Empty Your Heart of the Uneasy

Matthew 6:25, 33-34 - Therefore I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried).... But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.... So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow...

It is so easy today to DAILY go against Matthew 6:25. Stop being perpetually uneasy, anxious and worried. Is it just me? Do you find yourself easily drifting into a state of worry? Or maybe being uneasy? Anxious? Maybe anxious about your dreams and goals. Maybe it's being worried about how God will come through with your finances & paying some bills. Maybe it's being uneasy about fitting everything you need to get done into the allotted time that you have to do it? Maybe it's having grocery money for the week when your account shows $0.00? Maybe it's your marriage. How could you not stress out and worry, when everything looks like it is falling apart?

Friend, I'm here to tell you (and remind myself), God has everything under control if you will KEEP your situation in HIS hands! So often, I know that I'm guilty of this.... see if you can relate: At some point in time, I may hand over a situation to God. Maybe it's something that I've allowed to stress me out, so I verbally (or in writing in my journal) give the situation to him. Often, later that day or a few days later, when the "microwave" of God doesn't shoot out my answer in the "microwave" time period that I want.... like a true woman, with my actions I do this, I GRAB that thing right out of His hands and like I'm talking to my child, or even my husband, I say, "Let me just do it. I'll get it done quicker." (Because no one can do it better than "me", right?! "I will do it! At least I know the job will get done right!) So, there I go, taking the care, concern, worry back onto my shoulders thinking that maybe I can come up with a quicker solution, since GOD didn't manifest it as quickly as I wanted him to.  

I'm just going to remind you (and me), he DOES have a divine plan. He does have divine people lined up to HELP YOU! He has situations LINED up that are going to turn the situation to YOUR FAVOR!!! BUT.... there it is, the big BUT.... BUT, if we keep taking the situation OUT OF HIS HANDS, then we are prolonging those divine things to LINE up that HE has pre-orchestrated, that He has set up to happen! Our WORRY and ANXIOUSNESS, us dwelling on UNEASY is like giving that "thing" or "situation" priority over WHO GOD IS! GOD CAN and WILL handle the situation if we will only LEAVE it with Him. Let Him do His job!

So friend, whatever it is for you today, empty out your heart of the uneasy. Empty out your heart of the anxious thoughts. Empty out your heart of the stress. Empty out your heart of the sadness. Empty out your heart of the pain. Empty out your heart of the stress. Do it one more time, do it today. Cast that care and worry, cast your situation, your spouse, finances, dreams, relationships onto the Lord. ALLOW HIS plan to be carried out. Leave your situation with Him instead of giving into the temptation to take it back again. Watch as HE directs you step by step. He may not give you the whole unraveling of how everything will unfold, BUT if you will LISTEN today, friend, HE WILL give you the next step. It may just be ONE step, but the ONE step that you need to take next is ALL YOU NEED!

Is this you? Make a verbal commitment to someone today that you are casting it on the Lord. Or even just post a comment as your PIVOTAL decision. Just write, "I'm CASTING it on the Lord today. I'm emptying out my heart today." Pick up GOD's peace. I guaranty, having that in your heart will ALLOW you to smile today even when you feel like a smile shouldn't be possible.

Love you! :)
xoxo.

I'm going to start with my comment below..... 

#170 - Endure because YOU WIN!

Good morning! We're going to jump RIGHT in this morning. Such great WORD & revelations! Praise God that HE is not a dead God! That He is ALIVE and still speaks to us through His Word, that He reveals things to us, uncovers what seemed like mysteries. Praise God that we have the opportunity as HIS Children to enter into a relationship that can be growing and growing, that we can gain insight and wisdom EVERY SINGLE TIME we are in His presence! Praise GOD! I'm extremely grateful!

We're jumping off the reading schedule to some Spirit led scripture. Let's go...

Hebrews 12:1-3 -  ... let us throw aside every unnecessary weight... which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us, Looking away from all that will distract to Jesus, Who is the Leader ...  He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (3)Just think of Him Who endured from sinners such grievous opposition and bitter hostility against Himself [reckon up and consider it all in comparison with your trials], so that you may not grow weary or exhausted, losing heart and relaxing and fainting in your minds.

We are called to ONLY run the appointed course that is BEFORE US! We don't have to think of the section of the course for next week or next year, just the portion of the course that is before us NOW! Just run our race TODAY!!!! Stay FOCUSED ahead.... like a runner, we are not looking down at our feet nor are we looking around just aimlessly taking in all the scenery, we are staying FOCUSED on who is ahead of us, the LEADER who IS paving the way.

