God-sized Life

I have been living in and breathing in God's goodness the past month. God has proven Himself faithful in so many ways. I am excited beyond anything, feeling great, need to be living more by the Word. Here are just a few things I am learning: read on. I hope you are encouraged!

1. Deut 8.1-20. This has been a sweet and convicting passage in my life for about 2 months now. I write it out, journal about it, read over it over and over. Never without a convicting statement to pierce my hardness of heart. I am to be CAREFUL to do all the commans. I am to REMEMBER what the Lord has done for me. I am to TRUST that God is going to be good to me. I am to NOT FORGET God in the midst of this goodness. I have seen God do every bit of this chapter in my life in the last almost 3 years. I look forward to the remembering, dwelling in, not forgetting, and the hope and freedom of the future.
2. James 3.8-18. This past Sunday I was visiting a friend of mine and her family in Paintsville, KY. Anytime I get around good friends who I can be real with, I often tend to think I am complaining a lot because I voice those concerns in my life and talk about my opinions about certain things. I woke up on Sunday morning feeling very guilty of the things that had come out of my mouth: too much negativity - not enough gratitude and praise. My mind went straight for this passage. I love it - one that is very hard to do as well. I also focused on repentance and Romans 8.1. First - taming the tongue is a SPIRIT thing. No human being can do it. I need to live every moment in the Spirit so He can work that in my life and through my speech. I want to have "meekness of wisdom" define my life. Also, at this church was a sweet "mother mentor". From the time she opened her mouth I saw the beauty of Christ - the sweet aroma, wonderful fragrance. Wow! God is so good in her life. I hope I get the chance to know her more in the coming years. I want my life to also be characterized by James 3.17-18 - peaceable, pure, righteous (only through Christ).
3. He has been Jehovah-Jireh to me in the last month or so, especially. Providing extra jobs to take money off my rent, to provide friends who come along at the very right moment, providing ministry opportunities in the area of fitness and weight loss, to provide people in my life to calm me and speak in to my life when I need a good Word, for providing family. Psalm 34.8 says "taste and see that God is good." I know that full well. Also, one of my fave verses in the NT is Romans 8.32 - If God gave us Jesus, how will we think he will withhold other things - graciously giving us all things. As John Newton once said (I think) - We don't need anything that God withholds, and everything He gives, we need.
4. John 10.10. Oh, the abundant life. I don't have anything more materialistically than I have had before - probably less actually. But, God has been so good and faithful and perservering in my life that it has truly made me stop and see that I have an ABUNDANT LIFE!
5. And in that abundance - I want to live a John 15.16 life - a verse that I pulled from Steve Wright's book Re:Think - I want my life to bear fruit - not for me - but for God's glory and fame. Not just in teaching or work, but in every facet of life. I am so far from that - but praising God this morning for continued sanctification in my life through the work of the Word and the Holy Spirit!