Revealing Your Works

As I was scrolling through social media, I saw a post where someone was talking about all the things they had done for others and how through those actions they had shown God's love.  At first, my reaction was "oh that is great", but then the longer the post went on the more it became about them and the less it became about God. 

Proverbs 27:2 encourages us to let others sing our praises and not ourselves.  It is easy to want others to know what we have done and the accomplishments we have made.  We fear if we don't tell people, then they won't know.  The problem with that is that it can very quickly turn from how God has allowed us to do all these wonderful things that will glorify Him, to glorifying ourselves and our actions. 

Now, don't get me wrong, praise isn't discouraged in the Bible, but self-made praise is.  You have to be careful not to brag or boast.  God desires us to have a humble heart and attitude.  He wants us to give Him the glory and to remind others that we cannot do things without Him.  SO the next time you are tempted to let others know about all your good deeds, hold tight - the Lord will reveal your works for His glory, in His time, and will reward you for how you advance the Kingdom.

God Is Bigger

Life is hard, but remember you serve an awesome GOD!  He can make mountains move with the whisper of His voice.  He can calm the storm with a wave.  He will be with you on the best of days and hold you on your worst. 

If you are standing on the mountain tops enjoying the beautiful view, give thanks to the One who created it.  If you are in the valley, remember that you won't be there forever.  Even now, the Lord is working behind the scenes to lead you out and take you back up to the mountain tops.  While you are on the journey back up, thank Him for guiding you. 

Remember, life is hard, but the God we serve is bigger than anything we will ever face!

Little Whispers

Sometimes in life we have to make decisions.  Sometimes they are easy things like "what are we going to eat for dinner?", though if you ask my husband he will tell you that sometimes this is the hardest decision to make.  Sometimes they are major life questions like should I move or should I take this job.  For years I have asked myself both the easy and hard questions and often times when asking the advice of others they say, "just pray."

While I am a firm believer that you should go to pray for all decisions (OK maybe not the what am I having for dinner decision), I also know that sometimes things happen so fast or need to happen so fast that you can't spend days or weeks or months in prayer.  Sometimes you have to make immediate decisions and your prayer has to be quick.

But there is another aspect that I think God gives us in the middle of quick decisions and that is the feeling - the feeling of the Holy Spirit.  God knows.  God knows that at times you can't pray as much or as long as you would like but He knows you want his guidance and you want to do what is in His will.  I think it is times like this that God allows the Holy Spirit to nudge us in the direction that God was going to send us anyway.

This happened today - to me.  I needed to make a decision on something pretty quickly.  It would be something that would in many ways change my whole world.  It would affect me, my family, my friendships.  I needed to make a decision but it had to be quick, so praying for days or weeks on it wasn't an option for me.  Sure, I prayed on my way to work and I prayed while I was preparing for my day, but I still hadn't heard the Lord in his booming voice say, "Heather, this is what you should do"  (I'm not even sure that's what God really sounds like).

But then I started thinking about why I wanted to make this decision - was I doing it for the right reasons; was it really worth it?  Then I had a conversation with someone about the decision I needed to make and while in that room, I felt peace.  I knew before I walked out of there what my decision was going to be.  In fact, if I'm honest with myself, I knew what my decision was going to be before I even walked in the room.  It was there, just a little whisper, just a little nudge.

Sometimes God doesn't answer with a big booming voice from the Heavens, sometimes He sends the Holy Spirit to place His hand on your shoulder and say "I've got you".  So the next time you need to make a decision or need God to answer a prayer, don't just listen for the big boom, listen for the little whispers too.

5 Minutes With God

It is easy in our day to day life to get weighed down with all there is to do.  On any given day I find I am running around putting out fires at work and then fires at home.  My mind is always moving to what needs to get done next, how many piles of laundry I have, the dishes that never seem to end, what we are going to eat for dinner, homework for the girls, and my list goes on and on.  Everyday life bogs us down and as much as we may want to spend hours in God’s word, if we are honest with ourselves, it rarely happens.  And often the time we spend with Him is disrupted with thoughts still yet of what we need to get done and what won’t. 

If I’m being honest, I would love to be able to spend hours studying the Word, reading devotionals, working on the blog - that's where my heart's desire is at the moment.  But that isn’t how my life tends to go.  Things have been so busy in my life that I cannot devote the time to the things I want to - trying to get blog posts up lately because of work and the girls has been a trial in frustration for example - but yet I persist.  

That is the great thing about God though, no matter what, it isn’t the quantity but the quality of time we spend with Him.  He knows we lead busy lives because He is with us during the busiest of times, but He still desires for us to make time for him.  If you only have five minutes to spare, then spend that time with God and make it worthwhile.  During that five minutes you have devote that time completely to God – focus on thanking him for that time, meditate on a particular scripture, or spend that time in praise and worship.  Try not to think about what you need to get done but put your sole focus on God and His goodness to you.  Because it’s not about how much time you have but what you do with it.