I’m the Line Leader!

Do you remember when you were in elementary school how crazy the class would become when the teacher said, “Okay children, it’s time to line up”?

Almost every child in the class wanted to be the “line leader” including you and me so we all took off and tried to be the first one to the door.

Why? Well I’m sure each of us had our own reasons, but the basic premise was that if you’re in the front of the line, you get to be first at doing whatever it is the class was going to do. Plus, you got the added privilege of boasting to everyone behind you, “I’m the line leader!”

Now that we’re grown-ups, we may think we’ve gotten over this need to be the line leader . None of us, in a group situation, (at least I hope not  J ) would run screaming to the front of the line screaming we want to be the line leader.

However, isn’t that exactly what we do sometimes when it comes to following God’s lead in our lives?

Sometimes, we tear off doing something with that line leader attitude and we just expect God to follow us wherever we go; especially if what we’re doing is for His glory.

Fortunately though, God won’t tolerate our line leader attitude for long. In Isaiah 55:8-9 His Word says:

⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.
⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. (NIV)

God knows what’s best for us and even though He’ll allow us to think we’re leading the way sometimes, He’s right there with us to take over and lead the way when things don’t work out the way we thought they would or should.

How much easier would our lives be if we could always remember that God is the line leader and then we fell in line behind Him and followed wherever He led?

Can you think of a time in your life when you thought you knew what was best and you took over the line leader position from God for a bit?

What happened? Most likely, things didn’t turn out the way you thought they would. But the great thing is that although God will let us lead for a bit if we push Him aside – because He’s a gentleman and He won’t go where He’s not wanted – He stays close behind us so that when we recognize He’s a better line leader than we are, He’s right there to lead us to where we should have been going all along, down the path we should have followed in the first place.

I’m so thankful for a God who stays close by me even when I tear off exclaiming, “I’m the line leader!”

Prayer: Father God, I’m sorry for all the times I’ve pushed you to the back of the line and taken over the lead myself. Help me to always let you be the “line leader” wherever I’m going. I know that you know what’s best for me; where I should be headed and the oath I need to take to get there. Help me to always follow behind you and not cut in line just so I can try to get there faster or take a better route. Please be the “line leader” of my life. Thank you, Lord. I ask these things In Jesus’ name. Ame

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Shaken AND Stirred

Shaken AND Stirred

We all know the famous quote, “Life is like a box of chocolates…” from the movie Forest Gump. Part of the reason that quote      become so well known is because it’s true. Like biting into a chocolate from an assorted box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get in life.

But as a Christian, I would like to adopt a new quote for our lives and our walk with the Lord. “Our lives are like a can of paint; they’re of no use to God or anyone else if we allow them to just sit on a shelf waiting to be used.”

If you’ve ever opened an old can of paint, you know exactly what I’m talking about. You open it up and all the sediment and pigment have gone to the bottom. You can’t use that paint until you stir it up….a lot. And if you really want to revive it and make it usable, you can take it to any home improvement store and have them shake it up for you on one of those big, paint mixers.

Like cans of paint, our lives and our Christian walk need to be shaken and stirred by God if He is going to be able to use us for the purpose for which He created us.

In 2 Timothy 1:6, Paul writes to Timothy and tells him, “This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you.” He tells Timothy to “fan into flames” the spiritual gift God gave him. In other words, he;s instructing Timothy to stir up the God-given gifts that are in him and mix them with the rest of his life so that he can accomplish God’s purpose.

As children of the most high God, we’ve also each been given at least one spiritual gift and some of us have even been blessed with more than one. If we’ve already discovered what our spiritual gift(s) is/are and we have yet to mix them in with the rest of our life, God can’t and won’t use us to accomplish His purpose.

Like old paint, when we don’t mix our spiritual gifts in with the rest of who we are in the Lord, the “good stuff” starts to sink to the bottom and eventually will just sit there. How sad would it be if we just let our spiritual gifts sit unused and go to waste?

God gave each of His children at least one spiritual gift that He wants us to be actively shaking up and stirring into our lives so he can use us to further His kingdom. If we are indeed saved, we are saved to serve a risen savior and one of the best ways to serve our savior is to start using the gifts God was so generous and gracious to give us.

Prayer: Father, I know that as your child you’ve equipped me with at at least one spiritual gift that you want me to be mixing it in with the rest of my life and using for your glory. If you haven’t revealed that gift to me yet, please do so and show me the ways you want me to use it. If you’ve already shown me what my spiritual gift(s) is/are, I pray that you also show me opportunities that are already available where I can use my gift to glorify you and help build your kingdom. Thank you for all your many blessings that you have given, and will give me in the future. In Jesus’ name, amen.

