Soar

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Christian encouragement, christian journey, christian walk, Christianity, devotional, encouragement, family devotions, gifts, smothering, soaring, spiritual gifts

Several weeks ago, I had the honor of singing at our local Association’s annual meeting. Afterwards, we were eating with a gentleman and in our conversation he said, “Wow. You have a really high voice.” It made me smile, because he didn’t know it, but I used to sing alto, not soprano. For many years I thought a soprano was a certain kind of voice with a certain kind of power and so, I covered up my “high voice” and simply sang alto. I had to really work at being an alto. I didn’t hear the alto part readily (that should have been my first clue that I wasn’t where I was supposed to be), so I would take the music home and bang it out on the piano until I could sing it well. I noticed other altos around me could just start singing the part without practice and so I thought, “Well, I’m just not as good as they are. I hope they don’t notice I’m struggling.” I sang, but was quite intimidated. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but it just felt like work.

Years later, and I mean years later, I finally started to sing soprano. My husband had several job relocations and the babies were little so I was out of choir for a while. When we got comfortable in our next church, I can’t even tell you why, but when I joined the choir, I just decided to sing soprano. It was so odd. I felt such joy at just letting go. I still have to work at the notes, but nothing like I did being an alto. I thought I loved to sing before, but now…wow…I LOVE to sing!

When that dear gentleman told me that I had a “high voice”, he couldn’t imagine the memories that it evoked. He couldn’t imagine the feelings of thankfulness to God that welled up in me for guiding me to where I wasn’t smothered His gift in me, but soaring. Not to get attention, but to bring Him glory.

So, I encourage you today to stop smothering your God-given gift. We all have gifts (I Corinthians 12 ), so let them soar. Don’t compare your teaching, your writing, your singing, your cleaning, your giving, or whatever gifts you have with others. Just use your gift to bring God glory and who knows, some day in the future a gentleman may help you to remember what you were, so you can give God praise for who you are.

Seeking Hearts Ministries

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Lessons From the Countryside

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Christian encouragement, christian journey, christian walk, Christianity, countryside lessons, devotional, devotional blog, devotions, encouragement, family devotions, grace, mercy, our covering, resting in His righteousness, Robe of righteousness, sheep, sin, standing in grace, walking with confidence

I know this week is supposed to be part 2 of “Preparing the Soil”, but I just can’t help but tell you what I came across the other day on my way through the countryside. I saw a flock of sheep. Big news, I know, but these were not just any sheep, they were the kind where their faces were black, but their wool was as white as snow. I couldn’t help but be reminded of God’s grace. His grace covers us like nothing else can. We don’t have to work for it. We just have to receive it and it swallows up our sin so that none of that darkness can ever be seen again. Romans 3:24 tells us that our Lord Jesus redeems us by a gift of His grace. Just as those sheep did nothing to have that white wool, we do nothing to receive God’s grace but simply accept it.

Isaiah 61:10 says, “I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness…” That white wool covering those dark little bodies was such a beautiful picture of my sin being fully covered with Christ’s robe of righteousness. My righteousness is like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6), but His righteousness covers all. As I looked as those sheep, I couldn’t help but be thankful that all God sees when He looks at me is His Son’s righteousness. He no longer sees my sin, but just a beautiful white robe, clean and pure before Him.

Romans 5:20 says, “And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” Just as a sheep cannot grow bigger than their wool, we cannot sin too much for God’s grace. His grace will always exceed our sin. We can always be covered. His grace is measureless!  Even if all we see is the blackness of our sin, even if when we look in the mirror and only see the bad, when Christ looks at us, He sees His robe of righteousness. Romans 5:2 tells us that we stand in His grace. So no matter what we see, if we are abiding in His presence, His righteousness is our covering. When we think others are only seeing the bad, they are actually seeing Christ.

