When I fail to prepare myself and the things around me, it actually prevents my ability to love on others.  If I am feeling empty- I have nothing to give.  If my house isn’t at least moderately straightened- I would hate for someone to drop in and therefore I would miss that chance to listen and love on them.  If I haven’t bought groceries for my family- mealtimes and snack times become extremely stressful.  You see the pattern.  Please don’t hear me saying that ministry and loving on others is something that flows from perfection.  That is totally not the case.  But be prepared.  Do your part.  That’s what I am telling myself these days.  I don’t want to miss out on what God wants for my days.  If I am constantly playing catch-up, how can I be proactive for His kingdom?

I have been hearing God call me to come away with Him, to retreat.  And He’s been waking me up early this week.  So I believe that is Him saying get up early, before everyone else, come away with me and let me fill you.  What better way to start it off right?  So, this means I need to go to bed at a decent time.  It’s that whole thought process of our day beginning at bedtime the night before.  I need to prepare for the day ahead by going to bed at the right time so that I am rested.  Prepare.

I believe that Satan uses my need for perfection to distract me.  I have to learn to reject that.  I have to live in freedom, choose freedom!  My house, my life, my looks- they don’t have to be perfect!  If I really thought that way, I would never be ready to live in community with others around me.  I would be walking around with barriers so high that no one could ever get through.  So I reject those thoughts- even now as I am writing this!  True community with others isn’t something that we can just find- we have to create it.  Walk in love.  Walk in acceptance.  Walk in preparedness, knowing that God will give you what you need to offer others.  Authenticity is so much more attractive to others.  It actually allows others to accept themselves as well! I need to know and understand my identity in Christ, so that I can help others understand theirs.  Prepare.

Just like the lyrics of the song say,

Oh Lord, give us new hearts
And new minds
For Your glory
May Your name be lifter higher
And higher and higher

We prepare the way
We prepare the way of the Lord

it’s in our correct thinking and rightful living that we bring Him glory and prepare the way for Him to work!  We must live in wholeness; not settling for brokenness.  He calls us out of that.  He doesn’t want it for us- it isn’t His plan.  He desires for us to know who He sees us as and created us to be.  So, don’t let Satan have victory.  Live in wholeness.  Reject lies.  Allow God to restore you in the way He made you.  Ask God who He says you are and what He says about those lies.  Prepare yourself.  Allow Him to give your a new heart and a new mind toward things…. this is preparing the way for the Lord!  Don’t you love that!  It’s not in your sacrifice that He gets the glory- it’s in your wholeness!  That’s precious!  What a good God!

So, let’s prepare!

chris tomlin (video)

what are you letting speak to you today?

i adore my parents.  they are just good people.  and they love me and my kids without reserve.  everytime they come up to visit, they are so great to help me with my house, my yard or to stock my freezer.  and just working with someone, sharing ideas, sweating together- makes it more fun.  seriously, who likes to sweat alone?  not this girl! i also love getting to make my house a home with their help.  God has blessed me so through my parents and my wonderful in-laws.  it really seems that He designed us in such a way to make each other better.  i am really enjoying that right now.  i love it when it’s easy.  when you can just get together and really enjoy one another.  but both sets of my parents are tremendously generous in helping me with my house, my yard, my kids, my life.  and i know that it’s rare to have that.  so i so receive them as a blessing from the Lord.  and I praise Him for it- because I really need them in my life right now.

relationships, like flowers and seeds, change with time.  you have to dream a little first and pick just the right ones.   then you have to find the right place with the best condition for growth and maturity.  next you have to put in a ton of hard work, back-breaking labor at times!  then after you think you can’t do anymore, you water them, you fertilize them, you wait patiently.  and then that day comes when you get to sit and just enjoy the beauty, the smell, the feeling of reward and blessings.  and that’s  a good day!

in my life, i see this really vividly with my children.  i’m in the back-breaking labor days right now! but man, i go to bed each night knowing that i’m working on something worth far more than petals or fruit.  my precious children are the world to me.  i love these days.  and i look forward to seeing who God has made them to be.  what a joy to watch Him grow them.

Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb.

Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it.  His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint.

Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.   He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying.   And now, go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you.”

Matthew 28:1-7

I have been doing this study on listening to God.  It’s been really powerful stuff so far!  And I cannot wait to do more.  But this topic of self-hatred has really resonated with me.  Satan tempts us to believe that we are not valuable, not necessarily to do wrong things, but to lose that which we already have as believers- the value of God.  The enemy is smart and strategic.  He knows just where to attack us.  That’s why God tells us to be aware.  The enemy is on the prowl.  And when we have convinced ourselves that we are alone and no one is like us or on our side- we are just the perfect target.

An even scarier part for me is that I can be doing this to my kids.  Seriously, are they going to need therapy one day because of me?  I pray no! I cannot speak these things over them.  I cannot tell them that it’s okay to think that way or try to justify it.  I must teach them to renounce it.  I must teach them how to recognize the enemy’s work and how to defeat it.

When you reject yourself it mean you reject and cannot receive the blessings and benefits of being a part of God’s Kingdom.  And who doesn’t want to experience those blessings??  I do!  Self hatred is also denying everything God created us to be and actually seeing ourselves as Satan wants us to.  He wins if we allow it.  Self-hatred is a form of pride in that we believe what we think more than what God thinks.  It’s just dangerous.

So, today I encourage you to love yourself well.  Deny those thoughts.  Reject them!  Ask God who He says you are.  Ask who has He created you to be?  Also- look to others and see those things in them and encourage them in it!  We are created to be a community of believers, rejoicing in the Kingdom together.  There is power in His Kingdom. Don’t miss out on it by letting Satan rob you of it!

Often in the past, Lord, I have come to thee with a heavy heart and burdened life. And thou hast answered my prayers and graciously lifted the burden from me. Yet with strange perversion, I still refuse to leave my burdens with thee. Always I gather them up- those heavy bundles of fears and anxieties- and shoulder them again. -Peter Marshall

Isn’t that just it? Don’t we do that- just keep re-burdening ourselves with things that God wants to release us from?  Let’s release and just leave it with God- He can handle it better anyway!  So, this Monday morning, I encourage you to begin your week light-hearted and listening to God.  Let Him speak to you.  Let Him tell you truth.  Let Him embrace you with His tenderness.  Then we can go into our weeks overflowing blessings to others.  And that is what it’s all about!  Happy Monday!