I Don’t Want To, God

Something interesting happened at our house after dinner tonight and God used it to show me something important about how our relationship with our heavenly Father really is the same as the relationship any good parent has with their child.

Dinner was finished and my nine-year-old daughter, Ariel, had left her dishes on the table without rinsing them or putting them in the dishwasher like I’d asked her to do.

I called her back to the dining room and said, “What did I ask you to do with your dishes when you were finished eating?”

“You told me to rinse them and put them in the dishwasher.”

“Why didn’t you do that?,” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she replied.

“Okay, well go ahead and rinse them and put them in there please.”

She stood there for a few seconds frowning and pouting and asking me if I could just do it for her because one of her favorite shows was on and she didn’t feel like doing it now. When I told her I was not going to do it for her and she needed to get it done now, she crossed her arms, turned around and walked out the room saying, “I’m not doing it. My show is on and I don’t want to miss it.”

Anyone who knows me well knows she didn’t get very far down the hallway before I was demanding that she come back and do what she was asked. She gave me a really difficult time about soemthing as small as rinsing a plate, cup, and silverware and putting them in the dishwasher and I’d had enough. This was ridiculous. So, I told her that she was being defiant and refusing to do as she was told, she was now going to wipe down the kitchen counters and the stove as well.

She wasn’t happy at all. In fact, she grumbled and mumbled the entire time she was in the kitchen, but everything got done. When she finished I asked, “Wouldn’t it have been easier if you’d just done the little thing I asked you to do in the first place?” Next time, she said, she’ll think about this experience and how she ended up having to do more before she refuses to do what she was asked.

God got a hold of me as she was walking back into her room having missed the rest of her favorite show and I sat there amazed as through the Holy Spirit God said to me, “Jessica, this is exactly what happens when I ask you to do something and you disobey. Just like you had reasons for wanting Ariel to rinse her dishes and put them in the dishwasher, I also have reasons for wanting you to do the things I ask you to do.”

He went on, “When you disobey me and refuse to do the things I tell you to do or you wait and do them later, you don’t get from the experience what I wanted you to get AND most of the time, you end up doing more than what I wanted you to do in the first place. Then you mope around and pout because things are difficult. Well, duh!  (Yeah, God has a sense of humor when He speaks to me.) He continued, “If you’d just follow the advice you gave YOUR daughter and do what I tell YOU when I tell you to do it, things wouldn’t be so difficult. “

Wow. God’s totally right. Sometimes, I act with my heavenly Father the way Ariel acted with me; like a spoiled bratty child, who should be able to live in His kingdom and not have to do anything to help out around the place. Thank you, God for using my children to teach me valuable lessons about my relationship with you.

Has God ever spoken to you through a situation with your children or with children you were in charge of? If so, I’d love to hear how He used that situation to teach you or guide you. Post it in the comments below or on the God’s Chosen Princess page on Facebook.

Prayer: Father God, help me to remember that above everything else I am YOUR child. Help me to remember that when you ask something of me it’s because you have my best interest at heart. Help me to be obedient and do what you tell me, when you tell me to do it so I don’t make things harder on myself than they have to be. Thank you for loving me and adopting me into your royal family. In Jesus’ name, amen.

 

Is James Nuts?

In James 1:2, James tells us, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds…” I’ve read this particular   verse many times and because I believe every word in the Bible is God breathed and therefore true, I know James is right about this. However, I have to be honest and say that considering it pure joy when I go through trials of many kinds is a concept that’s hard for me to grasp.

Dictionary.com offers this description of joy, “The emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation.” What? Wait a minute. So, James is telling us in this first chapter of the book he wrote that we should be elated, greatly delighted, and happy when we go through trials of many kinds because they are “something good or exceptionally satisfying”?

From a human perspective, that makes absolutely no sense. When we go through trials, especially trials of many kinds all at once, most of us think this is the worst thing that could be happening to us at that moment. But, that’s why it’s important to remember that we can’t gain truth about anything in our lives if we view it from the human perspective.

We have to learn to view each and every situation in our lives through a godly perspective because God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways take into account everything that is best for us because ultimately that’s what our heavenly Father wants for us; what’s best.

