I just wanted to take a moment and say Happy Thanksgiving!!! I wanted to take a special moment to say than you to everyone who supports me and prays for me! I am so thankful to God for you. I am thankful for your prayers. I know there have been times that your prayers have protected me and encouraged me. I also am very thankful for your financial support. I do not take it for granted. Every meal I eat, I thank God for you! You have allowed me to be part of something so amazing! Your prayers and support keep me going through the hard times and humble me through the good times. I love being a missionary and it has been amazing to see all that God has done so far! Thank you for your friendship, your love, and for believing in me. It means so much! I am beyond words to express my gratitude, but just know that today and everyday I am thankful for you!!
Happy Thanksgiving! Feliz Dia de Accion de Gracias!!!
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
Measuring Up.
I read this blog from David Wilkerson and I can honestly say he wrote it just for me. haha. Ok maybe not, but I had to share it because its amazing and I hope it blesses you as it did me. Language school is going great, I will have my newsletter coming soon so please sign up to receive my mailing list by clicking the tab at the top! God is doing great things in Costa Rica and teaching me way more than just the language. I am so thankful to be here and I am thankful to each of you that continue to support me! As you read this blog think of how easy it can be to always strive to measure up. After I read it, I realized that I do this a lot. Learning a language has been difficult, especially when I expect so much from myself. There is always someone with better pronunciation and a bigger vocab. I just don't seem to measure up! Also I can't even tell you how many times I have looked back to the past instead of what is right in front of me. As excited as I am about Ecuador I keep looking back to home, back to great services, and back to God moments that seem so far away. You know that feeling of wishing it was like the good ol' days? haha. Well sometimes looking back is ok. It's great to see where God has brought you from and to just be reminded of His Grace and blessings. But at the same time I know the best is yet to come!!! I am believing for the best. I am believing that He will see me through and from now on I am going to do my best to stop trying to measure up so much! Anyways... enough from me. Let's hear your thoughts! Enjoy.
GIVE UP ON MEASURING UP
“The people feared the presence of the Lord . . . and they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God” (Haggai 1:12, 14). The Israelites were convicted of their self-interests and returned to working on rebuilding the temple. They were back where they should be—building the house of God!
They stood before the foundation of the temple and the walls were beginning to go up. But something was wrong and many of the older people began to weep! Why? Because they had seen the splendor of Solomon’s temple sixty-eight years before and this new one did not measure up. In comparison, it seemed as nothing!
The people began to talk of past glory, saying, “This temple has no ark in it, no mercy seat or cherubim. There is no consuming fire on the altar, no shekinah glory coming down on the house. After all our hard work, all our sacrifice and obedience, all our putting God’s interests first, we don’t measure up! This is nothing compared to what we once saw. Why struggle, why go on, when we see so little for all that we’ve done?”
A host of God’s people today are giving up because they do not think they will ever measure up! Like the Israelites, they have gone back to God, back to putting Him first, seeking His will, building His house. But when they look at their lives, they say, “I have so little to show for all my struggles! I have so little of God’s holiness, so little of His glory in my life. Compared to other Christians, I’ll never measure up. What’s the use of struggling? I’ll never have victory.”
I am convinced this is why many devoted Christians give up the fight. They compare themselves to other believers and become discouraged because they feel hopelessly inferior!
If you will just stay true to the Lord and not try to measure yourself by anything except your own love for Jesus, you can be assured that you are growing—and God promises to be with you!
Beloved, you can mark this down, because it is God’s promise to you! From the very hour you focus again on building up Christ’s body—setting aside all thoughts of measuring up and all selfish ways, letting Him become your all—you will begin to see His manifold blessing. You can literally mark it down! You will know He is favoring you, smiling on you, rejoicing in you!
They stood before the foundation of the temple and the walls were beginning to go up. But something was wrong and many of the older people began to weep! Why? Because they had seen the splendor of Solomon’s temple sixty-eight years before and this new one did not measure up. In comparison, it seemed as nothing!
The people began to talk of past glory, saying, “This temple has no ark in it, no mercy seat or cherubim. There is no consuming fire on the altar, no shekinah glory coming down on the house. After all our hard work, all our sacrifice and obedience, all our putting God’s interests first, we don’t measure up! This is nothing compared to what we once saw. Why struggle, why go on, when we see so little for all that we’ve done?”
A host of God’s people today are giving up because they do not think they will ever measure up! Like the Israelites, they have gone back to God, back to putting Him first, seeking His will, building His house. But when they look at their lives, they say, “I have so little to show for all my struggles! I have so little of God’s holiness, so little of His glory in my life. Compared to other Christians, I’ll never measure up. What’s the use of struggling? I’ll never have victory.”
I am convinced this is why many devoted Christians give up the fight. They compare themselves to other believers and become discouraged because they feel hopelessly inferior!
If you will just stay true to the Lord and not try to measure yourself by anything except your own love for Jesus, you can be assured that you are growing—and God promises to be with you!
Beloved, you can mark this down, because it is God’s promise to you! From the very hour you focus again on building up Christ’s body—setting aside all thoughts of measuring up and all selfish ways, letting Him become your all—you will begin to see His manifold blessing. You can literally mark it down! You will know He is favoring you, smiling on you, rejoicing in you!
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