Tuesday, June 17, 2008
the steadfast love
the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies, they never come to an end; they are new every morning, new every morning, great is Thy Faithfulness O Lord, great is thy faithfulness
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
new mercies every morning
I have had so many new revelations about the Lord since I had a baby. It's amazing the things you hear you'll learn and stories that others have learned and inside I always thought, "Yeah, that's cool." or "Yeah, that's true." but, now it's really real, really cool, and for real true. These things I'm talking about to name a few are:
1. When Kennedi cries or fusses, my first instinct is to just try to find out what she needs and give it to her. I want her to be content, fed, have a clean diaper, get sleep, not be gassy, etc. She is COMPLETELY reliant on me for all of her needs and wants. It is a whole new world to try to get inside this baby's head and find out what she is trying to tell me by crying. BUT I will do anything and everything to find it out and act on it because the intense love I have for her and compassion on her. It feels kind of weird to have someone completely relying on me for everything.
I always heard this is what the Lord is like to us. We are COMPLETELY reliant on Him for all our desires and needs. No matter how much we actually think we can make it on our own, we actually according to David have "no goodness apart from Him". It's really true! We live by asking. This is amazing and gives me confidence in the Father's provision over my family's lives. If I get worried, I just look at Kennedi and think, "if I care so much to make her happy, the Lord must feel that and SO much more toward me." He wants me to succeed and be content in His Spirit and have my needs met because He likes me and loves to give me good gifts. I love it when I can make my baby girl smile or just fall asleep in my arms because I know I've given her everything I can give her as her natural mother to bring her to peace and the Lord is showering her with gifts at the same time. This is such an awesome feeling and brings a new level of faith to ask for BIG things to our BIG Father.
2. Kennedi wakes up early. Obviously.. babies do that. She normally is awake to eat around 5am-5:30am and doesn't want to go back to sleep until anywhere from 7am-9am. This has been making me a bit frustrated as I am still tired and want to sleep even if she doesn't want to. Some of these mornings, the reason she won't sleep is because of gas. I then just have to forget I'm tired and just do anything I can to help her. This is when I realized the statement I always have said and read in the Scripture, "His mercies are new every morning." This makes my heart remember the Lord's kindness. He makes new mercies available every morning. There is strength in mercy and peace in mercy. My new prayer in the mornings when I feel that pull in my flesh to grumble, complain, come against my daughter in my heart, etc. I just remember to ask for His new mercies. That's what I prayed this morning for our family as my husband is sleeping upstairs and Kennedi was wide awake and I was tired. I just decided, I need to pull on the new mercies this morning. So, I took my baby girl downstairs, turned the webstream on (it makes Kennedi think we're in the prayer room) and she went right to sleep and my husband gets to sleep in a bit (he was up walking with her for an hour last night so I could sleep some) and here I am blogging about it :o) The Lord is always willing to give to His children, we just have to ask and make our case and desires known.
another thing i've really been brought into reality about is the "oh God, You are my God, early will I seek you." Being up at all hours of the night and early in the morning, I have to choose to let God be my God in the morning and not let the god of my flesh or the god of sleep overtake the leadership that Jesus needs to have in my life in the morning. I then have to choose to seek Him early. If I start the day seeking Him and choosing righteous thoughts and leaning on Him, the rest of the day it's easier to talk, be in friendship with, an lean on Him in all the other circumstances. David was choosing to have God be His God and choosing to seek Him early so that His heart would be steadfast in love and quick to trust God first before trying to put his trust in other things.
Having a baby is teaching me all kinds of new things besides how to live off of as little sleep as possible :o)
1. When Kennedi cries or fusses, my first instinct is to just try to find out what she needs and give it to her. I want her to be content, fed, have a clean diaper, get sleep, not be gassy, etc. She is COMPLETELY reliant on me for all of her needs and wants. It is a whole new world to try to get inside this baby's head and find out what she is trying to tell me by crying. BUT I will do anything and everything to find it out and act on it because the intense love I have for her and compassion on her. It feels kind of weird to have someone completely relying on me for everything.
I always heard this is what the Lord is like to us. We are COMPLETELY reliant on Him for all our desires and needs. No matter how much we actually think we can make it on our own, we actually according to David have "no goodness apart from Him". It's really true! We live by asking. This is amazing and gives me confidence in the Father's provision over my family's lives. If I get worried, I just look at Kennedi and think, "if I care so much to make her happy, the Lord must feel that and SO much more toward me." He wants me to succeed and be content in His Spirit and have my needs met because He likes me and loves to give me good gifts. I love it when I can make my baby girl smile or just fall asleep in my arms because I know I've given her everything I can give her as her natural mother to bring her to peace and the Lord is showering her with gifts at the same time. This is such an awesome feeling and brings a new level of faith to ask for BIG things to our BIG Father.