Fortunately, James doesn’t just leave us hanging and expect us to just be joyful during times of great trials. He goes on to tell us how God views trials and how we should view them also. In verses 3-5, after he’s instructed us to consider our many trials pure joy, he goes on to say, “…because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

When we look at the trials we face from our own perspective all we can see are the horrible trials themselves and their consequences. But, when we look at the trials we face from God’s perspective as James asks us to do, we see that God has something bigger in mind.

God always operates with eternity in mind so whatever trials we’re going through, we can rest assured that God has allowed them to happen because they’re going to work for our good, eternally speaking.

He has a greater purpose for us and those trials we go through – whether they be a serious illness, the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, or any other traumatic situation we can find ourselves in – happen because eventually it’s going to work for our good and for God’s glory. And, as we come through these trials and end up on the other side, our faith in our heavenly Father is increased because we know that only He can get us through any trial we may face.

So, no, James isn’t nuts when he tells us to consider our trials pure joy, even though at first it may seem he is. He’s simply encouraging us to look at the tough situations we’re in from a godly perspective rather than from our own, failed perspective. If we can do that, it will be much easier to consider it pure joy when we go through the rough times we sometimes face.

Scheduling Problem?

Do you struggle to have a quiet time with God each and every day? As someone who used to struggle with this very thing, I’d like to share with you the insight that helped me fix this “scheduling” problem.

The first (and somewhat difficult) thing I had to recognize and admit was that my lack of a regular quiet time wasn’t a scheduling problem. It was a love problem. This was tough to admit, but once I was able to recognize that by not having a regular, daily quiet time with God I simply wasn’t making time to show Him how much I loved Him, it was easy for me to recognize that it’s because I love Him that I should want to spend time with Him each and every day.

Next, I started thinking of my relationship with the Lord like I think of any other loving relationship I have in my life. Whether it’s the relationship I have with each of my two daughters, my best friend, or even my dog (yes, I do consider that I have a relationship with my dog….lol) I have no problem making time to spend quality time with them because I love them and want to spend time just being with them.

Our relationship with God is no different than any other loving relationship we’re blessed to have. If we truly love Him, we will make the time to just be with Him and spend time with Him because we love Him. We don’t want to spend time with our loved ones so we can learn more about them or so we can find out what they might have to offer us, we simply want to be with them. This is how it is with God too.

Sure, as we spend time with Him regularly, we will learn things about Him and He will have things to offer us, but we’ll be spending time with Him simply because we love Him and want to be near Him as much as possible. Anytime I find myself wrestling with adhering to my quiet time with God, I remember how much I truly love Him and all of a sudden, there’s nothing I want to do more than to just be in His presence.

We’re all busy women and I feel like this is one of those areas where a lot of us struggle, but aren’t really sure what we can do about it. Thinking about my relationship with God in the same way I think about any other loving relationship I make the time to nurture, has really helped me to not only do away with this struggle, but to embrace my quiet time with the Lord with excitement and wonder.

If this is an area where you too struggle, try doing the following exercise and see if it gives you a new perspective on your quiet time with God.

First, think of someone here on earth whom you love with all your heart. At the top of a blank page write, “I love spending time with _______ because:” and write that person’s name in the blank. Make a list of all the reasons you enjoy being with that person. Now, cross out that person’s name and put God’s name in the blank and see if most (if not all) of the same reasons apply to why you love being with the Lord.

Keep your list handy and look at it whenever you’re struggling to keep a regular quiet time with God. Chances are, you’ll no longer struggle with making time to just be with your heavenly Father. Did this help you? I’d love to hear whether it did or not. Leave me a comment below and let me know your thoughts.

Blessings,
Jessica

Work or Starve? (Part 2)

What My Eyes Read:
2 Thessalonians 3:10 – “For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: ‘If a man will not work, he shall not eat.’”  NIV

What My Heart Heard:
As I was writing the first post of this two part series, God continued to speak to me about working and eating and their relationship to one another and I knew I had to write another post about this verse. I want to share with you what the Holy Spirit shared with me as I was writing about working on relationships so we don’t starve ourselves of the intimate human contact we so desperately need. There’s another facet of working so we don’t starve that comes to mind when I read this verse.

Sometimes unbelievers think that all they have to do is get saved and then they’re “good to go.” They don’t realize, or at least I didn’t realize when I was first saved 18 years ago, that there’s more to being a Christian than just saying a prayer of forgiveness. Sure, that’s the most important thing we need to do to become Christ’s followers and to be sure we’ll live forever with God one day, but there’s so much more we need to do if we are to live the joyful life God has planned for us.

