The presence of God

2012 has been a great year...I wish I had more time to write. So much good stuff I could share but for now I want to write about THE PRESENCE OF GOD.

I came across this tiny little book written by brother Lawrence. I have no idea where I got it or who gave it to me but this morning as I was looking for something to read I found it in my office and it seemed to be perfect for where I am at spiritually and what I need to do to move forward in my journey.

To sum up the book I would say it is somewhat testimonial/somewhat instructional but the heart of the book is to encourage learning to be in the presence of God. He uses personal conversations, letters and more to communicate the importance of the practice of the presence of God.

he writes in a letter to a friend: let us examine our inner selves. Time is pressing in on us, and each of us must be responsible for himself. . .we must continuously walk in God's spirit, since in the spirit-life not to advance is to fall back. Those who have the wind of the Holy Spirit in their souls glide ahead even while they sleep. If the vessel of our soul is still being tossed by winds or storms, we should wake the Lord who has been resting with us all along, and He will swiftly calm the sea. I think this is beautiful and insightful!

Here are some principles of Christs conduct that he suggests we practice:

1. We need to be considerate of God in everything we do and say

2. We should remember who we are and that we are unworthy of the name of Christian, except for what Christ has done for us. 

3. We must believe with certainty that it is both pleasing to God and good for us to sacrifice ourselves for Him

4. We must learn to be completely dependent on God's grace

HE SAYS: The most holy and necessary practice in our spiritual life is the presence of God. That means finding constant pleasure in His divine company. 

Here are some tips on how to practice the presence of God:

1. we must do everything with great care, avoiding impetuous actions, which are evidence of a disordered spirit. 
2. We should stop what we are doing often and praise God
3. Our adoration of God should be done in faith, believing that He really lives in our hearts...
4. We must carefully examine ourselves to see which virtues we are in most need of and which we find the hardest to acquire...and lovingly ask for the help of His grace in our time of need. 

He also talks about the blessings of the presence of God: 

1. The soul has a more lively and active faith
2. It strengthens our hope
3. It causes the will  to rejoice at being set apart from the world,  setting it aglow with the fire of holy love
4. the soul familiarizes itself with Him to the extent that it passes almost its whole life in continual acts of love, praise, confidence, thanksgiving, offering and petition.  

I don't know about the rest of you but this is what I want! I want to constantly be in the presence of God.

I am going to set my eyes on this and really seek it...If you want to join me on this journey let me know and maybe we could work out a sort of accountability check-in! 


 
peace be with you --mommaavila!


 

my life mission

I, Heather Louise Avila, will sow for myself righteousness; reap the fruit of unfailing love. I will seek the Lord until he comes. I will always humbly seek to run with perseverance the race marked out for me.

As a wife, I will love my husband, pursuing peace, love and oneness in my marriage; always guarding his heart and encouraging his passions.

As a mother, I will love my children, I will pray for them, and I will teach them to pursue Gods heart and purpose in their life. I will always remember they are His and not mine. I will encourage them to live a life with purpose and passion. I will help them see God in their surroundings.

As keeper of the home, I will strive to create an atmosphere of love, care, beauty, peace, kindness and joy, as a refuge from the world and a witness to the love of the Lord. I will do my best to have a have a home where grace is given and received freely—where shame is never embraced.

As a woman, I will strive to be sensible; taking every emotion, desire and thought captive for Christ. I will constantly seek wisdom and keep a community of friends that inspire me to live unto the Lord. I will take delight in whatever is pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent and worthy of praise.

As a leader, I will strive to be kind; treating everyone as though they were Christ Himself. I will pray continuously and never neglect His word, remembering always that He is holding it all together, not me. I will be teachable and always pursuing growth in myself and others.

…And all these things I will do as though God is my master and Lord, striving toward them as though He has spoken these things to me Himself.

Heathers version of Psalm 119

Ok so I am studying Psalm 119 with is the longest psalm and the longest chapter in the Bible. Psalm 119 is structured by the Hebrew alphabet--there are 22stanzas and each one has 8 verses--following each letter of the Hebrew alphabet in sequence. To make it even more tricky each verse of the corresponding stanza starts with that letter. Does that make sense? So if we were doing the letter, A, I would write 8 verses in which each verse began with the letter A. A is probably relatively easy to accomplish but imagine the letter U or F or some other less common letters.

Anyway, I am not going to do 8 verses on each letter but I am going to attempt to write a sentence or phrase about God character for each letter of the English Alphabet.

A =Always with Me
B=Bountifully He deals with us(psalm 13:6)
C=Called us to His own glory and excellence. (2 Peter 1:3)
D=Died on the cross so that we can be free. I just have to say that I love the word Divine so I easily could have written another verse on Hid Divine power
E=Everything good comes from Him
F=Father of forgiveness
G=Generous Gracious God who has given each of us unique gifts and talents to be used wisely!
H=He knows the depths of our heart and He hears our prayers.
I=Instruction He has given to us to follow but more importantly He has given each of us an Invitation to be part of His Inheritance
J= Jealously He waits for us to turn to Him. (Exodus 20:5)
K=Kindgom of Heaven belongs to Him. He is the King!
L=Lord, Lawgiver, Light of the world, Lover of the Lost
M=Maker of all things, Mighty to Save, Merciful, Miracle worker!
N=Name above all names.
O=Owner of my heart. Overflowing with grace, peace, joy, and love.
P=Perfecter of faith. Promise-keeper. Peace-giver
Q=Quietly He whispers to us.
R=Renewer of strength. He alone can rest my soul. Righteous
S=Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne. Shelter from the storm. He is the stronghold in the time of trouble.
T=Thirst-quencher, trustworthy, truth-teller.
U=He is beyond our understanding.
V=Voice of Truth, He is the vine.
W=Will never forsake us. Wisdom is His to give. We are His workmanship.
X=ummmmm
Y=He is the same Yesterday and today.
Z=Zealous and Zion are words that I think of but struggle to put them in a sentence or phrase that represent His character.

