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