The Young And Learning Bride

I recently was talking with a close friend of mine about the idea that Jesus, God, is our lover-our prince and husband. When you grow up with one certain picture of God you begin to subconsciously place him in a box and limit your spirit's access to all the facets of God's character. When I first got a hold of the picture of Jesus as my lover I ran with it. As an 'emotional girl' its a great picture of God to get a hold of. I understand its harder for guys to grasp, they are less emotionally driven-but when a guy can get a hold of that its powerful! So if you have struggled to get a grasp on that idea of Jesus Christ-the very one risen from the dead- he wants to be married to you, he wants to love on you and hold you close to him, maybe I can share with you the pieces that helped fix the puzzle for me and maybe just maybe God will speak through it and show you a little glimpse of how much he longs for you!

In Hosea you read the story of Hosea and his unfaithful wife. God uses this as a picture of Israel and himself. How Israel has betrayed his love time and time again, yet he draws them back to him.

The thing is we are part of Israel, in Isaiah 14:1 it says "Israel will be his special people once agai. He will bring them back to settle once again in their own land. And people from many nations will come and join them there and become a part of Israel."

Then again in Zachariah 2:11 it says- "Many nations will join themselves to the Lord on that day, and they too will be my people. I will live among among you...."

We are part of Israel, these are just two examples of how we are being tied into Israel. Not to mention that it is a general known thing that all through out the Bible that Israel often represents us as the body of Christ. So, we ARE part of Israel. Now, going back to Hosea. Hosea's wife is a picture of Israel, in turn being a picture of US. Us as the body of Christ, us as God's special possession. Are you ready for this!?

Hosea 2: 19-20 says.."I will make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice. Unfailing love and compassion, I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will finally know me as Lord."

Did you get that? This is GOD talking about YOU!!! He wants to make you his wife! How his heart breaks whenever we turn towards another lover! In Psalm 45: 10-11 we read "Listen to me, O royal daughter; take to heart what I say. Forget your people and your home land far away. For your royal husband delights in your beauty; honor him for he is Lord."

One morning as I was doing my devotions I felt the Lord speaking to me on this subject. I often have my journal at hand to write these things down. And at one point he mentioned this idea of me as his bride. Even though you may have been saved now for awhile, you are may still be a young bride. Now here is the things that was a 'light bulb' moment for me. At times I almost look at how I've messed up and think, wow, I should know better then this! But God said to me-as new bride, a young just married bride- YOU WONT KNOW HOW TO PERFECTLY SERVE AND LOVE YOUR HUSBAND...wow..read that again. Youre not even EXPECTED to know it. Its a process you learn! At first all you know how to do is love out of pure joy and pure love for you husband. The mature, learned love comes with time. All God wants us to do is LOVE on him. Yearn for him and then he will help us learn how to love him and serve him better.

And as a new bride your new husband doesn't get mad when you don't know how to do everything right! The mercy of our loving God! Let God love on you, let him reveal to you his deep desire for you! "I am my lover's, the one he desires. Come my love..." -Song of Songss 7:10

Lord God I just ask that whoever may ever read this-that you would come right now and reveal yourself to them as their lover. Show them your deep desire for their hearts full surrender to you. As our faithful husband you will not break our hearts! Lord I pray that you break the boxes we have placed you in. May you come in right now and warm our hearts with your unfailing love and walk with us, take our hand and lead us in the way we must go, lead us through this marriage with you-you love us so so so much, may we never forget it!

check out this song to hear how God sees us as his Beloved!

The next line in the noon time

I'm in that mood to talk to you. God has stirred my heart so I thought I would share some thoughts. This blog won't have any awesome picture God gave me, no loves notes from him really, just some convictions he is cementing in my heart and some spark of an all consuming fire.

Ive been reading some good books lately. Just finished Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris as well as A Heart Ablaze by John Bevere. Both good, both convicting. (Both I suggest to you! :p )

When I look back at the last bit of my life, not that I've lived the majority, but I've lived an important chunk of it. I'm 18, going to be 19 in a seemingly small 7 or so months. I feel like I am just now grasping some really important daily used principles. And just in case any of you are in the same boat as I am, I am going to try and share some of those ramblings.

