All of Your Promises

Close your eyes. Dream. Picture your life the way you want it to be now. Picture the way you want it to be in five years, 10 years. Just dream about it.


Now open your ears. Hear this. "I am able to do 'superabundantly, far over and above all that we dare ask or think, infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams'." This is a promise -  a promise from God, a promise that will be kept. No matter what.


There's just one problem (from our point of view anyway). He doesn't always keep those promises in the time we would like Him to keep them. That's where trust comes in. That's where faith comes in. That's where patience comes in.

Think about this. A friend promises to bring you lunch, but you don't think he or she will follow through. Instead of waiting for their promise, you run to McDonald's to grab a quick burger. An hour later, your friend shows up with steak and a baked potato. You didn't trust him or her. Now you're too full to eat the food he or she brought you, and it's because you settled for a cheap substitute instead of waiting.

It seems crazy right? Why wouldn't you trust a friend? After all, he or she has proven trustworthy enough to earn your friendship.

We do this with God though. He promises to give us better than we can imagine. Yet we settle. We see how happy we think our plans will make us. We see how we can be happy right now. We don't trust that God has something better. If we can be happy, why wouldn't He want us to have it? Even if we do believe he has better, we don't have the patience to wait for it.

So we settle. We settle with what we have now, even if it's not God's best. We pursue things that may not be God's perfect will for our lives, and though they may be good, we're still settling for less than we could have if we wait.

Instead of settling, all we need to do is have faith. We need to have a faith that is complemented with patience. God does fulfill His promises. And He does it in His own timing, timing that will make those plans even better.

Nothing compares to His promises. We need to grasp that. When we grasp that, we'll have patience. We'll trust Him. And He will bring those promises into our lives.

Close your eyes. Dream. Picture your life the way you want it to be now. Picture the way you want it to be in five years, 10 years.

Now know this. It will be far better than what you just imagined. All you have to do is trust God's promises and have the patience to wait for them to come to pass.

Living Love

A small child stands in front of his mom. She looks down at him as he stretches his arms as wide as he can. "I love you THIS much," he says. She smiles because she knows he's telling the truth.

We all did that when we were little. We tried to show our moms and dads, brothers and sisters how much we loved them. And well, the only way we knew to do that was to stretch our arms out wide and say, "THIS much" with a giant grin on our faces.

How many of us still do that? How many of us still try to show those around us how much we really love them? I know I don't, at least not as often as I could. Why don't we?

For me personally, there are several reasons. First of all, it's hard. Showing love is showing emotion, and that's never easy to do. It's not always easy to see how love is received, and not knowing how it's received makes it hard to give. Secondly, I don't always want to. I'd rather receive love than give it. I'd rather sit back and take it easy. Third, sometimes, it just doesn't seem like people deserve it.

However, God doesn't care about all those excuses. (Yes, I called them excuses, because that's what they are. They're not reasons.) It was hard for Him to show us His love; He had to die. He didn't want to die. We didn't deserve for Him to die for us. He just did it. So we should too.

Here's a few lessons we can learn about love that might help.

1. We have to make a decision to love someone else. If we don't make the decision to love them, we don't have anything to show.
2. Love is active. People can't see words. People can see actions. If our actions don't match our words we're not showing anybody anything. Our actions will show people what we mean when we say, "I love you THIS much!"
3. Love is deliberate. This combines the first two points. We can't be deliberate about something if you haven't made a decision on what to be deliberate about, and if we're deliberate about something, we do it on purpose. Deliberate love makes a conscious effort to put love into action. It thinks about what it is doing. If an action doesn't match the decision to love another, deliberate love will change what it is doing.
4. Love is living. Anything living should be growing. The more effort you put into loving someone else, the more you're going to love them. You're going to benefit from watching them receive your love, and it's going to help you show them more love.

Living love takes time and practice. We can't expect to get it right as soon as we start trying. But we can start trying. We can make a decision to love those around us unconditionally, deliberately and actively. No matter how hard it is.

I want to be like that little child, always letting people see how much I love them. I may not stand up, looking up into their eyes to see their reaction and stretch my arms as far as I can. I may not always see their reaction right away like the child sees his mother smile and scoop him up into her arms in a giant hug.

