love & joy

friends-

i love the ways our good lord works. it is so crazy to me that he, in his perfect timing, can orchestrate lessons, experiences, thoughts, appointments, etc. to draw us nearer to him. i am currently reading 'crazy love.' still? you ask. yes i'm reading it with the h.s. girls small group so we're doing a chapter a week. in my other bstudy {with ladies my age} we are still doing beth moore's 'living beyond yourself.' it is so wild how the two overlap & how they are working together {with the scripture i keep running into} to teach me & convict me & grow me in really big ways. i am so thankful for that.

right now i am learning a lot about falling more & more in love with my creator. that my life would be filled {to overflow} with the love i have for the lord, not for his perks, not for my salvation, but just him. in beth moore last night we talked about the fruit of the spirit, joy. the truth is that our joy, our delight can only be found {and given} through our father. why do i look so hard in other places to find my joy after i know the truth!? i know where to find it! my prayer is that the lord will keep binding me more & more to him, that i'd know in my heart that my joy is set...as francis chan says "that the lord would help me to love him more because i am so very weak on my own."

here is a great little excerpt from crazy love {chapter 6} from another book, the pursuit of god:

"O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me & made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, "Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away." Them give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long."
-A.W. Tozer "The Pursuit of God"

what a beautiful & honest prayer to the lord. i want that to be my heart. that even though i am often selfish, often distracted that i would be constantly in prayer that the lord would grow my heart for him.

here are some completely unrelated pretties {unrelated to this post & to each other} they all look like summer though, maybe i'm cold?

all images are from flickr & are linked to their owners