Courage From 2 Kings

Good Reminder Today :)

2 Kings 6:16: “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them". NIV

God and His angels are bigger & more powerful

than anything you face today!

Take Courage!

& 

Have and Awesome Day!

Wings of a Grateful Heart :)

I was at work yesterday and my co-worker started just talking about God with me.  She is an amazing lady! We got on the topic of gratefulness.  She was saying she had some friends challenge her to do 7 days of thankful/gratefulness on facebook.  She said she thought it was interesting how hard it was a first, but good.

This whole conversation got me thinking about gratefulness in my life.  I look back to even a couple years ago and how different my life was.  And how many things I worried about and stressed over. Even as a kid my mom used to make comments about how I was little miss pessimistic.

Honestly, this world can be more than a little scary and painful.  It gets really hard sometimes to see all the things that God has blessed us with.  And the devil knows right where to try and blind side us so we loose focus on God.  Whether it is through just little things going wrong in the day to big things like family dysfunction or problems at work, it does not take long sometimes for me to feel like I get in a tailspin I can't seem to pull out of.

Back nearly 2 years ago when I totally surrendered to God, I see how my thoughts have started changing. In one of my earliest posts I wrote about God winks, good things that happen in the day, gifts from God. My one friend from work at the time had talked to me about this and given me the book on it.  I started writing down my God winks.  I would write down things like I got a discount on a shirt at target that was unexpected, a co-worker walked by and said I did a good job with a patient, or even that I saw a beautiful flower growing in my yard I hadn't noticed.

Soon these things begin to add up. I started in my prayers in the morning to God with things I was grateful for like my job, house, nice neighbors, beautiful sunrise, even my ornery little cat :)  Looking back I see how focusing on these things have transformed my spirit and my thoughts.  I'm ,more days than not, full of joy and wonder at how blessed I am!  I see more and more God working in my life and the lives of others around me.  The eyes of my heart are becoming more and more trained to find the  blessing and jewels in life instead of all the junk. 

Now, I'm by no means perfect in this. It took me 3+ weeks to get over my  recent vacation blues, and I have had many times over the last couple years where I have been sad because of certain things going on.  The interesting thing is that through those times I have a sense of hope because my heart is trained for gratefulness.

• Psalms 147: 7-11 : "Sing to the Lord with grateful praise; make music to our God on the harp.
   He covers the sky with clouds;
  he supplies the earth with rain
  and makes grass grow on the hills.
   He provides food for the cattle
  and for the young ravens when they call.
   His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
  nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;
   the Lord delights in those who fear him,
  who put their hope in his unfailing love" NIV

 God is SOOOOOO Good and He loves us so much!  Lift your eyes to see all the small and maybe even big things in the day that God gives!  From the roof over your head to the ornery little munchkin or mutt that welcomes you home at night :) Daily gratefulness to God can transform your life from the inside out!

So I love cows. So this was what I was grateful for this weekend. :)

Tiniest little baby cow I had ever seen!  Now how can that not make you smile :)

What things can you be grateful for? Let your spirit soar on the wings of a grateful heart!

In His Arms

So I found this pic yesterday morning.  So comforting.  And as a kid this was my favorite Bible verse.  I think as a kid I felt that I was to be quite and not bother anyone.  And I loved the verse the first time I heard it, because it made it okay for me to come to Him without restriction.  In my adulthood so many things have caused that feeling of restriction to settle back in and make me feel like God is a million miles away when I feel bad.

My mom and dad never seemed to really understand when I felt bad about something.  Negative emotions were just not acceptable.  Even some of my extended family, most of the time, did not know what to do with a crying kid except punish them or guilt them into quit crying.  This definitely made its mark on me in not the best way.

I have been struggling to get back into a routine since vacation. I feel like a 3rd wheel a lot lately and without family time much, my heart is just hurting.  I'm sad and grieving some losses in my life and that old restriction starts to creep in.  It starts to make me feel like I'm stuck in a cage unable to talk anyone or God. 

It is natural to feel lonely or hurt because we are disappointed with where we are in life sometimes.  God always has His arms open wide.  Even if we don't always feel it, God is always by our side in our toughest struggles.

