Future Grace

“We are commanded in no uncertain terms to be thankful. ‘And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts….and be thankful.’(Colossians 3:15) ‘In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus’ (1Thessalonians 5:18), How can we not be thankful when we owe everything to God? We can’t even begin to pay him back, because Romans 11:35-36 says, ‘Who has given a gift to him that he [God] might be repaid? [Answer: nobody] ‘For from him and through and to him are all things. To him is the glory for ever.’ We can’t pay him back because he already owns all we have to give him. God does not like to have his grace nullified. He likes to have it glorified (Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14) Gratitude looks back to grace received in the past and feels thankful. Faith looks forward to grace promised in the future and feels hopeful. 'Faith is the assurance of things hoped for'(Hebrews 11:1)” -John Piper-

Romans 8:32- “He who did not spare his own son but game him up for us all [past grace], how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? [Future grace]”

“Trusting In future grace is the enabling strength of our obedience. The more we trust in future grace is the enabling strength of our obedience. The more we trust in future grace, the more we give God the opportunity in our lives to show the glory of his inexhaustible grace. So take a promise of future grace and do some radical act of obedience on it. God will be mightily honored!” –John Piper-

I have been very convicted by John Piper's wise words. He has encouraged me to trust in future grace. Oh the depth of the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not only do we have his grace now, we have it forever! The song below always reminds me of God’s steadfast grace….

It was your grace that drew me to the cross
It was your grace that gave me faith
It was your grace that reconciled me to yourself
Though I had sinned in every way

In you alone my strength is found
In you alone my hope abounds
In you alone my strength is found
My life is bound up in you

And in my weakness give me still more grace
Grace to cast myself on you
In every trial let me find you peace and joy
Grace to humbly walk with you

Give me more grace O God
And new mercies every morning!

Father my prayer is that in my recent days of needing to trust you for the unknown that I would seek to know you more and find you as my strength. I have been so blessed by your love and mercy. I'm in awe of your beauty and majesty. Thank you for the grace you have poured out on such an undeserving sinner like me.

Daily Bible Verse:

Habakkuk 3:18-19-“Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength!

Today’s Mercies for Today’s Troubles

Matthew 6:34-“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

“Trusting Christ today includes trusting him to give you tomorrow’s trust when tomorrow comes. God will not let his children be tested in any given day beyond what his mercy for that day will sustain. God’s mercies are new every morning because each day has enough mercy in it only for that day. This is why we tend to despair when we think that we may have to bear tomorrow’s load on today’s resources. God wants us to know that we won’t. Today’s mercies are for today’s troubles. Tomorrow’s mercies are for tomorrow troubles.” –John Piper-

Lamentations 3:22-23-“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning, great is your faithfulness.”

What truth! I don’t know about you but sometimes I wonder if I will have the mercy to stand in terrible testing. The answer is clearly yes! The problem is because of my sinful nature there are times when I worry about this too much. I fail to trust that God is sovereign and in control over ALL things. The thing of it all is I can’t recall one time in my life when God hasn’t been faithful to deliver me out of fear. Every time I have cried out to God for help, I have experienced His peace instead of worry. A quote that I have always loved and has helped me get through trying times is: “Two women looked through prison bars; one saw mud the other saw stars.”

“Day By Day”
Day by day, and with each passing moment,
Strength I find to meet my trials here;
Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment,
I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.

He whose heart is kind beyond all measure
Gives unto each day what he deems best
Lovingly its part of pain and pleasure,
Mingling toil with peace and rest

Father I pray that when I’m faced with difficult circumstances that I would make you my blessed controller. Please help me to accept you ways, accept your outcome, and let my trust be in you alone. Give me grace not to look down at the mud, but to lift my eyes up to the stars!

Daily Bible Verse:

1 Corinthians 10:13-“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond you ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

Chapter 1-Can You Trust God?

Psalm 50:15-“And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you and you will honor me.”

“Can you trust God?” “Do you have such a relationship with God and such a confidence in Him that you believe He is with you in your adversity even though you do not see any evidence of His presence and His power? It’s not easy to trust God in times of adversity. No one enjoys pain, and when it comes, we want it relieved as quickly as possible. Even the Apostle Paul pleaded with God three times to take away the thorn in his flesh before he finally found god’s grace to be sufficient. Joseph pleaded with Pharaoh’s cupbearer to ‘get me out of prison’”

Psalm 34:10-“Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD.”

“In order to trust God, we must always view our adverse circumstances through the eyes of faith, not of sense. And just as the faith of salvation comes through hearing the message of the gospel, so the faith to trust God in adversity comes through the Word of God alone.”

“The scriptures teach us three essential truths about God- truths we must believe if we are to trust Him in adversity.” They are:

1. God is completely sovereign.
2. God is infinite in wisdom.
3. God is perfect in love.

Remember that when we fail to trust God we doubt His sovereignty and question His goodness!

Father I pray that when I am in adverse circumstances I would find you as my strength and remember that you are completely sovereign, infinite in wisdom, and perfect in love. Give me grace to go through life as someone who turns to your Holy Word and trusts in your glorious sovereign plan for my life.

Daily Bible Verse:

Romans 11:23- “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!”

Trusting God

I can’t believe that another month has gone by. It seems like just yesterday was October 1st. I am glad that the holidays are fast approaching. I love this time of the year as I get to enjoy being with my family and spend time in the kitchen with my mom cooking up hot pots of soup or fall dishes that normally aren’t made other times of the year.

