What Are You Waiting For?

“Let patience have its perfect work in you, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” James 1:4 (NKJV)

Enduring a situation patiently doesn’t seem to come naturally to us, but it is the way that the Lord works on us and molds us into who He wants us to be. Waiting on the Lord is not about sitting in one place, doing nothing. Waiting is active because while you are waiting, God wants you to remain in faith. And we know faith without works is dead. Our faith, even while we are waiting for direction or clarity, must be put into action. If we are in a situation where it seems as if there is absolutely nothing we can do or we have done everything we know to do, we can always declare God’s Word. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God and our faith is active when we are speaking forth God’s powerful Word.

Just as God spoke the universe into existence, we can speak our desires into existence. Of course, our desires must line up with God’s will. We must speak what God says, which is the highest and purest truth. When the enemy comes at us with lies, we can combat those lies with God’s truth and cut those lies to pieces with the sword of the Word.

So are you in a season of waiting?

Are you believing for transition, promotion, abundance, financial freedom, a spouse, a child?

What are you waiting for?! Speak what God says about your situation! Find a promise in God’s Word and stand on it and declare it until you see your situation turn around!

I will leave you with some lyrics the Lord gave me last week during a worship service at church:

Open your mouth
Let Him fill it
Open your mouth
Speak His Word/
Open your mouth
Let Him fill it
Oh, speak Him forth!

Be blessed!

To Serve or Be Served? That is the Question!

"Ministry" is from the Greek word diakoneo, meaning "to serve.” At my church, our pastors believe that every member of God’s Church is a minister, so obviously that would mean that every believer is called to serve- serve Jesus and serve His Body. Jesus was the servant of all. In fact, He was the Servant King.

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45 (NKJV)

Jesus asks us as Christians to lay our lives down continually, denying our wants and desires, or as the Apostle Paul said to do, “die daily.”

Do we know how to do that?

It is human nature to seek after what our hearts and flesh crave, but we do not have to give into that kind of nature for we have a new nature in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit empowers us to set aside our selfishness and learn how to be selfless like Jesus, preferring others above ourselves. That kind of lifestyle starts in the mind, in the way we think. Not only is the mind of Christ pure and wise, but it is selfless. When we declare that we have the mind of Christ, we are declaring that we can think selfless thoughts and our thoughts will then begin to affect our words, which will in turn affect our actions, which will in turn affect our behavior, which will in turn affect our character, which will in turn affect our destiny.

Who is God asking you to serve?

What do you need to do to lay aside your selfish desires and put someone else’s life before your own?

It isn’t easy, but it is worth it because Jesus promises us that whoever loses his life will find it and find it abundance.

Minister to someone today and find the kind of abundant and amazing life that you’ve always longed for full of so much love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control- enough to both to give out and receive! True abundance!

Just not now...

Those three words seem to be the words I have had to say quite a lot over these last several months. And I am not a fan of having to turn down opportunities, especially when they seem so right, so perfect.

But the timing may not be...

Sunday morning before church, I was reading Psalm 37 and I think the Lord was trying to prepare me for a decision I was going to have to make later that night...

Psalm 37:4 (NKJV) tells us to:

"Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart."
[The Hebrew word translated “delight” (עָנַג, pronounced aw-nag) literally means to be delicate or feminine (Strong’s, עָנַג.)  It carries the idea of being pliable or sensitive.  In this particular context, it means to be dependent upon God and to derive one’s pleasure from Him. ]

When we read this verse, we usually picture the word delight meaning to enjoy God, which in a way it does. But as I went deeper researching the Hebrew meaning of the word, I realized the verse almost seemed to be a command to us.

The Lord is trying to tell us that He will give us the desires of our heart once we FULLY DEPEND ON HIM AND HIS WAYS. When we have a full revelation of who God is and what His ways are like, we can take genuine pleasure in Him. Not because of what He can do for us, but just because of who He is.

We see in Isaiah 55:8-9 (NKJV):

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
⁹ “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts."

When we understand this, or at least ATTEMPT to understand this statement from the Lord, we see that God's plans may be difficult to comprehend for us humans because they will always be higher than our's.

So how do we walk through life when we have to be the ones making the decisions?

TRUST IN THE LORD. WAIT UPON THE LORD.

"But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint." Isaiah 40:31 (NLT)
"But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." Isaiah 40:31 (KJV)

And of course...

