Jeremiah 1:5
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.

Psalms 139:14-16
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in that secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained (determined, ordered, anointed) for me where written in your book before one of them came to be.

Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared (to make ready) in advance (beforehand) for us to do.

This is my thought.
God ‘spoke’ creation into existence (Gen. 1:3,6,9,14,20,24,26). So God must have spoken words over you and I before we were even born. Beautiful words of how much He loves you and I. And spoke about the things He wants to accomplish through us. However the enemy does everything in his power to fill our minds with many different things that creates confusion and stress. We get lost (sort of speak) and forget who we are. The enemy knows that if we truly knew what we are capable of doing (with God’s help) there would be no stopping how much we can impact our world.

It’s a battle, I know, to hold tight to these verses along with others. We need to guard our minds (Philippians 4:7).

We need to remember God can do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20).

At times when I pray the Lord’s prayer found in Matthew 6:9-13, I pray verse 10 this way: Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth (as you said it) in heaven. In other words I am praying those words that God spoke over me – would be, the words God spoke over my husband- would be, the words God spoke over my children – would be. Bottom line- THE WORDS GOD SPOKE OVER EVERY PERSON THAT NOW WALKS ON THIS EARTH – WOULD BE.

I know beyond a shadow of doubt God has spoken awesome things over our lives, even before the day we were born. I pray that you would seek God and doing so you will remember those words.

Be blessed my friends.

I have picked up running this past summer, something I thought I could never do. And though I am only little over 4 months into my training I am gaining strength. I have a new appreciation and understanding for the words; endurance and perseverance. When I set out to run away from the address that I call home – I have to resolve (decide to do) to keep on foot in front of the other, persisting onward, to get myself back.

I don’t usually run with music, I can clear my head during this time without any interruptions. Someone once laughingly said to me; I wish I knew what went on in your head sometimes. I have a lot of deep thoughts and running gives me the liberty to allow those thoughts to flow and even have dialog with my Lord. I think this is why I enjoy it so much.

At first my training involved just moving, learning to breathe and get my body used to this thing called ‘running.’ I had to do a little at a time by doing intervals between running and walking. Now I am building endurance – to have the strength to run farther than 3 miles, preferably without stopping however I do still do intervals; it’s just longer periods of running and shorter periods of walking.

During one of those times I was putting in miles God showed me something. Ever since I have started running I tend to stress over how long it takes me. Whether it is one mile or five miles I keep track of my time. Some days I have really good times, and then other days I am disappointed on how long it takes me. Then I sensed God telling me that I cannot compare myself to others, not even myself. That some runs will be good, but, there will also be some runs that are not what I would expect. However, no matter the outcome I need to keep what I am trying to achieve in proper perspective. This can be applied to my walk of faith as well. I may experience a victory one day but the next feel as if I have been defeated. I cannot base how close God is to me by withered or not I have good or bad days. I need to have a proper perspective of who I am in Christ Jesus- His workmanship.

Also I have noticed that when I grow tired on my longer runs I tend to lose my posture. My feet get sloppy and even begin to drag on the pavement. I am not purposely picking them up; I am just kind of going through the motion without thought. To be honest, I have almost tripped myself during these times. I have to remind myself to stand up straight not lean forward, keep my arms to my side and deliberately pick my feet up so I don’t trip. Again this can be applied to my walk of faith. When I grow tired I tend to go through the motions of a Christian. I become relaxed in my time for scripture reading. I forget my posture of prayer, and I fail to put on the full armor of God. My faith walk gets sloppy and next thing I know I am being ‘tripped’ by the enemy falling into his schemes. I am not able to recognize that my struggles are not against people, but it is a battle in the spiritual realm (Eph. 6:12). That’s when I have to remind myself to get purposeful again. I cannot get sloppy with quiet time with God or my prayer time. Just as much as gravity wants to pull me down keeping me from running, the enemy wants to pull me down from walking out in my destiny that God has pre-designed for me to do.

