Philippians 4:4-13

4 Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.
5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.
10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity.
11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

As I read this passage I get so filled with excitement and conviction all at the same time! This has become one of my favorite passages in scripture simply because Paul is reminding us of the gift we have from God, and to choose the thoughts and the attitudes we are going to take on.

He says to always rejoice in the Lord, and that right there is one basic theme of what “The Secret” talks about, it’s a state, it’s a mindset that you choose, no matter what is, right now in everything Rejoice in the Lord! Paul goes onto say to me in my own words, “Have no worries friend! Anything and EVERYTHING give it over to God in CONSTANT prayer, with THANKSGIVING in YOUR Heart, Mind, Body and Soul!” It gets me excited when I realize that I’ve only been able to experience a little tiny bit of the peace God is providing and promising me!

Paul then goes on to not only tell you to be thankful, he tells you right away what to focus on! How great is that, our God knows we need that direction and nudge to help us out?! He reminds us to monitor our thoughts to think on things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, anything of virtue or praise - these are the thoughts God wants us to focus on because from this place is where we can best be used by Him! God is with you my friend! He is there to bless you and to bring about exactly your hearts desires, but I believe fully that it comes deeply from where you mind is focused. Much like the laws of attraction states what you think about you bring about, and though God is with you, He is asking you to think on the good things to be thankful for to give you more of what it is you are seeking! (My prayer is that we are all seeking Him and not turning from Him)
One of the thing I feel we tend to be missing is what Paul says next in verse 11 when he talks about contentment. It’s a place God needs us to be surrendered to Him, to “give up ourselves” to GAIN His fullest most joyful life He wants to give us! Paul has experienced abundance and he’s also been in low places, he knows what it means to be full and what it means to be wanting, yet learned what it meant to be Thankful and Content in Christ! To simply be thankful and to desire Him is the greatest place to be! Once grasping this in day to day life, I can’t even begin to explain how God works! He brings about the person you need, the desires you ask for, the actions or ideas that have to happen, whatever it is…
And I believe it is shown through this…

I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me! ALL THINGS!!! Christ is working in and through us to bring about all the things we need in our lives, we can do anything in Him! He is giving us His fullest strength, and we can claim that as His children, but what we can’t forget is all the verses prior that tell us what we need to be doing while He is strengthening us!

There is so many great passages in the book of Philippians and I don’t wish to leave any of them out…however this little section here is something that has been on my heart for a while, especially after researching the Laws of Attraction and how God can use that in our lives. To me, this is the first big thing of how God wants us to think, and that is what we should be after!

My Psalm for the day is found in Psalm 16:11

“You will show me the path of life, In Your presence is fullness of joy.  At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore”

This verse to me, once again goes right back to where our focus is.  Where do we really want to go in life?  What path are we to take?  This Psalm reminds us to trust God for the path of life we are to take.  It comforts us to know that we can have FULLEST Joy in Him!  All the pleasures we could ever want, know or seek are RIGHT there in Christ.

I get so passionate about this!  I’ve been reading a LOT of books recently, everything from Millionaire Thinking books to Doing God’s will…all have been pretty great for me, but what I get all excited about is how some of these books don’t really know how to bring thinking big, setting goals and working into the realm of serving God, seeking Him and living a godly life right now.

I really want to challenge everyone that while God wants to bless us and gives us more than we could ask for, He still wants us to ask Him.  He still wants us to work towards something here on earth.  I don’t believe God wants us to sit as bystanders in life now.  I believe He has called us for a much bigger purpose right now.  Seek His fullest joy and find where you can serve Him now!

Daniel 3:16-18

“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”

As I was reading through the book of Daniel the faith of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego really stood out to me. They stood up for their faith without wavering at any cost. They affirmed their faith and trust in the One True God alone! They believe and affirmed that God could deliver them from that fiery furnace - God can do anything that He chooses and protecting these men for their faith in Him was nothing too outrageous for God’s strength and capability. God sent protection to these men as a blessing to them when needed most, and I believe that this came directly from these three men affirming and asking without doubt for this deliverance.

There are a few different ways that I see this story in correlation to our lives today.

One these men used a positive affirmation to clearly state their intentions of deliverance by God’s power to Nebuchadnezzar, They said clearly “our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand O king” - They believed that clearly and knew that God would take care of them according to His will, grace, power and might.

The second thing I really like to point out is that they also had faith in God’s choice. “But if not,” They gave it over to God, they knew He has the ability to do anything, but they also knew that God knows what is best for His children. Even if they couldn’t see that.

Finally, with these faithful men let it known that they would not serve false gods. “let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods” they remained faithful to God despite what they might get out of it (i.e. saved from burning to death)  They let it completely known that they were faithful to God even to the death and that even if God choose there not to deliver them, eternity with God was still their security.
We have no absolute to what God chooses to do in our lives, but we have the choice to have faith, to set out positive thought process and to act ourselves in the way He would want us to. God can deliver us from any trouble here on earth, the question is will He so choose? He can heal all our sicknesses when we ask in faith, if He will choose. God is able to give us all the money from anywhere we ask for it, if He chooses… the question really is are you choosing Him?

There is one thing that we CAN be sure God chooses, and that is deliverance for Eternity! It’s a very exciting thing, while we don’t know what God’s best for us is here on earth, the best thing we can do is seek Him and serve Him and Ask of Him for this time, we can be sure that God’s will is that none should perish in hell’s fiery furnace.  Once again, by simply choosing, believing with unwavering faith, asking and receiving…God wants to deliver each one of us to Him.  He wants to do that here on earth for our best, but even more importantly is for eternity to come.

If you do not yet know Jesus Christ as your Savior, Deliver and God of all, I really would like to take time to work with you further to know this Awesome God!  Please contact me through our contacts page and we will explore God’s choice!

Yesterday was Sean and my 1 year anniversary.  We really had such a great day!  We got up really early and left for breakfast at Shady Maple at 6:00am.  We had a super great breakfast and time together there, lots of pictures and just so thankful that God has put us together!  We came home around 9, and we were both dead tired, so we fell asleep for an hour or so and then decided to get up and do something.  So we decided to open our gifts to each other…. Sean gave me a wonderful scrapbooking kit and scissors for decorating.  I got him a bunch of little tools and a devotional book which all had special little notes and meanings.  We had a lot of fun going up to Reading and doing a little shopping and getting coffee at Starbucks.  We stopped off at Wawa for a picnic dinner and took it to Boyertown park for some fun.  We had fun swinging and taking pictures and just being together.  Anyway, I just thought I would share! :)  Fun times and just so blessed by this past year.  God has been so good to us and taught us SO much since our meeting and beginning our marriage!