She

She is the girl that walks in the room and things brighten up.

She is able to make friends with anyone.

She shows mercy and kindness.

She has displayed many times what the hands of Jesus would look like in today’s world.

Her heart is filled with grace.

She remains un-tethered to this world, free spirited.

She has a beautiful smile.

Her laughter is contagious.

She will try and rescue any animal and even some humans too.

People enjoy being around her.

She is full of strength.

She is my SISTER.

Being that I am the older sister I have found myself many times keeping that position too critically. As the older sister I have felt it necessary to protect, prevent and provide. A role that I was not capable of meeting flawlessly. A role that was not appreciated many times, as it was interpreted as over bearing and judgmental. Which to be honest, probably came with some judgement, comments of ‘that is not how I would do it!’ or ‘why don’t you just do it the same way I did’, or even shaking my head and thinking, ‘why in the world are you doing it that way?’

**Have you ever wondered how two children who come from the same parents, the same exact DNA can be so amazingly different?

I want and desire great things for my sister! I still find myself wanting to protect, prevent, and provide for her.

God has brought me to a place in my relationship with my sister that is filled with a whole lot of peace, love, and grace. A place where He has whispered to me many times:

Nichole I have her. I see her. I know what is going on. I am talking to her.

God has brought me to a place where I see my sister as created in His image, the image of a great and amazing God!

She is His creation!

My prayer is that she will go running into His arms and fall completely in love with Him. Why? Because its such a place to live…a place about living in freedom.

I love you sis!

The song below is so amazing to me. I remember very clearly where I was sitting and what was going in my life when I heard it for the very first time. It is a song that really made me look at my life and my commitment to Jesus. It made me ask if I was truly living in relationship with Him, if I was ‘in love with Him’. When I hear this song I am reminded of how much His love does in us and through us. I am praying that I will continue to fall more in love with Him. I am praying that my sister will fall more in love with Him. I am praying that you will fall more in love with Him.



Our relationship series takes us next to the relationships we have with our brothers and sisters. Now if you are an only child...pray for the sibling relationships around you...they need it! Allow God to do a new thing in these relationships. Allow Him to reveal to you His design for the relationship...I guarantee it will look simply amazing...because its the only way He does things!

Please leave prayer requests in the comments if you have any!

　
May you be soaked in His love for you. May you be encouraged today to love your brother, your sister. Be committed to lift them up in prayer. Be challenged to write a note, make a phone call, go for a visit.

Now I'm the Momma

I distinctly remember as a child stating…’when I’m the momma I will do it differently’, or making this statement ‘I won’t make my kids do that’. Thinking that my parents were totally in the land of the clueless or were just torturing me with silly rules. I even carried these pre conceived thoughts into my adulthood and looked at other mothers out in public and thought…’there is no way my child will do that, say that or act out like that’. Again all these statements, claims and thoughts were pre children.

First of all "mom and dad please forgive me for my pride that hazed my view of what I thought reality to be".

Second "from one momma heart to another…grace mommas…grace for yourself, grace for those children…and I say it again…live in grace!"

I have a weird quirky issue…you might have heard of it or even seen someone with this issue, or maybe you might have had issues with this issue yourself.

Hi my name is Nichole and I have an issue with needing to be in control.

This little issue is like a security blanket for me that I find myself being very dependent on. A blanket that I use to wrap over many areas of my life. I have wrapped it over relationships with family members and friends, I have wrapped it over my academics, my career, my health and believe it or not I have wrapped it over my ability to be a mother to my boys. I have found myself very wrapped up in the idea that I am in control of them as their mother. I have felt warmth in the security that I can control all that they say, do and even sad as it maybe I have had a false belief in that I have control over what happens to them.

It takes a trip to Costco to have this blanket stripped off very quickly, an episode that exposes me to the cold harshness of my issue with needing to be in control.

Friday afternoon we visited our local Costco, a huge warehouse that offers the momma items in bulk and the little boy’s yummy snacks as they sample all the items they offer to the mommas in bulk. We must have hit the day of all days as they were sampling more items than normal which really pleased the boys. We are done snacking and loading the cart and we head to the checkout where my little son has the biggest tantrum I have ever experienced in my entire life. So loud, so obvious, and so embarrassing. There was nothing I could do. It completely quieted the entire front of Costco while we were trying to checkout. I could not get him to listen, or quiet down. He screamed and yelled at me the entire time we loaded our stuff on the counter and checked out. I was so embarrassed. Pride? What a moment of realizing I cannot control the behavior of my children. I started to let the tears run down my face as I paid for our stuff and headed out to the car. I loaded the stuff in the car. I cried the entire way home in the car. We get home and I send my little son to his room to remove his very ‘sticky root beer ice cream clothes’ and so I could talk to him about his behavior. After I finish unloading the car I go in and my little son has decided not to listen. So I go in and help him get clean clothes on and put him in his bed. He continues for awhile and gives in after about 2 hours and falls asleep.

