Meditation of My Heart

As God seems to continually bring holiness to my attention, I find that I am thinking about it in the littlest things. Pursuit of holiness happens every moment of everyday. "Consider it all joy" in every situation can be overwhelming. As I was putting away pots and pans from last night's dinner, I started to grumble about the lack of space in my kitchen which causes me to put pans away in the most awkward cupboard. "Happiness or holiness" came to mind.  I then, at the prompting of God, thanked him for the dishes that are often dirty with more than enough food, evident by my bulging waistline. My girls are probably tired of hearing "Are you pursuing your happiness or holiness". I am learning to thank God for the overdemanding kids that cause me to die to myself. I am praising God for the amount of home schooling two teens, parenting with an autistic child, keeping up with a toddler and trying to keep a house that has caused me to evaluate what is im...

Testing! Trials! Stretching! Hardship! Pain! Those words don't seem to bring vision of much joy. These are things I would like to avoid at all costs. Yet, scripture has them in a different light for a believer. They bring growth. Much growth if we submit to the trials God brings. He allows them to strengthen us and to draw us to Him. I have endured much pain in the last six weeks. Trials that have cut deep into my soul. Piercing far more than I thought would be what I could bear. Times I was so perplexed in it. Can sin in another's life bear fruit in ours? A resounding YES if I choose to respond in a way that God would desire. It is hard to respond as God would chose though. It is hard to honor Him when our souls are so raw that the slightest brush causes to writhe in pain. Yet as He heals me with His love and washes me in His word, my mind begins to clear. I see His goodness in the timing of a well spoken word, a sermon preached just for me, the gently comfort of His Spi...

Jam 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, Jam 1:3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. Jam 1:4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. Trials. I feel I have had my fair share of them lately. We all do at some point in our lives. Health issues, work pressure, trouble with friends, financial problems, failures, sin struggles .. the list goes on and on. Sometimes we rush into things causing our own sort of mayhem and chaos to deal with. Other times, trials just seem to encompass us from all directions. They blow in from seemingly nowhere. I was reading in John MacArthur's commentary. A trial becomes a temptation when we chose to react to a trial with a wrong human response. It changed my outlook on the struggles I am going through. How can I glorify God in this right now? What is the response He is looking for in me at this moment? Is this a trial God...