wowsers . . .

what a night! Our small group decided to go to this 3 week prayer workshop in place of our regular meeting. Night one was already very informative and quite convicting. There is so much about our spiritual life that is hard to get our head around, but one of the hardest is the trinity. Our leader demonstrated for us that when we first sinned in the Garden of Eden we messed up how the trinity was originally designed to allow us to communicate on an extremely deep and intimate level. But since God is SO loving he sent his son to die for us and forgive us of our sins . . . He literally gave up a piece of Himself for us because He loves us that much. We do have the holy spirit to help us communicate and converse with God, but that's one of the reasons that prayer is so hard because we don't have that perfect connection that we were meant to have in the Garden of Eden.

We talked about barriers and obstacles that prevent us from having a strong prayer life. My main one is time and busyness, but we came up with some good solutions to start overcoming this. First and foremost, is that I have NOTHING to do with making this change in my spiritual life. God is the only one that can teach me to make time for prayer and change my heart. I am trusting that He will answer this prayer of mine and show up in big ways in my life.

At church yesterday I was also strongly convicted by a passage from Philippians 4: "Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evient to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." I have found myself worrying so much about what lies ahead and I am missing a lot of the present. So what I don't have the greatest job right now? There are so many things I'm learning and blessings I'm receiving . . . people generally love when I work with them and help them and I enjoy helping them.

My anthem of late has been the song: "'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus." The words from that song give me hope everyday, but I can't just cling to that hope and seek to get through the day. I want to live each day and see how God shows up!

Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus
And to take him at his word;
Just to rest upon his promise,
And to know, "Thus saith the Lord."

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him!
How I've proved him o'er and o'er!
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust him more!

I'm so glad I learned to trust thee,
Precious Jesus, Savior, friend;
And I know that thou art with me,
Wilt be with me to the end.