Monday, January 28, 2013

Jan 28th Daily Reflection

Image having a friend who is with you all the time, someone who you can share everything with, someone who can instantly read your mood. A friend whom you can be quiet with and who lifts your spirit. That person would be an incrediblely good friend. Well, we all have a friend like that, however, sometimes we don't always become friends with that person. The Lord is such a friend and when we become good friends with him, he becomes a friend as I described. He is with us all the time waiting and excited to be with us, guiding us and helping receive his many blessings.

Are you spending making friends with the Lord?

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Jan 27th Daily Reflection

"Trust is the golden road to heaven." pretty much sums up everything in my opinion. Trusting the Lord when everything and everyone is telling you your trust is misplaced! Trusting him when it would be easier to have doubts and act upon them. I had to have a difficult conversation yesterday with my mom and was expecting that it was going to be met with coldness, however, I prayed and trusted the Lord that everything would be fine. And surprisingly, my mom was extremely receptive to everything I said and the Lord gave me the strength to honestly express all my feelings not only the ones I thought she would be okay with hearing. What a powerful exprience which left me wondering why I didn't have this conversation about 6 yrs ago. Trusting the Lord is the path to heaven, I would say heaven on earth!

How is fully trusting the Lord changing your life?

Friday, January 25, 2013

Jan 25th Daily Reflection

"Let me love enfold you" - experienced that last night. Yesterday, found a note my 11 yr old wrote that was a bit distressing and I reached out to a few friends to get some guidance on how to proceed and what I found was the LOVE OF THE LORD flowing thru them which got me to a place of peace very quickly. It was as if I experienced both day's message in one. Blessings and love of the Lord flowing thru my friends which I could only exprience because of the trials of the distressing letter!

How are you letting the love of the Lord enfold you?

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Jan 24th Daily Reflection

"....Spiritual blessings comes wrapped in trials." this is so true and I have found that when I start getting excited when there are trials, I forget they are trials and it centers me to see the blessings that are within! The more trials I have gotten, the more blessings arrive at my door. Of course, the only way to celebrate trials is to fully give myself to the Lord, unconditionally trusting him!

How is unconditionally trusting the Lord allowing you to see the spiritual blessings in life trials?

Monday, January 21, 2013

Jan 21st Daily Reflection

As my journey to fully trust the Lord continues, I feel that my commitment to this journey is becoming a addiction. However, this is an addiction that I embrace with excitement because I know if I become addicted to the Lord, I become closer to the Lord and the closer I am to him, then better Christian I am becoming!

How is an addiction to the Lord helping you live the good life?

Friday, January 18, 2013

Jan 18th Daily Reflection

Trusting acceptance of all trials....great advice and one I have noticed is very true. If you trust the Lord that all trials will result in blessings, they won't be trials anymore but a pathway to incredible blessings. I keep stressing joyful acceptance of trials, disappointments and failures because if we are in a joyful place when we accept these things, we will realize that they are not really negative but our judgment of them to be negative. They are actually the bridge one must cross in order to reach the blessings the Lord has in store for us!

How is joyfully accepting trials making your life more fulfilled?

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Jan 16th Daily Reflection

Rest in the loving presence of the Lord! This is such a wonderful thing to do and the one thing I found that makes that easy to do is by fully trusting the Lord. Trusting so completely that when a preceived problem arises, you immediately offer it up to the Lord. Being in this state has allowed me to see the blessings of the Lord in situations, places and people that I would otherwise have missed. I have been on my journey of fully trusting the Lord for the past 16 days and I will say that it has been lifr altering!

Are you finding time in your life to rest in the loving presence of the Lord?

Monday, January 14, 2013

Jan 14th Daily Reflection

I went for a 50 mile bike ride yesterday as I work my way back to riding 80 to 100 miles in one day. And on my ride, my mind wondered and I was just in the moment. And even though it was a route I rode numerous times before, I saw things I never saw before even though they were always there. It also allowed me to reflect on how weak an individual I am and how most of the time I am clutching the Lord's hand for dear life when others think I am so put together. It made me smile to think how afraid I am of most things and only by the grace of God do I accomplish anything but people think I am some accomplished person. And when I share my doubts and weaknesses they dismiss me.  And I thought, how can the world not see the afraid, frighten person I am? Today's devotion gives me some insight. By being weak and staying close to the Lord, in my case clutching his hand for dear life, I am made strong and what the world sees is not me but the Lord being channelled through me. They are expriencing the Lord through me so they are not really seeing me. This realization is making my hear smile because there is not really a disconnect as I thought, simply people experiencing the Lord!

How is your weakness bringing you closer to the Lord?

