Day 32 Faith and Fruit

It is the wildest thing sometimes how when God is teaching me something I end up hearing the same message over and over in different places. For example I went to a retreat last weekend, heard a sermon at church on Sunday, and then went to Bible study on Thursday and ALL three amazingly related to one another. (That is even more wild seeing as the Bible study by Kay Arthur was written in 1980 somthing!)

It is almost scary sometimes how God does that. This week I have been learning (over and over!) about how salvation is not just saying we believe in God (anyone can do that) it is about true faith that shows itself through how we live our lives. True faith produces fruit. If we are in true fellowship with God our hearts will long to be made righteous and seek to obey Him.

We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

Day 33 Trusting like Christ

In case you can't tell I am counting backwards toward the end of this journey towards Easter. It feels like it has been a month already and it has only been a week!
Tonight at church the pastor talked about how Jesus knew he was going to be crucified as he went through the weeks of Lent. It was probably one of the hardest times of his life here on earth. He knew he was getting ready to die, yet he maintained his focus and lived each day with a trust in God. Knowing that even though these times where hard God had a perfect plan and was going to take care of Him. Our pastor encourages us to look at the hardships in our lives. Are we living through them with a trust in God and a knowing that good always comes through our trials.
Times are not always easy and sometimes I don't know why God just can't do things my way to make it "easier"!
I heard this little statement last night that made me think a lot about God's sovereignty....
"nothing happens in the life of a Christ follower with out the heavenly Father's permission"

That reminds me that no matter what I am struggling with it must be God's plan for me, so I must handle it with a joyful heart, trusting in God just like Christ did.

How great is our Lord! His power is absolute! His understanding is beyond comprehension! Psalm 147:5

Day 34 Help!

Ok, so last night at Bible study Julie brought the most beautiful brownies I have EVER seen! Fudge brownies with white icing on top and chocolate fudge drizzled over the top of the white icing!
Jesus died for my sins.....I kept telling myself as I sat there thinking I might just die if I didn't eat just one. I have tried not to make it too much of a public knowledge that I have given up anything for Lent, but last night in my weakness I had to call on the support of my sisters! I was so glad that I did, because even Julie who made the delectable beauties talked me out of eating one. She promised me that for Easter she would make me a whole batch! :-)

Day35 Accountability

Today I talked to my friend who started this whole idea in me of giving up something for Lent. I was glad to hear that she too was still standing firm. We shared with one another several of the hard temptations that we have had to press through.
She had a Birthday party yesterday where they served Chocolate fudge cake with a cream cheese filling! As she was telling me this story I thought for sure she was going to tell me that she had given in just for the occasion. I was SO proud of her that she resisted such a temptation. My mouth was watering just hearing her describe this delectable cake!! I then shared with her that there had been several times over the weekend that I was tempted to give in but didn’t want to have to tell her when I talked to her the next day that I had failed. This made us both realize that we had made each other accountability partners.
What an important part of our walk with Christ! …our accountability to others. I know that if I had confessed to my friend that I had given in to the cheese cake Saturday that she would still love me anyway just as I would if she had given in to the chocolate Birthday cake, but we didn’t want to let the other one down. We stood together and our accountability to one another helped us to resist the temptation to give in.
Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falls; for has not another to help him up. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

Day 36 Friends and encouragers

Today after church we went to a Chinese Buffet. The dessert bar was again a HUGE temptation. The ice cream station was even harder! Mint chocolate chip!! I mean come on!! I stuck to it and only ate fruit. It is sad, but I have to say that this is one of the hardest things I have ever done. I never realized how many sweets I really enjoy all the time and never even think twice about it.

Tonight at church I was so tempted to have a chocolate chip cookie with the kids. One of my friends who knows that I have given up sweets said to me…..”don’t do it….it’s not worth it. They aren’t that good anyway!” I didn’t know if she was telling the truth or not, but we smiled at each other and I then told her that the taco meat we had on the taco salad wasn’t any good either. See, she gave up red meat for Lent so although I had the meat she just had a bowl of chips with cheese and salsa on it.

