Are you THRIVING?

Hey Treasures, welcome back to my blog.  I am so glad you are here with me and I hope you enjoy this.

So a blogged about Change with Seasons and in continuation with the theme of change and growth and seasons I wanted to talk a little about what it means to THRIVE.

According to Webster Dictionary, the word THRIVE means, to grow or develop successfully;  to grow vigorously;   to gain in wealth or possessions (prosper);  to progress toward or realize a goal despite or because of circumstances.

My favorite definition was, "to grow vigorously".  In this season, that it my goal, to grow vigorously, to grow radically. Any growth, however, is good growth. Even if I am growing in small increments, growth is growth BUT let's ponder on THRIVING.

In Proverbs 11:28, (NIV) the scripture tells us that "those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will THRIVE like a green leaf." 

We must always trust in the Lord and His riches and glory, not our own. We must remain righteous in the eyes of God (not man) so that we can THRIVE like a green leaf.  When I think of a green leaf, I think of watered. refreshed, liveliness, growth. What about you?

Jeremiah 17:7-8 gives us a great description of a growing tree with green leaves and compares this to a man who trusts in the Lord.

7"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD. 8"For he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit.

This portion of scripture is so rich. As we trust in the Lord, we will be blessed and we will be like that tree that is firmly planted by the water and our roots go deep into the fresh wet soil and our leaves remain green and fresh and alive and growing and we will not stop growing fruit.

Psalm 1 is a great chapter. I would recommend reading through it. I enjoy reading the VOICE version but of course you read it in any translation that speaks to you.

Psalm 1:3 Voice says this,
You are like a tree, planted by flowing, cool streams of water that never run dry.
Your fruit ripens in its time;  your leaves never fade or curl in the summer sun. No matter what you do, you prosper.

The Voice (VOICE) The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

I would say these scriptures depict THRIVING.  "the righteous will THRIVE like a green leaf." (Proverbs 11:28b).  So that means to me, like a leaf that is watered, like a leaf that is alive, like a leaf that is growing.  Let us plant our roots by the streams of Living Water. Water our leaves with the Word of God that refreshes our spirit and progress towards our goal of continued growth. We can not wither away or dry up but THRIVE both despite and because of our circumstances.

Maybe today you find yourself withering away or as if you have dried up. Maybe you are feeling the thirst for the Living Water to refresh your leaves once again. I have been there!  It's a good thing if we are able to discern that we are withering away or drying up and in need of drawing closer to the stream of Living Water to get refreshed and renewed.  We must continue to Thrive. Ask yourself if you are you THRIVING or withering away and then let's make the necessary changes to be back in alignment and THRIVE.

Let's pray:  God we praise your mighty name and we thank you for who You are. I ask you to increase our thirst for Your Living Water. I pray that you will refresh each and every one of us. As we draw near to you, we thank you that our roots are going deeper and our leaves are getting greener and we are growing in this season.  Thank you for the grace and the mercy that you have for us and thank you for your love that draws us to the Sweet Sweet Stream.  Be magnified Oh Lord, IN Jesus name I pray Amen.

Here is the video of the song that spoke to me and caused me to look up the word Thrive and then God gave me all the rest. Take a watch and be blessed by these lyrics.

Casting Crowns - Thrive from casting-crowns on GodTube.

Update on Life as Mrs. Aguila

Hey Treasures, praying you are doing well and thank you for stopping by today.  I know I am not consistent on here and surely I thought that would improve in 2014 but it seems like it got worse. Two whole months without blogging, say what?  I am wondering if any of my other fellow bloggers struggle with this?

I honestly have so many topic ideas to blog about BUT I just haven't had the time to sit and dedicate it to this here blog.  I guess I didn't realize initially, how much time goes into each blog post. I admire all bloggers who post daily plus include amazing photos. 

There is a lot going on in Life as Mrs. Aguila right now and well I just don't have the time to dedicate to my blog.  It does make me sad because I love blogging and writing my heart and sharing about make up and my outfits and my shopping and my shoes and well Life as Mrs. Aguila.

I am very blessed, I can not speak about my life without speaking about Jesus and what He has done in my life. He has transformed me and while I am still a work in progress, I have also had a lot of progress in the past 8 years and if I continue to focus on what still needs work, it takes away from what the Lord has already done. 

God has healed my broken heart, He has filled up the many voids I felt in my heart, He has delivered me from addiction, He has filled me with LOVE, He has given me purpose, He has blessed me with an amazing husband, He has restored my life and lit up my path that leads towards my destiny.

Blessed is the only word that comes to mind when I think of the season that Mr. Aguila and I  are in right now.

