Even Now – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Even now, in the midst of all the stress, in the midst of all the stuff I’m dealing with, You’re asking me to rejoice, to give thanks. Do You have any idea how HARD that is for me to do? But I will. I will give thanks. I will rejoice. This IS Your will, and all I want is to live in Your will. I rejoice because I have a Father who loves me, who is taking care of me even when I forget that He is. I rejoice because I have a beautiful family, one that is making all kinds of plans to be with me and spend our time somewhere enjoyable. I rejoice because my life is not in my own hands. Thank You. Thank You for revealing little bits of Your love and Your grace in my life. It’s so easy for me to just look at how things seem to just “go wrong” a lot of the time, but if I truly look, if I’m truly honest with myself, nothing has actually gone wrong. Everything is going right because You are using me for Your will. Regardless of hurts, stress, doubts, disappointments, You are working in my life, perfecting it, creating the perfect masterpiece. Thank You.

God bless!

Marina

Thanks Be To God! – 2 Corinthians 9:15

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! (2 Corinthians 9:15)

Lately I feel as if God has been trying to remind me of all the blessings He has placed in my life. Thinking about all that God has done and is continuing to do puts life in perspective. When things get tough, when I start to doubt and to fear, looking back on God’s wondrous works and blessings and gifts brings me back into the assurance of God’s love and God’s plan for me. What do you have to be thankful about? What has God done in your life that is worth praising Him about? When things get rough, think about those things! I guarantee it does wonders!

God bless!

Marina

If You Please – Psalm 19:14

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

I think it was Abouna Bishoy who said something recently about asking God if what I am doing or what I am saying or what I plan to do or say is pleasing to Him. There is something to be said about those who strive to do what is pleasing to God in every situation in their lives. I truly wish I could say that I ask God to incline my heart to do what is pleasing to Him and not to me. This verse is so key, and I plan to memorize it and constantly pray it. I pray you do the same!

Papa, I want You to be pleased with me. I want my actions, my words, my thoughts, my desires to find favor in Your eyes. I want You to be proud of me.

God bless!

Marina

A friend of mine asked for an anonymous prayer request: her family is going through some rough times, so please say a prayer for her and her family!

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I Hate You, Tomorrow… – Matthew 6:34

I hope you all got the reference of my title (if not, I was going for Little Orphan Annie). Anyway, down to business!

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matthew 6:34)

I was venting to a friend last night about being so stressed about an upcoming exam. I have a lot of things depending on this one stinking exam. Let’s just say I was very close to tears and my good friend nausea would not leave me alone every time I thought about the wretched class that is Human Biochemistry. So after I repeatedly said, “I’m scared, I’m scared, I’m scared,” (I must have said it no less than 30 times) he said to me, “Marina, look up Matthew 6:34.” I did. And what I found is what you see above. It was a great reminder that I’m already going to be stressing about this test the day of, so why freak myself out even more a week prior? or even a DAY prior? My dad likes to say this to me: “If you worry about something happening tomorrow and it happens, you’ve worried about it twice, and if you worry about that thing and it doesn’t happen, you’ve worried about it for no reason. Now doesn’t that sound stupid to you?” Yes, it does. It is so stupid to worry about things, especially when we have God on our side. I won’t lie to you, I’m still experiencing some anxiety about this class…and all the other classes I’m taking right now, but going from World-Class Worrier to Go-With-The-Flow doesn’t happen in one day. The point I’m trying to get across, I guess, is that worrying about the future, whether it be the near or distant future, is not going to benefit you in any way. It’ll just add more unnecessary stress to your days. So, as my license plate frame likes to remind me: “No worries. God’s got it covered.”

God bless!

Marina

Plans – Proverbs 19:21

Many are the plans in a person’s heart, 
but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails. (Prov19:21, NIV)

You may have all kinds of plans, plans for your grades, plans for your education, plans for your career, plans for your entire life!

Dear Lord, Help me surrender to You. Help me to come to You and say truthfully with all my heart that Your will be done and not my own….Your will be done.

God bless,

Marina

Please keep the persecuted in your prayers.