We must work on several areas of our lives if we are to grow from brand new Christians into mature Christians. We have to constantly work on our faith, our obedience to God, our willingness to forgive those who hurt us, our prayer life, and many other areas of our spiritual lives. If we don’t work on these things, we won’t be able to feed our spiritual lives the things they need in order to flourish. Then, we’ll begin to die spiritually instead of living the spirit filled life God has planned for us. So this verse, though it may speak about actually laboring in order to buy real food, speaks much more about working so as not to starve in many other ways as well. If we don’t work on the spiritual parts of our relationship with God, we will indeed go spiritually hungry and we won’t grow to be the strong Christians God has called us to be.

What Your Heart Heard:
Can you think of any other situations where if we don’t work, we will go hungry? What does 2 Thessalonians 3:10 say to you? If you feel led to do so, please share your thoughts either in the comments section below or on the God’s Chosen Princess fan page on Facebook.

Work or Starve? (Part 1)

What My Eyes Read:
2 Thessalonians 3:10  – “For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall       not eat.”  NIV

What My Heart Heard:
This verse says to me that God values work and doesn’t value laziness. There are more references to this belief throughout scripture, but this one makes it pretty clear. We either choose to work or we go hungry. However, I don’t think of only physically working when I read this verse though. I also think about working in the sense of relationships.

There is no doubt that relationships take work. Relationships of any kind – marriages, friendships, mother/daughter relationships, sisterly relationships – have to be worked on consistently if they are to flourish. To me, this verse says that if we’re unwilling to work on the relationships in our lives, we’ll go hungry for the human intimacy that we all need and crave. We can’t expect all of our relationships to be perfect without any effort of our own and we can’t expect the other person or people in the relationship to do all the work themselves. We either choose to work on the relationships that are important to us or we choose to let that part of us that needs human contact starve to death.

I have a close relative who isn’t willing to work on the relationships in her life and I feel so sorry for her because she’s become bitter and her heart has become hardened, even to those of us who love her and would jump at the chance to have a relationship with her once again. Sometimes, when we have a relationship where the other person isn’t willing to work to make the relationship everything it could be, we have to put that relationship out of its misery and let it go. This is tough, but it’s better than continuing to hang on, allowing ourselves to go hungry for the love and attention we’ll never get from that person. It’s important, when this happens, to put that much more effort into feeding the other important relationships in our lives so that they flourish and continue to nourish everyone involved in them.

What Your Heart Hears:
What does God say to you through 2 Thessalonians 3:10? Do you think of this verse in the literal sense of going to a job every day and bringing home a paycheck every two weeks or do you hear other deeper meanings in this scripture? If you feel led to do so, please share your thoughts either in the comments section below or on the God’s Chosen Princess fan page on Facebook.

All of You

What My Eyes Read:
Philippians 1:7 – “It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me.”  NIV

What My Heart Heard:
Wow, I needed to heard that message from the Lord today. I won’t go into specifics, but I’m struggling with certain friendships in my life and to me this verse reminds me that the most important friendships I have are those I have with my Christian brothers and sisters. Unfortunately, these are often the most difficult and hard to maintain friendships as well. But, at the heart of each of these friendships is something that my other friendships don’t have, a shared understanding of God’s divine power over the world and His love for all His children.

People often give lip service to the fact that God loves them or that they believe in God, but the friends that I have that truly have a one on one, intimate relationship with the heavenly Father not only believe in God, they believe God. These are the friendships I need to nourish and take care of, no matter how difficult they are because these are friendships God knows I need. Otherwise, He wouldn’t have allowed me to have them in the first place.

I have a lot of work ahead of me when it comes to a couple of my friendships, but because these are the people who share in God’s grace with me, I know He can help me restore them.

What Your Heart Heard:
What does Philippians 1:7 say to you? Does it speak to you of friendships or other relationships you have with your Christian brothers and sisters? What do you feel in your heart when you read this verse and sit quietly for a moment thinking on it and letting God use it to speak to you? If you feel led, please share your thoughts, either here in the comments section or on the God’s Chosen Princess fan page on Facebook.

The Destroyer’s Brother

What My Eyes Read:
Proverbs 18:9 – “One who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys.”  NIV

Why My Heart Heard:
Proverbs is full of wisdom for God’s children and the ninth verse of the eighteenth chapter of the book is just one of hundreds of examples of this. To me, this verse says that someone who is lazy is equal to someone who destroys things.  So, God sees no difference between being lazy and destroying things. Wow. I don’t think I would have ever categorized laziness that way, but this verse shows us that that’s exactly how God sees it.

