A new year...Spurgeon style.

I found this old book in a bag in my grandmothers room. She reads like a crazy person and I go through her books when she's finished to see if there are any I want to read before she gives them away. I found a treasure in that bag Christmas Eve. It was a Charles Spurgeon devotion book. It looks old and smells old and is just full of things I cant wait to learn! Anyways, it's a year long book and starts on January 1st, but I was too excited so I went ahead and read the first days devotion. And boy am I glad I did. It gave me something to think about headed into this new year. Spurgeon starts off by saying,
"Isreal's weary wanderings were now at an end, and the rest that had been promised was at hand. There would be no more roving tents, poisonous snakes, fierce Amalekites, nor any howling windswept wilderness. They had come to "the land flowing with milk and honey" (Ex. 3:8) and were able to eat of the grain aleady growing there."
New years can be scary. They are full of unknowns and sometimes you're still holding on to things from the past year. Maybe your 2010 was less than desirable. Maybe you went through a lot. Cried lots of tears. Lost lots of sleep. Maybe you are tired and weary of wandering around in the wilderness. Things like that make it scary to start a new year. How are we to know that this year won't be just as bad? Worse even. Well, unfortunately, we dont know. We have no idea what the future hold, but we DO know the one holding our future.
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."
--Jeremiah 29:11-13
That verse just fills up my heart. I dont know what's gonna happen to me this year. My 2010 was not a good year and I pray my 2011 is nothing like 2010, but it might be. I have no way of knowing, but I do know what God has promised me. He has promised me hope. He has promised me a future. He has promised that when I call on Him he will be there. He has promised me that if I seek Him with all my heart, I WILL find Him. I can't explain to you what that does to my heart. It overflows it with gratitude and love to a Savior who is good to me far beyond what I deserve. It gives me confidence going into this new year. I shouldn't be afraid. Being afraid to embark on this new adventure that is 2011, is almost insulting to my Creator who is in control of all things. It's almost as if I don't trust Him to fulfill His promises. So, I will go into this new year full of trust and reliance on my God to guide my steps and help me through whatever this year brings. I will not be afraid of what it brings, but I will be excited to find out where God takes me. What He teaches me and how He uses me for His Kingdom's cause.

I see the King of glory
Coming on the clouds with fire
The whole earth shakes
The whole earth shakes

I see His love and mercy
Washing over all our sins
The people sing
The people sing

Hosanna, Hosanna
Hosanna in the highest
Hosanna, Hosanna
Hosanna in the highest

I see a generation
Rising up to take their place
With selfless faith
With selfless faith

I see a near revival
Stirring as we pray and seek
We're on our knees
We're on out knees

Hosanna, Hosanna
Hosanna in the highest
Hosanna, Hosanna
Hosanna in the highest

Heal my hearts and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like You have loved me

Break my heart for what breaks yours
Everything I am for Your Kingdom's cause
As I walk from nothing to eternity

Hosanna, Hosanna
Hosanna in the highest
Hosanna, Hosanna
Hosanna in the highest

--Hillsong

Unfailing Love

Psalm 13:5
But I trust in Your unfailing love, my heart rejoices in Your salvation.

Psalm 31:16
Let Your face shine on Your servant; save me in Your unfailing love.

Psalm 32:10
Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lords unfailing love surrounds the man that trusts Him.

Psalm 33:18
But the eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear Him, on those who hope in His unfailing love.

Psalm 33:22
May Your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in You.

Psalm 36:7
How priceless is Your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadows of Your wings.


God is a God of love. A God who loves us no matter how badly we fall. His love is the love that never fails us. It never lets us down. He never ceases to love us. Our God is a God who forgives no matter how hard we push Him away. No matter how fast we run from Him. No matter how far we stray from Him, He is always there when we turn around. He is there with open arms waiting to wrap them around us and heal us. His love is the love that fills us up. It never leaves us brokenhearted or empty. It's unconditional. It's not a here today gone tomorrow type of love. It is ALWAYS there. Forever. No matter what. When I think about how great His love is, it fills me up. It makes my heart feel so full it could explode. It gives me unexplainable joy to know that He loves me irregardless of any flaw or any mistake. No one can love you like God does. Fall in love with the Savior. Receive unspeakable joy. How GREAT is our God :)

Perfectly Faithful

Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You and praise Your name, for in perfect faithfulness You have done wonderful things. Things planned long ago.
--Isaiah 25:1

Perfect faithfulness. No matter what's going on, no matter how crazy life seems, God is perfectly faithful. He will never let you down. He is always there and always in control.