With the removal of a false security blanket, the shedding of tears and moments with God, I was brought before a Sovereign God…a God who is in control.

A God who wanted me to give up my control and my attachments to a false hope, a false security that I had placed in my abilities to be a mother. He wanted me to put my hope in Him. To place my hope in His plan and purposes.

It was Sunday night when God used Costco to really educate me. It was Sunday night when I saw that my control issues keep me from seeing the face of God.

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up. James 4:10

My control issues keep me from seeing God as Sovereign and in control.

I get so completely focused on living out my story. In the Honor Them post I share that my heart as a little girl had created what she wanted and needed her parents to be and do…when God’s story was better! For He had such awesome purpose and plan in the way He brought my parents into relationship with Him. He was in control!

I tend to lose sight of the larger story. The God story!

**Are you living out your story, or His story?

I get so completely focused on ‘making my story work’. I think I need to control all that my boys do and say. Rather I need to turn in my script and start hearing and seeing the one He has written. When I allow Him to create me to be the momma He needs me to be then I will be living in His story.

I want to be lost in the larger story of God. I want to be so caught up in His story that I have no issue with the need to control things.

In the Bible there is a book titled Hebrews and in the 11 chapter you will find a bunch of people who were caught up in Gods story.

**Do you want to be lost in His story?

Thank You God for removing a false security blanket that I use to depend on. A false hope in my own abilities as a momma. Thank You for reminding me that I am the momma and that You are God and You are in control and that You have a story. A story filled with Your perfect purposes! Amen

May we be so enthralled, so enveloped, and so involved in His story!

Friday Challenge

Hello! Happy Friday! I am so glad you are here. I love to have fun! I love to see people smile, and hear people laugh. I more than enjoy hearing my boys giggle.

Life can get pretty serious and pretty hard at times for all of us.

So the Friday Challenge:

Is to have a Fun Friday


Do something today that is fun! Do something that will put a smile on your face, or make you laugh!


Or if you are up for it...I double challenge you to giggle today!




We are sharing a couple of ideas for you to jump start your Fun Friday


Play "Chubby Bunny". Play with your kids, your spouse, or some friend. Take a bag of marshmallow and see who can fit the most in there and still say the words "Chubby Bunny"




Or if you are privileged like I am to live with two of the worlds best inventors of fun. Let them lead you you into some fun! We played Underwater Sea Divers. The boys even had floaties!






If you end up taking the challenge today to have a Fun Friday please share your fun ideas!



May your Friday be Fun!



**See you on Monday as we continue our journey in Relationships!

Just a girl

Hello welcome to the blog today. It has been a very hot, heated and emotional few days since posting the blog Honor Them on Monday.

For some of you who read on a regular basis you have probably been able to pick up on a heart beat that desires to stay in beat with her Jesus. A heart beat that beats to lead people to the heart of God. A place...the ONLY place to find grace, love, and freedom. A place to hear your purpose and then live in that every moment!

These past few days God has taken me to so many places in His word, to the voice of other people in relationship with Him, and has had me stand and hear the voice of those who want an explanation. Those who want me to bring hope.

When I write a blog:

I don't write to impress.

I want God to take your breath away!

I don't write to change people.

That is His job!

I don't write to fit in with the crowd.

Even though my human heart finds such comfort there, God has asked me to be bold and seek only His approval.

I don't write to fill a quota.

My Jesus is not about filling a quota, or meeting expectations, or following the law faultlessly, rather He is about living in freedom.

I don't write to get followers.

I want to point you in the direction of the Teacher so you can follow Him!

I don't write to bring hope.

Hope can only be found in Him!

I don't write to share other peoples stories or journeys

God has asked me to share my story, and I trust and obey He has a reason!

I don't write to make myself comfortable.

Trust me on this one friends, this is one reason right here that I have been at His feet for hours these past few days.

Rather I write what God has laid on my heart and what I have lived in the everyday with Him. I write to share a message about a girl living everyday in a relationship with her Jesus. Just a girl who desires to lead other people to His heart so they too can live in that relationship.

