. . . make all your plans succeed . . .

I've realized a fundamental truth.

As I am earnestly seeking the Lord in prayer and bringing my requests and the true condition of my heart and life before Him, He reveals truth.

I don't mean the flippant kind of prayer that I do way too often. The "oh I'll just pray while I'm eating my breakfast quick because I ran out of time this morning because I checked my face book instead of reading my Bible"

I mean prayer where I am focused on the Lord. Focused on what I am bringing before Him. Seeking His truth. Not holding anything back from Him because He knows the true condition of my heart.  Prayer where I am raw and bare before the Lord. Prayer that takes more than 5 minutes while I scarf down cereal or 10 minutes while I fall asleep.

The thing about this kind of prayer is that while I am praying, the Lord reveals His truth right before my eyes.  I get distracted easily, so I'll often journal while I'm praying.  I've found myself journaling things that don't come from my own head. Words, and truth from the Spirit. He is so faithful!!


Understand that the Lord longs to reveal truth to you. He wants you to know His desires for your life.  He promises to be faithful and reveal Himself as long as we are seeking Him. (Jeremiah 29:13 "you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart").


Keep in mind though, it takes silence for the Holy Spirit to speak truth into your life.  Prayer should be a combination of you pouring your heart out before the Lord and listening to His response.  


Just this morning I was hit with one of these major truths.  I took some time to just pray this morning. I journaled the things that were on my heart and just laid them before the Lord. I was praying a lot for my future; job, husband, life after college, etc.  A lot of earnestly praying and trying to weed through selfish desires of my flesh and what God truly has for me.  


As I was closing I looked up Psalm 20. No particular reason, just that it was the 20th.  


Let me tell you what it said . . . 

May the Lord answer you when you are in distress;

may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.  

May he send you help from the sanctuary and grand you support from Zion. 

May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings.

May he give you the desires of your heart and make all your plans succeed.  

We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God.

May the Lord grant all your requests . . . 

This was an incredible reminder of the faithfulness of my Savior.  He wants to give me the desires of my heart.  

I looked up heart.  The heart is seen as the center of the human spirit, from which spring emotions, thoughts, motivations, courage and action.

The heart is where we hold our deepest desires, fears, and longings, some of which we may not even realize.  

Does this mean God is just going to give me everything I want and desire? Unfortunately not. 

Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."

This doesn't mean just "delight" yourself in the Lord and He will give you a great gpa, a new car, a perfect boyfriend, athletic ability, friends, or money.  

What this verse is saying is that if I am delighting myself in the Lord, I mean truly delighting myself in the Lord, what will happen is that my heart will be transformed!

He will take MY desires and change them into His desires.  The desires of my heart will match the desires of my Father's heart.

Those desires are what He answers. The ones that match His heart.  

As I sat back and reflected on all of the things I had just brought before the Lord I felt an incredible peace.  I have a loving Father who knows how to give good gifts to His children (Matt. 7:11).  If I continue to seek the Lord, the fleshly desires of my heart will fade away.  The desires He has placed on my heart for my life will remain, and He will fulfill them!

Oh He is so faithful! Rest in that truth today!

Seventh Inning Stretch

Taking a break from the top 10 today. Call it the Seventh Inning Stretch.
This is me being vulnerable. And a little unsure. I'm actually not really sure why I'm writing this at all.

I'll just start by saying, Jesus is amazing. He grabs hold of your heart when you least expect it. But he also grabs your heart when you know you need him to. I wish I had a verse to explain where I started.

How about this . . . School is KICKING MY BUTT. I mean not just hard, time consuming, and frustrating. But borderline impossible, completely consuming (like thoughts, time, everything), and VERY frustrating. Its as if school has blinded me from the rest of my life. I haven't been exercising (and we all know that exercise gives you endorphins, and endorphins make you happy . . . happy people just don't kill their husbands-yes, Legally Blonde). I haven't been enjoying time with people. And I haven't been getting time with Jesus. Why am I doing this? Why am I posting my junk on the internet for the whole world to see. Shoot. I have no idea. None.

But I'll tell you something I do know. When we start to pursue Jesus, he allows us to see! He makes the blind see!

Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?"
"Lord, I want to see," he replied.
Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God. (Luke 18: 40-43)

Jesus wants you to come to him. To seek Him. ("You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13).
Jesus wants you to bring your requests before Him (" . . . present your requests to God" Phil 4:6).
Lord I want to see. I want to see what all of this studying and doing endless amounts of problems and memorizing formulas has to do with . . . ANYTHING. Yes, get a job. Blah, blah, blah. Is that it? Is that all these 4 years are for? To get a job? I want more! So much more! I'm reminded of a Kutless song . . .

"Feels like you're life's crashing down all around you, let me ask if it's really so bad. Look at the world in it's suffering. Can you honestly tell me that no one else can understand all of the hurting inside? Why can't you see? Freedom is sometimes just simply another perspective away. Who could you be if your lens was changed for a moment, would you still be the same?"

Oh Jesus, change my lens, change my perspective. I don't want to be the same!

The song ends like this,
"Yesterday you really couldn't see how changing your angle a new world would be revealed to your once blinded eyes by moving your field of vision."

Ha, if your still reading, thank you (I guess). Thank you for letting me spill my junk all over the table.

Then Jesus says to the blind man "Receive your sight, your FAITH has healed you."
He will restore. He will renew. Jesus you WANT me to see your plan. You don't want it to be hidden. I'm reminded of all the amazing times through college. All of the incredible relationships. How staying for 4 1/2 years has allowed me to have 3, going on 4, amazing summers at Kanakuk. Perspective.

So if you're studying for finals, if your struggling with life and where God has you, or if you're just stalking my blog (which by the way it's okay cause it's on the internet so I guess it's not really stalking), ASK HIM for a change of perspective. He wants to give it to you. He doesn't want you to live defeated. He wants you to REJOICE! Thank you Jesus for 4 years of school. For all I have learned. And for all the ways you have blessed me. And thank you for letting my BLIND EYES SEE!!

"Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." Phil 4:8