Be strong and courageous. Do not be affraid or terrified of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.
--Deureronomy 31:6

We never have to be afraid. We never have to worry because He is PERFECTLY FAITHFUL. He never leaves us alone.

A little note to those who, life me, worry way too much about everything.

50 Chicken Nuggets

You wanna know what happens when 5 college kids get really hungry at 2 am?
McDonalds happens.
McDonalds 50 piece chicken nuggets.
And a ZILLION different kinds of sauce.
If you ask me that's just gross, but I mean it's 2 am..what else are we supposed to eat??
Anyways...what have I been learning?
So much..
Where to even begin!
Well first of all I've learned that you have to completely and totally keep all focus on Christ and trust in Him and look to Him when things get rough and confusing. If you don't, things are just going to be a million times harder and more confusing. Things fall apart without Christ as the center.

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:17

Christ comes first and it is so important for us to remember that.
It's far too easy to just push God aside and say that we can do it on our own.
We can fix it on our own.
We can help ourselves.
We can heal our own hearts.
We can fix our own problems.
In other words, telling God we don't need Him.
It's so easy to think we can handle it on our own, but we can't.
We need God to be the center of every aspect of our lives.

I've learned that you're going to find some of your best friends when you're going through the hardest times in your life. The people who are willing to be there for you when everything is wrong and you seem kinda crazy are the people worth keeping around. Its those people who don't care how many times you have told the story..if it makes you feel better they'll listen to it a hundred times. The ones who hurt because you are hurting and don't just tell you to get over it. The people who want to be around you when you are zero fun to be around are the people who are going to be your friends for life.

I've learned that you can only give so much before you have to stop and leave the ball in the other person's court. You can try and try and try to fix things with someone, but if they don't want things fixed then things aren't going to get fixed. Sometimes you just have to stop and leave it up to them no matter how much you wish you could fix it. Let go and let God.

I've learned that you can never ever ever lose hope. You can't lose hope that things will feel normal again one day. You can't lose hope that you're wildest dreams will come true. You can't lose hope about anything, because without hope it's very easy to just quit. Without hope, your outlook on everything becomes so dismal.

"Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible." -Anonymous

I've also learned that too much stress/too much on my mind=zero sleep :/
At least I dont have class tomorrow :D

Sisterly Bonding

Today I learned that my sister and I can't grocery shop together.
We went in for milk, cookie cutters, gatorade, and downey.
Mom told us to be frugal.
We left having spent $100.
Clearly we dont know what that word means.
It also took us about 4 hours because we kept getting distracted looking at Christmas stuff.
We didnt like the cookie cutters we found at the first Walmart, so we went to Bed Bath and Body Works because we thought they would DEFINITELY have awesome cookie cutters.
They had none.
SO, we went to a different Walmart.
It took us 10 minutes to even find the cookie cutters.
We got some.
We went to checkout.
We forgot that the previous Walmart didnt have the right kind of milk, so we went back and got milk.
We went back to checkout.
We forgot that we forgot to get downey from the other Walmart, so we went back to get downey.
We got home and got everything put away just to realize we forgot the gatorade.
We wasted half out day in Walmart, but it was one of those days Im pretty sure I'll remember forever.
So blessed to have a sister who is also my best friend!! :)

Misplaced Trust

A couple days ago I learned that you may think you know someone, but sometimes they just have you completely fooled. Someone who seems the closest to Christ could actually be the farthest away. The person you think will never lie to you has been lying all along. It could be someone you've known for years or someone you've only known a short time. It could be the person you love or the person you've only met a couple times. The point is that some people are fake and really good at hiding it. It's hard to spot these people. It makes you wonder what people in your life are being real and what people have been lying to you. How do you trust anyone? How can you tell if you're being played? These people are usually very good at what they do and they know all the right things to say and do to make sure they have you fooled. I've struggled with trust since I found out someone very close to me had done nothing but lie to me over and over. I've been thinking a lot about trust lately and how awful it is that i feel like people in general can't be trusted. After things like this happen to you and to people close to you, you lose faith in people. That is so sad to me. I guess we just have to realize that people are going to let us down, yes, but not everyone will. Not everyone we let in is going to hurt us. We just have to put all our faith is Christ and make sure he remains the center and that we don't let someone who could potentially betray you take his place. "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh, and whose heart turns away from the Lord." Jeremiah 17:5

"But I trust in Your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in Your salvation." Psalm 13:5

"Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture." Psalm 37:3

People will let you down. God never will. Even when we have turned away from Him and even when we have placed our faith elsewhere, He will never let us down.