To say that my heart is heavy is true, it is heavy for the work of God to keep going! I believe God is who He says He is, and that He does what He says He will do!

May we know today who God is, and may we know who we are in Him and live in that each and every moment.


***Join the blog next Monday as we visit the parent-child relationship from a different perspective!

Perspective

You know what is just so amazing about God? He is perfect! He can do all things! He really doesn't need to use us to do His work but He chooses to do it...He wants to be in relationship with us and use us to bring others into relationship with Him.

I am just a imperfect girl who loves her Jesus and gets more than excited to see Him working. I love to see Him speaking to His children!

I know God is working! I know God is changing people and bringing them closer to Him. And from our human perspective it doesn't look all perfect, pretty, clean, organized, neat, or even fun!

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9


Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You'll get his help, and won't be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who "worry their prayers" are like wind-whipped waves. Don't think you're going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open. James 1:2-8 The Message

Friends this past 24 hours have been overwhelming to say the least. I am praying the Word of God above, crying out to a perfect God to be all His children need Him to be.

Would you please go back over yesterdays comments and read them. Which one(s) are you being led to pray about? Please know that within those lives God is working. He is a mighty and perfect God who is more than able to change things. He is in the business of changing lives. And friends when He does...it all works out for the good!

I have been privileged to see God work and change many lives! I have had much first hand experience with Him changing mine. He continues to change me from the inside out!

Honor Them

Thank you for visiting the blog today. We are in the middle of a series on relationships. Today we are looking at our relationships with our parents.

My heart is telling me to share with you all that this has been very much prayed over. I know this is a topic for many that is very difficult to talk about, deal with and live in.

We spent some time in the past few weeks stressing the importance of a personal relationship with God. This relationship is not a suggestion to having a ‘good life’ it rather is a necessity to living in freedom. The freedom you receive in grace from your Heavenly Father is what is needed for you to live in freedom in all your earthly relationships.

**Are you living in freedom?

My hope is that you are living in this freedom. Living in relationship with Jesus. In this relationship He will lead you to honor Him in all you do. An honor that only He can teach you and fill you to live out. An honor that He will lead you to extend to your parents.

**What does it mean to honor?

My relationship with my parents has weathered quite a few storms. And it doesn’t matter from which direction the wind blew, for the storms were significant enough for only the grace and love of God to calm them down.

I remember growing up as a little girl desiring to have a ‘different’ relationship with my parents. One that I had created in my heart. One that made all my little girl fantasies come true. I desired for my parents to say certain things, be certain places, and make me the center of their world. It always seemed so backwards to me that I would know Jesus and they wouldn’t. How could that be God’s will? I prayed for my parents many years that they would come into relationship with Jesus. I hoped God would make them into the parents I wanted them to be. The parents I had created in my mind that I needed them to be.

I spent my minutes, hours, days, months and even years questioning God, why did I have the parents I did?

Then one day I humbled my heart to hear His answer:

Because I wanted you to need Me and rely on Me
　
Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. Exodus 20:12

For me to truly live in the freedom He had for me, I had to be willing to obey Him and follow His commandment to honor the parents I had. The ones He wanted me to have.

During my introduction into parenthood I also started the journey to forgiving my parents and learning how to apply grace to my relationship with them. I didn’t have perfect parents. It took me some growing up and maturing to understand that they are never going to be perfect because they are human. And for me to expect them to be perfect is unrealistic. I spent quite a few days, months, and years wallowing in the fact that my parents were not perfect, they made mistakes when I was a kid and they were not doing everything I needed them to do as an adult. As I started to think through this I realized I was not giving them grace. They didn’t know how to be parents any more than I know how. I had and was having way too high of expectations. It was then that I started to give them grace, which allowed for a freedom in our relationship. I forgave them for the past, and started loving them and showing compassion to them in the present. I also lowered my expectations for the future. Living in God’s grace helped me to give my parents grace. It helped me to love them for who they are and not what I want them to be.

It was God’s plan all along for me to do it this way! We must be able to forgive our parents, ourselves and move out of the past and live in the present.

We have to allow God to fill us to overflowing with His love, so that it can spill over onto the relationships we have with our parents.

God is asking us to honor our parents. God is asking us to trust Him. He is asking us to obey Him.
　
I want to honor my parents. God has asked me to, and because I have been given the freedom of a grace and love from my Heavenly Father to see them through His eyes. As two human people who are just in as much of a Savior as I am.

The key to today’s post is to point out what we can choose to do.

