Open the Eyes of Our Hearts, Lord

I decided to participate in my first #fmfparty blog post! If you do not know what that is, go check out Five Minute Friday here!

So, the word for this week is "open." When I think open, the song "Open The Eyes of My Heart, Lord" comes to my mind immediately. I sung it often in church in children's choir growing up. But, the lyrics still ring true today.

We need to let God open our hearts up to His plan for our life. We need to allow his glory to unfold in our lives, and there is no way for this to happen if we are closed off from him, trying to hide our sins and insecurities. He sees our hearts. He knows our inmost thoughts.

Openness is also important in our relationships with others. We must be open and willing to share Jesus with them. We cannot put up a false front and expect them to see the love inside of us. Jesus was real. He was open with others and God. People can come to know God through our broken, sinful lives.

Lord, I pray that you would open the eyes of our hearts today. We want to see you, God. Oh, how we want to see you. Please help us to be open to receiving your will for our lives and open in our relationships with others. In Jesus name, Amen.

Do You Want To Be My Friend?

I wanted to share this devotional I wrote for church with you all. I hope it can be of some encouragement to you today! It is based on John 15:12-27! So you can read that first, or just start reading the devotion below!

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.” (John 15:12-14) This is one of my favorite verses because Jesus says we get to be His friend! Isn’t that exciting?! I LOVE that I can be considered friends with Jesus! All we must do is love Him and love others, and He will consider us His friends!

Jesus continues in verse sixteen, where He tells us that we are to bear fruit. Bearing fruit is so important in our Christian walk, and we can do that by being joyful, loving, peaceful, patient, and kind to others. He also says in verse sixteen that if we bear fruit, whatever we ask in His name will be given to us by the Father. God wants us to be happy. He wants to provide for us. However, the catch here is that we must ask in His name. That means God will fulfill our wishes if they align with His plan for us. There are always things that we ask for and pray desperately for, and God might not answer how we want, but it usually ends up working out for the good. I have prayed for things that I am so glad God did not give me because it turned out much better His way.

Jesus continues by saying, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19) As a teenage girl, I get hung up on this issue a lot. I want everyone to like me. I honestly cannot stand it when someone does not like me. I feel like I need to make amends even though I have done nothing to make them dislike me. I am still learning to accept that the world might hate me for loving Jesus – for standing out and sticking up for what is right. Many in the world hate Christians because our values differ from theirs. Since we do not cooperate with the world by joining in its sin, we are living accusations against the world’s morality. However, there is nothing wrong with this.  As Christ followers – as friends of Jesus – people are not always going to love us, but we must not stop showing them love.  

Father,

Thank you for the beautiful life that you have given each of us. Help us today to stand firm and courageous in our faith and to live steadfast in oneness with you. We want our lives to be a passionate pursuit of your glory and love. Please help us to bear fruit in a fruitless world and to show love to those who hate. Please fill us with your Spirit.

                                                                                    In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

How Do I Know What God Wants Me to Do?

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you." ~Jeremiah 29:11-12


 How do I know what God is calling me to do?


This is a question I ask myself almost every day. I have not figured it out, and I probably never will completely. Sometimes I think I know what God wants me to do, but other times I think it is just my idea and not God's. God doesn't come out and speak to us as clearly as he spoke to people like Moses and the prophets. God speaks to us in indirect ways and I wanted to share with you all how I am learning to follow God's will. I'm by no means as close to God as I want to be, but I want to encourage others as much as I can.



Prayer
 
"We are sure that if we ask anything that He wants us to have, He will hear us.  If we are sure He hears us when we ask, we can be sure He will give us what we ask for." ~1 John 5:14-15  

Every day, I pray for God to use me to carry out His will for my life. Sometimes I feel like I am doing a good job loving people and doing what God wants me to do, and sometimes I feel like a complete failure. I get mad and say things that I wish I didn't, and I apologize to God for not living how he wants me to. And then, I try again the next day... And the next. I am trying to learn how to listen to God in prayer instead of having a one-sided conversation. For me, it's hard to be quiet and listen. But, prayer is so important in learning what God wants us to do. It brings us closer to Him and His will for our lives. Constant communication with our Father helps us to feel at peace with ourselves, also.
 
The Bible

"This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success." ~Joshua 1:8

Another way to know what God is calling you to do is simply by reading His Word. By reading the Bible every day, we are constantly soaking in God's written words. My pastor says we need to "marinate like chicken" in the word - constantly reading, thinking, and applying it to our lives. You don't have to doubt if what you read in the Bible is from God or not. The Bible is God-breathed and written perfectly by chosen people who were filled with the Holy Spirit. I love reading the Bible - especially Jesus' words - because it can teach us and guide us in almost any situation.

  God's Fingerprints

"Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush." ~Exodus 3:1-2

A third way that I have found out what God wants me to do is through unusual occurrences. Sometimes, things happen that are so miraculous that you can just see God's fingerprints all over them. When I was in Daytona Beach last summer, I asked God to send a sign of what he wanted me to do, and it ironically came in the form of a tweet. It was a tweet about Nicaragua missions. And it came at the exact time I asked. God is calling me to missions. This was after my Nicaragua trip and he was whispering to me that he's not done using me to share the gospel with the world. He has sent more signs calling me into missions since then. Stuff just happens in the weirdest, abnormal ways. Another instance of God's fingerprints was when I was praying for a friend's salvation because she had been struggling with some issues, and a few weeks later, we were at a track meet together. She was shaking and nervous before her race, and she came up to me and asked me to pray for her. I was so thankful that she did that. God is good.

