Jesus, Lover of my Soul

There are seasons when the road of singleness becomes weary. We want to please God by waiting for the One He is making ready just for us, but in the meanwhile feelings of restlessness and pain threaten to overtake us. If you have been waiting for very long at all then you can understand what I mean.
I have been in such a season lately. Everywhere I look I am reminded of what I want most in life- second to my Savior. When I see a husband embracing his wife, my heart aches to be held by the man I will love one day. I see children running around and think of the ones I want to have. Every part of me wants to hold a baby of my own and to know the experience of pregnancy and birth. I dream of being Mrs. So and So and having a life with that man. When I have rough days, my whole being longs to share those days with that special man and to share in his bad days too.
But, you know, I am learning some very important truths of life. First of all, marriage cannot be our number one goal in life. When everything about us is so consumed with getting married and we lose sight of the importance of our now, then when we finally do exchange vows, the happily ever after will be a real eye opener.
I know it is not easy when you have chosen the road to waiting and purity. I personally believe it gets harder when everyone around us is headed to marital bliss, leaving us behind. Right now, I have family members and most of my friends who have already married, are engaged, or probably will be soon. Some of them are younger than me. While I am very happy for these dear friends, a little pain comes up in my heart. Then I look at my age and panic sets in. Oh, God, have you overlooked me? Where is such joy to be had in my life?
Girls, for those of you who are experiencing these fears, let me encourage you and share with you my pain. We will never be truly happy with marriage if we lose sight of the big picture and fail to realize that it takes work, just the same as everything else. Our lives must not be centered around a man, but on Jesus. He has to be the center of our lives.
While marriage is honorable and something to look forward to- it cannot be our ultimate goal. There is only one thing that should be our ultimate goal- living a life of purpose for Jesus Christ and making Him our number one love.
Ladies, we need to set our eyes on the One that is holding His arms out to us; the one who is here with us to share in our joys and pains, to listen and give advice when we need it. He is and will always be right here with us, even when people around us (including future husbands) fail us and let us down.
Jesus, you are the lover of my soul. Making Jesus our all in all doesn’t mean that our hearts won’t ache for the future. But, it does mean that we will have someone to see us through these times and make our lives worth living.
Jesus, you are the lover of my soul! No matter what life may bring, I know you will always be there. I could live without a husband, but I can’t live without you!
Your fellow soldier,
Anna Ruth

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Each of you have been in my heart this weekend and I pray you are experiencing joy and peace in Christ. Remember to make Jesus the reason for YOUR season today, tomorrow, and everyday!I love you all!
Anna Ruth

Wonderful Song

Why in the world did I think I could
Only get to know You when my life was good?
When everything just falls in place
The easiest thing is to give You praise
Now it all seems upside down

‘Cause my whole world is caving in
But I feel You now more than I did then
How can I come to the end of me
And somehow still have all I need
God, I want to know You more
Maybe this is how it starts
I find You when I fall apart

Blessed are the ones who understand
We got nothing to bring but empty hands, yeah
Nothing to hide and nothing to prove, yeah
Our heartbreak brings us back to You, oh
And it all seems upside down

‘Cause my whole world is caving in
But I feel You now more than I did then
How can I come to the end of me
And somehow still have all I need
God, I want to know You more
Maybe this is how it starts
I find You when I fall apart

God, I want to know You more
Maybe this is how it starts
I find You when I fall apart, yeah
I don’t know how long this will last
I’m praying for the pain to pass
But maybe this is the best thing
That has ever happened to me

‘Cause my whole world is caving in
But I feel You now more than I did then
How can I come to the end of me
And somehow still have all I need
God, I want to know You more
Maybe this is how it starts
I find You when I fall apart
I fall apart