We can choose to:

Accept Gods plan and our placement here on earth

Honor Him in the way we live our lives

Accept the fact that we can’t change anyone…including ourselves that’s His job!

Love others like we want to be loved

Allow Him to create the relationship with our parents that He has designed it to be.

As I write this post today, I am able to write in freedom and sense of His love for me.


I remember going one Sunday night to my spiritual mentor and seeking her wisdom and asking "what in the world am I doing?" I was just a few days away from sharing with a local MOPs group and felt very convicted that all my relationships were not perfect. I didn’t want to stand up before everyone and be a hypocrite. She said some of the most wisdom filled words that night to my heart. Words that God had filled her heart to share with me. She started with a question "Nichole do you believe in the message you are sharing?" I answered ‘of course I do very passionately’. "Nichole you will only be a hypocrite if you get up there and ask them to do something that you are not willing to live out in your own life" Right there those words…they were a peace and calmness…a love and grace that washed over my heart. Friends I am oh so willing to live out the word of God.

Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. Exodus 20:12

Living out the word of God is not about us getting it perfect or arriving at a certain point! It’s about an active on going relationship with our Creator who will lead and guide us each step of the way. It is remembering He is the creator of all relationships. Allowing Him to create it!

**Are you willing to allow God to create the relationship?

**Are you willing to live out the word of God?

May we honor Him today!

A side of questions

It seems that I am easily distracted. My daddy might say its because I am blonde, the Engineer might suggest its because I am ‘over doer’, others might think its because I am left-handed and use the ‘other’ side of my brain to do my thinking, or speaking of my brain it could be that little issue of my thalamus not functioning properly! Whatever it is it appears that some of my posts during this relationship series I have left out the bolded questions for you to journal and pray about. So I come today with:


A side of questions:
　
1- Do you need God?

2- Are you living in His grace?

3- How is your relationship with your Creator today?

4- Are you in a passionate pursuit of His heart?

5- What is one thing that has been revealed to you by your Creator about your relationship with Him during this series so far?

6-Do you agree with the statement 'Relationships are not meant to be created by us.'

7- What relationship right now in your life needs some grace, love and attention?


We will now be transitioning into our relationships with others. Please keep in mind the needed foundation. Our relationship with our Heavenly Father must be right for us to live right in relationship with others. We will be shining the light of Gods word on our relationships with our parents next. For some those relationships are healthy, for some those relationships are strained,and for others those relationships are non-existent. Wherever you find yourself in relation to your parents, please know that only God can bring beauty to it! Please join me in seeking out Gods truth, grace and love for our relationships with our parents.

　
So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:17-19

And then it happens

Friends I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for journeying through life with me on purpose! You all have made this series on relationships so educational, meaningful and personal to me!

And I just have to let you know that I am NOT any more qualified to be hosting this series on relationships than anyone, my only credential that is worth noting is my personal relationship with my Jesus!

I grew up in a home where my mom thought it was important to send her girls to Sunday School, so she did! Thank you momma!

I grew up feeling like I needed to earn the acceptance, love, and approval of my parents and the people around me. I lived my life to keep others happy. I lived for words of affirmation, and applause. My grades, my clothing, my friends, and my successes defined me. I wore a mask of pride, one that looked happy, perfect and completely in control at all times. This mask was one that bore the name "good girl" loud and proud. A mask that began to seep into my heart to tell me I was fail proof. I lived my life according to my plan. I felt a constant pressure to keep achieving, to keep trying harder, and to do more, I felt like maybe someday I would arrive and people would see that I was worth loving.

I graduated high school, went to college, got married, I thought I was doing everything right. For many years I lived life to try and get approval from other people and from God. If I could just make everyone happy, if I could just please God. All this work to try and earn love, and acceptance left me tired and miserable. I felt like I would never arrive, like I was never good enough. I lived for perfection. It was all about was on the outside, it was all for show.

Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. Galatians 1:10

I didn’t want to let anyone down by letting them know I didn’t have it all together. If I failed and couldn’t keep my pride mask on; how would that look? I was living my life to please the people around me. I felt completely lonely and empty.

Then one day I started to listen to that voice inside me, "Why are you trying so hard?" I heard God telling me that He created me because He loves me and He wants to have a relationship with me. I heard Him saying that the relationship with Him had nothing to do with me earning it or achieving or even deserving it. He was offering me a true genuine relationship that would allow me to live life freely in His grace. It was time to be the one my Heavenly Father created me to be; it was time to live my life on purpose!

Knowing who I am, why I was created and living in that every moment!

