What we are not....

We are not alone..........for God is with us.... We are not defenseless.....for God is our protector.... We are not inadequate....for God is our sufficiency.... We are not useless.......for God has a purpose for us.... We are not hopeless.....for God is our future.....We are not unaccepted, rejected or abandoned......for God loves us with an everlasting love.

Room Service anyone?..........

(Check out my room service tray , yep He left it for me)

I have been pondering over many thoughts today of several issues and I came to one conclusion "my every morning is room service from my Lord".

When you are out of town and you call to order room service they bring it to you on this nice tray with everything just as you desire it to be, it all looks fresh, smells wonderful and you can't wait to dig in.

Well that is how "every morning" of my life is, except I don't have to call room service to place an order. My order is already waiting for me on my night stand when I get up, I don't have to wait for anyone to bring it to me, or worry that its late, It's already there waiting for me when my feet hit the floor, to feast from it, to eat it up, to dig in and experience the meat, the fruit, the freshness it has just by opening it up. And I have to say this is much better than bacon and eggs.

Thank you Lord for having my order ready for me each morning and thanks for filling my cup with your daily promises. I know that each day has struggles and trials but when I eat from the food you gave me "Your Word" I can't help but be "filled" and "full", and the times I'm feeling empty I'm gonna head back to my room service tray you left for me and get a "refill".

SSMT #2.......my 2nd scripture memory verse for 2011

Here is my 2nd memory verse for this new year that I'm putting in my heart.

Col 3:14 "And the most important piece of clothing you must wear is love. Love is what binds us together in perfect harmony".

I want to make sure that every morning when I get ready for the day God has for me that before I walk out of my house the last garment I put on is "love". If I'm not putting on my garment of love then in no way will I ever be binding the world together with "His love". I've gotta have that garment "on" in order to give the "love" out. So if I'm not dressed properly there will be people out in this world who will miss out on something wonderful and that is ......"Jesus"

Needing to let go of yesterday....

I started an evening devotion this new year as well as one each morning and God has been speaking to me so clearly since the very first one. My devotion for tonite helped me to "See" that I need to let go of many yesterdays. I guess I thought I had, when indeed when I read through this devotion tonite God began showing me that down deep they still remained lurking in the crevices of my heart and mind ready to show their ugly horns again, pulling me into a place I don't want to go back to again.

It showed me that what happened yesterday, last month, last year or as far back as when I was a child cannot be undone. "It happened" and continuing to relive or think about it periodically is only robbing me of the present joy that God wants me to experience in my life now. Yesterday is an outside force. I need to be focusing on the present and the future of where God wants to change me and where He wants to take me. I need to be focusing on getting to know Him more, Love Him more, share Him more.

So what will I choose? the agonies of my yesterdays or the joys of today and tomorrow?

My joy is changing. Check out this verse God showed me during this devotion.
Psalm 63:7 "I think how much you have helped me; I sing for joy in the shadow of your protecting wings".

God has helped all along the way of my life and there is no need to carry this baggage of yesterday. God spoke and said "Let go"....so what's a girl to do? she is to obey her Lord! and so I will.....

Pleasant Words....

Proverbs 16:24
"Pleasant words are like an honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones".

These pleasant words are the words of the pure, they are evidence of the speakers salvation because they reveal a good heart. They show the reflexive action of pleasant words; they contribute to the spiritual and physical health of the speaker. On the other hand, evil words hurt the speaker more than the one against whom they are directed, for bitter words show a bitter heart and this poisons the whole person, body, mind and spirit. In ancient times honey was used as medicine as well as a pleasant food, and so also are words well spoken. Sometimes we must force ourselves to speak pleasantly when we would rather lash out with angry words, but it is always better to speak soft words, for we never have to repent of them, but we often do of bitter words.

As I begin seeking God's direction for my life in 2011, I want to surrender my words to Him and allow Him to be honored with my speech so this will allow me to reach others for Christ in this new year. I pray that I give and show "pleasant words" to all I come in contact with, and I look forward to how God will change me in this upcoming year me as I surrender to "His will".

Esther...who is she? let's find out...

Our Sweet Tuesdays Bible Study group has begun a new Bible study tonite on the book of Esther.

Without going into some fancy descriptions or commentaries about this book of the Bible, because it is so in-depth, here is a brief description of what it will teach us and help us learn:

"Esther, like the NT, teaches us how to live with courage and integrity, carrying out responsibilites to the best of one's ability and trusting God in His providence to protect and provide".