I have lived for God all my life, came to a point where it became real for me, and from there I've been striving to figure out what he wants me to do. I have just come to grips with all that matters is my KNOWING him. All else falls into place. Now somethign that he has laid heavy on my heart as of late is using every moment he gives me. "Sure," you think, "heard this shpeel a good 90,000 times." Yeah I've heard it just about that many time to-we all have, so here is a question I pose to you. You've heard it time and time again, use the time you have. Its so short-don't take advantage of it, ok, so why are you?

I have to. I only have a year and a half of my teenage years left. What have I done with them? I've stressed out over school, the future adn the present much to much! So what now? I'm going to TAKE THE MOMENT AND RUN WITH IT.

We often sit and watch the beautiful sunrise and sunset and say, wow what a unnessay beauty the sun's coming and going produces. Yes its beautiful, and yes God wants us to enjoy it-he paints it for us but let me pose another thought for you. We may be up early and marvel at the suns beauty as it comes, then later in the middle of the day we find ourself thinking thoughts like "hmm, sure is hot now. Wish the sun would just set so I wouldn't have to deal with it anymore." Next thing you know it does. We sit around admiring the sun...while it comes..while it goes. Yet when is it in the most stable point of its cycle? In the middle of the day. This is when we have the most opportunity to work, to do whatever it may be we do.

Our life is passed the rising of the sun. We have rose, if you're able to read this blog- you are old enough to realized a few years have passed in your life, whether you used them to the best of your ability or not. The setting isnt here yet, the part we say is so beautiful. But WHY do we sit in our moment we have right now and think of how nice it was BACK THEN. Or wonder what it will be like in the future-when the pretty colors are across the sky, when our sun is setting.

Take the time you have now, take the moments, the oppurtunities, to work all your hours you can while the sun is still up. We can't be stuck in the future or the past so much so that we miss out on the HARD THINGS WE CAN DO NOW. Yes, I'm rambling but stick with me.

How many times do we allow the eaier road to get our attention only to realize all the influence we could've had on the other side. We have to stop living for ourselves, stop living for what benefits us. Don't you think that enough generations have come and gone with that mind set. Even today, I look back and think of how I may have impacted someone today. Even if you plant a seed in the heart of someone who needed a thought of God-that would be worth it, but what did you do today?

Did you get to wrapped up in scolding your kids and forget to tell them that they are royalty worthy to inherit all of the world? Did you get to mad at your family member and forget that loving someone is one of the most precious things a human can do? Did you get to frightened of the future that you missed the opportunity to comfort someone who was loosing their grip on life during the here and now?

I know that I can live harder, I can do better, I can't sit here and be okay with living a good life. I need to live THE life God planned out for me. We may rejoice in the thought that God has every moment of our life written down, which is indeed an awesome thought! I love it! But heres the thing- He has it all written down, he has when the scenes play and the perfect timing. So you th, all I have to do is ask to live by that script hes written and I'm golden. Not quite, you may ask him to read it to you and he will-but you need to know the script.

You can't act out this divine adventure and romance in perfect timing with out knowing the script. You have to take your time on stage, you have to live in the heat of the day. The morning and evening are the most calm moments of the day, but noon is when the most people are awake. The most people are walking by you-how many have you reached out to? Right now is the noon time of this generation. Its our time to step out and speak to those around us. Its the time for us to read the script and act it out, memorize it and work hard to take every moment we get.

So take your moment today. Let yourself take the harder path so when you get to the other side you can look back and say, "wow-what I would've missed had I not tried hard." Know the script, work hard at noontime and hear the voice of your divine lover saying come! The time is now! Rise up and seize the moment.

Dont let this day go by without having done everything you know how to do to live for God. To reach out, to make a difference. To make an impact in at least ONE PERSON's life today.

God help us to live moment by moment according to what you have for me, and help me to choose the hard things you have for me. Let me not miss a single thing you have for me. In this noon time may I step out into the beating down sun and offer water to those who are thirsty. May I step out in the noon time and not dwell only on the coming rest, but rather say GOD here I am, I am working for you- whats the next line???

