Worship

Worship should be completely for HIM. When I worship I want that total surrender and complete reverence for God that gives me shivers, tears, joy, and wholeness. Worship shouldn't be about how well you sing, how high you lift your hands, whether you can clap along to the beat, or what you look like to the cute guy sitting in the pew behind you. NONE OF THAT SHOULD MATTER!! Worship isn't about us, it's the one time where it's easiest to focus on us when it should be completely about HIM. If you're worrying about what others think about you while you worship the King, they don't matter. How great and holy are they if they're staring at you instead of into the face of Jesus?? Hint: Probably not very! 


I LOVE worship. It's one of the ways I just fall into the arms of Jesus and let go. And sometimes it becomes so much more than that, more than what it is. Worship isn't just singing because in fact that's only one way to worship God. 


Worship: 
      noun- The expression of adoration and reverence, a way in which love is shown or expressed 
      verb- To honor, love, and regard with adoring esteem and devotion 


See singing in there? I don't. I think we as followers of Christ are called to live a life of Worship! 24/7 we should be living in a way that expresses our devotion and love to God. It shouldn't be a scheduled half hour to forty-five minutes every Sunday morning and Wednesday night. It should be all the time. 


So lets just say we're talking about worshiping with our voices with song during Church, don't let anything hold you back from praising God the way you want and surrendering everything to him. What's wrong with how you sing? God MADE you to be like that and to sing to HIM in that voice! And what's wrong with dancing up and down for joy at what the LORD has done in your life and will do in your life? Nothing! In Psalms 149:3 it says, 

"Let them praise his name with dancing
and make music to him with timbrel and harp."

Don't live your life trying to please other people, live a worshipful life that pleases God and shows your love, devotion, and adoration! 

Have a lovely week! 

Janae 

Bell Jar

In my Modern American Literature class we're reading the Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. It's gotten really depressing because the main character is insane and is going down a very dangerous path/is suicidal. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. I really hate it. It's partial creepy. So there IS a point to this. We have to journal about each chapter we read and in this last chapter she's planning to commit suicide and how to do it. So in my journal I wrote about how I couldn't understand wanting to kill myself because of all the things I'm thankful for. So I listed some and it made me really grateful. Here's part of my list:

Snow
Rain
Thunderstorms
Summer
Fall
Spring
When the snow melts
Crunchy fall leaves
Talking
Giggling
Laughing
Chit-chatting
When the sun warms you up
Earrings
Warm towels
The smell of clean clothes
Homemade bread
Tapioca Pudding (okay this one's weird but it's one of my favorite foods ever)
Smiles
Cloud watching
Shoes
Walking barefoot
Swimming
Camping
Fresh Cut Grass
Camp fires
Singing
Coffee
Petting something soft (like my/any dog)
Music
Jesus
My Bible
The book of Psalms
Comfort from my Heavenly Father

So my list could and does go on and on the more I think but the point is, that I really realized how blessed God has made me. These past two weeks have been horrible school wise and just taking a minute to write down the things I'm thankful for and love about life gave me a new perspective. I think I need to rely more on God to get me through my tough times and I need to take in each moment and think about the positive things about each second. I'm positive it'll make me more JOYFUL.

A Bible Verse I'm loving: Psalm 3:3-8 (It's so comforting)

You are such a blessing!
Janae

Overwhelmed.

This is a picture I found when I typed "someone stressed out" into Google images, it is pretty cute though (; 

So I haven't posted in like forever because school has pretty much taken over my life. No kidding. This past week has been beyond stressful and crazy and I'm so glad it's the weekend! So this is my week:
3 quizzes
3 tests
youth group
violin
the doctors office (because of my car crash still making me hurt terribly)
studying like crazy
FCA
getting no sleep

But it's all over. And God really helped me through it. He did so much. One part of my freaking out this week was my AP European History test on the Russian Revolution. If you follow me on twitter, you'd see half my tweets are about that class (aka Euro), a third about school in general, and then the whatever percent that's left is about God. But anyways, my teacher said that this is the test that the most people get D's and F's on so I was super freaked out. Yep, and so was everyone else in my class.
HERE COMES THE GOD THING
I got a B-!!!! In every other class I only settle for A's, but this class is a killer and if most people in the past got D's and F's, I'm soo happy with a B-!

Even though much worse things have happened, in a small way, this week has shown me that God's always there for me and looking out for me. He's always taking care of me and will never let me fall. Just 5 more weeks of Euro and I'm home free!

Another thing I learned this week is how much more I love my friends. They're always there to freak out with me about a test, calm me down, boost me up, laugh with me, chat with me, and pray for me which I really appreciate. Friends are definitely a gift from God. They're so wonderful!

And this weekend the girls in my youth group are having a sleepover after Bible Study since there's no school Monday (Another gift from God, no joke!) and that'll be the perfect way to celebrate my B-! haha I know that sounds bad but I'm going to celebrate anyways! (:

Have a lovely weekend,
Janae 

Comfy in Refuge

Where's your place of refuge? Is it a particular place? Or with a certain person? Maybe its with your aunt or your brother or mother or grandparent. Or maybe its your childhood tree house, your bedroom, the basement or outside like a lake or the nearby park. 

This is what my brothers and I's looked like when we were little. Look familiar minus the Mac?

For me, when I'm really upset, my place of refuge is where ever my mom is or under the heaps of comforting blankets on my bed. I love the thought of hiding out or taking a place of refuge when the Bible talks about that because I'm not a fighter by nature whatsoever. I'm the opposite. I like to run and hide until the trouble has passed. So naturally I'm drawn to the verses that talk about God being our place of refuge. One of my favorite verses that I've committed to memory because it gives me so much comfort is Psalm 57:1 

"Have mercy on me Oh God, have mercy on me, for in you I take refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until this storm has passed." 

God is our place of refuge and is waiting for us to have him as that. I know it's easy to run to your earthly place of comfort, but next time instead or solely relying on earthly things for comfort, rest under the shadow of your Father's wings.

You are such a blessing! 

Janae 

Measures of Rest

DISCLAIMER: Sorry if this doesn't make sense, I wrote it kinda late at night so.... yeah.

The other day in my devotional I read something about how the best music is created in measures of rest. I'm a semi-musical person so this translates easily to my relationship with God. In measures of rest in music, it's written down in the score, it has been planned like that. It was meant to happen. Sometimes it builds suspense, sometimes it creates softness, sometimes it's there so that other voices in the orchestra, band, symphony, or choir can play out.
At times it feels like we have measures of rest in our lives. And just like the musician, God uses those times to make the song called our lives the best they could possibly be. He wants to maybe give us a break, or challenge us, or maybe we'll never know exactly why He has brought this change and quiet into our lives but we can rest in the fact that it's been planned since the beginning of time. I have no idea how God does it but he has known the exact steps each and everyone of us will and have taken. And they're all there. God is the composer of the universe and no one can compare, not Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, or any others. If we elevate the songs they have written to such a perfect level, what about the life that the best composer has written? I'm telling you that, that song, your life, is perfect in his eyes and these measures of dissidence or rest or harmony will all work out in the end into the best song there has ever been.