I want to respond to my own blog... A few blogs ago I wrote about a phrase, "God has no expectation upon you." My initial reaction was that is impossible of course He does! God has a way of making a question come to light later on as we reflect. Recently, as I reflected on the prayer... "GOD has no expectation upon you." I remembered something. GOD knows everything about me. He can't expect upon me because HE already knows what I will do and be in this life. Likewise, GOD is love! When we truly love someone we do not have expectations upon them. We simply love them! Mind you we might have expectancy, but not expectations. When we have expectations we often are greatly disappointed because expectations place one in a position of meeting anothers standards. This can change from person to person. What one expects is different depending upon life circumstances. But expectancy is a hope for enjoyment, delight... presence. Two sources helped me with this struggle: a novel and a devotional. I read in a devotional by Charles Spurgeon that since GOD is love He cannot be in isolation. WHY? Because love must have two for it to be love. This is what spurred my realization that since GOD is love He does not have expecations upon me. He loves me as I am simply because I am His. That is incredibly special. What a sweetness we have in our Jesus! The novel-- The Shack provides a great dialogue with this exact concept. I really enjoyed how the author tackled this concept. Both of these challenged my thoughts... I love a good thought provoking moment in the LORD!

DRAGON SKETCH
By: Tara Rye

“Mom, will you please teach me how to draw a dragon?”

Obviously, Grant needed some mom time all to himself. “Of course, Grant!”

Grant and I gathered the paper and pencils needed, as we went to the computer to research pencil sketches of dragons. It did not take us long to find the perfect image for us to draw.

“Okay Grant, the first thing we will do is lightly sketch out the shape of his face using simple circles and squares. It is important we focus in on the proportions of the shapes. This will keep the image realistic.”

Grant lifted his pencil and began to draw the head and jaw line. Slowly, we patterned out where the eye, teeth and even long horns flowing from his head loosely on the paper. The sketch took form and the idea of a dragon began to take shape.

“You know Grant drawing is something that takes time. If you want a picture to be beautiful, you must fill in details. This requires patience.”

Grant nodded his little head as his brow furrowed with deep concentration as he penciled in the dragon scales. After an hour of drawing, I suggest we take a break and work on it later. We walk away from our dragons and focus on other things. It did not take long before the call to visit his dragon tugged on Grant’s heart. “Mom, do you think we should…” His little pause told me he did not want to me to say no and he hoped that I wanted to do what he wanted to do. “Sure, let’s go draw.”

“Grant, since the details will make the dragon come alive I will now show you how to make the scales look like the light is shining on them. We will darken in the far left edges with a scratchy dark line. As we move to the far right in the scale, we will lighten our touch on our pencil to create a reflection effect.”

Grant’s tongue pressed against his lips as he slowly filled in each scale. “I only have twenty-eight more scales to fill in.” After coloring in nearly a hundred scales, what is twenty-eight more? With each scales completion the dragon began to move on the page. With only the flowing horns left to fill in, Grant’s anticipation was palatable. “Mom, how do I make the horns?”

“This is the same as the scales, but you will shade from the bottom to the top. Once you have the shadow effect then add a small curved line along the base. This will give it a rounded feel to it.”

“You know mom, when we started this I thought the first sketch of my dragon was ugly. It was only lines and it didn’t look right. But now that the details are added I love my dragon. He is beautiful.”

“Grant, you are so right. This reminds me of our relationship with God. When we first ask Jesus to be our Savior we can only see the simple sketch of what our life is to look like in Christ. But the more we study God’s Word and allow Him to show us the details of how we are to live our lives we discover that our lives in Christ are more beautiful than we can ever imagine.”

I am wondering. Where in your life do you have a simple sketch, yet you desire to see the live image of what is to come? Ask the Father to fill in the details for you so that you can see the beauty of His plan. The details He will add are immeasurably more than you can imagine!


42 This image of planting a dead seed and raising a live plant is a mere sketch at best, but perhaps it will help in approaching the mystery of the resurrection body—but only if you keep in mind that when we're raised, we're raised for good, alive forever! 43 The corpse that's planted is no beauty, but when it's raised, it's glorious. Put in the ground weak, it comes up powerful. 1 Corinthians 15:42-43/The Message

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21

I once read that in Israel travelers kept a camel they called the committed camel that followed behind their caravan. They packed the saddles so uniquely that it stacked up high upon the camels back. Amazingly, they could literally roll the packed saddle off the camel if needed. Camels carrying heavy loads over long distances that got too tired to continue on were known to buckle at the knees and lay down. This stopped the entire caravan! Imagine leaving your supplies and precious camel behind! When this occurred they brought forward the committed camel and they rolled over the heavy load onto this fresh rested camel! Once the load was lifted the tired camel would rise up and begin walking again allowing the entire envoy to carry on in their journey!

Have you ever felt so loaded that you could not continue in carrying your load? Have you ever felt like the caravan surrounding you is leaving you behind because you are too tired to carry the load you bear? What would you say if I told you that you too have a committed camel in your life? King David understood this concept of rolling over onto God that which burdened him.

In fact, in Psalm 37:5, David suggests to us that if we commit our way to God—literally roll over onto God that heavy saddle we are carrying upon our backs that God will carry it. The hard part for me is that means I must give God my reputation, my journey, and my settled course in life.

