Garbage City

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27

Waste My Life

“I will waste my life, I’ll be tested and tried,
With no regrets inside of me, just to find I’m at your feet.
Let me find I’m at your feet... " (Misty Edwards)

Everytime I listen to this song my heart gets so stirred. I love the idea of wasting my whole life on Jesus. Wasting my days away in His presence. Wasting every minute for His purposes. Wasting every second adoring my Savior and worshipping my Maker. Wasting everything I am, everything I could ever be, on Him and His Kingdom. How beautiful to seek His face alone. To be devoted entirely to bringing Him glory. To be concerned with nothing except for giving back the love that this perfect lover has given to me. I can't help but think, when this is what I fashion my life around, what will I have to regret? What will I ever miss out on? Anything I have to give up, anything I have to surrender in order to fervently seek him has no worth when compared with Him anyways. Being in love with Him is more than enough reason to lay everything else aside... I can't really think of anything more lovely than a life completely wasted on God.

Wasted
A person wasted on God is a well wasted soul
Leaving a life that’s relinquished all it’s control.
Lives Living out His original intent
Hearts consumed with a love that refuses to relent.
I offer my whole life in reckless abandon to your call
I give everything that I am, I give you my all.

Revelations of your love provides this newfound perspective

To adore you my God, is my one sole objective.

Nothing I give up could I even count as loss
Your uncomparable to anything I’ve ever come across.
With a single glimpse of your glory you’ve gotten my attention,
Gained my undevoted affection,
In you I've found complete perfection.

So may I always be near enough to feel your heartbeat
And may everyday I be found at your feet.
(Who knew bitter sweet surrender could be so sweet?)

Holy

In Leviticus we see God begin to sanctify His people (The word “holy” is repeated 152x) and I just saw this overwhelming call to be set apart for God’s work. To be separate. To be consecrated before Him… He is unlike anyother, completley unmatched in His beauty, His strength, His righteousness, His goodess, His wisdom, His holiness, His sovereignty, His EVERYTHING. There is nothing that compares to Him. And even though His holiness is something we can’t ever fully comprehend, we are called to obtain some degree of it, because we are made in His image... We are called to be holy because He is holy. We are called to be sanctified because God Himself is completely set apart, entirely unlike anything on earth or in Heaven. I love this quote by AW Tozer:

"We cannot grasp the true meaning of the divine holiness by thinking of someone or something very pure and then raising the concept to the highest degree we are capable of. God's holiness is not simply the best we know infinitely bettered. We know nothing like the divine holiness. It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible and unattainable. The natural man is blind to it. He may fear God's power and admire His wisdom, but His holiness he cannot even imagine."

There are no words to describe His holiness... Even just a glimpse of it makes me fall on my face in worship.

Psalms 37:4

"Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart."

I am completely blown away by the things God is putting in my path right now... It's all so good, it's almost overwhelming. I am beginning to see promises fulfilled, starting to see some of my deepest longings be released to me. It'd say it seems "too good to be true", but I've recently decided that saying has no authority when it comes to matters involving the Lord. He is the ultimate giver of things we never could've imagined, things we wanted but never thought we received, things we were almost too scared to believe for... These are the types of things he's so desperately wanting to give us. This verse contains such unchanging truth: When we take delight in the Lord, HE WILL give us the desires of our hearts.

So when we ask him for our hearts desires, when we pray for our deepest wants, we are not begging God for something He doesn't want to give us. We are just agreeing with him on the things He already has for us. When our hearts are truly aligned with His, our wants are His wants, our desires are His desires, our dreams are His dreams. The more I trust the Lord, the more I realize that He actually WANTS to give me these things that are in my heart. He is longing to fulfill every last one of my hearts desires... He's the one that put them there in the first place...

The Way Out

"The LORD went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people." (Ex 13:21-22)
This is one of my absolute favorite scriptures. The word Exodus literally means "The way out." And throughout this book we see God not only provided a way out for the Israelites, but he actually led the way out Himself. Every second of the day, every step of the way, He was with His people... In the light of the day, He led them. In the dark of the night, He led them. He never left them. He is so faithful to direct and guide us through our whole lives. I love knowing that no matter where I go, no matter what I do, I am never alone... He's always in front of me. No matter what decisions I'm faced with, no matter how confusing life gets, I never have to find my own way... All I have to do is follow Him. He is so faithful to show me the way... Or better yet, to show me His way.

The Garden

I read through Genesis today and it spoke so powerfully to me about how God has longed for relationship with us since the beginning of time. All He's ever wanted is intimacy with us. His original intention was simply that we be with Him. His will was that we be around Him. Live in His presence. Talk to Him. Spend time with Him. Being in His presence is what we were created for. Relationship with Him is what we were made for. I can't even grasp a full concrete understanding of what it must've been like in the garden... Adam and Eve, walking through Eden in the cool of the day with the Lord. What a perfect illustration of what God wants with us even still, even now. Even after the fall, He has made it possible for us to live in intimacy with Him... The fact that that kind of relationship is still attainable to us today is such a reflection of His love. Such a reflecion of how badly He just wants to dwell among us. I love that we can still live in His presence, still be in constant communion, continual fellowship with our maker. Ohhhhh how I long to live in the Garden all the days of my life.

A Thankful Heart

“I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever.” (Ps 86:12)

As I was having my quiet time this morning, I entered into such a beautiful time of reflection… I looked out at the Mediterranean Sea and such a deep thankfulness rose within me. I am so unbelievably blessed by the work I do. Sometimes I think about my life and can’t even fathom that it really is real.
I am currently in Egypt, sharing the good news... And when I think about it, I never would’ve imagined that I'd have seen as much of the world as I’ve seen. And whats so incredible is that it’s not because of anything I’ve done, It’s all what God has done. It's ALL because of Him. He's the one whose turned my wildest dreams into my actual life. And it's simply because He is just so good. I can’t help but smile as I write that because I truly believe it with all my heart... HE IS SOOOO GOOD. A passion of mine has always been experiencing new cultures and seeing new things. It amazes me to see how my love for travel has been integrated as a part of God’s calling on my life. It is such a beautiful thing when His plans for us align with the things we have been hoping for.
I feel like all too often dreams, hopes, and desires are categorized as things we want but things we don’t expect to receive (I am so guilty of this). Yet in reality, God so badly wants us to live in expectation. He wants our hearts to be grounded in hope because He is so ready and so willing to make those hopes reality. He longs to give us the world… If only we would receive it from him.
My prayer Lord, is that I would recieve everything you want to give, that I would always live in the fullness that you have intended for me. May I always go after my dreams for I know that you can't hardly wait to make them come true. Oh Lord, you are so good. You are so unbelievably and truly good and my whole heart will praise you forever.