Praising God…Even When You Don’t Feel Like It

This week I have not felt like praising God. I have been so tired and mentally exhausted. My plans for this past Monday were to go home, eat dinner and go to bed. I knew we had revival at our church but I didn’t want to go, I wanted to sleep. I needed rest.

 

My husband really wanted to go to revival, so I went. I thought, I’m not going to get anything out of this. I am way too tired to comprehend anything. We sang a few songs and had prayer. During prayer, I literally fell asleep. I really began to think it was a bad idea for me to come to church. Our pastor called the singers up and it was a group my Grandma Wagoner used to sing with, The New Jerusalem. I thought oh great, I am already tired now I’m going to be upset. I love to hear them sing, but it is hard for me when they sing because I don’t see my grandma at the piano anymore. I closed my eyes and decided that even though I didn’t feel like it, I was going to praise God. He has been too good to me and is so worthy of our praise. I got a huge blessing. By the third song I was ready to shout! The message was wonderful as well. I was glad that I went to revival.

 

I am glad I decided to go to church and praise God even when I didn’t feel like it. I can be a doofus sometimes. Instead of thinking about and praising God, I think and do what I want. The last sentence had a lot wrong with it. I think. I want. We should think about and do what God wants. He designed us to praise him and give him glory. He is truly worthy of praise. He is an awesome, mighty, powerful and wonderful God!

 

Hebrews  13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”

 

He never changes! He is the same all the time. He is constant and good. We are blessed to have a Heavenly Father who is constant and never changing in an ever changing world.

 

Sacrifice– surrender of something for the sake of something else; something given up or lost; an act of offering to a deity something precious

 

Praise – to express a favorable judgment of; to glorify

 

Towdah is a Hebrew word meaning praising God when it isn’t easy or when you don’t want to.

 

Hebrews 13:15 & 16 “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”

 

Jeremiah 33:11 “The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of hosts: for the Lord is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord…”

 

Psalms 54:6 “I will freely sacrifice unto thee: I will praise thy name, O Lord; for it is good.”

We should praise God when we feel like it and when we don’t feel like it. It says in God’s word that God is well pleased with such sacrifices. Sacrifices can be time, money, sleep, work, hobbies and anything else you value precious and dear. I gave up my time to worship and praise God and I was blessed.  Next time you don’t feel like praising God think of the word towdah. Think of how much God will bless you for sacrificing to praise him. Think of how much God sacrificed so that you could have life and salvation. He gave his only son to die for our sins. We can sacrifice time or sleep to give him praise.

 

Love from above,

 

Iva Mae

Change Your Attitude

The past few weeks I’ve been struggling with not feeling good enough. I see all these people younger than me who have homes and kids and it gets me down. It’s hard not to compare myself to others sometimes. I am not where I thought I’d be at 26, but I’m where I am supposed to be. I feel like such a brat sometimes! I have it so good but yet I seem to always want more.

 

I am blessed more than I could imagine. My husband and I both have jobs. We are both physically able to work. We have a wonderful marriage. I have a roof over my head, food to eat and clothes to wear. A lot of people around the world don’t have most of those things. One day my husband and I will be able to afford to live in our own place and we will have kids. It’s just not meant to be right now. Later I’ll understand why. We all have to endure different things. We can get really down on ourselves if we focus on what we don’t have instead of all the things we are blessed to have.

 

I read Proverbs 31 yesterday and I got angry. I have always struggled with Proverbs 31. I have never felt like a Proverbs 31 woman. I feel like I’m constantly trying to keep up with everything. I was thinking about all that I had to do this week and it overwhelmed me. It seems like I’m constantly struggling with wanting to spend time with my husband and trying to tackle to mountain of dishes and laundry. I would rather play video games with my husband or snuggle and watch a movie.

 

Sometimes I think that the Proverbs 31 woman was Wonder Woman. She seemed to work all day, take care of her family, work into the night and never need sleep. Plus, she was strong. She seems like a character in a fairy tale. Women today struggle with so much! We have pressure to be the perfect wife, homemaker, mother, employee, chef, & baker. I look at myself and think well I am not perfect at any of those things. I am not even a mother, homemaker, chef or baker. What if the Proverbs 31 woman status is not attainable for me?

 

I started thinking and I realized God made each of unique in our abilities, strengths and weaknesses. Like the kid’s song says, “I am weak but HE is strong”. I may never be a homemaker, a mother, baker or chef, but I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I can strive to be wise, honest, kind and true. The Proverbs 31 woman clothes herself with strength and honor. She speaks with wisdom and kindness. She is not idle. She is the woman who prays for her husband and her family. She doesn’t gossip or spend hours worrying about what others think about her. She is too busy taking care of the ones she loves and serving God.

 

I may not be able to change the situation I am in, but I can change my attitude and realize that in God’s time my dreams will come true. Until then I need to keep serving him and praising him for what I do have. God has been way too good to me for me to be ungrateful now.

 

Phillipians 4:6 “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made know unto God.”

 

God Bless! Hope this helps someone as much as it helped me.

The Heart

Today alone I’ve heard at least 6 or 7 comments from women about not feeling good enough or pretty enough and 2 have been from me.

There is so much pressure on women to look perfect. Turn on any television or get online and you will see adds for make up, hair color, shoes, clothes, breast augmentation, weight loss and self improvement. Every message we see and hear says buy this, wear this or do that and you’ll be beautiful. Some even give the message that unless you wear this make up or wear your hair a certain color you won’t be beautiful.

Anymore I hate watching TV. I like dressing up and wearing make up but I don’t need to wear those things to be beautiful. I was reading today and came across a verse about what defiles a man. It’s what comes out of the mouth because that comes from the heart.
Matthew 15:11 “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which comets out of the mouth, this defileth a man.”

If we would start with our hearts and do things to improve our heart, we would see true beauty. Beauty lies in our hearts and our actions and words. You can put all the make up on and take diet pills and color your hair but if you don’t have a beautiful heart then there is no true beauty. I’ve seen a lo of girls who look beautiful when you first see them, but once you get to know them they are ugly.

We don’t have to let the world’s definition of beauty define our beauty. Let’s smash the lies and start over. Let’s start over where it matters, back at the heart.

Who is this Jesus?

Self Mutilation & Destructive Habits Part 2

The other day I did a post about Self Mutilation. I wanted to add a few things today in Part 2.

Some of the things that were triggers for me were the following:

1.      Feeling alone

2.      Feeling isolated

3.      Feeling unworthy

4.      Feeling like everyone hated me

5.      Feeling not good enough

6.      Feeling not pretty

7.      Having people be mean say negative things about me and me believing them

I found the best thing to do is to find something to occupy your mind or and replace the bad activity with a good activity instead.

I love to read. I found reading was an escape from reality for a while. In the books I read I was the main character. I could go to China and Texas in the same day. I could be anyone or do anything I wanted to.

I also found going on a walk was a big help to me. I love nature and seeing all of the trees and flowers. I love walking in the park. I sometimes take my dog with me. Watching her enjoy nature is soothing.

I am not a big fan of working out. (GASP) I know the benefits are great though. When I do work out, it helps me to release stress and negativity. Exercise gives you endorphins which make you happy. It sounds cliché but it is true. During my work out’s I’m usually yelling at the DVD and calling the instructor a devil woman but afterwards I am happy.

The key is to know what triggers the self mutilation and to know what activity to replace the self mutilation with.

Remember you are beautiful! You are unique! You are fearfully and wonderfully made!

Psalm 139:14 “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.”