I Will Always Sing

Before I get into my reflections on my worship meditation this week, I need to share with you a wonderfully intense experience I had Thursday morning. Around 2:30 am I awoke from a dream. It was so strange. I was in heaven, or at least a heavenly place. I was surrounded by angelic type beings that had no form that I could discern. They seemed to glow, filled with light, so much so that I couldn’t see any arms, or legs or anything really. They were singing in a language that I couldn’t understand, but my soul sang with them. It was like something inside me understood what I was hearing, even though my brain didn’t get it at all. I sang with them in worship of God. And just as my brain began to understand what I was hearing, the dream began to fade and I awoke with a coughing fit (my norm). When I woke up I held my breath, trying to stop the cough, but also because I felt like if I laid there very still and concentrated I would remember the language I had heard. It was right there, on the fringes of my brain, and then it faded. My heart still longs to sing that song again and I hope that I will reenter that place in my dreams. It was wonderful! Have any of you ever had a similar experience?

This week’s worship song was Even Louder by The Church Will Sing. Let me share some of the lyrics from this awesome song:

Faithful in the sanctuary; Faithful in the storm
Worthy in the empty spaces; Worthy in my song
A thousand years of endless praise will never be enough
Through it all my heart will cling to Your unfailing love
Even if the drums stop beating
My soul will keep on singing
Even louder, even louder
Even when my eyes can’t see it
I’ll sing ’til I believe it
Even louder, even louder
I will sing Your promise in the dark of the valley
Until I see Your goodness in the land of the living

I highlight the above lyrics because they spoke so deeply to my heart. I’m not sure about you, but I have had times in my life where I haven’t felt the presence of God. I have had times where I thought that I was all alone and that God was not even remotely listening to the weeping of my soul or the beckoning of my heart. Crying in my bed, or my car, or in a corner. But God was there. And how do I know that? Because even when my eyes can’t see or feel Him, He is there. His Word gives me unimaginable hope:

• 1 John 5:14 (TPT), “Since we have this confidence, we can also have great boldness before him, for if we ask anything agreeable to his will, he will hear us.”
• Psalm 66:19 (TPT), “But praises rise to God, for he paid attention to my prayer and answered my cry to him!”
• 1 Peter 3:12 (TPT), “For the eyes of the Lord Yahweh rest upon the godly, and his heart responds to their prayers. But he turns his back on those who practice evil.”
• Hebrews 4:14-16 (TPT), “So then, we must cling in faith to all we know to be true. For we have a magnificent King-Priest, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who rose into heavenly realm for us, and now sympathizes with us in our frailty. He understands humanity, for as a Man, our magnificent King-Priest was tempted in every way just as we are, and conquered sin. So now we come freely and boldly to where love is enthroned, to receive mercy’s kiss and discover the grace we urgently need to strengthen us in our time of weakness.”

My friends, I know that life can sometimes, or even often, be overwhelming. But God is there in the midst. His loving kindness is poured over us. His mercy can overwhelm even the most daunting and discouraging circumstances. And even when we can’t see it, or feel it, we must still seek Him and worship Him! We must sing loudly to combat the voice of the enemy that tries to convince us that God is not present. And it is in these moments of desperation, when it seems as if God is not there, that our worship can transform our lives!

This next week my personal worship song is Beautiful Things by Gungor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1spkhp41ig4

Here’s my apple ITunes playlist if you’d like to download the songs! So far there are 36 songs and almost 3 hours 8 minutes worth of worship music! Some new, some old. Some well known, others not known at all. https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/worshipchallenge2021/pl.u-3oa4S0X1Xl

Cleaning House

Make Room by The Church Will Sing:
And I WILL make room for you – Jesus
To do whatever you want to
Here is where I lay me down
All my burdens all my crowns. This is my surrender.
Here is where I lay junk down
All my lies and all my doubts. This is my time to change.
Shake up the ground – of ALL my ambitions
Break down the walls – of ALL my religion
Your way IS better!

Since I began my #WorshipChallenge2021 last week I’ve been singing this song every day. I have varied the lyrics to work deeper on my heart. Deeper into me and my personal walk. Let me encourage you to sing and change lyrics to speak deeper into your heart. It’s not just about the lyrics that were written, but how God is speaking to you through those lyrics.

It’s not enough to just Make Room for Jesus to come in and change you. I heard a message a long time ago that we have to be very careful clearing our minds and hearts of things that have corrupted us, and then not being intentional about filling that space up with things that will glorify God and grow us a believers. By clearing space, it can often get filled with junk that will make us even more miserable than we were to begin with.

