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Musical Monday-Dream for You
Today’s encouraging Musical Monday song is Dream for You by Casting Crowns.
Your plans for the future might be good but God’s are bigger and better. Trust me on this. For the past year, God has been taking my little itty bity dreams and plans and showing me His version for me. Let me tell you, even with my stellar imagination, God’s creative powers are vastly superior to mine!
“No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this, Never so much as imagined anything quite like it— What God has arranged for those who love him. But you’ve seen and heard it because God by his Spirit has brought it all out into the open before you.” I Corinthians 2:9 MSG
This scripture has been proven again and again in my life this year as I seek to partner with Him in all He has for me. Knowing that God believes that I am capable of achieving these dreams in partnership with Him, has not only bolstered my confidence and made me want to take risks, it’s allowed me to let go of the things that have been holding me back.
One by one I’ve been laying waste to every single back up plan I’ve ever had and moving forward in what God has for me. Is it scary? Yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely. I’ve never been happier or more excited in my life.
PS: I know the details what God’s doing in my life have been vague. Sorry, but that is on purpose. I have a policy that I don’t share what’s going on in my life with everyone until I have victory in it. I do share it with people who are prayer partnering with me. Specific people the Lord has put in my life for this purpose.
With social media and such it’s easy to put every single bad day, bad mood and negative thing in your life out for the world to comment on. I do not do this. I will not do this. Like David, I take my emotions and situations and vent them to the Lord and a grand total of 2 other people. Two people who I trust to not let me get away with wallowing. Two people who intercede for me like I intercede for them. The information that goes out to everyone else is filtered. It has to be.
My goal in this blog and in everything else I do is to encourage people. Most of you know exactly what you’ve done wrong and your issues. You don’t need me for that. What you do need is someone to remind you who God says you are, and that you are deeply loved. It is not too late to start making good choices. God is for you not against you. Just like God has big plans and dreams for me, He has them for you too. Yours will be vastly different from mine because we are two completely different people with different gifts and talents. I want to see you be the best you that you can be!!!
And I promise you this, when victory comes in the situations and circumstances I am facing. You and everyone else will hear what the Lord has done for me. Until then it is encouragement all day every day!
All In
Perception is everything. What you believe matters. What you believe about yourself determines how you allow others to treat you and how you behave. What you believe about yourself and God will determine your relationship with Him. What you believe about God determines whether or not you are willing to have faith in, commit to, and trust Him. If you don’t believe God is good and that God loves you, you will be unable to trust that He works all things out for your good. If you are unable to fully trust Him, you’ll never commit to go all in.
It can be scary to go all in. You may have doubts. You may not fully understand. Think about Mary when she was visited by the angel Gabriel. She was confused and did not fully understand what he was telling her. But she did believe that God was good and she trusted Him. So despite her doubt, Mary went all in.
“In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”
Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”
Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”
The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. For the word of God will never fail.”” Luke 1:26-37 NLT
Mary could have heard what the angel had to say, and dismissed him. She could looked at teenage self and said, “Yeah right.” She could have listened to her doubts and refused to believe that this was possible. She could have missed being the mother of the Savior, the Messiah, if she chose not to believe.
But Mary did not miss what God had for her, because she chose to go all in. No back up plan. No rationalizations. No strategies. Just belief. “Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.”” Luke 1:38
You alone choose what you believe. No one, not even God Himself, can make that choice for you. Mary chose to believe, and she gave birth to the Savior. What will you be capable of if you choose to believe God and go all in?
“You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what He said.” Luke 1:45 NLT
“That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”” II Corinthians 2:9 NLT
“So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us.” Hebrews 6:18 NLT
“Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.” Matthew 19:26 NLT (Verse also found in Mark 10:27 and Luke 18:27).
New Level Of Trust
“With Your very own hands You formed me; now breathe Your wisdom on me so I can understand You. When they see me waiting, expecting Your Word, those who fear you will take heart and be glad. I can see now, God, that Your decisions are right;” Psalm 119:73-75 MSG
You may not know exactly what the Lord is doing in your life right now because you do not see everything He sees. But you can get to know Him better. You can personally experience and know that He is trustworthy & faithful.
My prayer for you is that you receive His grace to trust Him more than you ever have, in areas you’ve never been able to trust Him before. Ths t you reach s new level of trust within your relationship. I also pray that you have a personal revelation of the width, height & depth of His love for you.
Action Required
I was lamenting (also known as whining and complaining) to God yesterday that not being able to do anything about a situation in my life was torturous.
As I was waking up this morning (literally only had one eye half open) He told me that I am doing something, I’m being still and trusting Him.
He explained that faith always requires action. Sometimes that action is getting out of the boat when He bids me to come. (Read Peter’s story in Matthew 14:25-32) But sometimes the action is being still. Both are actions. Both are equally challenging.
Choosing to trust God and waiting on Him is walking by faith just as getting out of the boat and stepping onto the water is walking by faith. Both require believing and trusting God.
Being still isn’t passive. It’s active. It’s praying. It’s believing and trusting God. Being still means knowing that God is for you. It’s perseverance in long waiting periods. It’s maintaining your hope, joy and peace even when you cannot see beyond today.
When I got out of bed I flipped my verse of the day calendar to today’s verse. Guess what the verse was about today? Yep. Waiting on God.
“I wait for the Lord my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord, more than watchmen wait for morning, more than watchmen wait for morning.” Psalm 130:5-6
I’ve prayed that you will know for certain if are to do something specific or to be still in your present circumstance and situation. I pray that no matter the action required or how long it takes that you will be able to maintain your peace and joy.
Jill Smash
I generally have a sunny outlook and think positively. But there are days that are hard to remain sunny side up. The worst days for me are when I’m watching someone I love go through something and I know there’s zero I can do to help. Whether it be emotional, physical, spiritual, medical and every other kind of ‘al’. I feel powerless. And I hate that feeling.
Logically I understand there are times when people have to walk it out. They have to face and deal with things to grow. But I have this protective mechanism inside of me that when activated makes me feel like the Incredible Hulk. I want to smash everything in their way. Smash anyone that has hurt or is hurting them. Jill Smash.
I have to fight not to mother hen people. (My siblings will attest to this). I want to guard and protect. It takes actual effort for me to let someone deal with their own consequences. I always want to cushion and coddle. But I know that I can’t. I know that hurts people and stunts their growth. I know that my job is to pray and encourage. Then trust God to help them and protect them. I have to tell you…that’s a weak link in my chain. I trust God completely with my life, but I find it REALLY hard to trust Him with the people I love. Like suddenly God becomes powerless in dealing with them, but not me. I have no idea why or how I developed this wrong thinking, but I did. It’s a serious problem for me lately.
The thing I’m trying to keep in mind is that Jesus never coddled a single person. EVER. He did His part and trusted God with the rest. He always loved people. But He told them the truth too. He was balanced and was able to challenge and encourage people at the same time. That’s what I want to be able to do.
Now I just have to figure out how exactly to do that. Looks like I’ll be reading the Gospels this weekend. Happy Friday.
jillbeingstill 