Testify To Love

Today I spent time with my beautiful sisters in Christ.  We spent the morning just fellowshiping and loving each other but we also spent time sharing testimonies on how we have changed from a year ago.  During this time of reflection and sharing I started to realize a common theme in the all the messages.  Each woman  has felt isolated, unloved, unworthy.  Each of us longed to discover our worth and value.  What in the world were we placed on this earth to do? 

As the stories unfolded another theme started to arise.  It is the theme of God's faithfulness.  When we cry out to God He is so amazing to answer each of us right where we are.  One after another began sharing on how faithful God was to show them their worth and value.  He was faithful to help them realize where they are weak He is strong!  He was faithful to bring healing and deliverance at a time when it was most needed.

I am beginning to realize that as women we all struggle with accepting and liking ourselves.  We all struggle with discovering what we are good at and what we were destined to do.  The good news is we do not have to struggle.  God is faithful and just to speak to us in our time of greatest pain and need.  If you are asking yourself what good am I?  What am I here to do?  Stop asking the questions and just begin to focus on God and begin declaring how wonderful He is.  As you gaze at Him, He is so good to reveal the answers to the questions you have been seeking.  But be prepared for what He tells you because it will totally blow your socks off!

To finish as I listened to the last woman share today I glanced over at a beautiful flower arrangement and the thought went through my head that the arrangement had all the colors of the rainbow.  That is when I realized that each of us is a Testimony of God's love.  We need to begin to testify to love, His great love towards us.

Thanksgiving (From the Inside Out)

On the first of November I began seeing posts on Facebook declaring 30 days of praise.  Last year I found out about this too late so I made the decision to join in this year. It took me until day two to realize we need more than 30 days of praise, we need to develop a lifetime to praise.  Everyday we should cry out to God in thanksgiving for all the good things He has done.  We should praise and thank him for the love he so lavishly pours out on us.

The bible is full of words of praise and thanksgiving, especially the book of psalm.  I believe the author, David, learned how to develop a lifetime of praise and no matter what the situation or circumstances looked like he praised and thanked God.  Below are a few verses that God laid on my heart to share in this post.

Psalm 100:4 declares that we are to enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.  The message bible put this so plainly:  Enter with the password:  "Thank you!" Make yourselves at home talking praise.  Thank him.  Worship him.

Psalm 107:1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.
The message bible adds something so unique to this verse:  Oh, thank God - he's so good!  His love never runs out.

Just think about that:  God is so good and He has a never ending supply of love for us.  That alone is enough to be thankful for, for a lifetime!  When you combine His never ending supply of love for us along with all His blessings you will discover how truly wonderful our God is.

If we do not begin to thank and praise God the rocks will cry out for us, Luke 19:40.  Personally I do not want the rocks to do what I was created to do.  So instead of doing 30 days of praise begin a lifetime of praise and thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving and praise allow you to access your blessings.  Thanksgiving and praise is the key into entering new levels in the will of God (Steve Fish).  After thanksgiving and praise we will enter into worship.  Worship is the permission to become lost in the rhythm of God's heartbeat (Graham Cooke).

I don't know about you but I am ready to get my praise! 

The song chosen for today's blog is From the Inside Out by Hillsong.  I love the line that states "the art of losing myself in bringing you praise."  May we become lost in ourselves in giving God all the praise and thanksgiving. We need to just totally lose ourselves in giving praise and thanksgiving to God.  Today begin to develop a lifetime of praise, do not just stop giving praise and thanksgiving on December 1 but continue on where every day of your life reflects how good God is.