How soft is your heart?

These past few weeks I have been thinking of what makes for a hard heart!!!
Often I am cynical towards people or situations and have been doubting Gods provision or presence and realised that's my heart hardening!!

A lovely friend and I were talking together in my kitchen about how easily we forget all God has done for us and suddenly the story of the Israelites popped into my head!

In Exodus 13 we read how Moses had been called by God to go up the mountain and were not told how long he was up there but the Israelites obviously got fed up of waiting so they start saying to each other well Gods gone quiet let's make our own God to worship and they collect all the gold the can find, melt it and make a golden calf!
Moses comes down having met with God and sees them worshiping a huge lump of metal!!

These Israelites had forgotten that God had-
Rescued them from slavery
Made a path through a raging sea
Gave the a daily feast of manna and quail and
Provided fresh water out of a rock!

There hearts had grown hard maybe because they had become impatient for Gods timing and definitely because they had forgotten His faithfulness in the past!

This really challenged me as this last week I had definitely forgotten all that God had done for me and so had become despondent!  My sister reminded me of all the ways He had been faithful and it softened my heart and I began to recall his goodness and started trusting again!

A lovely lady once said she asked God to show her heart and it helped her to see the areas in her life that needed to change!

Not forgiving doesn't affect the person who your angry against it effects you and leads to  bitterness. Selfishness, resentment and not been thankful  all leads to hardness of hearts.

I don't know about you but I want a soft heart where God can speak into and where I can grow intimate with him!

Dig for treasure

Isn't it easy to complain about people and complain about hard your day is going?
Not so easy to find the gold in your day or the person who is pushing all your buttons!

A week or two a go I was driving to a meeting and it was like God dropped a picture into my mind of someone hunting for treasure with a metal detector they can spend a lot of time listening for that beep that tells them that something shiny is buried beneath them, when they do hear that sound they have a choice they can drop their detector and start digging or they can ignore it and carry on searching!

If they choose to dig it can be dirty work they have to get through a lots of dirt before they find that glistening piece of gold or treasure.
People and situations can be like hunting for treasure we have to almost ignore all the crappy bits and hunt for the beauty that is hidden deep inside!

Today we have to pay a car bill as the car broke! Where's the treasure in that?? Well I'm thankful we are all safe and we have loving family who drive us home!

Digging for treasure is making yourself stop and be thankful but also its good practise to bring out the gold in other people! People need to be reminded that they have treasure within them yes even the most of difficult people!


Dig for gold people not for dirt!

Anyone up for feet washing??

My Easter really started when I led a mediation on John ch 13 and it has stuck with me!
Jesus was with his disciples and he knew who was going to betray and disown him and yet he still knelt before them and washed their dusty smelly feet.
As I read this well known passage again I wondered did Jesus enjoy doing the very humble act of washing the bare, calloused, dirty toe nailed  feet? Probably not, but he did it to set us, his followers as an example to follow.

John ch 13: 14 &15 Now that I, your Lord  have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

So how do we do this in today's society? Thank the dear Lord I don't have to go round literally washing feet!! But I have been thinking about how I can wash people feet metaphorically.

It goes back to my last post #lovingwell! All people really need from us is love and acceptance.

When Jesus commanded us to love one another he didn't add, " only if they deserve it" or " if they are worthy or without sin"

He didn't call us to condemn, He called us to love!
He didn't call us to criticise, He called us to love!
He didn't call us to judge, He called us to love!
He didn't call us belittle, He called us to love!

Maybe washing people's feet is as simple as sitting with someone as they wait for a doctors appointment, or taking the time to listen when they are struggling or taking a meal around when you know someone is sick.
Showing we love one another doesn't have to be extravagant gestures. We have just got to love!

#Lovewell

#Lovewell


A friend who cares for my soul asked me at the start of the year what I wanted to work on this year or what was going to be my mantra, with in seconds "Love well" came out of my mouth!

Why couldn't I of thought of something easier??!

How do we love well? or as I comically call it hashtag #lovewell

Confession time!  I struggle with loving well, oh with some people it's easy, others not so much but why?

On Sunday in a sermon I heard this quote as he read out the first line I got mad!

'True love is inexhaustible ..... The more you give the more you have..'
Well I drifted at that point and thought, no, I don't agree! the more I give, the more drained I am.
 I get pretty exhausted and flat. I don't have this never ending fount of love that just keeps pouring from me  like a magic jug that never seem to run out!

The quote didn't stop there though!!

If you go and draw at the fountain head , the more water you draw, the more abundant is its flow
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

There's the secret and my huge mistake! The love that I tend to give out and run out of is my own love, this very wise man is talking about going to the one whose Love is pure like fresh water and it never runs dry.

The more I come to God for his unconditional, pure, selfless, patient, kind and gentle love the more I will have to give  and the more I will love well.