As we watched the introduction video to this study tonite I began to think about this particular statement. (As many years as I've been in church I've never heard a pastor preach a sermon from the book of Esther). hmmmm I wonder why?

I'm excited about delving into the story and life of Esther. I'm sure there will be many times that I will see the struggles she faced and how I will be able to relate the same or similar to the struggles I've faced in my life. Something I read on one of Beth Moore's website as a comment from a reader is that many women don't study this book because they are uncomfortable with the issues it will bring out in their life that they will have to be confronted with so they choose to just avoid it altogether.

But wouldn't that speak the same for the entire Bible, every page of God's Word will cause us to confront our true selves. How will we become better human beings if we don't seek His Word and learn from it.

I haven't even read but a half page of our homework assignment for this week and I'm already so pumped about what God is going to teach me and how He will change me through what I will learn in the next 9 weeks that I just feel like running around my house (outside in the cold).

Be in prayer as our ladies group seeks God through this study, and come on ladies let's get uncomfortable so He CAN teach us.

Keep asking.....

Two little words that spoke mountains to me tonite during my quiet time. "keep asking".

In Ephesians 1:17 it says this "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better."

Check this out, Paul here is not saying that he prayed once for the Ephesian people, he kept asking, this means he was in a state of constant prayer for them.

I know that many times and many things in my life I have prayed over and over to the point where I've even thought that God is tired of hearing me pray that prayer again, but this verse is a reminder to me that He wants me to keep asking him. You know maybe He wants to even see how committed I really am to the thing I'm asking about. Sometimes we all ask God for something and because we don't see immediate results we don't ask again. Well I tell you what I want Him to know I'm committed, I want to keep asking and keep learning and keep letting Him reveal to my heart, His desires and His plan for me, but unless I ask how can I know.

All wisdom of His word and clarity of circumstances come from God, so how can we receive this wisdom and revelation unless we are talking to Him and asking Him the things that are on our heart.

These two words to me also reflect determination. We don't need to give up asking God for answers, for clarification, for healing, or many other issues in our life "until" He answers us. When He answers, accept the answer and thank Him for it, but until He answers, "ask", He wants to hear our heart.

At the latter part of this verse it says "so that you may know him better". Well how will that ever happen, if we aren't asking. We should ask and keep asking for that one purpose "to know him better". I want to truly KNOW God, not just the facts, dates, historical data about Him, but to know Him in the most deepest way that my heart can hold. The type of person God wants me to be will only happen by me seeking to know Him, and to seek Him I must "keep asking" Him.

The more I "ask" the more I'm gonna learn.
What about you? are you ready to do some asking?

Prayer....do you believe in it?

I was watching a movie today and I heard this man say this, " I will never speak or say another prayer to God as long as I live" he nevers hears or answers.

Immediately I thought to myself how in the world could you say that? He always answers everything just maybe not the way WE want or when WE want!

Psalms 4:3 says this: "You can be sure of this, the Lord has set apart the godly for himself. The Lord will answer when I call to him."

My study Bible say these things:
The godly are those who are faithful and devoted to God. David knew that God would hear him when he called and would answer him.

We can also be that confident that God does listen to our prayers and answers them when we call on Him. If we have trusted Christ as our Savior, he has forgiven us and He hears our burdens, our requests, although His answers are not always what our expectations are.

We need to look at our problems in the light of God's power instead of looking at God in the shadow of our problems.

Here are some things I've prayed about over the past few months/years that God answered:

1. My sister was told she had cancer spots in her mouth by her dentist and needed to see a specialist, we started praying for her, when she went for her appointment with the specialist guess what no spots were there.

2. In August of 2008 Michael McDaniel and his family were in a head-on-collision and it was thought by the doctors initially that he may not walk again....after much prayer and months of surgeries and therapy well guess what "He is walking"

3. Many years of praying for my two children to find the partner that God selected for them, well one of them has found "that one". I'm still praying for the other one, its not time yet as he is still in high school.

These are only three of the prayers I've been praying for that God answered. No He did not answer exactly the way I wanted or when I wanted. I didn't give Him specifics, just spoke from my heart what was "needed" and He did everything IN HIS TIME and HIS WAY.

An old adage my granddaddy taught me when I was a little girl. He said Beverly God will answer you in one of three ways.
1. Yes
2. No
3. or wait a while

#2 and #3 are the hardest, but don't ever think He won't answer, because He WILL and when He does be sure to praise Him even if the answer is no, you may see later in your life the reason why and then praise Him even more that He answered no.

