open heart. open eyes.

I want to start off with just saying this...

The Lord is so great, faithful, loving, protecting, forgiving, saving, merciful, and graceful! 

take a moment.. 

& Praise the Lord for all that he is! 

Even when we are pushing & running away from Him - He is still there with hands wide open waiting, wanting, and begging us to come back to Him! 

Even when we mess up.. really really mess up - He is still there and has already forgiven us!  

Even when we dont know we need Him or think we dont want Him - He is there for us! 

He is such a great God. There is no God like him! 

His grace, forgiveness, love, and want for us to be close to Him is all we need in this life & in eternity! It honestly blows my mind daily how much He longs for us when we are so undeserving. The fact that He forgives us before we do wrong, loves us when we do not love Him or His children and look out for our well being plus He makes our lives perfect in His plan is completely and utterly humbling. 

I am humbled by the Lord daily, in both big and small ways.  But this last week has been a break through with my relationship with the Lord and has humbled me in a way that I've never felt before. 

Throughout conversations with friends & family, hearing Sermon's from many different Pastors, small group leaders, and The Bible - we all know we are supposed to surrender everything to God. Surrender so much that we sacrifice our most prized earthly possessions and risk everything for His Glory. I try to live radically and not be a luke warm Christian, but lets be real, who isn't luke warm some days and some seasons of their life? With that said, I still always considered myself to be in surrender to the King. I make the commitment to myself, my heart, and my Father very often. 

I know that there is nothing in my plan that is better than what is in His plan for me. 

I know there is nothing I want that is greater than what He wants. 

I know that there is nothing I cant do with Him by my side. 

And I know that a life with Jesus Christ is so much more than anything else. 

One day with Jesus Christ is worth more than a life time without Him. 

With that said, along with all my other rambling comments.. I would say that I am in surrender to the Lord. I wake up knowing that I cant make a better life that Jesus can for me so I surrender my all to God. 

Joke is on me. 

I thought I had surrendered a lot before and I thought I had surrendered to His Glory. I thought I had trusted him with everything but I hadn't.. at least not like last week. 

Last week I felt so convicted to hold a friend accountable for their life and the choices they had been making lately. But let me tell you something, holding a good friend accountable and having to minister to  them is a lot more difficult than I was anticipating.

& Yes it was hard - but what happened is not the point of the story. :) 

Throughout last week and everything going on, I had to rely 100% on the Lord to speak through me, give me strength, and love me unconditionally when the Devil was shouting awful things into my ears. I can honestly say that the conversation I had to have last week was hands down the hardest conversation I have ever had. It was emotionally draining by it's self, but having words in the form of bullets being fired at me from my friend (because of me holding them accountable and them not liking it) was awful.  Or it should have been. 

But in that conversation, I've never felt so safe, loved, protected, forgiven, and confident in my entire life. I could feel the Jesus standing in front of me taking the nasty words fired at me so that I would not feel them.. not one little bit. I could feel Jesus putting his hand on my heart telling me exactly what to say. I could feel Jesus holding me tight reassuring me that I was doing the right thing for His Glory. It was remarkable. I've never felt anything like that. I was not me, I was so filled with the Holy Spirit, I could not tell you what I said because it was not me talking.

The positive repercussions that have sparked from last weeks dependency on the Lord has been just as amazing.  I can proudly say that I have gotten rid of something extremely toxic in my life, started evacuating other cancer's in my life, learned a lot about God, fount more Joy than I've ever known, and received the confidence I wanted for my abilities to minister in Africa. 

All of the things I just listed above did not need to happen in my life but because of the Lord - He made them happen in the perfect way at the perfect time! Praise the Lord!! 

I know it's not detailed, sorry I'm not sorry. 

But I've rambling this entire post :) 

Spend time in the Word and with the Lord 

Rely on Him for everything. 

Surrender everything, especially the things that you're clinging onto. 

Thank God for all that He is and all that He does. 

Be a good friend, no matter how hard it may be sometimes. 

Listen to what the Lord is screaming and whispering at you. 

Love God above all else. 

Side Note: It's May 1st, 2011 & Osama Bin Laden is dead! USA! Praise the Lord. 

But pray that this death does not cause repercussions and more threats/ terrorism. 

Also pray for Osama Bin Laden - it's another brother who left this earth without knowing the Lord :( 

Pray that Bin Laden's followers find God and life before it's too late!!

Interesting fact: Bin Laden was found dead on May 1, 2011. Adolf Hitler killed himself May 1, 1945.
don. don. don. 

Remember: God loves EVERYONE equally. He loves no one less and no one more, no matter what they do, good or bad. Continue to love everyone. Including the difficult people like Osama Bin Laden and everyone in Al Queda. They are still brothers and sisters from our Father!!! Pray for their Salvation!! 

In the mean time.. have some American Pride! 

It is a day in history.