An Excellent Spirit is Blessed!

This has been our verse for the sixth week in the Stressed Less Living  Bible study.  It has been filling me all week.  

What does it mean to seek God´s Kingdom? 

I have many likes and interests. I have even started a new network marketing business. My family and I are involved in many projects. 

Which of these that I am doing is truly seeking God´s Kingdom?

Truly, the answer has been befuddling me, almost mocking me. Is it that I should give up my interests, my new little business or even some of our projects we are so involved in the ministry? 

Last night´s message by my dear hubby, answered my questions. He preached on Daniel chapter six. You know, the chapter when King Darius makes Daniel ruler or president over all his other rulers. 

Daniel was chosen because he had an "excellent spirit", the Bible says. 

What was this "excellent spirit". 

Yes, of course, it was his belief in the ONE and ONLY true God!

Did Daniel turn down this incredible position so he could seek God´s kingdom? 

NO. 

Instead, he used all his knowledge and his faith and trust in God to do even more for King Darius.  

First, Daniel had a good relationship with God. We must trust Christ as our Savior and grow to know Him more.

Secondly, He decided early on to have integrity in all he did. We must not do things half - hearted nor slip shoddy. 

Then and only then did he obtain a good name! 

If in everything we do, we must seek to please Jesus first, all the rest will come. We will be blessed. 

Have a stressed less day serving Jesus!

My Time in His Presence

"Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight show me now Your way...,"

 This is what the great leader Moses prayed in Exodus 33:13, after God had said He would destroy the people of Israel for their disobedience of worshiping the golden calf, and had spoken directly with Moses face to face in the tabernacle. 

Moses wanted to know God more! He saw God face to face and begged to find grace in His sight. 

God´s response,

"My presence shall go with you and I will give you rest." Exodus 33:14

If Moses, who had seen God, still wanted to know Him more, how much more should I desire to spend time with my Heavenly Father. 

I am His special creation, His workmanship as Ephesians 2:10 says. 

"Created in Christ Jesus unto good works... walk in them."

Walk in good works. 

For me this means, get organized, but don´t stress over your schedule. Write down a plan to spend time with God first.  Pray over that plan. Then do your best to see it completed. 

When I make a schedule, I know I will break it. I tend to stress over keeping the times strictly, then I become a slave to the schedule and I stress. This is not what God means by walking in good works. 

I believe that I can set a flexible schedule, but make spending time with my Lord and Savior a priority. 

I live in a three bedroom apartment with three teenage boys, my hubby of 16 years, and a one year old puppy named Toro! (Bull) It is so difficult to find alone time. 

When I was in college I would get up at 5:30 every morning to have my time with God. It was our special moment. I knew He would speak to me. He would wrap His loving arms around me through His Words in scripture. 

Through the years, I have grasped at the strings of having these moments again. They are only ever within my reach when I make God my first priority everyday. 

Psalm 37: 3-5 says:

" Trust in the Lord and do good"

 - then you will dwell (rest) and be fed (satisfied) 

"Delight yourself in the LORD"

 - Make Him your joy, your everything and He will give you the desires of your heart.

"Commit your way unto the LORD, trust also in Him and He will bring it to pass."  

My question is always, "How do I do this?"  How do I apply these verses to my life. This one seems so obvious and simple, but so often eludes me. 

All I need to do is read the Bible and set time apart to savor God´s every word to me.

Here is a song from my past. It always spoke to my heart, drawing me back to my quiet time with my Father. 



Resting in Him today,

 

Transformed and Resting!

Don´t fall to the same temptations as everyone else in this world. Don´t get rattled and stressed.

Let God change you from the inside, 

Renewing your mind, making it clean and pure for His use;

 So that you know what is good and beautiful in God´s eyes.

Here are some of the other verses that stood out to me in chapter four of Stressed Less Living.

Joel 2:12-13 says that we should then turn to the LORD with all our hearts with fasting and weeping. 

(good thing because I did a lot of weeping this past weekend)

 Psalm 118: 8 spoke to my heart, telling me that I can trust God, that He knows what He is doing through my husband.

Psalm 25:1-2 tells me to lift up my soul to God and trust in Him! 

He is great and awesome. He won´t let you be ashamed!

Rest in Him, 

artwork by
http://darrellcreswell.wordpress.com

After the Storm ... I will Trust

Joining MYHM

Choose to be Thankful

I have joined over 7,000 ladies all over the world for an incredible journey in Stressed-less Living, an online Bible study hosted by Melissa Taylor and Proverbs 31 Ministries. I have been following them for a few years now, but this is my first online Bible study. 

 You may ask,

"Why does a missionary need an to join a Bible study outside of her own church led studies?" 

Or maybe not, maybe you totally understand the "stressors" upon missionaries and their families, not to mention, three home-schooled teen boys. (well, one is still pre- teen, but too close for comfort)  This post

isn´t about my "stressors", though. It is about breaking the chain of stress and claiming victory.

I choose to be thankful! I choose not to dwell on the problems I can´t solve. I choose to praise even in the storms of this crazy life. I choose to say more thanks than complaints, more praise than pickiness, more gratefulness than grating.

It is a decision, just like any other discipline. I must discipline myself to think lovely thoughts, thankful thoughts, even if I don´t feel very lovely nor thankful. Often, I don´t even have time to think of our weekly theme verse, but I have been able to cry out to the Lord . Then He brings the verse to my memory or a song that goes with that verse.

Last week´s verse was,

"Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. O that men would praise the LORD for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men!" 

Psalm 107:19-21

I am experiencing the Word of God coming and speaking to my tired heart. His Word heals and strengthens. We just need to take that first step and cry out to the Lord. Then He can come and comfort you, and calm the storm in you . You can once again hear His still small voice whispering His Word into your heart and mind. 

I prayed for two friends this past week.  Then proceeded to worry that they wouldn´t come to know Jesus. I stopped and heard this verse in my mind,

"Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." Philippians 1:6  

Has it been a while since you have heard Him through His Word? Do you have "stressors" keeping you from resting in Him? When we choose to be thankful, our situation might not change but our perspective will!