I went running the other night still in my grumpy mood.  I had been praying for several days that God would help me get out of my funk.  I was doing my cool down walking home and saw some dirt and some gravel in the path where the city is doing some side walk and street work.  I stopped and drew a smiley face in the dirt with my tennis shoe randomly, don't know really why.  Then it was almost like God just whispered in my ear "That's my girl!"

I know it is simple and may even seem a little silly.  But I really believe God takes little moments like these to whisper words of love to us and speak to our hearts when sometimes no one else can. In that moment I felt like all the barriers were removed and I could run to His arms again. Made me feel like the picture, safe in His arms. 

Really awesome reminder, and I've needed a lot lately. But the burden is lifting, and things are getting better. Nothing has really changing in my life, but my perspective changed.  My God fights for me and gives me just the right reminders at just the right times to help me keep my hope and faith in the darkness. 

We are always welcome in God's arms and presence even when we are feeling totally grumpy or down. 

• Romans 8:38-39 : "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
   neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." NIV

Nothing can separate us! So no matter what state we are in  we can always look to Him and run into His arms of Love.  

  

Belonging

Here is another pic from my vacation.  :) Beautiful town next to the lake and mountains! Sorry for my feet in the corner :)  I kind of got on this habit of taking pics of my feet on vacation. I don't know whether it is because it gives a sense of someone relaxing in this beautiful view or if it is me trying to convince myself that I belong here in this landscape.

This trip was so fun! I enjoyed the time with my friend immensely! Looking at this picture is wonderful, but also speaks to me a little about my sense of belonging.

I know it may not be the perfect thing to say, but I really struggle with a sense of belonging.  And as a single this can get more acute with age.  As friends find spouses, have kids, and move forward to different stages in their lives, it can feel like that sense of belonging melts away.  With my family still at odds with each other, for me, this intensifies this feeling.

Sometimes, I feel I am always the one looking in on others lives.  Like I'm looking in windows at Christmas time. Everyone is inside enjoying the warmth and connection with belonging, and I am stuck outside.  I'm invited in sometimes, but I still don't live there, I still have to walk home in the cold.

Yes, yes... that was very sad and full of self pity.  I promised to be honest.  I do feel this way sometimes.  I have my days where I feel good and it doesn't bother me and days where it really gets me down.  I wouldn't be human if I didn't feel some struggle and sadness in this sinful world.  I am finding more connection here and there and God blesses. But it is still a part of being single that can really hurt sometimes.

Coming back from such a great trip, where I'm with my dearest friend, that is like a sister to me, I always have a little after vacation blues.  We have such a great time and she feels like family.  For that space and time, I belong.  Then reality of life sets in and I'm thrust back out into the cold breezes of the trials in my life and its hard not to get stuck feeling sorry for myself.

The thing is, I know my loving God. He sees my pain and knows what it is like to be alone, and rejected even by His own people. In the book of Mark right after He calls the 12 disciples, His family comes to take Him away and says He is crazy.  And in Luke 4, His town and His church/synagogue rejects Him and wants to kill Him. Then even His disciples the night before His arrest can't even stay awake in His time of need and proceed the next day to scatter and deny Him.

No I am by no means Jesus, I'm just saying, He understands way more than I give Him credit for.  In fact, compared to Him, I have it pretty good.  I'm not condemned for feeling bad sometimes, God understands, and He gives us what we need to make it through.  It may not be in the way we want, but He always makes a way for us to find comfort in Him.

This pain helps me see others in the same boat and draws me to reach out and hopeful encourage someone else dealing with the same feelings.  This pain helps me seek God more with all my heart and lean on Him. It allows Him to pour is love out into my heart to heal me and in turn pour that love out to others.

This weekend has been hard, and a little lonely, my family is out doing their own things this weekend.  But one of my friends a few nights ago spontaneously wanted to go to dinner with me, church member wanted to pray with me, and I got to talk to my sweet friend from overseas who greatly loves and encourages me in this single walk I have been given in this time of my life.  She loves me even when I sit and cry through half our skype time. :)

So yeah, I struggle to feel like I belong, but it gets easier as I let God in and look to Him to define my life.  He has given me so many beautiful people and things in my life to be thankful for.  The devil wants me to get stuck believing I'm no good and I don't belong.  But God reminds me through my friends and His word, that I do belong in His family, He has a plan for me, and He sees my pain.

