Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Baby Steps Are A Big Deal~

God gave me this awesome revelation and I'm excited to share it to encourage those who read about it!  I was shown a baby taking their first steps and an adult taking steps toward God.  As people grow, we need to take steps towards our Goal.  As babies grow, they learn how to walk.  Being a parent, it is exciting when your baby takes his/her first steps and is learning how to walk...but it's a process and doesn't happen right away.  Same goes for a person of any age...with God as their Parent, He is excited when we decide to take another step (no matter how big it is!).  Any parent would encourage their baby to keep trying or say good job or help them to their "goal" (the person across the room).  They most likely wouldn't say 'I knew you couldn't do it' or 'you're never going to walk' or 'everyone else your age can do this, why can't you?'  As a baby falls, the parent will pick the child up and have them try again- clapping and smiling or gently guiding the child.  When the baby turns around while they are standing, they usually lose their balance and fall.  Take a minute to relate that to how God is with us.  He is our Encourager at all times, He is there to guide us, He is there to pick us back up when we fall...He doesn't give up on us!  Also, God doesn't want us to look back at our past and lose our balance by taking our eyes off of our Goal.  The person across the room will usually have an inviting look on their face, confidence in their eyes, and their arms open wide ready to love on and boast about their child who walked directly to their warm heart.  God is like this with His children.  He is always waiting with arms wide open so He can wrap them around us and be so thrilled to have us so close to His heart. If He didn't look so inviting, we would probably not draw near to Him.  Because the parents of this sweet new walker are extremely excited, the baby will be too and they won't feel condemned if they fall because they trust their parents are there to happily pick them up and continue to encourage them.  Compare that to the way God is with us.  If there are brothers and sisters in the mix who don't care much to encourage their baby brother/sister on their new adventure or if they are a major distraction, it will be hard for baby to concentrate on the goal.  We have spiritual brothers and sisters who don't see the progress that just one step makes and they might make us feel like we are not doing a good enough job to reach the Goal or we get distracted by the other people around us that indirectly/directly make us take our eyes off of God and we lose our focus, become unstable and fall. It takes encouragement and motivation from God and the people who call themselves Christ Followers to make a walk with God enjoyable...they way He wants it.  Without love and encouragement a baby won't walk and people won't walk with God.  A step takes us closer to God and further away from the world...

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

BeAuTiFuL in God's Eyes

Search the Word and realize you are beautiful!  God made us in His image and He is outrageously beautiful...what does that make you?  As you ponder on the fact that you are beautiful to God--recognize that ALL God's children are beautiful to Him!  He sees us all the same...His precious kiddos!  So, since we are all the same to God and He sees us no differently than another person...let's go forth and follow His ways.  Look at someone and see pure beauty, gaze into their eyes and see Jesus!  God doesn't pick favorites, so we shouldn't either.  Think about it, how would you like to be God's favorite?  Or God's least favorite?  Take that to consideration when you look to your left or right...who's there?  It doesn't matter who is there, what matters is how you treat them.  As Christians, we are called to mimic Christ.  How would Christ treat those around you?  As I stated in my last post, the way we look doesn't make us beautiful...it is our heart.  Looks change, God doesn't.  Search your heart...better yet, let God search your heart, then let Him clean house!  The cross around your neck doesn't make you a Christian, the outpourting of love for The Cross and the way you act because of it does.  You can always purchase a new necklace or get one as a gift...however, there is only One Cross that is The Ultimate Gift and the only one that really has significance.  He paid a much higher price on The Cross than anyone can on a cross.  Do you realize that because of Jesus' death on the cross we now have access to God? He can call us beautiful BECAUSE of an ugly death of crucifiction.  We are not by any means beautiful by our own works but by Jesus' works we can be called RIGHTEOUS!  Jesus died so we could live and be in communion with Our Father!  Jesus is The Way, The Truth, The Life...no one comes to The Father except through Him:)!  God created the earth with you in mind, Jesus died on The Cross with you in mind...that's Love, that's Beautiful.  You are worth more than you know-others are worth more than you think.  Dig deep so you can wrap your mind around what beauty is and remind yourself it is NOT what you see, but it's found within.  God might not even know what we look like because it's the heart He is interested in.  Put on your God glasses.


He is the Potter and we are the clay...