Grace and Stuff :)

God's grace is free!! It's soo incredible and amazing and His love that goes along with that blows me away. Now along with this grace comes a new identity, an identity in Christ. And in Christ we are: holy, blameless, without condemnation, free of guilt and shame, righteous, free, completely loved, whole, full of the fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), and complete. What I think people (most definitely including myself) fall in to though is not being aware of their identity and when reading things that speak of faith being full of deeds, they believe that by doing these deeds they will gain acceptance. The thing is that in Christ you have already been completely accepted!!! There is nothing that we can do to gain God's love-because it is already ours! How amazing is it that the love and acceptance of our forgiving Father who created the heavens and the earth is ours! I think as we come to know and rest in our new identity in Christ our faith will make itself evident through works. Look at Jesus-our sweet Savior-he lived fully human, living completely dependent upon the Father and his life was full of action! I think it's so neat to know that it's not up to me to do great and wondrous works for the Father, but rather Christ in me-as I rest in my new nature does works to glorify Him and love on those around so that they may taste and know the love of Abba.

Just some thoughts as I go through the day. Hope all is well in everyone's world and I pray that you will come to know and rest in your new identity in Him and allow Christ to express himself in your life! It is so incredible to see, and I must say I am so thankful for all those around me who I get to feel, see, and hear God's love from everyday!!

Predictable....

It's funny and almost a little sad how predictable my life tends to be, during the school year I have pretty much the same routine everyday which includes going nonstop from six in the morning till ten at night. Now that sweet summertime is here everything gets a little thrown off, and sometimes it gets thrown off a lot! It's sad to say, but I have a hard time doing nothing-that is being lazy and just not doing a stinkin thing. Let's just say I'll never be known as one of the "Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" (who ironically sing the song, so they really do something), anyways, Papa's been kinda changin things up on me and I tend to react not all that splendidly. I find it hard to not have a schedule, not impossible, but a little more difficult. But I know that God knows what's goin on-it's actually kind of exciting to be in a position "when you come to the end of all the light you know, and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things will happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on or you will be taught how to fly" (Edward Teller) So I guess today I'm ready to fly! I don't know what Papa has in store for me this summer, but I'm sooo excited to see what that is, to fall deeper in love with Him, and enjoy the fellowship of my sweet friends and family-laughing the long summer nights away!

"For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord, "plans to prosper you not to hurt you. Plans to give you a future and a hope!" Thank you Daddy for these sweet words and the promise that I am held in Your hands!

"Timing is Everything"

Wow! It's been a crazy year so far, definitely dropped the A-ball on writing; but here I am now, writing. :D Quick update, had an awesome Thanksgiving and Christmas; although, both were postponed due to illness. Had lots of fun on our new years hike with the fam, everyone was actually healthy! That's definitely a big wow! Swim season is coming to a close by the end of this month. It's been loads of fun, but I think it will be nice to not have practice everyday. Life in general has been great, spending lots of time with friends and doing homework, wish I didn't have to spend so much time on the latter. Anyways, I guess I could get to the whole "timing is everything" idea now.

I've found myself more and more in awe with God's incredible timing. I sent my Christmas gifts out last week (yeah, I know three weeks late), but I received a text from one of my gift recipients (wow that sounded fancy), letting me know that God had greatly encouraged her through my gift. She had recently had a death in the family and my simple gift remindedher of how loved she was. I found myself sitting in absolute awe of God and his timing. I had been trying to send out those gifts for weeks and just hadn't found the time.

Wow, God is incredible! Only He could ever use the fact that I sent my Christmas gifts out three weeks late to glorify Him. It just reminds me that it all comes back to Jesus. I've found myself calling these little "God-cidences", my little hugs and kisses from Papa. It's so incredible to be kissed by Papa, to have Him whisper, "I'm here my beloved child, and I love YOU!!"

Despite how in awe I am of my Papa, I find myself so easily distracted by the world and all it doesn't have to offer. My ears become filled with nonsense and my head full of fears and worries. It's when I realize how unaware I am of Him that I realize my absolute desire and thirst for Him and His love. In times like this I am amazed by God's patience. However long it takes for me to wake up and realize it's all about Him (not me) and all about His love, He waits. He is patient. When I finally open my eyes and ears to him I am flabbergasted by His beauty, His beauty that He desires to flow out of me in all that I do, in every single one of my actions, however small they may seem.

So today I pray for whoever may read this that you will realize God knows exactly where you are, and He's not telling you to "hurry up!", He's right beside through it all saying, "My child, take my hand, I want to give you a hug today"

Lots of love in Him,
Kyleigh