My challenge for this year then is not to muster my own love and love through gritted teeth but to keep coming to God and soaking in his love and letting it pour out of me!!

In John ch 3 v 35 we read
By your love all men shall know you are my disciples if you have love for one another!

The worlds kind of love is conditional and selfish, Gods love blows people's mind!
If we loved the way God loved us the world would be a completely different place!

Lessons from sheep!

I love people and I love hearing their life stories and I love it when people share their God story and of how Jesus comes into their lives.

I often feel so deeply for people that I just want to take their painful bit from their story and erase it so they no longer have to feel or remember that painful part of their lives.

The thing is that often the painful part of our story is what Jesus tends to use the most! Jesus is in the business of making the broken into something beautiful.
It's also the part in our lives that makes us vulnerable and that makes people able to relate to us.

He uses our pain often to help us realise that we can't do life on our own we need him in our lives we need people who love us around us to encourage and build us up.

I have a beautiful carving of a shepherd carrying a lamb, I love lambs they are so fragile looking so reliant on their mothers and their shepherd to feed them and to keep them safe.

The thing is like us, lambs often get into messes, they fall down ditches they get stuck in brambles they stray way too far from their mothers.
A good shepherd doesn't just leave them in their messes,He hears their bleating and goes looking for them, He comes and pulls them out, cleans their wounds and carries them to safety.

That carving is a daily reminder to me that I need to keep coming to my good shepherd. Who loves me and will carry me through the mess and is always with me.

Keeping  with the sheep analogy we can often feel like we are in a drove (had to look up on google what you call a group  of sheep) of sheep and yet can feel alone, especially in our own pain) we can feel insignificant, unloved etc. When we bleat out Jesus name he immediately turns his head towards us and thinks wow Ang is talking to me He is so excited that we have called out his name beciase loves it when we talk to him. He reminds  us we are not alone!
He tenderly  cares for us and loves us, we only just have to remember to keep talking and listening to him! Just as a sheep needs to stay close to the shepherd to be fed a be cared for we need to remember to stay close to Jesus.

Wherever you are right now remember Jesus is your good shepherd keep calling out to him He loves you and wants to care for you just rest in Him.

“He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.”

Isaiah 40:11 NIV

http://bible.com/111/isa.40.11.niv

 lift my eyes to the hills where does my help come from? 

My help comes from the maker of heaven and earth.

Psalm 121 v 1

I have been  thinking a lot about this verse lately why? I guess because I have been looking up a lot! lifting my hands up to God praying mainly out of despair, praying for situations to change etc.

In the last few weeks I have had so many prayers answered it's been miraculous, people's hearts have been changed, hope has been given, paths have been made straight.

And it has surprised me!!! That's the bit that has challenged me the most, here I am praying and when He answers I'm shocked!!

My God has become too small and this brings me to Psalm 121 it reminds me that God made heaven and earth

God spoke and life came into being, the sun was formed at His command, He made man out of the dust of the earth, He divided the waters to make land and so the list goes on!

If God created the world, whatever I pray for is nothing in comparison.

Nothing is too difficult or impossible for God!

My prayers need to match the God I am praying too!!

Gods love language is faith! He loves it when His children trust Him and come to Him and pray in Faith.

How big is your God?

What lense are you looking through?

So my phone had a collision with some gravel and its once clean smooth screen now looks like it has been shot! It has cracks and makes everything look disfigured!

The thing is I have now gotten used to it! When I type a message I just have to look a little closer to see if the words are not misspelt! When I watch a clip I almost think the cracks and the bullet looking hole is a part of the clip!! That's crazy right?
I videoed a beautiful sunrise the other day and when I posted it on Instagram it was even more beautiful because the cracks were not shown!!!!!

I am sure you know where I am going with this! Life can be looked at in many different ways, almost like lenses! We can look at things through the love lens the thankful lens the anger lens!
The list goes on.

This week I have looked through life through the lens of anger! And boy it's not been pretty!
It's also been exhausting! Carrying anger towards people and situations is so draining!

The other morning I went for a march along the sea front where I videoed the sunrise and I cried out to God " let me see things through your lens not my own!" Unfortunately I didn't get brand new eyes but I had a sense of relief that slowly God was going to help me see things differently and that I didn't have to carry this burden of anger anymore.

Life does not always go to plan and we get confused and angry the best person to express that anger to is God!  He can take it!

God is God I am not!! He sees the bigger picture!

*Warning I am going to take a verse out of context but it illustrates perfectly what I am feeling at the moment so please forgive me!*

1 Corinthians ch 13 v 12
Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror then we shall see face to face.
Now I know in part ; then I shall know fully even as I am fully known.

God shows us little by little and that to us is confusing but when we meet him face to face all will be revealed!!!