So needless to say the past few months of training for 5k runs (one day I will run a full marathon) I am not only learning about physical discipline, I am learning about spiritual discipline.

I believe that a heavenly glow of God’s glory shines down on a person when he/she has the true heart of worship. Worship isn’t just on Sunday morning at church. It can be as you drive in your car, when you run or exercise, when you in your office, when you are in your prayer time. It is any time that you are glorifying the Lord God. Even our lives are a form of worship, by how we handle each gift of ‘today’ that the Lord gives us.

When I worship, I have to throw off all hindrances that would make me feel self conscience. I quiet my thoughts and listen to the words of a song and just let it soak into my mind, my heart, and my spirit. When I have truly thrown off all my hindrances; guilt, shame, my sin, and the world around me I find myself kneeling at the cross. And I stay there for a while, and allow Jesus Christ to cleanse me.

As the music rings in my spirit I imagine that I am walking into courts of Gods throne, only because Jesus is before me am I able to be at this place. And God’s glory fills the room – it is like a royal robe that is continuing to unfold in the heavenly realm. I am very small in HIS presence but I know with out a doubt that HE loves me.

At times I feel that I am dancing (twirling in circles and skipping) in a field of flowers, but I am a small girl with my long dark hair. The sun feels warm to my face as I look up toward the sky and worship my Lord. Again it’s just me in this place, by myself, and I feel so much contentment. The feeling I have is dreamlike and I don’t want to leave it. This is my special spot where I find my peace.

When I run, I will run with worship in my heart. When I do this I can almost feel Heaven come down and kiss my face as I sing to glorify my God. I imagine that the angles around me can sense my worship and they are singing along side of me and together our worship is like a perfume that rises up to my Father in heaven.

Then there are the times that the drums beat hard like a warriors battle call. I imagine that every Christian shout out ‘Glory to God’ as they carry out those things that God has created them for. (Eph. 2:10) I see as we are marching forward we are taking our God give authority (only because of Jesus) over the enemy and chains are being broken off of people that the enemy has in his darkness. Then light shines in, brighter than one can imagine. We then shout again; “Victory belongs to Him who sits on the right side of our Father in heaven, forever and ever, amen!”

Then still there are times when my heart is heavy and I am kneeling at the cross, tears stream down my face. It is cleansing for me. I will then sense the gentleness of His hand on me. No words are spoken just His of peace covers me.

This is what worship is for me. What is worship like for you?

Imagine with me…
A young girl with long dark hair still in her pajamas bubbling with so much excitement that she is about to burst. Her face is lit up brightly like the sun coming up over the morning horizon. She had lain in bed awake for what seemed like hours, waiting for the appropriate time to rise.

It is just another day, so why is she so excited?

All through the day joy is radiating off her. Those around cannot help but feel the excited with her. They endearingly laugh as they watch this girl go about her daily routine waiting with the expectation that ‘it’s’ coming!

What is coming?

Wonderful Gifts from heaven! Dreams that come true!

This is how I have been feeling; it just amazes me that God is restoring so many things in my life. The enemy had stolen my youth but I feel like a small girl again! Except this time I have feelings of joy, anticipation that I can achieve many things (with God). When I was young I didn’t have that joy for life. I never allowed myself to get excited because I didn’t want to be disappointed.

I can remember one year for my birthday receiving a bike, a girl’s bike! It was pink and white; it had the prettiest banana seat (dating myself, huh) with flowers on it. Up to that point I would ride my brothers’ bike or the neighbor girl’s bike. My parents had parked the bike down by the creek that ran alongside the front of our property. To get me to go down there they had told me that I had left something down there and I needed to make sure to put it away.

As I ran down the hillside I saw the bike however it never crossed my mind that the bike might be mine. I had thought maybe the neighbor girl had gotten a new bike and wanted to show it off. I ran back to the house empty handed and asked my dad; what did I leave down there? They had to explain to me that the bike was mine, that they had gotten it for me for my birthday.