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
⁶ In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths." 
(Proverbs 3:5-6; NKJV)

Then the Lord really hit me with this one in Habakkuk:

"For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry." (2:3 NKJV)

There are opportunities in your life that have yet to completely unfold and there are promises that the Lord has spoken to you that have yet to manifest, but before you give up or take matters into your own hands, trust and wait. The Bible says that God's promises are YES and AMEN (so be it). If whatever you're believing for, praying for, hoping for is supposed to happen. It will. In GOD'S TIMING. 

You may find yourself saying, "just not now..." but know that the Lord has not forgotten about you. He knows exactly what He's doing. He holds your precious life in the palm of His hand and He won't let you fall. If you lean on Him and depend on His ways, You won't be able to help yourself finding delight in Him and the desires that He placed in your heart will unfold right before your very eyes. 

He is ready to give them to you. All you gotta do is....WAIT. :)

Peace&Love.

Emily Rose

Jesus, Lord of All

Dated: December 26th, 2011

What does that mean to you?

For the past few weeks, I have continuously found myself asking Jesus to reign in my life. But such a simple phrase has such a great impact in your daily walk. It begins with obedience. And every single day that we wake up, we have another chance to turn it all around and walk in His will and His ways.

We can get so overwhelmed if we try to figure out God's will for our lives in its entirety. The best way to know that you are allowing Jesus to be your Lord of All is to listen to Him DAILY and walk with Him DAILY. If you do that EVERY DAY, you will be walking in the Lord's will for your life.

So why do we try to over-complicate this? Why do we try to bite off more than we can chew?


Personally, I know why I have a hard time with taking one step at a time. I am an over-achiever and I have had to teach myself to marginalize my life and learn to find down-time to catch my breath. I make my TO-DO list and if I don't check everything off of the list, I feel like I have failed. When I finally realize there will always be things to check off of my TO-DO list, the less stressed out I might become.

Another issue I have trouble with is CONTROL. I guess I feel like God's timing can sometimes work a little slower than I'd like. So when I grow impatient, I try to take matters into my own hands. But giving the situation over to God will always turn out better than anything I could ever attempt.

So I pray:
"Reign over me. Have Your way in every part of my life. I offer up this coming year to You. Reign in me. Reign in my heart. Take control. Of it all. I honestly can't do this on my own. My plan fails, but Your's (in Your timing) is perfect. Order my steps, Lord. Direct my path. Teach me to love like You love. Convict me when I'm in the wrong. Give me the right words to say at all times. I ask this only in Your name, Oh Jesus."


I pray that you learn to hand over your situation over to King Jesus and allow Him to reign in your life. 2012 can be a fresh start for you. Just trust in Him.

Peace&Love.
Emily

In the blink of an eye...

Things can change so quickly sometimes. One day you are perfectly content with the direction your life is headed, and then you catch a glimpse of something you though you understood, and then BAM...your life takes a sudden turn.

Decisions...changes...moving forward...

Seems to be a constant variable in my life...especially over the last few years. You'd think I would be used to it by now, but change is always uncomfortable no matter how often it happens to you.

Paul and I have been involved at Wrecked Ministries since September 2010, only 1 short month after we left Faith Church. We lost a lot of friends in that transition, but God is always faithful and helped us through it by bringing a different group of friends into our life. We found genuine friendships and family during a time of such change and transition for both of us. During our involvement at Wrecked, we searched for our new church home month after month, until a year had passed. We would stay for a few months at one then question if it was really where we were supposed to be. From September 2010 to September 2011, we had tried 3 different churches. So we always felt in transition as far as that area of our life was concerned, but we never lost sight of who we were in Christ or who Christ was to us. We pursued God intensely in the midst of limbo. I found my place as a prophetic worship leader and re-discovered my gift as a songwriter. I read through the entire Bible and fasted and prayed more than I ever had in my whole life. I had a new-found boldness at work to pray with co-workers and patients and even ministered to some homeless people here in South County. We were greatly impacting families when we traveled as a ministry and when people would come to our gatherings in Arnold at our building.

Even though we had a difficult time finding our church home, we never felt like we were totally lacking in our walk with God. Actually, it felt stronger than ever before!

