...

significance

'Humans are made by God, and "in the image of God" (Genesis 1:27). We are able to relate to God Himself, and reflect who He is to the world. That makes each and every human hugely, and equally, significant. God put you together in the womb (Psalm 139:13-16). He has already mapped out your life (139:15). He knows what you'll say before you say it (139:2) And He's made you to know Him.

'That's a glorious, honoured position to hold. Neither a rabbit nor a rock can know God and enjoy relationship with Him. We can because He made us in His image. Our significance does not come from which family we're born into, who we married, what we do Monday to Friday or how we serve on a Sunday. It comes from being made by God, to know God.

'It's really quite mind-blowing. The One who spoke planets into being and flung stars into space thought of you, made you to be you, and loves you as you. No one can take that away from you, or give you and greater significance than that. We can never be, and never need feel, worthless.'

- Sophie de Witt

in his time

...

There's within my heart a melody

Jesus whispers sweet and low:

Fear not, I am with thee, peace, be still,

in all of life's ebb and flow.

All my life was wrecked by sin and strife,

discord filled my heart with pain;

Jesus swept across the broken strings,

stirred the slumbering chords again.

Though sometimes he leads through waters deep,

trials fall across the way,

though sometimes the path seems rough and steep,

see his footprints all the way.

Feasting on the riches of his grace,

resting neath his sheltering wing,

always looking on his smiling face,

that is why I shout and sing.

Soon he's coming back to welcome me

far beyond the starry sky;

I shall wing my flight to worlds unknown;

I shall reign with him on high.

chapter seven

So I have a confession. I love reading, and there can be times when I simply can't put a book down, I get hooked . But with christian books, I can struggle to keep going with them.

I started reading 'Crazy Love' by Francis Chan months ago. I read 3 chapters, then put the book down. A good few weeks later I realised that I still hadn't actually finished it. So I picked up where I left off and read another chapter. A couple more weeks passed, and by this point I've pretty much forgotten what I've read in those first 4 chapters. So I decided to just start over. (Don't get me wrong here, the book is class. It's not even a hard read, its super easy to get into. I was just being lazy!)

Anyways, I've just read chapter seven, and boy was it a good chapter. Some of the paragraphs I was left thinking 'wow'. So I thought I'd share with you all a few snippets with you...

'When you pray, your prayers are heard by the same God who answered Moses' prayer for water in the desert, the God who gave Abraham and his barren wife a son, and the God who made the slave Joseph second in power only to Pharaoh.'

'The place of trust isn't a comfortable place to be in; in fact, it flies in the face of everything we've been taught about proper planning. We like finding refuge in what we already have rather than what we hope God will provide. But when Christ says count the cost of following Him, it means we must surrender everything. It means being willing to go without an extra tunic or a place to sleep at night, and sometimes without knowing where we are going.'

'God wants us to trust in Him with abandon. He wants to show us how He works and cares for us. He wants to be our refuge.'

'...God doesn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn't come through.'

a million suns

You stand eternal

The uncreated One
Who knows no end

The starry wonders

The vast expanses

Bound to Your command

You shine like a million suns ablaze

Wrapped in eternal light and praise

Jesus the First, the Last

The Bright, the Morning Star

You spoke creation

Into existence

Life and all we are

Beyond all measure

The universe

An echo of Your power

Wrapped in eternal light and praise

Jesus the First, the Last

The Bright, the Morning Star

Never ending

You will reign forevermore

You are holy

You are worthy

Lord of all

You shine like a million suns ablaze

Wrapped in eternal light and praise

Jesus the First, the Last

The Bright, the Morning Star

set apart girl

Unless Jesus Christ remains our First Love, we will always be looking to a mere human to meet the deepest needs in our heart - and we'll always be disappointed, because they are needs that only Christ can meet. 

- Leslie Ludy (Set Apart Girl) 

Revelation Song

While I was at Bible School I learnt a ton of new worship songs. And this is one of them. I'd totally forgotten about it to be honest, we don't sing it in the youth group that I go to, I'm not too sure if any of my friends know it or not!? And we certainly don't sing it at my church. Pretty sure this isn't in the mission praise!!

The other day I decided to take my headphones with me for when I walked from my car to work. I don't often have them with me, I've gotten out of the routine of listening to music while I walk places. But for some reason that morning I picked up my headphones and shoved them in my bag. It was going to be a nice day, so I thought I would listen to some tunes as I walked through the park to work in the sun. I popped my iPhone on shuffle, and this beauty played in my ears.