My life verse, 2 Corinthians 5:15, And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. Because Christ died for me and I have accepted Him as my personal savior I am dead to my old life. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing! Galatians 2:20-21 I am a new person…the person my Creator wants me to be. I am to live my life for Him. I don’t need to earn His love, or the love and acceptance of others. I need to accept the grace from my Heavenly Father, and that’s that! I find freedom in this verse. The freedom to live my life on purpose, the only purpose I was created for, to have a relationship with my amazing Father; A relationship that He orchestrated and made possible, not because of who I am but because of who He is. He created me for Him.


It is nothing I did, or can ever do to make this relationship happen. Relationships are not meant to be created by us. God wants us to live life with Him. In the everyday!

God is not asking us to get bogged down with getting it all right and knowing all the details,saying all the right things,attending the 'right' church, reading the right translation of the Bible.

He is asking us to live life with Him.

Be in relationship with Him.

When we are living in relationship with our Creator then it will all happen

We will be living in His freedom and grace

We will know Him

We will talk with Him


Dear Heavenly Father thank You for creating this relationship. There is such beauty in Your design God. Beauty and grace. Oh and a love that is freeing, pure, and honest. May our relationship with You God affect all areas of our lives! May we live in the freedom of this grace and loved filled relationship so that it flows over into the other relationships of our lives. Thank You that You have created and designed for it to happen! We love You Lord-Amen

Can I get a do over?

Have you ever had one of those days?

Well I am having me one folks!

We have had a sick little guy this weekend who is battling a crazy fever. We break it and he seems to perk up and then it comes right back. So sleep has been a little slim these past few nights. Anyway I wake up this morning and head out to sit in my big comfy chair in the family room to read my Bible. I read, pray and journal. Then I write a blog to post for today. I had it titled, written and ready to go. It was on the thumb drive on my laptop and I was going to transfer it to the office computer and share it with you all here in blog land. It vanished from the thumb drive! Not too thrilled with that but what does a girl do...yep...she pouts. Sorry if you were hoping for a much prettier answer. I pouted threw the phone call with my mom..."sorry mom, please forgive me for being a spoiled little girl and thinking of myself!"

So on the morning goes...little guy wakes this morning and seems to be feeling better. So I dive into the massive amounts of laundry that are mounded in our room, the hallway, and in front of the washer and dryer. Monday is such a fun day to do laundry....am I convincing you...or just trying to convince myself? So what does a girl do with this much laundry...she pouts and starts loading it into the washer feeling oh so sorry for herself.


We take a little break to head down to the printers to print out some Speaker packets to send out for Living My Life on Purpose and I arrive at the printers and the work "has shifted in the document" says the nice gentlemen helping me. Which he says needs to be fixed and then saved into a pdf format...okay! So I head to the car with two little guys in tow and sit in the front seat and let the tears roll down my face. Still pouting and feeling sorry for myself!

I get us home and am still pouting and acting like a spoiled little girl! When I walk into the living room and there is my little guy curled up in a bean bag and he says "I am not feeling good again!" I feel his head, take his temp, cook us some quick lunch and out the door to the doctor.

We are home now, boys are napping.... and mommy is on her way!

But I had to share whats in my heart. The verse I used this morning, the one in the blog, yep the blog I had all typed up and ready to go and lost...well the beauty is that I didn't lose the verse, the one that is staying with me today:

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? Psalm 42:1-2

I am a girl in need of a God! A living God who is all about relationship. A God who knows how to love one me, and talk with me!


Thank You Lord for creating me with the need for You! Help me to truly know in my heart today that the only thing that will fill that spot, is You! Come in and fill that spot to overflowing, push out the spoiled little girl that is hanging out in there. Fill me so I can be the wife, mommy, daughter, and friend You need me to be! I love You Lord-Amen



____________
We will make that transition from our relationship with God to our relationships with others this week! Hang on with me friends!

Friday Challenge

Hello! We haven't had a Friday Challenge for awhile and I am needing one today!

I strongly believe in supporting other people by listening to them, encouraging them, and loving on them. But because I am human I can get in the rut of thinking 'what about me?' and dwell for a minute too long on thinking about me and whats going on in my life and get off balance.

Friday Challenge: Write a handwritten note, care or letter to someone encouraging them and loving on them, and mail it to them. Yes put the stamp up in the right hand corner and send it off to them!

We all have someone in our lives that needs this note today!

Have a great weekend!

Come back and join us next week as we transition from our relationship with God into our relationships with others!

