Shelly A. Faust

Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year2

It was one of those divinely inspired, this-has-to-be-God, spiritual moments with my nine year old. I just knew he was listening and really understanding the deep revelation of the passage of scripture we were talking about.

And then it happened.

Out of nowhere.

Right in the middle of our anointed, theological conversation about Elijah being taken up in a whirlwind to heaven.

“Man, I wish I could go to heaven.”

“You are going to go to heaven, but it’s not your time yet. God has great things for you to do here on earth first.”

“Yeah, well, you know…I really want an Xbox1.”

Huh?

Maybe his deep pondering was more about video games than spiritual revelation.

Oh well, I guess a few minutes of attention and instruction is better than none at all, right? :)

Just like my son, I, too, can be a little scattered in my thinking. It’s easy to sometimes get off track and lose focus of whatever it is God is trying to teach me. I’m praying that I can be more intentional in everything I do this year.

Especially with my one word: SERVE.

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be firm (steadfast), immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord [always being superious, excelling, doing more than enough in the service of the Lord], knowing and being continually aware that your labor in the Lord is not futile [it is never wasted or to no purpose].” ~ 1 Corinthians 15:58 AMP

I want to serve God intentionally and purposefully with others, with my family, and in every task He places before me or calls me to do.

I also have some specific and strategic scriptures to pray over each of my children for the year. This will be one way for me to be intentional in my parenting and in serving my family.

How about you? Do you have one word God has given you for this year? And do you have a specific strategy in praying for your children for 2014?

By the way, better late than never…Happy New Year!!! 

(Disclaimer: I didn’t want the word serve, nor was I excited about it. The sanguine in me wanted something like friends or laughter or joy or favor…or party. Haha 😉 But I’ll save that for another, more detailed post about my one word coming soon…)

His Grace Covers

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His Grace Covers

After a day wallowing in self-pity and discouragement and spreading an unpleasant attitude all throughout my house (attitude is contagious, you know), God graciously and mercifully pricks my heart and shows me the error of my ways.

My seven year old and I had been reading a Proverbs a day that month and His prayer that very night just happened to be founded on Proverbs 14:1.

“…and God help us to be wise. Like the woman in…what was it? Chapter fourteen? The wise woman builds her house but a foolish one tears it down with hear hands. Yes. Help us, God, to be like the wise woman and not like the one who tore her house down with her hands. Amen” (Logan, 7).

His grace, found in words breathed out by my youngest child, covers and urges me to run back to my Savior.

I am undone and convicted. God scoops up and washes clean, makes new, remembers not.

Isn’t that grace? Not that we would take it and continue as we are but that we would be so overwhelmed with His goodness and mercy even in our sin that we run back to Him?

A thousand times I fail and still His arms reach wide and His embrace is gentle. Always loving. Always covering.

When I make a mess of things, when I spew words of anger and say things I regret, when I want to close my eyes and Just. Start. Over. ~ God is always enough and His grace always covers.

In Chapter 11 of our ACH study, Renee Swope talks about the woman she wants to be.  I, too, want to be a woman with a confident heart, a display of God’s splendor. I want my life to be transformed so that Jesus is revealed…even in my attitude…even in my home.

I can be that woman. You can be that woman.

When we live in the power of God’s promises and in a place of surrender, our life bows down to His will, His plans, His purposes and He raises us up as a vessel for His glory on earth (and in our marriage and in our parenting).

“You are a chosen [woman], a royal [priest], a holy [daughter], God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light” (1 Pet. 2:9). 

Prayer: God, we come to you messy and imperfect and broken. We surrender to you and we choose to live in the power of Your promises. Thank you for loving us even when we are unlovely. Your Word assures us that Your love never fails, never ends, never leaves. It also promises that Your grace is enough and Your strength and power are made perfect and shown most effective in our weakness. Take what we have and use it for Your glory alone. Transform us and make us more like Jesus that we might be a display of Your splendor on earth. In Jesus name, Amen. (Ps. 136, Ps. 52:8, 1 John 3:1, 2 Cor. 12:9,  Col. 1:27, Is. 62:3)

Power To Become

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become

I see thousands of women standing at the edge of the very place God has created them for. Destiny is within their grasp and yet somehow they can’t seem to reach it. Held back by fear, uncertainty, and doubt their feet stay planted and their arms remain bound. I have been in this great company of women. I have stared at the vast fields that lie ahead and the wide open territory waiting to be discovered. I have seen it, but my own thoughts and insecurities have placed boundaries around my ability to hope, my courage to dream, and my boldness to act. The edge feels safe and familiar while stepping over is risky and uncomfortable. Today, God is setting us free. STEP OVER and INTO the place of authority, favor, and provision that was created for you even before time. Become who God created you to be.

Our scripture this week (ACH Week 4) is John 1:12. It says, “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name:”

I have read this verse many times but this time. This time was different.

Three simple words strung together form a phrase that can change everything.

Power to become.

Unless we understand what this power is, we run the risk of never fully walking in it. In the original Greek (from the Strong’s Concordance) the word “power” here is defined as: privilege, authority, right, strength.

So, it is not just strength, although that is part, but it is a divine privilege given to us when we are spiritually adopted into the kingdom of heaven. We cannot know our place as a child of God until we first make the decision to receive from God the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. And although we have this great honor and undeserved privilege- this power to become- we will not become until we believe on His name, accept His covenant of grace, and begin to truly understand our heritage as a child of God.

The word “become” in the original Greek means: to cause to be; arise, be fulfilled, be made.

There is a transformation that takes place when we begin to walk in the spiritual place of privilege reserved for us. We become. We arise. We are fulfilled. We are made complete.

Our rights as children of God include a heritage unlike any other. A spiritual status of honor, although undeserved, is rightly ours. Every thing – every benefit –  found within the fullness of Christ is ours.

That thing God has called you to do that you’ve been hesitant to do because you’re afraid you might fail or you think you’re not good enough? Maybe you don’t understand the power to become that’s been given to you. Maybe you haven’t discovered all the benefits already yours. Open your Bible, pray, and let God reveal to you what is rightfully yours. This is the day for you to arise. There is a spiritual place of privilege reserved in your name.

Become.

 

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