This little incident made me think of how important our friends are to us for strength and encouragement. Although what she was required to resist was different than what it was for me, she helped me to stand against the temptation and I helped her!

Today I am ever so thankful to all the friends I have who encourage me and help me to stand strong when I am weak.

encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. Hebrews 3:13-14

Day 37 Never reason with sin

If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness!! He himself Has redeem Deidra from all of her sins. (Psalm 13)

My sin was enough to condemn me, but instead He was faithful to forgive me. I am taking just a tiny sip of that bitter cup- denying myself so that I can have more or Him.

Today at the conference they again had a plethora delicious looking sweets! This morning they had this chocolate coffee cake that looked SO good. At lunch right in front of my plate sat a beautiful piece of cheese cake with blueberry topping. I even tried to reason with myself wondering if maybe I could go with the “cheese” part and not consider it a sweet. Well the fact that it had “cake” at the end of it kind of made it obvious that it was off limits. Funny how even with sin sometimes we try to manipulate it into what we want it to be. We try to justify our actions or choices when we know good and well that we should just call it what it is. It’s sin and we can not compromise.
Just like that “cheese” was “CAKE’ and I was not to partake in it. Thankfully the Lord was right there waiting to help me resist and I did.

Day 38 No compromising

Tonight I went to a Hope for the Heart conference at one of our local churched. Babbi Mason was there and she and her friend Donna were wonderful speakers. Before the conference they had snacks in this room of the church. Talk about temptation!! They had brownies, cake, chocolate chunk cookies that looked like they came straight from heaven itself!! They even had chocolate covered pretzels!! My favorite!! So many times in my head I though…….”it’s too hard tonight…I will just give in since this is a special event” I learned a wonderful lesson from this experience. I resisted the temptation to give in and I am so glad I did.

I chose not to compromise on what I had set forth to do just because it got hard. So many times in my walk I compromise my ability to stand firm against sin just because of my circumstances. When I am tired I give into the temptation to get angry or grumpy with my kids. When I am irritated I give into the temptation to be disrespectful to my husband. When I am weary I give into the temptation to be lazy and complacent.

Even thought I was at this conference surrounded by sweets that looked too hard to resist, I still had to stand firm. I realized that it is so important for me not to compromise my faithfulness to Christ no matter what. My circumstances can not rule how I act or how I respond.

I also set in place my official goal for the next 40 days and it comes from

Psalm 51 :10 &12:

Create in me a clean heart , Oh God, and Renew a right spirit within me. Restore to me the JOY of your salvation and grant me willingness to obey you.

I was absolutely amazed when I cam across this scripture. This sums up completely what my goals is for this Lent season.

Day 39 Faithful Unto Death

Today in Bible study we looked at the seriousness of Covenants we enter into and how serious God is about us keeping the covenants we make with Him and He with us. We looked at several examples of how God is even prepared to put to death those who are not obedient to Him. We looked at communion and how it symbolizes of our Covenant with Christ. 1 Corinthians 11:27-28 says: whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.

If I am going to claim to be in Covenant with Christ I need to examine my heart and ask Christ to point out to me where I need to be cleansed. I want to walk in a way worthy of being called His.

A few thoughts: True salvation leads to the obedience of faith…
Is salvation just belief with out obedience?
Surrender: a total committal of oneself -even unto death
Jesus died for my sins- He removed my sins

Christ was faithful unto death…..will I be faithful?? Or will I give in?

Giving up sweets is hard. I found my self craving anything and everything....Brady’s Nilla Wafers looked heavenly today. I opened up the fridge and could have sworn the chocolate pudding cup called me by name!
Being obedient to God is hard too. Can I handle it? Will I be faithful or will I give in to the desires of my flesh?

