Worship Pt. 4

I'm back! I just had an amazing vacation not doing anything! Every day was like 'What should I do? Hmmm. Whatever I want...' It was amazing. I didn't keep a schedule and just went with whatever was going to happen that day. I didn't put any pressure on myself to do anything. It was pretty great. I loved my vacation but I'm happy to be back at work. 

Here's a recap of our first three parts of this series: 

1. Music is not worship. Like apples are not an apple pie, music is not worship. Only a part. 

2. Worship is a part of everything we do. Not just music. 

3. Worship, in the english language, at its most basic definition is to ascribe worth to something.  

There are so many questions about worship we could write a series of massive books to deal with it all. If you have a question about worship you want me to try and answer, ask it at pastorjesse@rcceg.org and I will do my best to answer wisely.  

The reason for the posts on worship is to answer these questions: What is the biblical concept of worship and how does that apply to my life? When we know what it means to worship God biblically, we understand how to keep idols out of our lives and worship God alone. Much more falls into place when we know who and how to worship. 

Trying to define worship in today's world is like trying to pick your favorite food. Everybody has what they think worship is and they are going to stick by that and they live by that definition. Because worship is so integral to our lives we need to know what it means to worship God biblically. 

Here are some of my favorite quotes on worship: 

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell. C. S. Lewis 

The core of the person is what he or she loves, and that is bound up with what they worship - that insight recalibrates the radar for cultural analysis. The rituals and practices that form our loves spill out well beyond the sanctuary. Many secular liturgies are trying to get us to love some other kingdom and some other gods. Dallas Willard 

Worship changes the worshiper into the image of the One worshiped. Jack Hayford 

It is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men. C.S. Lewis  

Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God. It is the quickening of the conscience by his holiness; the nourishment of mind with his truth; the purifying of imagination by his beauty; the opening of the heart to his love; the surrender of will to his purpose. William Temple

Jesse

Worship Pt. 3

It sure has been fun writing these posts on worship. I've learned new things as I prepared to write that has continued my growth and understanding. As we look at worship and how it is applied to our lives there are a couple distinctions I want to point out. First, worship is not a feeling. There isn't a time in the bible that says 'Oh I love the feeling of worship'. True worship is a choice that might lead to peace and joy, but it is not a feeling in and of itself. Second, it is not something that God gives us. We worship God. We give, express, dedicate worship to God. God gives us love, righteousness, peace, joy, power, etc. but he does not give us worship. This helps us know what worship is not.

So let us begin on what the biblical concept of what worship is. Most people start with the biblical word in Hebrew or Greek, but I want to start with the English word - worship. The history of the word from Wikipedia says, "The word is derived from the Old English weorþscipe, meaning worship, honour shown to an object,^[2] which has been etymologised as "worthiness or worth-ship"—to give, at its simplest, worth to something." So worship's most basic definition is to ascribe worth to something.

When you ascribe worth to a god you are declaring by word or deed that that is the god you worship. Many people live in a way that ascribes worth to their favorite sports team, or their job, or their money, or their music, or their celebrities, or their smart phone, or social media, or their car. This is what the bible calls idols and are not worthy of their worship. You'll notice that just about anything can become an idol. There are also gods such as hindu gods, or the muslim god, or the egyptian gods, or greek or roman gods that the bible calls false gods. And this is where it gets really good.

There are all sorts of pleasures that God has created for us. Marriage, love, freindships, mangos, burritos, Chic-fil-a, swimming, art, music, etc. There are so many! God is amazing! How generous and wonderful He is! So how do we make sure that we do not make anything an idol or false god in our lives, to keep from letting anything take God's place in our hearts?

Worship.

Not just worship (ascribing worth to something), but worship towards the God of the bible. When God is given ultimate worth, all the pleasures, all the things God has given us, are given their proper place in our lives. This is why worship has to do with every part of our life. Because in and during every part of our life we are worshiping, giving something worth. So as we work, we worship God knowing he wants us to be honest and hard working. When we are married we worship knowing He wants us to be loving, kind, faithful, dedicated, and caring. When dealing with people who hate us, we worship by loving them as we know that's what He wants. When dealing with art, in any venue, we know not to advocate or promote sin or sinful behavior because that gives worth to the things that bring death. This goes for every area of our lives.

