I Trust In Thee

 

I'll Trust In Thee

Lord, I want you to be pleased
 With the life you've given me

 Let my heart be open to

 The love I need to help me through.

 Be my Strength and my Shield

My duties here to be fulfilled

O, my Rock, I shall not flee

O, my God, I'll trust in Thee.

Trials come, I am distraught

Lift me up, forsake me not,

Search my soul, and cleanse me deep

Lord, my Strength, my heart to keep.

 When this world is tempting me

Give me strength to be free

Take my heart so it may see

O, my God, I trust in Thee.

~Author Unknown

 

 "The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise Him."

~ Psalm  27:8

things that make us happy...

from Hannah S...

1. Reading God's Word
2. Prayer and the comfort that comes with it
3. Being with my family

4. Singing

5. Playing my instruments

6. Seeing God's mighty hand in my life

7. Coffee, Mochas, Lattes, Cappucino, & such like

8. The Bates Family

9. British accents

10. Yorkies!!!!

from Mrs. Stahl...

My Savior

My Family

Walks on the beach

My friends

Daisies

Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

from Kaylee...

from Hannah Elizabeth...

*new music

*planning

*being inspired

*spending time in prayer

*highlighters

*writing creatively

writers favorites// color

I have been having fun getting to know our lovely writers a little bit more through our favorites posts! Its rather ironic that every one of us loves PINK!!!! ;-P Enjoy these gorgeous photos, and be sure to click through to the pins! <3Hannah Elizabeth

Hannah S.~ PINK

Hannah Elizabeth~ BLUE and PINK 

      

Mrs. Stahl~ PINK 

Kaylee~ PINK

      

***all of these photos are from our pinterest board...

Duty or Devotion?

 "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."

~ Deuteronomy 6:5

Have you ever heard someone say something like this? "The least that you can do for Christ is serve Him, because He gave His life for you." This statement is not wrong, but I think it's taken out of context a lot of times. This topic is something that the Lord has been dealing with me about lately, and He lead me to share it with you. I have by no means learned this all the way, but the Lord continues to teach me about it each day as I seek to grow in Him.

First, I want to share some of my personal struggles learning to serve the Lord out of devotion of Him, rather than just duty. I have the sort of personality that just wants to go, go, go, and never rest until the work is done. Living next door to our church, sometimes the knowledge of things that need to be done can weigh very heavily on me. The building needs cleaned, there are hymnbooks to fix, little pieces of paper that need to be picked up, crumbs on the floor of the nursery, you know- the "mess after church" kinda stuff. At one time, I began to throw myself into this work, believing that it was my duty to accomplish all this, since I'm around all the time. The doing of the work is not bad- my problem was that I was relying on my own strength, and that I thought I could do it all on my own. And that I tried to do it all. While God does have some things that He requires of us (Micah 6:8), He does not require, or desire, that we run ourselves completely ragged with work. Well, that's what I was doing, driven by my desire to " fulfill my duty." And I was exhausted months later, when my loving, wise, and Godly parents pulled me aside and explained to me what was happening. They told me that God doesn't expect one person to do everything- we simply can't. It's not my duty alone, and duty is not the reason we should be serving God, anyhow.  I came to the realization that I have no strength on my own to even do the regular things I should do- it's got to be Christ living and working through me, teaching me to love Him with all my heart, soul, and might. He does the work - not the work that I want to do, or think I need to do, but the work that HE wants me to do. My job is to yield and let Him do it.

As I continue to grow in Christ, He has taught me that it can't be me living this life at all. It has to be Jesus Christ himself living His life through me! (Galatians 2:20) Like I said, I have no strength! But praise the Lord, He does have strength! I have no power in and of myself to live a victorious Christian life, yet Jesus Christ, who lives inside me, does! The power and strength to serve Him devotedly, and passionately, has to come from Him. If it doesn't, I am simply doing things in my own weak flesh, and that can never please Him. Only when I yield to the Holy Spirit's leading in ALL things, can he use me for His purposes, and I can depend on His strength, because He will never wear out. The very least I can do for Christ is to live for Him, but the key is to realize that I can't. It has to be Him - and only Him!

whatsoever is lovely// CONCLUSION + giveaway + giveaway winners

If you havent been following our series, then START HERE with the INTRO!

