Changed By Love

Changed By Love

Following the Lamb wherever he goes… Revelation 14:4

Five Steps to a Supernatural Life: Trust God

Step 3: Trust God absolutely.

Our nation’s coins proclaim “In God We Trust”. We got that motto from the Bible and the final stanza of our national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner. “And this be our motto ‘In God is our Trust.'”

As Christians, we also proclaim that we trust God. But how many of us really do? Especially American Christians.

Do we trust God or our jobs?

Do we trust money or our Provider?

Do we trust our bank account or our Father in Heaven?

Do we trust our intellect and reason or His will for our lives?

Okay, let’s say we do trust God.

If we do trust God, how much do we trust Him?

Do we trust Him when everything seems to fall apart or it looks like it’s about to?

From my observation, the answer is “No” for most people, even most Christians.

But our Father wants us to trust Him in the same way we, as earthly parents, want our children to trust us.

Faith and trust are synonymous. The definition of “Faith” from Merriam-Webster.com:  (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof   (2) : complete trust

God gives us examples of the kind of faith He’s looking for in His Word.

David Wilkerson said in his devotional from June 3, 2011:

“Being not weak in faith, (Abraham) considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb” (Romans 4:19).

The essence of true faith is found in this single verse. God had just promised Abraham he would have a son, one who would become the seed of many nations. Remarkably, Abraham didn’t flinch at this promise, even though he was well past the age of siring children. Instead, when Abraham received this word from the Lord, we’re told he “considered not his own body now dead (nor)…the deadness of Sarah’s womb.”

To the natural mind, it was impossible for this promise to be fulfilled. But Abraham didn’t dwell on any such impossibility. According to Paul, the patriarch gave no thought to how God would keep his promise. He didn’t reason with God, “But, Lord, I have no seed to plant. And Sarah has no life in her womb to conceive. My wife is past the ability to bear children. So, how will you do it, Lord?” Instead of entertaining such questions, Abraham simply “considered not.”

The fact is, when God is at work producing a faith that is tried and better than gold, he first puts a sentence of death on all human resources. He closes the door to all human reasoning, bypassing every means of a rational deliverance.

The faith that pleases God is born in a place of deadness. I’m speaking here of the deadness of all human possibilities. It is a place where man-made plans flourish at first and then die. It is a place where human hopes bring temporary relief but soon crash, adding to a sense of helplessness.
Have you been at this place of deadness? Has it seemed you have no options left? You can’t call someone to advise you. The heavens are like brass when you pray, your requests falling to the ground.

I declare to you, this is God at work. His Spirit is working to get you to stop considering the impossibilities—to stop looking to human ways and means—to stop trying to think your way out of your situation. The Holy Ghost is urging you, “Quit hunting for help from some man. And quit focusing on how hopeless you think your situation is. Those are hindrances to your faith.”

The Lord worked through many circumstances and trials over a period of 10 years or so in my life to establish my trust in Him.

I had to learn to take my eyes off of the circumstances and only look at His word. No matter what was happening or what was being threatened, I had to rely on God to take care of us. No matter how devastating a situation seemed, I had to keep believing that God was working everything out for our best. When we lost our house after believing God to keep it for us, I could have gotten angry at God (or at my husband), but I chose to keep believing that it was part of God’s plan, and that He was going to use it for His purposes, and that it would end up being for our good. And it did!

God taught us so many things. He changed us through the situations that we went through. He gave us a whole new perspective and foundation for our beliefs and values.

We now know what it’s like to be homeless, hopeless, helpless, uncertain about what tomorrow will bring, cast out and rejected, unable to take care of ourselves, unable to make decisions because we didn’t have anything to do anything with. We experienced God’s care and provision in supernatural ways. When we were in a strange place where we knew not a soul, the Lord provided money and food and lodging for us. When there was no way we could survive, He provided abundance for us.

Our help came from the Lord! He preserved us and sustained us when nobody else could or would.

So believe me, I TRUST HIM! He never let us down. We clung to His Word.

Psalm 37:25 I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken or His seed begging for bread.

Psalm 121:2 My help comes from the Lord who made Heaven and Earth.

Psalm 27:10
When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.

Psalm 27:13 I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Psalm 18:19 He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me.

Many, many Psalms were my lifeline. And many verses from Isaiah. Such as:

Isaiah 54:11-13 O you afflicted one, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay your stones with colorful gems, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of rubies, your gates of crystal, and all your walls of precious stones. All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.

I didn’t understand what that meant, but it comforted me and let me know that God was doing something beautiful in my life and I just needed to wait on Him and trust Him and He would make all things new and good – better than ever.

Isaiah 30:20, 21 And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers. Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.

There were many others. Every time I opened my Bible during the heat of the battle, a verse would pop out and comfort, encourage and strengthen me to keep trusting Him.

He is still fashioning and forming us into what He wants us to be. But He has added so much more beauty to our lives. And He has cultivated in us an appreciation of who He is and how real He is and the greatness of His power and love.

So now, my personal motto is “Trust God – Absolutely!”

New Adventure in Art: Using Pastels

I remember not liking Art class when I was in elementary school. I never felt like I was very good at it. I never had ideas of what to draw or make or create. But I did like working with pastels. So I wanted my little artists to have a chance to try pastels, but I could never afford to get the supplies until now.

I derived lots of inspiration and information from the Pastel Tutorials on Hodgepodgemom’s site here and here.

We chose the Watermelon Slice project first. They wanted to do their own thing, but I asked them to follow the directions and make the picture we saw on the blog, then they could do some pictures of their own.

Fiona’s watermelon slices turned out really nice. She was very proud of her picture. Fiona is 7.

Garrett liked working with the pastels, too. Garrett is also 7.

