Pastor Chad gave us 3 questions to ponder this week:

• What fears, concerns or doubts do you have about “altar-ing” everything you consider of value before God?
• What holds you back from giving God FULL control over everything?
• This week, ask God what you need to give back to Him. In humility, write out what that process will look like for you practically. 

How much do we attend to our soul during the week?

While Pastor Chad told his story of how the Lord led his family to come to Springs of Life, I was thinking that by him telling his story together with the scripture he shared put practical feet on it for us. God is always speaking and working. He is leading us and not just over several months like in Pastor Chads story but He is leading weekly, daily, even hourly. Minute by minute God is up to something good. I often wonder if we are missing it. How are people capturing it? We tend to look back over a period of time and from there we can see what God was doing. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say! Maybe we ought to be more like the Israelite’s who set up memorial stones on their journey to remember what God has done. I have one of the those hanging in my house. It is a simple phrase. It says, “Don’t worry about tomorrow, God is already there!” It hangs right by my front door as a memorial of a season of time that we went through some of the hardest years of our lives and yet God was faithful. Wrapped up in that one statement are memories of hardship, perseverance, promises that God had spoken, and rejoicing as we received His goodness! It is the tether to our memory bank that hold all the fulfillment of the promises that God has done since then. Another way I capture all that God is doing is through journaling. I seriously do not want to miss what He is doing. I am a crazy journaler and I can’t capture all of it but can I just say, If I could capture it all I would still find He surprises me and I wouldn’t see His goodness coming! He is just that good!

What fears, concerns or doubts do you have about “altar-ing” everything you consider of value before God?

I journal, that is how I “altar-ing” everything I value before God. If I don’t write it out. I hold on to it. I have had so many fears, concerns and doubts about laying my heart, mind, and soul on the altar. Fears that my heart won’t be protected from damage. Concerns that He won’t come through for me. Doubts that I am even on the right track or know what I am doing. The things that I value the most are things like trust, security or confidence, responsibility, exploration or discovery, independence, worship, and writing. Each of these things cover all the major sections of my heart and soul. These are huge for me and each one aids me in my walk with Jesus.

We must daily lay down our own way with all our automatic personality habits to surrender and submit to God’s process for our lives. We must lay them down and all the things that we value also.

What holds you back from giving God FULL control over everything?

Usually what holds me back from giving God full control is my desire to be in control. Like I said, in my last post – I am a bit of a control freak. The hard part is that I don’t know that I am being a control freak sometimes. Even when all the clues are glaring me in the face, I still can’t see it. (Don’t be discouraged, every time I can’t see it, He can!) He is faithful to bring me to the truth even if it means enduring some pain and suffering as my prideful heart arrogantly speaks, “I got this!”

This week, ask God what you need to give back to Him. In humility, write out what that process will look like for you practically.

I need to give back to Him my trust. Its weird to say that because I do trust Him but there has been a promise that He reminded me of and has said, “fulfillment of this is coming.” Guess what happened? First, I got really excited and then my heart started the mitigation process of protecting my heart just in case it doesn’t happen. So, the process for trusting Him, has looked like talking to my husband about my fears, concerns, and doubts. I talked to a friend about what the Lord said He was going to do and what I see happening as I watch and pray. I need a prayer partner now to help me keep my heart out of the doubt ditch and I will praise and thank Him for every little thing I can find of His glory, joy, and peace.

How will you answer these questions this week?

All is grace,

Starla