Prayer...do you believe in it? I DO........

Feeling versus knowing.....

Something that I've realized I don't want to take into the New Year 2010.

I'm tired of "feeling". I want to "know"

The only way to "know" instead of "feel" is to always seek God in everything.
If I've learned anything in this year 2009 that would be it.

So that will be what I seek to get right in my life this upcoming new year.

Bound up in chains....you don't have to be

Yep you've got it, this is a picture of chains.
These chains are sometimes invisible around our arms and legs and you can't see they are even there, but God knows if we are wearing them.

But why do we wear them? Because we are in bondage to things in our lives that we haven't given up to God therefore we are bound to them.

But you know what every "Tuesday" night God is breaking our chains one link at a time in our little Bible Study group. I think all of our ladies are wearing chains, maybe some not as many as others and some wearing so many they can't even walk, but all of us have links to break and things in our lives that need to be "free" and tonite God freed many of us. Thank you Lord for leading us and showing us how to smash those links that are holding us.

Instead of being held in bondage I want to be held in You Lord. When I stay in Your Word, in prayer to You these are the places that will teach me how to break a link to freedom and to stay in a right relationship with you.

One link at a time Lord.....

Still....

Have you ever thought about this word "still"?

Well as my Sunday School teacher was giving us the message God layed on her heart to share with us this past Sunday she said something during her lesson that got me to thinking about this one word. She was teaching from Acts Chapter 1 and as she continued to share my mind kept wandering to this word.

I kept saying Lord what is it about this word that you want me to glean, gain, learn? So He hit me right between the eyes with His answer, here are some of the things He was saying to me:

• is your relationship "still" in the same place it was when you first accepted me or have you grown?
• what have you "still" not changed that I told you to?
• do you "still" love me the same as you did or has your love for me grown deeper since then?
• do you "still" do the same ol' things you did back then or are they now things that honor and praise me?
• do you "still" pray and read my Word everyday?

God was hitting me with a left and right continually during Sunday School. When I got home I thought hmm..let me look up the meaning of this word "still" in Webster's to see what it says is the meaning, ok here it is:

---quiet, motionless, calm

When I read this meaning my immediate thought came to the verse in the Bible Psalm 37:7 (NLT) Be "still" in the presence of the Lord and wait patiently for Him to act.

I quickly realized there are some areas in my life I'm "still" not being obedient to the Lord about and surrendering to Him, so how can I expect Him to "still" be satisfied with me when I'm "still" not doing, obeying, surrendering those things to Him.

God I pray right now that I will be quiet, motionless and calm as I hear you, and listen to you speak to what you need to change in me today. Thank you for allowing me to pick up this little but powerful word "still" in your lesson as it has taught me so much since then about what I'm "still" doing or not doing and what You "still" want me to be doing.

One thing I know for sure, I want to go deeper "still" in my knowledge and relationship with my Lord, and I look forward to the quiet, motionless and calm as He takes me there.

What kind of Junk is in your trunk?

This is one of the topics we discussed during Bible Study last night. I'm using this picture to represent someone who just has all kinds of junk and doesn't know where to put it or what to do with it, so they just kept piling it up in a trunk.

What kind of junk do we have in our trunk? Nope I'm not talking about the ol' hope chest you have at home filled with momentos of your life going back to your childhood and sometimes as far back as great-grandparents even, nor am I talking about the ol' tool boxes and such in your husband's shop, nor boxes tucked away in your attic or closets that just keep seem to keep piling up the longer you live. We have no where to put the "stuff" so we just continue boxing it up, and storing it somewhere so that one day we have to deal with all of it.

I'm talking about all the "junk" we have stored in our souls that we just keep boxing up, storing away, hiding in the crevices so far back till our trunks are now "overflowing". Our souls need to be "freed"

So ask yourself these questions:

1. Why am I holding onto all the junk?

2. Am I going to "really" use or need this junk later?

3. If it's junk why am I not throwing it away?

4. Am I scared to get rid of it? If so, why?

It's time to do some house cleaning or I like to say some "junk-cleaning".

Let's get RID of the junk from our trunk(lives), so God has room to move into that free space and use us again for HIS GLORY! Yeh!

Got Junk?

So that you may know Him......