But I want my actions to say, "I love you THIS much."

Small Packages

Ever had one of those really stressful days? How about a really stressful week? Or to be even more exact, a really stressful month or more? Even when everything is going right, there's just so much of it that you can't stop and think about how good it is. If you do get one of those off days when no matter what happens you're still relaxed and smiling, something good can still seem like a major gift.


That would be where I have been recently. Sure, life has been great. It's even seemed easy most days. But that's only because I put off all the stressful stuff until the last minute, which not only builds the stress but also makes the last minute even more stressful than it should be. My schedule is so crammed full of busyness that I get excited when I find even an hour of free time (which unfortunately doesn't seem to stay free for very long). This girl who doesn't seem to understand how to say "no" has finally learned what it means to have to.


It's in these crazy stressful times that I am reminded how much God really cares. It's in the crazy busy times when even singing worship songs and reading my Bible doesn't seem to focus my thoughts on Him that I am reminded I'm still on His mind.


For example, I'm going to review the way my week started out. Monday involved an 8 a.m. class, a tour of the local newspaper building at 11, class at 1 p.m., class at 3, attempting to get an interview at 4, prayer meeting at 5, dinner at 6:15, city council meeting at 7 (not at all by choice), actually getting an interview at 10, trying to get a stupid program to work that never did, and finally going to bed at 1 a.m. Tuesday's agenda included meeting for a group project at 9 a.m., class at 9:30, lunch meeting at 11:15, class at 12:30 p.m., class at 2, meeting at 4:30, worship service at 7, again attempting the video editing program, studying for a test I had early this morning, and again going to bed at 1 a.m. Not a lot of time to spend remembering how awesome God is right?


Well, God made sure He still reminded me. For starters, he gave me about fifteen minutes of relaxation in the midst of all my journalism assignments Monday night, because He gave me an amazing friend who will bring me a patty melt whenever I ask as long as she's awake. Tuesday, when I woke up, I had a headache and a dry throat. Almost as soon as I started singing a worship song ("Never Let Go" by Matt Redman), He healed me (which somehow took me about fifteen minutes to realize). On top of the whole not feeling well, I was also really tired from going to bed so late and because of it seriously considered asking a friend to pray for me so I could make it through the day. I decided to not overwork my phone texting a friend to ask, but three hours later, the same friend I had thought about asking sent me this text:

"Well I'm glad you're not stressed out about it. God I pray that You just continue to help Nicole keep the stress away and just take things a little at a time. God I pray You allow her sometime even if it's just walking to class to just spend talking to you and getting refilled. I praise you for the wonderful woman you have made Nicole and for how you are ever increasing the masterpiece that she is. Yay Jesus. Amen :) love you girly :)"

Even though I was already having a decent day by that point, that text made my day. God had sent me a little present - in the form of a text message - to say He was thinking about me. Even though I hadn't said anything to anybody about wanting or needing prayer, someone prayed for me. I was so overwhelmed thinking about His goodness that all I wanted to do was cry.

He didn't have to do anything big. Sure, He does big things sometimes, but He's normally behind the small stuff - the stuff that seems insignificant but really makes a big difference, the everyday things. For me, this week, it was drive-by patty melt service and a text message. For you, it could be hearing your favorite song on the radio. It could be a hug or a smile from someone important to you.

Look for God in the little things. He likes to give us those - small packages that change our world. After all, His first gift to us was only a baby. And that gift changed the entire course of history.

Throw Your Mirrors Down

When you look in a mirror, what do you see? This is not a rhetorical question. I really want you to answer it (even though I am going to give you the most obvious answer). You don't have to tell me your answer, but at least tell yourself. You see yourself. Don't you? I mean, that is what a mirror is for isn't it? Now, I have another question, how do you see yourself? Do you see beauty? Do you see your character? Or do you see all the imperfections? The one tiny little zit that nobody else in the world would notice? The one hair that is out of place?

Now, think about this. The greatest artist in the world has painted a picture of you. He used the best canvas with the highest quality paints. He gives every detail the greatest attention while still focusing on the big picture. When you look at that painting, what do you see? Do you see a reflection of yourself? Or do you see yourself as the artist sees you?

