Having the Right Posture

Head high, shoulders back, back straight, eyes ahead... flash back to the charm school/etiquette classes my mom took me kicking and screaming to in 6th grade, or how I am to praise God in a trial?
BOTH!
The Jonah study I am in the middle of now just nailed me between the eyes.

But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the LORD.’”
And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Jonah 2:9-10

Sacrificial praise? Jonah is praying IN deliverance not FOR deliverance? Wait a minute - that means I fully and whole heartily thank God for the storm. That means I praise Him that He is delivering me within that storm. That the hard place indeed IS my provision, not just the consequence I really deserve.

Wow, I remember with no trouble at all the outcome of those charm school classes. I went with a determined posture of unbending resentment. The result? Utter failure.

God help me take on a posture today of sacrificial praise... In my prayers, with my head high above the waves and my eyes looking straight to where my help comes from. And in my verbal gratitude of a God who is saving me, inside and outside the storm... alway returning me safely to land!

Marisa

Chick Chat with Marisa

Bold Transparency

I have never been more keenly aware as I am right now of just how important we are to one another when we are as real as we can be about the "us" most never see.

Last night after spending time with a particular gathering of women and sharing stories of how we all saw transparency begin to breed freedom as we served at the last Esther Experience, I awoke with the same urgency in my spirit...
And then He brought me conversations even this morning with women whose hearts are breaking over those they dearly love that are being held captive - and my heart is literally pounding with that urgency.

Oh Father God, that we would begin to understand how timely are the ways we serve one another with our testimonies! If we could only see how much we free one another when we reveal darkness exposed to your light - it is here where the healing is!

As I read Galatians 6:2 this morning that says "Share each other's burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ" I had to return to Galatians 5:14 "The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
Keywords - "share" and "love"...
Oh God, to be a conduit that you use to release the grip of what holds those around me by sharing what You are and have brought me through is the most powerful way I can ever love!
Ever prayed 'God please use me'?
He will in the simplest but the most profound way possible if you will move through your daily life ready to share with others the stories behind why you can now say "Look -look at my God! See how magnificent He is and how much He loves me and is saving me, and is healing and restoring me! Look at how I cannot live without Him! Look at who and what I was and how He loves me anyway! Look at Him and what He is using for beauty and strength! DO YOU SEE MY GOD?!"

Ephesians 3:8-12 says "Though I am the least deserving of all God’s people, he graciously gave me the privilege of telling all people about the endless treasures available to them in Christ. I am chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning. God’s purpose in all this was to use us to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord. Because of Christ and our faith in him we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence."

To keep what He has and is doing to myself does not love those He loves and is something I can't do... COME BOLDLY AND WITH CONFIDENCE AND REVEAL WHAT HE HAS COVERED WITH HIS BLOOD!!!!

Marisa

Chick Chat with Marisa