Bill is
absolutely a wonderful husband and the very best husband for me! He is so patient with me, he is kind, and he
is extremely attentive and giving. But
in all honesty, I wasn’t so sure he could so those things back about me. I truly do desire to be patient with him, to
be kind, extremely attentive and giving but I know in all honesty that I lack
and have room for improvement. I desire
to be a wonderful wife but most importantly to be the very best wife for
Bill.
I set
about knowing that the first thing I needed to do was write Proverbs 31:10-31
upon my heart and that it needed to be verbiage that would truly penetrate my
heart. So after reading it from a couple
of different versions I set about memorizing this passage of scripture from The
Message. I then also began working
through a study totally on my own dealing with being a better wife and loving
my husband well. Then I found another
study to do with a friend in a discipling atmosphere as a Titus 2:4-5 woman. Not that I am perfect, not that I have arrived,
but one coming alongside desiring to be a better wife.
To be a
better wife I knew that I also needed to spend time in James as there is so
much wisdom in this little book. For
several years now I generally read a chapter of Proverbs each day for the
wisdom in how to do life this side of heaven.
Please do not think that I have it all together, because I simply do
not! I am a mess! But because of God and allowing Him to begin
changing me ever since I surrendered my heart in November of 1999, I no longer
am who I used to be! So back to James
and trying to tie this all together without loosing you.
Faith and
Deeds in James 2:14-26 really has been hitting me right where I needed to be
hit! I'm not always the best at helping
others and I tend to count the cost or I grumble and complain. Perhaps I’m not the only one, and you also
aren’t so hot at showing your faith by the deeds you do? James is very explicit that it takes both
faith and deeds...which got me to thinking about the Proverbs 31 woman that in vs.
20 she is about helping others. Not
only does she help others, but from The Message it says she is QUICK TO
ASSIST.
When I am
quick to assist, with out grumbling and complaining and no longer counting the
cost but stepping up to the plate and doing what ever simply because I love
Jesus then my heart it right. Am I not
only helping others as well as SHOWING my faith to the world? That is what you and I need to be doing as
Believer's LIVING OUT LOUD our faith to our corner of the world. I want God to
truly be able to call me His friend! I
want to be able to some day hear God say, Yolanda, thank you for allowing Me to
get into your business and providing for Bill the very best wife ever for him
that I knew you could be!
I want to
close by sharing from my study in James as this hit me several weeks ago concerning this
particular passage in James. "You
hypocrite, you cover up your penurious, stingy heart and clamp down your fist
upon your purse by offering prayers instead of clothing and pious talk instead
of food. Listen! That is what is wrong today....The world wants action, not
words, and many a cheap, stingy heart is camouflaged under pious cant and
hollow prayer. The world is not interested in our prayers. It wants
evidence." Elizabeth George
This was
reaffirmed today in our service as Pastor Jon stated something along the lines
of serving is not staying in our chairs here in the sanctuary. We honestly have to rise to the challenge he
gave us the first part of January to reach up, reach in and then reach
out. I say this all the time and if you’ve
spent any time with me you hear this out of my lips often. I have to reach up, reach in and reach out! This impacted me so much in 2014.
Dear
Heavenly Father, I am so grateful that You did not leave me like I was when I
came to You all those years ago. That
You have tenderly pruned me and molded me and may I never quit being
teachable. That I will always hunger and
have a desire for Your Word and the ability to hide it in my heart to be able
to apply it to my daily life. Father
God, I ask that I and those in my circle would quit being fake about following
you. That our faith and deeds would
match and be pleasing in Your sight.
I am
continuing to dig deeper into James and desiring to be the best wife in the whole
world for my Mr. here at Higher
Grounds. With love, Yolanda
No comments:
Post a Comment