So let Jesus be first and the center of our lives.

Jesse

Part 4 coming soon.

Worship Pt. 2

Most people know what the smell and taste of garlic is. And if you are a cook you know you have to be careful with garlic because it permeates everything that cooks with it. I went to a Mimi's resteraunt one time for breakfast with some friends and ordered a quiche with a muffin on the side. As the muffin came out I grabbed it and snatched the butter and smeared it all over. As I took a bite I nearly gagged. The muffin was terrible. The flavor was just off. So I asked for another one apologizing because usually I just won't eat it and just won't order it ever again. But this was different. I've had good muffins before from Mimi's and I wanted a good one. So again, it comes out. Again, butter is smeared. Again, just terrible... This isn't right I thought. So I pulled off the bottom and tried it without the butter. It was perfect! Now I was confused. What in the world was wrong with the butter? I tried just the butter... And it was garlic butter they gave me for my blueberry muffin. I told the waiter what happened and he swore that it wasn't. I said taste it bro. They had been giving out butter with their muffins that was sitting in the same fridge as their garlic cloves. Oh snap is right. Was I the first to catch that?

So now back to worship. As garlic is a main flavor in every part of a dish so worship is a part of every section of our lives. In older wedding vows a part of the vow was 'with my body I thee worship'. Notice that it doesn't give a time limit or a degree of how much. It says 'all of who I am worships you. I will never give my self to anything that would take it away from you. I am yours physically, mentally, emotionally, I am yours.' Now how powerful is that when two people say the same thing towards one another, mean it, and live it? This is much more what it means to worship than just listen to music. It is all of who we are given to the one who created us. When we do this this is what the scripture in Romans 12:1 is talking about. 'And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.' NLT

Worship Pt. 1

Matthew 28:9 And as they went, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they ran to him, grasped his feet, and worshiped him.

In this scripture it says 'worshiped him'. Just imagine with me for a second, Jesus has just risen from the dead, you got a message from an angel that says go tell the disciples. And on the way they see Jesus and when they get up to him they stop turn on their headphones and start singing to him... He would say 'what are you doing?'  Would you answer I'm worshiping? It seems kind of silly doesn't it? In this instance worship does not mean spending time listening to music about Jesus and singing along. In fact there is no music involved in this worship of Jesus.
     99% of the time right now in America when someone says 'I'm going to worship for a little bit' what they are meaning is I'm going to spend some time listening to music, singing along and praying. And when they are done they are no longer worshiping... Do not feel guilt if you cant listen to worship music all the time. To sing and pray to music are not bad things, every one needs to take time singing and praying to the Lord. The bible tells us to!  But this is my point right now, listening to music and singing along is not the definition of worship. It is a part of what worship is but it is not the definition. And when we don't know what the biblical difinition of what something is we miss what God is trying to say in that portion of scripture. Worship is much more than just music and it encompasses our whole life.
     My point today is that worship is not music. Music is a part of worship to God but is not the definition.
     This is the first part in a series of posts on worship. I will be going over what is worship, what that looks like in our lives, and how we got to the current definition of worship, and how music works in worship.
     If you have any questions feel free to contact me at bloom@rcceg.org or grab me on a Sunday morning and ask away.

Jesse

Jesus is _______.

     'Jesus is _______.' was a series that a pastor out of the Seattle area did about two years ago. It is an awesome series! From that series I have been working on a list of who God is I want to challenge you today to read this list out loud, for two weeks straight, first thing in the morning. Getting to know God in these ways can be very powerful in your life! It takes two minutes to read. If you have any to add or verses to add let me know!
     This is the list that I drew from when I ended the message Bragging on God's Goodness a little while back.
Here's the list!

