Secret Places Video Devotion

Video Blog Tuesday

This Season Too Shall Pass

My son turned 1 just this week. It was a very exciting time. As I thought back over the past year I thought about all the times I had the thought that "this is never going to get better". All of the nights we were up 5 to 6 times, all of the times I had to spend the whole day holding him, all of the times he would scream and scream with no solution in sight, seemed like they would never improve. After a year we still have some tough nights and screaming fits and full days of him being attached to my hip, but it has certainly gotten easier. The thing is that while you are right in the middle of a certain season; especially a hard one, you feel like it's never going to end. You feel as though you will never find a solution or relief.

The truth is that season too shall pass. Scripture tells us that there is a time for every season. In Ecclesiastes 3:1 it says, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven." The season you may find yourself in may have taken you by surprise but it didn't take God by surprise and he has much purpose for you in that specific season. God has taught me many lessons and revealed alot to me about myself through my latest season of raising my infant son. What I find is that so often we are constantly wishing away the season and ready to move forward rather than learning from and enjoying where we are at the time.

If you are single you probably know exactly what I am talking about. I can remember as a single feeling like my single season would never end. I just couldn't wait to be married and I felt like my life wouldn't be complete until I was finally out of my single season and into my married one. I can tell you that now I look back and realize what a sweet season of life my single season really was. I had plenty of free time to spend studying God's word and serving in my church and community. If I didn't feel like cleaning house or doing laundry I didn't. I could be very spontaneous with traveling and meeting up with friends. My single season as it ends up was one of the sweetest seasons I have ever experienced with Jesus.

That doens't mean I am not enjoying my married season. I love my husband and my family. I have a blast with them and it too is a sweet season of it's own. My point is that if we aren't careful we will continue to rush our way through a season that God has amazing things stored up for us in. Potentially we could miss all that God wants to teach us and bless us with simply because we are in a hurry to move forward to the next season in life. If God has something for me I don't want to miss out on it.

Even today this is a good reminder for me. I find myself frequently saying "I can't wait until __________." Now as I say that sentence I try to catch myself and instead say, "What I enjoy about now is __________." It's a good reminder of the things that God has for me in the here and now. I want to encourage you today, don't wish away the season you are in. Ask God to show you and teach you all he has for you in that season. I can assure you that what you learn right now in the season you find yourself will equip you for the season that is coming. And to be sure there is always a new season coming. If you find yourself in a hard season just know that this too shall pass, so spend much time with Jesus learning what you can from him. If you find yourself in a sweet season also remember that this too shall pass, so spend much time with Jesus enjoying all he has for you. We love you at TIM and are praying for you in whatever season of life you are in.

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Recently I spoke on the fruit of the spirit in a message called Vice Versus Virtue. It's the season in my life that God is speaking to soI figured it was worth sharing on my blog (the blog I have so much trouble keeping up with...). In Galatians 5:16-18 Paul says this, "My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?" I desperately want to be led by the spirit in my own life. But what I realize is that in the last year I have had a terrible battle of my vices (immoral and negative conduct) versus my virtues (admirable, moral and righteous qualities). I have been going through a season that I have just been living out exactly how I feel right at that moment. I feel mad…so I act it. I feel like venting so I do. I feel like being lazy and procrastinating so I put things off. I feel like…I feel like…I feel like.... So I do. It’s like I am just barely going through the motions of daily living and hanging on for dear life and not liking the things coming out of me along the way.

I'm not even talking about big huge noticeable things. I am just talk about those negative attitudes wecan get that then come out in all sort of symptoms. During the conference I shared the picture God gave me that illustrated this point so perfectly. Let me attempt to give you the visual too...

Picture a perfume bottle and every time you push the button out comes a nice spritz of fragrance. The type of spritz that draws others in. It is refreshing, energizing and edifying. That's what God wants us to look like. He wants us to be a refreshing and energizing spritz to those around us. Unfortunately that isn't what I always look like. What happens to me when my buttons get pushed looks more like silly spray. You push the button and out comes this nasty spew of silly spray. It goes everywhere and sticks to everything. It's heavy, sticky and burdensome. It is such a mess to clean up. Get the picture???

So what about you? Are you a freshening spritz? Or a sticky spew? I have determined in my heart to be a spritz. I want to honor God in all I do. I don't want to just continue to spew out everything I feel right at the time. God wants us to have fruit coming out in our lives. John 15:8 says, "This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." I want things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control spritzing out of me. I assume you do to. I will pray for you and you can pray for me that God would help us to choose to walk with the spirit everyday. And if I can discipline myself enough to keep up with my blog...maybe you and I can walk each week through everyone of these fruit and see in more detail what they should look like.

Well I'm off to spritz some fruit!

