A New Committment for a New Year

As I welcome in 2011, a year of urgency and great expectation for better things to come, I have decided to sell myself out to Jesus, in every way. Those areas I thought I had surrendered I'm laying at the feet of Jesus, praying I can give my worries, cares and burdens to the Lord once and for all.

I have dedicated myself to live for God, to love others as he has loved me, to serve Jesus Christ wholeheartedly and completely living for Him. Now, I am committing to be a woman of prayer, every day. I want my life to reflect Jesus' love, His compassion, His patience, and strength, His will and His choices not only in the parts of my life that are easy to give up, but especially in those I have hung onto, knowingly or not.

As I pour myself out for His glory, His causes, His work, I know He will fill me with Himself so fully, an abundance of Him is what will flow out of me, and that is truly my heart's desire this year... to be completely surrendered to allowing Christ to live in me, through me, consuming every part of me. This is it, the life I once lived I lived for myself, but now, I live 100% for Jesus Christ. Loving others, caring for others, serving others to a greater capacity than I ever imagined.

Won't you commit to a higher cause, a more noble ideal, a lifestyle that glorifies God in every way, every single day? Become a woman, man, young adult, teen, adolescent, child of prayer. Re-commit today, or commit for the first time and watch what God makes of your life and those He puts in your path. Make a new commitment for the new year. Trust God to hold your life in His hands, so that He may mold and make you into a treasure of worth beyond compare. Place your faith in an everlasting God Who loves YOU unconditionally. (John 3:16-17) Prayer changes things, transforms people and blesses others. Pray like your life depends on it...because it truly does.

The Challenge of a Lifetime

In reading my dear friend and fellow writer, Steve Wallace's blogpost today, I was touched and challenged. He speaks on active evangelism, going out and truly being God's hands, feet and voice. Utilizing ministries already set in place, we as God's kids have an army behind us, strategies have proven success rates and tools to easily share the love of Jesus in whatever way or to whatever capacity God offers us. God has ordained and anointed people and programs, ministries and groups for His children to grow but if we only use these devices for our own pleasure, growth or care, what good do they do us in helping the lost, the blind, the broken and shamed?

If our whole hearts are not in evangelizing the lost, what sad, pathetic, useless individuals we become. God's gift to us was His Son Jesus. Jesus' gift to us was His very life. Our gift to them is what we do with our lives.

No more excuses, no more lies, no more ignoring the pain in others eyes. Search deep within, reach out unconditionally, love so much more and do something. Just a week or so before my husband, son and I left Oregon to move to Arizona, my daughter and I had had the opportunity to visit with a homeless man. We invited him to have breakfast with us at McDonald's but upon meeting him there he decided to just take his breakfast and eat outside alone. Buying him food was of little concern, it was just the tool God used to connect our hearts for a brief time. It was relationship that was the needed ingredient here. One in which this man felt unworthy to have with us. I tried to talk him into sitting at a table with us but he refused only saying why would nice ladies like us want to be with a man who's wasted his life? My heart sank for him and broke as he spoke of such hard times as he was growing up that never got better as he aged. I blessed him and said I would pray for him, and to this day I still do.

We may never know the impact or influence our very presence, Jesus' presence, may have on an individual. But we do know God's words will NEVER return void, so if we don't look for the appointments God gives us, so many will remain broken, shamed and hurting. So many lives will remain the same, and so many will die without ever meeting Jesus.

It's not a choice people, it's a calling. And an honorable and mighty one at that. Using ministries already in place empowers you to do the single most simple act in the world, share the gospel with the lost. You are called to share the love of Christ in whatever way God leads you to as He opens doors of hope and opportunities to share. Will you be that link, that connection to Jesus? If not you . . .than who?

Living a Victorious Life

I attend one of the most on fire, radical life-changing, uplifting the spirit and soothing the soul churches anyone could ever hope to go to and yesterday was one of the MOST endearing services I have been to.

The topic was a prayer model to follow, the chosen lead scripture was Matthew 11:28, ironically the same exact one that a sweet adopted daughter of mine gave me just this past week. The concept, A.C.T.S.

Pastor Dan was explaining how we all find ways to escape our greatest struggles, failures and obsessions. God instructs us to come to Him because only He can give us rest, true rest. And what do we do, we go to everything else for a fake calm before the next storm of life blindsides us. We turn to other people to make us happy, shopping to anesthetize us to the realization we don't have it all, to substances for numbing against the pain, to busy-ness so that we don't have to face rejection, to job security so we don't have to trust a Being we cannot grasp a hold of with our human hands, and even to denial so we won't believe we need God.