Oh Yahweh, I have made room in my heart, mind and soul. Fill it with You. Your presence. Your love. Your life. Your desires. Your wisdom.

This is my artistic interpretation of what God is doing in my heart! Come on in Jesus – you do YOU!

James 1:5 (TPT), “And if anyone longs to be wise, ask God for wisdom and he will give it! He won’t see your lack of wisdom as an opportunity to scold you over your failures but he will overwhelm your failures with his generous grace.”

My next worship song of meditative focus and private worship is Even Louder by The Church Will Sing (https://youtu.be/K_lmfWPV41Q)

Some of the lyrics:
Even if the drums stop beating
My soul will keep on singing
Even louder, even louder
Even when my eyes can’t see it
I’ll sing ’til I believe it
Even louder, even louder

Please consider joining me in this time! Feel free to share. You don’t have to give me credit. Let’s create a Body of Believers that are passionately and privately and corporately worshipping the Most High God!

Here’s my apple ITunes playlist if you’d like to download the songs! So far there are 34 songs and almost 3 hours worth of worship music! Some new, some old. Some well known, others not known at all. https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/worshipchallenge2021/pl.u-3oa4S0X1Xl

So, what song are you mediating on? How has God spoken to you, and what have you been saying to God?

#WorshipChallenge2021

I’ve decided to do something for the rest of 2021. Every week I will have a different worship song that I am going to focus on. I am going to listen to that worship song at least once every day. At the end of the week, I plan to journal what God has revealed to me during my private worship time.

I feel like we have lost, or maybe it’s just me, connection with the Lord. Maybe it’s the isolation. Maybe it’s Covid. Maybe it’s just Satan, and that’s probably more likely than anything else, but I feel like I haven’t taken time to very deeply worship God! Am I alone in this? I don’t think so!

Today I was listening to a song that is just really been penetrating deep into my heart, and I felt God just nudging me and telling me that I needed to spend some time in private worship.

What is private worship? For me it means a time where I can just listen to music and meditate on God and the goodness of God, but most importantly listen to his voice! How often do you take timeto actually listen to God?It’s so easy to ignore the voice of God and just focus inwardly, or focus on worldly needs.

Whether or not you want to worship with the same weekly song I choose, I want to challenge you to spend 5 to 10 minutes just singing and worshipping Christ every day! Let’s do this together! Let’s worship! Let’s see what God is going to reveal. Let’s celebrate today the great revelations we can anticipate!!

Make Room – By The Church Will Sing and Elyssa Smith & Community Music

The first song I’ve chosen is Make Room (https://music.apple.com/us/album/make-room-single/1510355933) by The Church Will Sing.

Here is where I lay it down
Every burden, every crown
This is my surrender
This is my surrender
Here is where I lay it down
Every lie and every doubt
This is my surrender

And I will make room for You
To do whatever You want to
To do whatever You want to
I will make room for You
To do whatever You want to
To do whatever You want to

So, who’s in? Let me know what song you’re meditating on this week! Let’s rejoice and worship together! God is so faithful and good!

#WorshipChallenge2021

EDIT –

About that #WorshipChallenge2021 … I have gotten some wonderful feedback and people that are excited to join me on this journey of anticipation and worship. So, I decided to make a worship playlist that will eventually include all my personal worship songs for the rest of 2021. #WorshipChallenge2021

I’d also love to include yours too. What songs have been life changers for you? Songs where God has spoken directly to your soul? Songs that have changed your life? Songs that have conveyed your deep love of Jesus? I would love for us to all be able to use this playlist as a way to connect with each other but most importantly connect with God!

How Big is Your Cedar Tree?

We’re looking at 1 Kings 5. Now I ask you to stick with me through the small rabbit hole, and math, that I’m going to take you through. Because, I promise you, I’m going somewhere with all of this.

Solomon wrote a reply to King Hiram’s congratulatory letter and stated that he wanted to build a temple to the LORD his God. To do so, he asked Hiram in verse 6, “… please command that cedars from Lebanon be cut for me. Let my men work alongside yours, and I will pay your men whatever wages you ask…”

If you’ve read some of the Psalms and other passages in the Old Testament there are references to the Cedars of Lebanon. It’s hard to appreciate the work that was ahead for all of these men without understanding what the Cedars of Lebanon looked like.