I cannot imagine the disappointment my parents must have felt when they didn’t see me get excited. As a parent myself, I love to see excitement in my children when I give them something that I know they have been wanting.

I believe that we bring joy to God when we get excited about life. God said He knows the good plans He has for us. That He is giving each of us a future and a hope. (Jer. 29:11)
We should all walk out each day with the joyful expectation that good, not just good, but awesome things are ahead! Let’s get excited about life, we have a loving father in heaven that wants to bless us.

Psalm 37:4 – Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

I was the most unstable person when it came to my emotions. One would never know what kind of mood I would be in from hour to hour. A lot of it came from the self-talk that I had with myself. Endless negative words played over and over in my head to the point that I believed that was what others thought of me. Then, if anything negative happened in my life (car breaking down, clothes drier dying, unfair treatment at work/home) I felt as if I was being punished for being such a ‘bad’ person. Praise God I have been delivered from the lies and the endless torment. Now, I am not saying that I never experience unstable emotions and react ugly. However I can say it doesn’t happen that often.

Now, when a defeating thought comes sliding in my subconscious, like a ball player trying to steal third base, I ask myself. Is that thought leading me to the cross? Does it make me feel accepted by my father in heaven? Or, does it lead me away from the cross; not worthy of His infinite love, mercy, and favor. This thing that is happening ‘car breaking down’ is it because I have lost favor in God’s eyes? I stand firm in my thoughts and say NO! I am still accepted, loved and have favor in my Father’s eyes.

Last week I had made plans to run with a friend. I was driving home from work to change and was going to meet her at the park. All the sudden I heard a noise come from, where I thought the bottom of the car. At first I thought it was the muffler but the car wasn’t any louder than before. I wasn’t sure what had just happened however as I was cresting the overpass I realized that I had lost power. I pressed on the gas but nothing was happening. My thoughts raced and this was my self-talk;
‘Ah, of course this is going to happen to me tonight, it is a nice evening for a run. I just finished my first 5k and I want to keep moving ahead on my endurance for the next race and this is what I get. How am I going to get from A to B with my car down? Great I have to call Bob and tell him I am broke down.’
I could honestly say I felt myself get all cranky, but I told myself NO I am not going to believe that God is against me, the car is old, the engine light has been on for a while now, and things just happen. In fact if we would have yielded to the ‘engine light’ we might not be in this situation now. I regained my ‘stability’ before calling my husband. I was able to tell him what had happened without anxiety in my voice, I just gave him the facts and he said he would be on his way to help me. Things would have turned out so differently if I yelled at him all the negative thoughts that I had going on in my head. He would have been on the defense and we would have been throwing ugly words at each other.

I would like to say that the car is now fixed and I have my own set of wheels but I cannot. In fact, my mornings are cut short. I usually have a few hours to journal, work on a bible study, read scripture, or pray, and just spend some time with God. Now in the mornings I have to rush around so that I can leave with my husband-ride with him to his work- then drive myself to mine (getting there ½ early). Each morning can feel my emotions start to get a little ‘shaky’ and trust me I have to fight off the negative thoughts.

How do I do this you ask? Well, I think of how thankful I am that it is me broke down and not my daughter Ashley who lives/works in the Detroit area. Side note; we sold our 2008 car to Ashley so that she could have reliable, safe, transportation and I now drive her old car. I also think how blessed I am that I can pray with my husband in person, rather than us praying on the phone. We are able to talk about our day instead of us grumbling a few words to each other as we push to do our chores once we are home – make dinner, mow the lawn etc. My husband even thinks that God is training me so that I can budget my time better in the morning so that I am not rushing off to work because I didn’t want to stop my ‘quiet’ time.

Either way, to keep my emotional stability I need to remind myself that God is not against me. Period! I am holding tight to this scripture…

Romans 8:31 NIV
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Better yet I like what the message says;
So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way!