Count All Things Loss
Philippians 3:8 says “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”
Today I want to place less of an emphasis on the things in my life that block out knowing Christ more. In comparison to God, nothing in my life stands any ground of being more important than serving Him. Nothing is sweeter than knowing God and getting to know Him better. It is not enough to get saved and to only give God a part of our life. We are to surrender all of ourselves (including our physical possessions), to the Lordship of Christ.
Philippians 3:10, in summary, says that counting all as lost in our life in order to gain Christ allows us to know God and the power of His resurrection. It also provides us with fellowship in Him and the found comfort of knowing Christ died for you and me.
To make myself clear, I am not saying that God doesn’t want us to have things in our life that we enjoy, but if those “things” are number one in your life instead of God then you haven’t counted them as loss.
My heart’s desire today and everyday after is to lay aside the things that are getting in my way of knowing Christ Jesus better.
The people who influence us the most are not those who detain us with their continual talk, but those who live their lives like the stars in the sky and the lilies of the field—simply and unaffectedly. Those are the lives that mold and shape us.Oswald Chambers
You Died for Me
You are for me. You have been fighting on my side since You formed me in my mother’s womb. You knew that I would fall several times in life and still You chose to die for me. You died knowing that I would turn my back and that I would doubt You. You died even though at some point in my life I would ignore Your voice and Your call on my life. You died even though You knew every sin I would ever commit before I ever committed them. You chose to die despite the fact that my love for You would lack because I put other things before You. The scars You bore on Your back were taken with no hesitation because You loved me, imperfect, filthy, dirty, sinful me. You have never stopped pursuing my heart even when my life didn’t show any sign of You in it. Your pull and tug on my life has never ceased because You saw beyond the ugly me and only saw the potential I could be. Your perfect love didn’t dwell on all the wrong I had done or will do but rather Your love and grace saw me as beautiful. I’ll never become deserving of anything You give, but I will always praise and give thanks for it.
Does it really matter that our circumstances are difficult?…
“Why shouldn’t they be! If we give way to self-pity and indulge in the luxury of misery, we remove God’s riches from our lives and hinder other from entering into His provision. No sin is worse than the sin of self-pity, because it removes God from the throne of our lives, replacing Him with our own self-interests. It causes us to open our mouths only to complain, and we simply become spiritual sponges—always absorbing, never giving, and never being satisfied. And there is nothing lovely or generous about our lives.”
-Oswald Chambers
Everyday I read out of my devotional book written by O.Chambers called “My Utmost for His Highest”. Some days what is written in that book is too good not to share. Today is one of those days. How often do we as a society love the attention misery and self-pity gives us? We post things on social networks that are have underlying “poor me” statements hoping someone will feed into our need for attention on the matter. When we engage ourselves in self-pity we remove the truth from our life that God can take care of everything we need. We show people we are more capable of complaining than we are crying out to God for help. I don’t know about you, but I want to show the mark of God’s nature in my life. I can’t do that unless I choose to not have self-pity when I”m struggling with something, but rather call on the God who is always on my side. The God who takes care of my every need when I am obedient to Him and stand on the Word of truth and life.
2 Peter 1:4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
I’m overwhelmed by the grace of God, & how God doesn’t hold back His best from us even when we have messed up in the past.
We make mistakes in life and bad choices. We go through weeks, months or years of bad decisions sometimes before we ever turn our life around. We turn from God but even when we claim to “hate” God, He still loves us more than we will ever know.
I went through a year long rough patch where I ignored the voice of God and His pulling on me. I made bad decision after bad decision and I almost gave all my joy away because I was too proud to admit I was in the wrong. I lived a double life and was a hypocrite in more ways than one. After being in a relationship that was ungodly and that caused me to ignore the Lord, I was truly convinced I would not be given something better because of all I had done.
The enemy comes to make us feel ashamed of our past and to make us feel like we are worth less than dirt. But God doesn’t hold a thing against us once we repent and turn towards Him. God’s love washes the slate clean and then His grace sets us up for better than we ever had before.
I don’t deserve what I have been given or the fact that God spared me from what could have been some pretty harsh and damaging consequences. That’s the thing about grace though, we don’t deserve any of it but God freely gives it. It doesn’t make sense either but we have to accept it as the act of God’s perfect love for us.
I’ve been blessed with a better life than I had before and a far better relationship than I had before. God was on my side the entire time I had my back to Him. I’ll never stop thanking God for all He has done to save my life.
Be encouraged today if you are going through one of those rough patches life is so good at giving us. God is on your side fighting for you daily even when you don’t see or feel Him. God wants to pour out every blessing and every ounce of grace He has for you because He loves you. He truly does love you no matter what you have done.
I have the craziest, prettiest, chaotic family. We fight and have our issues just like any other family. We support one another in what we do in each of our lives. We have weird conversations over dinner and we go places together even though we live in different cities and towns. We have grown together, cried together, laughed together, and have had our victories together. Some days we drive each other insane and don’t want to be around one another but those times pass quickly. We have hurt one another with words and actions but we have NEVER stopped loving one another.
Today I am thankful for the family God has given me and every trial we have gone through that has made us stronger. It is a rare thing that we have stuck together all these years and each of us are serving the Lord even after we left the nest.
