Honor or Comfort?

After once again coming across the verse Psalm 19:14 (Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.) God really laid it on my heart to do an in depth study of this chapter. Today I went through the first verse and immediately was convicted to not keep this to myself but to share it with others. I feel as if He has told me that I too need to share this with the next closest generation to me, so this is for you!

Psalm 19:1 ESV

The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.

Pretty simple verse, right? That’s what I thought until I began to dig deeper.
The Hebrew word declare means to count, to number, to declare and to talk.
It is used several times throughout the bible but to better understand what the specific writer of Psalm 19 meant I stuck to the Psalms.

Psalm 2:7 I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to me “you are my son (daughter) today I have begotten you”.

Psalm 22:22 I will tell of your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly I will praise you.


Psalm 66:16 Come and hear, all who fear God, and I will tell what he has done FOR MY SOUL.

The next half of the verse says that the sky above proclaims His handiwork.

The Hebrew word proclaims means to be conspicuous, to tell, to announce, to make known, to publish and to acknowledge.

Psalm 51:15 O Lord, open my lips, that my mouth may declare your praise.


Psalm 145:4 One generation shall praise your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts.


Psalm 71:17-18 O God, you have taught me from my youth, and I still declare your wondrous deeds. And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare your strength to this generation, your power to all who are to come.

So what are these things that even the heaven and sky proclaim but we seem to be so easy to brush off?

The Hebrew word for Work of His hands (Handiwork) means His deed, act, labor and achievement

Psalm 28:5 Because they do not regard the works of the Lord nor the deeds of his hands, he will tear them down and not build them up.


Psalm 33:15 He fashions the hearts of them all, He who understands all their works.

I don’t know about you but I was so blown away by the time I finished looking up these words. How much of a dishonor am I showing God by not proclaiming His glory. Not only am I not declaring what He has done for my soul, but there are even times when I don’t feel like praising Him in the assembly. Have I really elevated my feelings and perceptions of a moment to somehow feel as if I am worthy of making a decision to praise Him or not? Have I forgotten that even if I don’t praise Him the heavens, sky, rocks, etc… will cry out His praises? Do I not realize the amazing privilege I have to come and praise before the one who created everything and the one who rescued me from who I could have been? Even more so what am I showing the next generation. If I am not one sold out to God who is willing to give up everything for Him (Luke 5) who will show others that kind of abandonment for God? If I am unwilling to give up my stability, comforts, finances, friends, and more for God then who will show the next generation? As a woman if I cannot represent this bringing glory to God will I ever be the Proverbs 31 (opens her mouth with wisdom) or Titus 2 (teach and train younger women) woman or am I settling for modern day mediocrity where the comforts of my world choke out my ability to bring Him glory?


Lord God, you have taught me from my youth, and I still declare your wondrous deeds. And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare your strength to this generation, your power to all who are to come.

Why Orphans?

When you speak to most Christian organizations about why they help with Orphan care immediately they throw out James 1:27 which says:

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (ESV)This is a verse that is so packed with meaning it is hard to read it and not feel convicted. Upon hearing this verse several times I decided to do a deep study on the verse and really and truly understand what it means to show God religion that is pure and undefiled. James starts out his letter to these 12 with some very basic truths of the Christian faith. He goes over what to do if you don’t understand something from God, how to act in trials, how to control your speech and how to be doers of the word and not merely hearers. Lastly he finishes up this first chapter by concluding with the verse mentioned above.

I originally looked at this verse and saw pure and undefiled and took them to mean clean, holy and set apart. Upon studying these words I realized that God had meant them in an even deeper way. The word pure in this verse literally means clean and pure, like a vine cleansed by pruning and so fitted to bear fruit. The word undefiled means not only unsoiled, but also free from that by which the nature of a things force or vigor is impaired. The second part of the meaning of the word undefiled blows me away. God is saying that a religion like the one mentioned in these verse is a religion that doesn’t impair the force or vigor of your nature. Unlike the attitude most of us have picked up in church, God never intended for Christians to be boring, withdrawn and lacking in passion. Words like this just go to prove that. God desired for us to naturally be vigorous and have a driving force in life. However, the nature of things in this world impair that. This pure religion (or worship) for God is one in which the things of this world can’t stop or impair that vigor.