2. Kennedi wakes up early. Obviously.. babies do that. She normally is awake to eat around 5am-5:30am and doesn't want to go back to sleep until anywhere from 7am-9am. This has been making me a bit frustrated as I am still tired and want to sleep even if she doesn't want to. Some of these mornings, the reason she won't sleep is because of gas. I then just have to forget I'm tired and just do anything I can to help her. This is when I realized the statement I always have said and read in the Scripture, "His mercies are new every morning." This makes my heart remember the Lord's kindness. He makes new mercies available every morning. There is strength in mercy and peace in mercy. My new prayer in the mornings when I feel that pull in my flesh to grumble, complain, come against my daughter in my heart, etc. I just remember to ask for His new mercies. That's what I prayed this morning for our family as my husband is sleeping upstairs and Kennedi was wide awake and I was tired. I just decided, I need to pull on the new mercies this morning. So, I took my baby girl downstairs, turned the webstream on (it makes Kennedi think we're in the prayer room) and she went right to sleep and my husband gets to sleep in a bit (he was up walking with her for an hour last night so I could sleep some) and here I am blogging about it :o) The Lord is always willing to give to His children, we just have to ask and make our case and desires known.
another thing i've really been brought into reality about is the "oh God, You are my God, early will I seek you." Being up at all hours of the night and early in the morning, I have to choose to let God be my God in the morning and not let the god of my flesh or the god of sleep overtake the leadership that Jesus needs to have in my life in the morning. I then have to choose to seek Him early. If I start the day seeking Him and choosing righteous thoughts and leaning on Him, the rest of the day it's easier to talk, be in friendship with, an lean on Him in all the other circumstances. David was choosing to have God be His God and choosing to seek Him early so that His heart would be steadfast in love and quick to trust God first before trying to put his trust in other things.
Having a baby is teaching me all kinds of new things besides how to live off of as little sleep as possible :o)
Sunday, June 1, 2008
the apple of His eye
I've been reading through 1 and 2 samuel. dee bennett challenged me to just start reading the stories and knowing the stories from the old testament because i told her i have a hard time getting into the old testament a lot.
so, i started with these 2 books. i got to 2 samuel 7:23, "And who is like Your people, like Israel, the one nation on the earth whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people, to make for Himself a name - and to do for Yourself great and awesome deeds for Your land - before Your people whom You redeemed for Yourself from Egypt, the nations, and their gods?"
I was remembering my old days in Kansas City (old days meaning 4 years ago or so) when Katie, Sarah and I would get to Tuesday fasting days, make it until 4pm when the Israel prayer meeting with Todd Ganovski would start and we would dread that prayer meeting. We would always skip out and go to Panera, or go to Kate's house and eat chips and cheese sauce.. mmm.
Then we started realizing the importance of that prayer meeting and praying for Israel, especially when we moved out here to Fort Mill. We had an intense fast in 2006 where we prayed for Israel and that the Lord would give to ZHOP a heart for His people. This verse I read made me realize now 4 years later from when i despised those prayer meetings in kansas city, that now i am fascinated with the Lord's desire for Israel. It makes me love Jesus more when I think about His affection toward that land. It's funny now that Katie and I would probably rather pray for Israel in any intercession meeting now over any other topic. The Lord is funny in that way!
so, i started with these 2 books. i got to 2 samuel 7:23, "And who is like Your people, like Israel, the one nation on the earth whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people, to make for Himself a name - and to do for Yourself great and awesome deeds for Your land - before Your people whom You redeemed for Yourself from Egypt, the nations, and their gods?"
I was remembering my old days in Kansas City (old days meaning 4 years ago or so) when Katie, Sarah and I would get to Tuesday fasting days, make it until 4pm when the Israel prayer meeting with Todd Ganovski would start and we would dread that prayer meeting. We would always skip out and go to Panera, or go to Kate's house and eat chips and cheese sauce.. mmm.
Then we started realizing the importance of that prayer meeting and praying for Israel, especially when we moved out here to Fort Mill. We had an intense fast in 2006 where we prayed for Israel and that the Lord would give to ZHOP a heart for His people. This verse I read made me realize now 4 years later from when i despised those prayer meetings in kansas city, that now i am fascinated with the Lord's desire for Israel. It makes me love Jesus more when I think about His affection toward that land. It's funny now that Katie and I would probably rather pray for Israel in any intercession meeting now over any other topic. The Lord is funny in that way!
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