Expectant Waiting

What does it mean to pray in faith?  I think it means praying and believing that God hears and will answer - even though you may have to wait for it.  This is waiting expectantly.

Here is my page:

This is the first time I've included eyes on my page.  These are eyes I had drawn on a separate piece of paper.  Since I've never really been able to draw I have to say I'm quite pleased with them.  I must be getting more confident because I would never have dreamed of even trying before.

I had fun spreading the pink and blue acrylic paint with my fingers and then stenciling.

The white is stenciled through The Crafters Workshop mini tile texture.  I think it looks a bit like the The Matrix but in white :)

I journaled in black along the white mini tile texture and I like to think of my prayers being the black journaling going up to God, and the white tile texture being Gods answers raining down, or if not answers, then His grace to continue to wait patiently and expectantly.

I'm linking up at Art Journal Every Day
and Creative Every Day.

God-incidence

Don't you just love it when you get a wonderful coincidence?  I wanted to make a friend a special card with just the right scripture for her and thought of this one but wasn't 100% sure:

Thou dost keep him in perfect peace, whose mind 

is stayed on Thee, because he trusts in Thee.

Is 26: 3

When I looked on Word Art Wednesday for their scripture word art for the week I was amazed and wonderfully blessed to see that it was this very one.  What an amazing coincidence, or rather, God-incidence!  I can be sure now that this is the right verse for my friend.

I've made 2 cards with this word art.  For this one I've used a new die from Memory Box which I got at the big Hobbycraft show and couldn't wait to use.

I love this verse in the Amplified version of the bible so I did another card using both versions.  The Amplified version is on a tab tucked behind the word art:

I love the Amplified version because it really brings out the sense of perfect and constant peace when we truly set our minds and hearts and hopes on God.

May you find that perfect and constant peace that comes only from setting our minds and hearts on God.

I'm linking up at Word Art Wednesday , Creating in Faith, Hope and Love and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

Until the Whole World Hears

The Scripture Lessons and Lyrics Challenge No 6 at Triple the Scraps is about sharing the gospel.  The song is Until the Whole World Hears by Casting Crowns - a wonderful song.  Patter encourages us to think how God may be using us to share the gospel with the people he brings into our paths.  I have to confess I'm not very good at this but I want to get better at it!

Here is my page:

 Left hand page

and right hand

 

Here is are some of the words of the song:

 

and the scriptures I chose which I've just noticed I didn't line up properly!

The buttons came from an old necklace and I think they go well with the paper:

 

I'm linking up at Triple the Scraps

Crop of Joy

I thought I would share another page from my Joy journal.  In an earlier post I wrote about how joy does not exclude tears (see it here).  This page continues the theme.  If we set our hope and trust and faith in God in the middle of dark times He will bring us through.

Here is my page:

Here are the words close up:

I stencilled the flowers with my home made texture paste (pvc glue, white acrylic paint and talc):

Just love the texture:

 

 I added glitter to the 'soil', I was sowing the pain, disappointment, etc into the soil of God, after all!

 

Glitter goes everywhere!  I hadn't meant it to go on the flowers, but they do signify joy, so that was a happy accident:

I wish I could say that when I'm in a dark place I always manage to keep my cool and my faith and trust.  I don't always.  But I can look back at some bad times and see how I did lean on God and how He carried me through, and I did get a crop and a cup of joy :)

I'm linking up at Creative Every Day

Let Them See You

Over at Triple the Scraps the Scripture Lessons and Lyrics continues with the #5 challenge entitled 'Let Them See You'.  The 'You' refers of course to Jesus.  Let Them See You is a song by the JJ Weeks Band which they would sing before each of their shows as they prayed that their audience would not see them but God as the show was about Him - they wanted to give God ALL the glory and take none for themselves.

This is a humbling thought as a lot of us, well I know that I do, quite like to be admired and appreciated in the things that I do.  But God doesn't like us to be proud - he hates it in fact.  So I know I need to be careful that I thank God and give Him the glory.  He wants us to bcome more and more like Jesus and as we yield ourselves to Him, His life will shine more and more from us, bringing His love and blessing to those around us.  And since it is His life in us we give Him ALL the glory.

Here are my pages:

I'm making this into a 6 x 12 book.  Here is the left hand page with part of the song:

And the right hand page with the scriptures:

Here are the words close up:

 

 

 

 I'm linking up at: Triple the Scraps, Word Art Wednesday and Creative Every Day.

"Call to Me"

I love to pray - actually, I need to pray!  I love to spend time with the Lord in prayer, giving Him thanks for all His wonderful goodness and praising Him for who He is.  But the praying I'm talking about today is the praying I need to do when problems loom and threaten to overwhelm me.  I know that God hears and answers all our prayers but it can sometimes be so difficult to wait for the answer, particularly when the problem really seems insurmountable.

I did a 7 day bible reading plan called Authentic Prayer by James MacDonald which really spoke to me.  He took this scripture from Jeremiah:

"Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it - the Lord is His name: 'Call to Me, and I will answer and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known."

Jer 33: 1-3

James MacDonald pointed out that God is asking us to call to Him - that's an invitation to intensity - its an expression of urgency, intensity and fervency - this is how we should pray.  We need to mean it!  And God wouldn't ask us to call to Him if He wasn't ready with an answer.  It might not be the answer we are expecting and we might have to wait a long time - but the God who asks us to call to Him - urgently, with intensity, fervently - hears us and answers us in a perfect way - in His perfect wisdom and His perfect time.

Here is my art journal page on this  (I made a mistake and wrote urgently instead of fervently and only noticed when I took the photo!)

I went for a distressed look with this page:

I did this page a while ago but never posted about it.  However, I remembered it when I had to start praying in this way recently for a problem my family has had for over six years which really seems like an insurmountable mountain - sorry, I meant to say seemED like an insurmountable mountain.  Having prayed urgently, with intensity, fervently, I'm waiting patiently for the answer - well I'm trying to be patient!

I'm linking up at:

Word Art Wednesday 

 Creative Every Day where this month's theme is Transition - I defintily went through a tranistion of worry to expectant faith!

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where this week's theme is the distressed look.

Joy does not exclude Tears

 I've been working through a Selwyn Hughes Every Day With Jesus study on joy and had come to this page where Selwyn explains that joy does not exclude tears.  The joy we have from knowing the Lord is something that remains in us whether we are feeling happy or are sad.  Having joy, hope and expectation does not exclude tears, does not exclude weeping.  Tears are part of life's rich experience but they never displace joy.

So this is my latest page in my joy journal:

This is acrylic paint scraped all over with a credit card, then stenciling and stamping:

I embossed the Tim Holtz Rays mask:

and finally added tears, which were actually part of a Crafters Workshop Raindrops stencil.