Category Archives: Grace

And Jesus said, “What do you want me to do for you?”

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Sometimes we pray and pray and then pray some more, but do we know what we are asking Jesus to do for us?

I am often praying for forgiveness.  Forgive me for this, forgive me for that, forgive my sin from yesterday, forgive my sin from 15 years ago, etc.  This morning I was praying for forgiveness for something yet again, and I thought to myself or He said, “I have forgiven you, and I will forgive you again, and I will continue forgiving you as many times as you request to be forgiven, but when will you release your sin and give it to Me?”

When will I release my sin, when will I give it to Him?  He has already accepted it, He has already died for it, but have I let it go and actually given it to Him by accepting His forgiveness?

Have I become comfortable wallowing in my sin, remembering it, begging forgiveness and then returning to wallow in the comfort  of being an unforgiven sinner yet again?  I am not sure…. maybe?  I am not saying that we shouldn’t be praying for and begging for forgiveness often and more than once, but I think I have been missing a very crucial part to this prayer, a prayer asking Jesus to help me release my sin, give it to Him and enter the unknown territory of forgiven sinner by accepting His forgiveness.

Sweet Lord, sweet Savior, sweet Jesus I am in awe as I see Your amazing work more clearly than ever before through more specific and focused prayers.  I want each beat of my heart to be filled with gratitude and thanksgiving for You and I beg You to please keep opening our eyes to our sins so that we can beg forgiveness, repent and release our sin to You!

The sword of truth

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Oh how swift and sure the sword of truth flies…

For my 2 or 3 readers (you know who you are), please know that I would love to live by my words, but unfortunately I am still a poor and wretched soul speaking/writing as I would love to live, but failing 99.9% of the time to live this way and only succeeding when His divine hand intervenes to act through me.

I am a hypocrite and I am a gossip and I have brought pain to those I love all the while arrogantly believing that I was actually helping.  Oh how painful it is when the sword of truth pierces our heart.   I am not writing this to wallow in my failures and pain though, but I want to take these failures and this pain and glorify our sweet, wonderful, and faithful Lord.

Since Lent began I have been praying for a clean heart and oh how quickly He began to work!

Being a hypocrite and a gossip were not even on my radar.  It never occurred to me that these titles are mine, that they are on my resume, that they apply to me, but He came through and sent His sword of truth flying directly into my heart, piercing through the hardened layers  to awaken me and show me that oh yes these titles do apply to me, they are mine and I fall hard into these categories.

Yet, I do not despair, for our Lord has opened my eyes to these sins and there is no better way to begin repenting for a sin than first realizing that the sin is ours.

I know His work is not done in me and sweet Lord for this I am so thankful!

Lamentations 3:22-23
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

The Ancient Paths

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Just as impurities should be removed from the original metals during the process of making an alloy to increase the strength and durability of the alloy (the new metal), our impurities should be cleansed and removed before He melts our hearts into one new heart through marriage.

If our hearts are full of impurities, then how can we ever hope for our new heart to be strong.  These impurities will cause our new heart to be brittle, weak, and easily damaged requiring constant attention and surgical repair.

Sweet Lord, we have neglected the need to seek cleansing and purification through reflection, prayer, fasting and confession before the many celebrations of our lives, but most of all before our marriages.  We have turned the time of engagement and preparation into yet another party rather a time of reflection, prayer and a time to seek You.  Please forgive us and help us seek the ancient paths, where the good way lies.

Jeremiah 6:16
Thus says the Lord:  Stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.

Every moment is infinite

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It is so amazing to me that as you try to find the smallest unit of time between two seconds, you reach infinity.  Most of us always think of infinity as so big, vast and unimaginable, and often forget that it is also so tiny, minute and almost invisible!

I think this is why so many stress the need to live in the present moment!  They know that by living in each present moment we have an opportunity to live in infinity.  When we live in the past or the future, we skim the surface of each moment instead of diving down into the the infinity of the moment.

Be still, be quiet, listen, see it, touch it, understand it, and realize that the infinite is available to everyone and can be reached and felt and understood by everyone in every moment.

We all probably know someone who lives most of their life within the infinity of the present moment.  We are drawn to them, and see it in their eyes, but they can’t take us there, they can only show it to us.  In order to meet them there, we must take our own path diving down deep into the infinity of our moments.

Lord please still and silence our bodies, hearts, minds ,and souls so that we might commune with You within each infinite moment!

Wise men still seek Him

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Wise men still seek Him not through study or intellectual knowledge, but in the depth, silence and peace of their own hearts.  Dear and sweet Lord, in this new year filled with new distractions please help us to choose Your Peace over the chaos.

Your peace you have freely given, but in our helplessness we still haven’t chosen it.  Please take our hands and lead us to choose Your Peace!

Pray with confidence

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Sweet friends, we must pray with confidence in our Sweet Father’s ability to do anything and believing in full faith that our sweet Father in Heaven longs to answer and provide the purest desires of our heart!

Do not pray in fear, instead pray in confidence. In our minds and hearts we must release Him from whatever box we have tried to build around Him and place all confidence, trust, belief, faith in Him.

We might watch the news, see the homeless, see the refugees, see the slaves or look in the mirror and see our greed, see our sin and then for a moment teeter on the brink of despair, but look up, look up and see Him, the biggest, bravest, strongest and most amazing Father who knows it is all worth it, everything is worth it… and then smile as the sweet Holy Spirit renews our confidence in Him.

Thank You sweet Father for everything, thank You sweet Holy Spirit for our renewed confidence and faith moment by moment, thank You sweet Jesus for being YOU!

Our powerful tears…

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So many believe our tears are a sign of weakness, because they don’t know Your secret sweet Lord.  They don’t understand that in the moments of our tears, we are powerful as You fill us with Your Holy Spirit and He fills us with Your strength!

Lord,  thank you for all of the tears that flow so freely from my eyes in moments of both joy and sorrow. I feel so close to You in these extreme and powerful moments of my life and I long to fill these moments with gratitude and prayer.

Please soften our hard hearts sweet Lord, and release the flood gates of the tears that so many hold back in fear of what the world believes.

Sitting in limbo

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Sometimes I feel as if our sweet Lord is letting me sit in a state of limbo because I refuse to fully accept His will.  He gives me opportunities to prove my trust and faith in Him, and I fail time and time again as I stress, obsess and can’t sleep at night over little situations in my life.

He could really shake things up for me by ripping everything I grasp so tightly away, but instead of feeling His temper flare I feel His love as He again gently gives me another chance to prove my trust and faith in Him.

Please my Lord, deepen my faith and trust in You, turn me towards prayer instead of stress and obsession, and continue to gently guide me out of limbo towards an eternal union with You!

The circle of giving!

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Imagine a place where we passed on our things every day.  We didn’t sit around with full pantries, closets,  or attics, but instead cleaned out and passed on every night before bed.  Imagine the cleansing we would do, and the new opportunities that would arrive right on our door steps!

I am pretty sure I am a break in this circle, but how I would love to mend my broken piece.

Please pray for us my friends.  Please pray that the spirit of generosity will rise up in our souls like a burning fire, and there will be nothing that will quench this desire of ours but to give, give and give!

Keep us on Your path!

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We went for a hike about a week ago and my sweet 8 year old and I sat down on a rock for a minute.  On the rock where we sat, someone had carved the words “Hate satan”.  I asked her what she thought about it.  She just sat there for a min and then said, “It isn’t right to hate, especially since that is what he wants us to do, he wants us to hate.  I think the person who carved this should have written, Don’t follow satan”.

I couldn’t have put it better myself!

Lord please keep us on Your path to follow You and only You!