Coffee with a Water Lily

My thoughts have been consumed by my own weaknesses lately. By my failures, my insecurities, all the ways I don't measure up to the woman God created me to be. I wasn't sure what was making these thoughts swirl heavily through my mind, weighing me down and separating me from God. So I felt God pulling me to do a bit of a Bible study. We aren't alone in our weaknesses and temptations. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, and the Word of God was his sword and shield. So I studied this same word, coming upon one final verse that has given me insane rest :) Thank you Lord, your goodness is undeniable!! Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' [...

God's peace is not partial. His love is not conditional. So why do we so often promise our love based on conditions? If you do this for me God, I promise to have complete faith in you. If you give me this one thing God, I will do whatever you ask. And yet, hasn't God already done all that needs to be done for us? He sacrificed his pure and perfect son for the sins of his fallen people, so that we may have a direct line to him, free of conditions, free of shame, free of guilt and self-doubt. God loves us. God loves in a way that is so deep and abiding, that even simply turning our eyes upon him completely ravishes him! God loves us! GOD LOVES US! This is our joy and our comfort, our shield and our strength. It goes beyond even that! Not only does God loves us, but he wants to provide for us! To protect us, to nuture us and make us whole! Not whole as in becoming what we once were, because even when we were born we entered into battle, but instead becoming like NEW! Per...

It's amazing how intricately perfected the world's expectation of our appearance is...how specific, how superficial. But what's more amazing is the deeper call to beauty that the Lord has placed upon our hearts. Honesty in love, transparency in sorrow, worry and fear...these are the products of an open heart and mind, the result of an active vulnerability that the world basically tells us to hide, to fake, to retreat from. Yet isn't it true that it is in our deepest vulnerabilites that we are more widely opened to receive that which is most nourishing to our souls? At Life Group this week, the host, Danny, spoke on understanding our needs and knowing how to address them. While this seems somewhat selfish in it's inward focus, it is a truth that many christians, including myself, avoid because of it's call to transparency. To understand our own needs is a necessary willingness to wake up in the morning and take time to truely acknowlegde the emotional and phy...

Obedience has this deeply ringing sense of servitude to it. In my heart I've always placed obedience and slavery a little to close to each other. And more often then not, my definition of certain words come from particular context rather then a learned definition. So in my seeking to understand the word itself first, I looked it up on dictionary.com! Here's how it defines obedience: o·be·di·ence     / oʊˈbi di əns / Show Spelled [ oh- bee -dee- uh ns ] Show IPA noun 1. the state or quality of being obedient. 2. the act or practice of obeying; dutiful or submissive compliance: Military service demands obedience from its members. 3. a sphere of authority or jurisdiction, especially ecclesiastical. 4. Chiefly Ecclesiastical . a. conformity to a monastic rule or the authority of a religious superior, especially on the part of one who has vowed such conformance. b. the rule or authority that exacts such conf...