Thursday, April 10

The Joy of the Lord

This has been such a busy and stressful past few weeks! Our District is preparing for the upcoming District Council in three weeks. In addition to that I recently was appointed coordinator for the new ministry under the Women's Ministries umbrella called "Women in Ministry". Our retreat is next weekend in Ocean City, Maryland! First time our District has ever taken this retreat away from the area. We have a great weekend planned but as many of you know, when planning something of this magnitude there are details, details, and more details. Needless to say I have a few things on my plate in addition to trying to manage the other responsibilities in my life which include directing the church choir, praise team, teaching Sunday School, facilitating several mentorship groups, fulfilling my duties as pastor's wife, mom and of course Grammy!!! Whew! Calgon, please take me away!! :-)


We have devotions weekly at our office. The devotion this week was so timely for many of us. It was all about Mary and Martha and busyness. Imagine that will you! As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by my self?" Tell her to help me!" "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed." Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:38-41 (NIV)


In the busyness of life it is so easy to be distracted from the things of God. I truly believe that is a tool of the enemy. What a better time to be totally focused on God than when we are in the midst of extremely busy times in our lives. That certainly is a time in our life when we seriously need to rely upon the strength of the Lord for energy and wisdom. With a zillion things on our plates, God can bring peace and clarity to our minds when things seem a bit overwhelming.


I am so thankful today for the joy of the Lord. He is certainly my strength in all situations.

I am humbled that God has allowed me to be a part of so many incredible things at this season of my life.

I am blessed beyond measure and am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for His faithfulness.

I am thankful for a family who is more than supportive as I follow God's call upon my life.

I am thankful for a praying church who lifts my needs daily to God.

I am thankful that even in the midst of busyness and major stress God brings calmness to the storm.

Special thanks to Iris at Sting My Heart for hosting TT. Check out the other posts.

Blessings to you today!


11 comments:

  1. Oh boy, you sure have your plate full. I will be praying for you my sister. I remember those days "oh too well".

    God will work it all out. Your retreat sounds WONDERFUL!

    Blessings♥

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  2. Wonderful TT post. I can relate to the busyness problem. I struggle with that from time to time as a PW also. Blessings to u

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  3. Debbie...this was great! I can SEE you do have your hands full! Hope the Women in Ministry retreat goes well~!!!
    Have a blessed weekend!

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  4. I will be praying for you!! You sound really busy!!!!! Wow! But I know you will be able to do it all and do it well with God help!! Love and Hugs Grams

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  5. I'll be praying for your District Council...as I know this will be a POWERFUL time for all those who come.

    I'll be praying for all of the Pastor's wives who will attend, as I know MANY will come with heavy hearts. Some dealing with feeling all alone....some dealing with negative treatment of their husband.....some dealing with deep...deep..personal issues and they feel ALL along.

    I KNOW God is going to use you....and I'll be praying that you are his skin!!!

    Kim~

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  6. I loved your TT post. This week I posted on my blog a devotion about this same subject, entitled "running on empty". Come check it out,

    http://womentakingastand.blogspot.com/2008/04/running-on-empty.html

    it amazes me how many times God will lay the same subject on more than one person thru their blogs. Almost seems like God is trying to say something to us. God bless - Laurie

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  7. Amen to that, Deborah. Yes, we sometimes get a little busy with the things we do in His kingdom. Sometimes it even is overwhelming. Over the years I have learned to step back and gave my schedule to God. I even had to let go of things, because I had no time to get refreshed though His Word.
    I am glad that you have a congregation to pray over you and your need for strength.
    Thank you so much for sharing your grateful heart with us - despite you have such a heavy schedule.

    Blessings to you and your precious family.

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  8. Deborah, Yeah, sounds as if you are really busy. I read this last week, but just now getting around to commenting. I hope things are slowing down for you!

    I was also stopping by to remind you of the Assembly of God Blogs Party. There is still time to join, and I hope you will! (You can click on the banner, on my blog to find out more.) If you need more motivation, there are some great door prizes to be given away. I hope you'll join us!!

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  9. Hi Deborah you sure are a busy dolla I am just checking in to see how you are doing. Hope all is well as I see you havent written in a while. love always me

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  10. Missin' ya sweet friend...know that I'm still thinking about ya...and prayin' for ya too!! :-)

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