Inspired, Empowered, Changed

I titled this post with three dramatic words. This week is the beginning of our busy fall schedule. It is that familiar time of year when our schedules fill up quickly and we soon realize we are running full steam ahead whether we are ready for it or not. I am so thankful that my week began with the start of a new women's study. I have been blessed and privileged to facilitate a women's home Bible study group and this is going into our second year. The response has been so great, and they have been so eager, so committed and so consistent. I am constantly amazed each time we begin a new study how the timing is just right for each one of us, and it is so needed. God must love to hear that! We need Him so desperately, and we need to know Him more. This is the outlook we should have on our lives daily. We are reminded over and over again throughout the Scriptures, in the lives of those who walked with God before us, and in the familiar verses that uplift us in our daily quiet times--we need Him and we should be seeking Him without ceasing. The reality of our walk with Christ is that we will never fully know Him until we are standing before Him, face to face. Our humanity would not survive this knowledge, so in our time on this earth we are to strive toward that knowledge by living out this life as examples of Christ, mirroring His unconditional love, embracing the Truth of the Gospel, and influencing others to come to know Him. The result of our daily striving toward this goal, is that we will find ourselves inspired, empowered, and changed--such great words that light a fire within my heart and soul! We should not settle for or expect any day in this life to be "normal", but instead, our goal should be for each day to be "different". We have a role to play in our time on this earth to be light where there is dark, salt where there is no flavor, to be an effect for change! I hope to grasp this daily in my quiet time, and I will pray this for those around me as well.