Life Ain't Always Beautiful

I'm just going to be honest. This week has not been the best week at our house. 

Both of us have been really busy with work and working weird schedules.

Then Jason has had issues with both of us trucks (the joys of car ownership),

 and there were some random things to bring us down.

So, I am borrowing a line from a Gary Allan song,

"Life ain't always beautiful, but it's a beautiful ride..."

Life will never be perfect. And every week can't be the best week ever.

If we never had a bad week, we wouldn't appreciate the good weeks as much!

God certainly never promised us perfection.
In fact, he promised exactly the opposite.

James 1:2 (NLT)

"Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy." (emphasis mine)

It doesn't say "if trouble comes your way"; trouble is surely coming. 

But God has promised that He will be with us in every circumstance.

Deutoronomy 31:6 (NLT)

"So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will never fail you nor abandon you."

I love it! God has personally gone before us. He already knows where we are headed because he has been there already! Amazing!! 
And He will never fail us or abandon us.

He is there in the good weeks and the bad weeks.

God had truly blessed me in this bad week through the Passion White Flag CD.

We were able to get a copy at Passion City Church on Sunday.

I have been listening to it non-stop since. 

If you don't have a copy, I highly recommend it!!

This CD has literally brought me to tears every time I listen.

Oh the love God has for me and all He has done.

I cannot even choose a favorite song because they are all awesome!

There are a few lyrics that have really touched me this week that I would like to share.

You Revive Me- Christy Nickels

"My soul, O Lord, is thirsty

Only you can satisfy

You're the well that never will run dry

You revive me, You revive me Lord

And all my deserts are rivers of joy

You are the treasure, I could not afford

So I'll spend myself til I'm empty and poor

All for you, You revive me Lord"

Mystery- Charlie Hall

"Sweet Jesus Christ, my sanity

Sweet Jesus Christ, my clarity

Bread of Heaven, broken for me

Cup of salvation, held up to drink

Jesus, mystery

Christ has died and Christ is risen

Christ will come again"

One Thing Remains- Kristian Stanfill

"Your love never fails, never gives up

Never runs out on me

Higher than the mountains that I face

Stronger than the power of the grave

Constant in the trial and the change

One thing remains"

Thank you Jesus for reviving me and being the only thing I need. 
Thank you for being my sanity and clarity. 
Thank you that your love is unending and unfailing!

Worth Dying For

I keep hearing this song on the radio:


Someone Worth Dying For By Mikeschair

"You might be the wife, waiting up at night
You might be the man, struggling to provide
Feeling like it's hopeless
Maybe you're the son, who chose a broken road
Maybe you're the girl, thinking you'll end up alone
Praying God can you hear me?
Oh God are you listening?

Am I more than flesh and bone?
Am I really something beautiful?
Yeah I wanna believe, I wanna believe that
I'm not just some wandering soul
That you don't see and you don't know
Yeah I wanna believe, Jesus help me believe that I
Am someone worth dying for

I know you’ve heard the truth that God has set you free
But you think you're the one that grace could never reach
So you just keep asking, oh what everybody's asking

Am I more than flesh and bone?
Am I really something beautiful?
Yeah I wanna believe, I wanna believe that

I'm not just some wandering soul
That you don't see and you don't know
Yeah I wanna believe, Jesus help me believe that I
Am someone worth dying for


You're worth it, you can’t earn it
yeah the cross has proven
That you're sacred and blameless
Your life has purpose 


You are more than flesh and bone
Can't you see you're something beautiful
Yeah you gotta believe, you gotta believe
He wants you to see, He wants you to see
That you're not just some wandering soul
That can't be seen and can't be known
Yeah you gotta believe, you gotta believe that you
Are someone worth dying for

You're someone worth dying for
You're someone worth dying for"


I love it, because it is so hard to believe that I am someone worth dying for. Christ and his grace are so hard to fathom. This song is a reminder to me (and to all of us!) that I am worth dying for! Jesus gave up his life for us, his perfect life, on a nasty cross and in a way that brought him so much pain. Why would he do something like that? Because he loves each one of us more than we could ever imagine. 


"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13


The best part is: if I was the only person on this earth, if you were the only person on this earth, Jesus still would have suffered and died for me or for you, just so that we could spend all of eternity praising His name.

Blessings

LAURA STORY - "BLESSINGS" LYRICS

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home,
It's not our home

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise

I heard this song for the first time a couple of weeks ago on the radio. It was a real eye opener for me. I am so thankful for this song because I really felt like God used it to speak to me. This song is the perfect description of how I (and probably many others) have been acting as a Christian. I think we often want and expect to be comfortable. We want everything to be okay. We want to be happy, to have things go our way. We all have our own plans and think we know what is best for ourselves. But what if we are wrong? I have often gotten angry with God, or at least frustrated because I can't feel Him. I don't feel like He is there or speaking to me. But at the same time I want things to be nice and peachy. I think the point of this song is that these things don't always go together. Often times the hard times are what bring us close to God. The trials that we face are actually blessings because they bring us closer to Him. We can't have our cake and eat it too. Everything can't be perfect and along with that comes closeness to God. God doesn't want us to stay the same. The question is are we, am I, willing to give up comfort and ease in order to become closer to God and become the person He wants us to be. I  pray that I can say, "Yes, God, if a thousand sleepless nights is what it takes, that is acceptable to me because I want to grow closer to you and become the woman of God that You want me to be!"

Proverbs 19:21 "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails."

"Blessings" Video