Out of the Box - Under Grace and Clothed in Joy!

Grace.
What does grace MEAN?
What does grace LOOK LIKE?
Do I live grace out in my life?
These are questions I have been asking myself the past few months. And what a journey it has been and continues to be! One morning in the hustle and bustle of getting out the door for school, I felt out of breath, parched. Thirsty for HIM that is. For His love. For His words. And then the whisper....

My grace is sufficient....

And as I sit here writing, He floods to mind all the morsels of deliciousness He has been teaching me. That whisper was the answer to the GUILT I had been feeling from not spending hours of 'sit down' quiet time with Him.

Do you do this? Do you have a picture of what quiet time with Him looks like? Is it wrapped in a pretty little box and tied with a pretty bow? And when you don't get that 'pretty little box' time you feel guilty, angry, frustrated, not spiritual enough, not good enough?

I sure do.

I think I don't tap into the POWER of the Holy Spirit at its full, because I get hung up on 'not feeling good enough or spiritual enough'.

That if I don't follow these X and O's:
*if I don't have DAILY quiet time
*if it doesn't last more than 15 minutes
*if I don't have quiet time first thing in the morning
*if I have made poor choices
*if I have had impure thoughts
*if I'm angry, bitter, tired, jealous, negative, unforgiving...
*if I didn't hear from Him

Then I can't:
*pray with a friend or for a friend
*send an encouraging word
*ask for anything...healing, wisdom, peace
*be joyful

But you know what the word is?! GRACE!

He wants me all parts of the day, all emotions of the day!

There have been quite a few times I have prayed for friends and with friends, and there is part of me that has ALMOST not done it! This is because my 'self' has said, "you're not worth it...you haven't spent enough time knowing His thoughts to have anything that your friend needs to hear". And what I tell my 'self' back is...

'I didn't deserve Him in the first place!'

I don't deserve how great, wonderful, loving, forgiving and magnificent He is. I can't earn His love by what I do or what I study. But He loves me and wants to use me for good. I don't deserve the spiritual things He gives me to say to folks. I am not that smart. Please hear this girl who knows she is very loved beyond measure by her loving God, but knows...it ain't nuttin I've done on my own! I don't gain spirituality. and I don't lose it. I am just supposed to use it. Use it to love Him. Use it to love others. And I won't let the 'you're not spiritual enough or good enough', keep me from Him.

His grace is enough. His grace is all I need.

Lord, I wanna shut guilt out and have YOU come rushing in! Today is a fresh day...I wanna get quiet time out of the box. You have been so faithful to me. You have showed up everyday and everytime I have invited You in. You are faithful...even when I'm not. You show up...even when I don't. I love you and praise you!

In my next blog, I will be sharing some things I have been doing 'out of my box' to get with Him throughout the day.

'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' 2 Corinthians 12:9

Becoming More Than a Good Bible Study Girl by Lysa Terkeurst

Less than 3 weeks!!!

Less than 3 weeks and our gals activate group is starting! I am soooo excited!!!

First, I should probably explain what an activate group is before I tell ya what we will be studying and that I want ya to join! So. An activate group is a group of people (in my case...us group of gals) that has up to 20 people in the group. We get together to hang out, form friendships and ride this crazy, amazing roller coaster ride of getting to know Jesus.

Getting to know WHO He is. Getting to know His heart. Forming a FRIENDSHIP with Him. Forming a relationship with Him.

And from getting to know those things...to be able to reflect Him properly...day in and day out, no matter what circumstances come our way.

This is my heart. This is what I wanted to do as our next study. I want to be a woman of character. I want to be able to reflect Him properly...in a way that my actions speak louder than my words...my character speaks louder than my words...in difficult circumstances to react in love, grace, mercy, compassion, understanding. I wanted a study that would go along with what I was learning (again) this summer... character

Do I read His Word and DO what it says? Do I live differently because of what I read? Do I live out grace, forgiveness, love? Do I live out relationships NOT religion? O so much good stuff He has been lavishing on me! But O how I have completely went SQUIRREL from letting you know about activate group!!! :)

So! I would love other gals to join me in this adventure. I would love and dream if this could be a COMMUNITY group. A community of women making a difference. Making a difference with our character. our serving. our love. HIS LOVE.

This group is not only for Celebration gals to join, but all gals in Marion and surrounding areas that would love to be a part of this roller coaster ride of making a difference for HIM!

Our first get together will be Tuesday, October 5th, 6:30pm - 8pm. We will be meeting at Celebration Christian Church for our 1st get together. Then...I'm toying around with the idea of having every other group at this cool hangout place in Charleston Place in downtown Marion! It will be a total experiment! But isn't that how He works?!? It will be spontaneous...we will just have to see how that or IF that works. I feel like He tells me often...'Just enjoy the ride, andrea'. Honestly though...some parts of the ride I want to barf and get off, but that is YET another SQUIRREL!

ANYWHO! back to deets:

Age: 18 years old to 108+...and sorry guys, just for the gals!

Childcare Available? : A BIG OL' YES!

Cost of participants guide: $10 (note: I have the actual book, but I am not going to make the book a requirement. We will be watching the dvd series and doing the participants guide along with the dvd's.)

When: we will meet each Tuesday starting Oct. 5th and ending Dec. 21st. 6:30pm - 8pm

TO SIGN UP: either comment here, on my facebook page or sign up on Celebration's website (which has a lot of other great activate groups for everyone, not just gals)

And here's a little clip about what we are going to be getting into. It will get you stirred up with excitement and ready to go! Let's enjoy the ride, girls!

Kenny Chesney - The Boys of Fall

football friday night

Ok...so I know this next blog was supposed to be about my gals activate group but I have had it on my heart lately to blog prayer for my Harding boys. To pray for the team, our staff, our community and most of all....my honey, the head coach.

precious Lord, our Guide, our Ultimate Coach...I thank you for this day and I praise you for being in my life. I thank you for this opportunity of football you have given our family. Lord, I want to be selfish at this very moment and pray for a win. O how that would seem to relieve some of the pressure. BUT I know and praise you that you have an ultimate plan that is for our good. Lord I pray that in our minds and hearts that we would not be defined by our losses...those are past...done. but Lord that we will be defined by our integrity, our character, our hard work, our 'never give up' attitude, our 'no excuses' attitude. Lord that our team, our staff, our community may be defined by these things rather than by our wins and losses. We cannot change yesterday and we should not worry about tomorrow (Matt. 6:34). But TONIGHT...tonight we have the opportunity to represent who we are. and i pray we grasp this opportunity and represent the team, staff and community that you want us to be....no matter the outcome of tonight. Lord I pray for unity, among our staff, among our boys and among our community. I pray the boys will flow together as one tonight. Build them up today in godly confidence. Encourage them Lord. Give them ears to listen to their coaches. Allow the coaches to speak inspiration into their very being. May the seniors and leaders of this team rally the team together tonight! I pray for our coaches...renew their strength and pump them full of energy. Allow what is on their tongues to be worthy of you. May their words spur on the boys to action. Actions that unite, actions that glorify you. Give the coaches creativity, wisdom and quick well planned thoughts. May the boys execute the coaches plans...each and every play. And last Lord, you know I can't help myself...but please give a good ol heaping of grace to the refs, that they would want to extend that same grace to my boys tonight....heehee. thank you...and i love you.

and last...I cannot believe I just found out about this song! but I gotta end today's football prayer with Kenny Chesney's The Boys of Fall. I especially loved the coach's speech before the song even starts. TONIGHT!

See next post for song (sorry I'm new to this blogging thing ;)