Trusting in Him

Proverbs 3:5-6


"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."

A few weeks ago there was a Women's Conference at Grace Community Church. 

That weekend  Josh and Hannah were also gone at Junior Camp. As you know the weather is great here in California but that weekend was particularly cold and rainy and the temperature was very low. 

There was supposed to be ice on the road.

  If you know me, you know that one of the thing that scares me is the unknown and driving with bad weather on California Highways was not something I wanted to do. 

I had promised my 7 year old that I would have brought her to her Sunday School Christmas Party and I really wanted to go to the Conference but I was scared to drive in that weather. How was I supposed to balance everything?

I have to be honest, I was ready to give up and stay home. 

But as I was praying I realized that I was being controlled by my fears. My fears were the one deciding my actions and I was not living in God's sovereignty . 
I needed to learn to rely on the Lord, to trust him with my life and the life of the kids and trust him to the point that it would overcome my fear.

I prayed and prayed and finally started getting ready to go. 
I prayed as I was getting ready to go, I prayed as I was getting close to the car and while driving. Mainly my prayer was that He would keep us safe and that if something would have happened to us to remind me that He is sovereign. I cannot control my life nor the one of my kids. But whatever the Lord pours over my life, our life, it's good. 
 If we believe that He is sovereign we also need to live in such a way, knowing that He takes care of us and if he allows certain things in our life is because He thinks it is good.

It wasn't easy but it felt good to trust the sovereign God.
I went there and back and the Lord did protect us and nothing bad happened. It felt good not being controlled by fear.

At the Conference I was also reminded that He is the King. 

What does that mean practically?

Well a king rules!

 And he wants to be the ruler of my life and I have to be ready to let him rule. 

It was a good weekend full of encouragement in trusting the Sovereign God and let Him reign into my life.

And everything went well despite my fears!

Merry Christmas

I want to wish 

a very Merry Christmas 

and 

a wonderful New year 

to you all reading this blog.

It has been good to share with you

 all the things that have happened into our lives.

May God bless you greatly 

and

 give you peace and joy 

and

 many many blessings

in 2014.

“The Lord bless you

    and keep you;

25 

the Lord make his face shine on you

    and be gracious to you;

26 

the Lord turn his face toward you

    and give you peace.”’

-Carmela

The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer!

Psalm 18:1-3

"I love you, O Lord, my strength.

The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,

my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,

my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised,

and I am saved from my enemies."

In this Psalm David is praising God who delivered him from the hands of his enemies and especially Saul. 

David was a good man and loved God. Because God had anointed him as the next king, Saul wanted to kill him, so David had to run away for his life. 

In the midst of trials he could still praise God, worship Him, because he recognized that God was all he had and God was taking care of Him. 

In the midst of trials he relied on the Lord for strength and deliverance.

I am amazed by David's attitude and humbled for the many times I don't respond in the same way. 

An encouragement for today? 

Praise Him, no matter what is happening in your life, He is the only one worthy of praise. 

He alone has our life in the palm of his hand.

Becoming a Woman of Spiritual Passion

     This past semester I read several books, one of which is "Becoming a Woman of Spiritual Passion" written by Donna Morley.
     The book has been a real encouragement as I was reading it. It was very practical. 
     It is divided in two parts, the first sections tackles several promises that we have in God, one at the time. Most of the time the concepts are not new, but I think very often we need to be reminded of those promises so that we can face life in a different way.
     For example, in the very first chapter  "The Promise of a Better Future" the author talks about our hurts and bitterness and how those things often stop us from living a passionate life for Christ.  We are called to focus on God and instead we focus on the things that hurt us, we focus on ourselves.
     The second section has five important things that we need to do or to have in order to deepen our relationship with Christ: living out our marriage vow to Him, experiencing uninterrupted joy, giving Him all of our love, telling others about Him and so on. 
     I love how Donna starts every chapter with a story to draw you into her point. Those stories are real and detailed and you will  become part of them. There was one that kind of stuck with me. It was a story of a couple that were traveling on a ship. During their trip, they find themselves, along with the rest of the people on board, in the midst of a storm. The storm was so bad that they had to start to get rid of their food but slowly people start to die for many reasons. The woman never gave up her faith, she knew her God and knew to trust Him, she kept sharing God with those that were not saved yet and remained strong in her faith even when her fiancé died. All of this difficulties she could handle only because she trusted God.
     I know the way I retell the story it doesn't make it sound good, but that's why you should read the book. As I said this book is a very practical one. Full of encouragements for our christian walk. 
     I found the book at our church bookstore but you can also find it on Amazon and probably the book will be cheaper there.
     So I would say that this book would make a nice Christmas present for others or for yourselves. 
     Have a blessed time :)