Get Real with God ~

Daily Life Following


~Part Two~
Trust

When we met our youngest son we were strangers to each other. Although we had a picture of him and had been praying for him for months, we didn’t really know him. We didn’t know what to do to soothe him or what foods he liked. To him we must have looked so threatening We looked, talked, and even smelled different and he did not trust us one bit. A year and a half later and we are still on the verge in the trust area. When he does something wrong he is always waiting to see if we will reject him and often he will purposefully disobey just to see what we will do. He expects us to leave him and is almost surprised when we don’t. So sad for a small child. He doesn’t realize that he is our chosen child, that I had wanted him since I was a child myself. Our love doesn’t often penetrate his little heart because he spends so much time trying to keep a tight hold on the reins of control in his life. He fears our rejection and doesn’t trust our love therefore, he disobeys, acts out and runs away from it.

Trust is a BIG thing in the kingdom of God. Without it, it is impossible to know Him. When we don’t trust Him we run away from him. We close our ears to His voice and avoid His hand in our lives. We fear his judgment and hide our sin from him. Like my son, in our distrust we remain in darkness, finding it difficult to obey and even harder to love.


To daily life follow Him like we talked about last week, we must trust Him. We must believe that God’s plan, the Cross, worked. We don’t need to prove our worth to Him. We are made worthy because of His Son’s atonement sacrifice. As Danny Silk says in his book, Loving Our Kids on Purpose (a must read), “God is going to be OK no matter what we do. The Father’s attitude toward us in our sin is, “It’s all right,. But I need you to trust me, and I need you to hear me. We’re going to be OK. We’re going to make it through this…..I need you to come close to me, not to be afraid of me and run away. I need you to trust that I love you and that I am with you and for you. Come here.” If we don’t believe that He is for us that Christ’s sacrifice is enough to redeem us we will spend all our time trying to earn His love, not rest in it. Our lack of trust will hold us in bondage to fear. Fear that there is nothing we can do to earn His love. Hear this…..there is Nothing we can do to earn His love…..we already have it as demonstrated by His Son’s death.

When we don’t trust him we choose to believe that all He wants is to control our lives, to make things harder, to get us to obey. To daily life follow Him we must choose to believe what he really wants is a relationship with us, to give us freedom not to take it away. When He asks us to do something it isn’t for His benefit but for ours and His Kingdom. His commandments aren’t so that He can control us, they are so that we will know how to show Him we love Him and to help guide us into a relationship with Him…His ultimate goal. To daily life follow Him we must choose between the things that pull us into a relationship with the Father and those things that drag us away.

To daily life follow Him and trust in Him, we must realize that He is more concerned with our hearts than our behavior. When our hearts are turned towards Him, our ears are open to the Holy Spirit, and our Eyes focused on the Savior we will demonstrate our love for Him by our actions. Heart first…we must never let anything be more important than our heart’s connection to the Father’s and in doing so we will trust Him and walk in obedience.

Romans 3:22, We are made right in God's sight when we TRUST in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done.

Get Real with God ~ Daily Life Following

Daily Life Following

~Part One~

One of the things my husband and I are most strict about with our children is that when we call them they need to come right away…first time. It isn’t a matter of control really, but a matter of obedience and sometimes safety…you know your parents. The other day my oldest was up from the table in the middle of lunch and I wanted him to get back in his seat. We were eating outside so he was on the side of the house when I called him back. I know he heard me because he turned and looked but that’s it. He didn’t move. Just looked at me like, “What are you going to do if I don’t.” I was MAD and he knew it but that didn’t motivate him to move. I actually had to get up and get him. What happened after isn’t really necessary for the purpose of this devotion, but it wasn’t pretty.

This situation got me thinking about the way I am with my Father. Do I come when He calls? First time, no questions asked. I know I answered the call when I was young and chose to follow Him, but do I make the daily decisions necessary to truly come to Him when He calls me?

Daily life following is hard. Just like I ask of my kiddos, sometimes He asks me to do things I really don’t want to do. In Matthew 19 a rich, young man comes to Jesus and asks him what good things he must do to have eternal life. Jesus tells him that he must keep the commandments. To which the young man replies, “I’ve obeyed all of the commandments.” I bet the kid was thinking, “Sweet! I’m in. That was so much easier than what I thought it would be.” But Jesus wasn’t done, you see He knew what was going on. He saw to the heart of the man and in verse 21 He says, “If you want to be perfect go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Wow! Hard stuff. Remember this was a RICH young man. Sadly, the man heard this, and went away.