What To Live By – Matthew 4:4

“But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”" (Matthew 4:4)

How often do we try living our lives dependent entirely upon the satisfaction of our earthly bodies, of our flesh? How often do we decide not to go to the words of God for satisfaction and fulfillment, but to other people and their words? The past week or so I have found myself in this state of not being able to get enough of God’s words. Everywhere I go, everything I do, all I can think about is God’s word, all I can do is read His words and listen to His words. This doesn’t happen all of the time for me, but when it does, I realize that I haven’t been living all of this time without the Psalms and the other readings of the Bible and Agpeya. There is a significant difference between life with God’s word surrounding you and without God’s word. Which would you rather: live a fulfilling and full life or an incomplete life? A change won’t happen overnight, or it might, but that rarely happens. It is necessary to intentionally go to God’s words and then it will begin to come naturally.

Here are some things I started doing:

• Block out time in the morning to spend with God
• Go to God with everything: you’re problems, the good things, everything
• Write things down: keep a journal and write to God about everything (refer to item 2) and when you start to doubt or lose sight of God, look back at the good things He’s done for you
• Switch the playlists that you normally listen to and put in something spiritually uplifting*
• Memorize verses
• About to check Facebook, Twitter, or whatever other social network it is you use? If you can, shut it off and focus on God completely (believe me, this was the best thing I could have done for myself). If you can’t, instead of checking out the website, check out the Verse of the Day on biblegateway.com or check out this blog! Maybe even send an encouraging/uplifting message or email to someone who might need it.
• Switch out those novels with spiritual books (Come on, ladies; we all love those romance novels, but don’t you think adding to the heartache of being single with a book where the stupid girl ends up with the most romantic man is a little foolish?)
• Thinking about something or someone you really shouldn’t? This is where your verse memorization plays a nice role!

*Audio resources:

• Sermons: http://www.orthodoxsermons.org/
• Church hymns/praises: http://www.tasbeha.org/
• Agpeya (1st, 3rd, and 6th hours): http://www.cdbaby.com/artist/saintantonymonastery/ (only $6 for both albums! THAT’S a steal, and this is coming from an Egyptian, so trust me, it’s a steal!)

I hope these tips help, and please feel free to comment and add anything you have found helpful yourself!

God bless.

Marina

My Tiny Little Light

A bruised reed He will not break,

And smoking flax He will not quench;

He will bring forth justice for truth.

(Isaiah 42:3)

I was reading Isaiah 42 today when I stumbled upon this verse. It’s easy to just pass over this without thinking twice, but please do think twice on this. When I am bruised, God promises not to break me. He is kind and caring. He is nurturing. He won’t ever break a “bruised reed”. On the contrary, He will bind up this brokenness in me and heal me. It also says He wouldn’t quench “smoking flax”. What does this mean? When I have this tiny little flame inside of me, maybe not even a flame, but smoke that is trying to catch fire, God won’t quench it. He won’t extinguish that fire inside of me. He wants me to have this fire inside me. He will feed the “smoking flax” inside me. I think that people often say to themselves that if they don’t have faith, God doesn’t love them, or God will punish them for it. What they don’t understand is that God is just waiting for that teeny flame to light up inside you so that He can make it grow into a raging fire, a fire of passion and love, a fire filled with His grace. I think it’s important to remember that God is on my side, even more so than I am myself.

God bless,

Marina

The Devil’s Death Knell – God Calling

Praise is the devil’s death knell. Resignation, acceptance of My Will, obedience to it, have not the power to vanquish evil that praise has. The joyful heart is My best weapon against all evil. Oh! pray and praise. … Talk to Me more during the day. Look up into My Face-a look of Love, a feeling of security, a thrill of Joy at the sense of nearness of My Presence-these are the best prayers.

God Calling by A.J. Russell

Just like the Quiet Time for today, today’s God Calling message is about praise. Praise is the ultimate way of communication with God. It is the highest level of prayer, and it is a sure weapon against the devil. Let us always remember to praise God no matter what the circumstance because even if the circumstances seem bad, God is still good.

God bless.

Marina

Rescued and Guided – Psalm 40:2 — God Calling

(1) “He brought me up also out of a horrible pit” -Safety. (2) “He set my feet upon a rock” -Security. (3) “He established my goings” -Guidance. Number three is the final stage when the saved soul trusts Me so entirely it seeks no more its own way but leaves all future plans to Me its Rescuer.

God Calling by A.J. Russell

I pray that we may be able to reach the level where we can no longer seek our own ways and leave all our future plans to Him. He promises to rescue us, to save us, to guide us. Let’s not give up that opportunity. Let’s take every bit of that opportunity as we can get!

God bless.

Marina

Perfect Love Casts Out Fear – 1 John 4:18

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18)

Nuff said.

God bless.

Marina