Interestingly, this is not a one time event. Just as the camels pack on their back will change depending on the length of the journey or the purpose the burden will alter and the weight change. Committing to God and rolling over onto Him means that I must do this daily and sometimes moment by moment. We must ask ourselves daily, “Have I rolled it over to the committed camel?” Sometimes that is easier said than done!

Think about this for a moment… If I am committing my way to God and allowing Him to carry the load then He must be pleased to carry it. Check out what David later says in Psalm 37:23, “If the LORD delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.”

We must ask ourselves, “Can I walk my journey without stumbling when I carry a heavy load?” I don’t know about you, but I sure can’t! God promises that when He delights in our way then He alone makes our steps firm! In fact, we might still stumble, but He will not let us fall!

I am going to ask you a personal question I ask myself often. Have you truly rolled over your load onto the committed camel? This is simply done through soul talk! Take a moment to visualize if you must you rolling it over onto the Father! Tell Him what is burdening you. Maybe today, you are overwhelmed like I was as I prepared this for a speaking engagement! You know what I had to do? I rolled over! It is so worth it!

Challenge: Our challenge is to not to carry the load!

I like how the Message Bible translation states it.

Open up before GOD, keep nothing back; he'll do whatever needs to be done.
Psalm 37:5/The Message

God is teaching me many things about praise and one is that it does not come so easily to my lips! Requests are so easy… praise requires work on my part. I am finding my prayer time is filling with more visual prayers as I praise GOD over situations. This is a new lesson for me all together. I must give you one that involved me. The last week of Ladies Bible Study I felt like I could not reach heaven with my prayers. Ever been there? The actual visual that I had was of a child holding a plastic cup over me like he would a bug to suffocate it! I just keep buzzing up and down hitting the clear plastic cover! Needless to say, I spent three days confessing, sitting, waiting, and trying to write… NOTHING! All I had was a scripture outline and handout for them to fill in the blanks, but none of the pretty stuff that pulls it all together. I kept beseeching GOD and again nothing. One day before I was to teach I had a visual come to me through a flower in my yard. We had placed a huge boulder beside our sidewalk along our flower bed last year. We completely forgot that we had tulip bulbs waiting to bloom lying dormant in the earth. As I set out to walk, hoping that spending time praising GOD out doors would lift this feeling, I saw my lesson! This tulip knew it needed the sun. So it grew up under the boulder to reach around it and then bend up higher until it rested on top of the boulder to catch the sun perfectly. It opened its bloom up to receive maximum rays from the sun. I thought “THAT IS ME!” No matter what boulder is placed on me I will do whatever it takes to get to the Son! I called a friend and asked her to pray for me for I knew now that I was dealing with oppression not sin. It was as if the evil one did not want the lesson taught! I taught the last lesson and release immediately came! What about you? Do you have any boulders in your life right now? Do you feel like you have a plastic cup on top of you preventing you from getting fresh air? Are you giving up? DON’T! Do whatever it takes to get to the SON! If you do… YOUR bloom will shine in HIS light for HIS Glory!

I love to learn a new truth! I especially love to learn a new truth that applies to the word of God and gives me new insight as I grow in Christ. This morning as I read through 1 Timothy Chapter 2, I stopped on verse 8. It says that men are to lift up their hands in worship without anger or dispute. Shortly, after this it gives a woman's mode of worship expected at that time as well. But as I thought about men and their need to lift up their hands without anger or dispute I wondered why? Why not women? Paul did not have to tell us (women) to lift our hands in worship. Why? Demonstrative behavior typically comes easily for the ladies... not as easily for men!? I wonder... our issue with worship centered upon our adornment-- how shallow is that! But how true for even today! Men still allow anger and dispute within their hearts to stop them from worshiping and women still focus upon their outward appearances more than we should. Then I stumbled across a thought in the Qwest Study Bible that said the reason the hands were lifted centered upon two words: Dependence and trust and then culiminated in one truth... expectancy. The lifting of the hands demonstrated physically to the Father that trust is in Him not the individual! I depend on You-- not me! I expect YOU to answer and my hands are lifted to receive! How powerful is that!

It so ministered to me. See... I am in the process of rewriting one of my Bible Studies titled Redeemed to Praise. I have made a commitment to GOD to fast from requests for a season. So... everytime I begin a natural flow of requests to God I will pause and say a praise instead! Try it! I have done this for a day at a time on different days that I felt that my praise wained, but I have never done it for an undetermined amount of time. I will do this until the rewrite is complete so that my every thought is focused on praise. I am lifting my hands up to GOD trusting HIM! I am dependent upon HIM! I wait with expectancy for HIM to bring about the right answers! His answer is always better anyways! How about you? Are you willing to take my praise challenge? It isn't as easy as you think. Especially, if you prayed and talked to God for years. You will be amazed at how many requests you make in a day. If you decide to do this let me know. I want to keep up with how you are doing too! My husband said, "You need to pray for Him to help you write and teach." I said, "I have done this for years! He knows my heart in this and has heard my prayers. Now I will spend time praising HIM for all the answers HE is sending my way." We lift our Holy hands up! We learn to trust YOU! AMEN!