Changin' up the Blog a Bit

Okay, so in my last post I mentioned that I was going to devote one day a week to my goals from Ephesians (Tuesdays in Ephesians). The idea was to choose one of the verses I listed in my 2010 resolutions post along with its corresponding goal and focus my writing for the day on them. However, after careful consideration I have decided to do something else instead.

Because these goals are so important to me I would like to focus one day a week on each of them, with one exception. Technically, the entire blog is dedicated to the first goal so I will not set aside a day for it. However, I will set aside three specific days every week devoted to goal two: keeping my priorities in order. I will also set aside one day a week for goal three: diving into prayer.

So, one day will be devoted to growing closer to God and keeping him first in my life. One day will be devoted to being a godly wife (priority number 2: Josh). Another day will be devoted to being a godly mother (priority number 3: my kids). And though I am not sure yet how I am going to go about doing this one, one day will be devoted to priority number 4: Ministry. Finally, one day will be devoted to the power of prayer.

I know I am committing to a lot but I am really excited about this. Plus, I think having a game plan will help me to be more consistent with my postings. Now, you will have to tune in every day for the next week to see what days are going to be devoted to what goals.

Since tomorrow is the 1st I will start then. And just as a heads up, since it is a Friday I am going to keep it on the fun side. Therefore, I will have to treat it differently than all the other days. My plan is to devote the first Friday of every month to reflecting on the progress from the month before. I think this will be a great addition to my blog because I will be able to look back and see all that God has done. Tomorrows however will reflect on all I was blessed with in 2009.

I cannot wait!

Talk to you tomorrow,

MEL

Committing the New Year to Him: Claiming Ephesians for My Life

Lately, I have been thinking about setting goals for the New Year. I usually do not make New Year's resolutions because I am not normally committed enough to follow through. However, a few years ago I heard a sermon challenging Christians to commit the year to God by making a covenant with Him. This covenant involves setting goals in every area of your life. Then follow through with prayer and faithful obedience to Gods call and conviction. When I heard that sermon I though now that's a commitment I can make, setting personal goals is one thing, but committing them to God is an entirely different thing. It adds accountability! One day I will have to answer to God regarding my faithfulness to these goals. After all weather I fail or succeed reflects on Him and my desire is to glorify Him in all I do.

I can say because of this revised outlook on resolutions I made way more progress toward my goals than ever before. However, I still did not give it my all because life was super busy. But this year thanks to some serious spiritual renewal I am determined to take it to the next level. I'm ready for some serious transformation. My life has just not been reflecting God in the way I know he desires of me. Though I have never stopped following Him I am continually convicted that he wants more from me.

As you have hopefully read in past blogs I have been going through a really trying time lately, stuck in a pit. Now, after months of God braking and melting me I can honestly say I know I need to make some serious changes and I am ready. So, more determined than ever; I have been prayerfully seeking Gods guidance regarding my goals. Having an idea of all the things I need to and want to work on God brought me to Ephesians.

See my ultimate goal this year is becoming a woman of proof.

My second goal is keep my priorities in line:
1. God
2. Josh (my husband)
3. Jeremiah and Cherish (my kids)
4. My ministry (women's ministry and extended family)

My third goal is to dive into prayer.
I want to not only claim the power of prayer for myself but also for priorities 2-4.

As I read trough Ephesians I discovered it is full of prayers and promises that line right up with those goals.

Goal 1: Becoming a woman of proof.

Ephesians 4:2-3
"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love, make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace."

4:29
"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."

4:31
"Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice."

4:32
"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you."

5:15-17
"Be very careful, then how you live-not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish but understand what the Lord's will is."

6:10
"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power."

All of these verses contain characteristics and actions that God has been convicting me to work on: humility, gentleness, patience, kindness, compassion, unity with believers, biting my tongue, controlling my anger and claiming joy, along with making the most of my time (i.e. priorities) and claiming Gods power.

Goal 2: Keeping my priorities in order:
1. God
Claiming Ephesians 1:17 as a prayer for myself
"...the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better."