If I had to guess why God puts laziness in the same category as destruction, I would say it’s because the act of being laze produces no fruit which is exactly what Satan wants to see from Christians. Who is the ultimate destroyer? Satan. That’s why Peter warns us later in the New Testament to beware of Satan because he’s just waiting for the opportunity to destroy the work of God’s children. So, whether we fail to produce fruit for the Lord because we’re lazy or whether we allow Satan to destroy the fruit we’ve produced, our lives are still fruitless. If our lives are fruitless, we aren’t demonstrating Christ and won’t be able to win others to Him. So, we must do as we’re instructed in Colossians 3:23 which says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men…” NIV  Whatever job God’s called us to do, we have to do it as if He’s our direct supervisor because ultimately, He is.

What Your Heart Heard:
What does Proverbs 18:9 say to you? Do you think being lazy is the same as being destructive? Why or why not? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment box below or on the God’s Chosen Princess fan page on Facebook.

Worthless

What My Eyes Read:
Jeremiah 10:15 – “They are worthless, the objects of mockery; when their judgment comes, they will perish.”  NIV

What My Heart Heard:
To me, this verse reminds that even though I don’t make images out of gold and worship them, I’m still guilty of having idols in my life. And, unfortunately I sometimes allow these idols to interfere with my time with the Lord. A big one for me is television. If you asked me point blank if I worship T.V. I would chuckle and say no. But, the truth is that when we allow something to interfere with the time we should be spending with God, with His people, or doing what He wants us to do, we are putting something before God and that in itself is a form of worship.

Jeremiah 10-15 reminds me that I need to be careful not to let anything come before serving the Lord because all material things here on Earth are worthless. We didn’t come into existence with any of them, and we won’t be leaving the world with any of them either. For a long time *and I’m talking about for the last four or five years), I’ve known I was supposed to join the church choir, but I didn’t.

And it has nothing to do with being shy or having stage fright. I’m embarrassed to admit this but it was because Sunday afternoon/evening is a big sports day during football and baseball season and I LOVE watching football and enjoy watching baseball too. Isn’t that sad? Who knows what kind of opportunities to serve the Lord I missed out on because I let a material earthly thing like football games get in the way of time I should have been spending serving the Lord and worshiping Him with my fellow brothers and sisters.

I imagine I made God as angry as the Israelites did when, under Aaron’s guidance, they built and worshiped the golden calf while Moses was on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments. An idol, is an idol, is an idol. It doesn’t matter what the idol is, we have to be careful not to let it take the place of time we’re supposed to be spending with God.

I promised you when I started this blog that I would be honest about my relationship with the Lord because I want you to know that we all have our struggles when it comes to being the women God has called us to be. So, while I’m embarrassed that I let an idol like football games get in the way of me serving the Lord, God is now able to use what I dealt with so I can share with you from my own experience what happens when we put any material thing before time with God.

And, I’m happy to report that a few months ago, I realized God wasn’t going to quit calling me to be in the choir until I actually obeyed Him and did it. So I did. I have to tell you, I have been so blessed since I’ve started going to practice on Sunday afternoons/evenings and singing with the wonderful people who make up our church’s choir on Sunday mornings. I don’t know why that’s where God wants me, but I finally had to realize that putting sports before God wasn’t pleasing Him and I’m happy to say that because of His grace, I’m able to do it and not even think about what game I’m missing on T.V.      )

Okay, that went on way longer than I intended, but I guess God wanted me to tell you about that experience for one reason or another. The point I’m trying to make is that even though the things here on Earth seem valuable and important, they will all fall away one day and what we’ll be left with are the actions we’ve taken to serve the heavenly Father we love so much. That’s what this verse reminds me of and I’m so thankful God showed this to me today.

What Your Heart Heard:
So, now that I’ve let you know about one of the biggest idols I struggle with, I’d love it if you felt led to share with me what idols you have to constantly battle. Or, tell me about something in your life that used to be an idol until God delivered you from it. You can leave your thoughts in the comments box below, on the God’s Chosen Princess fan page on Facebook, or you can email me at: jessica@godschosenprincess.com and tell me privately if it’s not something you want to share with everyone. Each of us has material things with which we struggle to keep in their place. What are yours?