Thank you so much for joining me on the blog to review One in a Million by Priscilla Shirer. Today I will wrap up this little series but I can’t say the packaging and bow will be all pretty, why? Well because things just don’t feel all pretty and well presentable right now.
Life is being lived in the middle of the wilderness. A place that is totally foreign to me. I am not calling the lessons, I know it’s NOT a new concept for some, but for me, it’s a hard walk to walk right now.
There is a lot of change going on inside this girl…and all I can say is that thankfully I am in the wilderness cause it doesn’t look so pretty!
I have shouted and yelled a few times,
‘why in the world do you think I can handle this? And now of all times? Really?’
I have to be totally honest with you, there have been times I want to run so fast out of this wilderness…I have spent time (maybe even wasted some time) looking for the quickest out.
And yet when I see the outs, all of them point back to Egypt and the past and there is just something, something that doesn’t quite fit anymore with that place.
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do; Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13,14
Does that mean something is working out here in the wilderness?
Does that mean that just maybe my heart is tuning into I was meant for something different?
A Promised Land.
Even though I am experiencing a ‘feeling’ of loneliness out here in this wilderness I know I am not alone.
For out here I am sensing His presence in ways that I haven’t before.
I am tasting a food that I have never tasted. Food that was hidden out here in the wilderness for me all along.
The presence, the teaching, the food it’s all good.
But again I would be fooling you and myself to say that the wilderness is a vacation.
You see out here I am also more aware of the enemies workings. The enemy has tried yanking on emotions, messing with my mind, tweeking with my health, oh and the list goes on…the enemy must know how great the Promised Land is because he is trying to keep me from it.
Journal Entry while reading One in a Million:
Lord help me not rush through this season of sitting with You. As I was reading One in a Million yesterday the message that is sticking with me, is to NOT want the Promised Land more than I want You. Lord I want to learn a lot in this season. I want to know Your Word more, I want to build faith, I want to strengthen my perseverance, I want to trust You more, I want to learn to continually pray w/out ceasing, I want my thoughts to be pure, I want self- control, and many more things. But Lord MORE than anything I want You. I want to know You more. I want to learn who You are. I want to know Your characteristics as my God because I experience them. Lord as I type this I know with this wanting comes ‘a need to live it out’. Help me know this is not about earning, striving or doing it myself. Rather a life that is fully surrendered to allowing the power of the Holy Spirit to carry me! Please Lord!
Friends this has been a great book! I highly recommend it. But more than the book I recommend time with your Creator. A God who loves you more than anything. He wants to spend time with you. Please may I encourage you not to be afraid of the wilderness.
Journal Entry while reading One in a Million:
As I finished the book, One in a Million last night there were so many times I felt You loving on me. Speaking right to my heart. Whispers of encouragement, confirmation, assurance. Reminding me to stand strong and hold on tight to Your hand. Thank You Lord. I praise You for the peace You have filled my mind and heart with. A peace that speaks and says God knows and it’s all right. Everything is all right. This season of life is all right. Because You see and know and You are working. I pray Lord for the continued over powering of the Holy Spirit to flood my mind and heart, and remind me its not where this is taking me, or what’s happening next, or where I need to be going, but that I am with You. You! It’s about being with You, hearing from You, listening to You, applying what You are telling me, living in relationship with You. I pray Father God for a strong focus on what truly matters. A renewal of what You have called me to. Being in relationship with You.
A Prayer:
Lord we want to see You… to hear Your voice, the voice that has called us to abundant life. Lord I pray hard right now, a passion burning inside me, more than anything I want others to find You, fall in love with You and decide to run after You with everything they’ve got. Lord that the world would grow dim to us all. That we would know deep in our hearts a love that is like nothing we could ever understand, a love that truly gives us each breath, and a love that carries us to each moment. Your love. I know I don’t deserve it, can’t earn it, and will never truly wrap my little head around the why You give it, but Father God, thank You. Thank You for loving me. Purely, passionately, intimately. Loving me in moments that change my heart for the next. I love You, because You enable me too. Thank You Jesus for being the mediator, for standing in my place, to make this moment with You all possible. I love You, Amen
Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day- and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing. 2 Timothy 4:8
Drifting or Dwelling
14 hours ago
7 comments:
Oh, how I long for His appearing. I've reached the age that I realize my time here on this earth is not as long as it has been and like you I want my life to count for God, radiate His presence, that others might desire to know Him as well. I do love my God more today than I did yesterday. Thank you for this time of remembering where and how far we have come since starting this journey to the Promised Land. I pray desperately for our extended families for I fear some are not ready and all I can do is pray for them. God bring them in, surround them with people who know you and may the Holy Spirit knock on their hearts door in the Holy name of Jesus. Amen and Amen.
Oh Nichole you have spoken the words of my heart. Words that I have stuggled to find and put down on paper. I do want so much to have more of my God in me and in my life. I have spent so much time and energy lately making sure I did all the "right Christian" things that I forgot to actually find out who He is so that I could become more Christ-like. Thank you for alway being so open and honest here with us.
Today, I’m setting out “to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in his temple” (Psalm 27:4). Intimately, I want and desire to know You more today, dear Lord. Thank you for Nichole in my life. Her wisdom and zeal for you, inspires me to seek you out even more. I love you for giving me a brand new day, to know You even more. Amen.
W o n d e r f u l post from your heart, sweet Nichole!
Hugs, Love
Sit, sit, sit at His feet - It's your 'Mary' time - Enjoy His presence!!
Great series!!!
Love you girl!
Lord, I thank You for my friend, Nichole. And I thank You for her intimate and passionate love for You. I thank You for Your love for her. Your passionate and intimate love for her. I thank You that Your plans for her are always for her good. I thank You that You have purpose in her every single breath. I thank You that You never waste her time. I thank You that You are molding her, shaping her, and always, drawing her near.
I just pray that You love on my friend in an extra special way today. That You wrap her up so tight in Your love and Your presence that she can feel it to her bones. :)
I love You and praise You, Lord.
Amen.
The wilderness is such an eye-opener. It was for the Israelites, and it surely is for us, too. One of the facts that she brings out in her study (not sure if it's in the book) is that the Israelites were steps away from the Promised Land yet spent almost all of the 40 years of their pilgrimage just outside of it (until Joshua could bring them in)!
I often look at my life and see how I end up in the same place time after time after time. Why can't I move forward? Why do I keep going in circles with some things?
The other significant fact is that even as the Israelites entered the Promised Land, they only acquired a small portion of it. It required continued reliance on God--taking steps as He led them--for them to receive more and more of the Promised Land.
So, truly, this Christian life is a journey, a process, a stepping out in faith. And the more we trust God, believing He always has our best intentions at heart, the more we will see where He wants us to be.
Journey with great expectation, Nichole!
May this desert season and all the ones to come remind you of the rich intimacy that God longs to provide you as you sojourn the "dry" in order to get to the "wet."
How I love Him for sticking with me all the way...
peace~elaine
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