MVP #4

Greetings!!! This time tomorrow I'll know about the contest winners for the She Speaks contest and scholarships!!  You just never know......all I DO know...is God is in control!! No worries!

I started reading a new book yesterday. I read two chapters! Now, don't think I've got all the time in the world to sit around and read. :) One...I could read two chapters because they are S-H-O-R-T!! :)  Just my speed! And two, I could read because Hannalee took a second nap (since she had been up at 4:45am there was enough time in the LOOOOOOONG day for a second nap) and I had JJ lay down for quiet reading time too!  So....I read!  This book is by Lysa TerKeurst and called, "What Happens When Women Walk in Faith."  So far her books are so practical, down to earth, fun reading and have short and easy Bible questions at the end of each 6 page chapter!!! Yes, 6 pages!!!  She's just my speed!  I think she has 5 kids!! That's why HER chapters are short!! Ha!!! :)  

She starts off describing the five phases of faith that go hand in hand with the five fundamental truths of God:

1) God has a plan for me.

2) God is with me.

3) God will make a way.

4) God isn't surprised by death (not only physical, but spiritual and dying to self and our own ideas)

5) God brings dreams to life.

Then she states the different ways Satan tries to kill your dreams and get in your way of following God. There are five phases of faith:

1) Leaving: in order to get to a new level of faith with God, you've got to leave behind the old.

2)Famine: In this new place, you'll realize your comfort zone is gone, and you'll learn to depend on God like never before.

3) Believing: You've always wanted to really believe God, but now your experience of Him becomes too real to deny.

4) Death: coming to the end of your ability to make things happen.

5) Resurrection: In a way only He could, God makes your dream come true.

A few notes that I underlined from her first chapter:

*God has a plan for you...a dream perhaps you can't even imagine.  Priscilla Shrirer calls it "beyond beyond."  God goes beyond your beyond.

* find great hope that God really can use any woman who surrenders her inadequacies and circumstances to Him.

* live the dream God has given you.

* unwrap the blessings of serving, loving, and enjoying the mundane at home.

* perspective is the key

* learn much by being faithful in little, everyday responsibilities and eventually God is able to entrust larger responsibilities.

* be willing to honor God NO MATTER WHAT!  doing the laundry, when feeling overwhelmed, when cooking meals, when disciplining kids,  honor God and do it with a grateful heart!  

* align my perspectives with God's and honor Him in great and small things.

* spend time in God's Word even when the to-do list seems more urgent.  Get filled with Him first so you can love and give and serve out of an overflow rather than relying on own strength.

*  choose to keep a good attitude

* God wants our obedience  (that is my new word....obey, obey, obey...to follow that stirring...)

* hold closely to the Lord.

So then, all this leads me to my MVP verse for the first two weeks of this month....

I love how Lysa pointed out the paradigm of this passage....satan will flee and God will draw close!!!  

Here's my verse:

Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw close to God and He will draw close to you! 

James 4:7-8

So then...what's YOUR verse?  Leave a comment below to share!  And don't forget to check back tommorrow to see who won the She Speaks contest and scholarships!