...Then I am strong

Lately I've been feeling low, as you know. I understand my vices and I know there's more to discover but I would much rather spend my time finding out your character. Your perfect character. I cannot get enough of you.

God I'm so tired of distraction though. I ask that you would please extract any distraction from my life that is not of you. I know it's bold of me to ask but this is what I need, I need you to fill me with your Holy Spirit every single day. I am such a fool without you.

Please be my strength, I know you are more than able. Your power is shown in my weaknesses and I ask that you would be displayed through me. Bless you Jesus. I love you.

"But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you,

for my power is made perfect in weakness."

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses,

so that Christ's power may rest on me.

That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults,

in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.

For when I am weak, then I am strong."

2 Corinthians 12: 9-10

Daily Gratitude: Thank you for Epictetus. Thank you for Francis Chan and his absolutely amazing book Crazy Love. Thank you for protection and always watching over me. Thank you for delighting in me and singing over my life. Thank you for Emily, Amanda, Mariah, Chelsea, and my sissy. Thank you for giving us a wonderful time together today. I thank you in advance for what you're going to do this year in me at Greenville and on my campus. Thank you for all-surpassing joy! Thank you for being the strength in all my weaknesses.

Give me faith

Give me strength enough to wait

To stand in faith

And listen for, listen for your melody

Your songs have never stopped

You songs have never stopped

Your songs have never stopped,

You've been singing, always singing over me

Your words are still enough

And you're singing, always singing over me

-Kari Jobe

Protector

Put the pieces of my heart back together like I know only you can. You know every piece, in and out, and so I ask that you restore me and make me strong again. I thank you for helping me to realize that I have to accept that some things are going to happen and that I cannot change them. But no matter the circumstance, you always have a better plan for my life and for what's to come.

Jesus you are incredible beyond comprehension. Please forgive me for my selfishness and wallowing in self pity. Your life shows me everyday that you came to serve and not be served. I want to do the same, not to be something so great for anybody else but for you alone. Your perfection as the ultimate servant motivates my heart to life out my life in love as you have. Your greatest commandments are to Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. I pray that you would help me to seek these commandments you have set before me in all the situations I face in my life.

Daily Gratitude: Dear God, I thank you so much for being the ultimate healer and for your constant presence. I thank you so much for protecting my friend Chelsea today. God, I love her so much and you protected her life today, you have a bigger reason for her life than a car crash. I praise you Jesus for looking out for my dear friend's life. Thank you for blessing me with her. Thank you for the scripture you've placed on my heart and the continuous comfort it has been to me this summer.

"The Lord your God is with you,

he is mighty to save.

He will take great delight in you,

he will quiet you with his love,

he will rejoice over you with singing."

Zephaniah 3:17

Bigger

God, I love you. You are awesome. Nobody else deserves that title. You are so much bigger than my life and the circumstances that have been placed before me.

Lord, I am going to be honest with you because there is nothing I can hide that you don't see anyway. I'm tired of grieving. I'm tired of pain and sadness. I'm tired of being angry. I do not want to be a bitter person so I ask that you would extract these things from my life. None of these feelings are from you. You ask that we rejoice in every season of life.

"Rejoice in the Lord always! I will say it again, Rejoice!" Philippians 4:4.

Please reveal to me that you have a better plan for my life than what I'm seeing now. I pray against the enemy because he's been doing a really good job lately... but you're so much better. You already won and you will win in this one life of mine.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 "For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord,

"plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

plans to give you a hope and a future.

Then you will call upon me 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."

God you don't need me, but for some reason you want me. I need you with every breath I breathe because without you, I simply wouldn't be. Forgive my selfishness and it's frequency. Forgive my human falters and all that entails. Guide my ways forever.

Daily Gratitude: Thank you for today. Thank you for patience, deep conversation, and laughter. Thank you for acknowledgement that situations are beyond my control. Thank you for peace today, the only peace that you can provide. Thank you for helping me to accept the cards that I've dealt but that I always have you to hold my hand to guide me. Thank you for precious friends, who are there to listen, who will cry with me when I'm hurting, and who will always love me. Thank you for all the blessings in my life, for having a car, a house, and my own bedroom. I am so blessed. Thank you for Kate Simons who you've instilled the idea for daily gratitude :) I love her, please bless her.

Gratitude

"Don't tell God how big your storms are, tell your storms how big God is." There's much to be thankful for, even in the storms.

God thanks for today, for letting me wake up so that I can walk and breathe. I don't deserve my next breath so thank you.

Thank you for friends and reasons to laugh, for times to act stupid just because it makes us happy.

Thank you for chocolate chip pancakes and ice cream and the ability to eat them... to eat them frequently.

Thank you for beautiful music, for beats, and words that touch the soul.

Thank you for hip-hop dancing, the ability to dance, for the joy it brings me and that I might be able to glorify you through it.

Thank you for little kids, for making them awesome and carefree tiny people. For the Simple Room kids, for bringing them into my life.

Thank you for creation, for mountains and lakes. You're such a genius for thinking up all of this. You blow my mind daily, even when I think of a blade of grass. Who ever would've thought?

Thank you for the story of Job, it encourages me when I feel like I can't handle life anymore. He praised you even when he lost his entire world.

Thank you for the trials you've brought me through and for going ahead of me to bring through future ones.

Thank you for the people I will meet in my life. You know every person and the reason I will meet them.

