Hide and Seek

It seems as though the most popular game when I was younger was always hide and seek.  It was always a favorite at birthday parties, but truth be told, it always kind of scared me.  I never liked the idea of hiding alone in some dark closet and waiting for someone's face to pop in and say, "Found you!" Oh well....I always played, and I liked the rare occasions when someone would be willing to hide with me.  As I remember, there was hardly ever a time while playing this game when someone would not be found.  Most people chose pretty obvious hiding spots, or at least ended up being found after a few minutes of searching.  
As I have grown older, there are several times where I find my myself playing this "hide and seek" game with my phone or keys being the opponent. Silly thing is, they are both much better than any person I have ever played with!  When you think about it, it is really simple. I normally notice my keys are gone at a time when I need them in order to go somewhere. I search and search (maybe have a panic attack also) until I eventually find them, and then I go wherever I was intending to go before I realized my keys were missing. You see, my keys are the the only way my car is going to get me where I need to go. Without them my car does me no good.  When I finally spot my keys during this manic process, I am not going to keep searching...that would make no sense. 
It's not a hard concept to think about.  Why would I not pick up the keys and go on with my plans? It's silly, but it is what we do all the time. 
We look, we search, we seek....for happiness, for satisfaction, for contentment, for comfort, for hope, for healing, for love, and for answers. Thing is, we find what we are looking for and pass it by.  He is there, waiting to be found, and more times than not we see Him and keep searching. Why?
He never leaves.  He never finds a new hiding place. In fact, He is never hiding in the first place. He waits patiently on us, hoping we will see that He is enough. When He is found, there is no reason to keep looking because He is all we need. 
Are you searching for something that will never be found? He promises to be found when you look. You can always find him right where you are at, no matter what it consists of. 
P.S. A good place to start looking for Him is on your knees. 

But I will find you in the place I'm in, find you when I'm at my end,

Find you when there's nothing left of me to offer you except for brokenness.

You lift me up, you'll never leave me thirsty,

When I am weak, when I am lost and searching

I'll find you on my knees.

Is it a lie?

The word "worship" has come to mean many things. It is probably most often used in talking about music, and I am guilty of using it in that context myself. The true meaning of worship has been weighing heavy on my heart. My Bible defines worship as.... "to express praise and devotion." Hmmmmm.....this definition stirred up some conviction in my life, as it should almost every Christian.  We sang these words last night:

"I will worship You Lord, only You Lord.

And I will bow down before you, only You Lord."

As Christ followers, we should constantly be examining things in our lives and comparing them to the standards the Lord laid has written out for us in His word.  I wonder how many times we express more praise and devotion towards our favorite sports team than we do to our loving Savior. I wonder how many times we express more praise and devotion to our "significant other" than we do to the one who created them for us. I wonder how many times we express more praise and devotion to our jobs and money than we do to the one who has richly blessed us with more than enough. I wonder how many times we express more praise and devotion to the church, as a building, instead of to the cornerstone and foundation of the family of God. I wonder how many times we express more praise and devotion towards the material things in our lives instead of towards the one who told us to give to "the least of these."

All these things are great to show devotion for, but the problem happens when they receive more praise and devotion than the one who has freed our souls! You see, I feel as though we have grown too familiar with the word worship. Most of us are worshiping so many things, we would not even be able to list them all; yet, we proclaim to have no other God's before Him. 

Take my heart, I lay it down

At the feet of you who's crowned

And take my life, I'm letting go

I lift it up, to you who's throned.

Far too many times, we sing lyrics like this, but we do not live lyrics like this. I firmly believe that living out the words of songs like this defines true worship. Slowly being able to recognize the things we express more praise and devotion to is not easy, but it is vital. We have a Lord who has lifted us out of the darkest places known to man, who has healed our soul and offered us redemption; isn't He the only one who deserves out praise and devotion?

Take my fret, take my fear

All I have, I'm leaving here

Be all my hopes, be all my dreams

Be all my delights, be my everything.

I pray you and I discover the true meaning of worship, but more importantly, I pray we would have the knowledge live it. 

 

A Perfect Gift

If I am a steadfast person, I am fixed in one direction. My eyes stay facing the same way, and I don't look back. I am "steadily directed," and my purpose is unchanging. You see, for a Christian to be steadfast it means that his gaze is fixed only in the direction of Jesus. The things of the world might temporarily pass along, but a steadfast Christian doesn't turn their head away from the image of the Savior. The Bible offers a wonderful gift to him who has a steadfast mind, a gift that I have needed so much lately. That gift is peace....perfect peace.

"You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in You." 

Isaiah 26:3

That peace He offers is not something that disappears just because I don't think it or believe it. It remains, just as He remains. 

Just a little letter to the King.

You know me. You made me who I am, the deepest and inmost parts of me. The things that set me apart from all of the others are the very things you ingrained in me. You see my greatest potential even at the moments where I see nothing but weakness and failure. My flaws reveal your strengths. When I am down, You hold me tight inside the palm of Your hand. There are so many things that You have given me...and it hurts my heart to know how often I take those things for granted. As I feel lonely and homesick being four hours away from my family, You remind me that there are so many men and women fighting for my freedom so that I may still proclaim Your name freely. Praise the Lord for only being four hours away from home. You have given me life. You care enough about me to search me and find the parts of me that need Your work and care.One day soon, I will see Your face. When I think of that day, I cannot imagine doing anything but falling flat on my face and offering You my tears of thanks. I lay my burdens down at your feet. I pray that not only will you reveal the path you have for me, but also that you will help me to be accepting towards that plan. I know that so many times I pray for Your will, but once you show me what it is, I decide I don't want it anymore. I desire for that never to be the case. Your plans are so much greater and higher. You are the one who has given me life...a beautiful one at that. When I feel as though I am not good enough, you whisper in my ear "I knit you together in your mother's womb. I have chosen you, and I am going to use you, just as I created you. You are made in my image, and I have made you righteous." What a beautiful story you have written for my life, Lord. Although some chapters are painful to hear, I know the ending, and it gives no reason to  have anything besides hope for the future. You are my everything, Jesus. At this very moment, You are shaping my life. Open my eyes to that. Break me apart so that I may become all that I need to be in You. Open the doors of opportunity for me to be a selfless servant of You. What wondrous love you have given me.....it has to be shared!

