Humility is not a lowering of oneself but a submission of oneself! el

Monday’s Mantra

1^st Peter 5:6-7: Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time, 7casting all your cares on Him for He cares for you.

What’s the first thing you think or feel when you read/hear this word, humility? My guess is your first instinct may not be so positive, at least not as beautiful as humility was meant to be. Years ago, I prayed for this virtue…whew, what a season! J J  Thanks for joining me for Coffee Hour with Chicklit Power and Monday’s Mantra with Trench Classes United.

I’ve come to learn that this fruit of the Spirit is one that tries to sneak away…often, and I do mean often!  Why is that? Because we have this house of flesh that consistently needs to be shushed!  It’s not something that you just tweak your nose, snap your fingers, or push a 30-second button and voila, we are humbled! I mean, we can be humbled that quick; but the problem is pushing the pause button so humility stays with us and in us through all circumstances. Yes, I have learned, albeit the hard way, that humility is like salt to a tasteless meal; it adds flavor; it makes everything better!

In fact, humility helps me to hang on to my Christianity and prevents me from getting on my broom and rising above others as I take a fast spin around my circumstances.

What does “humbling yourself” look like? Let me share a God-given picture of humility:

I’ll never forget an experience I had when I read 1stPeter 5:6. The crazy thing is I had read it a year prior, even wrote a blog on it as I was struggling with wondering why my first book wasn’t being picked up by an agent/publisher so I thought He was saying in due time. But months later, when I was brought back to it, He gave me another meaning that spoke much louder than the first one. What He was speaking this time literally rendered me humbled: In due time, through this season of seeking humility, He would lift me up and out of… myself! Yes, the scriptures are God-breathed and useful for teaching and correcting. The only way we can know this is by showing up each day to have our eyes and ears opened, offering up a sacrifice of time.

The Merriam Webster’s Dictionary defines humility in this way: “The quality or state of not thinking you are better than others.”

I have learned firsthand that God will humble us not to hurt us but to help us. He is more concerned about our humilit

y than our happiness… and He will do what He needs to do to achieve this virtue in us. Join me Wednesday for a sort of redemption of my mistake and Him giving me a “retake”!

Humbly,

Evinda

Faith Filled Fridays From Croley’s Corner of Chicklit Power

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Let Your hand become my help, for I have chosen Your precepts. Psalm 119:173
Good morning and thanks for joining me today. Grab your favorite beverage and journal. My prayer has been as you read each week’s blog that you gain sweet insight into His Word. So let’s get started.
For many who know my testimony, you know our daughter was diagnosed at the age of 11 with an incurable disease by the terms of doctors called “Gaucher” (although this disease is inherent) and there are many pieces to this puzzle, a picture that hasn’t exactly been completed but I totally trust God is in control. I can recall when she was in the third grade she came home from school, excited that on this particular day she had access to this little mound and was able to tell others about Jesus. She exclaimed in her tiny little voice, “There were a lot of kids, mom, and they listened.” Within a few short weeks her territory grew and it’s been growing ever since. Oh the heart of a missionary or even an evangelist, at that.
Which brings me to 1 Chronicles 4:9-10. This portion of scripture describes a man who was more honorable than his brothers, which tells me there must have been some dishonor within the family, and his mother called his name Jabez, because she bore him in pain. We go on to read in verse 10 that Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested.
We find shortly after Jabez speaks he’s asking for a blessing. So what do you think Jabez is thinking when asking for a blessing? Does it sound selfish? Could it be that he is requesting for a relationship with God? "Blessing" is drawing near to God, to be close to God, to walk with Him, finding Him and knowing Him personally. Oh to be filled with His wisdom and to understand His loving, forgiving heart; all of this is part of a "blessing" and this is what Jabez is praying for.
Many of us have heard different messages on The Prayer of Jabez and is a wonderful reminder because it encourages us to look to Jabez's prayer as one of many biblical models of prayer worthy of emulation. We must understand that true prayer does not consist of a set of repetitions or chants working to provoke a particular response from God. God is not a genie in a bottle, waiting to be enticed/lured out so He can grant wishes. But rather, prayer is about aligning your mind and heart with God's purposes.
Jabez is the only exception I have seen in Scripture to have a life without pain; yet sometimes pain is often necessary to mold us and shape us. Although our daughter’s healing has not manifested this does not stop her from enlarging her territory for the Kingdom. Anyone that knows her sees the heart of Jesus…yes, that’s what I said…sees the heart of Jesus. Her love for many is likened as the cry from Jabez. Can God enlarge our territory and entrust us to use it for His purposes regardless of our circumstances? Absolutely, He can! God truly wants to increase our territory to have greater influence in the world around us...and that would make us Kingdom builders!! Till next week,
Love Deb