Such a great song to start the day off, and it's been in my head ever since. So I just thought I'd share it with you all.

#tbt

I've missed quite a chunk of blogging the past few months, so I'm embracing the #tbt and I'm throwing it back to the end of May when best friend married the man she loves...

It was such a beautiful, blessed day, and I'm beyond happy for these too as they begin their married life together. Also, beyond happy that my best friend now lives about 40 miles closer to me, and is now a 2 minute bike ride away. Ahhhh, smiles all round.

blogging ghost/facebook obsessed

I know, I've totally neglected this little blog the past two months. I can't even use the excuse that life has been crazy, because it really hasn't. In fact, its been relatively slow tbh (obviously aside from my best friend getting married, that was pretty big!).

I've just spent the past 45 mins or so catching up on one of my friends blog. And I realised whist catching up with her blogging like how much I miss good ol'blogger.

And I've been thinking recently that I waste far too much time trolling through facebook. I seriously waste my life on there. I wake up, I quickly check facebook while I eat my breakfast. I walk into work and have another quick check. I'm sat on my lunch break, eating my dinner...ooh, lets just have a sneaky look on facebook and see what everyone is having for their lunch. I'm walking back to my car, oh look someone has liked on of my photos. I get home, and decide to spend an hour on facebook seeing what everyone else has been doing with their lives today and looking through photos I've actually already seen before.

Urghhh, when I think about it like that its actually embarrassing. What a waste of my time. And I'm going to delete the facebook app off my phone...like right now....literally this very minute...ok, its officially gone. And now all my apps are in a different place to where I'm used to them....lets sort that out later!!

So, I'm not going to delete my account. Lets not be too rash here. But I am going to test myself and just consciously make an effort to just not go on there quite as much as I do at the moment.

So July, here's the plan...lets facebook WAY less, and blog/read/actually socialise WAY more. Sound like a plan?!

Sun & Moon

If you are the sun, then I want to be the moon. 

I want to reflect the light that comes from You.

lund, early morning skypes, and Jude.

Looking back on this weekend, I can't help but smile.

Friday...so I was at work the whole day, which was ok I guess, but at night I went to my youth group, and it was testimony night. I LOVE LOVE LOVE, testimony nights. Hearing how God is at work in other peoples lives. Gosh, I just came away with my heart full of joy after I'd heard everyone get up and share snippets of the faith. It's so encouraging.

Saturday...my phone goes off at 7am with a text. I kind of roll over in bed and ignore it. It goes off again a couple of minutes later. I grumble again, thinking 'it's like 7am..shhhh'. And it goes off one more time. I think, OK, lets take a look and see which crazy friend of mine is up at silly o'clock on a Saturday morning. Turns out my friends aren't up at 7am on a Saturday morning, but still up at like midnight Friday night...IN CANADA! So I jumped out of bed, made myself a cup of tea, and skyped them for 2 hours solid. Best spontaneous early morning skype ever.

The rest of my Saturday was kind of chilled. I went to a coffee morning and ate some cake and drank some tea. I came home a painted a little. And then in the evening I went to work.

Sunday...this week at chapel was our chapel anniversary, and our speaker, Ruth Dent, spoke on the book of Jude. And it was just so good. The theme was a call to persevere, such an appropriate topic for an anniversary service. I've never really read Jude before, I mean, it's tucked right at the back of the bible before revelation, and its only like 25 verses long...it's easy to miss right?! But there are some great verses in there. '

But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear – hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and for evermore! (Jude 20-25)

All in all, it was a top weekend.

Stanley Park

Every now and then I start work a little later than usual. For those of you who don't know I'm currently working at Blackpool Hospital, which I enjoy....but which is a fair commute away from where I live. Not ideal. We usually all start our shift at 8am, which means that I tend to set my alarm for around 5:45, snooze for 10 minutes or so until just before 6am, then drag myself out of bed ready to hit the road at 6:20. 

Today however, I started work at 9am. Now, I can hear you thinking...hey Steph, that means an extra hour in bed, score. Wrong. It actually means only an extra half hour in bed. Why?! Well, today was a great example of why. Blackpool hospital doesn't really have a staff parking (...well, it kind of does, but I don't want to pay for a permit, and you don't really gain that much having one in my opinion) so I have to park on one of the streets around the hospital. When I start at the usual time of 8 I'll usually have around a 15-20 minute walk to work after I've found a park. When I start at 9 however, all the good parks are long gone. Long gone.

