I am spending a little time outside today – just enjoying creation!  The leaves are changing colors, the sky is a brilliant blue and the sun is warm in the cool and crisp air.  I love to get out and away from everything else.  When I get away I hear and see things that are normally all around me, but that I miss because I am trying to take in to many things at one time.  In this moment I can hear an airplane off in the distance, crows that are really excited about something in the woods, leaves being rustled by a gentle breeze, a squirrel chasing another around and around a pine tree.  And I can see beauty all around me – not the man made kind, but the stuff of God.

Everyday God is saying to you and me:  “I LOVE YOU!”  Our problems is we are just not listening and looking!  I encourage you to take a little time OUTSIDE today and listen for God’s “I LOVE YOU!” to you.  I hope you hear it and and hope that we all take the time to say “I LOVE YOU!” back!

Take some time today to find some place where you can get alone, still and quiet and listen for God’s voice!  Seek to really push out and get rid of all of life’s distractions.  He desires to talk with us!  He wants us to hear Him!  He has some really amazing and cool things that He wants to speak into our lives!  Even if you can only carve out five or ten minutes – take the time today!  By the way you might want to get outside and enjoy the warmth of the sun and crispness of the air!  Hope you hear Him!

Are you really ready?  Sometimes when we are getting ready to go some where and I am waiting on Joy to get ready, she will almost always at some point yell out from the bathroom – “I’m ready!”  Through a lot of years of marriage, I have learned that this means that she is almost ready.  This means that she has taken care of the big stuff such as hair, makeup and cloths.  But she still has some fine touches that she wants to add to the total package before she is really ready.

I think a lot of us are like this when it comes to the things of God.  We think we are ready.  We even say that we are ready for God to move in a mighty and miraculous way.  But are we really ready?  What would we do if God showed up and began to do incredible, amazing and unexplainable things in our lives?  God loves us and is not going to show up, unless we are ready – really ready!

A lot of times, I think that I am ready, but this morning God helped me to realize that there are a few fine details that I need to take care of to make sure that I am ready.  I am going to be working on those things this week and I am hoping that very soon all of us can say that we are ready!  I’ve got a feeling that when we get to that place – we had better be ready, because God is going to show up and amaze us with His presence and power!

What do you need to do to really get ready for God to work in and through you?