Here's the most important question. When you ask that artist to show you how he or she sees you, who is it? Who is the greatest artist in the world in your opinion? Whose artistic eye are you going to trust? If it's yourself, the picture you get is going to be the exact same as the reflection you see in the mirror. If it's another human being, he or she will probably include at least one imperfection in the painting, one that you'll never be able to erase, no matter how hard you try. If it's the one who created you and molded you, all you're going to see in that painting is what is beautiful about you.

I am part of a small group Bible study here on my college campus. This semester, our leaders give us a challenge every week that we are supposed to complete by the next week. Last week, our challenge was to write down how we think God sees us. I'll be honest, I didn't really take the time to write it down, but I did spend a lot of time thinking about it.

For years, I have been hearing, "God thinks you're beautiful. He always has. He always will. He created you. Who are you to say He messed up?" Honestly, it took me a while to grasp that, but I did finally get it about a year ago. I heard this Barlow Girl song. Two lines of this song say, "I'm looking into the eyes of who made me. And to Him, I am beauty beyond compare." After many times of hearing that song, something clicked. No matter how well I know that God sees me as beautiful, looking at my own depiction of myself doesn't work. I have to see through His eyes. Since then, I have done a pretty good job seeing myself as beautiful. There are still times when it's hard, but it's easier.

Recently, though, I have had some much bigger issues come up. I have questioned why God still loves me. I have questioned why He wants me to do what He wants me to do. I have questioned my qualifications for His love and His call basically.

When I looked in a mirror, this is the reflection I saw. I saw someone who no matter how much of God's love she had seen in the past week, still paid extra special attention to someone who didn't have the same love for her. I saw someone who wasn't strong enough to fix her own issues, let alone help other people through theirs. I saw someone who was always taking a step back instead of more steps forward.

Then, my Creator caused me to snap out of it. Through some very important people in my life, He let me know the reflection I was seeing was flawed. Over the last few weeks, He has shown me His picture, what He sees when He looks at me.

This is the picture He has shown me. He sees someone who is growing. Growing in love, growing in maturity, just growing. He's proud of where she's come and not where she's been. He sees those special moments when she is completely in love with Him, not the few when she is distracted by someone else. He sees His little girl, dependent on Him whether she acknowledges it or not, His precious child who means more to Him than anything on this earth. His little girl, who is always, always growing. He sees someone, who has had her share of mistakes in the past, but can now use those to lead other people. She can show them how to get out of those same situations. He sees a beautiful, still-developing leader.

Honestly, it's hard to remember to look at God's picture of me instead of my own reflection. It's a daily choice at minimum. On the really rough days, it can be a minute-by-minute decision. But it is always so worth it! It makes the day (or the minute) so much better!

So, in the words of Tenth Avenue North, "Throw your mirrors down." Instead, pick up the masterpiece the world's greatest artist has created. Look through His eyes and not your own. I promise you. It will be worth it.

Deeply In Love

Every waking moment is consumed with thoughts of that special someone. Your closest friends, no matter how much they approve of the person, get tired of hearing about him or her. When you watch that romance movie, your mind replaces the two leads with the two of you. Every country song you hear makes you smile or hope you never have to sing it about this important person.

If you haven't felt this at some point in your life about someone, be prepared. It will probably happen to you too. It's a feeling that's hard to control, mainly because it feels so good. At the risk of sounding cliche, it's the most wonderful feeling in the whole world. If it's returned, it's even better.

It's love.

Recently, I have found myself experiencing this. Not that being in love is new to me. I have had some pretty major crushes in the past (just ask the friends who have had to listen to me over the years). But this. This is different. This is real love. This is something I never want to lose.

I have found myself in love with the most amazing person ever. In the words of Carrie Underwood, "He makes promises He keeps. No, He's never gonna leave." He loves me as much as I love Him, and I know that will never change. Even when I'm not giving Him all the attention He deserves, He still waits on me.

He's God.

