Keeping it real

I admire those people who keep up with writing these blogs daily – I guess I did it back when I had updates on John and Hallie. It’s interesting to me just how heavily I depended on the prayers of others at that time in my life…e-mailing everyone what was going on was my lifeline – the most important thing I did each day was to let people know how to specifically pray for my children. And I felt like it worked – I saw those prayers in action each day with Hallie, and I felt them when I was able to be calm in many storms. Prayer is such a powerful thing, and I am thankful God only makes that more of a reality as my life goes on. I’m not sure why I’m not quite as diligent in asking for prayers for myself, but here goes.

I have had one of those lovely weeks with God where I felt Him saying, “Kate, my stubborn child. Will you please finally put it all together this time?!” In my daily Bible readings, I was reading about the Israelites wandering in the desert. They would grumble against God and ask to go back to Egypt any time things got a little difficult. They would rather be in bondage than push through the unknowns to get to God’s wonderful promises. They would quickly forget all the things that were so awful in Egypt and only focus on what they had there. There were even a few that decided to try to claim the land God had for them, but they decided not to wait for God’s plan and try on their own…failing miserably. God got frustrated, God got angry, God gave consequences, and God demanded much sacrifice for their disobedience…but they did remain His chosen people that He loved. You have to figure the reason He had such strong reactions to their disobedience was because He loved them so much and wanted them to have His best, but they seemed intent on screwing that up.

Then on Tuesday morning, my weekly church study spent a fair bit of time on Romans 12:1 – it speaks to offering our bodies as a sacrifice to God – a holy, living sacrifice. We talked about laying our entire body on the altar so that God may have us completely and use us for His glory. Romans 12:2 then talks about renewing our minds – essentially making sure we are so focused on God that our thoughts are captive to Him and pleasing to Him as well.

Jeremiah 29:11 is a very famous verse…”For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” Read on and you see when we find those plans – ‘when we seek Him with all our heart’ – I want to know the plans God has for me, and I believe I took steps this week to get there. PRAISE HIM!!