Embracing Change

Dear Ladies,
Hello! It’s been so long since I have written and for that I am truly sorry. Life had definitely picked up the pace lately. But, you all are never far from my heart. No matter how hectic my life gets, I want you all to know that I am here for you.
I want to share something from my heart today. Lately I have noticed a lot of changes taking place in my life, not only in my life, but in the lives of the ones that I am closest too. It’s a season of change. I guess maybe when you are younger and things are always the same, you look forward to big changes, a change of scenery. But, when you get to be my age and everything starts changing all at once, it can be scary! I find myself wanting to hang on to everything I possible can that will stay the same. Even the little things in life, like changing the color of paint on the walls, I have found myself balking, wishing it would be the way it’s always been. I know it sounds silly, but when everything else has changed, it’s nice to have something that doesn’t change- like the paint on the walls! I feel like Anne Shirley when she asks, “Why do people have to grow up and change?” Don’t get me wrong- the right kind of change is good and I have experienced that
as well!
The Lord impressed on my heart that even in the midst of all the changes taking place right now, there is one that will never change- that stability that will always be there in my life! “For I am the Lord, I change not.” Malachi 3:6. When everything else is going wild, He is stable. When people change and go their own ways, He is still right there, the same wonderful and good God as ever! Things that I didn’t think would happen for a long time that are happening,but He is holding my hand, walking me through and teaching me along the way.
Girls, change will come to all of us. There will be a time in your life, maybe it’s already happened or will happen soon, that you will
experience seemingly overwhelming change. New trials, new steps, and yes, even new joys. I want to just impart some wisdom to you- never
lose sight of One that doesn’t change or fail- the one that is always with you, even when you fail and change. When change threatens to surround your cocoon of safety and security- Jesus is really the only safety you need.
And, as with every area of our lives, live it with No Regrets. Cherish the moments you have now, the good and even the bad, before they fade away. Once they are gone, you can never, ever get them back. Take life by the horns and hang on for the ride the Lord is giving you!!
Take each situation to learn everything you can, enjoy everything you can, and live if for Jesus. That way when different changes come( and believe me, they come to all of us) you will be able to say, “yes, I will miss the old, but I have received everything I could out of it and I am ready for the next new stage, with you Lord!”
Love in Christ,
Anna Ruth

Election Day

I found this quote I read on a church bulletin to be so inspiring. "All that is necessary for evil to win is for Christians to do nothing." How true this is! Just wanted to remind all my readers that are registered for voting: Don't forget to vote November 8th!!!! It is so important for us as believers to stand up and put some feet to our faith- by voting for the candidates that support the most godly morals and principals. God cannot put the right people in office without our help! Here in my state we are having what to me is an important Governor's Race. Let us all join together and get people into office that will protect the values we treasure most. Get out there and vote and most importantly- PRAY!

Moving On

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours at a huge church party. It was held at a home that, over the past couple of years, I have spent a great deal of time at. So much of my life was centered on serving this family and tending to their needs. It has been three months since I moved on and this was my first real visit back. As I walked around the house noticing all the changes that have taken place and greeted the family that was once so apart of my life, I became overwhelmed. I guess in the back of my mind I assumed things wouldn’t change so fast and we could pick up right where we left off for the afternoon.  But it wasn’t to be. Their life had moved on as well- new friends, new activities, and a different life than the one they lived when I left. I walked around the place that was at one point a second home to me and was overcome with memories. I saw other people doing jobs that I had once done. I wondered how things could be so familiar and so strange at the same time.

It wasn’t till I left that it began to sink in. I had to let go. I had to release in my mind that place. Reading my Bible later on that evening, I came across Philippians 3:13-14. "-forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

I am sharing this because I want to encourage my readers to let go of the past and reach for the future. Sure, we can have memories. But when it comes to leaving one thing and grabbing something else, often people want to hang onto the thing they are leaving to much, like I was trying to do yesterday. When we move on, we have to truly move on, letting bygones be bygones.

So, whatever you, my friends, have to leave in the past, do so with all your might. Whether it is a sin, a job, friends, etc, receive the mercy and love that only comes from Jesus. He is there, reaching out His hand, ready to carry you through the spots that seem overwhelming and wearisome.  We will never regret moving on when our Heavenly Father is leading and we will turn out the better for it!

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Proverbs 3:5

I am here for each of you- to share my joys and pains, triumphs and failures.  Don’t be afraid to send me an email if I can help in anyway! Together we can overcome the wrong and live our lives without regrets!

Anna Ruth

My Heart's Prayer

Let my whole life to glorify you, Lord. I do not want to live for myself or the pleasures this world has to offer.  Rather, let me be fully surrendered to your perfect plan for my life. Help me to rise against the tide and the pattern others would set for me and follow you instead.  God, grant me boldness to obey you and to speak your truth in love to a hurting world. Help me to obey your commandment that says, “Love one another as I have loved you.” It is so easy to do what is right when others are looking. Oh, God! Help me to honor you when no one is there to see but you, help me to honor you even in all the little corners of my heart and mind. Today I choose to lay aside offenses and strife so my heart will not be cluttered with sin. My plans and desires are not important anymore-only yours. And Lord when the tempest comes to try to distract me from what I am just now saying, with your help I will rise against it.  I will walk by faith, not by sight. Instead of complaining about life’s problems, I will thank you for all you have done for me, which exceeds any negative I may find around me. Cleanse my heart of all spiritual disease that threatens to eat away at the soul. Help my motives to be pure and open before you. Help me, dear Lord, to turn a deaf ear to the voices around me that unknowingly seek to distract me from the higher calling. You, Oh Lord, are my chief desire. Nothing I desire compares with you. 