Jesus is God
Jesus is my good enough
Jesus is my more than enough
Jesus is my healer
Jesus is my friend
God is my peace
God is my love
God is my provider
God is my friend
God is my shepherd
God is my Helper
Jesus is my wisdom
God is my grace
God is my mercy
God is my Truth
God is my Life
God is my Way
God is my hope
Jesus is my Joy
Jesus is my rock
Jesus is my fortress
God is my strength
God is my protector
My shield psalms 3:3
My glory psalms 3:3
God is my victory
God is my every where friend
God is my banner of love and protection
God is my righteousness
God is my salvation
God is my savior
God is my deliverer
Jesus is my rescuer, 1 Thessalonians 1:10
Jesus is my Overcomer
God is my refuge
God is my stronghold
God is my redeemer
God is my restorer
God is my supplier
God is my portion psalm 73:26
God is my song
God is my light
God is my purity
God is my Passion
God is my Inheritance
God is my direction
God is my romance
God is my comfort
God is my warrior.
God is my satisfaction
God is my completeness
God is my one stop shop
Jesus is my resurrection power
Jesus is my creator
Jesus is better
Holy Spirit is my comforter.

I'm worn....

     Have you ever been ridiculously tired? Every Christmas the guys in my family go play football. We have so much fun trying to out run each other when most of us aren't really all that fast. But it lets us get some fun in throwing the long bomb and watching some unfortunate person dive and take 10 minutes getting up. Usually me... When I'm done with those games I am usually so tired and sore I don't even want to eat any more. I just want to sit on the couch and stare blankly at the screen as some poor college kids gets their brains knocked out.
     But haven't you ever felt like that spiritually and mentally? So worn out the songs of the band 'Tenth Avenue North' ring so true?
My prayers are wearing thin
Yeah, I’m worn
Even before the day begins
Yeah, I’m worn
I’ve lost my will to fight
I’m worn
So, heaven come and flood my eyes
(from song 'Worn')
     At the end of this musical bridge it is trying to build up to a positive big emotional plea but most of the time in our hearts, doesn't it feel like its a do or die statement of "God this is it, HELP!!!" It's not really a positive moment but a reminder that somehow we aren't living up to the stories we read about in the bible.
     Sometimes the answer is so simple we ignore it because we don't understand it or misinterpret what it is saying. It's so easy to miss...
    3 words can start a revolution if you let it. "Come to me" Jesus says. He doesn't say come to religion. He doesn't say come to discipline. He doesn't say come to church. He doesn't say come to your pastor. In Matthew 11:28 'Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.'
      Come to me, the lover of your souls! Come to me, I have a future and a hope for you. Come to me, I have peace and rest for you. Come to me, and taste and see that I am good. Come to me you who are weary and I will take the heavy yoke. Come to me, I love and care about you more than you can ever imagine. Come to me! Come to me! Come to me! Don't turn to tv as an escape I'm here alive and well. Don't turn to substitute pleasures, I'm all you need. Don't ignore me, I'm here to help. I'm here as a savior, a shepherd, a friend, an ally, a warrior, and a king.
     From this day forth let there be a constant reminder that when troubles come, and I'm worn, I can go to Jesus and he can help in every situation and time of need. And as we go to Jesus we can know in our hearts that:
Redemption wins
The struggle ends
That you can mend a heart that’s frail and torn
I know a song can rise
From the ashes of a broken life
And all that’s dead inside can be reborn
(words edited from song 'Worn')
     Being tired happens. Being worn out happens. But Jesus is always there.
     This is what I do when I turn to Jesus: 99.9% of it usually means that I have put my trust in something other than God and I have to remind myself of all that He is and has done. As I remind myself, the trust begins to move back towards being in Jesus. It doesn't mean that the situation is better - 'hallelujah' phony optimism. It means that Jesus comes in, the only way that he can, and peace and rest begin to fill you and the stronghold of weariness is destroyed.
     Jesus is our rest.
Jesse

I love reading.

