I Accept!

I've been struggling a lot lately with my relationship with God. I know that it is not where it is supposed to be, but I can't seem to get where I need to be. It's like I can see the goal over there, but I can't figure how to get there. Do I go through it, over it, under it, around it? I could go on and on with these prepositions. :) Andrew and I left our home church a little over a year ago. I tend to use that as my excuse as to why I'm not as close to God as I should be. At that church under the leadership of my pastor and my Sunday school teacher I was growing. Problem was I was getting all of my nourishment from those two people. Now I'm not and I'm having to learn to get it on my own. We have since joined a new church that I love, but if I'm honest I would have to say that since being at this new church I haven't "felt" God one time. I can blame this on a lot of things, but the truth is no one or no thing is to really to be blamed but myself. My pastor is a Godly man who preaches the Word of God. I just can't seem to open up and accept what God is trying to give me each week. I keep saying that I will do this or that to improve my relationship with God, but I don't seem to do any of these things.

Yesterday Cary, my pastor, began a sermon titled Bulls Eye Living. He talked about how our only goal should be living in God's will. That should be our primary concern, not all of the things that surround the bulls eye such as family, work, etc. I don't know that I would say this really spoke to me, but it is definitely something I honestly want to try to do. I need to figure out God's will for me at this time in my life. Cary says the way to do this is by getting to know God and His word. So that is my goal. I started off the morning praying and asking God to help me know him better today.

Last night I stumbled across Patter's blog. She is a scrapbooker like me. She post a weekly challenge based on a word. Her challenge is to help you grow in your relationship with God. Hmm - didn't I just say I need that. Unfortunately I'm joining this at week 40, but hey I'm diving in anyways and looking forward to starting with week 1 come January. Anyways - this week's word is "light". She gave a short devotional that she had on light and encouraged us to study this word this week. I immediately came home today and began looking up scripture on light. The word has such a deep meaning in the Bible. God is light - he outshines everything and he is a constant light. He shines all of the time. Light is the absence of darkness which is bad. When God is around there is no badness. His light prevails. He has called us to be his light here on Earth. We are to shine all of the time. As the song I sang as a child says, "Hide it under a bushel, NO!!!" We are to always shine, despite our circumstances. I know that there are Several days when I don't feel like shining. God says shine anyways. I believe our world today needs a lot of Light. We need to be shining in our neighborhood every day. I can't shine in your town and you can't shine in mine, so we must both shine. That is prayer for myself and for you this week. Lord, let us shine for you as brightly as we can. Let us shine continuously. Amen.


Below are a few versus that I read today on light that spoke to me.

You rescue the humble, but your eyes watch the proud and humiliate them. O LORD, you are my lamp. The LORD lights up my darkness. In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall.
2 Samuel 22:28-30

You light a lamp for me. The Lord, my God, lights up my darkness.
Psalm 18:28

The Lord is my light and my salvation - so why should I be afraid? The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?
Psalm 27:1

Send out your light and your truth; let them guide me. Let them lead me to your holy mountain, to the place where you live.
Psalm 43:3


For you have rescued me from death; you have kept my feet from slipping. So now I can walk in your presence, O God, in your life-giving light.
Psalm 56:13

Happy are those who hear the joyful call to worship, for they will walk in the light of your presence, Lord.
Psalm 89:15


Light is sweet; how pleasant to see a new day dawning.
Ecclesiastes 11:7

You are the light of the world - like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.
Matthew 5:14

No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.
Matthew 5:15

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.
John 1:5


I am looking forward to continuing studying light and scraping it later this week. I will post my creation.