This verse is one in which many short term mission trips can be justified, many prayers can be said, and people can still walk away feeling like they fulfilled their life duty to “visit” these orphans. However, the Greek word for visit actually means to look after, look upon in order to help or benefit, to care for, and to provide for. I do not think this is an area that God says “thank you for that one time you did…” and you never have to care about it again. I truly think this is an area that God is saying “I need your help, forever”. In America we seem to be pretty good about making sure our widows are cared for. We don’t usually let Grandma starve because we are lucky enough to see our grandparents at least every now and then. Even if they are placed in a nursing home we have ministries that specifically target them. However, since orphans aren’t directly in our face in America it’s almost like we don’t even realize the need. For example, did you know there are an estimated 163 MILLION orphans in the world? Did you know the majority of them aren’t even in an orphanage (they live on the streets)? Did you know America currently has an estimated 500,000 foster care children? Did you know that there are estimated 300,000 churches in America, which would mean each church would only need to take in 2 foster care children in order to alleviate ALL of the American orphans!?

If the church truly wants to glorify God and show Him true worship I think this is the next step. We must realize that God’s word in James 1:27 and throughout other parts of the bible isn’t a suggestion, it’s a command. One survey suggested that of all the evangelical churches in America the majority give less than 1% to helping reach, rescue and make disciples of these orphans. Less than 1% to a group of people who due to their young age cannot even help themselves! I believe God desires for us to have true and undefiled religion with Him because He knows that this is just one of the steps to restoring our passion and escaping from the things that impair our force and vigor. So if you can’t do anything else… pray… pray that our churches would become more aware of the needs and step out to be Christ on this earth. We may be the only hope some of these children have to ever learning about their true father who loves them.

The LORD is far from the wicked,but he hears the prayer of the righteous.

Proverbs 15:29

Lord, break my heart for the things that break yours....

That is how this all started. With a simple prayer I had read off of a World Vision website. "Lord, break my heart for the things that break yours." I thought it was such an interesting way of praying to God that I decided I would start praying that prayer as often as I could think about it. I'd like to be able to say I prayed it daily but I would be lying if I said that. However, I did try to pray it as often as I could remember. Then I was talking to a friend about foster care and she told me of the lack of love that a lot of these children have. I then began Reaching Tampa’s Foster Care Prom and Homecoming Campaigns in an effort to connect to these girls. I thought this was something I was doing to help these girls and I had no idea that God would use it to help reveal to me the passions He had in store for me. As I began connecting with some of these girls and with other organizations that were interested in foster care ministries I also began to learn more and more about orphans as a whole.

I am one of those people who when I start to have an interest in something I want to dive head first and learn as much as I can. I decided in a situation like this where I was trying to make God the center of the focus, it was best to go to His word. I began to do a word study on the word “orphan” and was blown away by God’s love for this group of people. It’s not something that is mentioned or briefly touched on in a couple of chapters in the Bible but rather something that is frequently mentioned in both the Old and New testaments. At the same time I was reading these verses I was immensely convicted. You see I had never done anything for these children. I didn’t fully grasp why they were so important to God but the girl in me wanted to help them just because they were helpless children who had no one. I had no idea that God would end up laying an issue so heavily on my heart.

I’ve decided to start this blog as a way of sharing not only how God is teaching me about such a specific need but also to raise awareness. I know that for me I never realized the immense need of these children until lately. I can’t promise this will be a well written, consistent, or thought provoking blog; but I can promise that it will be an outpouring of my heart. I once had a friend tell me that “tears were overflow of passion”, if that is true than this is an issue that I am extremely passionate about. Thanks for reading and I pray that God would also break your heart for the things that break His.

Psalm 40:8 “I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart."