Get your head around this!

Okay...typing at the speed of light because I know it's only a matter of seconds before someone realizes I'm alone and comes to remedy that.
I was reading this morning (and as an aside, can I just tell you the encounters I have experienced with the living God as a result of setting aside time to read his word? Nothing in my life has compared, and I'm sure he will be faithful to do the same for you--in fact I dare you).
And I was having a hard time in my walk with God lately...just in my life in general...so I was rattling off all the things I was feeling to God...defeated, hopeless, guilty, tired, weak....when it dawned on me (I say that like I thought of it on my own...which I did not) that there are scriptures that speak to every one of these things. I decided to make a list of all these things that I was feeling...and look up verses to speak to them.
It was one of the sweetest realizations I've ever had.
I was looking up verses about being defeated because I truly feel this every day. Does anyone else feel this way? Here are just a few of the thoughts that will run through my head (and unfortunately come out my mouth):
"Oh..you did it again..way to go...I thought you were supposed to be better at this?"
"Ummm that piece of cake was huge, it was giant...I can't believe you finished it"
"Seriously, you know better than that, you'll never get this right, just give up now."
All these thoughts mix together (and mind you--they come straight form the mouth of the Father of lies) and they make for a very defeated, weary Jenn.
And I can easily feel like I'm never going to get it, like it's too hard, and like I'm exhausted. I could never do this battle every day for the rest of my life....
Do you ever feel this way?
Well friend--here is a tall glass of water:
"To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it." Revelation 2:17
Did your heart just rejoice?
Okay, let's picture this.
It's your kids birthday and you are SO excited to given them this present...let's just pretend you've been waiting their whole lives to give it to them, and you wrap it so perfectly and you give it to them--you know that feeling?
Well....get your head around this...the GOD OF EVERYTHING has a gift for us. I mean....if that were not enough....He specifically chose it for you, and will give it to you....that IS what it says...
and if that weren't enough, it's a new name.
I have nicknames for nearly everyone dear in my life; John is the hub or hubcap, Ellie is Peach, Peach Pie, Princess Peach, Linc is Bear, Linc Bear, or little Bear, my mom has been affectionately referred to as the mayor, My sister-in-law we call Crit, Critty Cat, my brother-BB-which stands for Brother Bear. I love these nicknames, because they show I really know these people, that I have a relationship with them that is mine. And my parents have some of the dearest nicknames for me--one of which my mom gave me that is so embarassing I won't even say (and which she put on my 16th birthday cake) but which I love so dearly because it is what she chose to call me when I was a baby--she gave it to ME.
Now...God.....(please fasten your seatbelts)
has a name JUST for you..that no one else knows. That kind of special name, a secret name, that I can only imagine will satisfy and address every facet of what he created us to be, and it's a secret...between us and God.
Okay, how do I type words that make you feel that feeling of driving down a highway with no windsheild? Cause that's what I feel when I read this.
I'm not making this up, he wrote it. And I can't believe he did.
The key is--it's offered only to the one who "overcomes". Now, don't immediately write this off like "well, that's not me--I can't do it." Because you absolutely can. The powers of the universe have been placed within your reach if you have put your trust in Christ as your Savior, and don't believe anything else.
Now I don't know about you...but that is enough incentive for me in this day and the next.
Friends...Romans...Countrymen..
do not let this thought ever leave you...
Your God loves you more than you can ever measure....and he wants you to know it.
Now--go overcome.

Ellie vs. the Blocks

So, this blog post will surely echo the words of my previous blog post, but it has been so profoundly impacting me (picture God with a hammer, slamming away on my head...but in a good way..heh), that I have to elaborate a little bit more.
What is the one thing in your life that you don't think God can ever overcome? And here's another good question...why is it that we think our problems are the only ones too big for God to handle?
Very rarely do I start my days ahead of the game. Are you like me?
I'm awake...way earlier than I ever thought I'd be, in the hopes of salvaging a little time in the house where it is completely quiet and I can have some purposeful time with God...to ready myself.
And here I am...a cup of coffee (that's the carrot that gets me out of bed, if I'm being honest) and my open Bible. Totally ready to have this perfect little time to focus myself and start my day being super mom.
Then Ellie wakes up crying, then Lincoln 40 times, then John comes down and tries to talk to me (this all happens before 6:30am....I KNOW!!!)
I get really grumpy when my day starts off contrary to the way I want it to...and thus commences what I like to call the nosedive.
I am drifting along, relatively peaceful, able to handle anything, when a glitch in my plans happen and (CRASH) there I go, plummeting.
At this point, I'm getting so grumpy that I think "God, it's not even 7:00 in the AM and already I'm DONE!" This is about the time each morning that I start believing I can't.
You know..
I can't do this...
I can't keep giving....
I can't GET A SHOWER...
I can't keep from screaming at people...
maybe you don't know...but that's just my reality.
So...tuck that in your minds, and I'll give you a little Bible story.
God sends twelves spies into what was going to be the promised land for the Israelites, they see fruit, they see a great land, they see this amazing place that God has promised to give them...and they see...giants.
They come back.
They talk about how great the land is, how wonderful it seems, they TASTE THE FRUIT. And then they doubt.
"We can't do it, there are giants there, they'll stomp us like grasshoppers."
Enter...Caleb. A man who has so inspired the currents of my faith that I would love to meet him in heaven one day.
And Caleb silences them and their doubt and says this...
"We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it." Numbers 13:30
Does something deep within the recesses of your soul resonate with this? It does in mine.
Again, the other ten spies chime in--focusing on the giants, the people that will surely stomp them to the ground, they say we can't do it...we can't.
Again, Caleb speaks--"Do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them." Numbers 14:9
How profound an example. How true the power of God is.
I read a wonderful commentary (from my BSF notes) on this subject that said "the majority measured the giants against their own strength; Caleb and Joshua measured the giants against God...the majority had great giants but a little God, Caleb had a great God but little giants." (alan redpath)
I almost typed the question how big are your giants...but the more important question is...
how big is your God?
If you are in Christ, have all the powers of the resurrection not been made available to you to do His will? (and might I add, that mothering your children and pointing them to Christ, and loving your husband, and serving others, and sharing the message and the hope of Christ...IS HIS WILL) Are you the only one in the entire universe that God cannot reach? Are your problems the only ones in the history of the world that God will choose not to help you in?
Surely not.
Yet how anemic my own faith can be.
David, when facing his own giant said this "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied." 1 Samuel 17:45
Here is a final illustration and then I am done.
I was watching my baby Eloise the other day, sitting on the floor playing with blocks. And there was one block that she couldn't reach...she was stretching. She was determined, she tried over and over and over to reach it and it was at her fingertips, but she failed each time. On her own the block was simply a little bit too far.
I watched her...sit back...defeated, and give up on the block. She turned her sights to other interests, letting go of the hope of ever reaching it.
When she turned away, I moved the block a couple inches closer...perfectly within her reach.
She never again reached for the block. In her mind she had already resigned herself to the fact that she would never be able to get it on her own.
And she was right, but with my help...it was completely within her reach.
It is with tears in my eyes that I pose these final questions....
Is there a block in your life that you have completely given up hope on? that you are sure you will never be able to reach?
And then...
can you also picture a loving God....reaching his tremendous hand down...and scooting it a few inches closer?
He does...and He will.