Today I had to park the furthest away form work I've ever had to park. Thankfully, I'd set off in good time, and kind of had a heavy foot as I was driving, so I knew I wasn't going to be late; I was just kind of annoyed I had so far to walk.

I figured the fastest way to get to the hospital would be walking through Stanley Park. I'd never been in the park, I usually park along one of the adjacent roads, so I wasn't entirely sure where I was going, but my sense of direction told me it was defiantly the best move to go through the park rather than right around it.

And it was the best walk to work ever. Sure, it's maybe not the most glamorous of parks I've ever seen, but it is kind of pretty. And after a long and tiring day at work, walking back through the park in the spring sunshine, with daffodils popping up through the grass, and blossom trees coming into bloom, was just what I needed. 

may I never loose the wonder

Recently a friend has asked me if I would like to paint her a piece of art for her room. Now, I used to LOVE art, I did it for GCSE and A Level, and they were always my favourite lessons. I found it so relaxing to just sit there with a ton of paints, and a blank sheet of paper or canvas, and just create something, and feel the sense of pride when your piece was finally finished.

I remember during my A Level course, I got to choose the topics for each of my projects. I ended up doing a number of different things, one project I focused on the theme or racism, one I think was a general landscape theme, another was on nature. But my favourite one I decided to focus on the cross, and I ended up creating possibly one of my favourite pieces which I get to see every Sunday as it hangs in my church. 

Anyways, so yeah a close friend of mine has asked if I'll paint her a little something for her to put up in her room after she has decorated it. She said she would quite like to be something based on one of her favourite hymns, The Wonder of the Cross. And I was like 'yeah, thats an awesome idea, it's such a great hymn!'. 

Its been in the back of my head for 2 or 3 weeks now. Every so often I have a little think about what I could paint, what kind of colours I could use, things like that. This afternoon I though to myself, right, lets get out my sketch book again, sharpen my pencils, and get sketching (...because I feel a little out of touch at drawing at the moment, its been a while!).  I put my worship music on my laptop, got all comfy on the sofa, and decided a good starting point would be to write down the lyrics for the hymn. I thought I kind of remembered it. Well, I knew I at least knew the chorus part... 'may I never loose the wonder, the wonder of the cross'. But as I googled the lyrics, and I was writing the down, I realised just how great this hymn is. I'd totally forgotten the rest of the song, and as I reminded myself of these amazing lyrics, I couldn't help but totally agree with them. 

I think we are totally prone, or at least I know that I am, to forget the amazingness of the cross. We downplay it. We are like "yeah, the cross is great, Jesus died for me and now He is alive". We know it, but do we sometimes get blasé about it? Do we sometimes forget to recognise the immensity of it? I know I do. 

As I was reading through these lyrics, God reminded me once more how much he has done for me through Jesus. How much he loves me. And how awesome what happened at the cross is. 

And as I was sat there comfy on my sofa, I though to myself 'gosh yeah, I hope I never do loose the wonder of the cross. I hope I remember every day. How different we would live our lives if we were constantly in awe of God and His work there at Calvary'. 

Oh, precious sight, my Savior standsDying for me with outstretched handsOh, precious sight, I love to gazeRemembering salvation's dayRemembering salvation's day
Though my eyes linger on this sceneMay passing time and years not stealThe power with which it impacts meThe freshness of it's mysteryThe freshness of it's mystery
May I never lose the wonderThe wonder of the crossMay I see it like the first timeStanding as a sinner lost
Undone by mercy and left speechlessWatching wide eyed at the costMay I never lose the wonderThe wonder of the cross
Behold the God man crucifiedThe perfect sinless sacrificeAs blood ran down those nails and woodHistory was split in twoYes, history was split in two
Behold the empty wooden treeHis body gone, alive and freeWe sing with everlasting joyFor sin and death have been destroyedYeah, sin and death have been destroyed
May I never lose the wonderThe wonder of the crossMay I see it like the first timeStanding as a sinner lost
Undone by mercy and left speechlessWatching wide eyed at the costMay I never lose the wonderThe wonder of the cross

hello shiny MacBook

I've finally joined the MacBook family.

Goodbye Windows.

Hello Apple Mac.

