Things I'm learning

Well, a mild stomach bug has been making its way through our home over the last week, and I'm the current recipient of the bug. I had planned to make it to church this morning, but when I wasn't sure I was going to keep my breakfast down, I decided that was a bad idea... for me and for everybody there. So, I spent some time in the word courtesy of my Breaking Free Session 7 video with Beth Moore. These are a few things God spoke to me today through the study, that might be for someone else along with me...

Our passion will be birthed from our pain. As much as I hate the truth of that...because that means I will go through pain that I don't want to go through...I know it's true. I am passionate for things that I never would have been without the pain that I've experienced.

Self-protection is the #1 way we can work ourselves out of our callings. Whoa! I have a deep appreciation for self-protection. Have I missed part of my calling because I've protected myself from the very thing it would have been birthed from? This statement will have me thinking for days to come.

In our culture, irritation has been redefined as tribulation. How true... how many things consume my mind and emotions and feel so huge that are actually just irritations of living on this planet, with broken human beings. I can't let the irritating things that we all face on a daily basis steal away my joy or my focus to serve Christ... isn't that exactly what Satan wants?

God wants to clean the impurities that are deep within me... the unhealthy, impure, immature, handicapped places...He will allow me to go through things that will draw those impurities to the surface, so He can deal with them, free me from them, and make me healthier and more whole. Praise God that He is always at work within me to continue to clean, heal, restore, and make me more into His image. The very things I struggle through are the situations He's using to make me more like Christ. Embrace them. He's not done with me!!! Hallelujah!

I was led to listen to some Steven Curtis Chapman songs following my Bible study time, and I ran across this song... the lyrics to the chorus of "Much of You" are my prayer today...

I want to make much of You Jesus
I want to make much of Your love
I want to live today to give You the praise
That You alone are so worthy of
I want to make much of Your mercy
I want to make much of Your cross
I give You my life
Take it and let it be used
To make much of You

I am grateful that God is working in me every single day even through circumstances that seem to have no good to come from them... to make me into His reflection. He has a long way to go and His work is cut out for Him, but thankfully He knows that, and He's not giving up! I want to make much of Him today....and every day...


BTW, breakfast stayed down... Yea!