Worthy is His Name!!

Exodus 15:2 "The Lord is my strength and my song; he has given me victory. This is MY GOD, and I will praise him-the Lord is a WARRIOR; Yahweh is his name!!!"

His name is worthy of our praise! I have been thinking about how God has worked in my life this year and have come up with 12 descriptive WORDS highlighting God's hand on my heart and soul in 2012. It has been refreshing for me but yet at the same time I have struggled to limit it to 12. God is so amazing and how can we put limits on him? He is worthy of our praise and worship! He is all knowing, all powerful, all sufficient, self existent, The Master, our shepherd, the God Most High....we can't limit Him! There are not enough words to describe Him and to share how He has worked in our lives. I came across this video a few months ago and it touched my heart and helped me to understand the Majesty of WHO He is. I hope that as you watch this video that it will help you to see WHO your GOd is too and help you reflect on ways in which He has touched your life this year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5-6gwssX0Y

I hope that you have begun to see WHO your GOD is...let Him take ahold of your life and bless you beyond measure! Let Him pull you up onto His lap and begin to work in your heart. He is an amazing God who is just waiting with open arms to have you sit with Him!! Let me continue to share a part of my journey with God's touch upon my life...here is to #'s 7-12!

7. Provider: How many times in your life have you felt like you are truly empty handed? You have a need, but it is absolutely out of your control and the word IMPOSSIBLE is plastered right before your eyes. Loss of control. Helplessness. Hands thrown in the air praying that God would fix the mess you are in! I know that I have looked to the Heavens and yelled "Seriously??" up to my Father many times this year....."can you give me a little help down here!" I was losing the fight....I gave it all, but yet it was NOT enough! The fight was endless! I needed a MIRACLE at times! My friends, so many times this year I had to submit and confess that I had it all wrong. I was not the sufficient one! He was! It was His battle, but I was fighting it my way and most of the time on my own! He is our PROVIDER! He comes through for us time and time again. He Provides even when we are the ones who mess things up. He is the GIVER...the one who opens His arms and pulls us close when we are walking away trying to do things on our own. He waits so patiently and lovingly for us to reach towards Him and admit that we can't do it on our own....His grace is sufficient! Each time I came to Him with an open and contrite heart, He would show me how His Grace was sufficient for my needs. He was my Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides! He was ALL I needed!

8. El Roi: THE GOD WHO SEES....I love this one! There is scripture in His word that says fix your eyes on NOT what is seen ,but on what is unseen! So often we fix our eyes on the things of this world...on material items, on our careers, on our images and how others see us. We strive to have the best things and to show our best image to the world. God CALLS us to fix our eyes on HIM...the one we cannot SEE. I get that. It's a daily commitment of looking up and focusing on HIM. Fixing our eyes on HIM...the one who is UNSEEN! Let's turn that around though....GOD SEES the things in us that are unseen!!! I am so thankful that God SEES....he sees our needs and not our wants. He SEES our struggles instead of the mask that we put on. He sees our insecurities and he knows the darkness that lies deep within our hearts that no one else can place their hands upon. He SEES the hurts, frustrations, and the tears...GOD SEES....HE KNOWS...HE UNDERSTANDS...and He wants to heal those wounds! No one can touch those deep places in your heart except HIM...because He is a God who SEES!!

9. Transformation: Romans 12:2 "Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you , which is good and pleasing and perfect." His WORD has been a LIGHT for my soul and for my mind. Transformation has taken place as I have learned thought permission and thought prevention. This world and Satan's lies will take ahold of you and pull you into the darkness and depths of destruction. Meditating on His Word and allowing His truths to take ahold of my mind and my heart has lead to the transformation of a new person....full of joy, hope, and peace!

10. The Mountain Mover: I don't really know how to describe this one except that God is ALL POWERFUL! Full surrender and trust in Him has shown me amazing things this year. He MOVES....when we allow Him to! Where do we place our faith and trust? Do we believe that He can do what He says He can do? Do we come to Him and ask Him to MOVE THE MOUNTAIN? DO we place him in a box or do we pray with GREAT expectations? God has MOVED the MOUNTAINS, has made me giggle as I have watched and waited for His answer to prayer, and has grown my faith as I have seen His MIGHTY hand in astonishing ways ..in the lives of my children, in my health, in my marriage, in my faith walk...He is SOOOO GOOD!

11. COMFORTER: This verse has stuck with me for the entire year...Isaiah 40:11 " He will feed his flock like a shepherd, He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart." At the beginning of the year I would describe my Heavenly Father as one who was on the "other side" of a wall. Something was separating us. I longed for the Holy Spirit. I longed for a close relationship with Him. But there was something blocking it. A THICK wall between myself and my GOD. How could that be? I felt like the person in the song " Going on a Bear Hunt!" I couldn't go through it, under it, or over it....how was I going to get to MY God? I came across this verse in my quiet time and began crying ...tears just flowing like a river! I remember crying out to my Lord to carry me...to bring me so close to Him that I could feel His heartbeat next to mine. A year ago I could not experience those tears...I fought it tooth and nail. As the year has progressed, God has helped me to break the wall...to tear it down one brick at a time, one tear at a time, one day at a time....he has carried me and held me close to his heart, bringing comfort beyond anything that I could ever imagine. Instead of fighting, I now embrace those tears and allow God to be my COMFORT!

12. FREEDOM: FINALLY!!!! This one is the cake of all cakes!! Freedom in Christ! A journey too long to tell! But one I will always cherish! Hard trials, many tears, perseverence....but yet full of joy in the victories...one at a time. The scripture in my Bible is highlighted at 2 Corinthians 3:17 "For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is FREEDOM!" Oh, my...can't stop there. The verses to follow add this " so all of us who have had that veil removed can SEE and REFLECT the GLORY of the LORD. And the LORD-who is the SPIRIT- makes us more and more like him as we are CHANGED into his glorious image." WOW...GOD just put a big BILLBOARD in front of me....as I sought HIS HOLY SPIRIT back in January of 2011...GOD CAME...with open arms (waiting patiently along this whole journey) and as I surrendered each area of my heart and admitted that I NEEDED HIM more than ever...he began the work of transformation in my life. His Spirit came and poured into me giving me opportunities to find FREEDOM in HIM! I can NOW SEE and REFLECT the GLORY of the LORD!! The transformation is STILL taking place and will continue to take place until He returns...it is a process of CHANGE!

The beginning of this journey talked about "CHANGE"....do you love it or do you hate it? Do you embrace it or fight it? Why does change have to occur? God tells us exactly why in these verses above....to transform us, to reflect His glory! Eternal purposes! It is well worth it isn't it?