• 1 John 3:1 : " See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! ..." NIV

• Hebrew 4:15-16 : " For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are —yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" NIV

• Jeremiah 29: 11-13: " For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart" NIV

This is the truth I focus on, in and through my tears.  I will in the power of my loving God, look the devil in the face and say "Get behind me, I am a child of God, I will not believe your lies!" And peace washes over.

Take hope my single friends! We are not forgotten! Even though the road is not easy and it is really hard sometimes.  God see's our pain and reminds us He loves and has a plan for us.  Don't give in to believing  you are worthless and left behind.  Each one of us is worth one whole Jesus! We are His kids and He will help each one of us in our time of need if we just keep our eyes on Him.  

So maybe my shoes do belong in the picture :) and yours too! Hugs

Perspective is Everything!

So I'm finally back from my trip to visit my friend.  God is so good! I really needed the break and time to just be. 
I find it so interesting how even on vacation God speaks to us.  The whole trip seemed to have a theme.  Over and over again I was amazed at the idea of perspective in nature. 

This picture is for real!  I know it looks almost fake it is so beautiful.  This was the first hike I went on and I couldn't help myself, I started singing.  And yes for all those other musical lovers out there, it was from The Sound of Music. :) LOL  How can you look at such beauty and not want to sing!  I was also reminded of the song that has been on the radio more called Stronger.  Mainly because one refrain in the song is "Let your name be lifted higher, be lifted higher, be lifted higher!" And that is what I was doing singing and hiking higher and higher :) 

But then along the way I see beautiful little things like this.

Daisy's just make me smile.  They are like God's little smiley faces sprinkled all over the world to remind us of His love. :)  But a totally different perspective from the above picture. 

Again this idea of perspective just echoed over and over in my head.  I love traveling because it gives me a new view.  It open's my mind to new people and new things and helps me see things in a different way that I never thought before.  How we look at things and what things we choose to look at and study mold and shapes how we think and what things seem important to us.

Perspective is incredibly powerful and influential in all of our lives!  If we choose to look at the ground all the time we only see the grass, rocks, dirt, and flowers, which can be nice, but if we don't look up we miss the open blue sky and mountains, people, fields, and lakes. Vice versa, if we only stare at the sky or the mountains we miss all the beautiful details of the flowers and grass :) The more we look all around and take in everything around us, the better understanding we can have of ourselves, God, and the people around us.

Something else that impressed me on this trip was lenses.  Yes I said lenses :)  I have my phone and my camera.  My camera has a greater capacity to take wider range of pictures but its lens only captures one set light based on the setting.  My phone however, has this feature called HDR and mixes 3 different light settings to get a more natural light and perspective on the picture.  Which you can see in the mountain picture above. the sky was really bright that day and my regular camera could not capture the clouds be cause the light contrast was too great.  But my phone with HDR was able to get the whole scene and you can even make out the clouds in the sky over the mountains.

As well as perspective, the kind of lens we look at life with also effect how we see people, the world, and ourselves.  I know this first hand in my life. For a long time because of my hurt an pain, I could only see things through a darkened lens, I missed so much good things.  But now with God, things look totally different.  He opens my eyes and I see more and more of the His mercy, grace, and love and begin to see others in a whole new light. It's like going from black and white to 3D HD technicolor!  Yes even in the rocks and dirt of my life!

So after this trip, I am reminded how important perspective in all forms and lenses, can bring darkness and pain or bring health and life to our body, minds, and spirits.  The truth we seek is right before us, but it is how we look at it and what lens we choose that makes all the difference. The mountains and the sky still exist even if we only stare at the ground, the flowers and grass still exist even if we chose to only stare at the sky. Either view taken exclusively can warp us in the long haul, but taken together can create the beautifully harmony and view that makes our hearts sing for our Awesome Creator and share with others His love.