So there it is me trying to wrap my mind around the complexity of this psalm and me trying to wrap my mind around the complexity of my God!

I hope your day is full of Gods grace and peace. I hope you find moments to spend with your amazingly complex and yet totally available God!

MOMMA AVILA

PSALM 119

Hi friends,

This morning I am beginning my journey through Psalm 119. Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD. Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. My last blog I said that I was deciding where to land in my journey through 2012 and I have decided on Psalm 119. This spring I will also journey through the life of David with a Beth Moore study. So these will be my focuses.

God also has been showing me that I need to conquer some insecurities that I have. We all have insecurities and I heard someone say recently...our insecurities are areas of our life that we don't truly trust God. HMMMMMMMMMM...I pondered this a while and asked myself what are my securities??

I realized that I am a relationally insecure person. I have really high hopes and dreams for my relationships and with high hopes and dreams there is a lot of room for let down or failure. I think it is good that I want great things for my relationships but I have to learn to be more gracious. Grace is a word that I am only really beginning to understand. Most of my life it was not part of my vocabulary. Ok but that is a whole other topic so back to my insecurities.

When I say I am relationally insecure, what I mean is that I fear my relationships will not end up like I hope for. Growing up in a non-christian family, I can look at most the relationships around me and see what I DON'T WANT. Don't get me wrong my parents did the best they knew how but without God as the center things just went mostly bad! My parents do not have good relations with their parents or siblings, they don't really have friends etc.

So, here is an example of what I am trying to suggest, I want to have a great marriage right? , a marriage where we have similar passions, where we encourage each other to live life to the fullest. I want to be each others best friend and always challenge each other. I want to grow old together laughing, cuddling and living passionately! Both Dante and I come from families where our parents don't have this sort of relationship at ALL! So I find myself tight-fisted with Dante too often because I fear that we will grow apart and that we will have a similar marriage to our own parents. (hope you are following this) Anyway, God does not want me holding on to anything tight-fisted. When I hold things this way HE is not able to do the work in our marriage that only He can truly do. It is in my insecurities that I squeeze too tight and I want to learn to let go and let God but that means I have to truly trust God...Do I?

Do I trust that God wants more for my marriage then even I can hope and dream for? Do I trust that God is even more invested in my marriage then I am? Do I trust that He is truly the one holding it all together? It is easy to say YES I DO! But to begin to let go of my tight grip and really allow God to reign in our marriage...Boy that is HARD!!! Lately when I go to God with my insecurities....For example I will say "Father please do not forsake me, as i let go more and more please don't forget that I want a marriage that is (all the things I mentioned earlier) ...and He says in a soft whisper YOU ALREADY DO HAVE THOSE THINGS BECAUSE OF ME(HIM)...Don't you know I have even more for you...goosebumps right??


WOW...it is true my marriage is great! All the things I want and hope for we have! If I can only trust that as I let go, God will do even more then I can imagine in my marriage...how exciting is that! So here I go on this journey of realizing that as long as my hope and dreams for my marriage, kids, friendships, family are in alignment with Gods then He is planning to do even more then I can imagine!

I don't know about you but I want to get past my insecurities so I can truly live the life that God has planned for me! Whatever your insecurities are they maybe different then mine or similar, but trust that whatever they are God wants them released from you so He can give you way more then you can even imagine!

Praise Jesus for this journey I get to go on this year. I am so thankful that my eyes have been opened to the truth of the Bible. I am so thankful for a great community to learn and grow(The Flipside). A community full of gracious love and acceptance. I am thankful for the marriage God has given me and the children God has given me. I am so blessed to be on this journey with all my the people God has placed in my life. I am even thankful for my brokenness because with out a deep brokenness I would never truly understand how much I need HIM!!!

Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. Deuteronomy 31:6

Peace be with you momma avila!

what will 2012 have for me???

2012 is here and I am spending a lot of time with God trying to find a focus for the year.


To reflect
2009 I focused on rules of Holy living in Colossians.--this helped me to understand how to live as a christian. Since I spent the first 30 years of my life lost, this really helped me change many patterns of my life!
2010 I focused on reading the whole Bible--this helped me in so many ways! One day I want to attempt this again but IT WAS A HARD TASK. I learned SO much about myself about God and about my journey and calling in life.
2011 I focused on Proverbs 31 and Daniel--I learned what it means to be a Godly wife in a broken world. I learned that I am a Holy Vessel that satan wants to devour but I can choose to walk with Jesus and turn away from satan.
2012 is still up in the air. I know God is showing me areas of my life that I need to let Him in more. He is showing me that the areas in my life where I am insecure are actually areas in my life that I don't truly let Him rule. He has me asking myself why am I insecure in these areas,what am I afraid of, and how can I overcome the lies in my head! So now I am on to find a place to rest in the Bible that will help me grow in this area. I am drawn to Psalm 23. I am also drawn to Isaiah 61. But I have not decided!

MOMMAAVILA signing out :)