One of a Kind...

We have all heard that we are each unique.. one of a kind.. but do we really believe that? Many of us feel we are normal.. boring.. nothing special. And even if we are convinced that we are different (which we might not see as a good thing) a lot of us don't want to be.. or at least we live as if we don't. We spend a great deal of time, effort and energy trying to be who the world says we should be.. the perfect woman found in the media.. or next door.. or at your gym (where you are working not so much to be healthy, but to make your body be what we are told is acceptable) or even at church.  We are seldom comfortable in our own skin and accepting of who we are.  But here's the thing... those gifts you have, that personality, those skills, quirks, passions etc. are from God and guess what.. the ones you don't have.. well you don't have them because He didn't give them to you. And not because He doesn't love you.. because you don't need them to fulfill the call.. the purpose.. He has for you life.

In our study of Renee Swope's A Confident Heart, she looks at what makes us who we are. The first thing she tackles are personality types.  She references a book called Personality Plus by Florence Littauer (I plan to read this one soon).  In it, Littauer focuses on 4 personality types. Swope summarizes them in her book. I read over them and knew which one I was. I liked some of the traits.. did not care for others. But I felt certain this was me.

Then an online Bible study friend posted a link to a personalty test based on these 4 types...  ( Personality Test ).. I took it.. spot on what I expected. I am Choleric.. I desire CONTROL.  Anyone who knows me more than 10 minutes knows that to be true.  I am not so much desirous of controlling other folks' lives, but I want to control mine and all that is happening around me that effects me. And for some reason God won't let me! (Aren't we all glad of that!?)

Swope also looks at our Spiritual Gifts and there is a link at her sight to take a  Spiritual Gifts Assessment.. I took it.. but I already knew my Spiritual Gifts from assessments I have taken before and from life.  I am a Teacher and Exhorter (Encourager).

One thing Swope did not cover, but it ties in is Gary Chapman's The Five Love Languages.  My husband and I studied that as a young couple with our LifeGroup and it was life changing.  I am full on Words of Affirmation... I need to hear that you love me.. appreciate  me etc. and any negative word.. even the slightest negative tone.. cuts me to the quick.

Now I am not sharing all this so you can know me.. I have a point. As I was pondering this today... I saw the most amazing links.

Choleric's are natural leaders and confident.  Those are 2 qualities that are greatly needed in teaching.  An Exhorter or Encourager uses words of affirmation to lift up others.  See where I am going here? When God planned me.. before beginning of time.. He said.. this one is going to teach others my Word.. and encourage them to know who they are in Christ and to take me at my Word (those are my 2 greatest passions... and they have been struggles for me in the past.. which is part of those Life Experiences Swope talks about that shape us for the tasks at hand.)  So he wired me to be a leader.. to need words of affirmation so that I would appreciate them and give them.  And even the less than great stuff that goes with my personality type plays into it.  One of the relational challenges for a Choleric is Arrogance (Pride!).  I struggle with that one and find that I must stay prayed up in that area. I believe God made me this way knowing it would keep me tied to Him.. keep me in His Word.

It is fascinating to examine ourselves.. to take these tests.. and then to see how God has woven it all together for a purpose.. a calling.  Ps. 139 talks of Him weaving us together in our mother's womb. I think that weaving included more than eye and hair color, height, etc.  I believe it included giftings, talents, personality traits).  There is not one thing about each one of us that is coincidental or accidental.  So the next time you wish you were more like "her", stop and thank God for making you exactly who HE wanted you to be to do what HE has called you to do.

My Psalm 136

Love Ps 136.. a great Ps to personalize.. and so I did..

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the King of Kings, His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of Lords, His love endures forever.

Give thanks to Jehovah Shalom.. the Prince of Peace, His love endures forever.

Give thanks to our Rock & Redeemer, His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the one who has a plan for me.. for you.. His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Sovereign Lord whose ways are higher, His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the One who forgave my sin.. your sin.. His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the One who freed me from a pit of fear, His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the One who provides all I need for life and godliness, His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the One who clothes me in His armor and covers me with His wings, His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the One who give strength and endurance, His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the One who knows me yet loves me anyway, His love endures forever.

Give thanks to Abba Father, the God of Heaven and Earth, His love endures forever.

Purpose...

The Lord will fullfill His purpose for me (Ps 138:8)

He has a purpose for me.

For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord (Jer 29:11)

For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do (Eph 2:10)

And He's not done with me yet!