Faith Filled Fridays From Croley’s Corner of Chicklit Power

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Thank you for joining me today for Faith Filled Fridays. Grab your favorite beverage, a pen and journal and let’s get started.
Recently I’ve had many ask me what I thought about waiting! For many of us, we’ve at some time or another gone through a time of waiting … waiting for answers to our prayers. And for some of us, we wonder why we have to wait so long for things to happen and other times, well, don’t we get tired of waiting and resign ourselves to the fact that maybe He’s not listening since His answer isn’t coming fast enough?
We certainly are a society that does not like to wait…period! And why should we? We can Google questions rather than wait for an answer; we can order clothes on line rather than suffer waiting in a weekend line at a retail store. Think about it for a minute and ask yourself, do you like to wait? The answer for most of us is a definite NO!!! We don’t like waiting at the doctor’s office… at the bank, and especially waiting in line at the drive-thru. Speaking of getting through a drive-thru …
Awhile back I had a couple of my grandchildren with me, they informed me that they were getting hungry so I suggested going to our favorite eating place. When we turned the corner, to our surprise, a line filled with cars was wrapped around the building and all I could hear was a huge gasping sigh followed by:”We’ll never get to eat now!” I quickly replied, “Don’t get frustrated. We can drive to another location that maybe isn’t so busy” … I paused and added a however; “we’re not guaranteed it won’t be just as busy.” I’m not sure if it was impatience or hunger, but they thought for a brief moment and asked, “Can we go inside?” My response was, “Sure.”
As we entered, we saw immediately that the inside was as busy as the outside! again they looked up at me with a look of urgency…they were hungry! I explained to them this shouldn’t take long… really, and if they waited patiently without complaining they could enjoy an ice cream for dessert.
They were happy with the thought of a sweet reward, so they suffered through the wait.
Bringing this into a spiritual perspective, we too can find ourselves in a position where we’ve asked for something from God and as we begin to turn the corner in our journey as believers, we suddenly see ahead that things are just not moving as fast as we were hoping and we have to wait. And sometimes in our waiting we become exasperated…impatient...always asking...”What’s up with the wait?” Waiting can certainly feel like we can’t see the end from the beginning.
We are a people of hurry up and getter done, not thinking about the consequences of our impatient- ness. God doesn’t operate any faster in this century than He did in the first. And so while we rush ourselves, we can’t rush God. In fact, much of life is spent waiting. When it seems nothing is happening, we need to trust that is when everything is happening … behind the scenes. We just can’t see it….at least not yet!
In the waiting we forget that we’re not the only ones that God is dealing with. We must remember that He may be dealing with other people, situations and/or circumstances. And to be impatient and demanding can sometimes cause us to act out of and therefore change the outcome of God’s will for our lives and maybe the lives of others, as well.
While our natural nature is to hate waiting, this period of uncertainty can be a time of great personal growth. We must recognize that God is in control, even when it seems He has forgotten us.
Had my grandchildren demanded to go somewhere else, well, the reward would not have been half as sweet! They endured in the wait, even in the simplest way! Our lives may not be as simple as choosing a place to eat; however, it’s just as important to know that waiting on Him brings blessings and rewards to us all!
Don’t grow restless in the waiting. God brought favor to Hannah after years of praying for a son...in her waiting… Moses spent forty years tending sheep before God called him as a deliverer of His people; God had to deal with Pharaoh’s hard heart...in the waiting. Remember He may be working with the will of others….in your waiting!
What are you doing while you are waiting? Are you doubting or worshipping? Are you complaining or praying?
Keep your heart full of hope...in the waiting!
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6
Thanks for stopping by Faith Filled Friday’s and remember to keep Him close to your heart...while in the waiting.
Love,

Deb