Jesus, Take the Wheel

I don't know if it's the rain today, but for some reason, I am in a very reflective mood since this is my second post today! A few weeks ago, one of my adorable doggies got a hold of my MP3 player and somehow managed to delete all of the music. Once I re-downloaded the songs, my playlist was quite jumbled from the original version! So, that being said, I've played a little game where I try to figure out what surprise is next... as far as songs go! This morning has been spent pondering over a particular situation in my life about a certain someone. I thought it was interesting when the song "Don't Look Back" by Boston was ringing out in my ears. But when it ended, I said to God, "let this next song speak to me" (yes, it's little things like this where I love to see Him working). Anyway, lo and behold... it was "Jesus, Take the Wheel!" by Carrie Underwood... was it irony? I think not. Thank you, Jesus, for taking my wheel... and guiding me on the path to You!

Clever Strategies.

Last night, this quote from my daily devotional, 'Come Away My Beloved', touched me so deeply that I feel compelled to write :
"Thou needest make no plans nor resort to any clever strategy. Keep yourself in the Love of God. Pray in the Spirit. Rejoice evermore. Set your affections upon Christ."

I love this. "Clever strategy..." It's so easy in the daily hummings of life to try and control my own destiny, and not allow the Holy Spirit to guide me. For most of my life, I've had a plan, and it has been MY plan, certainly no one else's and definitely not God's! Still, even though I've given my heart to God, I find myself trying to plan out my own destiny... but faith will prevail, I know this. My faith in Him will win out over my old selfish ways of wanting to keep the power over my life and live for things of the flesh. I just want to hand it all over to Jesus, and say "Lord, take these plans I have set for myself... I only want your will in my life. I long to serve you Jesus. You humble me. You are perfect in every way and likewise, your will." In fact, right now... I am saying these things to Him, my King of Kings! He is so worthy of our praise. I feel so unworthy of all of His blessings. I am amazed every day at the love He has for me. Unfortunately, that innate human attribute of wanting to control is still hard to fight off, no matter how hard I try. But for now, my clever strategy will be to serve Him, trust in Him, and give Him all of my praise. Let his light shine, I pray, through me.

Mornings...

Why is it that I always have such a tendency to put almost everything before my sweet, quiet time with Jesus? No matter how hard I try to place this much needed time first, something happens… the phone rings, my dogs bark at the back door begging to go outside, someone needs my help with something, and so on. You are probably getting my point, by now. I find myself trying to fit my quiet prayer time in while doing other activities like driving to my job, while out on my daily jog or just putting the dishes away from the dishwasher. But is this fair to Jesus? NO! He deserves all of my attention and praise with every ounce of energy I have, and I should be fully focused on Him during this time. He doesn’t just give us half of His attention… we get all of it… we are His children, and he blesses us in so many ways that it’s sometimes hard for me to wrap my brain around! My Father in Heaven deserves my complete and undivided attention. My true desire now is becoming an attentive daughter to Him… to love and fully devote my attention to Him and His will. He is so worthy of ALL of my praise… surely my morning isn’t complete without time given to Him alone, without distractions. Just me and Jesus.

But I cry to you for help, O Lord; in the morning my prayer comes before you. Psalm 88:13.

My Saturday

Yesterday, my heart and soul were immensely touched. With my Mom, sister and baby niece in tow, we joined several of the ladies from our church at a women's conference taught by Cindy Miller. She was wonderful, a true lady in every sense of the word. She's the type of woman that I aspire to be... has it all together, but claims not to... she touched our very core with her knowledge of Jesus and what he wants of us, which is simply to live our life for Him and His will, alone. We are not our own, we are God's daughters, and what a wonderful heavenly Father we claim, and He claims us! That is the most amazing thing of all... He loves us, no matter what, unconditionally... without any doubts. What an awesome feeling and such freedom... He has freed us! Glory to Jesus! More on this amazing day spent in fellowship with my fellow sisters to follow...

Well, here are the "Nuggets" that we were to ponder after our Ladies retreat with Sister Miller:

• Take responsibility for your actions.
• We are to be students of the Word. Take notes at church and go home and study them. Information without application is wasted.
  
• Be around people who are good for you.
• The PLAN is to serve Jesus because of who he is, not because of what he DOES. Don't serve God for the benefits, even though there are. God is not a vending machine.
• There is no victory in wishful thinking. There is a difference between optimism and faith.
• Romans 8:28 says all things work together for good, not, everything works together to make me feel good.
• The very thing that defeated you, could actually be your launching pad.
• Submit yourself to Jesus and you can live godly in an ungodly world.