     I love reading. I like reading the bible. I like reading fantasy/scifi novels. I like reading discipleship/apologetic books.I like reading leadership books. Reading is pretty amazing and here's why! Some one can study a subject, learn about it, live through it, then write it all down and I can read that writing and learn those same lessons without having to go through the heartache myself and avoid situations that the writer had to go through. It's incredible that we can learn about how to live and avoid problems that other people went through!
     Even then, there's still more. Because this world is broken we are still going to go through stuff, but when we read we can learn how to deal with problems before they happen to us. It is amazing to me how much is out there to help us learn and grow and be the best we can be. Just to start us off we have the most incredible book of all time the bible. This is cool, did you know that all the best seller lists don't include the bible because the bible blows every book out of the water in terms of sales, and it has for decades. The bible has stories, history, personal development, and more in this incredible book. I believe this is the book that needs to be the start of personal growth. No other book can help you like this book can. One thing to remember when reading the bible is that the bible was not written to us, but it is for us. The bible was written to people thousands of years ago, with different cultures and beliefs. If we don't try to understand those cultures and beliefs then we completely miss what the bible is teaching at that time in history. But when we begin to learn and understand what was going on way back then, we begin to understand the principles behind what he was talking about.   
     We then have other types of books that are great to read because they are for us today. Many people have read and studied what the bible was trying to say back then and helped interpret this for us today. These are called bible commentaries. There are some that are good, some that are a little wacky, but the majority written by confessing Christians are pretty awesome. The reason I say confessing Christians is that there are those out there that don't believe in Jesus and they study the bible and put out their own commentaries that are extremely liberal in their thinking. On biblegateway.com they have some of the standard commentaries that have been out for quite some time now. Commentaries are usually very academic in their writing.
     On top of all of that we even have more books that can help us grow. These are called on amazon.com or other book websites 'Christian Living.' These books are written for us today dealing with situations that we are dealing with right now in our culture and time. On amazon there are over 164,000 books in this section.  This is an insane amount of books. A crazy amount of knowledge. There are quite a few for all different types of situations people have been through and studied. I want to encourage you today to become someone who reads. My goal is to read 10 pages a day from a personal growth book. I would not be where I am today if I had not been a reader from an early age. People who read consistently are on average significantly happier, and more successful. Read for fun and to grow! You will never regret reading to grow.

Here is a list of my top books to read:
1. The Traveler's Gift by Andy Andrews
2. Beautiful Outlaw by John Eldredge
3. Jesus is _____. by Juday Smith
4. The Slight Edge by Jeff Olsen
5. The Journey of Desire by John Eldredge

Books that I'm reading right now are:
20,000 Days and Counting by Robert D. Smith
Killing Lions by John Eldredge
Achievement by David Byrd and Mark Smith

If you want suggestions for books to read I have many.

Reading is an incredible way to learn and grow. Do what you need to do to take time to be all that you can be.

Jesse

Favorite Scripture Verses

I just wanted to share with you some of my favorite scripture verses. There's no order on which is my favorite, they are all number one.

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
    do not depend on your own understanding.
⁶ Seek his will in all you do,
    and he will show you which path to take.

Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT

 
5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we^[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ² Through him we have also obtained access by faith^[b] into this grace in which we stand, and we^[c] rejoice^[d] in hope of the glory of God.

Romans 5:1-2 ESV

¹⁶ Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law." 

<sup>Galatians 2:16 NLT

6</sup> Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. ⁷ Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7


³ In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Colossians  2:3

¹⁷ By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.

1 John 4:17 ESV

^{There are so many incredible verses, these few are some of my favorites.}

^{Let me know what some of yours are on my facebook page!} 

^{https://www.facebook.com/jesse.mcgaffee}

^Jesse

 

Overcomer

It has been an interesting week so far... Crazy stuff happened from when I went to bed Sunday night(I went to bed early) to when I got up and Pastor Andrew was in the hospital and was not doing well. It took me by surprise when his health was so bad so quick. I immediately thought of Shawna and the family and then my thoughts moved towards the church. Before I heard about what happened I had read this in a devotional earlier that morning:

God does not play a game of counterattack with the devil — the devil does something bad, then God steps in to bring something good out of it. The truth is, when something bad happens, it is the devil reacting to something good that God has started. The Lord once told me, “Tell My people that if they want to understand what I am doing, just look at what the devil is doing and see it in reverse. That is what I am doing, multiplied many times over.”
I see this truth in the Bible. When Christ was born, soldiers were sent to kill all baby boys under the age of two in Bethlehem. The folks in Bethlehem then would have seen only evil. But there were those like Mary who saw God’s goodness. They knew that God had sent a Savior into the world! The killing of the infants was just the devil’s reaction to the gift of salvation that God had sent.

