My Life is Yours

I live my life with the understanding that I don't live for my benefit alone.  Everything I go through and the lessons I learn as a result are for me to share with others.  Being cognizant of this helps me strive to live a life worth living.  I want to be all that God has created me to be, inspiring and empowering others to be the same.

Thorns in My Side

No matter the thorn, isn't it funny how the one that's in your side, starts digging even harder the moment you decide to rise above it and move forward, maybe even attempt to remove it? It’s not a coincidence.

So ... what'cha gonna do? Wallow in it or ... brush your shoulders off?

I'm not ashamed to admit that I have a few thorns in my life.

They prick.

I bleed.

Sometimes I wonder how it is that I have not "bled" to death by now. But, God has been good to me.

The more I try to get away from my thorns, the more they prick and the more I bleed. Still, it has always been worth it to fight.
If I didn't have the constant reminder of my fallible human frame, I would be complacent and content to just exist. I would not possess the drive to seek That which is grander than my being. I would bathe in mediocrity and wade in the pool of a life lived half-heartedly.

Who, in their right mind, wants to live like that?

These thorns, these wretched reminders of my filthy rags, push me to purpose, in a sense. The more I resist the urge to let them win, the better and stronger I become.

And, as long as I fight ... they don't win.


© 2009

Be Delightful

“Delight yourself also in the Lord and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart.” --Psalm 37:4 [AMP]
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These words are often misinterpreted and taken to mean that if you praise God just enough, He will give you what you want. But that is not it at all. The Psalmist is not advising that we hold out our hands like hungry children. Instead we are being admonished to come to know God in such an intimate way that our hearts become intertwined with His and His desires for us become our desires for ourselves.

And we do serve a benevolent and loving God who cares about our happiness but, not everything we want is in our best interest. He knows this and that is why it is in our best interest to closely commune with Him and allow Him to lead us down the path He has just for us. There is safety and liberty in His arms and His will and we should take care to remember that it is not always about us but it is always about Him being glorified in our lives.


© 2009 EGP

FiftyOneTen

“Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and make me willing to obey you.” Psalm 51:10-12, NLT

The 51st Psalm began to resonate in my heart the night I realized that I didn’t love Jesus as much as I thought or had convinced myself that I did. There were still people, places and things that I hadn’t entirely given over to God and my relationship with Him was suffering because of it. I couldn’t even pray without being distracted by these issues … these things that had I given them over to and left in the hands of God, would have been water under the bridge, freeing me to live this life with faithful abandon.

I had always been familiar with the 51st Psalm but it took on a whole new meaning when I realized just how wretched I had been. I was guilty of going through the motions of religion and religious rituals and allowing them to replace that which was more important; a relationship with the Almighty.

King David knew and understood that what God really wanted was relationship. God wanted the heart behind the deeds.

“You do not desire sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.”Psalm 51:16-17

Seeing this with my own eyes and understanding it with my own heart has been one of the sweetest revelations about the love of God that I have ever had. He loved me and desired a reciprocal relationship with me! Going through the motions of religion was meaningless to Him. The content of my heart held a lot more weight as far as He was concerned.

So, the 51st Psalm became the song of my heart. It became my deepest desire concerning my Heavenly Father. And for the rest of my days I will continue to pray this prayer of King David, a man after God’s own heart because I want nothing more than to be a woman after God’s own heart, a mirror image of Him and canvas upon which to create a divine masterpiece.

My 51st Psalm Prayer

Lord, fashion for me a new heart of which the contents are pleasing in Your sight. Don’t turn away from me, I couldn’t bear it. Please don’t take the sweet peace of your presence away from me. Help me to remain joyful in my walk and service to you, even when things get hard. I ask these things because I want to worship you with a clean, purified, overflowing, unhindered heart and faithful abandon. I don’t want anything to stand in the way of what is yours; a heart that is unequivocally YOURS. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

© 2009