If God is for us..........

who can be against us? Have you ever thought about this? As we encounter various trials in our every day lives it is good to remember that God is for us. He is not only a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our paths; He works all things together for good!


Scripture for Today:

Romans 8:28-31
28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. 31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Prayer for Today:

Father, you have called us for a work that we don't always see the purpose of. Open the eyes of our understanding that we would see with Your eyes and trust that you have the best for us in mind.

Challenge: Are you predestined?

What do I know of Holy?

The closer I get to God the more godly I seem to feel. Makes sense right? Then before you know it I am gliding along on those feelings. Sometimes I get prideful about where I'm at or where I think I'm at. It's subtle at first and then it starts to show up in my reactions to things. My thoughts are more filled with judgement rather than grace. Quick tempered. My outlook starts to turn inward rather than toward God. When I humble myself and pray I'm reminded of His holiness and it quickly brings me to the realization that His thoughts are higher than my thoughts and His ways are higher than my ways. I heard this song on the way in to work today which describes it perfectly.

What Do I Know of Holy?
I made You promises a thousand times
I tried to hear from Heaven
But I talked the whole time
I think I made You too small
I never feared You at all
No If You touched my face would I know You?
Looked into my eyes could I behold You?

(CHORUS)
What do I know of You
Who spoke me into motion? Where have I even stood But the shore along Your ocean? Are You fire? Are You fury? Are You sacred? Are You beautiful? What do I know? What do I know of Holy?

I guess I thought that I had figured You out
I knew all the stories and I learned to talk about
How You were mighty to save
Those were only empty words on a page
Then I caught a glimpse of who You might be
The slightest hint of You brought me down to my knees

(CHORUS)
What do I know of You
Who spoke me into motion?Where have I even stoodvBut the shore along Your ocean? Are You fire? Are You fury?Are You sacred? Are You beautiful? What do I know? What do I know of Holy?

(CHORUS 2)What do I know of Holy? What do I know of wounds that will heal my shame? And a God who gave life "its" name? What do I know of Holy? Of the One who the angels praise?

All creation knows Your name
On earth and heaven above
What do I know of this love?

(CHORUS)
What do I know of You
Who spoke me into motion? Where have I even stood But the shore along Your ocean? Are You fire? Are You fury?Are You sacred? Are You beautiful? What do I know? What do I know of Holy? What do I know of Holy? What do I know of Holy?


Scriptures for today:

Isaiah 55: 6& 9
:6 Seek the Lord while He may be found. :9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.

2 Corinthians 7:1
1 Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

My Prayer for today:
Father, I'm desperate for you. Only you can keep me in balance and walking according to your spirit. Help me to have self-control to quiet my soul before you and listen for your voice. Help me to keep my eyes focused on you and your ways that I may be holy as you are holy.

Challenge:
What do you know of Holy?

Sneaky Fitness

10 sneaky ways to get fit and healthy without really trying.

Check out this site for some tips on ways to get fit fast from the Daily Spark.

http://www.dailyspark.com/blog.asp?post=10_sneaky_ways_to_get_fit_and_healthywithout_really_trying

Just Balance

Many things come to mind when I think of balance. Yesterday I promised to talk about balance today as Step 2. The more thought I gave to this the more I realized that the true balance needs to come from within. Meaning, balancing our mind, spirit, soul and body. I read a book once about organizing your house called "Organizing From the Inside Out" by Julie Morganstern. You can find more info on the book here. The book talks about dealing with your emotional attachment to things and space in your house. Her concept is to work on those internal drivers before you try to organize your external "stuff". To build on that, she suggests that you approach your organizational efforts to compliment your natural life style.

What does all of this have to do with living a healthy lifestyle? Do you see where I'm going here? In my experience I have found that I needed to work on my inside stuff in order to make true changes in my life style. We can work on all of our bad habits all we want, but if we still have old junk in our heart, mind or even our souls, then the long term changes will most likely not last long. That to me is the true crux of success. Is it well with your soul? Do you need to do some personal house cleaning from the inside out to get to a better balance?

I bet you thought I was going to talk about the balance of carbs, fats and protien. Right? There is tons of information on the Internet or in books that give recommendations on how to balance all of that. Most of us know what good nutrition is from all of the information we've looked into over the years. The issues beyond the scale are not usually talked about because everyone tends to want a quick fix to fit into that special dress or look good for the class reunion, vacation or wedding. I guess the question is, what do you want to end result to be? For me, now that I've been cleaning out some inner cob webs, I want better over all health to enjoy my life with better quality. How about you?

Groovy

Today, I'm feeling more like I'm getting back on track and into the groove. You could say I'm feeling groovy. I'm refining my plan and my focus to get back to basics. I started out last year with a goal to improve my health.

Basically there are two parts to it; food and physical activity. It all comes down to the choices that we make. For me, I'm making better choices to improve my over all life style. I don't want to repeat past cycles of dieting to "lose a few pounds" and then go right back to my old habits. Thus gaining those few pounds back and usually a few more to keep them company. In order to really accomplish this, I had to take a look at my overall life style and ask myself what needs to be "updated". That sounds more appealing than "overhauled".

