Happy (late) New Year!

Greetings!

So I was wondering if anyone made any New Year's Resolutions. Do you have any goals for the New Year?

I haven't spent a lot of time on coming up with a list, but here are my goals:

1. To have a closer relationship with God every day.
2. To allow God to work in my life; taking away everything that is not pleasing to Him, and replacing it with His love.
3. To exercise physically on a regular basis
4. To excel in playing violin
5. To learn to worship God with my talents no matter what I'm playing/doing.
6. To be bold in talking about Jesus.

The reason I call them goals and not resolutions is that resolutions don't seem to last, while goals tend to be something that I reach for on a regular basis. So have you made any goals for the new year? If so, what are they?

Blessings,
V4C

Waiting and Security

Psalm 62:1-2
I wait quietly before God, for my victory comes from Him.
2 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress, where I will never be shaken. (NLT)

Waiting quietly before God is something I think a lot of people struggle with - myself included. If any of you've seen Prince Caspian (Disney version), you've seen a pretty good example of what happens when you don't wait on God and do things His way. The point is that we need to wait on God, because THAT's where are victory comes from. Him - not ourselves. It's so hard for me because sometimes I think that there are pressing decisions that I can't wait long enough to take time to hear from God. Sometimes I'm scared I won't be able to hear Him speak to me when I need to hear Him... but that's where the waiting quietly part comes in, huh?

It's times like these I'm reminded that in ALL of my ways - not just the ones I feel uncomfortable with - I need to acknowledge Him, and then He will direct my path. It's a promise. So I wanted to encourage you today that God is ever faithful, and will keep His promises. Step out in faith, and He will do the rest. :-)

Verse 2. "He alone is my rock and my salvation..." do we truly believe that? That God and ONLY God is our rock and salvation? That we turn to Him and Him only for safety and deliverance? Sure, God often uses people and things to bring us through difficult times, but is our confidence and hope - all of it - in Him? Or do we put more confidence in things and people than we do the One who created them? That's another thing I've dealt with... it can seem scary to put ALL of our trust in God - in Someone we've never seen - when we've got people surrounding us that seem to be capable of helping us with our problems. And God can use people to help us - don't get me wrong. But before we turn to people or things, we need to turn to God, who holds all the answers and is always faithful.

So those are my thoughts for the day - things that I've been learning in my prayer life. Thanks for reading - I pray you have a blessed week!

NaNoWriMo

Well, I started NaNoWriMo today. I am so far at over 1600 words, a number with which I am fairly happy. For those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and ones goal is to write a story from the beginning and reach 50,000 words by the end of November. One month, basically. This is my first year doing it, so I'm pretty excited. I kind of know where I want to go with this story, because it's been one that I've been working on for a lonnngg time. Not many people may know about it because I don't talk about it much. Which might be because I started reworking the beginning of the story and never got to a place where I was happy with it. So I'm starting over from scratch, and I really like what I've got so far.

Is anyone else doing NaNoWriMo? If so, what is your story about? Or, if you're not doing NaNoWriMo, do you have a book that you're working on anyway? I'd love to hear about it!

Blessings!
V4C

Strength - Psalm 28:6-8

Psalm 28:6-8
Praise the Lord!
For He has heard my cry for mercy.
7The Lord is my strength and shield.
I trust Him with all my heart.
He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy.
I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.
8The Lord gives his people strength.
He is a safe fortress for His anointed king. (NLT)

One of the things we humans seem to do a lot is try to rely on our own strength. After all, to do something "all by ourselves" brings a feeling of accomplishment... and pride. To feel like you no longer have to rely on someone else to help you.

But the reality is, apart from Jesus we can do nothing. It is He who put the world in motion, and He who continues to make it possible for us to move and do things. Yes, without God, nothing would be possible.

The last couple of days I've been lacking strength. I'm not sure why, but I was just really out of it. This was especially annoying because yesterday I was scheduled to volunteer in the 5 year old class at church, and today I had to work for a few hours at my job.

Just a few minutes before it was time to leave for church, all of the sudden I felt really tired... weak. I laid down for a few minutes, but it didn't help much. I felt better once we arrived, however, during the lesson I felt tired again. I kept saying under my breath, "The joy of the Lord is my strength!" But I couldn't really tell a difference. Then, I got called to the 2 and 3 year old class for a few minutes while one of the teachers was away. I greeted the children, who were playing happily. One 2 year old stopped what he was doing and just looked at me and smiled. He made some car noises, which I imitated, which made him laugh. He was so cute! We continued playing for a little while, and then the teacher came back, so I went go back to the 5 year old class.
As I walked back, I realized that I was not near as tired as I was before. After class was over, I was even able to drive back home! (With my mom in the passenger seat, of course.) But the point is that once I forgot about myself - played with this precious two-year-old even though I'm sure I looked silly - strength came.

This morning I slept in almost an hour without realizing it. Around 9:30 AM that tired, weak feeling came over me again. But this morning I had looked up Scriptures with the word, "shield" in them. I came across Psalm 28:6-8. I spoke it aloud as a prayer, and claimed the promise for myself. I started work with renewed vigor, and all fatigue was gone. Hallelujah!!

So my encouragement to you today is this: God's strength is made perfect in your weakness. (2 Cor 12:9) Next to God, your strength looks like weakness. Instead of relying on your own strength today, even if you "feel" like you can handle it "all by yourself," allow God to work through you. And if you feel like I did - weak and tired - ask Him to be your strength today. He is the One who gives His people strength, and He won't disappoint.


-V4C

P.S. - Sorry again about not posting so long! This wasn't what I was planning on posting about when I wrote the last post. But this just seemed like the right thing to post about today. Oh, and just so you know, I might not have much time to write during November because I'm doing NaNoWriMo for the first time. :)

Been Awhile

Hey all! Just a quick note to say that I'm still here, and I really have been meaning to post more. Really sorry for letting a whole month slip by without a word!

God's been showing me a LOT in His Word lately, that I really want to share with you, but as it is nearing 10 PM, I don't have time to get into it now. Hopefully I'll have time in the next couple days to blog about it!

So did anyone take a Fall break last week? Do anything special?

Blessings!!

Violinist4Christ