Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Refreshed

I am chugging along and just walking step by step trying to lean on the Lord and see what He is teaching me.  I was so refreshed this evening reading a new blog I found...Like a Warm Cup of Coffee has inspired me and just helped me to refocus.  I feel relaxed in the Lord tonight and am so thankful.

Hope you all are having a great night.  I will try and post more later as I can.  Pondering what all I am to share here and how the Lord would use my words.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Lately

I have not been able to think of what to write on here lately.  I am hoping to find a heart thing to share soon as the Lord leads (and as I continued writing this post the Lord just laid the below on my heart, so nevermind this comment!).  In the meantime I have been posting almost daily some food struggles on the Thin Within forums.

One thing the Lord has been teaching me lately, oh so much, is to keep my eyes and thoughts fixed on Him.  There really isn't more to it than that, once I do that then everything else falls into place, right?!  I analyze and question so much, that I even question what if's about doing that!  Jesus is everything.  I need that to be the simple reality of what I remember moment by moment every day.

When chaos surrounds me...my three children need me, have needs to be met and hearts to be tended to, a husband who needs a supporter and encourager and a house that most definitely needs my attention, to have my focus on all of those things without my first thoughts and focus being on Jesus, well then I have just put that pile of burdens right on my shoulders.

Matthew 6:33 (NLT) says this, "Seek the Kingdom of God[a] above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need."

That seems to sum it up for me.  The more I try to think past this and try and work on other things, I am going around and away from where God wants me and its going to burden me and make me miserable.  First things first, and that should be daily moment by moment, never to be stopped.  I get that feeling sometimes like I need to just "figure this out" or "figure that out" and then I can move on and "I got it!"

Well I am not supposed to figure anything out in this life and just do it on my own.  That may be my natural thinking, but the Lord says otherwise.

Hebrews 12:1-2 says this:
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne." (NLT)

So to keep moving on through my day, I need my eyes fixed on Jesus.  Period.

(*Picture taken from google images search:))


Lord it seems so hard to be still, sit at your feet all day, let my thoughts and words and actions and my schedule be led by You alone...please help me to do this and become more habitual daily in doing this.  Help everyone reading this as well to just hear your still small voice calling them closer to You.  I pray in Jesus Name, Amen

Do you relate to anything I shared?  When do you have trouble keeping your eyes on Jesus?









Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Follow me

The Lord says follow me.  How quickly I see that I am not even following Him but am following wherever I want to go.  Yesterday as I was walking out to my van to take my 2-year-old daughter to a doctors appointment for a cold she has, she started walking on the side of the van that her seat is not on.  She seems to try this often and sees that I get a little frazzled (not sure why, so silly) when she goes the wrong way.  She walks towards the street in our short driveway instead of front of the van where our garage door is and then around to her side of the van.  I said to her yesterday, you need to walk where mommy tells you to walk and not just whatever way you feel like walking!  Then immediately...the Lord super nudged me and said the same thing to me!

I was humbled.  I was stopped in my tracks in my thoughts.  I had nothing to say and had a revelation.  I do.  I go whatever way I want when I don't "feel" like going the way He is leading me.  As I look at this from my own perspective as a mother, I don't want my daughter going the other way because mostly she is going towards the street and we live close to the street and there is traffic that goes by often and I want her safe.  So its not that I am doing it to be mean.  I think of this as the Lord is, my Father, and He wants to protect me and keeps me safe.  His perspective and vision sees EVERYTHING.  My befores, durings and afters before they ever happen.  So he has the "in" as to what I need to be prepared for and which way I need to go.

I think about this and then start analyzing and questioning, well there is something more I still feel I have to figure out.  What in the world could it be, I have no idea.  I have to just come to the conclusion that the enemy will do whatever he can, even if it is just a doubt with no reasoning behind it, to stop me from following completely after Jesus every day of my life. 

If I choose to listen to that doubt and focus on it, I am not being obedient and following the lead of my Father who knows what is best.  So today, as hard as it may be to get into a new habit, I want to follow Jesus my leader all day long, every moment, choose Him. 