Let me share my new memory verse with you that I'm learning this week:

"You are my witnesses, declares the Lord and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He. Before me no god was formed nor will there be one after me". Isaiah 43:10

Let me pick out a portion of this verse that God has laid on my life heavily (that you may know me). Yes Lord, that is exactly where God is taking me each day. I DESIRE to KNOW Him more than I did yesterday and God is paving some great paths to help me do that. (my Tuesday night Bible Study group---oh man what a class!!!!) and one of the most recent is I'm going back to Bible College (soon, haven't actually started yet but the plans are in motion as I seek the right place where God would have me to go.)

.....so I may KNOW Him....yeah
if I don't know Him then I can't share Him, I can't teach about Him, I can't show others how to know Him and love Him and receive Him.

What about you "You wanna KNOW Him.......

Bondage...is it holding you?

We've started a new Bible Study last week and God has taught me so much in just one week. Whew! It's so exciting....

How about this one word bondage? Anybody know what this word means?

Well for anyone who doesn't, it means "slavery" We are a slave to something that we are holding on to, hand cuffed to, chained to that we don't want to give up so we can be in complete surrender and service to our Lord Jesus.

If you sit down and really do some deep thinking about this word and what things in your life you are in bondage to, you might be very surprised at some things that are keeping you a slave. I did some soul searching during this week's Bible Study and especially last night as I was sharing with a friend God spoke to me and said "Aha Beverly there's one thing" and I said no God are you sure and again He said yes.

He showed me one area in my life that I was holding back from giving to Him to control, instead I've just been trying to keep it in my pocket and deal with it in the way I saw and felt best and now He is showing me oh no, give that to me too and watch how I can "release" you.
Here's an example to help bring it to some simple terms: think about when you have air in a water line and you have to turn on a valve to relief the pressure on the pipes so everything can begin to flow properly again. Hey ya'll its the same with God, when we give Him the stuff backed up in our lives, He can relieve our pressures, and release us from the captivity of bondage and we can be free.

I don't know about you but I can use a pressure relief valve daily, and my valve is Almighty God.

I don't wanna be a Christian who is held captive by bondage, instead I wanna be a Christian who is HELD by my God and helping me to be an effective Spirit filled woman who wants to learn all she can about Him, serve Him, know Him, believe Him, Glorify Him, experience Him, enjoy Him, witness for Him, take a stand for Him boldly. I wanna be able to always recognize what's missing so with Him He can help me fix it.

Bondage can be broken....and He can be the one to set us free from it.

How about you today, are you in bondage? is there something you have that is holding you or are you ready to let Christ hold you?

Here's all you have to do to let Him "Hold" you and "release" you from the bondages you may have:
1. acknowledge you are a sinner and you cannot save yourself
2. acknowledge that Christ is the Son of God and only He can save you
3. Believe His Crucifixion was for your personal sins and His death was in your behalf
4. Give Him your life and ask Him to be your Lord and Savior.

Four easy, simple steps to be released from bondage and to "Be Held".

Remember those times when you were growing up and being held by your mama who comforted you when you were needing some love, Well you know what God wants to hold you like this every day, every moment! Won't you let Him......

Talk about faith....WOW..should've been with me tonite

Tonite I was called to go meet a friend who needed to have a listening ear.

The faith this lady exhibited was yep that's right AWESOME!

God is really moving in her life through her trials right now. Here she was calling on me to hear her struggles and trials and to help her understand the why's about all of it and WOW was she ever lifting me up to hear what God is doing in her life.

Here's what she said to me that is getting her through her trials. She said the Lord showed her in His Word "I have a future for you", and she is holding tight to that promise and continuing to remind herself often during the day of what God showed her.

You know that each of us have trials that we are facing and hardships we are going through.
Are we going to God's Word to find "the answer" like she did and like she found?

Thank you Lord for allowing me to listen and share with her tonite and thanks for how You spoke to me through what you've taught her these last few days.

Friends helping friends. Ain't that what it's all about. God you teach us so we can help teach others. I love you Lord!

X-Ray of our heart....

Have you ever wondered what your heart looks like?
I don't mean the physical heart, I'm talking about the spiritual heart.

Have you ever wondered if you could go into the hospital and take an X-ray of the inside of your heart, what it would look like.

The place where everything you say or have said or do or have done is stored. What would the X-Ray look like?

Would it be clear nothing there to clog it up, all sin confessed?

or would it be clogged up with pits of black spots covering it up? Is it completely full of black spots of unconfessed sin? is it half full?

What is keeping us from getting a clean clear X-Ray. Jesus is waiting on us to come to Him for forgiveness.

We want a good clean X-Ray at the doctor when there is a problem with our heart don't we?

What about for Jesus? Do we also want a clear one?