 This is the cry of my heart I share with you dear sisters. I want to encourage you today-do you want your life to be fully surrendered? Or do you want to hang on to things that will take you away from living a fully committed life before God?  Let us examine our hearts and seek the Lord while He may be found.

Seek the Lord while He may be found! Oh, Girls, so much of the time I have hid little parts of my life, not letting God in. Don’t make the same mistake. Turn to Him with your WHOLE hearts! Don’t hold anything back from Jesus! He wants it all! And when you give Him your all, you can have a full and completed life that is every bit worth living!

Join me in seeking God today with everything we got!

Isaiah 55:6-13

The Lord has really laid this scripture on my heart. I pray it touches your heart like it is mine. God is calling His people to seek Him with ALL their hearts!



⁶Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
⁷Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
⁸For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
⁹For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
¹⁰For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
¹¹So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
¹²For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
¹³Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

Recently I found myself being very caught up in a popular TV series. It
seemed to be just my type- action, suspense, comedy, and a touch of
romance. There were some things about the show that I don’t approve of but
I found them easy to overlook.  It just happens that I spend a lot of time
at a family member's house and she plays this program a lot, thus feeding my likes
for the show.
About the same time the Lord really began speaking to my heart about
getting more serious about seeking His face. I really felt an urgency to
fill myself with the Word of God and seek Him through prayer. As I began to
receive what the Lord was telling me- I found His voice speaking to my
heart about this show that I was enjoying. Ouch! But, as I began to listen
to what He was telling me, I saw how wrong I had been and how I had allowed
myself to be deceived in this area.
I was led to take a deeper look at the show. What I found was unpleasant.
My eyes were opened and I saw how this program supported fornication on a
high scale. I had overlooked the remarks and conversations as something
that may affect children, but not adults. I began to see what I had
overlooked- everyone on the show made it clear that they had pre-marital
sex often and treated it as the norm or something to include in their
jokes. There were other questionable things this show promoted but that was
the tops.
The Lord began to show me that what we consistently feed off of is what we
will eventually become. I began to see that if I continued to like this
show then I would at some point in time be transformed by it and think that
the ungodly morals it portrayed were not so ungodly. There were some
questions I needed to ask myself. Was this show uplifting in any way? Did
it inspire me to do well or to do evil? Was this something I would sit down
and watch with Jesus? The answer to the above questions was a no! Now, I
realize that we are not going to watch or partake of things that are
completely perfect and we will find things that we don’t agree with in
almost anything we partake of. But, when we start to fill ourselves with
things that are full of the works of the flesh, then that is where we go
wrong, my sisters. One minster that God has used to bless my life once
said, “Only have as much entertainment as you can spiritually afford.” How
true.
So, I had to give up the show. I’m so glad I did and feel the better for
it. Since I knew that I would come across many opportunities to watch this
show, I asked the Lord what I should do about it. I felt Him tell me to
only make myself present when I knew that show would not be on. And when I
do happen to be in the room where it is being played, I choose to do
something else or go away, so my mind will not be entangled once again.
I share this with you today to encourage my sisters to take a closer look
at the things you are feeding yourself on. Are they good things or things
that will tear you down? I want to close this teaching by an expert from my
journal after I had been convicted.
“Mainly I have been convicted about a particular show I’ve been growing to
like. My devotional today was about cleansing ourselves of those things
that defile. Example- if we don’t believe in adultery and fornication, we
shouldn’t watch it or things that approve of such actions. The scripture
that stuck out to me was 1John 2:15-17 ‘Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the
Father is not in Him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh,
and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but
is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he
that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” These TV shows are just shows-
they will pass away. They won’t carry me through the rough spots. But a
built up supply of the Word of God will.”
Take some of the time you spend on the pleasures of this life and put it
into seeking God. Don't do like I did and let the enemy suck you into something
that will only damage you in the long run.
The things of this world won’t sustain you- only Jesus!
Love in Jesus Christ,
Anna Ruth

COURAGEOUS!

Hello My Dear Girls,
Wanted to take a moment and recommend a wonderful movie I saw today- the new movie from Sherwood pictures- Courageous! I was so touched. One moment I was laughing, the next I was crying ( and I don't cry often!) If you at all can, view the movie. I am sure you will be touched. Even though I am not a parent yet, it ministered to me in a special way. I love the fact that, even though it is geared more towards fatherhood, it addresses so many things that can benefit us all- faith, family- even purity and letting your Dad guard and protect your heart! I understand some may not be comfortable with the pg-13 rating, but I found it very appropriate and uplifting. The emphasis on faith in God and family life was tremendous. I hope each of you will be able to see this movie- a real blessing! Let us all stand up with courage to be everything God wants us to be!Amen.