We are in the process of moving. I didn't think moving would be so tiring.  We don't have a lot of stuff or so I thought.  Funny thing my kitchen has taken me the longest time and I am not even a cooker or baker or home maker although right now I am blogging while dinner is on the stove. 

So this week is packing time.  We got the keys to our new place yesterday so today at lunch time, me and the Mr. dropped off our first load of stuff. Saturday is the big moving day so more busy days ahead but once I am settled in, I will begin to blog more and share all the ideas I have for this here little space of mine on the world wide web.

Thanks again for stopping by and you can always find me on social media. The links are on the upper right hand corner.

And be sure to enter this $500 Cash Giveaway. There is still a few more days left.
For the Love of Cash Giveaway

Follow Me Bible Study {Week 3} Delight in God

Hello Beautiful Treasures, how are you doing?  I am sorry I took  break without any notice.  It wasn't really planned but with birthday weekend, I needed a couple of days to catch up at home and do all that fun stuff we love, clean house, do laundry, cook, clean up and start all over again.

  

I did leave you with some great giveaways so I hope you have entered them. 

PIER 1 $50 GIFT CARD (ends 10/24) // $750 PAYPAL CASH (ends 10/27) // $225 PAYPAL CASH (ends 10/31)

 I am behind on my reading for...

This is what I have so far for this week.

Week 3

"DELIGHT IN GOD"

 

This week’s Scripture Memory

source: Pinterest

This week in a daily break down

I usually will share what stood out to me the most from each day (There is a lot of good points throughout the days, from what I have read and l only share one but this week it will be different because I haven't read through the week or taken notes on all the days.

I hope that you will join us on this bible study and share with us what stood out to you, ask questions and/or leave comments.

 

Day One – Our Father

The creator of the universe is my Father, this chapter really spoke to me. It touches on "God Delights in Us" and "We Delight in God".  These are to two subtitles in this chapter. 

 

In the God Delights In Us section, David Platt says that in the Old Testament God is rarely described as Father; 15 times to be exact. He says in the New Testament, in the Gospels alone, we see God described as Father 165 different times and 164 of them occur when Jesus is teaching His disciples.  He uses the Sermon on the Mount, as an example, where Jesus is teaching His disciples how to pray.  You know the Our Father prayer right? David Platt says, "Amazingly, this is the first time in the Bible where anyone is encouraged to pray to God as Father.

 

~~"Jesus' words are both astounding and significant.  As Christians, we have the distinct privilege of knowing, worshipping, talking, and relating to God as "our Father.”  BY DAVID PLATT, page 66

 

What a privilege this is indeed to call the creator.  of the universe Abba Father! Jesus tore the veil and now we can now talk to directly to our Father in heaven.

 

==EVEN NOW RUN INTO HIS ARMS AND SAY, "MY FATHER."=

 

This is somewhat of a struggle for me.  My dad died when I was five.  I have distinctive memories of him and I and then one day we got the sad new that my died dad, even now it brings me to tears.  I remember that day so clearly.  I remember I was in my mom's room playing Lite Brite with my brothers and my cousins. I can still hear my mom screaming "NO, NO, NO"!!!! and banging on the wall while on the phone.

Although I was only five, I had a great relationship with my dad. I was daddy's little girl. My mom says when he would go out, all I would do was cry for him.  The void in my heart even now has me typing and crying.  After all these years it still hurts.  I use to think my dad abandoned me.  I was so young  I didn't understand. I battle or have battled a fear of abandonment because of this deep wound.  This also makes for a difficult time to fully embrace God almighty as my Heavenly Father.  Growing up without my dad was a challenge BUT the void in my heart and the pain deep within me affected me more than I care to admit. 

I want the wall removed so I can run into God's arms and say "My Father."  A part of me even feels guilty because all my life (well since I was five) I longed for my daddy's love and I searched for it. Oh let me tell you, I searched in ALL the wrong places.  encountering Jesus has helped me a lot BUT I am still a work in progress and I know the God reveals to heal.  As this stuff services and the ache in my heart becomes ever so real, I find comfort knowing that through this God is healing me and He promises to never leave me nor forsake me and I can feel safe with my Heavenly Father and hold onto the memories of my daddy.

Thank you for reading. I pray you were blessed.  This book has my attention. Please make sure  to stop by Satisfaction Through Christ’s to read  Christie's discussion on the this week’s reading and also check back with us every Wednesday for the next 3 weeks for the rest of this study.

God bless you and if you have any prayer requests please leave me a comment or send me an email and we will lift up your needs in Jesus name.