Thankful Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving every one! I hope you all are having a great Thanksgiving!! Today's thankful list is extra special! Mine is extra long as well, so I will just share a few!...

1. Jesus!
2. That we can worship freely!
3. Health
4. Family
5. Friends
6. Music
7. Art
8. Different Colors
9. Our Home
10. God's hand in my life
11. Nature

And SO much more!

What is on YOUR thankful list today?

I would really love to know! Feel free to share in the comments!

"Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song."
Psalm 95:2

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Isaiah 55

"Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me;
hear me, that your soul may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander of the peoples. 

 Surely you will summon nations you know not,
and nations that do not know you will hasten to you,
because of the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
for he has endowed you with splendor.

 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
 Let the wicked forsake his way
and the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

 ^"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
 As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
 You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
 Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the Lord’s renown,
for an everlasting sign,
which will not be destroyed.”

Thankful Thursday

This Thursday I am so thankful for...

1. Sisters! What would I do without them?!
2. Painting (one of my favorite things to do)
3. Pictures. They are so fun to take and to go back and look at!
4. Friends that pray. (This may seem silly but I'm thankful for them and their prayers)
5. Old friends. (Even though we have moved a lot we still keep in touch with a lot of our old friends. Just the other day Mom got a call from one of them and we begged her for details when she got off the phone :-) )
6. Details (Just like a girl, right? But seriously. God didn't just make the lady bug red. He made it red with black spots...)

Claire's Thankful list...

1. Cats! we have just received the blessing of a nine-week-old kitten found on our porch.

That's all!!!

What are you thankful for this Thursday?...

Brother and Sister...

I love this picture...

 

It is such a sweet moment captured between these two. Nothing posed, just them doing their own thing together. Brother and Sister. Together. Loving each other in their own little way. So sweet. A memory to keep forever...

He will come to us like rain...

"Let us acknowledge the Lord;

let us press on to acknowledge him.

As surely as the sun rises,

he will appear;

he will come to us like the winter rains,

like the spring rains that water the earth.”

Hosea 6:3

 



This is a such a powerful verse. This verse has a promise tied into it. It starts out by saying that we should acknowledge the Lord. That command brings a verse to mind...

 

"My heart says of you, "Seek his face!"

Your face, Lord. I will seek."

Psalm 27:8

 

It says "Seek HIS face!" Seek HIM who is worthy of all the praise and glory and honor! Hosea 6:3 promises that if we seek Him, If we press into Him, He will come.

 

Do you ever feel like you can't get into God's presence? Do you ever feel like you just can't fully get into that place with Him? It has for sure happened to me before. But then the verse in Hosea comes to mind. Lord! You promised that if I press into you that you would come! But are we really whole-heartedly pressing FULLY into HIM? Or is there still sin standing in the way? We are all sinners. Every single one of us is a sinner. We are not perfect, and we won't be. We can try as hard as we want, its not going to happen. Because we are useless without Jesus. We are nothing, with out Jesus, but with Him-- all things are made possible! Hebrews 12:1-2 tells us to get rid of EVERYTHING that hinders. EVERYTHING. How can we do that? I just finished saying that we are all sinners. We cannot do it on our own, but God made a way. Through His son. When Jesus died on the cross He took all our sin upon Himself. He knew every single sin we would ever commit, but He loved us in spite of all that yucky, yucky, horrible sin. He forgave us. US! Sinners. No where near perfect. All we have to do is humble our selves, repent, and receive that forgiveness.

 

"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."

James 4:10

 

Humbling yourself, giving that pride to the Lord, is never easy. But He promises that when we do humble our selves, He will lift us up! Isn't that amazing! But if we choose not to humble ourselves something comes in between us and God. That sin. It is like a dam on a mighty river. That river is God, that dam is the sin. Every time we sin we add another rock to that dam. But when we humble ourselves that dam tumbles down and allows God's mighty river-- His power to flow.

 

So this is what we have so far:

1. Press into Him
2. Humble your selves and repent from any sin
 

Now time for number 3. Wait. Sometimes when we pray, God doesn't answer immediately. Sometimes when we ask for Him to move it doesn't happen automatically. Sometimes we just need to wait. Just to be still and know that He is God. Waiting is NEVER easy. Especially for me. I hate waiting. I want it now.

 

     3. Wait for the Lord

 

Obedience is the next step. Sometimes when I ask the Lord for something, He answers with a command. Let's say I ask the Lord to show me a miracle. If He tells me to go pray for a person, and I don't do it, how can I expect to see that miracle happen? I have to obey.

 

    4. Obey

 

Then we have to have faith.

 

"Have faith in God" Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

Mark 11:22-24

 

I love how this verse is so specific. It starts out with telling us to have faith, and what that faith can do for us. And then it points out that we should not doubt! It even says where we should keep doubt out-- in our hearts.

 

    5. Have faith

 

Then receive is next! Experience His "rain!"

 

    6. Receive (experience the "rain!")

 

Then we need to worship. After The Lord moves, we always need to praise Him. Not just because the bible tells us to, but because we are thankful, and we want to show God how much we love Him and how excited we are about that thing He just did!

 

"Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song."