I thought of Pastor and our church. How God is doing amazing things here in every ministry. How we are impacting our community with E.G. W.I.N.S. How peoples lives are being changed every week. And the enemy is trying to stop what God is already doing!

But he won't succeed.

Psalm 27:1 
The LORD is my light and my salvation-- whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life-- of whom shall I be afraid?

Isaiah 41:13
For I am the LORD, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.
 

Deuteronomy 20:4
For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory."

Psalm 44:6-8
I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory; but you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame. In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever.

Luke 10:19
I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.

John 16:33
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

Romans 8:35.37
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ....No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

There is verse after verse of God, who is our overcomer, fighting for us and winning on our behalf. I believe that this is an attack on our Pastor that wont work because God is our overcomer and we put our trust in Him! He is our fortress we run to and are saved! He is our healer! God is our rock! Jesus is our Prince of Peace! God is our protector! Psalm 3:3 says God is my shield! Jesus is our Shepherd! The Holy Spirit is our comforter! On and on I could write of who God is for us! Let us hold on to these truths that God is our overcomer and in Him we can do all things!

Jesse

Nerium Bracelet Pt.2

It's been a while since my last post. It's been awesome busy since my last post. I don't wear the bracelet any more but here are the rest of the holes. 

Nerium Bracelet Pt. 2

5. God thinks good thoughts about me. Most people believe the opposite, if they believe in God at all. People have this thought 'I trusted God for salvation but now God is sitting back wanting me to do it all and every time I mess up he gets upset and then has to forgive me again and I'm just a disappointment, etc.' To know what God thinks about us is a big deal. Do you want to live in that condemnation and shame all the time? We do when we don't recognize that Gods grace and love and forgiveness is for us in every situation. The cross makes it so that he is not angry with us any more and that this scripture can be absolutly true, 'How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!' Psalms 139:17-18 NLT God has so many good thoughts that we would never be able to count them all. About you. About me. He loves us and cares for us and those are things that God thinks about everyday.

6. God is the God of right now. So many times you hear people say 'I'm waiting on God' when in reality they are using that as an excuse. Either to procrastinate or avoid what God wants them to do but God is moving right now in our lives. God is moving in our church. God is moving in our city. God is moving in our nation and around the world. Right now!!! Right now people are being saved around the world. Right now people are being healed and restored. Right now relationships are being mended. Right now persecutions are happening and God is with them every step of the way. Right now!!! If I don't here a response? God gave me a brain to make decisions and I will use it to take action. The world is not changed by people who wait... It is by people who take action. God is here right now with me and with you and he is moving right now!

7. I am complete in Christ. This is actually a scripture verse. Colossians 2:10. Any thing I need is found in Christ. So many times in life we are lacking. We are broken. We are hurting. We need wisdom. We need help. We need life. It is all found in Jesus. He gives us what we need for every circumstance. In every situation. When something happens and we have the thoughts of worry, provision, fear, anger, loss, and brokenness, we turn to Jesus. Because in him we are complete lacking nothing that we would need to be over comers in every circumstance. 

8. My dreams are bigger than my excuses. Every one of us have had dreams absolutly crushed. Something didn't work out at work. Personal circumstances went down the drain. And our dreams seem to be just gone. 'There is no way that can happen for me'. Hope is lost. Attitudes turn sour. We have this mentality that nothing good is ever going to happen and we give up on our dreams. Here's the truth... Dreams are something God gives us. He puts them inside of us. Hope in our lives, expecting good things to happen, is part of what God is all about. What to hope for is not the question here. To be without it is to live life with no joy. If you are not expecting anything in your life except bad, you need to meet Jesus. Jesus is our hope and nothing is bigger and greater than God. So no excuse, no mountain, no circumstance, no enemy from hell is going to keep me from believing that Gods dreams for me are great and he wants them to happen. Jeremiah 29:11 I know the plans I have for you. To give you hope and a future. 