He Is Risen

Old CDs

You know when you have a CD in your car for just that tad too long, and you risk ruining the album because you've listed to it one too many times?! Well, this problem is happening to me.

My car has about 3 CDs in it at the moment...the new (well, no so new now actually) Mumford and Sons album, an old Coldplay album, and a Shane & Shane one I put together just before Christmas. And as much as I love these albums, I'm very bored of them. Having an hour commute to and from work, with only half of that journey being able to get a decent signal on the radio because I live in the hills, I listen to my CDs A LOT. And so I've been in a CD rut for about the past month.

Yesterday marked one whole year since I came home from Germany. (OK, lets take a moment to just dwell on this fact alone. One year. One whole year. Some how that doesn't seem right. I cant have been home that long. It feels like only yesterday since I was chilling with my Bode guys. Craaaazy!) Anyways, so yeah, it's been a year since I got back, and I got to thinking back on my times in Germany; missing the people, the community, the teaching. And then I got thinking about all that's happened this year. I feel like I've come a long way since I was there. I mean, I settled back home, I got a job, I've found a home church. Yet at the same time, I'm also in a similar position as I was this time last year. Some of those 'blank pages' that I had are coming round again, and I feel as though maybe in a year I've almost done a full circle, and I wonder where God is taking me.

One thing I'm wrestling with at the moment is learning to discern the difference between God's will, and my personal desires. Is what I'm wanting to do, the plans that I'm thinking, the possibilities that I'm facing...are these things from God, or are these things actually just me hoping, idealizing, and wishing are from Him.

(You're probably thinking where the heck are you going with this post Steph, I thought you were talking about old CDs?! Just bare with me here...)

When I was in Germany our principle gave us a lecture on 'desiring and doing the will of God'. It was one of those lectures that just sticks in my mind. I remember exactly where I was sitting, who I was sitting next to, what side of the page I wrote on. I remember it being one of my favorite lectures that we had. And I remember ordering it on CD.

So when the year anniversary came of returning home from Bible School, I thought to myself, 'hey, lets listen to a lecture', and immediately I thought of this one. I had about a 45 minute drive to my friends house that day, and knowing I was bored of all my CDs in my car I popped on Peter Reid, and I listened to his wise teaching as I drove to meet up with my friend, and as I drove home. And do you know, it was great. So often in my car I get bored, my mind wanders, and I resent driving because I sometimes feel its like a waste of time. I just want to get to my destination now, I cant be bothered with the process of driving there.

But this journey was awesome. God reminded me of some great truths that I've been forgetting lately. I get frustrated sometimes that I cant see ahead into God plans; that I don't know where I'm going at times; that my pages are left blank and He calls me just to trust Him.

Peter said in his lectures that 'God's design is infinitely greater than our understanding'. Even if God showed me snippets of his plan, there is no way I would understand the greater picture of it. '"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your ways" says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher that your ways, and My thoughts higher than your thoughts"' (Isaiah 55:8-9). The Lord simply calls us to trust Him, and commit our ways to Him.

I realize this post has gotten pretty long. Well done to those of you who have made it this far!! Let me finish with a quote by Hannah Whitall Smith I have written in my notes from this lecture...

"If a leading is from the Holy Spirit 'the way will always open for it'. The Lord assures us of this when He says, 'When He puts forth His own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow Him because they know His voice' (John 10:4). He goes before them to open the way, and we are to follow in the way thus opened. It is never a sign of divine leading when a Christian insists on opening his own way, and riding on roughshod over all opposing things. If the Lord goes before us He will open doors before us, and we ourselves shall not need ourselves to hammer them down."

-

"Jesus Christ is your true Prince, the one who gave His very life just to be with you, the one who can rescue you from the dungeon you are in, the one who can transform you into a radiant princess, the one who can carry you away to His beautiful land to cherish you forever. His is the only one who can meet your deepest longings; He is the only one worthy of your entire heart, life, soul, and body - all you are and all you have. Jesus Christ is the Prince you should passionately pursue with all your heart. 

"Many of us don't realize that Jesus Christ is not a flimsy flannel board figure from Sunday school lesson; that He is not a stern dictator looking down on us from heaven to make sure we obey His rules; that He is not a distant being who is too bust running the world to care about the details of our day to day lives; and that He is so much more than someone we say we believe in to keep ourselves out of hell when we die.

