Skip to main content

Follow Me on Facebook

Gretchen Mure Rodriguez

Simple Words to Change Your Life


It was just over twenty years ago that I heard Fuschia Pickett say something that changed my life. She said, "You can have as much of God as you want." I'm sure I'd heard that said before, but that day it came with the breath of God upon it.

 That was the day I made the decision to wake-up early in the morning to start seek His presence before anything else. I had one small child and a baby at the time and sleep was a rare commodity. For the first couple of weeks, I remember thinking, "I'm too tired to pray, read my Bible, or even hear God!" He didn't rush in and start speaking right away, but I persisted. Not long after, my relationship with the Lord exploded with dynamic encounters of His presence. To this day, set-apart time with Him is my life-force and joy.

How much of God do you want?
Isn't it interesting that the Creator of all things allows us to decide how close we want to come? He gently draws us to Himself, but it takes an act of our will to shake off the distractions and respond. Yes, the Lord can swoop in and encounter us, but usually the most profound encounters are a direct result of choosing to prioritize our relationship with Him over everything else. (Especially, internet, TV, etc.) Intentionality on our part, choosing Him over and over and over again, invites the most profound encounters of His love. These quiet times are when we hear Him the clearest.

So busy!
Life really gets busy! I get it. But the truth is that somewhere in your day you have an extra fifteen minutes to prioritize your relationship with Him. It's not a chore. It's not a duty. If that's how you've been thinking about it, I encourage you to hand that thinking over to the Lord right away! If the desire is gone, ask Him to breathe it back into you. Learning to live out of a place of deep communion with the Lord is learning to live in peace, joy, wisdom, etc. "In Him we live and move and have our being." - Acts 17:28 That means outside of living in Him, we are dead, stuck, and lost for our identity. 
https://thefeelsartistry.wixsite.com/thefeels
Are you unable to still your mind?
One thing that happens to us when our minds are accustomed to the swirling thoughts, is that it's hard to get that wheel to stop spinning. It seems almost impossible to shut down the thoughts long enough to hear Him or feel Him. I find this happens to me if I've missed a couple of days of quiet time with Him. I'd love to hear how you get your mind/emotions to become still, so that you can focus on Him. For me, I put worship music on and sing until I feel the switch inside. If I'm especially stressed, it may take a good hour of pressing in and worshipping, but if I don't give up, my mind will slow and my spirit takes charge again!

What are the ways you create stillness? How do you press through when you feel dry?I'd love to hear from you in the comment section.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day #3 The Secret Power of.....

Fasting Yep, I said the "f" word, but don't stop reading! As I meditate on the various ways I encounter the Lord, the subject of fasting has been swirling around in my spirit. Let me first say that I'm writing on each subject as the Lord prompts, with no particular order of importance to me. There are so many different ways to fast and I was thinking about the fact that in different seasons of my life, I also fasted in different ways. It's not my intention to discuss a current trend in small groups that fasting isn't for today. The Bible is chock full of proof that we are to fast - period.  For many years I did full fasts with water and juicing only. Those were some of the most amazing fasts I have ever done in my life. There was something about the feeling of physical emptiness that enabled me to hear the Lord very clearly. It's something I don't fully understand, but the hunger and weakness quieted my mind. During those years of fasting I re...
Post a Comment
Read more

When Love Sweeps In (Day 22)

Today we celebrate the day Love took on human form and was birthed into the earth; Christmas day! Love comes and sweeps me off of my feet at times when I least expect it! At times Love comes and overwhelms me and at other times it feels as though my senses have dulled. In fact lately, the times which are usually the most amazing, have felt the driest. Recently, the times I feel Him the most is when I'm just thinking about Him and not making any effort of my own. He comes and initiates conversations with me, or just surprises me with overwhelming love for me that hasn't been earned by anything I have done;  it is a gift.   I now long for Him to come and reveal Himself to me in ways I have nothing to do with.  Such beauty in the absence of striving! Though He is in me, I cannot force a manifestation of His glory. Though I am FILLED with Him, I find myself craving greater consciousness of my holy union with Christ. I realize that I am as close as any human can...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Predicament of Desire

This has been such a beautiful season with the Lord for me personally. I've been so aware of the burning desire in my heart for Him, so grateful that He has fanned the flames of longing. There has been a fresh grace over me this year - a consistent desire to remain aware of the Lord's presence at all times.  Yet in my longing to hear more accurately, see more clearly, and encounter His Kingdom more profoundly, I was actually losing focus. It wasn't that I was getting distracted from this overwhelming desire to know Him more, but the desire itself was becoming larger than the Object of my desire. As I encountered Him more deeply, I also felt the frustration of wanting to be closer. The desire has been so deep, that the Lord finally revealed to me that the desire itself was distracting me. Focusing on what we aren't experiencing, causes us to come to Him with frustration instead of expectation. No matter how much we have experienced His love and have encountered His gl...
Post a Comment
Read more