This of course will also require spending more time with God. Though Ephesians does not exactly cover this I will learn from their mistakes as referred to in Revelations 2:1-4. I will not abandon my first love but rather I will seek Him daily to ensure He remains first.

2. Josh
In order to do this I will follow Ephesians 5:22 and 5:33

"Wives submit to the Lord as to the Lord."

"The wife must respect her husband"

And 6:7
"serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men."

3. My kids
In order to do this I feel most inclined to teach my kids Ephesians 6:1-3

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 'Honor your father and mother'- Which is the first commandment with a promise- 'that it may go well with you and that enjoy long life on earth.'"

And of course I will work on 6:7 with my kids to.
"serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men."

4. My ministry

6:7 again
"serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men."

Goal 3: Dive into prayer.

More specifically I will be praying Ephesians 1:17-19a for myself, my husband, my kids and all our extended family and friends.
Oh and of course the women I minister to on here and in person.

"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe."

Praying 6:4 over Josh
"Fathers do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord."

And finally claiming 6:18
"And pray in the Spirit, on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests, with this in mind be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."



I am so excited to start this journey!

Of course the fact that one of my favorite verses is in Ephesians only adds to my excitement; 3:20:
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us."

I can't wait to see what God is going to do. My hope is that you will prayerfully consider joining me on this journey of claiming Ephesians in 2010. I challenge you to read through Ephesians some time soon. Maybe you need to claim them as your own in 2010!

My intent is to read through the book once a month this year each time praying about what areas I need to focus on and how to go about doing that. This of course will be in addition to my daily quiet time and will hopefully give me some direction about what to focus on in my quiet time.


I hope you will join me on this journey!
MEL

Christmas Gifts Unraveled

Okay, so fitting this blogging thing into my schedule is turning out to be a lot harder than I thought it would be.

It's almost 6 a.m. here and after about an hour of no electricity I finally decided I was not going to get anymore sleep today. A storm just blew threw and knocked out the power. See I am one of those people who can't sleep in silence. I need the noise to quiet my brain. For me no fan + no air condition
= no sleep.

As I lay in bed for the last hour I thought about the message God has been speaking to me the last couple of days and decided I needed to share it. See every year I struggle with how to separate commercialized Christmas from CHRISTmas. I think that as a society we spend way too much money and time on traditions that have absolutely nothing to do with the birth of our savior, often without even realizing it. I mean we make a conscience effort in our home to make sure we celebrate Christ at Christmas. For example: we don't do Santa, we attend like three Happy Birthday Jesus parties every year, we also read the Christmas story over and over (each time told in a slightly different manner to keep the kids interested), and we watch several CHRISTmas movies over and over and over again (you parents with preschoolers know what I mean). Yet every year I find myself spending way more money in December than any other month of the year. Even without all the presents! Think about it... we buy; lights, trees, ornaments, decorations upon decorations, cards, candy, tons of food, and tickets to like everything Christmas.

Every year I ask myself why our society does these things, and this year it was like God finally just slapped me in the back of the head and said, "because you think you can buy happiness with money."

You might be thinking, "That is not it! Now come on, we know better than that." But do we? I mean really think about it. All the lights and decorations are designed to put us in the Christmas spirit. You know, fill us with joy and good cheer. It's kind of ironic if you think about it. As Christians we should celebrate Christ all year long. And as for the Christmas spirit well God has a more specific name for it, oh wait what was that again?... Oh yeah the Holy Spirit, duh Melissa.

Because the Holy Spirit indwells us we shouldn't need lights and decorations to put us in a good mood. Because the Holy Spirit indwells us we should be filled with joy, and love. Happiness cannot be bought with money. The only way to find true happiness is through God. After all he sent his only Son to buy happiness with his blood. Our sins are washed away and we are white as snow and one day we will celebrate with Him in his glorious kingdom. Now that is happiness! Let's not forget that this CHRISTmas.

Now, if that message isn't enough to put you in the CHRISTmas Spirit God gave me one more. See I've been fighting a bit of depression this Christmas and the stress of the season has not helped. So, as a result I have been spending a lot more time with my Savior trying to find comfort and joy, and a little hope too.

