Friday, September 16, 2011

simply amazed...

"Lord, I'm amazed by You..." is running through my head this morning. I'm just simply amazed at the obvious Hand of God on my life this week...

1) I pretty much walked into a new job without even realizing it. Amazing!
2) I thought I was going to be an assistant table leader and ended up being the leader (while taking a Leadership class at school and participating in Leadership breakfasts... I think He wants me to be a Leader!)... Amazing!
3) He sat me at a table of women where one woman is walking through the grief of loosing a child... Amazing! I wept last night at His Great Love for us.
4) He gives me a new Beth Moore study which currently is reminding me of how God provides for His people in some pretty amazing and astounding ways... and then shows me with personal examples. Amazing!
5) How I started school with one goal in mind and He has redirected my steps to follow His plan for my life... even though I'm not really sure what that will look like in 2 years... but I know He does and He is definitely leading & guiding me!
6) How He allowed me a moment to hug a woman walking the path of "overwhelmed" like I was last year and I could truly say I understood how she felt!
7) I'm just amazed at how He shows me on a daily basis... how much He loves me.

Amazing!


Saturday, September 3, 2011

lions and tigers...

This morning, in the early morning hours, I had a dream. Three times. Each time was a continuation and progression of the last. I haven't had anything like that happen and I especially haven't had a dream in a long time that I remembered and saw this clearly. I feel like I'm supposed to write this out here... hopefully I can make this entry shorter than what I wrote in my journal when I first woke up! :)

The first dream, I was inside a room of a cabin-like structure. I went to the door and looked out to see a white tiger coming towards my door. I closed the door but it was just a little half door and the latch was a hook. As I did this, the tiger put its paw on top of the door. I woke up but didn't really feel afraid. The words white siberian tiger came to me and I went back to sleep.

The second dream I was in this same room but this time I was leaning outside and looking out below me to all these kids and trees. I was telling the kids to use the front doors of their cabins and not to play in the back because of the tiger. They heard the word tiger and screamed and started running. Of course with all the commotion, the tiger chased some of the kids away and started to come towards my door. This time I closed a more normal looking door and there was an inside door that I closed and tried to lock. I woke up to hear the scripture, "the devil is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour" and then I went back to sleep.

The third time I was outside the cabin and I was walking up steps to a side door. When I reached the door I saw it was covered in spider webs, the thick, strong type. Ew. I asked the person behind me to get me a stick or a board so I could knock them down and we could go inside. With that, I heard the tiger jump on the deck. I looked up and saw the tiger on the deck up above me and in the same instant, we saw each other. With that, he jumped down through the deck at me. It was like he was going for my neck. I pressed my head to my shoulder and pinned his head to the ground. I didn't feel like he made contact but I had him pinned. With that I woke up... and my head was bent tightly to my shoulder.

When I woke up I felt I should come out and write the dreams out. I got up and put my glasses on and started toward the door but then went and laid back down. But I kept feeling like I should get up.

As I was typing away... I looked up the tiger. White Siberian tigers are very rare and very powerful. They're quiet and able to sneak up on their prey. I learned the attack the nerve at the spinal cord so the prey has a painless death.

The scripture is found in 1 Peter 5:8 but when I looked it up in my Bible, I wrote out the verses around that. Verses 7-9 say:

"Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are."

What I got from all of this is that as we focus on our worries and our cares... it keeps us open and vulnerable to the attack of the enemy. When we turn them over to God, we are better able to stand firm against him by staying strong in our faith. We trust and rely on God and He is our protection. In my third dream, the deck covered me but somehow there was an opening that he could break through.

I feel like this is a prompting... to draw even closer to the Lord... to remember to turn all my worries and cares over to Him so that I can stay strong in my faith and not waver. Every morning I wake up with a song going through my head. This was the song this morning after the third dream (hopefully the link works):