Living Presently Sitting at His Feet

Psalm 66:8-12 “Praise our God, all peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard; he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping. For you, God, tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.”  To begin with, the psalmist that wrote this started this new stanza by praising God. Most of the Psalms that I’ve read so far begin with praise to God. This has shown me how important it is to bring praise to God. It is necessary for the soul to praise it’s creator. It brings healing and joy. Praising God is such an important thing. Every day, even before I get out of bed I try to remember to praise God. There is so much to praise Him about first thing in the morning. Like, “God thank you that I’m alive, that I didn’t get stung by a scorpion, that there are now snakes in my home. I will rejoice in your name for yo...

Ezra 3:3; 5:5a; 6:22b “Despite their fear of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the Lord.” “But they eye of their God was watching over the elders of the Jews…” “The Lord had filled them with joy by changing the attitude of the king of Assyria so that he assisted them in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel.” Why is it so easy to be more afraid of people than God? To obey the things people ask than what God asks. It should be the other way around. Shouldn’t I fear God more than man? I mean, after all He is the one who created me, this earth, and everything in it and outside of it. He is all powerful, all knowing, all present, all wonderful. He shows me that He is more reliable, faithful, and true than mere human beings. He is trustworthy, He brings rest to the weary, He restores strength to the weak, and He loves me more then anyone on earth could ever love me. Yet, at times I become more afraid of ...

Psalm 51:8 “Let me hear joy and gladness: let the bones you have crushed rejoice.” For a couple of years, people have talked to me about getting broken by God. About what it means for God to crush me. They’ve shared their stories of God breaking them and it always impacted me. Especially because they were so joyful, bringing praise to God so easily. I craved to have that type of joy and to be able to praise God the way they did. But I never wanted to go through the process of being broken. It’s a painful process that I didn’t want to have to endure. I said I wanted God to change me, but I wasn’t completely willing to change and to let Him break me. I didn’t want to surrender, and it became hard for me to praise God. I realized that my relationship with Christ wasn’t what it needed to be, but I wasn’t willing to let God do His work in me. My spirit craved to be broken and to draw near to God, but my flesh refused and fought God so hard.  Through the years, God put people ...

Joshua 13:14 “But to the tribe of Levi he gave no inheritance, since the food offerings presented to the Lord, the God of Israel, are their inheritance, as he promised them.” A couple of months ago, Jean McClure was doing a women’s study over this verse. A few weeks ago, I started reading Joshua for myself for the first time, and when I got to this verse, I remembered the study. This verse has become very special to me in the past week, reading about how God is my inheritance. My whole life, I’ve always been excited to live in a big house with nice things and being able to have money to spend. But as my relationship with the Lord grows, the more I laugh at what I used to want. I don’t need/want a worldly inheritance, I want God and eternity with my Creator.  As time goes on, the more I realize that choosing God is hard, because the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Mark 14:38). Jesus says in the Gospels to sell everything and follow Him. That right there is not s...

Matthew 14:29-32 “‘Come,’ He said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. ‘You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?’” How often does Jesus tell me to come? More often then I obey. In the mornings when He says, “Anna, come spend time with me,” and all I do is lay in bed sleeping longer then I need too or scroll through my phone for no reason. I hesitate, afraid of what God’s going to tell me. Because most of the time, the things He has to tell me are things I don’t want to hear. They’re always really good things, things that will grow me. But sometimes, growing hurts. But I need to remember, that getting out of the boat will result in seeing the one whom my soul desires. It will draw me closer to Christ and it will be so sweet.  So I get out of the boat, and I get excited to dr...

Psalm 34:3 “Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together.” We were all created to glorify the Lord. So many people struggle with their purpose. They wonder why they’re here on earth, and they go about trying to find who they are and what they are supposed to do with their lives. Well, the answer is in the Bible. We were created to glorify and praise God. To honor Him and worship Him all the days of our lives. That is our goal.  In one of my Bible classes that I took in high school, we studied the purpose of life. That is when I fully had a written down reason as to the creation of people. We were created by God for God. To always be bringing Him praise. When I studied that in class, it didn’t click in my mind until maybe a year later. We all go through life struggling with the great purpose of life, when it’s simply to praise God.  To praise God isn’t just singing worship songs to Him all the time, that’s one of the many ways to praise Him. We can pra...

IBS 66  Psalm 27:14 “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord”           Waiting is one of the hardest things for me to do. I like to do what I want when I want. Waiting for the Lord has always been something I’ve had to work on. Ever since I was younger, God’s been showing me that waiting for Him will always end better. But the impatient person that I am likes to rush so many things.            When I was in high school, I wanted to know what I was going to do with my life. I would become very anxious and worried because I tried to figure it out on my own. I tried to figure out what I wanted to do instead of seeking God’s plan for me and waiting patiently to hear from Him. I would put that burden upon myself, all the while God was just wanting me to wait for Him and give Him that burden. He says in  Matthew 11:28, “Come to me all you who are weary and burden and I will give you rest.” H...