To be honest, in comparison to how long I have known Him, this extreme passion for my Creator is new. I've always known He loves me. I've always thought I loved Him, too. But it has never been like this. In fact, I have spent years searching for love from someone else, someone else to give my love.

Actually, this passion is slowly but surely overcoming my most recent crush on a guy. For almost a week, I spent more time than normal with Him - reading my Bible, journaling (basically, writing love letters to God), and worshipping Him. For one of the first times, I found myself yearning to spend more time reading His love letter to me and return that love.

Then, last week, I hit a high point. I was with a big group of people who are falling in love with God like I am. But instead of knowing what everyone else was doing and saying, I was in my own little world, focusing on the love of my life.

As I thought about how I was falling in love with God, I thought about the crush this passion is replacing. I thought about how the next time I would see the person that I had been focused on, the attraction would not be completely gone. I knew I wanted it to be gone. I knew I wanted this newfound passion to consume me more than the immature crush.

The group began to sing the song "Empty Me" by Jeremy Camp. I very, very quickly made that song my prayer for the night. I told God I didn't want to have anything to do with that crush. I told God I wanted Him to fill my heart. Then I just sat there and let Him pour into me. It was the most refreshing, peaceful time I remember ever experiencing.

By that time I knew God was the center of my thoughts and would be as long as I let Him be, but I was still trying to figure out how I was going to deal with any left over attraction to the guy. It was then that a friend and mentor of mine started speaking. She said that she had seen a picture of a vase. The vase looked like a plant had once been in it and moved, because there were still some little specks of dirt stuck to the side. Then she saw water pouring into the vase. At first, the water got dirty because of the little bit of dirt still in there, but as the water continued to pour into the vase, it eventually overflowed and carried the dirt away. What she said the picture meant was that there is always still junk in our life - distractions, sin, anything that keeps us from God.

But... when we spend more time with God, He pours into us. He washes away all that stuff that would try to separate us from Him, that would try to steal our love from Him. That was my answer. I knew. All I have to do is spend time with God. Then this passion for Him would never go away.

So, what do I do now? I make sure I let people know who I am in love with. I talk about Him all the time. My thoughts are focusing more and more on Him. I always want to spend time with Him (which is not benefitting my homework at all), and I do it. I make time for Him no matter what.

And you know what's really great about God? He can give all His love to everybody at the same time. So, if you want to fall in love with somebody who will give you everything you need, somebody who listens to you, somebody who is happy when you're happy, somebody who will comfort you when you're down, someone who will always be waiting on you no matter what, then I suggest falling in love with God. Give HIM your heart. Spend time with Him. Read His love letter to you (otherwise known as the Bible). If you want, write your own love letter to God. I promise, it's the best thing you'll ever do.

After all, what could be better than falling in love with Love Himself?

The Time Has Come

Your best friend just called you and told you she has a million dollars somewhere. She is hiding somewhere in your town, and as soon as you find her, you can have the money. What do you do? I'm going to assume that you're like me and begin running around town. In your mind, you run through the list of every place your friend could be, going first to the most likely location.

To most of us, this seems like a no brainer. If all it takes to win such a prize is finding your best friend, why not?

But guess what!

There's a far better prize out there! All it takes to receive the prize is searching. In everyday life, God is the best friend calling out to you. When we seek Him, He promises amazing things. He promises that all the things we would otherwise be seeking such as a car, a relationship, money, or whatever else you can think of will be given to us. Then He promises that we'll find Him! (I'd say that's way better than a million dollars!) Plus, we get to do something for Him in the process. We allow Him to spend time with us. Then, when we're done, and we go out into our world, we are so full of Him that we bring other people into His kingdom! Is that cool or what? Then why don't we all search for Him?

I know that in my life, time is a big issue. I have so much going on all the time. I'm either in class, doing homework, doing something with Chi Alpha (when I'm at school, otherwise church fills that time), or running around with friends, with an occasional chore thrown in the mix. Another problem I tend to face is exhaustion. With my busy schedule, by the time I get back to my room and don't have homework, all I want to do is watch a movie or chat on Facebook. Or, even better, sleep!

