Hey Y’all!
Before I fool anyone, each of you should know that this is Lindsee posing as Beth for this particular SSMT post. She and her girls on a little girl’s getaway that is much deserved. So when she mentioned that she might not be able to work this post out, I told her not to even think of it and enjoy her time away!
Side note: She was telling me yesterday she’s not sure when her last actual vacation was because our siesta mama has spent the last two scheduled vacations either being Bibby for a week (her grandma name), or writing for a week! So! Needless to say, this girl’s getaway is earned and joyfully welcomed! We blessed them as they walked out the doors yesterday and promised them they didn’t need to worry about one detail here. She also assured me she’d hopefully have some fun pictures for you guys when she gets back!
SSMT is a big detail. So here I am. I realize that was a much more detailed description as to why I’m taking over SSMT this time than you probably cared to know, but now it’s in official wording and I’m leaving it.
Beth gave me the option to share my verse with you guys along with the one she’s memorizing this go around, so I decided to take her up on that. The more the merrier, right?
My verse is actually probably very familiar to y’all, but it hit me fresh a couple of weeks ago and knew it needed to be put into my memory for good. It’s one of those verses I know, and I could quote it, but not verbatim and I really wanted to be intentional with it this go around, especially since I really mixed up the version I’m memorizing it in this time which really makes it pop in my mind.
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10 (Amplified)
This I know to be so true, I need Jesus. And I need Him to steady my heart, because He alone can do that. Want to hear some synonyms of steadfast? Steady, firm, stable, constant, staunch, and immovable. Each of these descriptions are things I want to be said and true of me. I think it’s so fitting that persevering and steadfast follow each other because it’s in my persevering that He makes my spirit steadfast, but I tend to get really distracted and unsteady pretty quick. Which I guess is why we’re told to persevere in the first place. Maybe it’s just me, but so many times I allow my circumstances to determine my steadfastness. When things are going good (translation: the way I want them too), persevering comes easy, as well as a firm and steady devotion to the Lord, but it’s when the going gets tough, that the tough get going. That’s when it’s time to wrestle that hard thing out with Him. For me, an example that comes to mind is singleness. Some days I love the freedom it brings, while other days I’m wrestling my way through this season. Very quickly I can go from steadfast to discouraged. Steadfast to lazy. Steadfast to frustrated. I want so badly to be faithful in each season of my life, and to truly live in an “undivided devotion” to the Lord that Paul talks about, but we can all admit it’s not always easy. If it were easy, the vast majority would be doing just that.
I don’t always want to do the work it takes to have a clean heart, and a persevering Spirit, but I know all too well that when I’m not yearning for it is the perfect time to ask for it. So I’m asking for a clean heart! That God would renew me from top to bottom.
You’re more than welcome to join me this go around.
Or for those of you curious what our Siesta Mama has chosen, you can join her. This time she is memorizing Colossians 1:16 in the ESV version:
“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.” Colossians 1:16 (ESV)
Amen. He sees everything. He knows everything. He created everything. If you stop and take that verse a part line by line and dwell on that, it’s really mind blowing.
ALL things were created BY Him. (Things we cannot even lay our human eyes on.)
THROUGH Him.
And FOR Him.
ALL things.
I have no doubt our Siesta Mama would have more to say about that, but I’m just going to leave you with wow. So, if that scripture stirs something up in you, tag on with her.
(And now I’m going to make this really slick transition to close out the post. Could this be any more awkward? I’m kind of gifted in that. You know, making things awkward.)
Well, ladies! Time to persevere to the end! We’re so close. If you got through summer, you can certainly make it through the fall. Oh, and because I’ve been getting some emails and phone calls, I’ll go ahead and let you know that we’re planning on having all things SSMT celebration and details up SOON. Like, hopefully as in the next SSMT post or two. We’re so pumped and we love y’all dearly.
Let’s hear your scriptures!
Tags: Scripture Memory 2013
Landry, Georgetown,TX
Ephesians 2:8 NIV
For it is by grace you have been saved,through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.
Julie/Deer Park/ Psalm 62:8 Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. NIV
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Mark 11:24 NIV
Carolyn
Oceanside,Ca
Alice Chesapeake,Va.
Psalm 33:22 NIV
May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you.