Jesus endured the cross, WHY? For the JOY of obtaining the prize. He knew that the PRIZE was greater than what He would currently have to endure. The PRIZE was greater than the pain. Right here, right in this point is where many people quit, they loose heart, they faint. BUT, when we keep our eyes focused on our Leader, and we keep the Joy of the prize in mind, we run with the "end in sight" KNOWING that we have ALREADY won.... WE TOO can ENDURE in the race!

Now wait... it gets better! I've always stopped at verses 1 & 2. I've read those, and then stopped. But, WOW, verse 3 is UH-MAZING! So... it says basically.... "Look, take a look at Jesus, think about it.... He endured the cross, the torment, the pain, the mockery, the hostility, people sneering and snickering at Him.... just think about it, CONSIDER all HE went through to the CURRENT trial you may be going through..." OK.... let's take a pause right there. I ALMOST had to LOL at this point. Consider MY trials in comparison to what HE endured on the cross?! Now if that is not a JOKE, I don't know what is! My trials hold NO water, no ground to what He endured on the cross and leading up to it. But... let's continue. So WHY did he endure and go through all of that? Let's finish verse 3, "so that YOU may not grow weary or exhausted! So that YOU may not loose heart, relax and grow faint in your mind! He endured it not ONLY for your salvation, so that you could live in heaven when you pass, but He also endured it so that the CURRENT section of your race could be run without you being exhausted. Without you growing weary. Without you growing tired! Without you toiling in your MIND! He endured the cross for MUCH more than just mere salvation! Salvation is just the stepping off point!!

Why can you have Unwavering Confidence? Because CHRIST endured so that YOU & I could have VICTORY! Sweat-less VICTORIES! Why can you have JOY in the endurance? Because you know the end of the story! Whatever you are going through, IF you will only ENDURE, be patient, and CONTINUE on this section of your course, YOU TOO WILL BE VICTORIOUS! It says in Phil. 1:6, that HE will carry out what He has began in YOU to completion! Have you started something and not yet had victory in it? BE PATIENT! ENDURE! CONTINUE in your race! And.... if you are a bit brave, you can EVEN enjoy it!! It says that JESUS endured so that you could run your race without getting weary, without losing heart, without getting faint, without getting exhausted. YOU CAN HAVE SWEAT-LESS victories if you will ONLY continue on your course!

**** Pre-requisite **** - IF you do not FINISH the course, you will not see the victory that you have been waiting for! The key is, KEEP your EYES FOCUSED on your Leader! Like running a cross-country race, or track. Keep your EYES on the back of the One that you are following, Jesus! Keep your eyes on Him and RUN right through into the finish line of this section of your race! WIN this section! The race is on-going! It continues! We won't be finished until heaven, so on earth we will be in this constant race..... but I encourage you, when you have the end in mind (ie: YOU WIN) you can have JOY in today's endurance! You know the end of the movie! You know the end of the story! You know that YOU will be the one, standing on the stage, holding the trophy to prove that YOU HAVE ENDURED! YOU HAVE WON!

James 1:12 - Blessed is the man who is patient under trial and stands up under temptation, for when he has stood the test and been approved, he will receive THE VICTOR'S CROWN!!!

Amen & Amen!
That was good stuff! It ministered to me! Praise the Lord! 

#163 - For Such a Time as This

Good morning! Get ready for this. The Word for today is for MANY people. MANY. I'm excited to allow the Holy Spirit to really show out and open eyes through what He has shared with me this morning, and what He is about to reveal to you. It is amazing! Buckle up! Strap on the boot straps & get ready! This is a Word from the Lord!

Proverbs 6:6-8 - Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways and be wise! ⁷ Which, having no chief, overseer, or ruler, ⁸ Provides her food in the summer and gathers her supplies in the harvest.

Esther 2:2b, 12, 13 - Let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king. ²Now when the turn of each maiden came to go in to King Ahasuerus, after the regulations for the women had been carried out for twelve months--since this was the regular period for their beauty treatments, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with sweet spices and perfumes and the things for the purifying of the women-- ¹³Then in this way the maiden came to the king: whatever she desired was given her to take with her from the harem into the king's palace. 

Matthew 25:2-4 - ²Five of them were foolish (thoughtless, without forethought) and five were wise (sensible, intelligent, and prudent). ³For when the foolish took their lamps, they did not take any [extra] oil with them; ⁴But the wise took flasks of oil along with them [also] with their lamps. 