Being confident of this -- He who began a good work in you (in me) will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil. 1:6)

Thank You, Lord, that You have a purpose-- a plan -- for me... for my life.  I.. my life.. is not by accident or inconsequential.  Before You created me, You prepared good work for me to do.  Show me.. reveal them to me.. in Your time and equip me, Lord, to do them. I am so thankful You are at work in me and not done yet!  I can rest in the assurance that You will finish what You started -- You will bring it to completion.  Thank You, Lord! Amen.

Enter...

Struck this morning by a simple truth.. Read Psalm 100 to begin my quiet time..

Verse 4 Enter His gates with Thanksgiving and His courts with Praise

Spirit brought to my mind Heb. 4:16.. let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence...

When we approach God.. come into His presence.. it must be with Thanksgiving and Praise if we are to be confident in the asking. We don't run in whining, asking, questioning or demanding.. we go in acknowledging WHO He is and What he has done... it is what humbles us .. which leads to surrendering our conceived control and trusting His Sovereignty.  True Thanksgiving and Praise requires a Humble heart... they are the heart of Worship.

Why Frightened? Why Doubtful?

"Why are you frightened? Jesus asked. 

Why are your hearts filled with doubt?" 

Luke 24:38 NLT

This is the memory verse for week 3 of the A Confident Heart (ACH) Bible study I am participating in online.  I honestly cannot say it is a verse I would think to memorize and yet, as I took it apart and did a bit of digging God showed me some great application.

The first thing that really hit me was the WHYs.. Jesus did not say Don't be frightened.. Don't have doubtful hearts.. He did not scold or condemn (Romans 8:1 NO Condemnation!).. instead He asked Why?  He wanted those doubting.. those frightened.. to stop and look at why they felt this way.. why they were reacting like this.  I believe He wants us to do the same. To not just accept our fear and doubts, but to stop and look at WHY we have them.  Only when we deal with the why can we get past the fear and doubt.

In fact, I believe it is ok for us to have fear and doubt.  The Message version of this verse says "Don't be upset and don't let all these doubting questions take over."  We can look throughout the Word and find times where someone doubted.  Just read the Psalms or Habakkuk... or what about the Dad in Mark 9 (I believe, Lord help my unbelief!.. Unbelief is a first cousin to doubt.)  Again, no condemnation, but a call here to not allow the doubt (and fear) to take over. 

So what does that look like? Doubt and Fear taking over? And how do we prevent or remedy it?

When we look at the key words in the verse, we get a bit of insight.  Frightened in the Greek is tarasso which means to stir, to agitate, to roll water. Sound familiar? Hop over to James 1 verses 6 through 8. 

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. 

James equates one who doubts to a wave being tossed about on the sea.. rolling water.. agitated.. stirred up. 

If we look at a modern day dictionary, we will see that Frighten means to make afraid, to drive or force, panic, scare, terrify.  Our fear drives us.. forces us to do or not do things. I spent 8 years captive to fear and panic. Trust me.. in that state you are agitated and stirred up much like that tossing sea.

The opposite of Frighten is reassure.. to restore confidence. And that is exactly what we want and need! 

The other key word is really a phrase... "hearts filled with doubt."  The King James Version says "thoughts arise in your hearts."  The Greek word for Thoughts (translated doubts in our version) is diaglogismos (see dialogue in there?).  It means discussion, internal consideration, debate, doubting, imagination, thought.  All of this happens where? In the Mind... the Battlefield of the Mind!  

The Greek word for heart is kardia and can be translated the heart, but also thoughts, feelings or Mind!   

Heart and Mind.. they go hand-in-hand!

Look at a few of the things the Word tells us concerning our hearts and minds...

Romans 12:2.. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind

Ps. 26:2 Examine your heart and mind

Prov. 4:23 Guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life

Isa 26:3 You want perfect peace? Keep your Mind steadfast on Him.

Matt. 22:37 Love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind

Eph. 4:23 be made new in the attitude of your minds

Col. 3:2 Set your mind on things above not on earthly things

Rev. 2:23 I AM He who searched the hearts and minds.

Ps. 86:11 Give me an Undivided heart (remember James 1:8 talks about being double-minded.. I would call that a divided mind)

And when you look at a modern day dictionary you find that doubt (as a noun) means an uncertainty of belief or opinion that often interferes with decision-making, hesitation, lack of confidence, inclination NOT to believe.  

Not to Believe!  Takes us back to Mark 9:24 when the doubting father says Lord, I Believe, help my unbelief!  

To Believe starts in your mind but doesn't end there. It is an ACTIVE verb.  Belief brings about action (this is why James says Faith without works is dead.)

