What Shakes Our Faith the Most?

While holding a burden in my heart before

 the Throne of Grace and Mercy,

I become weary…a weariness that opens up cracks…

Through these cracks, the enemy tries to slither …

Hissing his lies…spitting his venom …

Attempting to deafen and blind me to the truth.

Here in the dark night…

The enemy doesn’t attack with darts to deflate my faith…

Oh no, he is more hideous than this…

He knows shaking my faith alone won’t cause me to falter…

What would shake me, my faith, the most ?

A wrong view of God…a weak view of God.

In the dark, through the clouds, the whispers come…

Satan hints, “Does God really care? “

“If He cared, why then, why is the battle so long?”

“Can you trust His love?”

“And if this is what His care and love looks like,

do you really want to trust this kind of Love?”

This battle rages…not against my faith…

but it’s an all out assault on His very character…

the very essence of who God is…LOVE…

God is the God of perfect Love…unfailing love.

During the battle, I pray…I question…

Are these really prayers to the Lord or my own desperate demands?

Demands disguised as “compassion” or “concern” or

“a momma’s love.”

Demands on God that He lift the burden from my heart…

in the way that seems best to me.

Working it out in a way that I would call love…even His Love.

Answering these prayers in my way…in my time.

So, in our weakest moments, when the deepest cries of our hearts are shrouded in a cloud of confusion placed there by our adversary,

we have a choice.

We can either listen to the lies of the enemy…

 who aims to tarnish the beauty of His Love…

 allowing these lies to shrink our view of God…

Or we can pour out our hearts…all the confusion…all the pain

all the burden…all poured at His feet… 

in this pouring out…this emptying out…

we make room to be filled…

And  we now can choose to worship His True Beauty…

His Majesty…His Love…

Letting this worship expand our view of God…

Opening our eyes to see the depths of His love…

Enlarging our hearts…

To receive His True Love…

Filling us with greater trust and faith…

 in the Creator of the universe.

continuing to count with words and pictures...

Ellie bringing joy to Great Grandma

cousins...the tall side of the family

cousins...the not so tall ones:)

~Hubby having a week off

~some deep cleaning

~breakfast together in the middle of the week

~trip to East Tennessee to visit family

~beautiful mountains

~running

~the blessing of family 

~enjoying time together

~sweet time with friends

~ a hubby who will work on my back for days

~seeing God come when all hope seems gone

~light shining in dark places

~stopping on our way home to have lunch with Amy, Jared, Ellie

~a wonderful son-in-love who turns 30 today

~God’s never ending love Join me today @ Ann's,  Playdates, and Soli Deo Gloria, God-bumps. Duane WLWW,Life in Bloom, WIP

The Great I Am is more than enough

Mike Mason says, “Expectations can be defined as…

“premeditated resentments.”

I lived with expectations most of my life…expectation of myself…

therefore expectations of others and of God

When my life was dictated by expectations.

I live in a dark kingdom ruled by “not enough.”

In this land…no matter what was given…what was done…

no matter the words…they were never enough.  

I was never enough…never did enough…loved enough…the list could go on and on…

until He came and won me over to His love…

His love that says I am enough…I am enough …

and when I really knew He was enough…

I no longer had to be enough and either did those around me.

When He became enough....

My living with expectations was replace with living in expectancy…

Expectancy He will be enough.

expectations had hard immovable edges…

edges that did not give room for all the enough of who He is to full the moment.

But expectancy gives freedom to each moment…

 to become whatever God intends for it to be.

expectancy is filled with joyful anticipation …

allows God to be free to be the King of each moment of each day.

and in each moment The Great I am is more than enough.

Join me today for Five Minute-Friday. 

If you want to be apart of the book giveaway click here…

I will contact the winner over the weekend.:)

One Year Anniversary and Book Give Away.

A beautiful surprising sky last night

Wow!…I was caught by surprise…

Originally, I was not going to write a new post...

Instead, I was going to attempt to give away a free book…

so I was looking through the archives when I noticed …

it was one year ago that I snuck out into the blog world.

I was shocked!!

 Honestly, I never imagined  staying here for one year.

When I blindly followed God into the blog world,

I had no idea really what this place was all about.  

I can now say after a year…this place is rich…

full of wonderful women who love Jesus…

women who share the deepest places in their hearts…

and I am blown away by so many, many gifted writers.

As I have stated before…

I am not a natural writer (almost did not make it out of freshman English)…

while the blog world encourages my heart…it also challenges my pride.

To be honest, in the beginning, I just wrote raw from my heart,

hit “publish” and did not give it much thought.

But now…I feel the struggle…the comparison…

I feel inadequate in my ability to get all that is in my heart into words. 

My usual pattern is to retreat when I see my flesh so clearly…

I want to run…

but God steadied me…

And because I no longer want to run from Him… from the challenges…

and with a strong desire to grow...

I run to Him and with Him.

 So I stay in the winepress of blogging…

letting it squeeze all the impurities out…

 giving new wine so I can live a poured out life. 

So will I be here celebrating year two?

Only He knows…but I do know…I won’t run from here…only as He leads.

Most of all, I want to thank each of you who have been so kind and encouraging.

 I can’t tell you the number of times when I wanted to run…

  I would receive a kind note or comment that would speak to my heart.

God used each of you to keep me here with Him.  

And a special thanks to T…

you left two comments on my first blog post …

you intentionally encouraged me early on.  Thank-you.

I can’t really say this book give-away is in honor of my one-year anniversary…

but I love that this was in my heart to do today.

Mike Mason is one of the best kept secrets…

I can not speak highly enough about His gift…

much like Ann…He, with his words, can reach right down into a soul ...

calling forth the deepest longings of a heart.  

