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My Freshly Brewed Life: November 2009

Saturday, November 21, 2009

You Are Beautiful



When you hear the words,"You are beautiful", how do you react? If you are like me, you turn your head away and pretend like you didn't hear. Why is it so hard for us to accept the fact that we were created beautifully, in the very image of God himself? There are many events in our lives that shape our self esteem. We might have grown up without a loving father, who would tell us every waking hour how beautiful we were. You might have been taken advantage of and told you would never be worth anything to anyone. You might have grown up with outward flaws that were constantly brought to your attention which made you believe that you could never be beautiful.
No matter how your past has shaped you, this does not change the fact that You were created and still are beautiful (inserting note to self). We were created in the very image of God, and to accept ourselves as something less than how He sees us is an insult to Him. Every time I come at myself with self-degrading remarks, whether it be about my appearance, weight, etc., I am basically telling the God of the universe that He didn't know what He was doing when He created me, and that I am not good enough. That pains the heart of God.
I have been studying the Song of Solomon. One of the things that I keep going back to is how often the Groom (Jesus) tells the Bride (us) how beautiful she is:
Songs 1:15
Look at you! You are beautiful, my true love! Look at you! You are so beautiful! Your eyes are like doves!
Songs 4:1
Look at you! You are beautiful, my true love.

Songs 4:3
Look at you! You are so beautiful.

Songs 4:7
You are beautiful in every way, my true love. There is no blemish on you.
Songs 6:4
You are beautiful, my true love, like Tirzah, lovely like Jerusalem,
Songs 7:6
How beautiful and charming you are, my love, with your elegance.
God's heart is for us to come into a full understanding of who we are in Him, and to accept the fact that we are beautiful. We aren't beautiful because.....we simply are! True beauty is not reflected by outward appearance, but rather by what is found on the inside and the character that we walk in. For me, if I am walking in the fruits of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness & self-control) than I am truly portraying beauty to others. True beauty is only found in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Only by knowing him are we free to accept and love ourselves as well as our shortcomings. Even in our imperfections and unfinished state, we are still beautiful. We need to learn to be patient with ourselves....God is not finished with us yet!
If you are having trouble accepting your God-given beauty today, I would encourage you to begin to ask God to show you. Seek out the truth of who you are in His Word. It is His love letter to you and will give you a better understanding of your beauty.

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Thursday, November 19, 2009

The Goodness of God



I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.14Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD. (Psalm 27:13-14)
If you didn't read my post where I shared a little bit about what was going on with our house, you can read that here.
God is so amazingly good! A fellow blogger posted just the other day about how sometimes we have trouble seeing the goodness of God when we are in the midsts of a trial. Even though I was in the midsts of this storm and could not necessarily see His goodness, I believed that God Himself was/is good and that He would provide. So, we were down to a week left to find a rental and had not found anything. As much as I tried not to allow my mind to wander to that place of worry, it did. I had visions of my children living with friends/family while my husband and I lived in a shelter. But then there were times that I had such tremendous faith and knew that God would not fail me. And that was the truth. And He has not failed me!
To make a long story short, a friend from church, who I don't see every week and who I forgot was in real estate, saw some of my posts on Facebook about what was going on. She contacted me and we talked. She believed, with such faith and tenacity, that she could help us keep our home. I was told a couple of weeks ago by the company who scammed us that although they could no longer help us, that we could pursue modification on our own. Well, I was tired of fighting. I was afraid of hoping only to have that hope crushed. So we chose to let the house go. But God, in His goodness, knew that I was tired and sent me someone to lift up my head and allow me to see the possibility! So after my friend persuaded me, I swallowed my pride and contacted our lender. We spent about 25 minutes on the phone going through initial financial information. Soon we will receive a "qualification" packet in the mail. Once I return all of the information, the lender will determine if we qualify for the loan modification. And, they have agreed to postpone the trustee sale pending approval. GOD IS SO GOOD! I did not see this goodness coming my way, but God put it on the heart of a friend to contact me to lend her help for such a time as this! My hope and faith in the possibility that we will be able to keep our home has been restored!
It will take about 30 days I am told for approval. So if you will pray with us I would so appreciate it. In the meantime, we get to stay in our house at least through Christmas so I'd better hurry up and move boxes already packed to the garage and begin thinking about decorating!