Are your thoughts TRUE? Are they based on what is real and factual? And be sure to go and enter our giveaway if you havent already! :) Brianna brought out some really interesting thoughts on how our thoughts should be HONEST and JUST! Staying PURE is so important, but sometimes I think we let ourselves get a little deceived, we think that we can get away with impure thoughts, but thats not true! Have you ever thought about your thoughts being ugly or LOVELY? Hannah S. had some really good thoughts on how a GOOD REPORT is our testimony! Mrs. Stahl had a lovely post reminding us to work on our VIRTUOUS character! And Mrs. Crane wrapped up our week with some awesome thoughts on what is PRAISEWORTHY!

I am so excited at how the LORD is using this blog! Its funny, because even though I started it to reach out to other people, the Lord has been using it to bless me too! It has been such a blessing to get to know each of the ladies that are writing, and read their thoughts and see what they come up with! 

I hope the Lord is using this blog to be a blessing to you too! I would like to encourage you all to share this with your friends and family> spread the Word so that God can use it and you! We need to try to make an impact on those around us!!!!

We have finished our first series on our theme verse up there^^^^^^^, so now we will be moving on to some other fun stuff this week! 

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Our givewaway winners are.....

whatsoever is true>> Sarah Covey

meet our authors>> Hope King

Please email us at allthingslovelyphil4.8@gmail.com with your mailing address!!!!

***If you do not respond within 24 hours we will redraw a winner!

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We have another giveaway today! >>>Did you know that every 10 followers we get, or every 10 likes on facebook we will do a giveaway???? Thats pretty cool, so spread the word! :)

We have 9 different ways that you can enter!!!!

1. Leave a comment telling us what your favorite topic of the week was!!! <true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous or praiseworthy> {Required!}
2. Follow our blog!
3. Like our facebook page!

4. Share this giveaway on Facebook{and/or twitter/g+/your blog} >leave a link in your comment.

5. Follow our pinterest board

6. Repin our giveaway pin!

whatsoever things// OF GOOD REPORT

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

~ Philippians 4:8

First, thank you Hannah for the opportunity to write this devotional. It’s a real blessing to be able to be an encouragement to other young ladies, and also to learn more about God and His Word. I’d also like to thank God for helping me to write this, and for giving me a better understanding of what a “good report” actually is! I hope it is a blessing! 

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So, what is good report? It was not until very recently that I actually began to understand through God’s Word what this actually means. God used 1 Timothy 3:7 to show me: “Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.” This verse, speaking of God’s requirements for a bishop (pastor), says that he must have a good report of them which are without- “Oh (light bulb!), it’s a testimony! We must seek to have a good testimony, by God’s grace. Don’t worry, this isn’t a rabbit trail- it’s just for the record: we’re supposed to follow our pastors (Heb. 13:7)! If they are required to have a good report among a lost and dying world that needs a Saviour, then so are we. (Do you ever feel like you’re starting to write a sermon, and then realize that you’re not supposed to?)

So, to continue the thought here, there are 5 specific kinds of reports mentioned in the Bible.

1). A good report   2.) A true report   3). An honest report   4). An evil report   5). A false report

These can be put into general categories of good reports and evil reports. Think of a Biblical example of someone with an evil report, and someone with a good report. For an evil report, I thought of Hophni and Phineas- raised in the temple- the “pastor’s kids” if you will! And yet, Eli had to say this to them, because of their rotten testimony: “Nay, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: ye make the Lord’s people to  transgress.” ~ 1 Samuel 2:24.

For a good report, Enoch came to mind. “By faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” ~ Hebrews 11:5.          

So the last thing to say is this: “How is your report looking?” When people think of you, what comes to mind? Now, don’t get me wrong! We don’t want to be going through our daily life with the mindset of “Oh, what is everyone going to think?!!?” Honestly, if we lived every day worrying what other people think, we would never accomplish anything, especially for our Saviour! But we do have to remember that we are ambassadors for Christ, and according to Acts chapter 8 and Matthew 28, we are here to be winning lost souls to Christ. The Bible says in Ephesians 4:5, “Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.” Them that are without - that’s people who are not saved.

 You and I must seek the Lord’s face every day, and ask Him for the wisdom and grace to have a pure and holy testimony for THAT day, and to think on things of good report.  We have to think about those people in the Bible that walked faithfully with God- they are there for our examples!  Let’s seek to have a good report of our lives, for the honor and glory of God. The world sees enough of their own kind- what they don’t see enough of is Jesus Christ. Think ;) about this! Pray about it!