Girls and Romance Novels

Ok, let’s face it- we females, as a general rule, are automatically drawn to romance.  We love to hear stories of how couples met and married (often we don’t care if it is a married couple- just as long as we get a good picture of a kissing couple or more). We jump at the chance to see a romantic movie or read a romantic novel.  Today I want to talk about our attraction to these things and how we can rein in our desires so that our lives will be more pleasing to the Lord. I am sure that a lot of my readers will not appreciate some of what I am going to say, but bear with me!!

I was reading the newest book by Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar not too long ago and one phrase seemed to jump out of the page at me and I want to use it as the basis for our teaching this week.  “Romance novels are to women what pornography is to men.” Wow! What a way of looking at it. Now before you stop reading this article, hear me out. I want to share with you some things that I believe the Lord has shown me about this subject.

If you think of it, women really are drawn to romance in much the same way men are to looking at unclean pictures/videos/etc. Many of us girls crave it. We hear of the latest romance novel and we can’t wait to read it. A good portion of our mind and attention is devoted to love related themes. I think part of the reason for this is that God made us to want romance and for most of us a big portion of our lives will be with a man- our husbands- and with that comes along plenty of romance! But, let us look at some of the side effects to spending a lot of time in the romance department as single women.

Most of the romance books we read are nothing more than plain fiction. They deceive us and lead our hearts down a path of deception and false hopes for things that do not exist. They give us false expectations of what life is like. Even many Christian romance novels describe intimate scenes that girls should not be feeding themselves on. Recently one of my friends wanted me to read a portion of a supposedly Christian romance novel that she was finding very enjoyable. Well, I read it and while, yes, the part I read was very intriguing, it was also explicit about how the unmarried couple fit together while they hugged, how their bodies felt against one another, and what the kisses were like. It may have had a good story about a couple who had to unlearn some of their pre-conceived notions in order to be able to truly live and be together, but everything that went along with it made the book worth little. To make it short, romance novels are just that- novels. Pure fiction that is threatening to rob us of the thrill and awakening that God has for us to share with our husbands.

This also goes for romantic movies/comedies. I usually am not much of a reader, so the romance books do not draw me that much. But, when it comes to movies……… I can quickly be drawn in just as easily as someone can be to books. In a way, I believe that romantic movies can be even more deceiving and damaging to us than the books. Why? Because with a book, we are reading the words and our minds depict the images we see associated with what the book is saying. With a movie, the images are already there and then our minds are free to take it even further- what happened after the camera turned away.  This is why we also need to be careful what we watch as well as what we read.

Also, one thing we need to have extreme guard over is the fact that most romantic novels, movies, etc support behavior that is only meant for married couples- even a lot of Christian entertainment supports inappropriate images. And the longer you feed yourself on these scenes, the more your values will decrease and soon you will not see anything wrong with doing these actions yourself before marriage. And if you continue to let it go, then eventually you won’t see anything wrong with acting unholy with every man that comes along. Another reason why we have to guard what we put in us- ‘Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?’ 1 Cor. 5:6 Unlike in the fiction books and movies, where even when you make mistakes, you leave feeling so good and everything works out anyway- in real life there is real pain and regret following actions that displease our Father.

So, what can we do to avoid these pitfalls that have been set for us- sometimes by people that truly have meant no ill by it? As I said before, we ladies are going to be drawn to the romantic world and if we don’t give ourselves something clean to take the place of the bad, then we will fall back into the pit of lies and deception given us by the romantic thieves of the day. The good news is that we can read and watch pure things pertaining to the romantic nature- things that will not defile us but strengthen our desire to live humbly before the Lord.

As for books, try reading true stories of couples that lived their lives in purity before the Lord, waiting for each other till God brought them together. These stories are real romance. Read books that encourage you to wait in purity for your man. Read books that will strengthen your walk, not build fantasies about a world that doesn’t exists.

Be very careful in your choice of movies. I for one appreciate the Jane Austin movies. There are different versions to each story and some are better than others, but I find Jane Austin to be appropriate and even a good lesson to go along.  I haven’t read the books, so I can’t vouch for them, but I am sure they are good in nature. BBC has put out some good movies as well.  

But don’t let Jane Austin or other more appropriate books or movies become your obsession. Broaden your horizon by reading other topics. Don’t let your world be so full of romance that you don’t have time for other subjects. Most importantly- make Jesus your obsession. Only He can fill the void places in your mind and heart.

“Finally sisters, 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

In Christ love,

Anna Ruth

noregrets@fromfathershearttoyours.org