encouragement in tough times

Don't you get tired of carrying the weight of your part of the world on your shoulders? Don't you want respite? I have that and more. I have everything you need if you just give yourself to me, not your money, time,  not a mask of yourself, but YOU! The person I created you to be from the beginning. Not a carbon copy of someone else or an abridged version of my creation, but YOU! in all your wonderful , messy, broken, loving , splendor. Stop living a lie, because you will not win nor will you bring me glory by being half of yourself. I love you, yes, YOU just the way i created you. It's time to strip away the layers and let YOU shine through and not what everyone else wants you to be. I have not stop loving you and I will NOT give up on you. I love you in ways that you can't even comprehend, I love you and I need you! YOU ARE NEEDED!

GOD


 The above is not a traditional blog post. It comes from a place of brokenness and hurt, But it is an encouragement for those times when you feel like you can't go on. I hope whoever reads this will be blessed.

Peace in God

Yesterday I was on Facebook and one of my friends sent me a message telling me that they are continuing to pray for me and let me know if i had any thing specifically I needed them to pray for. I said thank you and was about to close the message log when i came across something that inspired this blog post today.''I am praying that you will find peace in God again''.  What does that mean? '' peace in God?'' not rest, not contentment, not strength, but peace. I realize that this is a timely application of where i am right now. I am not peaceful, in fact,  I am more disillusioned,  angry, bitter, hollow, sorrowful, bored, and stale feeling more than peaceful. But I realize that I need to be peaceful, I need to be calm, I need to be like a tree planted by a stream that is getting rained and hailed upon. Sometimes you just have to be peaceful in the face of the storms of life, like Ecclesiastes 3:8 says '' There is a time for war and a time for peace

Struggling with making time for God.

I am going to be honest i did not want to write this post for the simple fact that I did not want to admit that I am struggling with making time for God lately. But i know i am not alone in this and i am not the only one who has struggled with this issue. Lately it seems like i turn on the tv before i open my bible. I realized i have been watching entirely too much tv and spending no or very little time with God. so it's no wonder why i have felt so mentally and emotionally drained and unstable for these last few weeks. i walked outside to walk my dog and i instantly felt overwelmed by fear. Now this may not sound like it has anything to do with this blog post, but it is a one of the direct results of my not spending time with God like I should. People often say that the Christian walk is a relationship. I have truly learned some of what that statement encompasses this week. Even in my struggle with this issue God is still there. He is still talking to me whether i want to listen to him or not. It saddens God when i don't spend time with him. He not only desires that i spend time with him, but that he needs that time with me. He is showing me that he not only wants me, but he needs to spend time with me. This blog post may not have much effect on any one else, but i would rather admit my struggle than run from it. there comes a time when you get tired of running. im tired of running.  But God is with me through it all.

I have been reading the book of Ruth lately and the Lord has shown me some things about trusting him through that book. She had to be willing to trust, she had to make a decision to leave the life she knew in order to experience something new. She could not remain where she was and fuifill what God called her ultimately to do. She knew there was something more than her gods and her way of life. She was hungering for something more. She did not know what laid ahead but she trusted that her hunger would be fed. often we have to make a decision to trust and be led. But we never follow blindly because Jesus is right there every step of the way if we only trust him to lead us.