A Word for the Weary

I blog about different things God reveals to me through His Word, or some awesome thing he did and just ways he is working in my life. This particular subject is something that I didnt know if I was going to blog about-but he said do it, cause someone else needs to hear this. So here I am, you should read it, because this might just be what you wanted God to speak to you-so here it is. God can speak through your crazy friends to ya know. :D

During my devotions the other day God just seemed to keep telling me to 'not grow weary.' Which seemed a little weird because, at this point in time-I dont feel weary! But then as it kept coming up this one morning I decided to listen to what He was trying to say-after all God knows what we need before we ask. Which means he most certainly knows what we need before WE even know what we need. So I starting thinking, maybe its not so much telling me at this moment to not be weary, maybe its God giving a warning against becoming weary. Cause I've fallen into that pattern in the past. As I was thinking about all this a song came on my mp3 play by Phil Wickham entitled "Fall Into You" (LISTEN TO IT!! follow the link to a page that displays a little player where you can listen to the awesome song!) One of my favorites- it paints this picture of utter dependence on God and letting yourself just fall into his arms, admitting your weakness. God had given me a few verses to meditate on, which seemed to go with this theme he was bringing up, this was one of them-
*"The Lord says, "I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you." Psalm 32:8

After I read that I was praying and God gave me this picture..
Im running down a hallway that seems to never stop. There is nothing to decipher how long I've been running, how far I've made it. My breathing grows heavy and my legs become so weak. I collapse-tears streaming down my face. I was running so hard FOR my God-why couldn't I endure?? I lift my eyes to see my Saviour standing just ahed. He calls to me. I must go to him! But I'm so weak! He is my strength, I must embrace him. I struggle to stand to my feet, I stand, I move forward but fall. I'm so close, a piercing pain through my heart, I feel his very heart ache as I struggle-just two more steps-I hear him say. I move on and he is now within reach. I want to stand tall and be strong FOR him. But my legs begin to buckles. As I strive to keep my balance he whispers, "let yourself fall, fall into me, I am your strength. Yes this is what was missing in your striving." Yes, this is what was missing. I fall into his arms and am immediately overcome with his love. I am barely able to utter the words "I have need you to be this close, I am so very weak. I need you, OH, I need you!" As my Saviour's eyes well up with tears at my weak words he sees my heart's desire to please him. He whispers to me- "all this time you've been trying to run this race, fight this fight, FOR me. My beloved! Wont you run it WITH me? I have all ready endured this struggle in your stead. Come now, take my hand, let me be your strength and your guide. When it seems that weariness shall overcome you, I'm here just fall into me."

Then I read this scripture in Isaiah 40:28-31
*"Have you never heard or understood? Don't you now that the Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth? He never grows faint or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to those who are tired and worn out; he offers strength to the weak. Even youths will become exhausted, and young men will five up. But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will fly high on the wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint."

Awesome right? Now I know this is a bit lengthy-but there is more that I read that day that God used to cement his point. I've been reading an excerpt from "Journal of the Unknown Prophet" every so often, its a book with some things that God spoke to this one woman over a period of time, and guess the title of that day's entry-*To Those Experiencing Weariness* and this is what it said-

"Dearly beloved, I know you are weary: I see you so worn down with the cares and the pressures of each day that you have almost lost sight of My hand upon your life. O beloved, as you enter the end of the age, so shall the pressures increase, so shall your need for times of refreshing become more desperate. For you see, without Me you are nothing.

Apart from Me you are able to do nothing. In your own strength, in your own power, you will be continually frustrated and unable to accomplish all you have need of. For it is only in a vital, continual union with Me that you shall survive.

And so, I am drawing you to a place where I will be your very breath, where communion with me will be your very reason for existence each day, where nothing less will sustain you. I am drawing you to a deeper place in the Spirit where your need for my presence will be so consuming that unless you draw close to Me, the cares and the stresses of life, even of My call upon you, will overwhelm. For you see, beloved, I called you to abide in Me. The Father and I seek for those in these times with whom We can make our abode. We seek worshipers in spirit and in truth. We seek those who hunger for our fellowship."

All these things God brought to my attention in one sitting. So what do I close with? I say to you who may be weary, and as a warning to myself- when you feel weary, be quit and feel God's strong embrace holding you up. When you cant see threw your tears lift your face to see God's eyes welling with tears for your struggle, and when all you can think of is how you've failed the race, hear God whisper to you "Stop running FOR me, come take my had, run WITH me!"