Milestones

This week has been a week of Milestones for me. Many things that I have been waiting on God to see happen have happened all in one week. The first is that my baby boy Jase FINALLY slept most of the night. That may not seem like a big deal to most, but to my husband and I we are thrilled! After six long months of him getting up every two hours and many tearful prayers he slept until 5:30 am. Of course we were up all night checking on him....but at least I know he can do it!

The second milestone was when I received the final finished copy of my new book in the mail. I have been working on Fitness By Faith book for a few years now. God gave me a heart for teaching a weight loss bible study almost 5 years ago. From the beginning I knew that God had two plans for that call on my life. One was to write a book, and when i got the copy in my hand I couldn't stop thanking God for his faithfulness.

The second thing that God had laid on my heart to come out of the fitness and health call he placed on my life was to hold Fitness By Faith women's conferences. This week we opened up registration to our very first conference. I am so excited to finally see God's plan for these two things coming to pass!

My journey so far has allowed me to meet and minister to so many wonderful women and the journey ahead only has more relationships to form. I can't wait to see the adventure that God has planned!

Being Real

Hello all! Well I am certainly doing a terrible job of keeping up with this blog! We have just gotten back from our Her True Identity Conference in Defiance, Ohio. It was such an amazing time! What a wonderful company of women we spent the weekend with. I loved every second of it!

When first arrived I got to meet all my "Exceptional Women" bible study gals. Over 25 women from this church had just finished my new 10 week bible study I had written and God really touched their lives. It was so much fun to meet so many of them. Kyle kept laughing and saying "they think you are famous or something". I kept saying "no...it's just they know me well because I told so much about myself in the study!"

We had the honor of staying with an amazing gentlemen who housed all of the speakers. He had a home that was huge and included an indoor pool and hot tub! It was awesome! And so much fun for all of us that are only together at conferences to get to spend the whole weekend together.

At the conference God really touched hearts. The overwhelming statement that was made so many times was "thank you for being so real and down to earth". As I have thought about that I just get a little confused. Why is it so rare for people to just be "real". Especially Christian leaders? I have realized that people...especially women...can relate so much better when we let them know that we go through the same struggles that they do. We don't have to pretend we have it all together...we just have to let them know that God is the one that holds us together. I love that God has taken every bit of my stained past and now uses it for his glory.

So I hope it reminds me to continue to be real.... To be transparent so that when women see me on a platform with a mic they don't get mislead to believe that my life is any different than theirs. I laugh, I cry, I get sick, I get tired, I get frustrated, I bicker with my husband, I run out of money at the end of the month (sometimes at the beginning), I go a few days without reading my bible, I get annoyed....I am real.... That's why I need Jesus!

Day Ten

Day Ten

Well I have made it half way through my Daniel fast. It is been so challenging. Thank goodness I have my husband and ministry partners joining me on this fast. They have been a great source of encouragement. I must admit that it has been hard to find the time I really desire to spend praying and studying with a 3 month old in the house. Thank goodness that God doesn't expect hours and hours each day but hears my prayers that I send out to him during a shower, during diaper changes and feedings, during chores around the house. I love him for that. God is always faithful.

There are so many things we are asking God for during this fast....but the most important thing to me is to get more of Him. I can't wait to see how God answers the prayers we have been praying....He always does it with style. So we will keep fasting and keep praying and keep believing him for miracles!

Day One...

Well we made it through day one of our Daniel fast. I must say that I am a little surprised by how I feel physically tonight. I would call myself a pretty healthy eater. But tonight I have a huge headache and a terrible tummy ache from the change in diet. I guess it's the lack of caffiene and the addition of extra fiber to my diet. Breakfast was oatmeal with blueberries and walnuts, a snack of banana with peanut butter, lunch of red beans and rice, snack of fruit soy smoothie and dinner of vegetarian chile. Although it was a tough first day of fasting it was a great day of prayer. The thing that excites me the most is that in the book of Daniel the angel tells Daniel that God heard his prayer the very first day he asked. What a great thing to know that although time may pass before God answers...he heard every thing I prayed today and has already begun to move. Thank you Lord!

I look forward to 20 more days of intimate time with Jesus during this fast.

Some things we are fasting for: True Identity Ministries, Teen Challenge, our families, our son Jase, finances, wisdom, and most of all just more of God in our lives.

See you on day 2!

Daniel Fast

Well I did it...I fell behind in my blog just like I knew I would! With so many things to keep updated for the ministry: newsletter, website, conference registrations and planning, weekly devotions, facebook page....sigh....something ends up falling behind and this blog has been it! But I'm back and very excited. Wanna know why? Tomorrow my husband and I are starting our 21 day Daniel fast. I know it's crazy to be excited for a fast, but I have fasted enough now to know that although it is very difficult physically...it is so worth it spiritually.