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Thursday, November 12, 2009

Trusting



The last couple of days has been hard. In my last post, I spoke about being secure in the storm. A couple of days ago I asked God if I could stay there -- hidden in the shelter of His wings. I did not think I had the strength to weather this storm. I've never walked this way before. I don't have directions to get me from Point A to Point B. I feel lost. I am reading His Word and finding strength there, but my mind, will and emotions are taking their own sweet time catching up. God told me that I could not linger there in the safe place, high in the cleft of the rock, where the storm cannot find me. He told me instead that He would go with me, back down into the valley, and walk with me through this storm -- and that this too shall pass. What, might you ask am I dealing with? I am going to put it out there, because I feel like I need too. I have tried to hide it, taking it with me into the safe place, wanting to hide it and appear as if nothing was changing. But it's time to look reality in the face.
We are losing our home. It did not happen over night. This storm's been looming for quite some time. Have we made poor financial decisions? Yes. Did we fall victim to bad loans? Yes. No matter the reason, the fact of the matter is our home is no longer ours. We have taken steps during the last year to make things better, but every door we attempted to walk through was closed. So now we find ourselves sifting through 15 years of accumulated stuff as we frantically pack and search for a new home, all before December 1st. I don't know where we are going, but I trust that He has gone before us and is preparing a place that is far beyond what we could ever hope or imagine. I am learning that my spirit can yield and be in perfect peace, but that it takes work to keep my mind, will and emotions walking in that peace. Almost daily I deal with waves of different emotions. And I will admit that there are moments of gripping fear like I've never known before. Those "what ifs" that creep up and whisper to you in the middle of the night so you can't sleep, causing you to wake up sick to your stomach in the morning.
But I trust.
But when I am afraid, I put my trust in you.(Psalms 56:3)
They do not fear bad news; they confidently trust the LORD to care for them.(Psalms 112:7)
And I rest.
Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still. (Exodus 14:13a,14)
Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.(Psalms 91:1)
And I hope.
Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for and hope for and expect the Lord! (Psalm 31:24)

You will have courage because you will have hope. You will be protected and will rest in safety. (Job 11:18)
Let your unfailing love surround us, LORD, for our hope is in you alone. (Psalms 33:22)
And I wait.
But if we hope for what is still unseen by us, we wait for it with patience and composure.(Romans 8:25)
You are my strength; I wait for you to rescue me, for you, O God, are my place of safety.(Psalms 59:9)
But those who wait on the LORD will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)
We are moving forward even though we cannot see where we are going. The picture I have in my head is of us (my family) walking down a long dark corrider. Our arms are stretched out in front of us and we can feel the Lord's hand in ours. There is just a tinge of light at the end, but we know that God is leading the way. So we trust Him to guide us through the darkness.
So that's what's been going on with me. I will continue to blog about what I am learning on this journey. I hope that you will be encouraged in whatever situation you are facing. Nothing is impossible with God! Allow Him to take your hand and lead you through the dark place.
We would appreciate your prayers! I can't wait to testify to what our Amazing God has done for us!

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Monday, November 9, 2009

Secure In The Storm



Hello bloggie friends! I am so sorry I went and took a break from blogging and didn't tell anyone where I was going. I didn't realize I was going until I had already gone, and then I had trouble finding my way back. Oh how I have missed blogging! My life has been a bit of a whirlwind lately, and I found myself trying to juggle way too much, as well as allowing some very personal things to get in the way of my thoughts. My family is going through a storm of late, but we are trusting God. Even though at times I am full of emotions, cry, want to scream and think this will never end, I take a deep breath. When I finally come up for air, and allow the Holy Spirit to bring His peace, I stand firm, full of faith and am secure in the fact that He goes before us and will bring us through. Perhaps someday I will share more about this particular storm.
Are you weathering a storm today? Are your feet firmly planted in the good soil of the Word of God? The Bible tells us that we will go through hard times. Just because we are Christians this does not mean that we are automatically saved from experiencing pain and heartache. But God has promised that He will never leave us nor forsake us. During this time in my life, I like to sit and close my eyes and picture myself high up on a rock. God has taken the form of a huge Eagle and He has come, taken me underneath his wing, and tucked me safely away in the cleft of the rock. There He will keep me until the raging storm has passed. Even though I am experiencing the storm -- I can see the lightening, hear the thunder and almost feel the waves crashing around me, I know that I am safe under the shadow of His wings. I am secure in the fact that I remain in God's presence and that this too shall pass. And when it does pass, God will be there in the form of a rainbow to remind me once again that He has not forgotten His promises for myself and my family. Today I choose to rest securely in His love, hidden in the cleft of the ROCK, tucked away under the shadow of His wings!

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