The Holy Bible

My mom is such an amazingly strong woman of faith and if it were not for her, I wouldn't have the faith I have. She instilled the Word of God in my life. She would ask me everyday if I read the Bible. I find myself doing the same with my kids. I am okay with being a nag about that, cuz I know it's the one thing that will get them through life. Pastor Robert has been a series on the Holy Bible and has challenged me to read get more in the Word. I have always read the Word, but I am so hungry and thirsty for more of it. I go to Bible college and teach at a Christian private school, so the Word is all around me and I love it. But when I am alone with the Lord, He just does something in me that astounds me.

One thing I finally understood and grasped this most difficult year of my life, where I found the most joy in my life is that it is during the difficult times that I can exalt the name of the Lord that begins to change the circumstances around me for the good of those who love Him. When I studied Leah in the Bible and saw that she went through so much and didn't deserve or ask for any of it, I saw that we had a lot in common. Her father set her up to marry a man she didn't love and loved her sister not her. She lived that way for the rest of her life. She was miserable for a long time, but she finally had a son, whom she named Judah - "Let Jehovah be praised." When she began to praise Jehovah in the midst of her lonely, living in the shadow of her younger sister, life, she learned that the most rewarding life is the life of praising and exalting God.

When Daniel was in the belly of a fish, he learned to stop crying for God to get him out of situations and began praising Him, then his deliverance came. As Daniel found himself in dangerous situations, he called on the Name of the Lord in praise and the Lord changed his circumstances around. As Jeremiah lived in frustration and confusion and weeping for the lost people of that time, he extolled the glory of God.

I finally comprehend that I am to put God in His rightful place in my life and bring my will into His conformity. When I stopped asking God to change my life and began to praise Him in the storm of my life and put Him first in every area, and find the joy all around me is when I began to live in real joy and happiness.