It Will Be Worth It All.....

A year ago, I would not have foreseen where God would have me today - spiritually, physically.

There are people in my life today, that were not in my life a year; people who are now an integral part of my life that I didn't even KNOW a year ago.

There are people BACK in my life today that have really been gone for some time.

I am not the same person I was a year ago.

All that to say this:  You can't see the future and you don't know what God is going to use in your life to move you...to change you...to grow you...to stretch you...

As I reflect, I look back now and see that often times those painful things that God allowed in my life actually turned out for the better.

Going through my own family crisis brought me to a place today where my heart's desire is to counsel and encourage women to be the person God made them to be.

God used a very hurtful experience to move us to another ministry, where both of us have grown and thrived and increased in our thirst for Christ. 

God doesn't give us the "desires of our hearts" in the way we want to think; it's not about the latest sports car or the biggest house or the nicest clothes.  God molds those desires to match his, so that he give us the desires of HIS heart  - which, when we are close to Him, will be the same as our own desires; the two will be indistinguishable.

We're not promised tomorrow - we're not even promised our next breath.  What can I do today that will accomplish the desire's of God's heart?  I might not have tomorrow.  I might not have next week.  But whether in sunshine or rain, promise or pain....I WILL serve the Lord and it WILL be worth it all!!

Set Aside

I was reminded yesterday that Christ did not die on the cross because he had no choice.

Christ did not die on the cross in vain.

No, his death - his ugly, violent, cruel, torturous death - was freely offered up.  In love.  For me.

If an army buddy saved you from certain death, you would be forever grateful.

If a good neighbor pulled you out of your burning house, saving your life, you would find as many ways as you could to repay them.

But Christ, who died to save your life from an ETERNITY in the lake of fire, rarely gets any acknowledgement - much less thanks or love or devotion.

But Christ DID offer up his own life for mine - he suffered the most cruel deaths so that I did not have to.

And when I came to that point where I recognized that sacrifice and realized it was for me - personally, for me - I accepted his payment for my sin and I surrendered my life to serve Him who saved me - forever.

God doesn't save us and set us aside.  God desires a relationship with us.  A personal, daily, one-on-one relationship.  Like you have with your best friend.  It's a two-way street; he even wrote you a love letter!!  (It's called His Word). 

No, God doesn't save us and set us aside.  The question is:

Have I set HIM aside?