My Divine Romance..

MY DIVINE ROMANCE
Isaiah 54:5 - For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is His name; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth.
Song of Solomon 6:3 - I am my beloved's, And my beloved is mine. He feeds His flock among the lilies.
Psalm 16:11 - You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalm 37:4 - Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 139:1-18 - O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it. Where can I go from your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, "Surely the darkness shall fall on me," Even the night shall be light about me; Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You. For you formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You.
Psalm 45 - My heart is overflowing with a good theme; I recite my composition concerning the King; My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. You are fairer than the sons of men; Grace is poured upon Your lips; Therefore God has blessed You forever. Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O Mighty One, with Your glory and Your majesty. And in Your majesty ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness; And Your right hand shall teach You awesome things. Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the King's enemies; The peoples fall under You. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions. All Your garments are scented with myrrh and aloes and cassia, Out of the ivory palaces, by which they have made You glad. King's daughters are among Your honorable women; At Your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir. Listen, O daughter, Consider and incline your ear; Forget your own people also, and your father's house; So the King will greatly desire your beauty; Because He is your Lord, worship Him. And the daughter of Tyre will come with a gift; The rich among the people with seek your favor. The royal daughter is all glorious within the palace; Her clothing is woven with gold. She shall be brought to the King in robes of many colors; The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to You. With gladness and rejoicing they shall be brought; They shall enter the King's palace. Instead of Your fathers shall be Your sons, Whom You shall make princes in all the earth. I will make Your name to be remembered in all generations; Therefore the people shall praise You forever and ever.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Regret

The Lord is showing me how I live each day in regret. I hate this! This is not the victorious, glorious, amazing life He has purchased for me...I know this. I had not realized how regretful I've been living until the past few days.

Let me back up..

Here is where I will be honest, as ashamed as I may be tempted to feel. I struggle. I fight to be obedient and disciplined with my time. There are multiple aspects to this struggle but one is that I can easily fall into laziness and apathy. Ugh. Days will pass and although I often feel busy, at the end of the day, I don't know what I accomplished. I don't know how to break out of this cycle. When I lay down to go to sleep at night and look at what I got done, I often feel that I did not get anything done! Part of it, as I mentioned, is laziness...but another part is that I feel like I get up in the morning and suddenly it is midnight or one a.m. and the day is gone. I have no idea how to use my time effectively. I have ALWAYS struggled with this. But in this constant struggle...I have began to see how I am now living in REGRET.

That end of the day reflection comes and I just feel horrible about myself and how I don't know how to live effectively. This is so normal that I have been blind to the fact that I am not giving my time to Him, I've just accepted this fast-paced-but-accomplishing-little lifestyle as normal. But in my heart and mind, I know that this is not right. This is not the way He would have a child of His live.

I could go on and on about my struggle with time...but to just face it is this: I've been living by the whims of my flesh. Which is not okay. On days when I have been busy with school or teaching, I rush through my day with little to no peace in His love...I don't even speak to Him. I know that if I did, He would fill me up (Phil 4:4-8) but I have just been existing..not living. However, the worst part is this: I do the same thing when I have a day of freedom in my time. If I have extra time, I STILL struggle to accomplish the things that I need or want to do! It is a little bit better but I get so distracted with things that do not matter.

So, ultimately, I know how to combat these issues...before the throne of grace. I have tons of practical tools to help me through this..but I need Christ. All parts of the human life need Christ..even time management and choosing how to organize tasks. Some would probably read this and think I am being crazy to feel so strongly and think so hard about something like this.. But to me, it is huge. It is a struggle that I have had for years and years. I desire for EVERY part of my life to reflect His holiness and purity...including time, tasks, free-time, and busyness. I need JESUS.

As I said before, there are more aspects and factors to this battle, but all of them need to be placed into His wonderful hands. So to begin today, I am going clean. Simple, right? But I desperately need His out-of-this-world strength to even get through this!

Shame wants to creep up to admit that I struggle with something that seems so mundane, but I will boast in my weaknesses so that His power will be glorified! Yes, this shows how VERY weak I am, but HE is my joy and my strength! His grace is enough..

If anyone has any advice, I am completely open!