Not my words

Dear Friends thank you so much for joining me in this series on relationships.

I come this morning to share a little bit of my heart. Why? Because in all honesty it will reveal my God and the work He is doing.

You see I don't have this series all set in an outline on my computer...notes and ideas...yes...but nothing that is automatically loaded up onto blogger. I know that might scare some of you and have you asking 'then what in the world is this girl doing?' The short answer...trying to be obedient to God and listen and allow Him to direct this series! I am praying this morning for God to open our hearts and to speak to each one of us personally. Speak to us in a way that only He can. I know He will do it! I am also praying that we are listening. Listening to Him.

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah 1:5

Friends please go back and read the verse again. What word(s) catch your eye?

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

before you were born I set you apart;

I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah 1:5 (emphasis mine)

In the past few days we have been looking at the importance of a relationship with God and getting to know Him. We looked at the importance of knowing God and not just knowing about Him.

Will you join me in letting this verse soak into your heart?

"We are so used to considering everything through the prism of our current feelings and our most recent acquisitions that it is a radical change to consider the vast before. But if we would live well, it is necessary. Otherwise we live feebly and gropingly, blind to the glory that we are known, chosen and given away by God." (Eugene Peterson, Run with the Horses)

We were a part of the before...Gods before!

He knew us!

He set us apart!

He appointed us!

These are all things He did before He created us!

God knew you before He created you. He thought about you, He loved you, He planned for you!

He knows you.

He thinks about you.

He loves you.

He has plans and purpose for you. To use you to bring glory and honor to Him!

Dear Father these precious words are Yours. I pray that only You can speak them into the hearts of Your people. May we truly know today that You know us. Amen

Knowing You

May you know today that He is all you need!

Its not what you know

It’s not what we know! Nope its not!

Rather it is who we know that makes all the difference!

Please hear my heart today. I am not asking if we know about God. We have established some of those foundations in the past few days. We know He is the Creator. We also know that He created us to be in relationship with Him. Now I know this is truth that you need to know. But friends it goes so much deeper than knowing about God.

**Do you want to know God?

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Hebrews 11:6

It’s not just believing that God exists. Many may know a lot about God, but may not know God. There is more than just studying religion, or the Bible.

The difference is not in what we know. The difference is in the relationship! A relationship that is so amazing, so dynamic it will transform your life. Now that’s something to be excited about!

I have been very blessed in my life to see, hear and experience people who are in a genuine intimate relationship with God. They are people who walk with God and talk with Him in their everyday moments. They have come to know God by simply spending time with Him.

But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find Him if you look for him with all your heart and all your soul. Deuteronomy 4:29

We too can ‘get to know’ God by spending time with Him.

God wants to be known. He has revealed Himself to us two ways to us, through His word and through His creation.

"Ask and it will be give to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8

True genuine relationships thrive when time is spent working on them and being in them.

**How do you spend time with God?

Talk with God. An important key to thriving relationships is communication. Talk to God, tell Him what is in your heart. Share with Him what you are thankful for. Talk to Him about your fears, worries. Oh and as I have to remind myself oh so often…spend time listening!

But Nichole I don’t know how to talk to God? What should I say? What if I don’t say the right things?

Friends please remember that a relationship with God is not about getting it right or ever achieving.

Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you Jeremiah 29:12-14 (emphasis mine)

Our relationship with God is about committing to Him with all our heart. He will do the rest.

One way to hear God is by reading His word. Many times He speaks right to my heart so personally and so perfectly through the Bible. Now that is what I call an ‘active living word’!!
By reading His word you will learn about who God is. How much He loves His people. How He wants us to live. Friends don’t read the word without help. God tells us we need Him to help us read His word. I remember when I committed to reading the entire Bible and feeling frustrated many times. "What am I reading?" "Who are all these people with all these names I can’t pronounce?" I kept reading. I kept at it and one day I heard God whispering to my heart, ‘Just ask me for help and I will help you". So now when I read His precious word to me, I invite Him to come in and sit with me and help me understand His words to me. Sometimes I have to read it a couple of times. Many times I journal about what I just read. I write down questions that come to mind when I am reading a certain section. Remember He will reveal Himself to you through His word!

**How often am I spending time in relationship with God?

**How often according to Luke 11:3 do we need to be in contact with God?

Knowing God is having an intimate relationship with Him

Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. John 17:3

Thus says the Lord: "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me," Jeremiah 9:23-24 (ESV) (emphasis mine)


I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, Ephesians 1:17-18

**We will never know who we are until we gaze upon the face of God!