However, as my first year of college has passed by, I have realized something. That stuff is not important. First of all, spending time with God is way better. Second, just like He promised, I have time for my busy schedule and relaxation when I find Him. Third, and most importantly, God should always come first. Even if what you're doing is something He wants you to do, if it takes His place as first priority in your life, if everything else revolves around that work and not Him, it's just not going to work. Even if you think it's His work, if He's not part of your life, He's not part of the work either. It would be so much more effective if you just included Him in the planning and execution.

So, although I'm going to be in class in 20 minutes, guess what. I'm going to be making sure I include God. (After all, He did tell me which majors to pursue.) I'm going to seek Him.

Why don't you join me? Why don't you seek God and let Him put everything else in order? And while you're at it, lead other people to Him by following Him yourself.

While I Wait

We've all been there. We're stuck waiting in a long line that seems to never end. Most of us spend the time tapping our foot, complaining, rolling our eyes, you name it. Sometimes, waiting even becomes so unbearable that we push forward to the front of the line, cutting off other people. I'm not gonna lie. Unless I have a friend in line to distract me with more meaningful conversation, I do it too. It just seems to be a part of the whole waiting process.

But picture this. You're waiting in line. You have things to do. You have in line with you the necessary means to do everything you need to get done right away. (Remember, this is just a picture, but with modern technology, it's probably extremely possible.) And instead of doing what most people in this extremely long line are doing, you wait patiently - even though what waits at the end of the line seems better than the things you can get done in line, even though it would be so much easier to just start complaining and trying to rush things that just can't be rushed.

Okay, so if you're like me, you are totally thinking, "Yeah right!" Sometimes (alright, most times), it isn't easy to wait patiently, even if you can find a way to be productive or have fun while you're waiting.

However, that is exactly what God asks us to do. He's totally cool with us looking forward to what He has in store for us, but He doesn't want it to become distracting. He wants us to enjoy what He has given us now and complete the tasks He has for us at this moment.

I'm one of those people that just doesn't like to wait. And when I do decide to wait I'm always trying to rush things. If I'm not imagining and planning out my entire future (which I should know by now won't be how it turns out anyway) then I'm doing whatever is in my power to execute those dreams and plans - on most days. On the very good days, I remember that God is in control and let Him take care of it (by praying and asking Him to hurry up and get me to what He has planned).

I had a rough day a few weeks back when I was seriously doubting God's plans. To me, it seemed like every time I said, "Alright, God, here's my dreams. You really do have control. Work them out the way You want," the things that I thought His plans include fall apart. That day was probably the only day I have ever blamed God for something that seemed to go wrong in my life, and once I realized that's what I was doing, I knew there was a problem.

Thankfully, my answer was prayer (which turned out to be the correct option as usual). God reminded me of a song from one of my favorite movies - "While I'm Waiting" by John Waller. For it being one of my favorite parts of that movie, it sure took a long time for me to figure out what is being said in the lyrics of that song. As I listened to the song on YouTube, I realized what God means when He asks us to wait.

I used to think waiting meant not trying to run ahead in line. I thought I could be as impatient as I wanted as long as I didn't try to make things happen faster than God's plan. Now, I know otherwise. To God, waiting on His timing means doing what He wants me to do now. When God tells me to wait, what He's really saying is, "Serve me in this season of your life. Worship me for what I have given you now." His plan is step-by-step. Until we follow His most recent direction, He won't show us the next part of the map.

So, that day of doubt turned into one of my greatest moments of trust. I decided to really let God be in control. Instead of trying to figure out His plans before He wants me to, I'm going to complete today's tasks. I'm going to reach out to people like never before. I don't want to miss any of today's opportunities. I don't want to put off my fairy tale ending by trying to rush it instead of taking it one step at a time. If it's given me peace in one area of my life, I think it's time to apply it to every area.

Now, back to the picture I created earlier of someone waiting in line. Are you going to be someone who tries to force your end result to come sooner than it is supposed to? Are you going to be the one who waits but does so in a way that you get nothing done and aren't really ready for the end result? Or are you going to be the one who waits patiently? If I were you, I'd go with running your race the way God has planned for you. Know beyond all shadow of a doubt that He has things figured out. Move ahead at an obedient pace, and serve Him while you're at it.