Step 1: I took a hard look at what foods I was eating on a regular basis and realized that my sodium intake alone was about 5-6 times what it should be. Wow! That is a LOT of salt in my system. Once my taste buds adjusted to the "real" flavor of foods, I now actually PREFER low sodium. Weird, but true. I've also noticed that I'm not as given to cravings as I used to be.

Step 2: Balance - We'll talk about step 2 more tomorrow.

On a side note, I keep track of my food choice and calories that I burn on this awesome site; www.myfooddiary.com. This site also gages the percentage of fat, protien, sodium, fiber and carbs, etc. and lets me know when my food intake is out of balance. They have a great database of foods including restaraunt foods so you don't have to do manual entries of the foods that you like to eat.

Today, my head is back in the game! I'm motivated to renew my outlook and stop wafting around.

Definitions:
Groovy - Groovy is an object-oriented programming language for the Java Platform as an alternative to the Java programming language.
Ok, I was expecting to see Goldie Hawn's picture next to this word in the dictionary.........hahahaha. OOPS. Can I just say I was NOT expecting to find this definition! Anyone???

Rejoice: To feel joyful; be delighted

Scriptures for today:
Psalms 34:2-4: 2 My soul will boast in the LORD; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. 3 Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together. 4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.

Phil 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord, always and again I say rejoice!

Challenge: What goals have you let fall to the way side? Take a look and see if they need to be brought back to life and take the steps to get back in the groove!

Prayer for today:
Father God, we rejoice in you today! Thank you that your mercies are new every morning and that you have a plan for us. We will boast in you today so that we are overflowing with your goodness. And again I say REJOICE and be groovy!

Are we there yet?

We are an impatient people aren't we. Well, I guess I should speak for myself; I was just hoping to have some company on this one. I AM impatient when I'm working toward something. I fully expect the results to be amazing every step of the way. For example, when I joined the gym a few months ago, I thought it would speed things up to getting me to my weight loss goal. Yes, by the way, I did get to the gym last night in case you were wondering. That was a victory in itself. And it just happened to be the week that I get weighed and measured........eeek! So overall the results are not bad, can you feel the but coming? BUT not that great either so I thought.

I've lost a total of 8 pounds and 11.5 inches. Sounds impressive doesn't it? However, if you stretch that out over the 15 weeks since I started it's .53 lbs and .73 inches lost per week. Now it's not so impressive is it? At least not to me at first glance. I went through my work out a teeny bit bummed out because I stayed EXACTLY the same over the last month.

Then it hit me on the way home. Wait a minute. This is GOOD news! You're making progress girl! That could have been an 8 pound GAIN........easily in days of old. Get rid of this "are we there yet?" attitude and adopt an "I'm on my way" mind set.

Bear with me for a moment........"stay the course, tow the line, steady as she goes, eye on the prize".............I couldn't resist. I'm a sucker for cliche's. Sometimes you just need a good old fashioned pep talk. :)

2 Scriptures for today:

Philippians 3:12-14
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Gal 6:8&9
8 The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Prayer for Today: We prayed yesterday to contually be intertwined with you, Father. In all things we need to abide in you including keeping our bodies fit to honor you. If we have our own 'house' in order, we can better minister to others. Your word gives us direction to press on toward the prize which is to be with you one day in heaven for all eternity. While we wait for you, Lord, sustain us so that we don't grow weary. Forgive us for losing site of this truth. I trust you for the harvest that is sure to come!

Wait

Ps 27:14 "Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!"

Quote: Hebrew words are best understood in the everyday, simple life of all Believers. When Hebrew turns “lights” on in passages like Isaiah 40:31: “they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength….” “Wait” in Isaiah 40:31 is the transliteration from the Hebrew hw"q;, which means ‘to twist, or to bind, whence a rope.’ This verse reveals the active nature of intertwining one’s life with the life of God. When intertwining is being done, that person is made strong.

I found this explanation for the Hebrew definition of the word wait on this site that talks about the importance of understanding Hebrew in the word of God. It certainly sheds new light on these passages in Isaiah for me.

I've been growing a bit weary lately in my excercise routine and in my healthy eating habits. I did not get to the gym once last week. I can really feel it too. Then at church yesterday the pastor asked a question. When was the last time you picked up your bible? I had to really think about that. I quickly thought, I pray a lot; I listen to christian music! But when I really answered the question, I had to admit that it had been quite a awhile since I had actually picked up the bible and fed on the word. No wonder I'm growing weary! No wonder my battery is getting sluggish. I have had no nurishment......duh!

Definitions:

Twist - To wind together (two or more threads, for example) so as to produce a single strand.

Wait - To remain or rest in expectation 2. tarry until another catches up

(Hebrew - to twist or bind or whence a rope)

My Scriptures for today:

Is 40:31 "But those who wait (twists his life with God's) on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint."

Ecclesiastes 4:12 A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

My Prayer for today: Father, teach me to wait (twist my life with yours). I choose to be intertwined with you. Thank you for the wake up call this week!

Challenge: Are you feeling weary and weak? Is your life intertwined with God's? Ask Him to show you the way.