This reminds me of a T.V. show I saw yesterday. It was a beauty pageant coach training a beautiful young girl how to walk in the upcoming pageant. This girl was gorgeous, but all she saw was some imaginary bulge. She couldn’t walk with confidence until she saw what her coach saw. We can’t walk confidently in Christ without seeing what Jesus sees. Jesus is our Coach and He sees His righteousness covering us just like that white wool covering those sheep. He sees His grace. He sees His mercy and He sees His love for us. He wants us to stand in that confidence and He wants us to walk with assurance knowing that we are a child of the King.

So, let’s get a picture of some sheep with black faces and beautiful white wool, (or get some for our back yards), and remember that Christ sees us covered with His grace and His grace is always more than our sin. Our God is marvelous! Let’s give Him praise today!

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Seeking Hearts Ministries

Preparing the Soil – Part One

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We have a rather large event coming to our community next summer and as we are preparing, the phrase that keeps rolling around in my head is: “Prepare the soil.” It’s like a mantra, “Prepare the soil. Prepare the soil. Prepare the soil.” I decided to research what preparing the soil looks like and came upon an amazing article from Planet Natural. Come to find out, in preparing the soil, you don’t just plow the ground and make sure there are no weeds. If you want a great harvest, there is a lot more to it than that. The article was talking about gardening, but the spiritual implications were profound.

The beginning of the article states, “Healthy soil is the basis of healthy plants and a healthy environment. When garden soil is in good shape there is less need for fertilizers or pesticides.”

Spiritually speaking, when a ministry, a project, or a church is prepared and tenderized through prayer, when God has prepared the soil through prayer, manmade schemes are unnecessary. We won’t have to beg, plead, cajole, or come up with special promotions for people to come. God’s Spirit will bring them. We won’t have to worry about finances. God will provide. We won’t have to wonder if God is at work. We will know He is working because hearts (soil) are pliable and ready to hear the Gospel. When soil is prepared through prayer, God alone is glorified. No one else can take credit because everyone will know it is God.

The article went onto say, “When building soil you not only improve your plants health, but you can also improve your own.”

We’ve all heard how prayer not only changes others, but also the person praying. Isn’t it amazing that when we prepare the soil, (whether physically speaking, or spiritually speaking), our health is also improved, not just the soil? Physically speaking, we are moving muscles and getting some sunshine. Spiritually speaking, our hearts are tenderized and pliable for growth. Part of preparing the soil for others is allowing God to prepare our own soil as well.

Another part of prepping the soil involves the Word of God. Jeremiah 23:29 says, “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD;  and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” No ground is too hard for our God. No heart is too hard for the Word of God to penetrate. Part of preparing the soil is speaking God’s Word over a facility, over the people, over the ground where His Spirit has called you. Preparing the soil involves reading the Word, knowing the Word and praying the Word.

Another way to prepare the soil is by giving God praise before the harvest. Praising by faith, if you will. Second Chronicles 20 is a great example of this. King Jehoshaphat was being attacked by a much larger army, but he sought the Lord and the Lord told him that he would win the victory. On the day of the battle, King Jehoshaphat sent people to praise the Lord into the battlefield first. Verses 21 and 22 say, “Then he consulted with the people and appointed some to sing for the LORD and some to praise the splendor of ⌊His⌋ holiness. When they went out in front of the armed forces, they kept singing: Give thanks to the LORD, for His faithful love endures forever. The moment they began ⌊their⌋ shouts and praises, the LORD set an ambush against the Ammonites, Moabites, and ⌊the inhabitants of⌋ Mount Seir who came ⌊to fight⌋ against Judah, and they were defeated.” King Jehoshaphat prepared the soil before the battle and there was a great victory.

We need to ask ourselves, “Are we faithful to prepare the soil?” So many times we hurl headlong into a situation wondering why God didn’t move never realizing that the soil needed to be prepared beforehand. We think we can just add manmade ideas, sprinkle a little prayer over our endeavors and everything will turn out fine. How’s that working for us?

We need to remember that preparing the soil is vital. God is faithful, let’s be faithful as well and learn that nothing planted will remain unless the soil is prepared. “Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us; establish for us the work of our hands— establish the work of our hands!”

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Seeking Hearts Ministries