See almost a year ago my husband and I moved into my mothers with our two kids. Our hope was that we would save some money, pay off some debt (mostly student loans), and be able to buy a house in a year or so and then have another baby. Now here we are a year later and those last two seem nowhere in sight. It is depressing! So Monday after another night of crying before my Savior feeling as though my requests were falling on deaf ears God sent me Matthew 7:11. "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"

Wow, what a perfect time of year to pull that one out! Isn't his timing grand? See I never doubt Gods ability to do something. Instead, I doubt His desire to do it. I always feel like I do not deserve to be blessed. But right here Jesus says, "you are evil...but your Father in heaven will still give you the good gifts you ask for!" See if God were to make his Christmas list without the blood we would all be on the naughty list. But he still loves us! He still wants to bless us with gifts! It's like salvation; all we have to do is ask him.

I hope these messages bless you like they have blessed me this Christmas. And I hope you find your Christmas joy and hope in Him. I certainly did!

Thank you God for the gift of hope this CHRISTmas!

I love you and may you be glorified in everything we do this season.

My Greatest Strength and My Greatest Weakness...?

I know what you are thinking...It's about time. Okay so maybe starting a blog just before Thanksgiving was not the best timing. Trust me the last three weeks have been hectic with Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping, packing and getting ready for our trip, visiting New York, and then coming home to two sick kids, unpacking and all that it entails.

Life really is just getting back to normal around here, though... I do have a little Christmas shopping left to do. I have yet to get my mom or Josh's mom a gift. Why are moms so hard to shop for? Oh, and Friday Josh and I will officially celebrate five years of marriage and of course next week is Christmas followed by New Years. So... maybe things are not back to normal just yet. I guess it just feels that way today.

Oh sweet Jesus, we could really use some energy around here. No lie, we are all exhausted! A little proof; it is 9:33 here and Jeremiah (my 4 yr old) is just getting out of bed, poor baby.

Now, to the point of this blog; in my journey to become a woman of proof God has me examining myself and searching my heart. My most recent revelation is the purpose for this post. See, I have been trying to determine what my strengths are (i.e. personality traits, talents and spiritual gifts), so that I can use them to their fullest and glorify God with them. However, I have also been trying to determine what my weaknesses are, so that I can tame them and thus glorify God in that too. After all, 2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us to "demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." I have long been a believer that the best sign of growth in the Christian walk is self-control. We are all sinners but that does not mean we all have to live in sin. In fact, true sanctification means we move further and further from a life with sin. We become less so that Christ can become more!

So, in my search I discovered that my greatest strength is my passion. After all it's what makes me such a good writer and minister. It is also the reason my husband fell in love with me. And it is the reason why I am so ambitious. However, in my search I also discovered that my greatest weakness is ...dun, dun, dun: my passion. It is probably the driving force behind all my marital problems and my parenting issues. Marital: because it makes me stubborn and prideful. Josh is almost always the first to apologize and acknowledge his faults. Parenting: because my kids are just as passionate, which means we deal with a lot of back talk. God bless my babies they are just so intense.

How can my passion be both? I'll tell you. It has a mind of its own! It like love causes people to be blind. When I am filled with passion I am usually unwilling to back down. I have never had a problem standing firm! That is a great strength of mine ...when I am standing for my faith and what's right. However, I tend to stand firm even when I am wrong or when life is not so black and white. My passion often blinds me from seeing other points of view.

Balance in this area has long been a struggle of mine. But lately God has really been convicting me to get control of it. Oh yes, we are back to that self-control thing. I know it's hard, trust me I know. But just as I am striving to become more self-controlled I challenge you to do the same. I know in this day and age self-control is almost non-existent. After all, we live in the have it your way, anytime, anywhere society. Indulgence is our way of life! However, I think we all know Christ calls us to a different way of living.

Just think... how much happier would you be if you weren't your own worst enemy? We all dig ourselves into holes. But if we would only listen to God to begin with and have some control maybe we would stop hurting ourselves in the long run and learn what the abundant life is all about.

Just some thoughts,

MEL