So perspective is everything! Chose God's lens in your life and see what wonderful and beautiful things He has place in between the rocks and dirt of your life.  Look up and dare to take in the solid mountain of strength and power and the blue sky full of grace and beauty for you!

• Psalms 36:5-9 : "Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.
   Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,
  your justice like the great deep.
  You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.
   How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
  People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
   They feast on the abundance of your house;
  you give them drink from your river of delights.
   For with you is the fountain of life;
  in your light we see light" NIV

• Psalms 121:1-2 :  "I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from?
   My help comes from the Lord,
  the Maker of heaven and earth" NIV

Of course now I have to put in a verse or 2 that fit so well. :)

So I hope this helps encourage you to try to take in a new perspective or change out your lens to be open to God and His view.  What have you got to lose?  More like think of all the beautiful things you have to Gain! :)
Perspective is everything! 

Little Break

So I'm going on vacation for couple weeks. I'm looking forward to the break and some time with my good friend and her family. I hope to write a couple times but may not be able to due to being in another country.  Blessings to all if you and I will be back. 

Isaiah 26:3-4

You will keep in perfect peace

those whose minds are steadfast,

because they trust in you.

Trust in the Lord forever,

for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.

Kori

MORE! Together!

So this morning I'm struggling with longing.  You know that feeling in your heart for something more.  We as humans seem to always have this desire for more. It is part of our DNA some how.

Lately for me it has been a longing for revival in my church. I grew up in a more conservative church. There isn't as much stigma now, but when I was growing up there were several rules focused on outward things that had no real bearing on salvation, but were treated almost as such.  I could tell many a story of people being shunned or treated badly because of things that were totally not related to salvation and some of those things completely out of the person's control.

Now things are not as strict as they used to be but, this culture of legalism still exists to a level and brings a environment of church culture that is difficult sometimes to explain to a non-believer.  I know all churches have their own culture to an extent.  Some of you may have the exact same thing in your church.  I see how easy it is for us a humans to add our own twists on the Bible doctrine and end up with a ridged mangled view of what God really intended.

The reason I long for revival, is because I long for the Holy Spirit to drive the church not human rules.  I long to have an environment of God so present in every service that I know that whoever I invited would get a serving of God's love straight up, instead of an agenda.

For a few years I stepped out of my church and sought out other things.  For me my church had become a dead routine, with focus more on culture and rules and mediocrity.   I felt there was no life, just pretending.  Now I know that is not completely true.  There are always some that just do things to feel better about themselves going through the motions, but there are always people as well that are seeking with true hearts.  Everywhere, this exists.  There is no place where Christian church is perfect.  But for me I had hit a wall.

I eventually began going to a non-denominational church.  It had  written over the door "Helping people take their next step toward Christ... Together".  This is their church mission.  Their whole service was focused on people that are seeking God, Not members.  Members had a more in depth service during the week.  The whole weekend was the members of church reaching their community. Dedicated to sharing Jesus in a relevant way to the people around them.  They would have baptisms of hundreds  a certain time of year.  The environment was alive!  Now they had their issues like every church, but their focus was different.

So I long for revival, I long for a shift of focus, I long for a re-arrange of our narrow thinking as humans, to God's thinking.   We focus on feeding ourselves a lot sometimes as Christians, but miss the ones around us spiritually starving daily, longing for something more in their lives.  As Christians we know the answer is Christ! How can we help them take their next step toward Christ.... Together!?

Every church no matter the denomination has the potential to do this. Isn't this what Jesus commissioned all Christians for? Yes we all have different talents and gifts but together as a body our one and only mission is to do this very thing, Help Others Find Christ!

So I want more.  Yes More.... More Of Christ! in me and my church. I put my hope in God and His word to show me what I can do to help.

• Psams 119:81 : "My soul faints with longing for your salvation, but I have put my hope in your word" NIV

What do you long for?  Whatever it is, Christ and His love is the only one that can fill that void.   As Christians, How can we long for God so much we long for others to know Him too?  How can we help people take their next step toward Christ?  That is our Mission if we choose to accept it!  What a beautiful one it is!  One that every Christian all over the world can stand behind.  Together!