God Takes Hold of Us... We Gain Confidence!

As a childcare worker (a Registered Early Childhood Educator, not a babysitter) & someone involved in Children's Ministry (KidMin), I find myself in the presence of young children frequently. I am a Toddler teacher in my M-F job, and there I teach little minds more about themselves and the world around them. Thankfully, it is also based in my church, so we teach them spiritual truths too!

We are blessed to have our childcare in our church building, as the presence of God follows us up to the 2nd floor where the main part of the childcare is. There are a couple sets of stairs that we have to take daily, either to get outside, or to get to the 'gym'. Some of the Toddlers can do the stairs with ease, some still hesitate and take them slow, whereas some have difficulty & like to hold hands with the educator. On one occasion, last week, a thought came to me inspired by Holy Spirit. The Toddlers can do it on their own, and like to use autonomy and say "I do it!" So we let them hold the railing and walk down the stairs without assistance. But on this day, a little boy was going slow and taking small steps, so I offered him my hand, and he confidently took off down the stairs with a spring in his step and he even jumped from the bottom step to the landing. I reached for the hand of a child behind him, and the same thing transpired. A confidence was built. They put their trust in me, and when they took my hand, they had no fear. They trusted that I would help them down the stairs and not let go. Holy Spirit showed me this is the same with our walk with God. God allows us to 'walk unassisted', but He is still right there with us. But when we allow Him to hold our hand, we can go forth confidently with no fear! 

This led me on a verse search, and I came across one found in Isaiah 41:13 "For I hold you by your right hand -- I, the Lord your God. And I say to you, 'Don't be afraid. I am here to help you'."

Such a simple but true promise that removes fear and brings confidence! If God is holding our hand, nothing can snatch us from His grip.

That leads to the story that I have shared here before... except earlier the lesson had a father and daughter/son, this one has a mom and son.

If we hold onto God, challenges come and we might let go, but if God holds onto us, there will be nothing that can separate us.

Are YOU letting God hold onto your hand? No one is too far out of His grasp. Just reach out today and call on Him, and He will hold you.

No God - Know Fear
Know God - No Fear


Be blessed to be a blessing,

Forgiveness & God's Grace...

Did you know that the times that you wake up from your sleep can be super important? Especially if you are waking up each day at a specific time. (My Pastor has told us this a lot as its one of his challenges.) We went to a Conference and we have been challenged to PRAY MORE and GET INTO THE WORD more. Time with God is important, and sometimes (not always) the times that you get up correspond to a Bible Verse that is meant for you to read, meditate on or live out. Maybe God is trying to talk to you, but you are too busy sleeping, so He wakes you up to get your attention. If you are anything like me, you wake up, check the clock (too early) and roll over & go back to sleep (maybe get up to the washroom if necessary LOL). But at these times God may be calling you as He did to Samuel. If it is the same time every morning, then obviously you need to get up and search the Word. Thankfully we have GOOGLE and the BIBLE on our phones, so technology can be used to our advantage to find the verse that is meant for us. Sometimes there will be MANY Bible verses with the address of the time you wake up. (IE 3:16 AM could be John 3:16, but there are also Mark 3:16, Revelation 3:16 and more... even 1 Kings 3:16 LOL!! So clearly its not all the verses that God is speaking to you, but maybe it is John and God is reminding you of His love, or maybe it's Mark and God is calling you like Jesus called His disciples, or even Revelation, which would be a conviction, as He says "So, because you are lukewarm - neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you our of my mouth". Hopefully its not 1 Kings 3:16 -I'll leave you to read that one ha ha!)

So I have been challenged to write down the times that I get up and to find a corresponding verse that I believe that God is speaking to me. It has not been everyday at a certain time, so I am starting to use this blog again as a 'verse of the day' devotional. 

Somehow I have been searching for Chapter 7, verse 42... however I woke up way before 7:42 today. LOL... not exactly sure where those numbers came from (but of course God). There are a few books of the Bible that have this chapter and verse, and the one I found that speaks to my heart today is Luke 7:42.

"But neither of them could repay him. so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?" Luke 7:42 NLT

This verse speaks of God's forgiveness and His grace on us. Like the man in the 'parable' or story that Jesus told, Jesus cancelled our debts. We are like the two debtors who owed for our sin. Jesus took our sins, and cancelled them by dying on the cross for us. Death is the only thing that cancels sin. However, He rose again triumphantly, and we can have that resurrection power through Christ too, so that we may live eternally in Heaven one day. Our love should not be conditional to what the Father has done for us. But our carnal bodies love conditionally. Our spirits love unconditionally like the Father. His grace that He bestows on us is what gets us through each day. No matter how small or big our sin is, we are carnal bodies who are born into sin. It is only by His grace that we are saved. He loved us even in our sin, and continues to love us even when we sin again. We cannot repay the debt on our own, only through the precious blood of Jesus are we saved.

In this Bible account, Jesus was sitting with his disciples and others, when Mary came in and sat at his feet. She annointed his feet with precious perfume, and then proceeded to wash them, and wipe them with her own hair. She broke her precious alabaster jar, and poured out all she had in worship to the Messiah. She was then forgiven that day, and Jesus said she had many of them. In verse 47, Jesus says, "I tell you, her sins - and they are many - have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love."

During the Conference, our friend was also challenged to have more 'Mary' moments than 'Martha' moments, and this is so true. (This Mary is a different Mary than the one mentioned above. This Mary is Martha's sister. The one aforementioned is Mary Magdalene). There is another Bible account (Luke 10:38-42) where Jesus and his disciples came to visit at the home of Mary and Martha. Martha busied herself preparing food, etc for the visit but Mary just sat at the feet of Jesus listening to all He was doing & saying. Martha got upset that her sister left all the work to her and was just sitting at Jesus' feet. Jesus told Martha that she need not be upset over so many things, but that Mary had chosen what was better. Jesus' love could not be taken from her, but the material things of this world can be gone in a minute. A 'Mary' moment could then be defined as 'sitting at the feet of Jesus'. 