No we can't take a physical X-Ray of our heart to see what it looks like spiritually, but we know personally what it looks like and feels like. If it doesn't look like it should what are we doing about it?

"If Only" I had....

Have you ever said those two little words "if only"......
You hear people say "if only I had said that instead"......"if only I had done that instead of this".....
"if only I had not gotten angry".....if only, if only, if only........

I talked a little bit about these little words last night at our Bible Study but you know what in doing more thinking today I had to really search more in my heart about these two words, and here are my thoughts.

Why do I think these two little words can change something?
These two little words keeps me looking backwards at things I no longer have control over instead of looking forward at the future things that I can affect by my decisions and choices.

These two little words keep me caught up, unfocused, unplugged, wastes my thoughts, keeps me at a barricade that hinders my growth.

I have made mistakes, made bad decisions and choices and maybe you have as well, but you know what? These two little words don't have to be the end of everything.

We need to think of these two little words as a computer virus, once it gets into your computer it messes everything up, "if onlys" do the same we can't get past the virus and move on if we continue to let the virus fester up in our thoughts all the time.

So how do we get rid of these two little words in our life and move on? We need to move our thoughts from "what was" to "what is".

We need to totally get rid of these two words from our vocabulary, our mouths, our thoughts and instead use words like "next time I will".

When we stop saying “if only” and start saying “next time I will” then we begin to push back the barricade of regret. We instead begin to move forward, and hold onto what can be in our future. We begin living in a way that is productive and working our lives the way God needs them to be rather than allowing defeat from our past "if onlys".

God will guide our way!
First John 1:9 says that "if you acknowledge your sins and failures (the things you have said and done and now regret), God will wipe them out as though they never even existed, and guide you every step of the way toward a promising future".

If our life is dominated by “if onlys,” let's throw those two little words away and let God teach us how to say “next time I will.”

After all my thoughts when I returned from Bible Study last night on these two little words I'm truly going to "try this" and watch how God can change me by changing these two "little words", and I challenge each of you to try the same and I hope to hear from you as to how God changes you by changing two "little words" in your life.

Are you in God's way?

Just wondering if any of you ever find yourself in the way of God trying to do His work in and through you.

Well guess what....I have been in His way for the past 8 months. He has been trying to change a path of direction in my life and I have been shutting the door every time He opens it. I've prayed and asked Him to show me that it is His will and every time He has shown me and said yes my daughter, now is the time......I've said back to Him, are you sure Lord? I've said but what about this Lord.....what about that Lord....and He kept showing me His answer (YES!)

So what has taken me so long to surrender to His call.......only one answer to that.
I've put myself in His way.....

Pray for me this week as I surrender this decision to Him and move out of His way so He can show me His work and do His work....

Not understanding the sufferings of life?

We face MANY trials every day, even more sometimes than our friend Job did.
We can lean on the fact that our God who is loving and knows "ALL" understands our sufferings and hurts.

Check out this awesome poem I read during my devotion this morning. It really pumped me up and gave me courage of how my Lord will keep me in His hand and take care of "all" my trials

Not now, but in the coming years,
It may be in the better land,
We'll read the meaning of our tears,
And there, some time, we'll understand.

Then trust in God through all the days;
Fear not, for He doth hold thy hand;
Though dark thy way, still sing and praise,
Some time, some time we'll understand.

I just love my Lord.....

Jobs 36:5, Yes, God is mighty...He undestands all things....

How Big the Little word "All" is.......

From my devotion today I just had to share because God really used this "little" word in some BIG ways today.

Webster's meaning of this word is: "the whole of, every one of, complete, everything, every bit, everything one has, the whole amount, entirely.

Well get this BIG information about this little three-letter word (all):

• This word is in the Bible 5,675 times.

Look at some of the verses in the Bible where this word is used:

• Rom. 8:28 "All things work together for the good of those who love God"
• Isa. 38:17 "You have thrown all my sins behind your back"
• Matt. 10:30 "Even the hairs of your head have all been counted"
• Matt. 22:37 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart"
• Prov. 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart"
• Matt. 11:28 "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened"

There are no words in the Bible that are wasted words. In these verses the word "all" could have been left out, yet they weren't.

I am seeking God's all in my life every day. I want to be where He wants me to be, doing what he wants me to do and as I seek him, He shows me His "all".

I can't give my "all" until I seek his "all". How about you? are you seeking for His all too?

Deut. 4:29 "You will search for the Lord your God, and you will find Him when you seek Him with all your heart and all your soul".