Here is a recap:
1. God Unconditionally Loves Me
2. God is Good
3. Jesus is My Good Enough
4. Jesus is My More than Enough

5. God thinks good thoughts about me

6. God is the God of right now

7. I am complete in Christ

8. My dreams are bigger than my excuses

My Nerium Bracelet Pt. 1

Most of you have seen me with what looks like a doctors office bracelet and I've been asked 'when did you go to the doctor?' and other question relating to the topic. But it's not a doctors office bracelet. It's from a Nerium conference I went to and I keep it on to remind me of things I might forget. The bracelet has 12 holes on it and I use those 12 holes as reminders.

Here is that list.

1. God Unconditionally Loves Me
     Many times we act as though God is an angry judge that is looking for our sins so that he can punish us. When we mess up our actions can sometimes say that I've got to earn God's love back because I messed up, and that's just not true. God's love through the cross of Calvary said once for all "I love you and you never ever ever have to worry about me not loving you." Romans 8:37-39

2. God is Good
     This is also tough because we can, through our actions, realize that we believe that God is good to only those that are good. This is a lie from the pit of hell. I again refer to the cross and the verse that says " while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." This is God being good to those that are bad, showing love to those who have never shown love, mercy to those who have never been merciful, and grace where none was previously granted. God is good.

3. Jesus is My Good Enough
      This refers to God's grace in my life. I'm not good enough in many areas of my life. Not good enough for the standard that God has set in his word. But Jesus is good enough and when I truly put my trust in him, His grace is sufficient in all things. When He is my good enough I find that I don't worry as much because Jesus' best is working on the inside of me. Christ in me makes me good enough. He is my strength, He is my shield, Jesus is my grace, and this list could keep going...

4. Jesus is My More than Enough
     Not only does God give me grace he gives me more than enough grace. Paul in 1 timothy says ^"14 and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant," crazy! Abundant means more than enough and here Paul says God's grace is more than more than enough. You may feel that God is not more than enough but He is, and when we ask him for help, for what ever we need help with, let us believe that God is more than enough in every situation and circumstance.

Here is my first four reminders
1. God Unconditionally Loves Me
2. God is Good
3. Jesus is My Good Enough
4. Jesus is My More than Enough

Other reminders coming soon...

Pastor Jesse

Year of Circles

Year of Circles
     In this new year where new resolutions are being made by the dozen there is only one that I have made: that I would be a circle maker. I have been reading "The Circle Maker" by Mark Batterson and have been challenged and felt the Lord speaking to me that this needs to be a year of making circles and staying there until prayers have been answered.
     Circles?  That doesn't make sense. What do you mean? Short answer: A guy named Honi, in a drought, went out and made circle with his staff in the ground and literally prayed there until it began to rain.
      So for me that doesn't mean going outside making a circle with a stick I found and praying there until a girl walks up and wants to be my girlfriend (not that I don't pray for that often), but that I choose a couple of distinct attitudes and that I grab on to some things God has spoken to me personally(more than just a wife, but that is included).
     This involves just a couple things:
1. Hope. Jesus is our hope. Hope is the expectation of something good happening. Expecting and knowing that Jesus is working in my life is a huge relief, otherwise I'd be living this life thing alone. I choose to hold on to the promise that God has a future and hope in all areas of my life.
2. Gratitude. Making sure that I stay thankful for what God has given me already and thankful for the hope I have. Being an unthankful person can be one of the most off putting things about a person.
3. Persistence without exception. We all know how easy it is to quit.
     So as I pray I choose to hope in the things God has said, choosing to be grateful, and persist without exception.
     As I write I am reminded of the story in the bible where a lady keeps going to the king over and over and over. And the king, even though he is a bad king, gets tired of this lady's persistence and takes care of what she wants. How much more does our God want to answer our prayers being a good king.
     There is a lot to making circles but these are three that stood out to me. I hope that this year will be a year of answered prayers and that this year of circle making will be one of the best years ever.
Jesse