John 4 is a good example of this. The woman at the well is getting water in the middle of the day to avoid the judgmental society, and Jesus showed up and started talking to her and changed her life. I'm pretty positive that this did not happen by chance. God had that moment planned out since the beginning of time. It is one of my favorite Bible stories because Jesus breaks the standards of society, approaches the woman, confronts her with her sin, and gives her what she needs - the living water! It is a story filled with hope for the woman and us, and it had God's fingerprints all over it. The woman left the well changed forever and filled with hope and life. Signs might not be as obvious as God speaking to you through a burning bush like he spoke to Moses or having an angel come and speak to you like Mary and Joseph, but God will show himself in your life in ways that are so unnatural and God-breathed that no one but the Father himself could have sent them.


The truth is, God's will for each of our lives looks completely different. Our lives aren't meant to be carbon-copies of each other. We were made to live radically different lives. We are called to use the gifts that God has given us.

Heavenly Father, help each of us to passionately purse You every day of our lives, living to please You alone. Help us to know what you are calling us to do. In Jesus name we pray, Amen. 

When "Normal" Gets Messed Up

Here's a canvas that I had fun painting this week!

       First of all, this is my first blog post since September, and I am very sorry about that. My Junior year of high school has been insanely busy with loads of homework and after-school activities! I'm going to try to make time to blog again though. Pray that I can keep up with it please!
       
        Besides for being very busy, my life has been pretty routine recently, and I have been striving to make more time for God every day. For 2015, I decided to read the whole Bible in a year following the She Reads Truth reading plan. I am loving some parts and struggling through other parts. I know that God is going to help me grow so much through this though! These last few weeks, I have also been having more time to do what makes my soul happy, which is painting! I feel like I have complete peace with myself and God when I relax and paint canvases.
    
      Anyways, the title of this blog is "When Normal Gets Messed Up" because earlier this week, my life got thrown for a loop when I found out that one of my friends is pregnant. She is a senior in high school. My heart absolutely broke in two for her. I was shocked and upset and could not imagine what she was going through. And finding out who the father is made the situation a whole lot more complicated. It tore me in two even more. I about lost it. I did not understand why God let this happen or what good was going to come from it. And I'm still not sure that I do now. This could ruin both of their futures. Out of all my friends, these two knew what they wanted to do with their lives, and this was sure not part of it. But, I do know that they are very close to God and are trusting Him with the situation which puts me at peace about it. They are both amazing people and I know that whatever happens, God does have it under control, and he will not abandon them. I found a quote by C.S. Lewis that speaks to the situation, "God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons we could learn no other way." Please pray with me for them and their families that they make the right decisions and trust God to help them through it.

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." ~Romans 8:28


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/144185625545275287/

The thing is, all of our lives go through ups and downs, and sometimes there is no "normal" because something happens that turns everything upside down and backwards. It might feel like life might never settle back down and you will never get a break from whatever is going on. But you will! For me, this past semester, my "normal" schedule of school, sports, and free time got completely changed because I started taking harder, more time-consuming classes. I never thought I would see the end of homework assignments and due dates and tests. Finally, after the first semester, I got a break, and it felt so good. Now, back in full swing of the second semester, I am trying really hard to stay on top of all my work, so it doesn't feel overwhelming. I want to have more time for the important things - strengthening relationships, reading, painting, and doing everything to glorify God. I hope that if your "normal" feels messed up at the moment, that you may find peace in the chaos, and find some time to do what makes your soul happy!

After all, who really wants "normal" anyway?

XOXO, Heather

    

More

"When they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined." ~Acts 18:20

This verse is talking about the Jews wanting Paul to spend more time with them, but I can apply it to my own circumstance to God asking me to spend more time with him and me not doing it.

With the school year back in full-swing and our new pastor getting settled into our church community, we are going to start a new Wednesday night program at our church. It is going to be called More. It used to just be for children and be called Rainbow Junction, then Wednesday Night Live, but our new pastor made it something more. Now it is for everyone. Babies to elders, all of us will get to have more of God on Wednesday nights, which I'm really excited about!

I really enjoy all my classes this year (besides English), but sometimes it's hard to find time for more. My schedule is pretty full with classes starting at 7:45 and going to 3:00, then cross country until 5:00, then one or two hours of homework. By that time, I feel like I've done so much, all I should do is relax and go on Instagram or text friends. I'm starting to see that doing that just drains me and wastes time.

What I need to do is replace those things with God. I need more of Him. I will never have enough of Him. I still make time to read my Bible every day. It's usually not too long, unless I barely have any homework, but the time is there. But sometimes I'm not in the right mindset. I might have just finished homework and my brain is dead while trying to learn from God's word. Or, I'll be reading and find my mind wandering to all the things I still have to do. Or it's just so late at night that I almost fall asleep reading. I feel awful when that happens. It's like, "Sorry God! I didn't leave enough time for you today. Even though you spent all day taking care of me, making sure I woke up this morning, and keeping me safe, and providing for all my needs. Sorry I didn't have more than 10 minutes for you. Woops." Ugh. I hate it when I do that, and it's something that I'm really trying to work on. I definitely have God as the number one priority in my mind, I just need to really apply it to my life. I need MORE time with Him. I need to get to know him MORE. I want MORE of You, God.

My new coffee mug and Bible from this morning's time with God!

I love Sundays because I have a few hours set to spend time with God. And now Wednesdays will be the same. I want it to be like that everyday. God should get all my time. Not 10 or 20 minutes of my day when I'm distracted or tired. I am really going to pray that God gives me an eager heart to want to read my Bible and spend more time with Him everyday! I hope that you try spending more time with God everyday also!

"Set a fire down in my soul, that I can't contain and I can't control.
I want more of You God, I want more of You, God."
     -Set A Fire by Jesus Culture