But in August 2011, something shifted in the ministry. We felt burnt out and upset that no one had been coming for 3 or 4 months. We weren't traveling as much anymore and ultimately, we were just ministering to ourselves. After a team meeting, it seemed as if everyone was throwing in the towel. The foundation was crumbling, but after a weekend at The Ramp it seemed as if we were able to pull ourselves together. We came back refreshed. It looked like we got a second wind! We were faithfully there at every gathering even though only a few people were showing up. We were just keeping our eyes fixed on the Lord. But then some people from the team stopped coming regularly and then left the ministry altogether. Discouragement started to kick in, then judgement, then accusation, then a little bit of self-righteousness. We ignored the fact that there wasn't much love anymore. So month after month went by and we began to ultimately go through the motions. To get over the fact that no one was coming anymore, we focused on prayer. We were going to become a prayer culture. Sounds awesome, but in reality, we became a holy huddle not reaching out to the lost. Paul and I had been feeling uncomfortable about everything for a few months but couldn't find it in us to leave just yet. We had invested so much time and energy in this place! And on top of that, we had no church home at all. We felt trapped with very little hope of ever finding a place to raise our kids. Was this it? Were we even affecting the Kingdom for God? Were we even growing spiritually anymore? We were involved in a ministry that wasn't ministering to anyone. It just felt like we kept going around the same mountain with little progress.

But a month ago, things began to brighten up. We started attending a church in Arnold that a few friends went to. And after the first service, we knew this was it. We had found our church home! FINALLY! We were just so excited to be getting fed regularly and meeting new people. And this church has an amazing outreach ministry. They better because they are called CHURCH IN ACTION!

But what about Wrecked? It was starting to feel like an obligation to go at this point. Over the last few months, Paul and I have tried to stick it out, but this past week we decided to step down. It has been a long week.

I am just so glad that God is faithful to the end. Man's love will always disappoint, but God's love remains. It never fails. I am taking one step at a time with this new season, but I am excited to see what God is getting ready to do through us. Sometimes making a move in a new direction can scare the crap out of you, but if you just keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, He will help you walk out into the unknown.

Lord, help me walk out on the water with You. I want to be where You are. I want to be where You need me. Thank you for Your mercy and grace. Thank You for Your amazing love. I couldn't get through all of this change without You God.

"And I'm fixing my eyes on the One who's unchanging, cuz the One who's unchanging is forever changing me." ~Amber Brooks

My heart's in a funny place right now.

Have you ever stared at your destiny right in the face? I did this weekend.

I would be in Los Angeles, CA today, but God intervined. My dear friend Ana moved there yesterday to pursue her dreams and I'm so proud of her.

I tried not to cry, but I couldn't help myself. I will miss her deeply.

May God keep her safe and full of peace and joy.

I was SUPPOSED to go with her. I was SUPPOSED to be an actress on the west coast. I was SUPPOSED to be single and an independent career woman. But like I said before, God intervined. I have no regrets. I have no doubts. I just have a place in my heart that is soft and in awe of God's work in my life.

If you want to see evidence of change, read my blogs from early September. I"m continuously getting used to me. My mom understood probably more than anyone in my life when I came to her the other night with my confusion. "It was a fast change. It happened so quickly," she said. And it did. This wasn't years of work, this was a mere matter of months for my heart to change like it did. And I'm completely left with my mouth gaping open.

I'm not sad right now. I'm just longing to be held by my amazing fiance. When I'm away from him, all I can do is think of when we will be together again. You see, that was MY dream long before acting came into the picture. A dream of having a family. A dream of falling love with the man of my dreams. Praise God for making this dream a reality for me!

On the good news list this week:

***There is a possibility I might have a job soon! It's at an orthodic (they sell orthopedics for people's shoes and whatnot) Dr. office in St. Louis where I would be working as a receptionist there. Scheduling appointments, answering phones, and talking to other Dr. offices. Keep me in your prayers. This job would offer me benefits and great pay. AND I'd get to work with adults! Something I have no idea about.

I really just wanted something to keep me busy while I'm awaiting marriage. I'm usually busy at night, but during the day, I'm ready to go crazy. It's been 2 months of this. And I'm ready for a change of pace...PLEASE!

It's funny because the wedding is pretty much already planned. Just the matter of paying for things and buying things. But the money isn't just going to come as soon as I snap my fingers. It's still gonna take a little while. *sigh*

That's about it. Just taking it one day at a time and getting used to the changes that come.

Peace & Love.