I had just finished bathing in this book when I “stumbled” upon Ann’s site and book. 

I feel these two precious writers came alongside me at a crucial time in my life…

and through the work of the Spirit, they ushered me to a new place of freedom.

So I want to share this rich book...and all the joy you will discover in these pages.

Never having done this before… I guess...

just leave a comment and I will randomly pick someone to receive this book.

I would encourage you to go check out all his writings here...

His book on marriage is one of the best I have ever read. 

Join me as I link up with these special ladies. @Ann’s,and Jennifer @God-bumps.

WLWW,Faith filled Friday,Life in Bloom

And the winner is....Christina. Thanks to everyone who stopped by. Have a great weekend.

Fixing Our Eyes

“It is not hard to spot quilt-ridden faith, for it is full of anxiety, nagging words like…”finding God’s will…loving our neighbor, grieving the spirit.

This faith is neurotically preoccupied with its own performance…

power and holiness or lack thereof.

 A bad rating doesn’t cause us to love more, but try harder…

not to fix our eyes on Jesus but to examine itself more… worst of all…

it always spills over into an autonomic, judgmental attitude toward others.

The real root of religious hypocrisy is unresolved guilt...

and this is the active agent in all legalism.” 

 The Gospel According to Job by Mike Mason

Years ago this quote would have been an apt description of my faith….

But praise be to God…He is bringing freedom.

As my husband and I ran today…

With sweat pouring down…

I proclaimed…I am done with fear…

Done with guilt…

Done letting it paralyze me…

My eyes are turned away from me…

Fixed on Him…the Author and Perfector of my faith…

Trusting He can lead me…

Leaving my “grit-your-teeth” kind of faith behind.

Abiding in His Love…resting in His grace.

"Instead of trying to ‘fix' yourself...

Fix your gaze on Me, the Lover of your soul.

Rather than using your energy to judge yourself…

Redirect it to praising me.

Remember that I see you clothed in My righteousness…

Radiant in My perfect Love."

 Jesus Calling

Continuing to count with words and pictures all His graces….

Kitchen pong is the name of the game...different degrees of difficulties...
getting the ball in the cup using only their feet or head.
3 hrs to complete the 3 levels...boys will be boys:)

Like father like son..

Everyone who comes to the house has to guess the plates. Many years ago,
each child made me a plate for my birthday. No one has ever guessed
them all correct...not even me when they gave them to me:)

Oh, and just because she is so adorable...

~2711~2726~

   ~son passing his boards... a full -fledged Physical Therapist

 ~healthy little one born

~easy fix for son’s foot

~grace to stop and help in a bad situation

~kids gathering in the room at night

~watching a young lady yield and grow

~surrender

~continued wisdom

~greater revelation of the finished work of the cross

~amazing grace

~God taking us out of our comfort zone

~grace to go into an old ,painful territory

~kids and in- loves family having a night of fun

~rain…rain…rain

~God’s peace for a woman facing cancer

~Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

 Join me today @ Ann's,  Playdates, and Soli Deo Gloria,

His Joy Will Be Our Strength

Why do we walk so weak…

why does the enemy come and so easily rob the full life God desires for us…

and when we feel the very life being sucked out of the marrow in our bones,

what do we do?

Most think it is a call to action…more doing…

growing in the grit-your-teeth kind of faith…

but maybe…just maybe…we have ignored…overlooked what God tells us is our strength…

Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." Nehemiah 8:10

We have it backwards…we think striving…working…

grabbing for faith will make us strong…

 and when we are strong, we will find joy.

But don’t we live in the upside down kingdom?

That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10

So in our weakness…through the hard times…

"Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice."
Philippians 4:4

"Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy; no shadow of shame will darken their faces."
Psalm 34:5

In giving thanks…putting our trust in Him…living in His presence…

"You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."
Psalm 16:11

God shares His heart…His truths…not to raise an unattainable goal…but…

I have told you this so that MY joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. John 15:11

So when we are struggling…when our days are full of suffering…

when we face all the unknowns of life…

let us go…run to Him…live in His presence…

letting Him make our joy complete…and His joy will be our strength.

Join me as I link up with these special ladies. @Ann’s,and Jennifer @God-bumps.
WLWW,Faith filled Friday

All His Graces

“We are most like God in that our speech brings about profound change.

God speaks to create or to destroy.

He creates beauty. He destroys sin.

Too often we create chaos and destroy beauty with our words.

If I am to grasp the power and importance of my words, then I must see each word spoken in light of calling beauty into existence…

 or destroying beauty by the force of my cruel, unkind, heartless words.

I am not to flee from the power of words by remaining silent…

 and I am not to speak with cavalier disregard for my power to create or destroy.

I am to sow words like seeds to bring a harvest of fruit that blesses God.”

Intimate Allies.

I continually need this work of God in my life...

So thankful for His Mercy and Grace extended to me...

may I be one who shares with those around me...

what is given so freely and abundantly to me.

Continuing to count all His graces to me with words and picture...

Celebrating friend’s birthdays:)

We just jumped in the car...time to see little Ellie...and of course her parents.

Just Ellie and Lollie time, while the sisters went shopping...oh the joy!!!

Birthday and 4th of July celebration.

Getting fired-up for the Olympics with some Wii competitions.

~2664~2682

~new running shoes

~running in the heat

~the gift of health

~husband who takes son to ER

~antibiotics

~laughter

~traveling with Marygrace…His Spirit ministering

~taking perspective coaches wives to lunch.

~Saturday breakfast with hubby

~getting my closet clean…way overdue!!!!

~son who comes in at night to share his heart

~this son telling us he is going to miss this in a 1 ½ month.

~grace…grace…God’s grace all around.

 Join me today @ Ann's,  Playdates, and Soli Deo Gloria,