prayer journaling

Hey friends! 

I'm purposing to update this blog regularly as God leads me. Some of you know that I first started this blog as a way to share sections of the book I've written. It's still such a dream of mine to publish that book one day and I would greatly appreciate you praying with me for God's will to be done regarding that dream. I've edited and refined it now several times. I am waiting in expectation and trusting the Lord to open the doors when the time is right. His timing is perfect. Thank you for your prayers! Thy will be done! 

I pray with all of my heart that God uses my words on here to be a blessing, encouragement, and inspiration to your life. I certainly don't have all the answers, but I am confident that what God is doing in my life and what He's teaching me is bigger than just me. I'm passionate about sharing my faith in Christ because Jesus has made such an incredible difference in my life. To imagine my life without Him would be like imagining my life without air. Growing closer to Jesus is my life's greatest joy and I love to speak of His faithfulness, power, and love!

Today I want to share about something I started doing recently that has really transformed my relationship with Jesus. Two months ago, I heard about something called "Write the Word" prayer journals by a popular Christian author named Lara Casey. The journal can be used however frequently you want. I write in mine each day (sometimes twice a day!). What makes this prayer journal stand out from the rest is that each day lists a new Bible passage and space for you to WRITE OUT the Scriptures, hence the name: "Write the Word." There's also a place to record the date, things you are grateful for, your prayers, and your "word for the day." 

Before "Write the Word" journaling, I would write down my prayers and often record a Bible verse or two on an index card and carry it around with me. But I wasn't journaling every day. With this Lara Casey journal, I decided to write in it every day. I started my journal on June 5 of this year. It's not even been two months, yet I have loved being able to flip back and see where my heart was each day, reflect on God's work in my life, and praise Him for His faithfulness. My faith has been so encouraged and strengthened! 

What's awesome is that there are many different journals - each with a specific theme. I chose the yellow "Cultivate Joy - Love One Another" for my first journal and I've loved studying passages from God's Word that are all about our relationships with Him and with others in this season. If you write in it every day, it will take you just about 3 months to finish the entire journal. I can't wait to order my next journal! 

Amazon currently stocks "Write the Word" journals: Green - Cultivate Renewal, Blue - Cultivate Hope, Yellow - Cultivate Joy, and Lavender - Cultivate Faith, but her website also has ones on gratitude, prayer, and forgiveness - even journals for kids! Both links are below: 

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y3KV9RF/ref=twister_B071CYY651?_encoding=UTF8&th=1

Lara Casey/The Cultivate Shop: https://shop.cultivatewhatmatters.com/collections/write-the-word

Highly, highly  recommend! I don't think there's any one right way to connect with Jesus. Of course, we don't have to write down our prayers or keep a journal. But, wow has this been such a joy and blessing in my relationship with Christ. Sometimes I think it's easy to forget what God has done, how He's answered our prayers, and what He's spoken to our hearts in different seasons. Writing this down is a beautiful way to fix your heart on Jesus and keep your eyes on Him. I know that Lara Casey personally writes notes to her children in her journals - making them sweet keepsakes to give to them one day. I love that idea! 

How do you remind your heart of God's faithfulness and keep your heart focused on Him? I would love to hear in the comments below! 

Love always, 

Colleen

Romans 15:13

far from shore

Hi friends, 

It's been a long stretch since I last wrote on here. I have been focused on finishing my Master's degree in Teaching which I officially completed one month ago today! It's been a very exciting time and I give God all of the glory. Earning a graduate degree has been one of my dreams for many years now and I am grateful for the grace and strength God gave me to achieve this goal. 

I'm writing today because God has put something on my heart for a while now. He's been teaching me a lot about His will in this season in my life. I'm sharing this with the hope and prayer that the lessons the Holy Spirit is teaching me resonates with you and draws you closer to Jesus. 

First things first. I don't think that a follower of Christ who is genuinely committed to Jesus can miss God's will. If you wake up every morning and intentionally set your heart on Christ, I do not believe God will let you be led astray or make His path before you so mysterious it is indiscernible. God longs to guide us even more than we long to receive His guidance. 

Yet I do believe there are levels of surrender when it comes to God's will. I like to think of our lives with the Lord as constantly moving away from the shallow waters near the shore and out farther and farther into the deep. It's not about a destination, but the process of continually choosing to go deeper with Christ - allowing Him to further refine and mature you into His likeness and character. At times, this might seem like a slow process, but God is always working on us to conform our lives into more glorious reflections of Jesus Christ. 

