My Makers Daughter

What a beautiful thing is is to realize that the Lord of all creation calls me by name. He knows the littlest things bout me, even the things that I don't know. He knows my thoughts before i think them. He knows my actions before I do them. He remembers things that I have forgotten and He knows my future. He knows my flaws. He knows my insecurities. He knows EVERYTHING. He doesn't just know my name but he knows it all. I find a lot of comfort in that but it is also an incredible reminder that I can not hide anything from God. He knows everything that goes on in my heart. He knows the dark areas of my heart and He wants nothing more than for me to allow Him into those dark places. I’ll admit though, I struggle with it sometimes. Dying to self is a daily task, it isn't a once for all thing. It’s waking up everyday and allowing the Lord into every situation. Unfortunately somedays I wake up and part of my heart is hardened towards the Lord. Sometimes I even neglect to give ...

So this verse leads me to ask myself two very simple yet two very needed questions. Question number one, are my hands on the plow? Question 2, if so am I at all looking backwards? So my answer to the first question is so simple and easy that it is almost reflex. Yes, absolutely my hand is on the plow. Unfortunately, on the other hand the second question really depends on the day, but why? Why do I allow my feelings to dictate what I worship. Why do I allow my feelings to control my eyes. Somedays when I lose sight of my identity in the Lord I look back to find my identity in past past, whatever that may be. But then, before I know it, my hands are off of the plow and I am walking towards whatever my eyes are focused on. The Lord calls me to follow Him and never look back. He calls me to walk in the new creation that I was made  into when I accepted Him as my Lord and Savior. My old self, the person that I used to be and the person that used to find temporary happiness in sin i...

The entire parable of the unworthy servant is a beautiful view as to how our actions should be towards the Lord. I am a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. In that, I am called to follow Him and I am called to listen and go without complaining. In the parable we are told of a servant who has been out in the fields working all day for his master. An example is henceforth presented, would the master of the house then tell his servant to have a seen at the dinner table, to relax, and to enjoy the food which is presented? No. The servant would be instructed to continue serving after a long day in the field. The servant would be told to make dinner and serve his master until instructed to stop. If this servant that is being spoken of is a servant for a creation, how much more so should we be a servant for The One and Only Creator? We are called to work out in the field all day, whatever that field may be. For me, right now, that field is teaching, that field is hospitality, that field is wha...

Paul, described as a servant of the Lord and one of the apostles, had a desire to visit Rome and to share with them more of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Without ceasing Paul mentioned and brought his desires before the Lord. He didn't grow weary he prayed with the sure understanding that the Lord was listening and heard Him. Paul longed to go to Rome, he wanted it so badly but the Lord didn't give it to him right away. He had to travel to many other places before making it to Rome. He prayed for years upon years WITHOUT ceasing and the Lord gave him the desire of his heart.  Finally in chapter 27 of Acts, after years of following the Lord, and remaining faithful, Paul is on a boat heading for Rome! But while at sea they encounter a storm and the boat is shipwrecked. Those of board were forced out of the boat and to swim to land, they ended up on Malta. I cant imagine what must have been going through Paul’s head at this point. I know that if I were in His situation, I...

Boldness, having courage and confidence. Boldness is such a tricky one for me. We are called to be bold as Christians. We are called to stand out as different. We are called not to be conformed to this world. I was presented with an interesting question today, If Christians were being arrested, persecuted, murdered, beaten, etc. for their faith would there be enough evidence of the Lord in my life to be among the persecuted? Would I be walking boldly enough that others would notice the Lord’s Holy Spirit dwelling within me? Today, my answer would be yes. Then I continued to present myself with another question, would it always? Unfortunately my answer changed to a no. I struggle with being content staying in the back of the room with my hood on and my hat covering my eyes. 2nd Corinthians 3:12 states “Since we have such a hope, we are very bold,” How dare I not be bold because of this hope I have. How dare I not take off the hood, take off that hat, and run to the front of the room. T...

Even after Jacob had seen what the Lord had shown to him Jacob bargained with God. He told God “So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God: And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.” When I look at this I see myself. I see who I used to be before I had a real relationship with the Lord. I was guilty of bargaining with the Lord saying “ Lord if you get me out of this, if you fix this situation, then I will follow You. Then I wont turn back to my old ways, but first You need to fix this.” Such immaturity, it’s disgusting. We must guard our hearts. We must be constantly watching ourselves making sure that our Love for the Lord isn’t conditional. We need to love Him as He loves us. The Lord’s love comes with zero conditions. His unconditional love is a characteristic of Him. He is forever the same which makes His love forever the same. He is ...

“Life is not as idle ore, but iron dug from central gloom and battered by the shocks of doom to shape and use.” I came across this quote in my morning devotional the other day, My Upmost for His Highest. The Lord  desires for us to be shaped, shaped closer to the image of Himself. For us to be formed into that our callused hearts must experience fire to be softened. Our hearts must first me broken and made pliable for the Lord to change and shape. Imagine that you are a block of hard unbreakable steel. You desire to become this beautiful sword, so what must you do? You must go through heat to be softened. You must sit in the fire and stay. You must be beaten with a mallet repeatedly while already in the fire. You must remain in that fire for this to work. You must not jump out of the fire when it becomes to painful. You must not move out of the way when you see the mallet coming once again to hit you. For you to become that sword that you desire so badly to be you have to go throu...