Linda, Dora
Psalms 18: 2 NIV
The Lord is my rock, my Fortress, and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
Psalm 73:26 (NIV)
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my potion forever.
Linda, Olympia, WA NKJV John 16:23 And in that day you will ask me nothing. Most assuredly I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, He will give you.
Sharon from North Plainfield, NJ
But those who listen to me now will live under divine protection;
they can rest knowing they are out of harm’s way. ~ Proverbs 1:33
Amy from North Plainfield, NJ
For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. ~Romans 14:8 (ESV)
Richelle, Kingston, TN
The Lord is near to the broken hearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18 (ESV)
Lauren from Conyers, GA
We also pray that you will be strengthened with his glorious power so that you will have the patience and endurance you need. May you be filled with joy,…
Colossians 1:11 NLT
Megan from Sioux Falls, SD
But the holy ones of the Most High will receive the kingdom and possess it forever, yes, forever and ever. Daniel 7:18 HCSB
Brenda, Collinston
“I will be your God throughout your lifetime-until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you.” Isaiah 46:4 NLT
Julie S. Menomonee Falls, WI
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10 (Amplified)
Danita Tippet, Lake in the Hills, IL
Jeremiah 29:12 ESV
Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will hear you.
Kimberly Orr
Zionsville, IN
I would have despaired unless I had believed I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living! NASB
And Daniel Continued even unto the first year of cyrus. Daniel 1:21 NIV
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Eph 3:14-19 (NIV), Shantha, Lincoln, RI
Connor, Spicewood,TX
John 6:37 ESV
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
Judy Pauley, Norfolk, Va.
Lord, be merciful to us! We wait for You. give us strength each morning! deliver us when distress comes.
Isaiah 33:2
Karen from Indianapolis
Luke 12:12 Amplified
For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour and moment what you ought to say.
Olivia, Madison, MS:
Colossians 1:11 ESV May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
Romans 12:12 NIV
Diana, North Attleboro, MA
Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts. Psalm 90:12 HCSB
Debbie, Marion, IN. “your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. ” Psalm 139:16 NIV
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. NIV Ephesians 6:16
Marsha, Knoxville, TN
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me.”
Psalm 51:10 (Amplified)
Nicole Hudnall, Lynchburg, VA
II will be your God throughout your lifetime— until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you. Isaiah 46:4 NLT
Romans 8:8 NASB
for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Gail
McDonough, Ga
Above all, love each other deeply. because love covers a multitude of sins.
1 Peter 4:8 (NIV)
Alicia, Mesa, AZ
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Romans 8:18 NIV
Shawna Kent, WA
“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all of your heart”. Jeremiah 29:13 ESV
“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10 (NIV,84)
Kathy
St. Louis, MO
For it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Romans 8:8 NASB
Mary Ann Holton, Woodbury, MN
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
Colossians 1:17-18 NIV
“My thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways,” declares the Lord. “Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.: Isaiah 55: 8-9
God’s Word Translation
Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Proverbs 4:23, NIV
Jane from Calgary, Alberta
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” Colossians 1:15 (NASB)
Linda Ney from Gahanna, Ohio
…your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. NIV
Psalm 139:16
Katie Brown
Greenfield, IN
Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his son to be the Savior of the world.
1 John 4:14 NLT
“But you, o Lord, are a shield about me,
my glory, and the lifter of my head.”
Psalm 3:3
Proverbs 21:23
Those who are careful about what they say keep themselves out of trouble.
Caitlin, McKinney, TX
“He who rebukes a man will in the end have more favor than he who has a flattering tongue.” Proverbs 28:23, NIV
Romans 8:26-28 NIV
“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance to the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— NIV Linda from Tallahassee
Becky Parrish, Lynchburg, VA
I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not ruin the produce of your land and your vine in your field will not fail to produce fruit,” says the Lord of Hosts. (Malachi 3:11 HCSB)
Romans 10:9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. NIV
Kristy from Tallahassee, FL says:
“Be sincere in your love for others. Hate everything that is evil and hold tight to everything that is good.”
Romans 12:9-13 (CEV)
Jenni Johnson, Murray, KY
“Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” Philippians 2:3, 4 (HCSB)
Lynda from Ocala, FL: Psalm 103:20 NIV. Praise the Lord, you His angels, you mighty ones who do His bidding, who obey His word.