"He is the Lover of our soul. Our true Prince. The one we have been longing for, searching for, and dreaming of since childhood. The one who will love us the way no one else can love us; the one who will cherish us forever; the one who will transform us from a hopeless girl in rags to a beautiful, confident  radiant princess. He is the one who makes us ready for true, lasting, human love. And he is the one who meets our deepest needs when human love falls short."

- Leslie Ludy

A letter to myself

This week something kind of weird happened to me. I've been half expecting it for a while now, I knew it should be coming the end of this month, but it arrived earlier than I expected, and kind of took me by surprise. 'What is this weird thing' I hear you asking!? Well, this week I received a letter off the March 2012 me. Yeah, weird.

OK, so a a year ago I was finishing off at bible school and getting ready to come home. Our principle gave us the option of writing a letter to ourselves which the school would then post to us a year later. And so I did. I wrote this 6 page letter to myself which this week I got to read as I sat in a coffee shop in town.

As I read I laughed out loud, I cried a little, and laughed some more (....the 2012 me was a pretty funny lass I'm not going to lie!!). Most of all though, I seriously encouraged myself. I read all the things that I'd written to myself, things that the 2012 me didn't want to forget, things that I knew I would need reminding of. And it was so awesome. There was so much in there that I needed to read.

God is so good, he knew exactly what the 2013 me would need to hear, and so he'd put it all on the heart of the 2012 me to write down. Literally everything that I'm struggling with right now, the 2012 Steph covered. I was reminded of all the things that I learnt during my time at Bodenseehof; verses that had challenged and encouraged me during those 6 months, lessons that God had taught me, principles that were based on His truth that he placed on my heart. His planning never ceases to amaze me.

I got thinking to all that's gone on the year that I've been back home. Firstly  I cant really believe that its been a whole year already...where does time actually go!?! But yeah, I thought back to what He has done for me the past year, how He has provided for me. He reminded me through this letter that He is my provider, and he wont ever stop being my provider.

I'd also put in this letter 'the best equation ever' ...

CHRIST + NOTHING = EVERYTHING.

I think we are often so quick to think that all we need in X, Y, or Z in our lives to be satisfied, or to be that little bit happier. But we are so wrong to think this. He is all we need. In Him, and only Him, can we find true satisfaction. 

This letter couldn't have come at a better time, and couldn't have contained anything more that I needed to be reminded of.

Thank you Jesus. 

This is our God.

The past few week I've come across some great new worship songs that I'd never heard before. I love it when you come across a new song, where the lyrics are so powerful, just so TRUE, and just what you want to sing to God at that time; they are what your heart is longing to worship Him with, but you just couldn't formulate it into words yourself.

This song by Hillsong is one of those new songs to me. (I don't actually think it's that new in general, just to me. Maybe I'm getting behind the times slightly!). It's called 'This Is Our God'...

Your grace is enough 

More than I need

And your word I will believe

I wait for you

Draw near again

And your spirit make me new

And i will fall at your feet

I will fall at your feet

And i will worship you here

Your presence in me

Jesus light the way

By the power of your word

I am restored

I am redeemed

By your spirit i am free

And i will fall at your feet

I will fall at your feet

And i will worship you here

Freely you gave it all for us

Surrendered your life upon that cross

Great is your love

Poured out for all

This is our God

Lifted on high from death to life

Forever our God is glorified

Sovereign king

Rescued the world

This is our God

And i will fall at your feet

I will fall at your feet

And i will worship you here

Freely you gave it all for us

Surrendered your life upon that cross

Great is your love

Poured out for all

This is our God

Lifted on high from death to life

Forever out God is glorified

Sovereign king

Rescued the world

This is our God

spring

Spring.

The time of year when you start to say goodbye to the blustery gales of winter and hello to the blue skies of March. When you winter boots start to make work way back into you wardrobe, and your summer tops start edging their way out.When colour stars reappearing in the world, and daylight starts to stick around a bit longer. When you decide that everything needs a good clean and sort out. When you can taste the excitement of summer starting to get closer.

Ahhh, spring is is here. 

I'm so ready for this season. The long nights of winter are drawing to a close...finally! I'm so ready for days that don't go dark at 4:30, and 6am light that makes it that tad easier to get out of bed. I can feel new things around the corner, and I can see new life on its way, new starts, new pages, new chapters...

Spring, its good to see you again.

travel wall

Today I spent my day off creating this travel wall. Not going to lie, I'm pretty impressed with it.