As a teacher and one who is passionate about children, I always picture sitting at the feet of Jesus like the kids sit with us when we read stories or sing songs. I enjoy sitting on the floor with them, and even having them sit in my lap to read. Being one who's love language is 'Physical Touch', I always picture sitting in Jesus' lap. Since a small child, I have been very affectionate, and am drawn to worship songs that mention physical touch of some kind. These moments of togetherness with Jesus and God are what draws you close to Him. Maybe your love language is different (maybe you have no idea what 'love languages' are - google it. Dr. Gary Chapman 'The Five Love Languages') - it could be 'Quality Time' (which is another of mine), 'Receiving Gifts', 'Acts of Service' or 'Words of Affirmation'. Whatever your love language is, is also how you receive love best from God. He of course shows us love in all the ways possible (even more than we can dream or imagine). It's in these intimate times with God that we can continue to grow closer to Him and grow in our faith. Times with our fellow believers at church is a time of growing too, but we grow the faith we have from our intimate times together. We have rivers of living water inside of us, and they can be overflowed to the world.

God's grace is an unbelievable thing to our carnal minds. His grace and mercy are amazing. Grace - God giving us what we don't deserve

Mercy - God not giving us what we do deserve

We have to then show grace and mercy to others around us. When we walk in forgiveness, we walk in His grace, mercy and love. Shine the Love to everyone. 

Enjoy this song by Gateway Worship and let God's grace flow through you!

Grace That Won't Let Go

Be blessed to be a blessing,

Mitzi

What's Your #oneword For 2017?

So little known knowledge to me, is this #oneword thing that goes around each New Year... I guess this year is the first time I paid attention to it. Obviously I have seen the word 'Resolutions' many times, and settle with myself to not make 'resolutions' but to be 'resolute' (since one of my amazing husband's messages at church years ago). Resolute is to be 'admirably purposeful, determined; unwavering; marked by firm determination; bold; steady; faithful, persevering, unshakable, unwavering, etc...' (Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com)

One of my friends posted a word, 'intentional', and that struck a chord... but obviously not wanting to choose the same word, I went to Pinterest for some inspiration. One of the words that I found while searching Pinterest was 'mindfulness' and that sounded really good until I searched the meaning and came up with more things about Buddha and Buddhism, so I chose to stay away from that word, but still keep the thought of being mindful of things around me. Not so much the meditation part of the Buddhist way, but to focus my thoughts on being 'intentional' or 'purposeful'.  Now that was a good word too, as I try to do things for a 'purpose'. I had other words come to mind, and eventually they all lead back to that word, 'resolute'. So I believe in 2017, God is wanting me to be serious about being 'resolute'. While on Pinterest I found these amazing verses found in Scripture. I have read them many times, but have mostly stopped in the verses before it, regarding youth, and not looking down on the youth, etc because I teach and train the younger generations in my church. But the verses found in 1 Timothy 4:15-16 rang true with me. I have read and re-read the verses regarding teaching being important as we will be judged more strictly

"Give your complete attention to these matters Throw yourself into your tasks so that everyone will see your progress. Keep a close watch on how you live and on your teaching. Stay true to what is right for the sake of your own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you." 1 Timothy 4:15-16 NLT

"Cultivate these things. Immerse yourself in them. The people will all see you mature right before their eyes! Keep a firm grasp on both your character and your teaching. Don't be diverted Just keep at it. Both you and those who hear you will experience salvation." 1 Timothy 4:15-16 The Message

Some words I went through...

Mindfulness -- NOPE... we don't want to associate with Buddha/Meditation in that way.
Diligence --Perseverance
Steadfast -- Stand your ground, resolute
Purposeful -- intentional
Watchfulness -- alert and vigilent
Discernment - the act of discerning. acuteness of judgement and understanding. 'Discerning' - to perceive by the sight or some other sense or by the intellect; recognize or apprehend; to distinguish mentally; recognize as distinct or different; discriminate
Resolute -- firmly resolved or determined; set in purpose or opinion; characterized by firmness and determination, as the temper, spirit, actions, etc. Synonyms: firm, steadfast, fixed, earnest, unwavering, undaunted, intentional, purposeful, bold, persistent, relentless, uncompromising, unshakable...  'admirably purposeful, determined; unwavering; marked by firm determination; bold; steady; faithful, persevering, unshakable, unwavering, etc...'

So we had a prayer night at the church to start off the New Year, and I had my 9 year old niece and nephew with me. They were getting a little bored just sitting in church praying, so they pulled out the Bible from the pew in front of them, and I told them that God could show them a verse that they could understand, or that would speak to them. Our Pastor had shared a verse about being unwavering, and my niece found a verse in Hebrews 2:1-4

A Warning against Drifting Away

2 So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. 2 For the message God delivered through angels has always stood firm, and every violation of the law and every act of disobedience was punished. 3 So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak? 4 And God confirmed the message by giving signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit whenever he chose.

So this went with my #oneword that I had chosen earlier, yet also with the New Year message. We must listen to the truth we have heard, and as a teacher I must teach the truth. We must stay true to the truth... and the Truth is Jesus. We must not waver in our thoughts, nor waver in the truth. We have taught our Junior Youth group about Absolute Truth, and that it's opposite to the world's view of truth. They think just because they make it legal, it's now right or truth. But according to 1 Timothy, we need to stay true to what is right for the sake of your own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you.Jesus is the Truth, and the Jesus is the only way to the Father, and our salvation rests in Him alone.I look forward to 2017 being 'resolute' and standing firm.