Day 40 more conciousness

It’s only the first day and I am already being tested! After PE today the homeschool group went to the Pizza Hut buffet for lunch. Normally I would have just gone up and got a piece of dessert pizza without even thinking about it. I also would have gotten a Coke with my Pizza and not even thought twice about it.
Today I realized that sometimes my sin or disobedience (like my sweets) is something that I don’t even recognize or think twice about. I had to make a conscious effort today to say no to the coke and the dessert. I need to start making a more conscious effort to be obedient to Christ and to all that He has called for me to do (or not do!)
In the car on the way to church my husband was answering a question from one of the kids. Without even thinking twice, I butted in and corrected what he was saying. This actually irritated him and he even made a comment about it. This was a perfect example of me being disobedient to what God has told me (to be more respectful to my husband and his authority) and how with out even thinking about it I gave into sin. Just like I am having to be more aware of what I choose to put in my mouth, I need to be more aware of what comes out of my mouth and think about it before it does.

What I want to accomplish over the next 40 days

If I am going to give up sweets, it is going to have to be for a great cause! I havn’t even been able to give up sweets for even a day for any reason. Even loosing weight has never been a strong enough reason for me to give up sweets. I would rather run 10 miles afterward than to give up a piece of cake! So, what is my purpose of giving up sweets? Here is what I came up with today.
First of all…it is NOT about the sweets. I don’t in anyway think sweets are a problem in my life. I have no NEED to cut them out. I am CHOOSING to cut out something I really enjoy as a symbol of the sin on my life, and the sacrifice Christ made for me so that I can be washed clean of that sin and be called holy and righteous before Him.

During the next 40 days I hope to achieve a spiritual renewal through a stronger faith in Christ. I hope to replace my longing for sweets with a greater longing for Him. I hope to do this by focusing more on prayer and a disciplined heart seeking to be in obedience to God in several areas of my life. *prayer *surrendering ALL *slow to anger *slow to speak *respect for my husband
I am sure the Lord will be pointing more ways out to me as the days go by. I am eager to see what he shows me.

Lent

I have never been one to really give up anything for Lent. To be honest with you when the idea was brought to my attention by my friend this past week I really didn't know anything about it. I tentatively agreed to give something up with her, and then went on line to research exactly what Lent was and what I was supposed to do. As I looked at different things on the internet I only got my self more confused and even a little discouraged. I even read sights that claimed that giving something up for Lent was not Biblical. Being overwhelmed, I just decided to pray about it and ask the Lord Himself to tell me what this was all about and if he wanted me to do it.

I started out asking the Lord what I would give up. I started to feel that what I gave up shouldn’t be something that I feel I need to give up, but rather something that I really enjoyed and found pleasure in. I would be giving it up not because I have to, but because I want to. I want to as a sacrifice. A sacrifice on my part symbolizing the sacrifice God made for me for my sins. For the next 40 days I made the decision to commit to a complete surrender to the Lord and all that he wanted to work in and out of me. I would do this in the form of a fast. A fast of all sweets including what I call all the C’s. Cake, Candy, Cookies, ice Cream and Coke (but not coffee!!) If you know me well, you know that this will not be an easy task for me. I eat these things EVERY day and when EVER I want! This may very well be one of the hardest things I have ever done, but I am committed to it and I am going to do it!

Now, it has been a busy few months for me and while I have kept a written journal and continued to grow in the Lord, I have not had the time to write on my blog. I am anticipating though, that the next 40 days are going to be life changing for me. I believe that the Lord is going to make changes in me like never before. I am ready, and I don’t want to miss one thing. So, to help myself keep track of this 40 day journey (and to keep from getting writers cramp trying to write all in my written journal!) I will use my blog to count down and journal the next 40 days.

I will spend today praying for what God wants me to focus on during this time. Praying for my husband? Praying for my children? Reading my Bible more? More positive thinking? What does he want me to put on in place of what I am putting off?