Stars have to be one of my favorite creations. The stars have zero purpose, besides our sun which without it we would freeze, but I’m talking about the stars that are billions of miles away. The stars that I lay out in the field looking at in complete awe of my Creator. The Lord spoke The biggest stars into creation simply by the vapor of His mouth. The Largest of starts were spoken into existence with our Lord’s mouth. That is such a crazy thought, and the Lord created them just to show us more of His amazing character. He created those stars for our pleasure, there is no other explanation for it. I am so guilty of putting my Lord into this box, into this little tangible thing, but our Lord is so big and amazing that the biggest things in all of creation were only His breath. I know for me, I need to take more time to appreciate his creation. I need to look for the Lord’s beauty and goodness in not only the large details but also the little details. Look at a snowflake. There is no r...

I have to make more of an effort to allow for the Lord to take over situations. Sometimes, in my immaturity I fail to allow the Lord into situations, even big situations, and they end up failing simply because I never allowed the Lord to play a part in them. If I am not inviting the Lord into something I cant wait around expecting to be blessed by Him. If the Lord isn't my center of all things I am simply being foolish.  I tend to worry a lot and I neglect to give that worry over to that Lord. The Lord cant bless the situations in which I don't invite His loving grace and mercy into. Even while being fully aware that I am able to do absolutely nothing in my own strength I forget, I try and attempt to do it on my own for one reason or another, usually because I am impatient. Thats another thing that I tend to forget to hand over the Lord, my lack of patience. On the other hand I might be scared to pray for more patients because I know the Lord will be faithful to bring somethi...

Even in the rough and dry season of our lives, the seasons where we feel as if the Lord is everywhere but with us He is there providing. These few verses are proof of the Lord’s kind hearted nature. Gomer was an adulterous woman who the Lord still loved and provided for. Even in the midst of her sin He was there providing for her. The Lord is constantly providing for His children regardless of if His children see it or not. Even when His children are completely lost and broken He is there to provide for them.   When we start to think that we are getting somewhere on our own or when we begin to believe that there is nothing to thank the Lord for because we are unable to see the little things that He has given us we need to stop and repent from that way of thinking. The Lord is always the One providing us with our weekly paychecks that we rely on. The Lord is constantly the One providing the food that we eat, the water we drink, the air that we breath. To be blind to that is t...

If we plant a peach seed we will come back in due time to find a peach tree. If we plant an apple seed, in due time we will have an apple tree. If we plant a lime seed and we come back in due time we will not come back to a tree filled with lemons, it just doesn't work that way. When we plant a seed we must not expect anything other than what we have planted. If we plant sin and we come back in due time we cant expect a blessing. Sin will only reap sin. While good will reap good. There is no way around this. God will not be mocked and He makes sure that whatever we sow we will also reap. But the part that I tend to mess up on is in the “due time” I plant a seed of good and want to come back in 24 hours to find a fully grown tree filled with blessings. I try to rush things along by giving my seed attention and attempting to help it grow along the way. But the seed doesn't need my help, it just needs time. The seed doesn't need me to come back and check on in every five seco...

It is important to remain confident that the Lord will come through. Sometimes we pray to God asking the same questions for days, months, or even years without a response. But we must know and truly believe one thing, we will see the goodness of the Lord and we must wait on Him. We need to remain in good courage without doubting His love and His promises. The word of the Lord proves true and we must stand steadfast upon that truth. Psalm 18:30 “This God—his way is perfect; the word of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.” The Lord will provide us with the strength that we need to press on and as soon as we believe we dot need His strength and we try to rely on our own is when we will fall to the ground. We must press on and know for an absolute fact that whatever the Lord is doing and whatever we cant see it is being worked out for His plan and His great and divine purpose. As David waited on the Lord He didn't just sit around waiting. He was ...

The Lord doesn’t forget anything but that doesn't mean that he choices to remember. When we come to the Lord asking Him for forgiveness He is never short on forgiving us of our disgusting sins. Something just as great as His forgiveness is that we have a list of zero wrongs. Our list of wrongs is a blank sheet of paper, there is absolutely nothing on it. Even though that is a fact that I know I often forget it. I forget that the Lord makes the choice, not one that He as to make by any means, but He choices to not remember. He is so merciful and He is so incredibly loving that no human being will ever be able to understand it. As humans we tend to walk by emotions, we walk by what we feel and not what we know. I catch myself tripping on my emotions on a daily basis. I forget what I know and I focus on what I feel. This isn't me trying to invalidate emotions, the Lord gave us emotions for a reason, but He never intended on us to focus on them.  If the Lord has forgiven me and...

