You are for me
So I haven’t really written a blog in it feels like awhile. God has been doing some crazy things since I last posted something…other than the facebook announcement. One of the things God has been teaching me and reminding me of is that He is good. I don’t know about you but when I look over my life I seem to have had the wrong view of God. I have walked with the Lord for 12 yrs now, but somewhere along this journey the bumps and bruises of life I gave me this idea that God was trying to keep good things from me. It seemed that He was blessing everyone else, but me, so was not the case, but in most cases when we focus more on what others have we tend to not see what God is doing in our lives and the blessings He has given us; I can already tell this is going to turn into a transparent blog, but that is what I have been facing lately.
I guess it was about a month or two ago, that I realized I was doubting God’s goodness in my life, not in others lives, mine. I didn’t doubt God was good, just good to me. Mike Linch, my pastor, was doing a series called Follower…let just say I learned a lot about twitter during that series since we did a lot of twitter references to things….but the whole idea is Who are you following? One of the messages struck me right in the heart…and still does. One of the amazing things about God’s Word and why I love God so much is its power. I am pretty sure that what I got out of the message was not what Mike was going for. God had something else in mind for me to learn from Mark chapter 1:40-42.
Mark 1:40-42 “A man with leprosy[a] came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.’
Mike said something so profound to me and it almost brought me to tears he said, “The leper wasn’t questioning whether Jesus could heal him, he was questioning His desire.” Look at what the Leper said “If you are willing”…IF…WILLING! That is where I was. I had a desire in my heart for something I wanted so badly, but I doubted whether God would do it, or allow for it to happen. When I got home, praise the Lord, I had the whole week off work so I could study as long as I liked…it was wonderful and apparently needed. Friday morning when I was at small group is when it clicked what I was doubting…God’s goodness to me. When I got home I started looking up every verse with the word good in it. If there is one thing I have learned the minute you realize what you’re believing is wrong, or your thinking is off, go get in Scripture and find verses to combat the lies. As I read verse after verse I began to feel my faith grow in the truth that my God is good. But the verse that jumped off the page at me and is still one that is written on my heart is Ps 84:11 “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.” No good thing does the Lord withhold from those whose walk is blameless.
That was the beginning of a slow process of healing for me; trusting that my God is for me, and keeps no good thing from me. I was talking to a friend of mine over coffee just the other day, and I shared with her this verse and what it has come to mean to me. It doesn’t mean that whatever you want you get. Not everything we think we want is good. Not everything we think we want is best. But…as God’ children, if something is what is best and good for us and is going to bring God glory…he isn’t going to keep that from us. He isn’t trying to keep good things from us…He is giving us what is best. Sometimes that requires some waiting on our part. But he doesn’t withhold any good thing from His Children who walk in blameless.
As I sat across from my friend I was in excitement and faith telling her that this desire I have, If it is God’s will and is good and best for me, as I seek Him first…I trust that He won’t withhold this from me. This isn’t a “I will get my want thing”, this is a “this is what my God has promised thing.”
The amazing thing is that the thing I was hoping for did happen, but I am still in a waiting period…if that makes since. But God reminded me through scripture and a song of who He is. The thing I was wanting so badly, I got, and yet it wasn’t enough. I wanted more, I was happy I got the thing I prayed for but when I got it; I walked away unsatisfied thinking…that’s it…now what? As I sat in my bed after a long day, I read John 4:1-26
Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman
“ 1The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4Now he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
11"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
16He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."
17"I have no husband," she replied.
Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."
19"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
21Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
25The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
As I laid my Bible on the floor and laid down to go to bed, I didn’t yet understand why I felt lead to read those verses…until the next morning. I woke up that morning and was on my twitter I think, and decided to listen to some Kari Jobe songs and I clicked on one, for whatever reason, I had never heard before; “You are for me.” As I listened to the words the part in the chorus where she says “I know that you have come now even if to write upon my heart to remind me of who you are” is what jumped out at me and I realized what had been happening. God was reminding me “Brittney, I am good and I will not keep any good thing from you, and I AM what satisfies. Even though what you are desiring isn’t bad, it isn’t going to satisfy. Only I can fill you up.” I was reminded that my God is good and that if this desire I have is meant to happen it will, in God’s timing and way. If it doesn’t happen I know that it wasn’t what was best for me, whether I understand or not. I trust that Jesus is willing, and wants to give me good things, but I have to always remember He is what ultimately satisfies my heart.
