R's For all!

I love when wake up to the voice of the Lord all in my head. Before I even open my eyes His voice sets the tone for the rest of my day!  One thing I’ve learned came from my bestest friend, “Quiet Time” and it has been such a great benefit for my relationship with God.  I spend my first waking hour giving Him praise and then I pray for those I love, don’t know and this country I call home.

I love this time more so on weekends.  Then I get to go into my own, as Fred Hammond new song says, festival of praise. Thankful that I’m doing it solo because sometimes I have to even laugh at myself when I start dancing. Yet, that doesn’t stop me from doing it. I made myself a promise to be more like Paul, Philippians 4:10-13 “I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that once again you renewed your care for me. You were, in fact, concerned about me but lacked the opportunity to show it. I don’t say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know both how to have a little, and I know how to have a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content — whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me.”

This morning the voice kept telling me to rejoice. As I glanced back over some of the Prophetic proclamations for 2015 and a pattern emerged; restoration and Redemption. SEEMS LIKE I was back in school, but instead of R’s of academia, I found the R’s of 2015. The one thing I’ve seen to be true in this walk is you can’t trust everything you hear.  But I still kept hearing “Rejoice”.  It was after I looked up rejoice –feel happiness or joy, I realized what the Lord was telling me.

Because of my past brokenness I had become stagnate and was settling for just being “content”, but God wanted me to expand my feelings. I have no idea where God is leading me in 2015, but I do know there has been a shuffling in my spirit. It’s not just about giving him praise, but the directive for me was to rejoice. This wasn’t something that was going to be easy because, although I’m grateful and thankful, I wasn't feeling happiness or joy nor could I see in my present circumstances a reason to rejoice.

One thing resonated in my spirit was hope of being redeemed and for restoration. Then when I thought about what I was hearing ten days into this year; Rejoice makes so much sense. It was as if positive “R” words were buzzing around in my head; repent; reverence; refresh; renewal, revival, rest, and rejoice! Wow was all I could think of at that moment.

When certain things fall into my spirit like this I always begin to dig. In my digging I found the word rejoice can be found (KJV) two hundred fifty-eight times, that is just one hundred and seven short of the days in a calendar year. Then I searched repent and found one hundred seventeen times. Refresh – seventeen, renew – sixteen, revival – fourteen times, rest – three hundred sixty-nine, reverence – fourteen.

My study took me deeper and my background leads me to always look for definitions just to make sure I’m on the right track. Well what I found just made open my heart and mind. I’m not into numerology, but I know there is more to this and will require more study. So now I’m working on finding my joy and working walking this walk as I speak about it. Searching Sunday! Smooches~~.

Note “Quiet Time” by Shari L. Pettiford can be purchased on Amazon.