Give me some JOY!

"The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing" (Zephaniah 3:17)

I read this verse this morning and after it just blew me away it filled my heart with such joy! To think that God takes delight in me just filled me such wonder.

I looked up the word 'delight' and here are the 2 definitions I found:

1. give joy to somebody
2. derive joy from something

That means as God delights in me he should derive joy from me at the same time that He is giving joy to me. Wow. It started the wheels in my head turning and I began to ponder the thought. Do I give God joy? Can He actually derive some joy from me? Oh, man. I wasn't sure for a minute there if I was actually capable of this. Then I began to discern some things in my spirit. When I pray and commune with Him, there is joy. When I hunger after Him, there is joy. When I dig into the scripture with zeal and feast on His Glorious Word, there is joy. When I sing praises to His Name and I worship, there is joy. Oh, yeah.. I can bring Him joy.

He IS my joy. He is my delight. All the things that I do to give Him joy, are the same things that give me joy. How awesome is God? Only God could ordain such a wonderful concept. Only God can give us the kind of joy that in turn causes Him to receive the kind of joy that quiets us with His love and causes Him to rejoice over us with singing.

If you will excuse me now, I am about to go and spend some time delighting in the Word. Giving and receiving some joy.

Delighting in Him,

Beth

"IF ONLY... I SHALL"

"For she said to herself, If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made whole" (Mathew 9:21)

There was no doubt in this woman's mind that all she needed was "just one touch". She didn't say that she needed to talk to Him, or that she needed Him to talk to her. No. All she needed was to touch Him. And not actually touch Him, but touch His garment. I love her phraseology here. If only.... I shall. Very cut and dried. Very direct. Full of Faith.

Oh, to have this kind of faith. I WANT this kind of faith. I long to have the absolute knowledge that if I only reach up and touch even just the hem of my Master's garment I will experience the cleansing of the Holy Spirit. Living Water will flow over me and I will be made whole! Yes! And then I wonder. Why would He do this for me?

When my girls were little and they desired my attention, and they were too little to vocalize their need, all they had to do was crawl or walk over to me and touch my leg. When I felt those precious little baby hands touch me, I would immediately reach down and scoop them up in my arms. Why? Because even only by their touch I knew they were there, I knew they were mine, I knew what they wanted and I loved them. Their action of "If only" became my response of "I shall".

That's how Jesus feels about us! If we are His, then He will recognize our touch. And when we touch Him - in prayer, in praise, in worship, in faith - He feels us, perceives our need and reaches down to scoop us up in His loving arms. Making us His. Making us whole. Praise you Jesus!

Oh, precious Father, help me to always remember the promise and power of your Word. Oh, how I Love your Word! Help me to live more in the present reality of who You are. I want to know you more deeply and more intimately. I seek you Lord. I seek your Holy Presence in my life. Give me strength. Give me wisdom. Give me the faith to say "If only...I shall".

In His Redeeming Grace,

Beth

A Way in the Manger

For the 1st time in 25 years my tree did NOT get put up and decorated Thanksgiving weekend as tradition dictates. I am not really sure what caused this lapse in my usually structured life, but I do know it has slightly reeked some havoc on the OCD tendencies inside of me. Since I missed that "window of opportunity" I now await the arrival of my middle daughter who is still in the midst of finals in Baton Rouge. I've gotten past the initial feeling of despair that came when I realized the magnitude of my error and now am focusing on the prevention of my hyperventilating as I try not to dwell on the fact that I have to move my love seat to another location to accomodate the tree. But that's another story...

As I think about Christmas and the birth of Jesus, I think about Mary. She was highly favored by God. She alone carried the Christ Child. She gave birth to the Savior of the world. I sometimes overlook the fact that Jesus was Mary's precious little baby! He was her pride and joy. That tiny newborn babe that she delivered brought hope to us all. With HIS birth was the birth of eternal life. He was Heaven's perfect lamb. I think about Mary kissing his glorious little face and that she was kissing the face of God. The Holy presence of God was in that tiny little manger in the form of a baby. Jesus.

Praise you Jesus for making a way in that manger for me. You are my deliverer, my God, my King. May I never put my focus anywhere else but on You.






"And she brought forth her firstborn Son and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger" - Luke 2:7

In His Reedeming Love,

Beth

God's Provision

When we look back at times of crisis in our lives we can usually see where the hand of God was at work. We find ourselves saying things like, "God really carried me through" or " God was really watching over me during that time". As I sat and thought about this, it dawned on me that this line of thinking was not good although on the surface it seems to be. It is really a sad thing that we fail to see the hand of our Lord upon us and His provision for us at the time of our crisis or deep need. Why do we so often overlook the mighty hand of God in our lives until AFTER the storm? I think perhaps because that is the easiest thing to do. Once everything is OK it's easy to look back and see God's handiwork. It's harder to put our trust in Him at the time that things are not going according to plan. Not according to OUR plan..

We have to learn to be more alert to what He is doing in that moment. To fully rely on Him and be ever so mindful of even the smallest of His works in our lives. We have to learn to "see" the entire process of His hand guiding our steps and protecting us from harm. Not just the end result. God is there even when we don't realize it and He is there before we even begin to see the storm brewing. Our trust in Him isn't just the final step - it is the whole process.

This is something I have to work on. I need to learn to put my complete trust and faith in Christ. It's easy to say it, sometimes it's not so easy to relinquish the "control" that I feel the need to have.

One of my favorite verses (that I keep taped to my bathroom mirror) is Psalm 18:32 "It is God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect."

Lord, please help me to not only remember this verse, but to actively apply it to my life. Help me to always see your grace and providence in my life and the lives of my family.

In His redeeming grace,

Beth

Marking our territory

Do you remember when your kids were little and sometimes they would have the age-old argument "she's sitting in my chair!"? And as parents we would calmly explain to them that their names were NOT written on the chairs and it didn't matter who sat in what chair? Well, it seems my oldest daughter had been having this "discussion" at her house for the past few days with her 2 oldest blessings. It appears that Mikaela (6) has a favorite chair and that Eli (3) knows it is her favorite chair... After a few days of hearing "that's my chair" and saying, "Mikaela, your names are NOT written on your chairs", my sweet grandbaby decided to take matters into her own hands. So... yesterday when the argument began and my daughter said those famous words, Mikaela piped up, "yes they are mommy!". My daughter said she stopped in her tracks, took a deep breath and said, "excuse me?" Well.. guess whose names are INDEED written in marker on the wooden dining room chairs?? You got it... But Mikaela was quick to inform me, "it's not permanent marker, Nana".

I thought about this episode on my way home and it occurred to me that my precious grandbaby was just 'marking her territory'. She was letting everyone (Eli) know that was HER chair. It came to me that as Christians we need to start 'marking our territory'. We have to make sure that Christ is evident in our lives. We need to be willing to write it in marker! (Permanent marker). Our lives should be full of the outward evidence that Christ dwells in us. We should show an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Live our faith out loud. What a difference we could make in this world if we would all just mark our territory for Christ.

Oh, Lord, fill me up to overflowing with the power of your Holy Spirit. Let my life glorify You and edify You in all things. Thank you for your hand upon my life. Fill me, use me, teach me.

In His Redeeming Love,

Beth