Let There Be YOU!

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, . . .

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:1-3, 6-, 7, 9, 14, 26-27 NIV).

Yes, Genesis was referring to YOU! God spoke you into existence! He saved man for last because He desired a perfect place and time for man to come into existence.

Just as God perfectly and divinely planned mankind collectively, He perfectly and divinely planned you!

The next time you're feeling insignificant or small or battered by the world, repeat this, inserting your name in the blank: "Then God said, 'Let us make ________ in our image and likeness.'"

Blessings on your journey,
Mary

Smack Dab In the Center of God's Will

"It sounds like you are doing very well and are smack dab in the center of God’s will. There is no sweeter spot than that!! Praise God."

That's a comment made to me in the last couple of days ago by my friend Nancy about where I am in my life. We were e-mailing back and forth about various things going on with each of us and I had offered to help her out with some "social networking issue." Nancy is a modern-day prophet and I respect very much every word she says.

When I read her comment, I had one of those "V-8" moments! You know, you knock yourself on the forehead with the flat of your hand because once you have a solution to a seemingly complicated problem, you realize it wasn't complicated at all?!

For me, Nancy's remark was a revelation and explanation of why my week had been so AWFUL! I felt absolutely as if I were stuck in mud - in the miry bog of Psalm 40. (It also affirmed and verified that Nancy is prophetic even when she doesn't realize she is prophesying!)

Psalm 40

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

¹ I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.

² He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.

³ He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the LORD.

⁴ Blessed is the man
who makes the LORD his trust,
who does not look to the proud,
to those who turn aside to false gods. ^a]">[a]

⁵ Many, O LORD my God,
are the wonders you have done.
The things you planned for us
no one can recount to you;
were I to speak and tell of them,
they would be too many to declare.

⁶ Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but my ears you have pierced ^b]">[b] , ^c]">[c] ;
burnt offerings and sin offerings
you did not require.

⁷ Then I said, "Here I am, I have come—
it is written about me in the scroll. ^d]">[d]

⁸ I desire to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart."

⁹ I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly;
I do not seal my lips,
as you know, O LORD.

¹⁰ I do not hide your righteousness in my heart;
I speak of your faithfulness and salvation.
I do not conceal your love and your truth
from the great assembly.

¹¹ Do not withhold your mercy from me, O LORD;
may your love and your truth always protect me.

¹² For troubles without number surround me;
my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see.
They are more than the hairs of my head,
and my heart fails within me.

¹³ Be pleased, O LORD, to save me;
O LORD, come quickly to help me.

¹⁴ May all who seek to take my life
be put to shame and confusion;
may all who desire my ruin
be turned back in disgrace.

¹⁵ May those who say to me, "Aha! Aha!"
be appalled at their own shame.

¹⁶ But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation always say,
"The LORD be exalted!"

¹⁷ Yet I am poor and needy;
may the Lord think of me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
O my God, do not delay.

I'm pretty sure I don't need to provide any details other than to say I was not fit to be around and I felt constantly and completely under attack all week - in every conversation, interaction, activity and thought. Now I understand that I was, indeed, very literally under attack! It is when we are "smack dab in the center of God's will" that Satan works the hardest to undermine us and to convince us otherwise.

I immediately began to feel 'cleansed' of the miry clay that had begun to suck me down into the pit upon reading her email.

One of Jesus' disciples found me and left me a word to remind me I have a rock upon which to stand. Thank you, Nancy!

Blessings on your journey my friends,
Mary

Have You Not Known? Have You Not Heard?

I'm in an odd place in my life these days. Some of my dreams are beginning to come true. Actually, some of them are dreams I never dared to dream for myself are right on the horizon. Others have been dreaming them for me though, and praying for me, and uplifting me all along the way. For so long I didn't imagine the dreams they saw in my future could really come true.

I knew somewhere deep inside me that God had a dream for me too. I have spent a lot of time and energy assuring others that they were created for a specific purpose on the earth! But like a teacher who never lives what she teaches, I held back in my own life. It wasn't a fear of failure, because even the ventures and ideas I've had in the past that didn't pan out were never counted as failures in my mind. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Right?

Throughout the past year I've been doing some very intentional, deep spiritual work. I've let go of a lot of what was holding me back from God's dream for me. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:11-12) I don't exactly know when things changed--when I changed. I didn't just wake up one morning as someone/something new!


My husband has been a role model and a tremendous rock of encouragement as he has experienced his own transformation. I have witnessed and benefitted from his grace, his wisdom, his strength and his sense of hope. Yes, he had some down times, even to the point of falling into depression. But he pulled himself out of it through his faith in the strength and power of Christ.

God also planned some "divine circumstances" in my life. He has brought people into my life who have been loving and encouraging and also held me accountable for my own growth and prayed for me. Some of them have helped me more than they "had to" and done things for me that they had no reason to do except that they were responding to God's promptings in their own lives.


The Lord is the everlasting God who does not grow faint or weary. He has sustained me, protected me, taught me and refined me. He continues to prepare me for His dream for my life. I am yielding more and more to Him. I have nothing that did not come from Him. My only choice, then is to give Him back what He has given me.

I love my God so very much that sometimes it just hurts. I stand in awe of His capacity to tend to the details of my life while the entire universe spins on its path. He renews my strength each day.

Whatever we may be going through, no matter how down and out we feel, no matter what life throws our way, there is a way out and a way up. We know it's true because God came to earth 2000 years ago to take the form of a man. He died on a cross and rose again from the grave into victory so that we could receive a victory of our own. God wants us to live into His dream for us. We just need to keep our eye on the Cross and we will accomplish it.


Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary, his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:28-31)

Learning to Be Grateful for Everything

This post was actually part of a journal entry I tacked on to the end of one that wasn't nearly as hopeful and full of promise. The original post was made right after we had received a long-overdue, much needed and desired diagnosis for our 20-year old son. I was pretty angry, sad, disappointed and full of self-recrimination for not have been able to "make" it all happen sooner. Later and since that time, I have grown tremendously in my wisdom -- and certainly in my faith as God reveals to me more and more about Himself and opens my mind to His thoughts.

Philippians 6-7 "Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."

A couple of weeks ago in Sunday School we read and talked about 1 Samuel 1-4. The lesson I gleaned from the Scripture was that God will determine failure and defeat or victory and success. God decides the who and the when, the how and everything in between. Not man. Not me! God. We may think we’ve come out ahead in any given situation, but God may have planned it that way or we may feel defeated and God planned that too. God will use even that defeat and the lessons learned from it and the living through it to minister to his world—as He sees fit.

It really resonated for me, as I’ve struggled through these last few months. God had the plan for our son all worked out. I don’t need to expend energy worrying about what has happened or hasn’t happened in the past. God’s got it all together. He’s in charge.

Last night I got to thinking about Job. The blessings he received at the end of his life didn’t diminish his tremendous loss early on. His grief didn’t go away because he got another family and success after he lost everything. Those feelings were always with him, until the end of his days—that “yuckiness” probably crept up on him less and less frequently as time passed though. As his family grew and his wealth increased, his success and joy expanded and multiplied, that yuckiness probably only popped up occasionally as a fleeting memory.

I think he was probably grateful for it in the end, because by losing everything, he learned to be grateful for everything. I'm learning that lesson too. I hope I don't have to experience the tragedies that Job endured before I really figure it out!