Gift of God. Because all things come under Jesus who rules at the right hand of God. Nothing is accidental, and all will be made right. Romans 8:28
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Monday, November 27, 2017
Prayer for anxiety
"I hunger for the hope that only comes with knowing You intimately. May I keep growing closer and closer to You, so I can hear Your heartbeat and be soothed with the knowledge that You love me eternally and unconditionally, that Your heart is good and with You, there is no fear."
-- Jen Sum
Thursday, November 23, 2017
Song as prayer
Urban Rescue, "Song of My Father"
When silence falls
I hear You call
In a secret place
You still my soul with quiet joy
And I'm wide awake
In the middle of the night
I look up to the sky
I can hear You
Singing over me
Through the fire and the flood
I know that I am loved
I can hear You
Singing over me
You spoke the earth with just one word
And You hold my heart
My every step, my every breath
is Your work of art
In the middle of the night
I look up to the sky
I can hear You
Singing over me
Through the fire and the flood
I know that I am loved
I can hear You
Singing over me
I hear Your melody
I hear Your symphony
There's nothing louder than the song of my Father
I hear Your melody
I hear Your symphony
There's nothing louder than the song of my Father
In the middle of the night
I look up to the sky
I can hear You
Singing over me
Through the fire and the flood
I know that I am loved
I can hear You
Singing over me
In the middle of the night
I look up to the sky
I can hear You
Singing over me
Through the fire and the flood
I know that I am loved
I can hear You
Singing over me
I hear Your melody
I hear Your symphony
There's nothing louder than the song of my Father
I hear Your melody
I hear Your symphony
There's nothing louder than the song of my Father
There's nothing louder than the song of my Father
I hear You call
In a secret place
You still my soul with quiet joy
And I'm wide awake
In the middle of the night
I look up to the sky
I can hear You
Singing over me
Through the fire and the flood
I know that I am loved
I can hear You
Singing over me
You spoke the earth with just one word
And You hold my heart
My every step, my every breath
is Your work of art
In the middle of the night
I look up to the sky
I can hear You
Singing over me
Through the fire and the flood
I know that I am loved
I can hear You
Singing over me
I hear Your melody
I hear Your symphony
There's nothing louder than the song of my Father
I hear Your melody
I hear Your symphony
There's nothing louder than the song of my Father
In the middle of the night
I look up to the sky
I can hear You
Singing over me
Through the fire and the flood
I know that I am loved
I can hear You
Singing over me
In the middle of the night
I look up to the sky
I can hear You
Singing over me
Through the fire and the flood
I know that I am loved
I can hear You
Singing over me
I hear Your melody
I hear Your symphony
There's nothing louder than the song of my Father
I hear Your melody
I hear Your symphony
There's nothing louder than the song of my Father
There's nothing louder than the song of my Father
Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Roller coaster
And we go up a bit after Monday's fiasco.
Lord, thank you. But how about no more downward trajectories for a while? I bet you would say no to forever. But how about for a while? A long, long while?
Please thank you amen.
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
Blindsided
Another unimaginable disaster at work. Just unbelievably unnecessarily ridiculously wrong thanks to someone who did a bad job; so bad that I still feel some shock. Thankful for friends who responded even briefly just to commiserate.
And God comes in the morning. But, God.
Learning to see how this person is filled with anxiety, the desire to please, but also the desire to be in control and to prove self-worth. These things can only be broken by God's immeasurable love.
I need boundaries and distance so that I can get work done. But I guess I'm learning to see....that there is another world beyond the physical and that God is at work in both. Including in this person's life.
But, God. In His mercy.
What You will
How You will
When You will.
-- John Newton.
And God comes in the morning. But, God.
Learning to see how this person is filled with anxiety, the desire to please, but also the desire to be in control and to prove self-worth. These things can only be broken by God's immeasurable love.
I need boundaries and distance so that I can get work done. But I guess I'm learning to see....that there is another world beyond the physical and that God is at work in both. Including in this person's life.
But, God. In His mercy.
What You will
How You will
When You will.
-- John Newton.
Sunday, November 19, 2017
Saturday, November 18, 2017
Friday, November 17, 2017
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
What happened?
I honestly cannot say what happened in the past week. I feel like so much has happened....and yet I can't remember what did.
My mentor, D, noted this afternoon that I look cool, calm and collected. Well, I'm glad I do but I'm also not sure that there's a better option, really.
My mentor, D, noted this afternoon that I look cool, calm and collected. Well, I'm glad I do but I'm also not sure that there's a better option, really.
Tuesday, November 07, 2017
Peace
Keller says that Christians should be experts of joy, but that
our wrong expectations of life leave us ill-prepared to face anxiety.
When we were non-believers, we only had one enemy, and that
was God. But God is a nice enemy to have because all He wants is for you to be
blessed. When we become Christians, we find that we have new enemies; these
enemies are not stronger, but they
are meaner and nastier. We shouldn’t overestimate our enemies so that they are
bigger than they are, but we also shouldn’t underestimate our enemies so that
we enter into battle without being prepared.
Philippians 4:6
6 Do not be anxious about
anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Thanksgiving is the key to dealing with anxiety. Why do we
give thanks when we are only presenting a request? Because it acknowledges that
no matter what happens, we trust that God will work things out for our good.
Peace is the confidence of God’s wise control over our lives. We can pray in
this way: “ Lord, whatever you do in response to this request is good. I thank you for it.”
The “fruit”—singular, not plural—of the Spirit can only
come from God. They come as a whole, not as individual traits. You can present
a form of peace—that might really be a form of apathy—and pretend that you have
peace but you cannot pretend to have all of the fruits at once. Someone might
be very self-controlled, but at the expense of joy!
The world (secularism), the flesh, and the devil all attack
us. Secularism is a world-ism, a now-ism where we focus only on what we see in
front of us in the now. The flesh is the desire to be God. It takes many
different forms, but usually manifests itself as a desire to feel in charge, or
to feel powerful and it can exist in the church as a religious form too. The
devil wants to destroy our peace and joy through lies and accusations.
The reason that we become anxious is usually some combination
of the three. When we identify only one of them, we miss the whole
picture. These three things succeed when they are able to get at our assurance
in Christ. We need to remember that our feelings are the result, not the basis
of our salvation. We lose our assurance when we look at our sins more than our
savior.
Instead, we need to see our sadness as a sign that God is
at work in our lives. No one wants to be more like God on their own. It is the
Holy Spirit who puts that desire in our hearts. But we need to remember that
the only way to deal with the world, the flesh, and the devil is to keep
telling ourselves the story of the gospel.
The reason that we struggle with this sadness is because we
are locked into works of righteousness. “I still want to feel like I’m good
enough to be saved.” But we never were were. We need to look at Christ and
stand in him so that our glory is in God. For every look at our sin we need to
take five looks at our savior.
Philippians 4:4-9
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again:
Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all.
The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about
anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And
the peace of God,which transcends all understanding, will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true,
whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such
things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or
heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of
peace will be with you.
Labels:
mindfulness,
perspective,
prayer,
promise,
resolution,
sermon notes,
uncertainty,
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