A Coffee Date

This morning I had a coffee date with my dad. It was so nice to spend time with him… I mean I’ve called him here and there and we’ve kept in touch, but there’s nothing like catching up free of distractions.

I told him about what has been going on with school and life, and shared my most pressing worries. He responded with words of comfort and truth. He gently reminded me of all of the truths I know so well, but seemed to have forgotten somewhere in the everyday rush. As I read his words, they felt fresh and hit my heart in such a savory way.

As I sat there, just taking in his presence, I wished the time didn’t have to end. But I had classes to get to, jobs to do, and people to love! I felt better about most of the worries I had been carrying around all week, but still was unsure about the day before me. He reassured me that things would be okay, and I believed him, because he has never lied to me before.

I left with the comforting words he spoke:

 “If you need anything, just call me.”

As I pedaled towards campus, I felt new. There’s a confidence that comes from spending time with Him and it permeates my whole being. It’s a confidence I could never produce on my own…. A confidence only a Father’s love can give.  

***

Today I felt beautiful. Not because I did my hair, or put on makeup, or wore the fanciest outfit… I felt beautiful because God told me I was.

I am a woman of God

Redeemed by Jesus Christ

Loved, pursued, and chosen

Equipped with words of life

Clothed in strength and dignity

Commissioned here and now

Gifted by the spirit

Forgiven and unbound

Blessed is she who believed.

In my opinion, it’s hard to feel anything less than beautiful after hearing that statement. I am a daughter of the king. And a daughter of the king, is a daughter of the king! It doesn’t matter what she wears or how she looks …because her worth is found in an unshakable God.

10/14/14

I trust in You for every heartbeat
As long as I'm alive
Your love endures when I wake
And when I close my eyes

Help me to know You are God, I am not
Remind my soul You're in control

I won't demand to know the reasons
For my suffering
These open hands will trust Your wisdom
Beyond what I see

Help me to know You are God, I am not
Remind my soul You're in control

Praise to the Father
With every breath I take
In joy and sorrow
All for Your kingdom's sake
Be Thou my vision
Be Thou my hope restored
Now and forever
You are my great reward

Lord, I’ve been feeling so hopeless. It seems like there’s no goal or hope in sight and it is so easy to lose heart. Help me to know and trust that you are enough. Remind my soul to delight in you alone.

I think back to the other week and many times now when I have prayed for hope. It seems like I keep asking but feel no different. But I don’t think God’s desire for me is to wake up the next morning and just feel hopeful. I think he puts me in circumstances where I get the chance to choose hope, to choose to follow Jesus’ example and keep walking although all I’m seeing is what seems like my own death.

 You see, I’m not actually looking for hope. Hope has been here. I am learning how to choose and abide in hope. I keep falling into the temptation to think that hope is a feeling or the light at the end of a long tunnel, but it seems that hope looks more like a suffering Savior taking up his cross in obedience, making a way to the ultimate hope.

“Therefore we do not lose heart.” 2 Corinthians 4:16

Charles Spurgeon said: “I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages.”  ...And hope gives me the confidence that one day this will be my soul's refrain.

God's Wisdom Revealed by the Spirit

“I was made for God’s glory. The reason I am on the planet is to bear the image of my Father. The Christian life isn’t an answer for blessings; it’s an answer for transformation.

… And I can rest myself in the hand of the great potter so he can make me with his creativity the masterpiece I was designed to be.” –Dan Mohler, Becoming Love

I want so badly to look at people and see them the way God designed them to be. I want to look at people through the lens of grace and love, throwing away my judgmental flesh in order to put on truth. This is the battle of my heart these days and my goodness it is such a challenge.

God, I thank you for the days when the not so pretty parts of my heart are exposed. I thank you that you won’t leave me that way, but that you love me enough to change me from the inside out. Help me to rest in your hands and surrender what my flesh so badly wants to hold onto. Help me trust in your wisdom and rid me of trying to whisper my own plans to you as you refine me. And above all else, let my heart be tuned by your Spirit and not by this world.

“What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for,

“Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”

But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:12-16