill the position! Going with this, if our husbands ask that we have certain things in our homes completed, we need to do them! If he likes dinner on the table when he comes home from work, we should do this! But also, if our husbands see that we are putting forth the effort and one day we just couldn't get it all done, I know our husbands will be forgiving and know that we did our best. (God also calls that HE do certain things too, like being loving to his wife!) But we need to put forth that effort!!!

After our husband, of course, should be our children. We need to spend time with them! I consider my children part of my spreading the gospel throughout the world. If I give my children the time, and teach them about Christ, then it will hopefully resonate in their lives for others to see. And spending times with our kids is just important! As I am reminded of in watching my baby, children grow so fast, we don't want to miss any of it. God has intrusted us with children! HE entrusted us. We didn't just decide, or it wasn't just "an accident", HE did it. HE knows the beginning from the end, he knows every hair on our heads, and HE is the MAKER OF EVERYTHING. Taking care of HIS children, is just an extension of loving HIM! (This can be our own, or other kids that we come into contact with or are under our care!)

After these 3 very important things, can come everything else. Keeping in mind what does the Lord want me to accomplish today, what does my husband need me to accomplish today, what do my kids need today, and then what else is a priority? Are the cobwebs more important than your husband or your children? Is sweeping or laundry more important that spending time in the Lord's Word? These are tough decisions!!! But we always need to go back to who is first.

If we are having a tough time trying to figure out what needs to be done first, stop and pray! The Lord knows everything, so He will help us to figure out what will be the best thing for us to do next!

And we can go back to starting our day... we need to start our days out in prayer! We need to seek God and see what HE wants us to accomplish that day. Sometimes His plans may be completely different than ours BUT, isn't His plan better?

I like to call this "bob-n-weave". I love this term, and husband laughs when I use it, but that is kind of how we need to be in life. We need to have a plan, we need to be organized and accomplish things, BUT if the Lord tells us to do something else, we need to be able to roll with it. We need to roll with the punches!

Mat 6:31-34 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Failure or a Lesson?

I had much Grand-er plans for the day... I had something different in mind for this blog. I knew I wanted to rise early and start off the day on the right foot...

As a human, as a woman... this morning I failed MISERABLY!!! Last night, I was up late, partly because my mom was needing me to help with something (whole other story!) and so we were up past 11:30 PM with her, and then Deven & I were up a little past midnight, talking & praying... Koen (my baby) woke up early(5:45 AM!), and hour before the boys were going to wake up. I thought, in all of my tiredness, I would go an rest a little, usually I can't fall back asleep. My alarm went off. I turned it off and lay there, thinking how tired I was! Then a few minutes later, my husband jumps up out of bed. I thought, oh great- another day that I failed to wake early! So then, what did I do, but fall back asleep! I slept for another half hour!

As I got up, FAILURE kept running through my head. How did I do that? I had big plans! The the Lord brought to mind the first verse here :

Isa 55:8-11 "My thoughts," says the LORD, "are not like yours, and my ways are different from yours. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways and thoughts above yours. My word is like the snow and the rain that come down from the sky to water the earth. They make the crops grow and provide seed for planting and food to eat. So also will be the word that I speak--- it will not fail to do what I plan for it; it will do everything I send it to do. "

Our ways and our thought ARE different from His. We are concerned with "I'm tired" or "I'm too busy" or whatever. But what would happen if we made HIS ways our ways? What if we didn't allow ourselves to have OUR WAY?

And as I read the rest of the verses above... wow. Our ways, what do they do? Accomplish OUR WILL? His ways though, His WORDS are much higher...

Isa 55:10 "My word is like the snow and the rain that come down from the sky to water the earth. They make the crops grow and provide seed for planting and food to eat.

HIS WORD accomplishes things! HIS WORD grows fruit! HIS WORD provides nourishment! Do I want MY WAY or HIS WAY?

My focus in the morning needs to be in accomplishing the plans that HE wants me to accomplish that day... I should have an idea for the day, but I need to pray and ask that HIS will be accomplished. While my will be extinguished!

Psa 86:3 You are my God, so be merciful to me; I pray to you all day long.