Opposite of love is not hate it’s selfishness

In my Billy Grahm devotional this morning I read a quote, "The opposite of love is not hate. It's selfishness."   That really struck me.   I like to do things my way and for my satisfaction often.   When I get irritated inside, it's often because I want my loved ones to fit into my plans,  not plan around my loved ones.      Today, I have to stop  and ask myself, am I walking in love?    Jesus said; John 15:12 "Love one another as I have loved you."  He loves us unconditionally, all the time with a sacrificial heart ❤️.  Pretty tall order......."Hope for each day" suggests this prayer;"Lord forgive me for the times I have chosen self, over service or a grudge, over grace.   Give me a love that sees others as more important than myself."

Light at the end of this tunnel

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."   This has always been one of my favorite verses.   He knows the plans He has for us.   Plans to prosper, not to harm, give us hope and a future.     I'm reading Luke 24 this morning.    The disciples were downcast cuz Jesus had been crucified, died and was buried.   But in the midst of horrible Sunday came, He Rose!!   His light broke the darkness!! His light still breaks the darkness!!!  

Are you a temple or a trash can?

Romans 12:1 "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship."   We are not our own, we've been bought with a price; the blood of Jesus.   Our physical bodies are The temple for His Holy Spirit.    It's our act of worship to maintain our good physical, spiritual, emotional and intellectual health.    I here so many people say,"I'm to busy or I'll start that later" our bodies are the only ones we get this side of Heaven.  It's been my birthday week and I get" indulging".   I'm remembering the reasons I try to limit my sugar intake.   When I don't I get a lot more pain in my body and I actually feel more drained after the initial energy boost.   Plus sugar never fills me up, it makes me want more and still I am hungry for good food.  When I indulge in Sugar I am not treating my body as a Temple for His Spirit.  Today be inspired to treat your body as His temple not your trash can.😇🙏❤️💃🚴🏾‍♀️

Let His SonShine in you!!

Psalm 118:24 "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."

Today as I am waking up to this beautiful "SonSine".  My spirit is lifted with joy.  "Son Shine " simply reminds me to live in hope.    I hope You let His Son, Shine in you today and you can feel His ever present Warmth even when the cloud appear.😇🙏❤️🎂💃

Endurance and encouragement are right here for us!

Romans 15:5 " May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus.....7 accept one an other, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God."      Encouragement and endurance everyday I need a dose of both.   When I let His light fill my heart even if a stormy day I can see the "SonShine" which keeps me in love, endurance and encouragement!!!😇🙏❤️

Less is more

James 3:17 “But the wisdom that comes from Heaven is first of all pure;then peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.  18 Peace makers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.”   

In James 3 it talks about two different kinds of wisdom.   It says; show your wisdom by your good life and deeds done in humility.    As I read this today it made me take pause.   Am I walking a good life in humility?  Or do I harbor envy and selfish ambition?  Yesterday I celebrated my 60th Birthday.   I was all about me yesterday.   Which reminds me; that can only lead to emptiness.  I had a truly blessed day and I’m thankful for all of it.   But it was a bit of a selfish day.   So today I am sitting in a quandary, how can I stay in humility,  Godly wisdom and peace if I’m so busy fitting it all in?    When I “ fit it all in”, I don’t have time for His peace.     The theme for my 60s is “less is more”! His peace not my business.  I hope this helps you too😇🙏❤️

60. Today. Praise God!!

Nehemiah 8:10

Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Good morning today is my 60th birthday and the theme of the joy of the Lord is my strength keeps popping up in my heart today I’m so excited to be able to enjoy my favorite things with my favorite people. it takes longer than one day so, I’m celebrating for a couple weeks!! seeing the people I love and enjoying things I love to do as well.  Yesterday my friends and I went water skiing with 50° water. I loved every minute of it even the initial freezing shock

Mainly waking up  and walking with Jesus Is my favorite way to start and stay in my every day especially today😇!!   I feel so blessed.   thanks for being in my circle of friends.   I love you all

😇🙏💃❤️🎂🚴🏾‍♀️. I’m going to have a barbecue at my house on Sunday at 5:30 please let me know if you can come.  I’d love to have you there😇

Perfect peace

Isaiah 26:3 “ You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.  4 Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord is the Rock eternal.”  I can get myself pretty worked up about decisions I’ve made.  I go down the … “if I would have” game.   How completely wasteful instead of being at peace I get anxious.   What is done is done.  Even when I make a poor choice God can work it out for my good.  If I learn from my poor choices that will be good.  Sometimes I keep repeating the same mistakes. Frustration takes over and I get down on myself.  Jesus didn’t come and save us so that we could be in constant torment.   Today when I start to play the “wishing for the path I didn’t take”, I will intentionally turn to Jesus knowing He can take my path and turn it into a path of perfect peace, if my eyes are on Him.    Let’s keep our feet upon His Rock!!

Start with praise

Jeremiah 17:14 " Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise."    First, I have to remember to stay in praise.  I can easily thank God for nature.   When I start thanking Him for something that absolutely can only be Him it reminds me how great He is.    He is not only so great He puts the stars in the sky and aligns for a lunar eclipse.  He is intimate He knows every hair on each of our heads and He knows each of our needs even more then we do.   God is so awesome, powerful and intimate He is way beyond my comprehension.   So today for my Heath and wellness I will choose to trust the one who Knows!!😇🙏💃❤️🚴🏾‍♀️

Fretting…. Only leads to evil

Don’t look back with rose colored glasses.