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Jan 12th Daily Reflection

I use to have detail plans for my life, year, month, week and day. And when those plans would go awry, I would get upset. However, now that I have decided to fully trust the Lord, I have noticed that this planning was a manifestation of my lack of trust. It is amazing that by fully trusting him, my life has become even more fulfilled and the blessings are even better than what I could plan!  I smile now when I think back about all the energies I spent planning when I could have simply offered up my thoughts, wants and desires to the Lord and things would have been more fabulous!

How is trusting the Lord liberating you?

Friday, January 11, 2013

Jan 11th Daily Reflection

Thank the Lord for all the answers he provides! Lay your concerns at his feet and actively seek out his blessings! A year ago, I was just embracing this concept and I would spin myself up because I couldn't do it successfully, then I re-read two devotions - one about embracing your weakness and the other about fully trusting the Lord. As I have been celebrating my weakness, it has freed me to notice when I am starting to spin myself up which allows me to say "I trust you, Jesus". And those 4 words have been so powerful that when I make mistakes, I stop to see what blessings will result. The acknowledge of my weakness, makes it easier to receive feedback and it makes it easier to fully trust the Lord because I have acknowledged that I always need help. What a liberating feeling to be able to say that you need help and then receiving it in abundance in the Lord's blessings!

How is embracing your weakness helping you receive the blessings of the Lord?

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Jan 10th Daily Reflection

I read what I posted last year after reading this devotion and it was clear I had not fully understood or embraced the concept of completely trusting the Lord. And when I reflect back, it was a much more difficult time than today. Actually, today I so fully trust the Lord that when my humaness decides to cause doubt, I simply say "I trust you Jesus" and the doubts go away. The trend of thought is halted before it can be distructive! I speak friends about letting go and fully trusting the Lord and they confess that it is something that is easily said but difficult to accomplish! I totally agree, it took me almost a year to fully trust the Lord.

How is your journey to fully trusting the Lord?

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Jan 9th Daily Reflection

Today's devotion reminds us to trust the Lord and let him take control as we move along the path to achieving our goals. One thing that really spoke to me was the stress that we exprience when trying to achieve a goal is because we want to go faster than the Lord. I smiled when I read it because I have experienced when I fully trust the Lord, and have no fear about my goals, I achieve them with minimal effort!

How is trusting the Lord helping you achieve your goals?

Monday, January 7, 2013

Jan 7th Daily Reflection

Today's devotion is about giving praise and I am reminded of a sermon I heard about crisis brings us closer to God. However, I believe that blessings brings us closer or should bring us closer. I know that when something great happens to me, I can't help but rejoice and give thanks to the Lord! I am more inspired to tell the good news of the Lord, more so than when things are not quite going my way. Today, I life up my voice and give thanks to the Lord for all the incredibly awesome things in my life and the things that are not so awesome! The blessings of the Lord can be seen in both sets of things!

How are you going to life up your voice and give thanks to the Lord?

Friday, January 4, 2013

Jan 4th Daily Reflection

I have been reading Jesus Calling for about 2yrs and I read it everyday, however, I don't recall today's devotion. Interesting how you can read an article and still miss the essence of it. Today's devotion has a simple suggestion, whenever things appear not to be going your way, say "I trust you, Jesus". Image if we always do that, how many less chaos we would cause in our lives, how fewer times we would hurt others and how much more opportunity we could love. Because if we trust the Lord, we would react to every situation from a position of love instead of hate. I know that whenever I don't feel threaten or fearful, I can usually process any situation from a position of love and the situation always work itself out for the positive in all who are involved!

How will trusting Jesus enrich your life?

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Jan 3rd Daily Reflection

As I start my year of embracing my weakness, I can't help but feel overjoyed about the possibilities of mistakes, errors and disappointment that will drive me closer to the Lord. Difficulties that will lead me to reach out to the Lord and receive his guidance and peace. Yesterday, I made a mistake and got major flack for it, however, instead of feeling defensive, I actual felt loved! I realized that because I have such awesome co-workers, they felt comfortable to share their displeasure with me. And because I am weak and will make numerous mistakes, I took the incident as a learning experience and a blessing from the Lord! How many people can say that they love their co-workers and are excited to see them? I am one of the fortunate few who can because they trust and respect me enough to make me a better person. As my journey of embracing my weakness begins, I am excited about the possibilities!

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Jan 1st Daily Reflection

Come to me with a teachable spirit, eager to be changed. This is the opening sentence for today's devotion. Sounds like a very easy thing to do, however, having a teachable spirit is so difficult, the world constantly tries to have us think that being self sufficient is the way to be. However, the true path to self sufficiency is being fully dependent on the Lord. And the only way to be fully dependent on him is to have a teachable spirit that allows you to hear his guidance everyone moment of your life. My goal in 2013 is to become more teachable so that I can experience the Lord's blessings on a moment by moment basis.

What are you going to do to be more teachable in 2013?