Wow! This is good. I was sitting here listening to the Holy Spirit as I journaled some of my thoughts.... and this was one of his opening lines to me: "Amy - just relax your brain. You seem so uptight this morning." Do you ever wake up like that? Even though you may be in quietness and peace, nothing in your brain feels or seems like that. Your brain is going a million miles a minute thinking of a million thoughts, concerns, situations, etc, etc. It's like... how could you have so much going on in your brain so early in the morning. You just woke up! So, I listed out all the things that I had in my brain that was causing a bit of question or even potential stress. The Holy Spirit reminded me that I needed to RE-CAST those cares on Him. I was allowing the baggage of my load to weigh me down, which in turn was hindering my ability to Care Less and be Care Free!

OK... all that was bonus. Let's roll into the Word. Above you read about 3 different accounts. The first one, in Proverbs talks about how the ant is prepared. The ant prepares during harvest and when winter comes is ready. Proverbs tells us to learn from the ant. Let's skip down to the Matthew scripture. Here's an account of the story of the 10 virgins. If you remember, they were waiting for the bridegroom to return so they could enter into the party. 5 of the virgins came prepared with extra oil, not knowing how long into the night they would be waiting, and not wanting to run out of oil. The other 5 came unprepared, and later ran out of oil. When the bridegroom returned they were not there because they had to go get more oil... they missed the opportunity to enter into the party. They were left behind closed doors in the dark. A real picture of heaven & being prepared for the return of Jesus. He is coming back, the question is, will WE be ready?

Esther... the key thing here that I wanted to point out is this... virgins were going before the King so that he could decide who would be the NEW QUEEN to replace Queen Vashti. The King was going to choose. A NEW QUEEN! Someone! A young woman from among the people. It reminds me kind of of the Cinderella movie with Drew Barrymore.... where the women of the region are invited to go to an elaborate ball so that the Prince can choose a wife! Well... that in essence is similar to what's going on with Esther, EXCEPT before going before the King, the women go through a 12 MONTH PREPARATION period! They go through 12 MONTHS of beautification treatments! 12 MONTHS!

How does that affect me? What does that have to do with me? As I was sitting here listening... well, just feverishly writing what the Holy Spirit was telling me... He reminded me of these accounts. To sum it up, He basically said, HEY... even ESTHER had a time of preparation! Her season JUST for the beauty treatments was 12 months before she would go before the King. Her ASSIGNMENT was huge! We all know the "For Such a Time as This" statement. Queen Esther saved an ENTIRE NATION! She saved the Jewish people! BUT she had to go through a preparation period. 


Put your name in here: AMY (Tarra, Kim, Angie, Galen, Renee ___________________) will YOU be patient enough during this season, during this time for me to PREPARE YOU? Great things are on the horizon, but I need to prepare you! You don't have to be in a rush. My timing is perfect. Will you please just continue to let me? Before the fullness of manifestation... before your dreams truly ARE a reality, in the current quietness, will you allow me to get you FULLY grounded so you are FULLY prepared?! You will not lack any good thing! The day and the hour is not important right now, it will come. The important thing right now is that you focus on the time you are in and that is PREPARATION! Will YOU prepare and allow me to prepare you? Continue to draw near to me! This is part of the preparation! I will guide you in what to focus on, what to prepare. Your time is coming, the time that will be famous for you and you will recognize it as: For Such a Time as This! You will know you had been prepared for this moment and for this time. So.... please.... will you just be patient. Will you let me do My work in you? Your time is coming. 


Need I say more? My time, Your time is coming. Will we be faithful in the preparation? Will we be faithful so that at our VICTORY, at the FRUITION of the desires we've been waiting upon... we will be able to say, "I see it now... For Such a Time as This, I have been made ready. I'm so glad that I am prepared!"

#69 - Love Is Not a Feeling

Good Afternoon! :) Today, per direction of the Holy Spirit... we are going to have a GUEST POST!!! :) 


Whoop whoop! :) I really like this one and the author is most definitely one of my very favorite people IN THE WORLD.... actually... next to Jesus, he is my favorite.... can you guess?? Drum roll please...... 
and the Guest post is from my HUSBAND! Enjoy.... 

_____________________________

I remember exactly where I was when I learned this powerful truth.

I was 18 years old and i had just finished track practice. Coach Mulkey always worked me hard. I would travel to Marrietta, GA to train. This was about an hour away from Snellville. There was a church that i grew up listening to the Pastor on the radio. His name was Dr. Paul C. Walker. WOW! Riding back from football practice at 8:30 at night, Dr. Walker would come on and Dad & I would turn up the radio and just listen. He was powerful man of God and an inspiring speaker.

