Week 5

It has been awhile since I have been on here, but here I am again. I wish I was able to make more time to get on here and post more. Maybe with starting on grad school I can make more time since I will already be around my computer and going to a christian college, Liberty University. 

Did this weeks reading touch you in any particular way? As you may have read from my last post, Child Like Faith, these past couple months have been an internal struggle for me personally in my professional life. It's like an endless cycle though, what effects us professionally also effects us personally. But it's all about how you live your life for God and what you do to live my his word. 

So let's answer some questions from this weeks reading:

1. Have you thought about your failures, falls, and frustrations? How have they shaped who you are today? Have you learned from them? Or are you still in denial of what lesson they have to still teach you? The show is not over regardless of where you are in life. 

2. Psalms 91:1-2 (p. 109). Is God truly your refuge and fortress?

3. Do you believe God is fully aware of where you are and what you need (p. 104)? I think at times this is fathomable to me. I mean one who is all knowing and all doing... Am I even worthy to be looked over? But my question back to that is why am I not worthy of His watchful eye?

4. In the reading in unit 3 on pages 98-101 really spoke to me this week. "A person of faith believes Gods promises because His promises are connected to His character". Image that for a minute! What do we promise that in turn defines our chapter? 

     - On page 101 it talks about having God-confidence and the faith He already has in us, our job is to listen, seek, and obey. Not to try to control an outcome that is not in His Will. By growing in our own understanding of Gods character we learn to trust Him more. 

God bless 

~ Victoria Clouse

I leave on this verse:

"For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God" (2 Corinthians 1:20)

Week 2

Above is the video from Week 2s reading in the book Trusting God from the ladies who created the Girlfriends In God (GIG). This video specifically features Gwen Smith speaking about somethings she wrote in this weeks reading. 

What I personally took away from this week is that trusting in God brings peace. Knowing that you can give your worries over to God and he will most certainly handle them is an amazing feeling. Having a recent conversation with someone has put a lot in perspective. When you trust God amazing things happen in your life. God gives us free will to make choices about the things in life that he has planned. I think we take the long sometimes not so scenic route to get to what God has planned for us. I found this paper and in it i found exactly what I am trying to convey:

"Ultimately, the only absolute freedom we have resides in a man’s free will. And that freedom was given us by our Creator, essentially, so that we might freely choose to love and serve him. .... It is in choosing to serve God, to do his will, that man achieves his highest and fullest freedom. It may seem paradoxical to say that our highest and fullest freedom comes when we follow to the least detail the will of another, but it is true nonetheless when that other is God" - Fr. Walter Ciszek for his book titled He Leadeth Me.

I guess my point is that you have to practice what you preach. If God Brings you to it He will bring you through it! He is not afraid and if he is always with you then why should you be afraid? Human nature I get it, but not when you have Him in your heart, mind, body and soul. 

The question I choose from the book this week is:

• What helps to bolster your God-courage and increases your faith strength?
• For me this comes in a coupe forms. 1. Being my husband. He is not afraid of what the Lord has in store and expresses it to me everyday. We are a good team at making sure we let God take the lead. We both know that we will not make it very far without God leading. He also inspires me in all my endeavors and without God working in his life he could never be the husband, father and leader of our home! 2. KLOVE! I know that sounds silly, but I love music and I pretty much only listen to christian music. Music speaks to me on a different level them just reading something. Plus the encouraging stories on there are a constant leap of faith for me that talk about Gods work in everyone around the globe. 3. Praying no matter where I am or who is around. I get my strength from knowing God is there. When you feel Him in your presence it feel natural yet also bone chilling at the same time. 

Share with me what increases your faith strength and God-courage? 

Also for those you do not have the book a couple main verses are 2 Corinthians 4:7-9, Isaiah 26:3-4, and my favorite from this (which goes with the music video below from a song that I know) Isaiah 40:29-31 that I thought were perfect for this weeks reading. 

   
Prayer:
Thank you lord for all the many times you have been there for us weather close calls or merely not running out of gas. Thank you for the courage, strength and understanding you give us in our times of unworthiness. We also thank you for all the creatures in the world that you had Adam name before giving him Eve. Thank you for giving us hope in the things that we sometimes try to handle ourselves. You are doing work in my life every minute of everyday and I ask that you give me the faith to give more of myself in your name to other people! In your sweet and Holy name I pray, Amen.

God Bless,

~ Victoria Clouse