What's up with us frail humans? We think we have it altogether when our lives are falling apart. When we become desperate, it is then we might finally turn to our loving Father and beg for His help. Pastor Dan likened this to his daughter who calls out to Him for a hug and eventual popsicle, being perfectly content with the popsicle. I liken it to partying our lives away and when we get caught up in our troubles it is then we need bailed out; now God is there to help us with open arms and a smile on His face. In a way this may be true as He says He will never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), but what God desires of His children and those who have not yet accepted Him, is for us to come to Him anytime, every time, all the time. With whatever spoils we have to lay at his feet, He can turn them into precious gems of infinite value, if we will only come....as we are.

The model of A.C.T.S. is a wonderful foundation we should all adopt on a daily basis. One in which will bring glory to God, support for our overburdened souls, strength in our spirits and rest for our weary bodies and minds. God expanded on this concept with me and made it quite simple.

A- adoration; adoration for our God, adoring Him above everything and everyone else in our life

C- confession; confession to our Lord; confessing those things we say, do and think that are displeasing to God

T- thanksgiving; thanksgiving for Jesus Christ; always being thankful for the One Who gave us eternal life

S- supplication; supplication from on high; receiving our daily supply of what we need from almighty God, precious Jesus and the ever comforting Holy Spirit

Wow! Concepts to change my life, give me strength, draw me closer to Jesus, provide rest for my body, mind and soul, help me grow in the ways of the Lord, give me hope, support others, pray with power, share the love of Jesus with all who cross my path, be humble before my Lord, loosen all power the enemy could have over me, and to give me abundant life on this earth.

Okay, am I missing something here. Hmmmm, turn to imperfect people for help or trust a most perfect God; spend money on things that will perish one day or savor time with someone Who can provide me with what I truly need not want; use and abuse substances that will alter my thought processes or remember God says I have a sound mind and He can heal my pain; remain too busy to hear from God or seek His plans and purposes for me to further His kingdom and glorify Him; find my security in a job that I can lose at any given moment or have my security in the Creator of all heaven and earth; believe in myself and deny I even have issues at all or know Jesus is worth believing in and trusting for every detail of my life, let's see which do I chose to live by?

HA! Who are we actually kidding?! When the world says, "Look to yourself", know that God says He is always near and waiting with open arms for you to rest in His care, His love, His peace, His salvation, His support, His protection, His comfort, His knowledge, His grace and mercy.



* Supporting scriptures are listed below to look up and concentrate on, contemplate their meanings and apply to your life. Believe and be blessed!


Adoration: I Chronicles 29:10-13, 29:20
Confession: I John 1:9, Psalm 32:1-5, James 5:16
Thanksgiving: Psalm 13:5-6, 69:30, 95:2, Philippians 4:6-7
Supplication: Philippians 4:6, Matthew 6:8, 7:7-11, I John 5:14-15, Ephesians 3:20-21

* To take part online in the wonderful service I commented on, go to
www.pureheart.org and listen to Sunday August 1st service under the column Items of Interest, Sermon downloads and sit back with a cup of coffee, tea or bottled water and enter into rest, rest that will change your life.

The Joy of the Lord is My Strength - Nehemiah 8:10

Nehemiah penned these exact words long ago and we would be wise to embed these words into every crevice of our hearts. God's joy is what makes us strong when we are so spent and weak. It is He in us Who is greater than he that us in the world.

As we look upon the Lord to fill us with His strength to make it through the day, to encourage others in their own ways, to serve our families, uplift our friends, pray for relatives and give what we have to the poor, keep in mind our own strength in this life is just not enough. If you haven't already figured that out, you will soon enough.

We believe our strength can be multiplies, extended, built up and exercised without limits, but even Jesus had times He knelt before His Father in weariness to get refueled, energized and recharged Himself. Now if the Son of God had times He plugged into God's strength to continue what was called of Him, do we not think ourselves to be in need of almighty God's strength as well?

Living this life on our own, without tapping into the awesome strength provided by God and through Jesus, is like running a marathon on one leg, dehydrated to the hilt, weak and without hope. Jesus equips us to do all we are called to accomplish, He is our living water, strengthens us beyond good measure and fills us with hope when the finish line has not yet appeared.

Take a moment today to kneel before Father God, humbling ourselves at His feet as we come boldly to the throne of grace. God is able to do exceedingly more than we could ever imagine, Ephesians 3:20, if we let Him. What are you waiting for? Be strengthened today!