Manna Monday- God Thinks of Me!

It's Monday. Time to start a new week. Time to get going. Time to begin checking things off the calendar. But what we need in our Monday is not more things to do. We need to place our hearts and mind on focusing on what God thinks of us! God thinks about you!!!! God thinks about me!!!!

Say it aloud- GOD THINKS ABOUT ME!!!!!

It's great encouragement to the soul!

Today's verse comes from Psalm 8:4

The Hebrew meaning for the phrase "take thought"(ESV) means "to mark as recognized, remember, to recall silently, verbally." Wow! What an amazing thought. God recognizes us. He remembers us and knows our name. We are never out of His mind and thoughts.

I could go on and on about that amazing truth, but lets let it sink deep inside our hearts. Lets take time to ponder that this Monday. The lie that Satan would have you and I to believe is that no one thinks about us or remembers us. That we are alone and are insignificant. NOT true!!! God, creator God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, of all creation, takes thought for you my dear friend.

I don't know where you are today in your life, or what lies you have been pondering deep inside your heart, but they aren't true. Rebuke them and place your eyes back on the truth.

You are significant in God's eyes precious one.

He is smitten by you! He is always thinking about You!!!!!

I am thinking about you as you come here today and praying for you. Thank you for letting me encourage you in the Lord. Have a great Monday!!!!

Random Thoughts with Ashley

Since I have been working on my writing project this summer I haven't had much time to be with you here at Joy Treasure. I thought I would share with you some things that have been running around in my head and also share with you what I have been up to. So here is what I call "Random Thoughts with Ashley."

     I had posted "Running to Nowhere" a while back but was reminded of this post this Sunday morning when I was driving again to church on the same road. I always see runners every Sunday morning on my way to church on the sidewalk of the neighborhood. Normally the runners are alone. But this Sunday, my heart broke. I passed a young couple with their jogging stroller with two little ones. It was the picture of a family together running to nowhere when they could have been running to heaven. Am I making sense? People can take care of their bodies (which is good!) but yet their heart is dead. As I drove past them, I prayed for them to to know Jesus and if they did know Jesus to get back in church. 

This summer I had the privilege to lead an hour of worship with the ladies in my church. I cannot tell you how much it blessed my heart. As you can see our focus was on Grace. Our pastor has been preaching on grace this entire year. Every song had to do with grace. It was truly an amazing time of worship. I of course and the shortest one even with my heels on!

This fall I have been leading worship for our Wednesday Bible study. It has been a very worshipful time. God continues to stretch me. I have never enjoyed playing and singing for people, but God continues to stretch me to lead. Through the years I have surrendered to His calling and I am at a time now where it has become more comfortable for me to play and sing. I now am truly enjoying it and also worshiping Him as I lead. Thanks be to God!

At the end of one of our bible studies on Wednesdays, I got the privilege to pray with some older ladies in my church. I wish you could have heard their prayers. I was so blessed to be able to pray with them. I now know them in  a way I never did before. That's what happens when you pray with people. You get to know them. You get connected to them in a way that simple conversation can never connect you. Pray is like glue. I was inspired by these women of faith. I want to be just like them. The thought came to my mind, "What if women prayed more together?" Imagine the friendships in the church that could be formed.

So you can see, I have been busy this summer and why I haven't had time to meet with you here on Joy  Treasure. Please pray for me as I pray for you. And tell your friends about it.

The Project

As you have clicked on to Joy Treasure in the past couple of weeks, you may have noticed I have not been here much. It's not because I don't want to be here. I thought I had computer trouble, the guy at best buy even told me to get a new computer. But my laptop mouse began to work again. It's so crazy!!!! Computers right!! In the midst of computer craziness, I had been working on completing the project of a lifetime. Two years ago God called me to a specific task and I have been faithfully working on it during that time. Here lately, as it comes to light, my full attention has had to be focused solely on that task. I long to be here at Joy Treasure. I pray for you even though I am not here. But I admit I am not superwoman and there are just things I cannot simply do. Keeping up with this blog has been part of some things that I simply could not do. Please bear with me and keep coming back. There are LOTS of older posts to click on to if there are no new posts posted.

I have been reminded during this time that when God calls you to something, there is no contentment in your life unless you are fulfilling what HE has ordained. If you try and run from it because it's too hard, too difficult, too beyond your reach, you won't be at peace until you are DOING what HE wills.

In the coming weeks, I will be posting as I can, so keep coming by to see what is going on at Joy Treasure.

When I am able to reveal what I have been working on, I'll share it here on Joy Treasure. I can't wait to share it with you. I am looking forward for being able to write posts about it! But until then, I love you dear friends! You are precious to me in the LORD! Blessings to you this Friday!