Emphatic Confidence

I know all my posts lately have been either serious or boring, so you'll have to forgive me. I don't have enough brainpower lately to be humorous or creative, unless it pertains to event-planning. =)

But I just had to write about this... I am reading My Utmost for His Highest, which has quickly become one of my favorite books (devo) of all time. I have gone back to it sporadically over the years, but I think this year has been the most consistent. It is full of so much wisdom and depth. Sometimes a little too much depth, and I don't quite grasp it, but most of the time it offers me some revelation that I have desperately needed.

I have been feeling a little burnt out lately. It seems as though most of my life now is CARES, which is awesome because I love it, but it is so easy to forget about life outside of our community. It's like I forget about my whole world, and all I can focus on are giveaways, donations, details and whether residents will attend and whether they will have a good time... I completely lose my bearings and friends turn into babysitters. =) I feel heavily convicted about it all at the moment because I can see that I've gotten out of balance. Thank God that He cares enough about me and loves me enough to reveal to me when I'm not giving enough to my relationships and my family.

Anyways, back to my devotion this morning...
Since I have been feeling all this heavy stuff, it was so fantastic to read these crucial points in today's Utmost:
"We have to battle through our moods into absolute devotion to the Lord Jesus, to get out of the hole-and-corner business of our experience into abandoned devotion to Him.
"... our faith must be built in strong emphatic confidence in Him"
"He is made unto us 'wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption'. How can we talk of making a sacrifice for the Son of God?!"
"All our fears are wicked, and we fear because we will not nourish ourselves in our faith. How can anyone who is identified with Jesus Christ suffer from doubt or fear?"

Seriously! How can I act as if I'm going to go each day and make such a sacrifice for God by believing Him and loving Him. ?! God has given me the greatest gift anyone can ever receive... He sees me as righteous and sanctified, faultless because of the gift of Jesus. If I do fear or doubt (which I do very often) it is absolutely because I have not nourished myself in my faith - in my God-given freedom!!

Anyways, I'm not great at writing articulately about things that move my spirit, but maybe you get something out of this that I didn't, or maybe you'll just have to read it yourself, because doesnt everyone own this book?!?! All I know is that I got a good kick in the butt this morning.