Your Father knows you. He knows what is beneath the seemingly benign questions you ask of Him. He knows what you are holding on to in your life that keeps you from following Him with your whole heart and just like He called his disciples, He is calling you. Matthew 16:24, Then Jesus said to the disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life.”

Daily life following means listening first. Listening to what the Father is telling you through the Holy Spirit in your life. Sometimes it is just a breath, an inkling or reminder of something He wants you to do for His people…write an encouraging note to a friend or help mow your neighbors lawn. Other times it is a directive like I received the other day, “Traci, you need to take a computer break.” No, I didn’t hear audible words, but the words in my heart were so clear there was no need for a voice and sadly I had been hearing the Holy Spirit tell me this for a month or so. I just didn’t want to do what He told me. How like my children I am. You see, He knows what is standing in the way of me and Him and most often, I can’t see it as clearly. I am too occupied with the computer in front of me and the lives lived out in the blogs I read and not focused on my life and what He wants me to do with it. You see anything can become a distraction, an idol, even good things so much so that when He calls, we don’t even hear, let alone answer.

Daily life following means choosing to do what He says. God doesn’t demand. He doesn’t threaten or hold things over our heads. He loves. He saves. He forgives. Choosing to do what He tells us to do isn’t about control it is about safety really. Following Him puts you under His protective covering. He knows you best. He knows whatever He is asking you to do, give up, take up or let go of is really in your best interest and will ultimately bring you life everlasting. You don’t have to do it, He will still love you, but doing it shows Him how much you love Him. I John 2:5, But those who obey God’s word really do love him. He doesn’t need you to do it, you need you to do it. He doesn’t need me to take a computer break, I need to take one. My ability to hear Him and daily follow Him depends on my obediently answering His call and doing what He tells me.

He may not be asking you to sell all like He did the rich, young man, because ALL may not be your hang up, but he may be asking you to do something else equally as hard in you life. Are you listening and responding first time, no questions.

Remember…..Matthew 11: 29-30, Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light.

Get Real with God ~ Life Art

Life Art

I wish I was more artistic. I wish that I had the ability to create something out of pieces of cloth or soft thread or to be able to put brush to paper and capture a moment. I wish I could look at something in a thrift store and see the potential in it and where I might artfully place it in my home. Oh to have an amazing camera and to be able to wield it to take glorious pictures. I love to look at others art and dream of creating it myself. But all I can do is basic crochet and even that not well. I scrapbook some but mostly all I see in a thrift store is overpriced junk. My camera is just a plain and simple one and t he photographer is mediocre at best.

After prattling through blog after blog of artistically talented women I am often left feeling jealous and inadequate, a tad bit bitter that God didn’t gift me with the ability to create and at times wishing for a different life. A life filled with more beauty and less diapers, a life that looks more like a picture from a Martha Stewart magazine and a life more, dare I say it, perfect.

One day while perusing my favorite blogs I came to this post and was immediately hit by this statement…Your life is art. Who mine? Wow…what a revelation. Is my life art? It was designed by the Creator, so it must be.

Psalms 139:13-14, You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous and how well I know it.

My life is a drawing in the beginning stages, the artist a master. It is an unfinished painting. Done in some areas, bright and colorful. In others, dark, faded hints of what will become.

I am a book, my life penned out behind me by the unseen Author. Words leave a trail of who I am….rough words, words of light, painted words, ugly and beautiful words, healing words. I might wish some of the pages didn’t come with this book, but to leave them out would be to leave out pieces of m e. Many of the pages are strewn with dark ink blotches where I messed up and the hand writing is different in the areas where I tried to grab the pen from the Author and write my own story. My life is a work in progress and blank pages wait in front of me to be filled with all that I will learn and live.

Seeing my life as art requires that I place my life in proper perspective. That I stop seeing the failure and disappointments as ugliness but demands that I see the Father as the Artist, the Author, who takes those blights on the pages of my life and turns them into a marvelous masterpiece. I am created by a loving, talented, incapable of mistakes Artist. One who knew what He was doing when He breathed life into me. How you live your life is your art and allowing the Creator of light, dark, color, and canvas to fashion you into a masterpiece is acknowledging who He is in your life.

Friends, today is the day to let the Potter mold your life into a strong pitcher that pours out His love on those around you. Isaiah 64: 8, And yet, Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We are all formed by your hand.


It is the day to let the Weaver, weave you into a warm blanket of His security to wrap around those you cherish. It is the day to let the Painter brush stroke you into a masterpiece.

Go be His ART!