The Cedars were renowned at the time because they were HUGE and plentiful! Present day – the forest located in the Kadisha Valley of Bsharri, Lebanon have been depleted due to deforestation, but it is now a protected area. But I was wondering – how big are these cedars anyway? And what did that even look like? How much did they weigh? What would I compare that to so that I could have a true perspective of what these looked like? And thus my rabbit hole of information and math (I can’t stand math) ensued!

• The largest recorded cedar was 130 feet high. Given that this is a present day number we can assume that the trees in this forest would have averaged this size. At least I’m assuming that, but for my calculations we’re using 100 feet high as our dimension. Other things that are 100 feet tall? A 10 story building. 1/3 of a football field. The length of a Boeing 737.
• Generally the widest a cedar grows is 8 feet. For our calculations we used 6 feet wide. This will then accommodate how a tree tapers at the top. Other things that are 8 feet wide? The length of a King sized mattress. 8 bowling pins stacked on top of each other.
• To determine how much this tree would weigh I found out that a standard cedar plank that’s 6 inches X 6 inches and 16 feet long weighs 130 pounds. This is where the math begins, and I humbly asked my husband for help. These dimensions for the plank means that the plank is 6, 912 cubic inches, and 53 cubic inches per pound of the 130 pounds.
• So then – a tree 100 feet high, 6 feet wide would measure 280,000 ish square inches which then equals 5,283 pounds (that’s 2 1/2 elephants). Now if this math is wrong – you can blame my hubby.

King Hiram sent the following reply to Solomon about the wood (1 Kings 5:8-9) – “… I have received your message, and I will supply all the cedar and cypress timber you need. My servants will bring the logs from the Lebanon mountains to the Mediterranean Sea and make them into rafts and float them along the coast to whatever place you choose. Then we will break the rafts apart so you can carry the logs away. You can pay me by supplying me with food for my household.”

If you read further in chapter 5 you see how many men Solomon sent, and how much he paid annually to Hiram. But what struck me… was how big those trees were. And men, without chain saws and mechanical means, were felling these trees and getting these all the way from Lebanon to Solomon.

Imagine walking up to a tree as high as a 10 story building, and all you have is your ax, and maybe a hand saw. And then you look straight ahead and realize the tree is as wide as a king size bed is long. And as you begin to saw, you realize how insurmountable this massive tree is, let alone how are you going to drag out something that weighs as much as 2 1/2 elephants. You may be tempted to just set your lumberjack gear down and walk away. And that is how our Big God takes down Big Cedars!!! God didn’t see this task as huge. It was but a speck in God’s peripheral vision.

What ever 10 story, 8 foot wide, 5,283 pound tree you’re standing before today is nothing to God. Stop putting your own fears on Him. Stop thinking God can’t possibly help you, or that God isn’t able. I am a walking testimony to the provision of God, and His ability to take what is insurmountable and turn it into a successful story. I was drowning, trapped under a raft – and He saved me. I was on deaths door with sepsis and organ failure – and He saved me. I was once lost, and now I am found – BECAUSE HE SAVED ME!

I’m not sure what Cedar you have, but turn over your figurative forest and give it to God. He’s a far better lumberjack than you will ever be!

Wisdom for the Ages

1 Kings 4 – wow. Just wow. I am amazed at the amount of wisdom imparted to King Solomon.

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All this wisdom, for one man!

I find myself asking – how and why did Solomon have all this wisdom? Because he asked God to give it to him is the how. But the amount of wisdom is going to be the Why that we will refer back to often as we walk our way through 1st and 2nd Kings.

I just want to remind people that I’m not a bible scholar. My views here and blog entries are not meant to be the beat all, end all of biblical guidance. These are just my thoughts. These are the things that jump out to me as I read. I want to write them out here because it keeps me accountable and I want to hear what others have to say. Also, if God can use my meager writing skills to reach just one person, then I’ve done what I need to do. I just wanted to make sure that I remind you all I’m not trained in bible interpretation. So please don’t ever hang your hat on what I type here. I’m not a scholar, I’m just a Sheri.

The beginning of chapter 4 really highlights the structure of his officials. The advisors he chose, the priests that he had, the managers of property, the army commander, etc. These all paint a picture of the kind of King Solomon was.

