October 12 2018

Praise (Five Minute Friday)

Music is one of my favorite ways to Praise God. While I love singing the classic hymns in church, I have found I enjoy singing along to contemporary Christian music even more. My favorite song is 10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) by Matt Redman.
Here are some of the words from that song:

And on that day
When my strength is failing
The end draws near
And my time has come
Still my soul will
Sing Your praise unending
Ten thousand years
And then forevermore
Forevermore
Songwriters: Jonas Myrin / Matt Redman
10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) lyrics © Capitol Christian Music Group

Here is the version with the lyrics and chords:

If you are going to get a song stuck in your head today, let it be this one.

This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up!
The prompt this week is: Praise
The assignment: Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write.

January 19 2018

Intentional (Five Minute Friday)

It is not intentional when I stay up a tad too late most nights. In fact, I tell myself almost daily that I will get to bed early or at least at a decent time. But I find so many things to occupy my time and it just flies by and before I know it I look up and it is midnight or even later. I usually berate myself for the fact that I just cannot seem to get my sleep or the lack thereof under control. I also promise myself that tomorrow will be different. Tomorrow I WILL get to bed early.

It’s not that I don’t want to sleep. I just want to do the other things I am doing more. What am I doing you ask, when I should be sleeping? Oh, lots of things. Tonight I was listening to an audiobook on my phone, GOD Speaks Your LOVE Language by Gary Chapman. It is great! I never thought of my relationship with God that way. I read the 5 Love Languages book years ago and even got hubby to take a quiz so we could figure out that we spoke different love languages. I’m not sure if it helped him much, it’s hard to tell with men, but it did help me to understand him a little better. The book I am listening to has me thinking about love languages and how God might use them to express his love to us. Some nights my brain is spinning and it just won’t settle down so I can sleep. So many thoughts to think!

Sometimes I am up late working on the blog or writing up a post. Tonight I just had to look to see what the Five Minute Friday word prompt was for the week. Making the graphic to use in the post was intentional. What I didn’t intend to do was actually sit down to write the post before going to bed. I just wanted to know what the word was so I could think about it overnight and while I work tomorrow and then sit down to write my five minutes when I got home tomorrow evening. Well…the best-laid plans…I think I should have waited to make the graphic until I saw where this word would lead me. I intended to talk about tea, but that will have to wait for another day. My squirrel brain went down a different path before I could stop it. Oh well, enjoy the graphic anyway. I think it turned out kind of cute.

I highly recommend both of these books. The links above and below for the books are affiliate links which means if you happen to purchase anything using one of the links, I might a very small commission at no additional cost to you. You can also just check them out of your local library, which is free and also highly recommended.

This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up!
The prompt this week is: Intentional
The assignment: Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write.

This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience.
Please see this site’s Policy & Disclosure Page for more info.

 

August 10 2017

How Do You Know Which Way to Go?

Sometimes in life, you know things are not going well, but you have no idea what to do to make them better. Sometimes what seems like the easiest answer also seems like the worst choice. The best answer is often the most difficult choice.

Sometimes, the signs are unclear or downright confusing. Then what should you do? How do you choose the right path? Well, when I’m not clear on what I should do, I have been told to turn to God and Pray Until Something Happens. (PUSH) Until the path seems so clear that the choice is obvious. The problem is, sometimes, I have no idea what His answer is. Am I missing something obvious? Was I just not listening hard enough? Maybe God didn’t hear me. I mean there are most likely millions of Christians praying at any given time, maybe my prayer got lost in the chaos somewhere. I should pray again and again. Eventually, he will hear my pleas and answer them. Sometimes the answer is simply, No. Not what any child wants to hear when they ask something of their Father, but sometimes the answer is “No”, or “Not Now”.

If no clear answer is presented, I often put off acting in order to avoid making the wrong choice. I’m still waiting to hear that still small voice I’ve heard so much about. Have you actually heard it? Does God answer you in the spoken word? Perhaps you are lucky that way. I am not. I seem to have to go more on instinct and the idea that if it doesn’t open, it is not my door. Maybe it is not my door right now, perhaps if I try again later, it will open. I often ask God to give me a sign and make his answer very clear to this clueless child of his. Sometimes it seems he tells me to wait or be still. That is a hard one because I want to be doing something, anything to move my life along the path he has chosen for me.

Sometimes it isn’t easy turning everything over to God. Sometimes, I just don’t want to give up control, but then, did I really ever have control in the first place? I know I am supposed to “let go and let God” handle it, but that is not an easy thing to really do. I can say the words, but am I really letting go or just going through the motions?

I find it difficult to know if I am making decisions based on God’s will or my own selfish wants and needs. I’m no expert. I’m open to suggestions on how to better do this in my life. How do YOU know if you are following God’s plan for your life? How does He let YOU know which way you should go? Does He give YOU signs to follow?

Category: Fearless | Comments Off on How Do You Know Which Way to Go?