I decided a few days ago it was time that I (a) start actually printing hard copies of my photos, rather than just keeping them all just on my laptop to look through, and (b) put more things up on my walls that remind me of the good times I've had the past few years.

And boy, as I was putting all these photos up I realised just how blessed I am to have had the adventures that I've been on, and the friends that I have.

But it did also make me just want to buy a plane ticket somewhere...anywhere...and just travel some place new.

*sigh*

Ahhh, I just want to travel. Meet up with old friends, make some new ones, take more photos to put on this wall, live somewhere different for a week, two weeks, a month...gosh, maybe even a whole year!?

Who knows what adventures are ahead of us huh?!

eipc week

Why was it an epic week?!

Well, just check it out...

 

Skiing in the Swiss Alps with great friends and awesome banter, all topped off with a good amount of delicious Swiss hot chocolate...how could it be anything but epic?!

Take me back please.

Snow capped hills

God is my favorite artist. What a beautiful creation.

Psalm 73:26

Journals

Not sure if you keep a journal or not, but I do. Granted, sometimes I don't actually write in it as much as I'd like to, but I LOVE it.

OK, now when I say journal, I'm not talking about one of those 'dear diary' kind of things. I don't write in it all I've done for the day, or gush about boys or anything haha! I'm meaning a God journal. One where I can write down prayers and answered prayers, things that God is teaching me, things I'm struggling with, things I'm encouraged by, ways I can see God at work.

Last Sunday I led the prayer and share evening at my Church. I'd only been to it like 2 times before (it's only on once a month or something) and so when I got asked to lead it I wasn't entirely sure what to do for it. I didn't know what to share, and what to lead the group in prayer about. Anyways, the week before it was kind of in the back of my mind, and on my to do list of things that I needed to get done. But that's exactly where it stayed for the whole week...still written on that to do list, and still just at the back of my mind floating around amongst a ton of other things. And so Sunday rolls around, and I'm like 'crap, I'm leading prayer and share tonight, and I have zero planned. Oh heck'.

I sat down at my desk, completely inspiration-less, flicking through my bible looking for an encouraging verse or something. Then I thought 'hey, we could just pray for persecuted Christians around the world, they need prayer right?! I can take in a map, we can look at a few countries  pray for the missionaries there...'. I opened up my laptop and started having a browse through the open doors website and started having a quick read up on some of the countries where it's difficult to live out the Christian faith. Yet, as I was searing for a few facts and case studies on line, it just didn't feel right. I'm not meaning we shouldn't pray for these types of places and the people living there, because they totally need our prayer. But I just felt as though God was telling me I was taking the 'easy way out' in my prep for the prayer and share.

And so I closed my laptop, and was like 'right God, if this isn't the direction you want me to take with tonight, then what is, because I'm running out of time here'. So I sat there a little longer, thinking about all sorts really. I let my mind kind of wander after praying for some inspiration, and I started thinking over the past year. 2012 for me was kind of weird. It's not going down in my books as one of my most enjoyable years, it was pretty tough going. Summer wasn't all that great, autumn was hard, and the past few weeks I've been feeling pretty down and direction-less. Like I'm not really making any progress in life.

I got out some of my old journals that I'd kept that year, and also the one I kept during my time in Germany at bible school, and I started having a read. And I have to say, reading through all of my entries was so awesome. They made me smile so much. I flicked through page after page of things that had happened, things I'd prayed for, I remembered things that I'd learnt, and people that had encouraged me.

And after reading though most of the pages I'd kept, one thing was so evident....

God's faithfulness.

He is so flipping consistent, and so faithful its unreal. Every time that I'd wandered away from Him and His word, He was there waiting for me. Every time I prayed to Him that I'd get closer to him BOOM, he draws me close to him. I noticed that prayer after prayer was answered. I was reminded of things that I had been learning over the past 9 months, and it was just what I needed to be reminded of right then last Sunday afternoon. The verses I had written in my journals were just what I needed to read. Being reminded of this faithfulness was exactly what I needed after a few pretty hard going weeks. He is so awesome, every little detail in His huge plan works out perfectly.

I shared just this at prayer and share. And we discussed as a group the ways that we have seen God at work over the past year, the prayers that we have seen answered, the things that we have learnt or been encouraged by.

If you don't keep a journal, I'd seriously encourage you to. I mean, we're at the start of a new year (...well, we're like 15 days into it now, that's pretty much still the start right?!), its a perfect time to start I'd say. 

Psalm 25:4-5