Let me provide perspective – wherever you sit on the political spectrum you will often measure a persons character by the people they surround themselves with. If they choose fraudulent people, then you’ll often see them as a liar. If they choose socialists, you’ll perceive them to be a socialist deep down. If they choose a varied cabinet of advisors you may interpret that to mean that they’re confused about where they stand OR that they want to embrace all political and social thoughts. How these people behave going forward will have direct impact on how people will view the leader. Such is the case for Solomon. I suppose we’ll see eventually how this works out for him.

He also had 12 governors over the 12 districts. In verse 20 it states, “… they (the people of Judah and Israel) were very contented with plenty to eat and drink.” The people were well cared for by the governors, advisors, and priests, and this level of provision reflected directly onto how Solomon provided and guided his people.

As I read through chapter 4, I really was impressed with the amount of detail in verses 29-34 that discuss the specifics of the wisdom that God had provided to him. Let’s list it out:
1) Very great wisdom and understanding.
2) Knowledge as vast as the sands of the seashore (think about that – that’s A LOT of knowledge)
3) His wisdom exceeded that of all the wise men of the East and Egypt. It even lists out some of the specific men that Solomon was wiser than.
4) He composed 3,000 proverbs
5) He wrote 1,005 songs
6) He could speak with authority about plants from the great cedars of Lebanon to the tiny hyssop plant.
7) He could speak on animals, birds, small creatures and fish
8) Kings from every nation sent their ambassadors to listen to the wisdom of Solomon

That amount of knowledge is overwhelming. Yet he had also been given the wisdom to accompany the knowledge. He didn’t keep it to himself. He shared it with others. He discussed what he knew, and had visitors come solely to listen to him share his knowledge. As I drew my doodle today I thought about all of that information being contained in one person. Yet he didn’t contain it at all. He had all that knowledge placed in him and he then shined it down upon everyone that came into his presence. He exuded the presence of God. He illuminated the lives of those that encountered him.

Do I shine onto others? Do I keep all that God has given to me and hoard it so as not to lose it? If I were to freely share what God says to me, how much more would he give? Maybe just maybe you can join me in sharing with others what God has revealed to you? And in doing so, we will get so much more!

Chocolate Wars

I really do come up with strange titles for things, however my mind just kind of works this way.

My Mom reminded me today that it had been a few days since I’d put up an entry on 1 Kings. So here I am, catching up a bit. I will post a blog today and then do one tomorrow too.

Today we’re discussing 1 Kings 3. Let me remind you of a few things – Solomon is now officially King and he has received wisdom from God to rule the kingdom of Israel. 1 Kings 3:16-28 are probably some of the most often referenced passages on King Solomon.

Let me set the scene – 2 women, who are prostitutes, are brought before him. One woman (Let’s call her Debra) states that she had given birth to a baby and shares a home another prostitute (Let’s call her Ethel). Well Ethel also had given birth but in the night had rolled over on her baby and had smothered it. She then got up and took Debra’s baby and replaced Debra’s baby with her own deceased child. She then claimed Debra’s baby as her own. Ethel declares that is her child and Debra is the one that did those things.

King Solomon thinks on things for a bit and then, reminding you this is with Godly wisdom, states, “Cut the living child in two, and give half to one woman and half to the other (vs 25).” Ethel says – yeah, that’s a great plan. But Debra says – No, please don’t do that – give the child to Ethel. When the King hears how the women responded he says – give the child to Debra for she is the real mother.

When we read this passage it’s easy to only see the horrifying suggestion Solomon made – cut the baby in half, but he was only using this as a way to decipher the real mother. He was hoping that one of the women, because she was bonded to her child, would rather see her child live with another woman than to see her baby lose his life. And while this is true, this is not what struck me.

It was the resolve and love of the real Mom and the desperate bitterness of the false Mom that struck me.

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Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate

I gotta be honest with you, I love chocolate. I even wrote a poem about it once – Chocolate my sweet chocolate, the love of my life. When you’re away I am filled with strife… Chocolate is something that brings me happiness. Butterfinger, Cadbury with almonds, Skor, I could go on, but I won’t. I don’t generally like to share things I love. They’re mine, they belong to me. And if I won’t even share my chocolate with some of my own family members (and hide some of my best pieces because I don’t want to share) then I certainly would not share my loved ones with someone else either. I cannot imagine someone asking for one of my daughters to replace their own, and then willingly give them up. Nay nay. If maybe they’re lives are being threatened, maybe then. But I’m not sure. Could I do it? Could I sit in my home and watch someone walk by with my family that they stole from me? It’s such a deep question. What are we willing to give up for those that we love?