Graduating with my Master's this year made me think of graduating with my Bachelor's five years ago. Looking back over these past five years, I am grateful to see the Lord's faithful and loving work in my life. I am more mature in Christ now than I was then - in ways I could never imagine back then. And it's wonderful. He never stops pursuing our hearts. 

But the cost is surrender. Most recently, God has given me such a burden unlike never before to seek and to search for His will in all things. Ever since I can remember, since I was a little girl, I have been praying the Lord's Prayer each morning, asking for "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done." It's something I pray every day along with my personal petitions and prayers. 

Yet in this season, God has been teaching me to submit every decision to His will and to specifically pray for His will to be done over the multitude of decisions I've been making right now. There's nothing more exciting and thrilling than partnering with God to do His will and be a vessel for His purposes on this earth. 

But let me give you a disclaimer: When you pray for God's will to be done with regards to an opportunity, relationship, circumstance, or event in your life - get ready! I'll be honest and say that God will slam doors shut and lock them so that you cannot go through them. Things will likely turn out quite differently than your perfectly laid out plans. This might be cause for alarm, at first. Yet the Bible says that God's will is GOOD, PLEASING, and PERFECT (Romans 12:2). So... when you start purposefully praying for God's will to be done in your life and that door closes and you don't understand, please know that God has something better planned for you - beyond what you can imagine. I promise you - His plans are always, always, always, always best. 

Never, never be afraid to pray for God's will. The previous paragraph is not meant to scare you, but to describe the level of surrender necessary to fully living out God's will. He desires His will for your life because it's the best for you. God is not out to withhold from you or give you scraps and leftovers. He is a good, good Father. He loves you more than you could ever imagine. He created you in His image and He rejoices over every detail of your life. 

Let Him have His way in your life. Let Him take your far from shore. Voyage confidently and fearlessly with Him, joyfully surrendered to His will because Your Captain knows the way. It's the way to your greatest good and His greatest glory. Lose sight of the shore as you become captivated with Him; life with Jesus is the most beautiful adventure in all the world. 

His Name is Jesus

On my heart this Christmas Day:

For Joseph and Mary, that first Christmas was not glamorous or "Instagram-worthy." It wasn’t picture-perfect or wrapped up with ribbon. It was messy, it was dirty, it was lonely. It was hard.

We read in the Bible of how the angel appears to the virgin Mary with the news that she has been chosen to be the mother of the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. This angel, Gabriel, tells of how Mary has found favor with God and the Holy Spirit will come upon her and the Son of God will be conceived in her womb.

His message is of joy, of peace, of hope. Of news that would change the world forever.

And yet the angel’s message from the Lord leaves out several key details of how this will all play out. There’s no mention of Joseph’s initial distrust of Mary when he discovers she is pregnant. No mention of the long journey from Galilee to Bethlehem when she’s near the time of giving birth. No mention of an inn with no room. There’s no mention of Jesus, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, the King of kings, lying in a manger surrounded by animals. No mention of unclean, lowly shepherds being the first ones to visit the Christ child. There’s no mention yet even of crazy King Herod’s plot to find and kill the baby. No mention of the necessity of fleeing to Egypt.

Into this chaos, into this mess, into this struggle - Jesus is born. Our Savior, our Redeemer, the Lord of all. God incarnate comes into our brokenness and our hardship and He gives us Himself.

When Jesus breathed His first breath and opened His eyes to see the world He created, the darkness of the world could not compare to His Light.The mess, the brokenness, the struggle was all used by God to prepare the way, to fulfill His promise, to bring about the birth of a Baby Boy who would alter the course of history eternally.

The trials, the challenges, the battles we fight aren't to break us, to discourage us, to destroy us. No. They're purposed by God to bring about His greatest Gift into our lives - Himself. He is God with us - Emmanuel. It's all to bring us to our knees where we can bow before this Savior so we live in awe of Jesus - not of ourselves, our accomplishments, our success, our name. No. It's about Him. It's all for Him. It's all because of Him.

There's a Gift that's perfect for every broken, seeking, fragile, hardened, wandering human heart. A Gift given long before any of us were born but given with us in mind. A Gift God has given us the choice to receive or reject. If received, this is the Gift of redemption, of righteousness, of hope, of Truth, of freedom, of love, of grace. His name is Jesus.