What kind of trust?

The more I seek You, the more I find You. So simple, but yet profound. Those words mean more to me than just another line in a song. They are true, and they always will be. The deeper I dig into my precious Bible, the clearer my glimpse of hope becomes. The amazing things is, no matter how deep I dig, I will never uncover all of the treasures he has for me. There is always something new waiting, and it never fails to be refreshing. There will never be a time when I seek Him and do not find Him. You see, that is how I know when I am searching for the right thing; He is the only one that will always be found. Other things in life will fade away, but He won't.


When people refer to trusting in God, it always seems like such a cliche thing. I honestly don't think many people even know the true meaning of trust. If I trust in something, I place more confidence in that thing than I place in myself. If I am trusting a parachute to carry me safely to the ground when I jump out of a plane, I am acknowledging that there is nothing I can do if it fails. For some reason, when it comes to trusting God, the term carries a much different and lighter meaning. It all of a sudden becomes okay for a person to allow God to have one hand on the reigns while he or she still holds tightly to the other. With every turn or stop in the road, one is left yelling, "What are you doing God?! We aren't supposed to stop yet! This isn't the way I had planned!" How easily forgotten is the fact that He wrote the plan...all of the plans, including the one for your life. How foolish we should feel when we try to tell Him directions to a place where only He has been. Today and always, He is the author of the plans for my life, and He will be the one to read them to me. It is time I learn the real meaning of trust. 


When my spirit grows faint within me, it is You who knows my way. Psalm 142:3

You steady my heart.

"O God, You are my God,

earnestly I seek You;

my soul thirsts for You,

my body longs for you,

in a dry and weary land 

where there is no water. "

Psalm 63:1

Truth being told, there are times in life where comfort seems no where to be found. Along this journey, I am often left wondering if there is any water for my thirsty soul to drink. I seem to walk in circles looking and searching for something.....anything...that will give me rest. Over the past week, I find myself longing for my quiet time each night, needing those intimate moments with the only one who fully understands the quiet whispers deep within me. Just as David earnestly sought after God and longed for him to quench his thirst, I must find refuge in the arms of Jesus. He has promised me rest. We take for granted this rest He provides for weary souls when we feel like our lives are going just perfectly, but it is when we truly discover that He is the only constant in this life that we are thankful for the arms he always has open.

So many times God uses song lyrics to speak to my soul, to give me reassurance that He is still by my side, holding me up when I am too weak to do so myself. A few nights ago, I listened to a song on YouTube called "You Steady My Heart" by Kari Jobe, and I was left staring at the screen wondering how she could have written the song for anyone but me. The song will not be released until her new album comes out in January, and the lyrics are not posted on any websites yet, so I had to listen to it several times and copy the words down myself. It goes something like this:

Wish it could be easy...

Why is life so messy?

Why is pain a part of us?

There are days I feel like, 

Nothing ever goes right,

Sometimes it just hurts so much.

But you're here...you're real.

I know I can trust you...

Even when it hurts,

Even when it's hard,

Even when it all just falls apart.

I will run to you cause I know that you are,

Lover of my soul,

Healer of my scars.

You steady my heart.

I'm not gonna worry.

I know that you've got me,

Right inside the palm of Your hand.

Each and every moment, 

What's good and what gets broken,

happens just the way you plan.

You are here, You are real.

I will run to you and find refuge in your arms.

I will sing to you because of everything you are.

I have had a hard time accepting that every moment in my life happens the way He plans it to. Not just the good but also the parts that are broken. He especially likes those parts because he gets to make the mess into something beautiful that brings Him glory. When I am broken inside, and when everything in and around me has fallen apart, He is still the lover of my soul and the one who will heal my scars. Him alone. His promises will always remain true.

I hope it blesses you as it did me. 

Prayers and love until next time.

Genuine Security

Over the past few weeks, I find myself on a continuous search for peace, rest, joy, and most definitely a song to sing.  I have constantly been longing for hope and love. I know, without any doubt, that I am not the only person in search of these things. As I listen to a CD I have played more times than I can count, Kari Jobe reminds me that everyone needs these things. The sweetest part is, I don't have to go far to find them.....and my friend.....I don't just find a little of each one, I find them each in abundance!
She writes...
"He will lift you up...
He will lift you up higher than sorrow...
He will lift you up...
And cover your soul with healing!"
How often do we forget that the very creator of our soul is perfectly and fully capable of healing it. He is not the best one to heal it, but rather the only one. His perfect promises are the only means of finding hope in the future....and who doesn't want hope?! Without hope, there is no purpose for life. He is hope. 
I have never been so excited about falling in love with Jesus. In fact, I do not think I ever really knew what it meant. It is refreshing...like nothing in my life has ever been before. There is no burden in trusting someone with your heart when you know they will protect it at all cost. Oh, how often and how foolishly we put our trust in things and people that only lead us to disappointment. We think our investment of time or feelings is secure. Think about this..... 
Secure: free from or not exposed to danger or harm; safe.
I have learned that the only things in my life that are secure, (totally save from any harm or danger) are the things that I place in His hands. That knowledge is what gives me peace, rest, joy, hope, and love.
What else do I need?