2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old is gone the new has come!   When I first quit drinking my kids would remind me of the stupid things I did when I was drinking and expect me to act the same.   I would tell them,"That was the old Mom, I'm a new mom!!" I meant it with all my heart.  When Jesus took away my desire to drink and all that went with it He replaced it with a desire to put Him first,

 and be part is the solution not the problem.  I felt like I was a brand new person!  Praise the Lord!!  Jesus changed my heart and my desires.  In order to avoid backsliding; I have to control my thinking.  I need to stay reading the Bible and fellowshipping with like minded people to stay strong in my transformation.   It is so easy to backslide in my thinking.    Going back to drinking or any of the other behaviors I want to stay away from all starts with thinking on those fleshly desires and not on seeking God first trusting Him every step of the way.   Sometimes, often...I have to use the prayer, " Lord I believe, help me with my unbelief."  He is mighty to save!   When I have stinking thinking, it's best for me to stop and remember who I am in Jesus.  Thank Him and stay strong and in the new life he has given me not looking back  with rose colored glasses upon things that didn't work.   Hope this helps you to remember to walk in your new creation even when you're tempted to look back. 😇🙏❤️🌸

Pure heart? Or irritable and judge?

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.  12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.  .....17 the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God you will not despise. ".  Create in me a pure heart O Lord and a willing Spirit!!!! Purity of heart in this world is hard.   I do find myself in Judgement, then I let myself get irritated.  Loving others with a pure heart is loving people the way they are no matter how different, even if their ways don't match what the Bible encourages.  In order to have a pure heart to love others, I must take a deep dive and look at any unrest inside my heart, then let the Holy Spirit truly convict me of me of the evil in my heart.  Once I can identify my brokenness it helps me 1. Know I need a savior.  2 Trust Jesus is my Savior. 3 Ask him to remove my shortcoming and give me His righteousness so I can truly live with. Clean, pure heart.   4 Know, through the powerful gift of Jesus, I receive, continual forgiveness, a clean heart and eternal life.  Praise God!!!  Praise God from whom all blessing flow!! Even when we have people we disagree with they are a blessing to us helping us look at our own unclean hearts ♥️😇🙏🌸💃

Is mighty to save

Zephaniah 3:17 " The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing."   

Today this verse lifted me up.   He is mighty to save!!! No matter what we go through He is with us.  I have a plaque on my wall; “ God doesn’t give us what we can handle, He helps us handle what we are given.”     He is with us every moment of everyday through it all!! Look up to keep our chins up.   When we magnify God, everything else is minimized!! ( Andrew Womack is doing a series on this now).

Remember No more

Isaiah 43:25 "I, even I am He who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more."  He blots out our sins and remembers them no more!!   Thanks Jesus  for taking our sins on the cross and giving us your right standing with God and eternal life in Heaven to look forward to.    Jesus said, love God and love  your neighbor.     For me, I have to concentrate on loving God in order to love others with a pure heart.   This verse reminds me that I am not to hold grudges.   That I too should remember peoples offenses No More!!   It's easy to get offended for a variety of reasons.  Jesus said, " it's better not to take offense in the first place.    Everyday I have a choice to see what's wrong or be thankful for what's right.   I need to seek God first to keep my head on Thankfulness.  Today, I will try again!!😇

Correction

 I should have said;   Own it, confess it, pray and trust God.  We often can’t fix anything.    Usually we can make things worse.   Jesus alone is the great healer!! Pray and Trust Him!🙏😇🦅

He gets us an “ear”

James 5:16 "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."   Confess.....In order to get past an issue we have to own our part.  If we are in conflict with someone, we have to own our part.  Own it, fix what you can.  Pray and leave it in Gods very capable hands 🙌.   Prayer is effective when we pray through the powerful gift of Jesus, it's not our righteousness that gets us an ear, it's HIS!!. 

Forgiven , forgotten

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins.    Fresh start!!   We need not keep beating ourselves up for the past.   We're forgiven, it's forgotten, be the Newness Jesus died to give you!!😇🙏❤️5 minutes ago is just as over as 50 years ago.  Ask for forgiveness, accept the forgiveness and walk as a made new child of God!! Heir of the King!!

Chasing Rainbows?

Galatians 5:16 "Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh."   This weekend I went chasing rainbows again.  I didn't take the time to pray asking God to direct my path.  I didn't pray,  then open the Bible to see what Bible verse could guide me through the decision.   I did get a clear message as I prayed and then read a devotional; “The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one has to do."   I read this and was convicted of the choice I should make.  I had peace about it.....then I went chasing rainbows anyways and chose the thing that maybe could be a "new kind of fun". Of course my day wasn't fulfilling.   I was sad I made the choice I made.   I do that to often.  Pray, ask God then don't listen to what He has for me.   I may pray and ask and then not hear an immediate answer so I do my own thing and pretend it'll be blessed by God.     Today, I am motivated to be more diligent in walking in the Spirit so I won't go chasing the lusts  of my flesh.  Today may each of us be filled  with His Spirit, so we can have the discipline to listen and obey😇🙏🦅

I get knocked down but I get up again!

Psalm 51:10-12  " Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  11Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing Spirit, to sustain me."  

Restore to me....  restore me Lord!!    This weekend I did it again,  I run on too little sleep. I have given up caffeine so I don't get to artificially pump myself up. Which is great, but hard to stay in a good mindset when sleep deprived.  I have a defeated attitude when I'm tired.   Then I make poor choices.  I chose from a position of lack and defeat instead of love, patience, endurance, strength and joy.    "Dear Lord, please restore in me the joy of my salvation and help me take good care of my physical body so it doesn't drag down my Spirit life!! "

Song is I get knocked down but I get up again!!!  I’m not sure how to share that on this site😇

This isn’t a Christian song like I usually send.   But I like it😇.  When I have a tired day it’s usually cuz I stayed up too late doing stuff that was a waste of time.  Especially when I was drinking…… can’t believe how deeply that can destroy everything!!  Glad I see it now.  😇❤️🙏🚴🏾‍♀️🦅