Psalm 95:2

 

     7.Worship

 

Then after that.... hunger. Hunger for more. By the way, you won't have to "make" yourself hungry. Once you see it, you will want it. Once you receive more, the more is not enough! Once you experience the fullness of His spirit and His power, you will NEVER, and I repeat, NEVER be the same again!

 

1. Press into Him
2. Humble your selves and repent from any sin
3. Wait for the Lord
4. Obey
5. Have faith
6. Receive (experience the "rain!")
7. Worship
8. Hunger for MORE

That promise that I mentioned at the beginning of this post is that God always gives that rain. No matter what, He will come like rain. All we have to do, is ask...

He will come like the rain! He will pour down on us! We WILL experience a spiritual rain like never before. We will receive that rain and it will effect us in a mighty, mighty way! We will drink up that water like a dry field. He will come, He will rain!



He will come to us like rain...

 

 

...and you know what comes after the rain...

 

 

...the rainbow 

(a reminder that God ALWAYS keeps His promises!)

                

This is an amazing song! The Lord has truly used it to minister to my heart! Hope he uses it to minister to you as well!...

You Know Me

Hit the ground running...

  We are all going through something. We are all going through different seasons. The Lord brings us through all different seasons. Our faith is tested, but Jesus never lets go. No matter how many mistakes we make. No matter what we are going through, he is always faithful. Something that is so beautiful about Christianity is that Jesus never disappoints. I mean, really, think about it. When has Jesus ever broken His promises to you? My answer is never. Not once. Now, He never ever said that is would be easy. He never said we wouldn't have troubles. He actually said we would go through trails. But He promises that HE is worth it! This season I am going through is well... how do I explain it... bittersweet. It has been such a time of seeing. Seeing His miracles, seeing His promises come true, seeing Him work. It has been a time of hearing. Hearing His voice speak, hearing direction from Him. Then also we have had small trials. Just little things here and there that the enemy tries to distract us with. Also maybe a few big blows here and there. But The Lord has promised- this is a season of Joy! After a bigger blow the Lord has shown me something. The main verse that He has shown me this is Hebrews 12:1-2. It is talking about throwing off everything that hinders, and just running the race Christ has for you. He started to put this verse on my heart a couple of months ago, but it is now starting to take shape. God spoke through a really close friend of mine in a mighty way. We were just talking about the situations that we personally have been going through. Basically what she said was this: "Don't look back, just run." We may go through hard things, but God is always there. Helping us, loving us, encouraging us. He is crying the same tears that we are crying. His heart hurts for the same things our does. Why? Because we are His children. But one of the specific things was, we don't need to sit in the ashes. Because God will bring beauty from the ashes we don't have to worry. But we also can't just mope around. Feeling sorry for our selves. No. We have to get up and run the race he has for us. He is the author and perfecter of our faith. But how can he perfect it if we are just sitting around? No. He gives us a hug and then sets us back on our feet and says "RUN!" Then Satin likes to put something on the side of the road. Something shiny, something that will get our attention. But NO! Keep RUNNING! He says "Don't look back. I hold your past in my hands, but I also hold your future. RUN!" He is showing us all this amazing stuff! We have to keep running towards that stuff. Not looking at the distractions the enemy puts in place. No. Look straight ahead. I will set my face like flint towards HIM! (Isaiah 50:7) We won't look back like Lot's wife and be turned into a pillar of salt. (Genesis 19:26) (YIKES!) NO! We will throw off everything that hinders. EVERYTHING! Not just some things here and there, EVERYTHING! And we will run the race Christ has for us...

   "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God"
Hebrews 12:1-2

We will hold unswervingly to HIM! Because HE is faithful...

  "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful."
Hebrews 10:23

 God tells us to live by faith. Who do you see living by faith?... not many people, right. As we see all along in the bible the Israelites did not obey God very much. They had disbelief, they didn't live by faith, but they lived with fear. What did that result in? If they didn't believe, they didn't see, because they believed by their sight. For example take the promise land. So many had disbelief, and what was the result? Their generation did not get in the promise land. God still promised it to their people, and he still gave it to them, but he gave it to the next generation because of the disobedience and disbelief of that generation. But what if we did live by faith? What would happen then...

I will step forward and receive the promise!

I will hit the ground running. Running towards HIM and HIS promises. Never looking back.

Don't look back, just run!

Thankful Thursday

This Thursday I am so thankful for...

1. My amazing piano teacher. A true worshiper and a gift from the Lord!
2. Little girl pigtails (especially on a certain cute little sister!)
3. Friend gatherings
4. Tag (my favorite game)
5. My bike :-)
6. Revelation from the Lord. After praying to the Lord and then getting a Revelation from Him... I am like a little kid in a candy store! I can't get enough! (A few days ago my friend and I received this awesome Revelation together and we just kept getting more and more. We were squealing and jumping up and down. My friend said this: "I don't care what people say, but this is FUN!" I agree!)
7. Sleepovers!
8. S'mores around a campfire!

                                ...and so much more!

What are YOU thankful for this Thursday?...
(please leave your thankful list in the comments. I read all the comments and the Lord uses each and every one to minister to my heart greatly!)

And a picture before I close...

Have a great rest of the week! Be ABUNDANTLY blessed!!!!!!