In fact I'll tell you a story about my last 21 day fast. I started it at the beginning of January of 2006 and I listed in my journal all of the things I wanted to see God do in my life. One of them was to get a husband. I finally felt like I was ready to be married...but no prospects in sight. So I started my fasting and praying and then something happened. On Jan. 16th I was at a friends house. One of our friends said to me that he had a guy friend for me to talk to on the phone. I politely said "no thanks, not interested". Then he showed me a picture of him and I suddenly became interested! So this mutual friend called Kyle up (now my husband) and put him on the phone with me. It was very akward as you could imagine. Something happened and we got disconnected. The next day I received a call from an unkown number. I usually don't answer those calls but decided to this time. It was the cute friend of my friend. Kyle and I ended up talking for over 2 hours. I had to let him go so I could get to church that evening. When I got to church I told my sweet friend Amanda that I planned to marry this guy. And as it turned out we met face to face one month later and got engaged that weekend! 3 months after that I moved to South Dakota, changed jobs and married my dream husband. All this from a 21 day fast!

So needless to say this is why I am so excited for my fast. I know that God responds in a big way to us when we fast and pray. Scripture actually commands us to fast and pray. There should be times we set aside to deny ourselves of food or certain foods and seek God. That's what my husband and many of my ministry friends plan to do over the next 21 days. Please be praying for us! I will do my best to journal on my blog everyday to keep you up to date with what God is doing through our fast!

If you want more information on Daniel fast you can find it at http://daniel-fast.com/ or http://www.jentezenfranklin.org/fasting/danielfast.php. I promise you will be blessed!

Living Life with Zeal!

Today's True Identity Devotion was on the topic of Zeal. (Find it at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Brookings/True-Identity-Ministries/111926659730?ref=nf) God has been really working on my heart all this week about enthusiasm and zeal. Something that I heard said this morning really struck me. It was "I never want my zeal for God in public be greater than my zeal for God in private". WOW! What a great statement. So many times we can really go after God and be Zealous when we are doing it in public. In a church setting, in a bible study, hanging out with friends. But what happens in those times that it's just you and Jesus? How zealous are you then? That word zeal means: Enthusiastic devotion to a cause, ideal, or goal and tireless diligence in its furtherance, synonym: passion. This really challenges me to look at my private life with Jesus. Am I excited about spending time with him? Am I devoted to spending time with him? Am I tireless and diligent in MAKING time for him? The answer is...sometimes...and sometimes not.

A few comments have had me thinking about this. This week more than once I have had people come and tell me their prayer requests and then say "I know you will be praying hard and spending time with Jesus so I wanted you to know". Why would they say that? It's because they have seen that my public life for Jesus is very zealous....so they assume that my private life is too. Oh please Lord let that always be so. Please God never let me portray something in public that I don't sustain in private! Maybe you can join me this week in asking God to fill us each full of zeal and enthusiasm for serving him. Both in public and in private!

Here ya go grandma.....

I figured I better make a post before I head off to bed. Since this is only my third day of having a blog I don't want to get behind already! Today was an interesting day...I had my 8 week post pardum appointment. The questions they asked me made me laugh... such as: "Have you been feeling irritable?" Answer: "Yes"...."have you been crying and feeling blue" Answer: "Yes"..."Have you been fatigued?" Answer: "Yes".... Diagnosis....Yep you had a baby alright! Your normal.



Who knew that pregnancy, labor, and a new baby could change your life and your body so much. I asked the doctor when my body would be back to normal and her response with a smile was "It can take awhile." I figure what she meant was "NEVER." I didn't bother asking her when life would be back to normal because I'm quite certain her answer would be NEVER. And that is okay with me. I love my new family. Take a peek into life at the Brownlee's....

Well off to bed I go...that sweet baby boy will be up soon wanting his mommy. Goodnight!

So as I wake up today I realize that it is my wonderful husband's birthday! Not that I forgot, but it seemed to sneak up on me. Just like our three year anniversary did last month. You should have seen my face when my husband came in that day at 11:00 am and said, "Um Happy Anniversary." We both had forgotten. Oh my...ever since our new baby boy came in June this brain of mine seems to be on nothing else but baby mode! Do you know the feeling?

How in the world could this little bitty person draw in so much of our energy and attention? 24/7 our little man Jase is the focus of our world. At every minute we are making decisions for Jase that will provide for him and be for his good. And we would want it no other way. He is simply precious to us. As I thought about that this morning God gently reminded me that's how he feels about me. I am this little bitty person in God's gigantic universe, yet He is constantly focusing and thinking about me. 24/7 I am in God's thoughts. He at every minute is guiding me through all of the decisions and plans He has for me. What a thought. The God of the universe is completely consumed with loving me. The cool thing about God is He is capable of being overtaken with thoughts of me without forgetting any anniversaries or birthdays (and he has alot of them to remember!) Thank you Lord for loving me so. Help me to love my son and husband just like you love me. Well I guess I better go get some birthday surprises taken care of before my husband gets home from golf and realizes I forgot....again!