Who Am I?

A few years ago, I kept a blog called Cowgirl For Jesus. I eventually abandoned that blog in favor of Facebook, but now, like many of my friends, I find myself returning to blogging...it's like the sea, it gets in your blood and you can't leave it! :P

I'm not yet sure what I want to accomplish with this blog, except maybe to express myself in more than 420 characters or less...not to say that I am leaving Facebook by any means, but simply that I want a broader canvas on which to display the work of art God is creating in my life. And so this blog is focused on Him, not on me. As the Casting Crowns' song Who Am I says so aptly, "Not because of who I am, but because of what You've done; not because of what I've done, but because of who You are."

The Lord is doing some amazing things in my life right now -- I can't even begin to express how blown away I am, time and time again, as He gives me glimpses of His will for my life. Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." In another translation this becomes, "'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.'" While this verse may be slightly taken out of context, it is clear that the Lord has our future in His hands. Other scriptures that reinforce this include Psalm 40:5 "Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered," and Psalm 139:17 "How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!" What a concept! The God who created everything, who rules and reigns over all creation, who makes the moon reflect the sun -- He thinks of me! He is intimately acquainted with my life, knows the hairs on my head (Matthew 10:30), and cares about everything in my life. And yet it is so easy to be like the person described in Psalm 10:4 "The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts." Oh how easily we fall into this sin! In the rush and busyness of the day, the still small voice is lost in the clamor of everything else vying for my attention...and suddenly the day is over, and I reflect and ask whether my life has glorified God in that day. I yearn to say confidently that my days do glorify God, and yet I know in the weakness of my flesh this is not always the case. Lord forgive me...the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

And so I intend to use this blog to chronicle some of the plans God has for my future. It will be an adventure, watching Him reveal each step in its time. I have been following a devotional by Stormy Omartian called Just Enough Light for the Step I'm On, which has helped me understand that God does not give us the future laid out ahead of time, but instead shows us each step one at a time, guiding us and asking us to step out in faith and trust Him. And as I grow in that faith and trust, I am blessed beyond what I could have imagined!

Not every post here will be this serious or thought-provoking -- many will be just for fun :) But in all, I will strive to glorify God in my thoughts, words, and actions, and I ask the same from you. Will you join me?