He made two watermelon slices. He had a little crisis when he realized that he drew the black seeds on the second one too soon and was going to have black smeared all through the red. I was able to wipe off the black with a baby wipe, and he colored in the red, then put in the seeds. I didn’t know we would be able to do that until we tried it and it worked!

Kelsey (11) did a nice light piece of watermelon and then her trademark, Kirby.

Abby (2) had to have a turn with the pastels with my careful supervision. Her watermelon slices turned out nice!

And, of course, Emma (4) had to try her hand at it, too. I was surprised at how well she did!

Twin Storytellers: Garrett’s First Story and Fiona’s Sequel

In college, I was taught that workbooks, worksheets and coloring pages were not good teaching tools because they stifle creativity. I agree, to a point. But sometimes, workbook pages can lead to creative writing. I have seen this over and over again.

Garrett was working on a page of his workbook (I got First Grade Scholar workbooks for him and Fiona) that asked him to write an outline for a story. He was supposed to write the names of two animals, a large one and a small one. Then he was supposed to write about where they met. Then he had to think of a problem that needed to be solved.

He immediately started coming up with a whole story. I slowed him down enough to answer those first questions so that we could refer back to them. It’s a good thing I did, because we waited a couple of days to actually write the story, and I had forgotten his ideas. He hadn’t forgotten, though. This is his story:

Bear and Mouse A bear and a mouse met in the jungle. The bear was hungry. The mouse said, “I know where a river is that has big salmon jumping in it. The bear didn’t believe him and tried to eat the mouse. The bear was so hungry he couldn’t stand it. The mouse ran as fast as he could to get to the river. When they got to the river, they saw hundreds of salmon jumping high out of the water. The bear ran with glee into the river and snatched a salmon right out of the air. The mouse said, “See, I told you there was a river. Aren’t you glad you’re eating salmon instead of mouse?” He says to himself, “I sure am!”

Well, Fiona heard this story, and her wheels started turning, and she thought of a sequel to Garrett’s story. So she wrote an outline in her workbook, and we wrote her story a couple of days later. Here’s Fiona’s story:

Bear and Mouse 2 While Bear was eating salmon, Mouse got hungry and decided to go get some cheese. He went to a house where he knew there were some cheese crumbs. On the way, he met another mouse running out of the house, saying, “Look out for the cat!” He went to the house to check out the cat. He made a big BARK sound to scare the cat. The cat woke up, and its fur stuck up and it ran away. The Bear was worried and went to look for him. He found a tree with golden apples and decided to rest. The apples looked so delicious he sat right down and ate one. It was so tasty he decided to eat another one… and another one… until he had eaten TEN apples! It started raining. Bear looked for a place to get out of the rain. He saw little tails sticking out from a hole at the base of the tree. The tails belonged to Mouse’s family. The Baby Mouse who was held by his mama peeked out and saw the bear. The Baby Mouse said, “Hi, Mr. Bear”. The rest of the mice poked their heads out. They felt bad for him and asked him to come inside. He said yes. They asked him if he wanted to eat dinner. He said he was full, but then he said, “What is for dinner?” They said “Turkey and grilled cheese sandwiches- with salmon”. He couldn’t resist, so he said, “Maybe just one.” They sat down to eat. Just then Mouse ran in carrying an umbrella and said, “Am I late for dinner, Mama?” Bear said, “Mouse, I was looking for you. Where have you been?” Mouse said, “I was looking for some cheese.” Just then the cat showed up and tried to pounce the Mouse. Bear stood up and growled. The cat yowled and whirled around and ran into a tree, and an apple fell on its head. The cat ran out of the forest and was never seen again. Mouse thanked Bear, and the whole family gave him a big BEAR HUG.

They narrated the stories to me, and I wrote for them on writing paper. Garrett has illustrated the first page. I want to have him illustrate some more of his story. Fiona loves to draw. I’m surprised she hasn’t already been drawing tons of pictures for her story. That sounds like a good project for today!

UPDATE: I did get them to draw some pictures to go with their stories today. They wanted to use pastels, so I told them they could after they drew some illustrations for their stories. I rewarded their artwork with more artwork. It worked!

Grace and Peace to You from God Our Father

David Wilkerson Today
June 2, 2011

Be careful [anxious] for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Philippians 4:6).

I believe that prayer mixed with faith is the answer to everything. Paul says here, “in everything” – meaning, “Pray about everything. And give thanks that your requests will be heard and answered.” We are told to pray as our first option, not after we have tried everything else in vain. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33, my italics).

So many Christians today are being plundered by Satan. Their homes are in turmoil, they are plagued with fear and guilt, they face trouble on all sides. The problems our ministry reads about in letters from Christians are overwhelming.

But to be truthful, so few believers who are facing difficulties turn to the Lord in fervent prayer. Few today have consistent, daily, quality time alone with God in prayer. Too often, despair sets in because they do not go to the secret place, to unburden their souls and cry out their sorrows to the Lord. Instead, they tell all of their problems to friends, pastors, counselors – and they neglect the Lord, who waits to have them all alone. We pray as a last resort.

Could God be grieved with this generation the same way he was with Israel? He said of them, “My people have forgotten me days without number” (Jeremiah 2:32).

God is pleased when we run to him first, when we make special time to be alone with him, pouring out our innermost feelings and laying our petitions before him. We have no right to say we love the Lord if we don’t spend time with him on a regular basis. He will hear your prayers and answer. But he needs you alone so he can speak to you in a quiet moment.

As I go into the Lord’s holy presence each day, my most consistent petition is that the Holy Spirit will open God’s Word to me so I can be a true oracle of him. I trust him that my messages to the body of Christ will edify, convict and provoke believers to righteousness.

May you make quality time for him, trusting him with your petitions.

Read this devotion online: http://www.worldchallenge.org/en/node/13518