Open Up
I find that when I open up about my life I tend to be more confident in who I am. When I close off who God has made me to be and remain quiet about my life, I lose sense of my self. I feel like I am a complicated being and there are several doors in my life waiting to be explored by the right people who have the time. Im introverted and closed and it holds me back from showing who I really am and all God has placed inside me. I have talents unseen and stories untold. I have dreams waiting to be shared and desires waiting for support. Im stepping into a new maturity as I embrace the fact that it’s okay to tell people about myself, about how I feel, and about what I have been through.
I write a lot and it’s my outlet so I don’t have to say the words out loud. Sometimes those words need to be expressed not through my writing but with my own mouth. There is release is telling others. There’s even a big release in telling God things even though He already knows. God desires to hear our voice and those who mean the most to us like to hear it too.
Through my blog I hope to share things that relate to other people’s life and that in some way my words help. We have so much to share and we never know how powerful it can be for someone else when we do share.
Opening up… It can be the hardest thing for me but I’m growing more each day into the person God desires for me to be. I’m learning to be better by the grace of God.
To my mom on Mother’s Day,
for all those times you gave me so much grace when I was being a brat
for when you knew something was wrong before I even had to say it
for the million phone calls asking you how to do something or what to do
for all the times you embarrassed me (I needed the ego bruise anyway)
for your loud screeching voice and dance moves at church camp
for the many blessings I have received just because you’re my mom
for the hugs even when I tried to slip away
for your motherly instincts being right even though sometimes I hate that they are
for the prayers I know you pray for me
for the support in everything I do
for the home cooked meals and all the laundry you have done
for listening to me
for the countless rides around town when I was younger
for all the help on homework and projects growing up
for the godly example of a mother and wife and just as a woman
for your giving heart
for the unending love and care
for the numerous mother/daughter outtings to the mall and movies
for all those times you should have been buying yourself something nice but instead bought your kids something
for your honestly and wisdom
for the curvy and curly genes you passed down to me
for rushing to my side when I needed you, even if it’s 12am and I live a hour away
for still laying down your life for your kids everyday even when we fail at appreciating you for doing it
for all these things and more I thank you. I’m biased in every way when I say you are the best mom any kid could ever have. At 21 years old, I’m mature enough to finally admit (even though it pains me) that a mother (my mother) really does know best. Love you Mom!
We feel like we have an idea of what love is but do we really know all that love entails.
This seriously blessed me today. Watch it, you won’t regret it.
The World at Her Fingertips
Nothing blesses my heart more than to read the words that my closest friends have written. They talk about where life is taking them, their dreams, and the change that is upon us.
For 3 years I grew with my friends as we experienced the same stages in life…school, work, growing into adulthood, heartache, change, traveling the world. We did this together as if God knew we would need each other to be there when those changes and moments in our life took place. We needed each other’s understanding of situations and the wisdom we shared from once being there. Those 3 years were the years that took me from a high school girl with little ambition to a woman with the world at her fingertips. Those years were precious and often taken for granted.
Now those years have passed and big change has approached us dead in the eye. We can’t avoid the turns life takes or the fact that at some point we must live our own life despite where God is taking our friends. Our decisions cannot be based upon what our friend is doing but rather we must search out our own answers.
In my dream world, my closest friends stay with me forever and we live in the same town and have similar jobs. In some form or fashion we would have more than a technology connection to catch up. Reality is harsh when it tells me that at some point we go our separate ways. That life no longer can take us down the same path and the “see you later”s come more frequently.
I laid on Jenna’s couch today and just thought about how in a year everything will be different. Talking out loud I told Jenna I couldn’t believe that in just one more semester that she would be leaving SAGU and then the semester after that I would be too. Faitth has already gone and it feels strange to have our closest friends make a life for themselves outside of what we have known for so long now. I guess we get caught in that bubble of bliss that says college life will never end and just 3 years ago I thought that was true.
Change can come like a harsh, cold wind that has no apology. We either face it head on and get where we need to be or we run inside in retreat.
I’ll be honest, I hate change sometimes. Especially when it takes me away from what I love and what is comfortable, but I know God has bigger plans. I have to trust He will always know what is best for me and my closest, dearest friends also.
You hear the verse Jeremiah 29:11 all the time but God really does know the plans He has for all of us and we won’t ever regret following those plans even if it takes us in opposite directions than that of our best friends.
In the Middle of My Storm
I’m learning to praise even in the storm. I will do good for a while at praising God when I’m stressed or going through tough times but at this moment in my life I’m really being stretched. I’ve been sick for over 2 weeks and no doctor has been able to tell me what’s wrong yet. I’ve had multiple tests done and prodded with needles and everything says I’m normal (despite the fact I can’t keep food down and when I do I’m in awful pain). The past 2 weeks have been a struggle and I’ve had my moments where I want to get angry and cry because I haven’t eaten a full meal in a long time and my body feels weak. I havent felt good in an even longer time. I’ve been whiney and frustrated for days but today I was reminded of Matthew 11:28&29
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
I’m so tired of feeling weak and helpless against whatever is going on in my body but I know God is with me. He designed me and He knows exactly what the problem is. God has the power to heal and to give doctors wisdom. My focus easily goes to my physical pain throughout my day but I have forgotten to praise God for the health that I do have. I alive and breathing and that’s something to be thankful for. I can rest in the fact God is on my side and He’s with me at all times.
We can’t always dwell and waste time on the negative when we have so much more to be thankful for. God can calm our storm but sometimes we must learn from it first.