Thank you for blessing me with amazing parents and grandparents who are so devoted to loving you and who have changed my life because of you. I could have been born anywhere and to anyone in the world but I was chosen to be born to the parents I have today.

Thank you for my sissy and bubby, for putting them into my life for a reason. I love the family you have blessed me with.

Thank you for reminding me that everyday is a blessing, that yesterday is over and that all I have is today. Thank you for today.

To Every Season

"There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace."

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

God, I'm tired of this season. I'm tired of being sad and angry. I'm tired of this cold, dark winter but I know you promise that spring will come. You promise that you make all things beautiful in their time. Even though nothing in my life isn't falling into place the way I had intended it to, I can't help but want to just sing to you and give you all of my praise. Give me strength to get through this season. I'm so sorry for following my own plans and not yours. I only ever want my vision to line up with yours God, if it doesn't... it will never work. Open the eyes of my heart to see how much you love me, that you forgive me, and that I could forgive myself. I want to serve you with all I am and place all of my trust in your hands. That hasn't been easy for me, as you and I both know, but when I do... you reveal yourself in unthinkable ways. Jesus you are my stronghold, my rock. You know what's best for me and I will trust in you for that.

I'm ready for spring, I think it's my time to dance for you now.

Circle

Circle encircles the earth

Chance and choice break his heart

His innocent arm moves to save me and I am spared

His beautiful arm

Is bloody and cut off

His heart ripped out to show me he loved me

But I would not believe him

He did all that he could

I still would not believe him

I left his arms empty and tied

Outstretched for me until he died

Left his arms empty and tied

Outstretched for me until he died

No man shows greater love

Than when a man

Lays down his life

For his beloved

I left his arms empty and tied

Outstretched for me until he died

Left his arms empty and tied

Outstretched for me until he died

Here I’m alive

And I don’t have the right

He gave me the right

Costing him his life

New mercies in the morning

I believe

What if I believe you now

Could it ever change this heart

Forgive me, believe me

Please come back tonight

I believe

What if I believe you now

Could it ever change this heart

Forgive me, believe me

Please come back tonight

Come back to my life

I believe

What if I believe you now

Forgive me, believe me

Please come back tonight

Yeah, that is how it is. Do you ever have to step outside of yourself to see what you've become? Innocence was poured out for us. I am seeing right now in my life Christ moving all around me and it makes me want to cry in my joy. He is right in front of our faces every minute and in so many situations but we fail to even notice him.

Imagine God as being the most important person you have ever met, your best friend, the most famous guy ever. He's sitting right next to you, just hanging out with you because he wants to. When we go throughout our days without even talking to him, getting to know him, paying attention to him it's like ignoring your best friend, that incredibly important person. I am so guilty of this. I let my wasted time slip through my hands like sand. If Jesus is willing to do what is described in the above song, the least I can do is hang out with Him... just talk and then listen. I tend to do a lot of talking and not too much of the 'paying attention to his opinion' part. So I'm just going to be quiet right now and let God move in me.

My Prayer

In my life, be lifted high

In our love, be lifted high

In our world, be lifted high

God, you are the ultimate healer. You have the capability to mend our hearts. You hold us all in your hands.

Right now I lift up to you those who have been mistreated and abused. Lord you know all of these innocent children who never asked for such horrific things to happen to them. God you've given us free will so that we might choose to live our lives for you but there are those who have abused this privilege and have therefore abused your precious children. My heart breaks for them right now. I am begging you to intervene and to send us out and through us, save these broken people. Make me your hands and feet Jesus. I only ever want to be like you.

I pray for those who have been abandoned, for those who feel like they have no one and no hope. Jesus you are the only hope and I pray that you would shine your light in these dark places of the world and reveal yourself to these in desperate need of a Saviour.

Jesus, I pray for those who cannot let go of guilt... myself included. You know our hearts and you know that we are all humans who are bound to sin. Lord, for those of us who are truly sorry and repentant of our sins, we know that you have already forgiven us and forgotten our iniquities. I ask that you would help us to forgive ourselves and cast away the burden of guilt that weighs us down. You already bore the cross and with that you have already taken all of these faults. Thank you Jesus, thank you. I ask that you would continue to wipe away these images that remain in our minds, that the devil puts into our minds so that we would fall away from you and hate ourselves. You are so much bigger, better, and stronger than any of our pasts and any of those images.

I pray for those struggling with pornography. God this is such a deep issue from within and they cannot escape this alone. Only your mighty hand can pull them out from this pit. Help them to realize the damage that they are doing to their minds, to their loved ones, and to your heart. Help them to realize that your way alone is the way out and that we cannot conform to the pattern of this world any longer in order to follow you.

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will."- Romans 12:2

I pray for those who are homeless. God you know each person's story. You know how we get to where we are in life and the decisions we have had to make in order to get here; the circumstances we had to face that we overcame or that overcame us. I pray that no matter what happened in these peoples' lives that have put them on the streets that you would send us out to them. Send us to show them your love, to bless them and show them that they are worth the time of day and that they are worth being prayed for. A person is a person no matter who they are or what they've done... you still died for them. Your demonstration of love did not, and has not, ever discriminated.

Give us compassionate hearts that long to reach out to your sons in daughters who are walking in the darkness.

I thank you for all that you are. I thank you for your compassion and love that you have graciously poured out. I love you God. Thank you for your amazing son Jesus.

Amen