So how does this all tie together and what do we do with it? The enemy gets in our head and whispers his lies.. and our flesh latches on and the battle begins.. a debate within our mind over whether or not to trust God..to Believe Him.. and that battle will lead to inaction.  The enemy cannot snatch us from the Lord's hand, but he can keep us ineffective and uninvolved... living a dead faith instead of an abundant life! Remember his goal is to Kill, Steal, and Destroy (John 10:10).  

To prevent this... or do battle once it starts.. we must.. MUST.. be in the Word AND get the Word in us!  There is no other way!  We renew our mind... get to KNOW the one we are called to believe so that we can say with Paul.. I know who I have believed and am convinced (confident!) that He is able to guard what I've entrusted to Him for that day. (2 Tim. 1:12)

A Confident Heart

Once again I am taking part in a Proverbs 31 Online Bible Study. I cannot recommend participating in these studies enough!  You are not required to blog.. really it is a flexible do as much or as little as you can / want type study.  To learn more and sign up go to Proverbs 31 Online Bible Study.

We are currently studying Renee Swope's A Confident Heart (another GREAT book!) In it, we are facing out fears and doubts... looking squarely at our past and then moving forward with confidence!  And we have only read 5 chapters!  I cannot wait to see what is ahead.

I'll be blogging this week (and hopefully others) as part of this study. Come back and see what God is showing me!

Say What????

I am participating in an Online Bible Study through Proverbs 31 Ministries...studying Lysa TerKeurst's book What Happens When Women Say Yes to God. (GREAT BOOK!)

One of the things we are looking at this week is Radical Obedience.  You know what I mean. It is fairly easy to obey when God calls you to do "normal" things.. Like that prompting to not sleep in, but to get up and go to church... that sudden need to call a friend and encourage her... even something like taking a meal to someone. Those aren't so outside the box.. they don't stretch your faith.. so they are, for the most part, easy to say Yes to. But then there are those other callings...the ones where you want to look at God and say "Surely you are NOT talking to me!?"  Or as we are saying this week in our study "Say What!? God!"

I have had plenty of "Say What" Moments in my life.  Some have been huge... like when God called my husband to leave his job... his secure paycheck every month with benefits job... and go... well that was the big catch.. God told him to resign, but didn't say what was coming next. And do you know the man obeyed!  And when I wanted to explain to him why this was not a good idea, the Lord sent another "Say What" moment.. He told me to Be Quiet... to Submit to my husband's authority and to trust Him.  Can you imagine!?

The amazing thing is I did just that.  Although I definitely unloaded my feelings to the Lord about it!  And here is the wild thing... God did have it under control.  Within 2 days my husband had been offered another job.. out of the blue. Now this would seem a fairy tale ending if I could say it is the perfect job with twice the pay. But again.. God had a "Say What" moment for us. He sent a job, but the pay was less. "Say WHAT!?" And on top to that the man, again, obeyed the Lord and took the job. Once again, God had me be quiet.

And while it has not been easy at times financially, it has been one of the best decisions ever made for our family.. our marriage.. and for my husband.

Other "Say What" moments are not so huge, but can still be a stretch.  Many years ago I was in the grocery store. I was an at-home mom with 2 small children. My husband was self-employed. And money was tighter than tight.  (That is a reoccurring theme in our lives) I was in the grocery store and I saw a woman.  Cannot say why she caught my attention, but it was obvious that she was distressed. She had maybe 2 things in her cart and looked lost as she wandered the aisles. Then I over heard her talking with another lady.  It was quickly evident that the young woman was destitute.  I thought how sad and moved on. Got to the check out with my own little bit of shopping and heard clearly the Lord say "Go back and give her $10" "Say What!" $10 might not seem much, but at that time we really didn't have it to spare.  Plus I thought it would be so awkward.. embarrassing even. Nope, I knew I had misheard. So I proceeded to swipe my debit card and check out. It didn't go through.. tried again.. nope.. all the while I kept hearing "$10".. so the third time I hit cash back and got $10.  Debit card worked like a charm.  Once I was finished paying and bagging groceries, I went back and found the woman. Walked up to her and said "God told me to give this to you" as I handed her the money. She fell to pieces sobbing and grabbed hold of me right in the middle of Kroger. And guess what.. I didn't care what folks thought. I hugged her back and spoke blessings over her.  Now I have no idea if she bought food or something else with that money. What I do know is I had obeyed and I could feel it!

I encourage you to follow through even in the "Say What" moments.. no matter how large or small. With Obedience comes blessing (Deut. 28).. and a faith that is strengthened and nurtured... and a deeper walk with the Lord.