Over the weekend I went to the Gator and had a bon fire with the singles from my Church on Saturday night and brought back some of our middle school days and played an interesting game of telephone, watched the Jags get a spanking on Sunday and then went and played volley ball in the freezing cold weather, followed by hot chocolate. Overall it was a great weekend filled with Gods grace. Here are a few pictures from the Gator game......




Well, Enough about that!

My singles group at Church is going through the book “Trusting God” by Jerry Bridges on Sunday nights. I’m not even through the first chapter yet and have already begun to be convicted of my lacking in the area of trusting God. Most of the time it’s easy for me to think I have my trust in God but, deep down inside, most of the time I’m not trusting Him. I thought it would be a good idea to do a re-cap of a chapter once a week.

Stay tuned for the upcoming posts!

Daily Bible Verse:

Psalm 25:1-2-“To you, O Lord I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me.

A Decision Has Been Made

For those of you who don’t know where I work, I work at a Brusters ice cream shop managing it for my dad. When my dad asked me to work for him it was hard for me to find joy agreeing to it. Mainly because I had my heart set on doing something in the field of interior decorating. I agreed to help get the business up and running until the first of the year.

Well… the Lord has changed my heart. My dad asked me a few weeks ago if I was going to be sticking around or leaving at the first of the year. Like I said above, at first, the idea of taking this job did not sound too fun to me. In fact, I didn’t like the idea at all! I didn’t find any joy in it what so ever! After going to many conferences the Lord has changed my heart! He showed me that my call right now is to be serving my family even though I don’t have my dream job. Sooo…. a few days ago I told my dad to count me in, I told him that as far as I know I’m going to be sticking around for as long as the Lord wills. Not only am I excited about serving my family but, it has been bringing me joy! What a testimony of God’s steadfast grace!

The Lord has been so faithful to answer my prayers as to where He wanted me in the season of life I’m in. I’m SO grateful to God for all He has and is doing in my life.

Thank you everyone who has faithfully been praying for me! The Lord has definitely answered your prayers. Glory is to God for all He has done!

I’ve included a picture of my dad, grandfather, and I, with the Bruce himself while in PA for our training….. Until Monday, have a great weekend! Oh, and GO GATORS!!!!




Heavenly Father, I am once again in awe of your steadfast love and mercy. Thank you for your faithfulness to answer my prayers and for turning my mourning into dancing. You alone deserve all the glory forever!

Daily Bible Verse:

Psalm 30:11-12- “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

Rising Early-Part 3-Some Helpful Tips

Here are some tips that The Girls have provided to better serve others in their daily fight to rise early that have helped me fight this battle tremendously….

1. Place your alarm clock in a strategic location, preferably on the other side of the room from your bed.

2. Set your alarm for the same time every day.

3. Never, never, never hit the snooze button or lie back down to catch a few more winks. The second your alarm goes off it is the most critical moment in getting up early.

4. Proceed directly to the coffee pot of caffeinated drink of choice.

5. Be prepared to feel absolutely miserable for about ten to fifteen minutes. But the misery soon turns into pure gladness as your experience the delight of meeting with God and reap the benefits the rest of the day. Fifteen minutes of misery is certainly worth fifteen-plus hours of peace and productivity.

6. Remember that our bodies eventually respond to a standard wake-up time. In other words, it gets easier.

Though I don’t think I’m going to go to the extreme of rising at 5am, I do think that I’m going to begin making better use of my time in the morning rather then using that time to sleep and rush out the door.

Hopefully this was all encouraging and convicting as it was to me!

Daily Bible Verse:

Ephesians 5:15-16-“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.”

Rising Early Part 2-Putting It All To Practice

Before I go into part two of the three part series I'm doing on rising early, I wanted to let you all know of an interview with John Ensor, author of "Doing Things Right In Matters of the Heart" on the Girl talk blog. In Part three of his interview He's been answering questions on the topic of what does it really mean to crack twigs?.....Since their have been many conversations on the topic of what it really means to crack twigs since Na I thought his wise words might be helpful to some. They were very helpful to me! You can check out the interview here. Enjoy!

Yesterday I went over why it is important to rise early and spend more time meditating on God’s word and enjoy being in His presence. Today I wanted explore different ways to put this to practice.

I’m not a morning person…..

Maybe you’re thinking, “I’m just not a morning person! I’ve tried before and I simply can’t get up early!”

The Mahaney Girls have once again convicted me by saying, “It doesn’t take a miracle. It requires discipline exercised in reliance upon God’s grace. And it might help if we dispel the myth of the morning person because there is no such thing!”

Martha Peace has some frank words for people who think they are not morning people….

“I have heard of people who pride themselves on being ‘night people’ that means they have trouble getting up in the morning because they come alive at night. They may stay up till all hours reading, watching TV, or pursuing some sort of interest. The next morning they are too tired to get up….. These people are not ‘night people.’ They are lazy and selfish. Who wouldn’t rather stay up late to do whatever they please and sleep late the next morning.”

I’m guilty! I’ve been that lazy and selfish person and continue to battle that temptation. I can testify that early morning time is definitely more profitable then my late-night hours.

I’ll wrap all this up tomorrow……

Daily Bible Verse:

Proverbs 10:28-“The hope of the righteous brings joy, but the expectations of the wicked will perish.”