I also find myself feeling deeply sorry for Ethel. In her bitterness and despair she lost all ability for reason and sense. How often has my own sense of pride, selfishness, hurt and confusion led me to be harboring hate for others successes, resentment and covetousness for others blessings? How deeply have I grieved my Father when I’ve let my humanity take precedence over my Savior!

So, I suppose I like chocolate a whole lot, but I love my Lord more. And if He asks me to divide myself from something I love because God needs that thing to glorify Him (whether home, family, politics, church, friends, chocolate) then so be it. Lord, just give me a heart that is able to yield to your perfect will and guidance.

Dreaming BIG things

We’re moving through 1 Kings, and today I’m going to be referencing 1 Kings 3:5-15. But before we do that, we will need a hot second to discuss what just happened in chapter 2.

It’s really important to understand the context of the executions that just happened in chapter 2. I mean, if you really think about it, it’s brutal, but here’s a couple of things to keep in mind. To ensure his place on the throne, and to remove warring among his own people, it was necessary to take care of some messy business. I heard Game of Thrones was pretty brutal (I never saw it because Kristen told me it was not Sheri appropriate), but this is real life – not fiction.

1) David talks to Solomon and pretty much gives him a list of both people that wronged him personally and also people that were loyal and/or had been wronged by the terrible actions of others. He wants to ensure that Solomon will make things right.
2) Ad (remember him from chapter 1) is the older brother. This means, if he doesn’t get his act together, his mere presence could cause in fighting just by the fact that he’s the older brother. Spoiler – he doesn’t get his act together at all.
3) Solomon puts together a mental and physical list of the people that he can trust and removes those people that had aligned themselves with Ad.

While all of these murders seem, well bloody, it’s necessary to remind ourselves that the end game here was to remove the possibility of war within his own palace. How many thrones have been taken down from the inside? This was the problem, and Solomon did all this under the protection of God. He wanted his reign to be about peace and taking care of those that had previously committed acts of treason and murder. Also, I’m sure this was a minor factor, when you right what was done wrong – the people sit up and take notice and future enemies do too. This also cements your leadership as king.

Moving on – in chapter 3 we’re hanging out with Solomon while he sleeps. And the LORD appears to Solomon in a dream. In the dream he asks Solomon what he wants. “Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?” (vs. 9)

Often when you hear people speak on Solomon they refer to how fair he was in his dealings with the people, and how he led as king. They often speak about this passage and how he asked God for wisdom, and wasn’t that amazing?

But that’s not at all what jumped out to me here. I mean yea, I am blown away that he thought to ask for wisdom. When I was single I initially prayed for patience while waiting for my future Mr. Right for Sheri, but after waiting so freaking long I finally prayed for wisdom so that I could understand what was taking God so long. So it’s cool that Solomon right away asked for wisdom.

The thing that hit me though, was that he did it in a dream. And it’s not the fact that God came to him in a dream, it’s that Solomon was so open and centered on God that his heart responded to the LORD’s presence in the dream.

I’d like to draw your attention to 2 verses. 1 Kings 1:17a, Bathsheba speaking to David says, “My lord, you made a vow before the LORD your God…” and then 1 Kings 2:3a, David is speaking to Solomon, “Observe the requirements of the LORD your God…” Do you notice the change – when people were speaking to David they always said it was the Lord HIS God. But at the moment when Solomon was crowned King – God became the Lord HIS God too. The Lord was no longer only David’s God, but Solomon took on that relationship and pursued and looked to God as his own!

Now when you see that change in Solomon and his respect and love of the Lord it makes the dream that much deeper. Have you ever been so deeply mindful of God that you dreamed of Him? Me? No, I dream of weird things, or food, or people that have ticked me off, or how to commit the perfect murder (I really gotta stop listening to True Crime podcasts right before I go to sleep). But here’s Solomon hitting the hay, and chit chatting with God in his dreams.

1 Kings 3:7-9

Oh Lord, please help me to open my heart and mind to you so that you can inhabit all the places in my soul. Not just when I’m awake, but even when I’m asleep!

Guarded – SWC #8

When I was a teenager I worried about everything. In fact, I worried so much that I would break out in hives all down my legs, on the bottoms of my feet and across the palms of my hands. It was awful and itched so badly. The ones on my feet were really bad because they not only itched but they burned too and made my feet swell which made it difficult to walk.

When these moments happened it was usually because I was bullied, or I had a test, or I felt that a friend was mad at me. I was literally a ball of anxiety. I worried about EVERY SINGLE THING! I just couldn’t take it anymore.