Lord please help me to do this.  It seems I have the thought, oh Kim you will never be able to do that.  You will have too much trouble hearing which way the Lord is going to lead you so you may as well not even try.  Just do your best and enjoy what you can each day and don't try too hard to hear the Lord, He is too far away, too distant, too hard to find and understand. Just do what you want.  Please help me every single time this lie comes up Lord to dismiss it and picture it being burned on the cross and gone forever, until it never comes back again.  Use my words and experiences to please encourage another person and help them to look to You and follow Your lead for their life, because there is no other way, and no other way to have peace or stability.  Thank you.  In Jesus Name, Amen

Are you struggling to find Jesus today?  In each moment, just look up and tell Him you want to follow Him. 

Psalm 81:13 “If my people would only listen to me, if Israel would only follow my ways,"

Psalm 119:33  "He Teach me, LORD, the way of your decrees, that I may follow it to the end."

Matthew 8:22 "But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

Matthew 16:24 "Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."

Matthew 10:38  "Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me."

Seek First the Kingdom of God...
Kim :)



Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Returning To My First Love

After realizing how far in 2010 I did stray from the Lord, my first love, and did not even realize it, I am on a journey now to return to my first love and put Him back in first place in every area of my life.  I am soon to be starting a new study through the first workbook of Thin Within by Judy Halliday, and I am very excited in what God will do in this time :)

I've been sick the past week and a half after my children were sick and one still recovering so we have been just doing a lot of recovering and relaxation.

If God leads I will be posting my journey through the next Bible study I do in Thin Within.  I want to really live it, to not just treat it like a book, but keep my eyes on the Lord and not the book and see how He works in me.  The song that comes to mind is that one that talks about I don't wanna go through the motions, I don't wanna go one more day without your all consuming, passion inside of me...


Thats the thought I am looking at today and seeking that passion...more later!


Sunday, January 16, 2011

My cup runneth over!

I read something on a  blogfriend's blog a few days ago and it has really stuck to me.  Something I knew but something I had stopped remembering, like when I read it I had an "a-ha" moment.  


She said and I will quote it: 
"I see a picture of a cup... me holding a cup... and coming to Him to fill it.
It's not a bucket.
Not a vat.
Just a cup...enough for this day... and He loves for me to come and be and loved and be filled.
It's His joy to fill me, and He loves the time we spend together.
And I am all the more because of it."


I also had this come to my mind:


You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Psalm 23:5


This is all I need.  I don't need to expect more of anything past today.  Because when I rest in His perfect provision each day, each moment, He overfills my cup and gives me more than enough of what I will ever need.  This brings me peace and comfort today.  



Galatians 4:6 (NLT) "And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, "Abba, Father." 

I love Him and I just want to call out, "Abba, Father" each moment of every day so that He is my constant and that I am constantly abiding in Him letting Him fill me up overflowing.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

New Start!

So I feel I am entering a new season, a new start, in a lot of areas in my life.  My one word resolution in 2011 would be "REFRESH."  I want to be refreshed most importantly in my relationship with the Lord, and also in every area of my life.  It seems 2010 was a year of a lot of striving and trying to control on my part, and not letting the Lord.  So its time for a new start.

I am returning to a wonderful Grace based program that helped me release weight and grow so close to the Lord and break free from many areas of my life that kept me stuck.  I am going back there and going to spend this year working on things the Lord wants to do on the inside of me.  I am letting go slowly of fears of "letting go", fears of the "unknown" and just going to believe and trust Him.  I tell you that me trying to control and strive to do the things "I" felt the Lord wanted me to do on my own, makes out for one miserable heavy burdened heart and life.

So I will be saying Lord, take my burdens, because He says...

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."  Matthew 11:28

I am excited for this new start.

The song that I think of...a line in it says, "it feels like I'm falling and thats what its like to believe."  I will continue to remind myself that if I feel like I'm falling just know I am believing and HE has me in His hands!  :)  I am thankful that the Lord is helping me to listen to Him and stop trying to manage things on my own.