masterpiece

a painting isn't praised for being a painting, the artist who created it is.

in ephesians 2:10, God calls us His masterpiece:

"for we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Jesus Christ, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago."

if we are God's masterpiece, we shouldn't receive the praise for the gifts God gave us--He should//8.12.14

oceans

i spend a lot of time at the beach. i also spend a lot of time with preschoolers. when i talk to preschoolers, i have to speak in a way that they can understand and relate to. it takes thought and energy, but i love preschoolers, and i want to be able to communicate with them. that's how God is with us. He loves us so much that He's willing to "dumb down" His language into a language we speak. like i said, i love the beach, and last summer God used the waves to really reveal Himself to me.

i'm still five years old ((at heart at least)) so i was playing in the waves. i kept trying to jump over them and go against the breakers. i made no progress, even a little further back than i had started, but i had wasted a lot of energy and time going against them. in the end, the only way to get anywhere is to surrender to the waves, and sometimes the direction we end up going in is the direction we we're fighting against in the first places. god really used this to speak to my heart about His will for my life.

i have this really clear memory of the umbrella my family used at the beach when i was little. why? because i had to search for it a lot. when i got lost, i knew to go back to the umbrella, that i would be safe at the umbrella, that somebody was waiting for me at the umbrella. this taught me 1. we need to be familiar with God to be able to seek Him in stressful times. 2. we need to know that we can run to Him, no matter how far we've run or how lost we've gotten.

i surf. a lot of times, i find myself waiting for a wave and watching waves crash all around me, but not coming my way. God used this situation to speak to my competitive spirit, and tell me that while there are waves around me, i need to fix my eyes on the horizon and look for the one only i can ride. i see the  same sort of things happen in real life--God working so obviously in and through a certain person or God's plans unfolding perfectly in their lives and wondering, "why not me?" i also realized that sometimes we are on the wave, and we don't realize that other people are watching and asking themselves the same question.  everyone's walk with Christ is different, and we need to focus on our own or we might miss our wave.

with my toes in the sand, i watched all of the  water be pulled towards the ocean, and then a wave crash. it reminded me of the lesson of the arrow: when you pull an arrow back, it launches it even further forward. this is really easy to forget in a time when we are being pulled back, but we have to remember that the outcome will be so much bigger and better.

thank you for reading this small novel. i hope the Lord uses my experiences to speak to you//8.2.14

isaiah 43

isaiah 43 is probably one of my favorite passages in the bible--so much truth and encouragement.

right now, i'm kind of meditating on verse two:
"when you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
when you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze."

what a promise!! see, but God doesn't promise us that we will have an easy life; we are undoubtedly going to have to "pass through rivers" and "walk through fire," but we have Him. He is our provider, our protection, and Father.

as i'm sitting here writing this, God said to me, "there won't always be a clear path, but i'll show you the way."

in deuteronomy 31:8, we are promised that "The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

while that is really comforting, it makes me WANT to go out of my comfort zone. 

how different would our lives me if we really claimed that promise and lived our lives knowing that He had gone before and was always with us?//9.2.14