And then the strangest thing happened. I was in High School and I was walking under our 2nd floor walkway and a group of kids yelled at me and called me fat, ugly and another word I won’t repeat. Usually I would just continue walking and emotionally shut down, but I’d finally had enough. I turned around – walked up to the biggest jerk I could see and poked him square in the chest. I then yelled saying, “I’m not UGLY!” The guy was shocked, and then he apologized.

From that day forward I determined deep within my heart that I could not let worry consume my life. I couldn’t let the words of others define how I saw myself and instead needed to let God define me.

Phil 4:4-7 became the cornerstone of that decision! I chose every day, sometimes every minute of every day, to not concern myself with the opinions of others but to only focus on God’s opinion of me. It is in that place of total surrender that God began to heal my brokenness and restore a wholeness I never thought possible.

If you are broken today, if you are struggling with worry or anxiety, just know that Jesus Christ is there to listen to you. He asks that you TELL HIM ABOUT EVERYTHING! Ask him what you need and have full confidence that He will guard your heart and mind as you live IN Christ Jesus.

Undeserved Privilege and Hope SWC #5

Many years ago I committed this passage to memory. I was going through a very challenging time. I was struggling with deep loneliness. I was longing so much to be in a relationship. I wanted to be married and have a family. But my singledom had reached an all time depressing high, or maybe that’s a low? It could have been both!

I was 32 years old and the last time I’d dated was when I was 27. Before that, I had never really dated anyone. I felt like I was being setup to hit another dating drought (and I wasn’t wrong) and that prospect ripped at the small amounts of contentment I was grasping onto. Not only that, I was struggling with a personal sin that seemed to attack me at every turn. How on earth could I dig myself out.

The thing is, I couldn’t dig out of anything at all.  If I tried to dig out of this pit of depression the enemy just seemed to pile on more despair. It was then that I began to pour myself into God’s Word and let God’s Word pour itself into me! Romans 5:1-5 gave me a hope that I couldn’t really comprehend, and yet I held onto it fiercely. I said these verses over and over and over again until they were embedded in my heart, mind and soul! 

As I re-read these verses and journaled them for days 4 &5, I was deeply overwhelmed by the “undeserved privilege” that I’ve been granted through faith in Christ and brought to this place today where I can “confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.”

All aspects of God’s deep love and leading are an undeserved privilege, but one that we all are am offered on a minute by minute basis. Not only that – we can rejoice when problems (depression, sadness, health issues, or enter your own struggle here) and trials come our way. Why? Because those problems develop endurance, and endurance strengthens our character, and character gives us a confident hope in salvation. All roads lead to salvation when we set our minds on God and His purpose and plan for each of us! But that is not the end of His promise, when we reach that point of a deep hope, we can be assured that God’s Hope will not lead to disappointment. And how do we know that? Because God loved us so much that He sent us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with God’s love.

Do you feel His love? Do you know what that kind of hope feels like?

In the midst of my despair God gave me this passage. In the midst of my singleness God gave me a new perspective, that what I was going through today would mold me into exactly who He would need me to be in the future! And because of that, I found a new hope that took root deep within my soul. May you also find a new hope today and a joy that surpasses all earthly understanding!

Blessings – Sheri

Confident and Cared For – SWC#1

Today is the first day of the October Scripture Writing Challenge (SWC). This month is all about understanding what God provides for all of us. It’s also about actively choosing to practice Peace and Choose Joy! Each passage that was selected for October has been prayed over. I encourage you to take time to meditate on each day’s verse. It’s amazing how much God has changed what jumps out at me from the verses even on a day to day basis. Today’s verse is no exception.

I chose Psalm 16:7-9 to begin this SWC because it screams JOY. “No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice (vs.9a).” As I meditated on this passage though the joy seemed to be overshadowed by something much more deep.

I can have CONFIDENCE in GOD because I am CARED for! When I truly and deeply understand that I am cared for, I can then be confident that I cannot be shaken by this world because even in the midst of unrest and cruelty – my God is above all of that. He is so far above all of the world’s noise that in my sleep he speaks to my heart so that my heart can speak to my head. He guides me, and when He guides me I can rejoice because my body rests in safety!!

Maybe you begin this SWC in the hopes that you will become more joyful and peaceful but my hope is that you begin to understand God on a much deeper level. Spend time listening to His word and voice, and you will NOT be disappointed!