This is the song and video that I saw this past sunday when I woke up after a long night of just feeling broken and attacked. Even the intro caught my attention because where Kari was at when she wrote this song was where I was at that very morning. Praise you Lord for your faitfulness and love. "You are for me" by: Kari Jobe
I guess it was about a month or two ago, that I realized I was doubting God’s goodness in my life, not in others lives, mine. I didn’t doubt God was good, just good to me. Mike Linch, my pastor, was doing a series called Follower…let just say I learned a lot about twitter during that series since we did a lot of twitter references to things….but the whole idea is Who are you following? One of the messages struck me right in the heart…and still does. One of the amazing things about God’s Word and why I love God so much is its power. I am pretty sure that what I got out of the message was not what Mike was going for. God had something else in mind for me to learn from Mark chapter 1:40-42.
Mark 1:40-42 “A man with leprosy[a] came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.’
Mike said something so profound to me and it almost brought me to tears he said, “The leper wasn’t questioning whether Jesus could heal him, he was questioning His desire.” Look at what the Leper said “If you are willing”…IF…WILLING! That is where I was. I had a desire in my heart for something I wanted so badly, but I doubted whether God would do it, or allow for it to happen. When I got home, praise the Lord, I had the whole week off work so I could study as long as I liked…it was wonderful and apparently needed. Friday morning when I was at small group is when it clicked what I was doubting…God’s goodness to me. When I got home I started looking up every verse with the word good in it. If there is one thing I have learned the minute you realize what you’re believing is wrong, or your thinking is off, go get in Scripture and find verses to combat the lies. As I read verse after verse I began to feel my faith grow in the truth that my God is good. But the verse that jumped off the page at me and is still one that is written on my heart is Ps 84:11 “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.” No good thing does the Lord withhold from those whose walk is blameless.
That was the beginning of a slow process of healing for me; trusting that my God is for me, and keeps no good thing from me. I was talking to a friend of mine over coffee just the other day, and I shared with her this verse and what it has come to mean to me. It doesn’t mean that whatever you want you get. Not everything we think we want is good. Not everything we think we want is best. But…as God’ children, if something is what is best and good for us and is going to bring God glory…he isn’t going to keep that from us. He isn’t trying to keep good things from us…He is giving us what is best. Sometimes that requires some waiting on our part. But he doesn’t withhold any good thing from His Children who walk in blameless.
As I sat across from my friend I was in excitement and faith telling her that this desire I have, If it is God’s will and is good and best for me, as I seek Him first…I trust that He won’t withhold this from me. This isn’t a “I will get my want thing”, this is a “this is what my God has promised thing.”
The amazing thing is that the thing I was hoping for did happen, but I am still in a waiting period…if that makes since. But God reminded me through scripture and a song of who He is. The thing I was wanting so badly, I got, and yet it wasn’t enough. I wanted more, I was happy I got the thing I prayed for but when I got it; I walked away unsatisfied thinking…that’s it…now what? As I sat in my bed after a long day, I read John 4:1-26
Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman
“ 1The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4Now he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
11"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
16He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."
17"I have no husband," she replied.
Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."
19"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
21Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
25The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
As I laid my Bible on the floor and laid down to go to bed, I didn’t yet understand why I felt lead to read those verses…until the next morning. I woke up that morning and was on my twitter I think, and decided to listen to some Kari Jobe songs and I clicked on one, for whatever reason, I had never heard before; “You are for me.” As I listened to the words the part in the chorus where she says “I know that you have come now even if to write upon my heart to remind me of who you are” is what jumped out at me and I realized what had been happening. God was reminding me “Brittney, I am good and I will not keep any good thing from you, and I AM what satisfies. Even though what you are desiring isn’t bad, it isn’t going to satisfy. Only I can fill you up.” I was reminded that my God is good and that if this desire I have is meant to happen it will, in God’s timing and way. If it doesn’t happen I know that it wasn’t what was best for me, whether I understand or not. I trust that Jesus is willing, and wants to give me good things, but I have to always remember He is what ultimately satisfies my heart.
This is the song and video that I saw this past sunday when I woke up after a long night of just feeling broken and attacked. Even the intro caught my attention because where Kari was at when she wrote this song was where I was at that very morning. Praise you Lord for your faitfulness and love. "You are for me" by: Kari Jobe
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