Tag: scripture

Life to the Full: Peace

Peace.  It can be so elusive.  So fleeting.  So longed for.  I’ve found it can only come for me when I’m connected with Jesus and spending time with Him.  Lately I’ve given in much more to the toxic draw of worry.  It is so much easier to worry, to hold on, to attempt control.  Letting it go in to the hands of my Lord is so hard.  There are a million things to be worried about, to control, refuse to let go.  Jed is a teacher and we live mostly on his income.  I work part time for Young Life and part time on this blog, but our main source is a teacher’s paycheck.  Our state legislature recently made changes to the graduation requirements for Texas students that effectively drop my husband’s subject (World Geography) from the curriculum.  It is a short sighted piece of legislation created to increase graduation rates by requiring less academic courses. It also puts him at major risk for losing his job, as well as hundreds of other social studies teachers.  Dropping an entire subject means teachers will be let go from social studies departments around the state and will be unlikely to find jobs in other departments because they have also dropped the subject.  We won’t know an answer until March or April and there is NOTHING we can do about it.  Except pray. And trust that God has us in His hands.  He brought Jed to his job in a very clear and real way, so we have to trust that if He wants him to stay there, there he will stay.  This is hard.  I want a plan, a solution, a way to fix it.  There is none.  No plan except dependence on my Savior who loves me, loves my family, and has a plan for us.  So we pray and we ask for peace.  Life to the full in Jesus means a life of peace, unburdened by worry.  This, my friends, is the life I want.  A life of peace.
Read the Life to the Full series here.
Read more of the Life to the Full series here.

Scripture and Prayer for the Week: John 15:4-5, 7, 10


“Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” (John 15:4-5,7,10)

One of my summer staff ladies from Trail West, Susannah, posted this verse on our group wall on Facebook.  It was a great reminder of what our mission in this life should be, to abide in Jesus.  He is the one who will cause us to bear fruit.  Without Him, we are dead branches produce nothing.  This weekend the Bear and I watched as Jed pruned the shrubs in front of our house.  The Bear loves watching his daddy do yard work, and Jed explained to him that the shrubs would grow much faster the more he prunes them.  It was such a picture of how our Father prunes us so that we can grow and bear fruit. 

Prayer for the week:
Father God, I long to abide with you and your Son.  Teach me what that means and how to go about it daily.  I hope to obey your commandments.  Help me to be faithful.  I strive to bear fruit for your glory.  Lord, make me fruitful. Prune and shape my life so that it can bear much fruit. Amen.   

How is God pruning and growing you right now?

Scripture and Prayer for the Week: Matthew 6:25-27

With this new phase in life I am forced to trust.  
Trust the Lord to provide for our family.
Trust that He has us right where He wants us.
Trust that we are doing what He has asked us to do. 
All this trust is just plain SCARY.
I’m a worrier.  
About everything.  
But I don’t want to be.
I want to live a life of dangerous dependence on my Savior.
My plan is to start every week with a scripture and prayer theme for the week.  I’d love for you to join me, if you’re interested.  I need accountability.  Don’t we all?  
This week I’m meditating on this verse, to remind myself that He has me in His hands and is capable, loving, and generous, and sees me as His precious daughter.
Scripture for the Week: 
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more important than food, and the body more important that clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”
~ Matthew 6:25-27
Prayer for the Week: 
Father God, Help me to trust you more every day.  Remind me of your extravagant, generous love for me and my family.  Give me clarity and confirmation that we are on the right path.  Let me lay my worries at your feet and not take them up again.  Thank you for being faithful and worthy of my trust.    
Do you ever struggle with trusting God? With what?

Verse of the Week – Luke 19:35-41

*image from Pinterest

They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it.  As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.  When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
”Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
“I tell you,” He replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”  As He approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it.
Luke 19: 35-41

Today is Palm Sunday, when Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  I’ve been doing a Lenten study for the past few weeks, and I have learned so much about the last weeks that Jesus walked on this earth.  Before this study, I don’t think I’d ever noticed verse 41.  Jesus rides in to the city on a donkey so that He could fulfill the prophecy from Zechariah 9:9.  The crowd is celebrating Him, acknowledging that He is the Messiah.  They wave palm branches, a national sign of freedom, and lay their cloaks under His feet.  The Pharisees try to shut up the crowd, worried that the Roman soldiers will come and regulate on the crowd.  All the while Jesus is riding on a young donkey, mourning on the inside for a city and a people that He loves.  He alone knows that He is riding to His death.  He alone knows that the cheers will quickly turn from praise to condemnation.  Imagine His thoughts as He rode through the cheering crowd.  The Son of God was so overcome with emotion that He shed tears for the lost.  Thank you, Jesus, for taking my sin so that I could live in freedom.

