This is our awesome God

Psalm 77

¹¹ I will remember the deeds of the LORD;
yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.
¹² I will consider all your works
and meditate on all your mighty deeds.”

¹³ Your ways, God, are holy.
What god is as great as our God?
¹⁴ You are the God who performs miracles;
you display your power among the peoples.
¹⁵ With your mighty arm you redeemed your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.

¹⁶ The waters saw you, God,
the waters saw you and writhed;
the very depths were convulsed.
¹⁷ The clouds poured down water,
the heavens resounded with thunder;
your arrows flashed back and forth.
¹⁸ Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind,
your lightning lit up the world;
the earth trembled and quaked.
¹⁹ Your path led through the sea,
your way through the mighty waters,
though your footprints were not seen.

²⁰ You led your people like a flock
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Ants in my pants

Sometimes I feel like I've got ants in my pants.

Where have all the good men gone?

I gave a friend a copy of a book with this title for her birthday last year. I'd heard that it was an interesting read, and the title grabbed me.

I reckon as we get older, we make life more complicated - we think more and are more calculated about taking risks, which ultimately is probably a good thing, but it means we don't enjoy the moment as much as perhaps we could.

My brother's much better at enjoying the moment than I am, and he's encouraged me to analyse things less. It's a very hard habit to break though!

Blessed or Happy?

I heard a message on Psalm 128. From the very beginning when the preacher outlined what he was going to cover in the message I struggled with what I heard. Saying that, there were some great points made about fearing God as He is, an all-powerful God, and standing in awe of Him.

The verse says, 'Blessed are all who fear the Lord'. The preacher suggested that 'blessed' is the same as happiness, that the Psalmist was saying that to be happy you need to fear the Lord.

I realise it's semantics, but I don't believe 'happy' was the best word to use in its place. I actually came away from the message feeling kind of depressed because I know I don't feel happy all the time, yes there are times I do, but not all the time, and I don't read anywhere in the Bible that God tells me to be happy all the time. He tells me to rejoice in all circumstances, but that's different to being happy. When my marriage ended, I was seeking to fear the Lord, but I certainly was not happy. I was able to find joy in God, yes, but I was not happy.

My concern is that there were no doubt others hearing the message who were in a difficult patch and not feeling happy, who needed to hear that they are blessed because of what Jesus has done for them, blessed, not that they need to be happy.

I am incredibly blessed, there's so much to be thankful to God for in my life. I often don't thank Him enough, and fall into the trap of just seeing my 'wants' and unfulfilled desires, rather than seeing His blessings. These blessings are a reason to rejoice and to praise God, but they don't mean I always need to be happy.

Joy would be more closely aligned to 'blessed' in my opinion, and joy is something we experience when we fear God, and we can experience it even in the coldest of winters when life is at its most difficult. It's something we experience deep in our souls, that may not be displayed outwardly in a smile, though it definitely can be. Happiness, I believe is a feeling. Which is why I struggled so much with what was said - the last few weeks we've been reminded of the importance of trusting God and the truth in His Word, not our feelings. This seemed to contradict that.

I guess his concern with the term 'blessed' may have been that it's often associated with prosperity doctrine, and we often interpret it as gaining what we want. So I understand being careful about it's use, I just don't think happy really defined it well.

What are you thoughts?

Dreams

I've had some great dreams recently, sure they're only dreams, but it's nice to dream sometimes. I love that God is Sovereign, and that He has power to do anything... He parted the red sea, He raises the dead to life, He calms the storm.

Yesterday I came across a great version of Ephesians 3:19-21 in The Message and it says that God can do far more than we can request in our wildest dreams. Yes, His dreams may be different dreams to those we come up with, but He has good plans for us - though there is difficulty and adversity, His plans are good and He promises to be with us and to guide us if we seek His wisdom.

^14-19My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

^20-21God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!

Becoming a better and more whole you

'Instead of a person causing you to lose parts of yourself to be around him/her, the relationship helps you find more of who God created you to be. You expand, grow, stretch, and become a better and more whole you.' Henry Cloud in How to Get a Date Worth Keeping writing about people who are good for you.

A hard lesson

Emotions can be confusing - up and down, up and down.

God's patiently teaching me not to trust my emotions, but to trust Him, that He will be my strength. Hard lesson to learn though. Very hard lesson at times.

Psalm 28

⁷ The LORD is my strength and my shield;

my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
My heart leaps for joy,
and with my song I praise him.

⁸ The LORD is the strength of his people

His grace really IS sufficient

God says it in His Word, and He's a faithful God who keeps His promises. I can say with confidence that His grace truly is sufficient. Everything in me was screaming, 'I can't', but He reminded me to keep leaning on Him, to keep holding on to His promises - His power is made perfect in our weakness. His grace IS sufficient!! What an awesome God!!

2 Corinthians 12:9 - But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Eager

I just looked up the meaning of 'eager'. And it reminded me of a friend (who's now married) telling me a number of years ago he thought I was like a beaver. I said thanks sarcastically, assuming he was saying I had two big front buck teeth. But he said it was more the way the eager beaver goes about life and busies itself.

In the Encarta World English Dictionary, eager is defined as:

1. enthusiastic and excited about something and impatiently waiting to do or get it

2. expressing enthusiastic interest and expectation or an impatient desire to do something

Sounds about right really. :( I wish I wasn't so much like a beaver!

Smile

:) There are some things in life that just make me want to smile, and to jump for joy... this morning when the girls both stayed in Sunday School and had a great time... when my little girls tell funny jokes and laugh... when Sarah runs up to me for a big hug when I arrive home...when Lucy asks for Indian for her 3rd birthday dinner... when I eat a well done steak... when my cat sits on my lap for a cuddle... when God reminds me that He is completely sovereign and in complete control of even the smallest details... :) :) Thank you God for things that make me smile :)

Hope

'A chance that something desirable will happen or be possible.'

With God all things are possible. Matthew 19:26

Puzzled

There are lots of things that puzzle me, especially when it comes to the ways God chooses to work.

Two things (well at least two) I never learnt in Sunday School when I heard the story of God parting the Red Sea that are a bit puzzling:

1 'God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter.' Exodus 13:17 I'm guessing the Israelites would have preferred the shorter route, but God lead them on a different road. Why?

2 'God will fight for you, you need only be still.' Exodus 14:14 Be still?! Are you serious?! Then comes the reassurance, 'GOD will fight for you'. And He did. He delivered on His promise, just as He always does.

Break

Decided to take an official facebook break.