Well, after track practice, i was leaving and i had this thought about looking for Mt. Paren Church of God, where Dr. Walker ministered. The funny thing is that Marrietta is HUGE and i had only traveled directly to track practice and did not know my way around. God is good and He knew what He was doing. I drove right to it!! It was an enormous church.

Remember, this was a Saturday and it was around 4:00 pm, so not much is usually going on at a church on a Saturday afternoon. I decided to get out. There were some cars in the parking lot. I went to a side door and found it opened. I walked inside and there was wedding that was taking place. Surprise.

I really cannot explain why i did what i did. I walked up to the balcony. (Remember, I am 18 and sweaty from track practice.) I took a seat off to the side of the balcony to avoid anyone seeing me. Well, the pastor began the ceremony. It was not Dr. Walker, yet, God had a message for me that day thru this man of God. As i sat there, the bride and groom were in front of the pastor, he began his welcome and short message. I do not remember anything but this...

He opened his Bible to 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and began reading. I had heard these verses so many times. So i thought that is was appropriate for the occasion.

"4 Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. 5 It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. 6 It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. 7Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. 8 Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]." (amplified version)

After he read the verses, the man of God made this statement: "Most people know these verses, yet few truly understand its true meaning in our society today. Our world has misunderstood "Love" and use so loosely. I want to give you a new definition of love. I will say this and then I will read the verse again. LOVE IS NOT A FEELING. You can not feel love." Then he read the verses again.

WHOAAA!!! Ok that was one of those AH-HA moments in my life. I could not understand this until he read the verse again. And asked these questions:

• Can you feel patience?
• Can you feel kindness?
• Can you feel not being envious?
• Can you feel not being proud?
• Can you feel not not keeping any record of wrongs?
• Can you feel not being rude?

As he asked these questions, my world was rocked. I walked in one way and came out a totally different young man. I decided that moment that i would not treat love as a feeling. Oh, yes, the "benefits" of love are feelings we experience, yet the source is not a feeling. It is only action. Love is a verb and not a noun.

Feelings come and go as the weather. Feelings are ever changing and will never remain constant. YET, true Love never changes and it never fails. Now, I am NOT saying feelings are evil, they are an awesome thing and God gave us feelings. God has feelings. Though, we must not be deceived by what we feel. Love must be the guiding factor.

I see friends that are married and they have been fooled by the worlds definition of love, which is based in feelings. Some examples of this that I have seen are....

• The husband makes his wife mad or committs a wrong against her, then she will hold this over his head and proceed not to let him forget his mistakes.

• The husband's wife has put on some weight after carrying his baby and he thinks that she is unattractive and says, "Well, she does not love me anymore because she has let her body go and she does not look attractive anymore."

These thoughts and statements are real. Yet they are not based in true love.

These thoughts are, in essence, based in fear. "Fear" is concerned about "me" and what is/will happen to "me". Fear is self-centered and always wants it "my way". It states in 1 John 4:18 "...love cast out all fear..." Fear can be involved by you trying to control your spouse or by you being selfish. Not having the faith to give your spouse the time he/she needs to grow into what God has created them to be is rooted in fear. Fear rushes. Fear pressures. Fear tries to control. Love triumphs over all these thoughts and feelings. Love Says:

"I am willing to be patient with you. I understand that you are trying to overcome during this time in your life. I see you through the eyes of love, those eyes see you as perfect. I see you how you can be. I view you as God viewed you, through pure, holy love as He gave up His only Son, sending Him to the cross for your sins. I hold no record of your wrong-doing that you have done to me. Those wrongs have been forgiven and forgotten. I love you so much that if you need time apart from me. I am willing to give you this. I am not seeking my own satisfaction. I have faith that my love for you is true and it will reign supreme."

Love never fails.

Now, did I say this would be easy. Absolutely not!! This will take time. You cannot learn this from your head either. It must come from deep within you, your Spirit and the Holy Spirit working in you and working this out of you. It is comforting that this is true. In Phil. 2:13 in the amplified Bible it says that: God is all the while effectually at work in you. PTL!!! And if you apply 1 Peter 5:6-7,"Humbling yourself...casting all your cares upon Him..." then you can rest in faith that God will fix this issue or challenge you may have with love.

I challenge you today to act in love. Meditate upon these verses and let them seep down inside your spirit. Substitute "Your Name" in the place of the word "love" in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. Love is not a feeling, though when you operate in true love, the feelings of happiness will follow. People will be attracted to you because the Love of God is flowing out of you.

Love brings victory and love never fails.