today's morning devotion

I sometimes hear people say, "I have been wrestling with God in prayer!" My first thought always is, "I hope you lost."

If you have been trying to bend God your way, then that is a problem. Prayer is not trying to move God your way; it is moving yourself His way.

In fact, I'm glad that God hasn't said yes to every prayer I have ever prayed. When I look back on some things I've prayed for, I realize that if the Lord would have allowed them, they could have destroyed me. They were not the right things or the right situations. So God graciously and lovingly said no.

In John 15:7, Jesus gave an incredible promise regarding answered prayer. He said, "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you."

- Greg Laurie

it's been 4 days & i'm still smiling...

It's the weirdest feeling in the world... finally experiencing something you've waited 11 years for! I can't even begin to explain in words how I feel - I really don't believe there is a word to explain my shortness of breath, the butterflies in my stomach, the sweat on my palms, and the nervous quiver in my voice. After an 11 year wait, I finally met Hanson.

Trust me when I say that this was the BEST weekend of my entire life! :)

the driver's seat

I was reading through a few of my latest blog entries yesterday afternoon… and I realized all these blog entries had one common theme: ME ME ME…

“I recently crawled out of a spiritual drought…
my life is experiencing a major detour/change…
I spent my days and nights near the stream…
This is one of the toughest decisions I have ever made in my life… “

The world teaches us to put ourselves first – before our friends, our family, and even our faith. And it is so easy to give in and follow this teaching because we all like the feeling of having control over whatever happens –but that’s not what God wants for us. We need to allow God to be in the driver’s seat of our lives… I know this is such an elementary truth, but I am sure most of you agree that this is something we all struggle with every single day, no matter how long we have been believers of Christ.

I'm sure you're all familiar with Matthew 16:24-25 - even if you don't have it memorized, you'd recognize it when you heard it. I was reading these verses from NIV earlier and I thought to myself, "how does this apply to us today in 2008?" - so I dug up the same couple of verses from The Message translation... here it is:

Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?..."

Let God be the driver. Let God have complete control and trust Him no matter where he steers our lives. When we are weak, He is strong. And it is because of this truth that big things happen when we trust Him wholeheartedly. I’ve witnessed lives being changed when people have made Jesus Christ the reality by which they live… and the sight of a life transformed by His grace is beautiful.

I want to share the following video with you; it’s called Cardboard Testimonies. P. Al included this video a couple of his sermons and it made me wonder… what would my cardboard testimony of God’s work in my life say?

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=RvDDc5RB6FQ

MISSION HIMPOSSIBLE.

"...but with God all things are possible" - Matthew 19:26

thank You for holding us in the palm of Your hands and for showing me through this "coincidence" that You are truly in control.