As I sit thinking about a new year approaching, I am joyful of all that God has done in my life this past year, 2012.
At this moment last year, I was just leaving Thailand to return home. I had planned to return with big plans for my future. I wanted to be a part of something but I did not know what it looked like - I was hoping a trip across the world would help to clarify my future.
When I returned from Thailand, I realized that God had taken me on this trip to show me his love and joy that comes when he redeems a life. I saw how God's love can change lives. Women who were formerly prostitutes, met Christ and were forever changed - I was privileged to meet these women and see the joy in their eyes. This is where my year of 2012 began - on a plane back to America, the land of the free - after seeing what freedom really looked like for the first time, in Thailand.
My life was changed. I wanted to continue to speak, but not out of anger or injustice, but from a place of hope and love. I no longer wanted to sell jewelry while speaking about the darkness these girls came from - but rather, to tell of the light that has changed them!
I had many amazing opportunities this year to sell products from Thailand and to speak to many groups of women. God redeemed a friendship in my life and I was able to feel the joy of redemption that I had seen in the women of the Thailand ministry. God opened my eyes to all of the wonderful relationships he has placed in my life. He showed me how to enjoy my friends and my family. I took time to sit with my girls, go out with my husband, laugh with my parents and spend time with many different friends that God has brought into my life throughout the years. I can see now that my big ideas for my future is actually just enjoying the life I am living now - to have joy in the now. I learned to take new steps toward a future that God has planned for me but seeing that when I finally arrive to where I want to be, I probably won't know - because it will just be the next step I take in this journey of life!
I am so excited to see what God has for this year. I feel as if I have found a place. God has shown me a small part of his plan for my life. I pray for opportunities to not only speak out for the women I sell products for in Thailand, but also to speak to women around Michigan about the hope that our God has for their lives here, in the land of the free! It's amazing that God has a plan for each one of us - no matter where we live. He has a plan for the year of 2013. Even if tragedy or darkness has taken residence in your life, God still has a plan. We have a God who is the God of hope - this is why I have chosen this verse for my blog - Romans 15:13 - "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy spirit."
May this be the year that we "overflow" with hope!
~ I pray you have a Joyful New Year in 2013 ~
Monday, December 31, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Lean not...
Lean not on your own understanding...
This verse in the bible seems so simple sometimes. Sure, I can depend on God. I have everything in order and I can see that my life is good. This is just a verse I learned in Sunday School so many years ago.
But, when life falls apart, when the storm hits, we try to understand. We look around to see what is happening. We try to figure it out. What did I do? What could I have done? Why would God allow this to happen in my life? Now, the verse is not just a verse any longer - it is life.
It says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart". Trust is a word that brings on different meanings and feelings depending on where you stand. If you stand on a high dive with a pool of water below and God asks you to jump - trust is possibly fearful, but fairly easy. It is when you are standing on the high dive looking into an empty pool - when you don't see anything in front of you to break your fall - and God asks you to jump. Now, the word trust, has new meaning. It means you are placing it all into His hands and trusting that He will catch you. This trust is everything.
It is interesting that God didn't just say, "trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding". That would have been enough, right? We need to trust. When the storm is breaking and flooding into our lives, we must trust him to get us through - but this is not all he asks of us. He says to "trust in the Lord with all your heart...." This is not a simple trust. This requires all. All your heart. At times, when our hearts are breaking, this trust feels like God is asking too much of us. How can we give him all of our heart when we don't even feel as though we have a whole heart to give him? Do we give him a broken heart? Does that even count as "all my heart"? How do we trust God when we don't trust ourselves? This verse is asking for all of it. All your heart. No looking back, no time to fill up the pool - just jumping into his arms and trusting that he is there. Trusting that he will catch you.
The verse asks even more of us when we continue to read - Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. It asks us to give up how we see things...our own thoughts, feelings, pain and hurt - and hand it to God. To trust him...with all of it. It is not easy to trust a God we cannot see or understand. God does not want us to trust our own understandings because we are not able to truly see. We only see what we, as humans, can see. We can not see past our own understanding of life. God knows that we effect more people and things around us than we see. This is why we need to trust - with all our heart. He sees what we cannot. He knows that eternity is so much more than we can see - than we can understand. That this life is so much more than we can see or understand.
Trust in the Lord. Don't lean on your understandings or what you see, lean on him...he is trustworthy. He is faithful. He will catch you. He will hold you. He will lift you up, so one day, you will be able to see.
This verse in the bible seems so simple sometimes. Sure, I can depend on God. I have everything in order and I can see that my life is good. This is just a verse I learned in Sunday School so many years ago.
But, when life falls apart, when the storm hits, we try to understand. We look around to see what is happening. We try to figure it out. What did I do? What could I have done? Why would God allow this to happen in my life? Now, the verse is not just a verse any longer - it is life.
It says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart". Trust is a word that brings on different meanings and feelings depending on where you stand. If you stand on a high dive with a pool of water below and God asks you to jump - trust is possibly fearful, but fairly easy. It is when you are standing on the high dive looking into an empty pool - when you don't see anything in front of you to break your fall - and God asks you to jump. Now, the word trust, has new meaning. It means you are placing it all into His hands and trusting that He will catch you. This trust is everything.
It is interesting that God didn't just say, "trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding". That would have been enough, right? We need to trust. When the storm is breaking and flooding into our lives, we must trust him to get us through - but this is not all he asks of us. He says to "trust in the Lord with all your heart...." This is not a simple trust. This requires all. All your heart. At times, when our hearts are breaking, this trust feels like God is asking too much of us. How can we give him all of our heart when we don't even feel as though we have a whole heart to give him? Do we give him a broken heart? Does that even count as "all my heart"? How do we trust God when we don't trust ourselves? This verse is asking for all of it. All your heart. No looking back, no time to fill up the pool - just jumping into his arms and trusting that he is there. Trusting that he will catch you.
The verse asks even more of us when we continue to read - Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. It asks us to give up how we see things...our own thoughts, feelings, pain and hurt - and hand it to God. To trust him...with all of it. It is not easy to trust a God we cannot see or understand. God does not want us to trust our own understandings because we are not able to truly see. We only see what we, as humans, can see. We can not see past our own understanding of life. God knows that we effect more people and things around us than we see. This is why we need to trust - with all our heart. He sees what we cannot. He knows that eternity is so much more than we can see - than we can understand. That this life is so much more than we can see or understand.
Trust in the Lord. Don't lean on your understandings or what you see, lean on him...he is trustworthy. He is faithful. He will catch you. He will hold you. He will lift you up, so one day, you will be able to see.
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