Steadfast. Being and staying steadfast. steadfastness has always been one of my bigger if not my biggest struggle. Being patient and waiting on the Lord and His perfect timing is where I tend to fall and slip up the most. “Okay God, if you aren't going to come through for me I’ll just have to do it myself because I know better.” When I go outside of the will of God and I blatantly decide to do things in my own timing that is basically what I am saying to God. I am saying that “God, Your plans aren't good enough for me I want more than what you have to offer me”. In Nehemiah, we are told how he has this great desire to go help in Jerusalem and you know what he does? He waits, he waits for 4 months, tells nobody of His struggle, he only bring it to God through prayer. Eventually, the Lord bring the situation around where He talks to the King and the King releases him from the duties of a cupbearer to go and help the people of Jerusalem. Nehemiah didn't get tired of waiting o...

I really do enjoy this parable, the parable of the merchant and the pearl. The Lord is comparing the Kingdom of Heaven to a pearl and how this merchant sold everything that he had to have this one pearl. How much more so should we be willing to sell everything that we own for God and His Glory? How much more so Should I be willing to drop everything, leave everything behind, for His names sake? The more I sit here and really think about it the longer the list gets, the list of things that the Lord is asking me to give up that I am not letting go of. My knuckles are white from grasping these things for so long and I am tired of it. I even allow worries to hold me back. Worries of my future, worries about my family, worries about pretty much anything that I can worry about. But an amazing thing that we receive from the Lord is to cast all of our burdens on Him. Psalm 55:22 “Cast your burdens on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.” The Lor...

“Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.” Romans 12:16 The way in which we think controls our outward appearance. Especially for me, if you spend 5 minutes with me you'll understand what my emotion is always clearly presented in my facial expressions. It's both a blessing and a curse, when I need someone to talk to the people around me always know something is bugging me but when it's over something stupid i can't get away with a negative thought with the people around me. Not that I can ever get away with it when it comes to God. No matter what we are thinking our body will follow, that's why it is so important to be of one kind with team mates. To make sure that you all have to same end goal in mind and that you are focusing on God on not ourselves. We are no better than when we were running from the Lord. We can't change the fact that we are all gross s...

Matthew 20:26-28 The Lord Jesus could have easy come to this earth and proven to all that He was the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings, but no, He stayed humble. He could have come here and demanded to be served. Demanded to be waited on hand and foot, but did He do that? No. Jesus came to serve us. The Lord of all creation came to earth to serve His own creation. Jesus constantly poured Himself out for others. Never once did He complain "Well actually I don't want to do that today. You see I am your Lord and I am the Son of God." He never said that. How much more so should we, His creation, be willing to serve our creator? I would hope that all of our answers would be the same, we would give our lives to the cause. We would give our lives over to Him committing our lives to be servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even those in Leadership position are called to be servants. Verse 26 tells us how even the great among us must be servants. In a perfect world this would wo...

Yes, we were given freedom in Christ. He came to sacrifice His life so that I would be free. He came to carry the weight of my sin, he came to take the punishment of my sin for me. This freedom is given without charge, all we have to do is believe in him, believe in the Lord. Just because you're forgiven and we can ask for forgiveness and repent at anytime, it doesn't give us a free pass to continue living in sin. We can't actually live in that freedom until we are dead men. The Lord gives us that freedom once we understand what it is to be obedient to him. He will not start speaking into our lives until we are dead to the things of our past. We can't use the Lord as as a body wash. He isn't there to cleanse us once we become too dirty to handle it. Unfortunately, I used the Lord that way for countless years. I only came to Him when I absolutely needed Him and I knew that I couldn't do it myself. I came back just before it was too late. I would go back to church...

 The Lord calls me to be a dead man. Dead men don't have a voice nor do they do anything in their own will. Dead men have to be told what to do and they also don't have emotion. They don't complain and they don't grumble.they just listen and do, nothing more and nothing less. They have submitted themselves to the way of the Lord. Submit, "to stop trying to fight or resist something: to agree to do or accept something that you have been resisting or opposing. In respect of what the Lord calls us to do I have to submit just like that. I have to willingly and openly submit to others without complaint and without a bad thought in my heart. The Lord looks at my heart, not what I am doing for the face I might be putting on. Because I am people but for the Lord. If a friend asks me to do something and should be acting as if Jesus Himself had asked me to do it. My heart should be filled with the joy of the Lord always and all that I do should reflect that. Even the smalles...

 We are all weak human beings but through the Holy Spirit, the Lord blesses us with His strength. The keyword in that sentence is His, His strength. It isn't my strength, it isn't your strength, but it is the Lord's strength. I often find myself forgetting how badly I need the Lord's strength, but I remembered while climbing Agua, that's for sure. I also tend to forget that nothing is actually mine, including strength. I struggle to use that strength and give it to those who are weak. I often use His strength in my life to focus on myself. I take that strength and I run with it. So let's face it, I'm selfish. I use the strength to patch myself up. Forgetting that even in His strength, I am still human. Forgetting that regardless I am still weak in my own strength without the Lord. Forgetting that the Lord has blessed me with His strength to help others, and to build up my neighbor. I am called to bear in the failings of the weak with the strength of the ...