Join me this week in remembering His love for us.  
   How do you celebrate Easter week? 

Verse of the Week – Ephesians 5:1-2

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”   Ephesians 5:1-2

Instead of the million other things I try to do and to be, this is what I’m going for this week (and hopefully many more weeks).  Forget the rest.  I want to live as a dearly love child of God who tries her best to love like Jesus and live like her Father wants her to.  Simple, incredibly difficult, and humbling words are all wrapped in one little sentence, and the directive is so clear.  Help me Lord, to be more like you want me to be, to love people like you do, and to live as your child.

Verse of the Week – Colossians 4:2

“Devote yourselves to prayer,
being watchful and thankful.”
Colossians 4:2
What does it mean to devote myself to prayer? I picture cloistered monks praying the hours locked away on a mountain somewhere. Though I would love to have a weekend away on a mountain to pray, that is not the reality of my daily life. How do I devote myself to something that can sometimes feel empty and repetitive? I think it has to do with getting over myself and knowing that prayer is the way for me to speak to and with my creator God. He wants me to know Him better, and to do that I must spend time with Him. It shouldn’t be an after thought or an in case of emergency call. Prayer should be a part of the daily fabric of my life, just like eating, sleeping, and checking my email. I hope to make prayer so much a part of my life that I don’t have to remember to do it, I just do it.
Do you pray?
How do make it a part of your life?

Verse of the Week – 1 Chronicles 16:34


“Give thanks to God—he is good

and his love never quits.”

– 1 Chronicles 16:34 (The Message)

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because it serves to remind us of what we should be doing all year round – thanking God for our lives and all that is good in them. Every year I make a list of things I’m thankful for with my Young Life girls, and it is so fun to find those lists years later and be reminded of how the Lord has worked in my life. I’ve made my list for the year and will share it later on this week.
What are you thanking the Lord for this year?

Verse of the Week – Matthew 4:19-20

“Come, follow me, ” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed Him.
Matthew 4:19-20

I went back to work last Thursday after 2 months fo sabbatical. The time off was wonderful and much needed, and going back has been difficult. I have been playing catch over the last week, and I have this feeling I will never get there. This verse reminds me of my calling and keeps my mind on Jesus, instead of on my frustrations. I am called to follow Him, and He has made me a fisher of me, teenagers in particular. I trust Him, and follow Him into the sea of the middle and high schools, until He calls me elsewhere.

What has the Lord called you to?

Verse of the Week – Psalm 42:7-8

Deep calls to deep

in the roar of your waterfalls;

all your waves and breakers

have swept over me.

By day the LORD directs his love,

at night his song is with me—

a prayer to the God of my life.

Psalm 42:7-8

This verse has always spoken to me of the way God’s love covers me. He swept over me with His love, relentless like the waves, and for that I’m forever grateful. There is a song by Pat Green that reminds me of God’s pursuit of me.

Wave on Wave – Pat Green

Mile upon Mile I got no direction.
We’re all playing the same game
We’re all looking for redemption
Just afraid to say the name
So caught up now in pretending
What we’re seeking is the truth
I’m just look for a happy ending
All I’m looking for is you
It came upon me wave on wave
You’re the reason I’m still here
Am I the one you were sent to save?
It came upon me wave on wave
I wandered out into the water
I thought that I might drown
I don’t know what I was after
Just know that I was going down
That’s when she found me I’m not afraid anymore
She said, you know I always had ya baby
Just waiting for you to find what you were looking for
It came upon me wave on wave
You’re the reason I’m still here
Am I the one you were sent to save?
It came upon me wave on wave
Wave on wave
Wave on wave
The clouds broke and the angels cried
You ain’t gotta walk alone
That’s why he put me in your way
You came upon wave on wave
It came upon me wave on wave
You’re the reason I’m still here
Am I the one you were sent to save?
It came upon me wave on wave

verse of the week – ephesians 5:1-2

“be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love; just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God.”
-ephesians 5:1-2

how do we become imitators of God?

if my identity comes from being a child of God, a dearly loved child, how then should i live my life?

i am constantly trying to figure out a way to live like Jesus, and mostly failing at it. in the midst of my selfish existence, i hope i can find a way to live a life of love. i’m guessing it will be something i’ll be trying to figure out for the rest of my life. so much of our world is about hate, anger, greed, lust, and violence. i just want to be about love.