Change Archives - Seeking God with Jaime Wiebel

Thirst No More

Jaime Wiebel — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 21:45:00 +0000

When something happens in the day my first instinct is to run to the phone and call my best friend, my husband.

If I am struggling with the kids or if one of them is being especially trying today… off I run.

Something really funny happens… off I run.

I am not able to talk to my husband about every situation because he is at work. As soon as I start this relay back to the phone, I realize, I have to wait for him to be available.

Often times, that need leaves me feeling alone and secluded. Even though I have other people around me (my kids) I begin to sometimes feel isolated.

This would probably explain my talks-a-lot syndrome. Anyone else have this? I get around other moms or really anyone who will listen and I begin talking their ears off. My off button seems to be malfunctioning, and I just cannot shut my mouth.

The great news is there is nothing really wrong with me. We were made to be social with one another. We were not made to be isolated and secluded.

I am left with this question. As much as I seek out relationships with others, my husband, my family, my friends, am I seeking that kind of relationship with my creator? The One who seeks our relationship as much as we seek it with others?

After this giant workout of running to talk to this person or that person, the bottom line is, I am thirsting for something more. As much as I love my family and friends not one of them can quench my thirst like my Heavenly Father.

I am reminded of the women at the well. You can read the full version in John 4:1-42. I love this story for many reasons so I want to explore it a little bit with you.

In the first part of this chapter Jesus and the disciples are going from Judea to Galilee. Verse 4 says: And He had to pass through Samaria.

The word had I find very interesting. You see as Jewish people traveled in this region they did not go through Samaria. In fact, even though it was the shorter route, they would go out of their way to travel around it.

In John, we are told that Jesus had to go this way. The word here means it was necessary. It was necessary for Jesus to go this way. Why? What did He have in mind?

I am not going to begin to pretend I know the mind of Christ but let’s look at what He did while He was there and maybe we can see why he had to go this way.

Verse 6: Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

The woman continues her line of questioning and asks Jesus if He is greater than Jacob.

13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”15The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.”

Sir give me this water so I will be thirsty no more. I love her immediate desire. Read on and you will see why her life has left her with this desire.

16 He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” 17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.”

Look at her desire for relationship. She has not only had one husband but had five husbands. Now the man she was living with wasn’t even her husband.

Jesus doesn’t rebuke this woman here. What He tells her is very simple yet it went to her core.

Why did Jesus have to go this route? Why does He seek us out on the route we are traveling on?

He wants us to know this.

I know you. I know all that you have done. I know all your past mistakes. I know who you are today and I know the choices that you will make tomorrow.

So He came with this important message.

I have what you need. I am not just interested in your current position in life. I have the living water you need to satisfy your soul, not just to quench a thirsty mouth.

He comes to the well to offer eternal life. No matter your past. No matter your current situation, that you may see no way out of. His message is the same.

Verse 25 says: The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” 26Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

WOW! Were you ready for that? Here Christ declares for the first time, to a woman, to a Samaritan Women, this amazing statement. I AM HE! I AM HE! No more questions could be asked. She knew and His offer to her is the same He offers you today.

Are you thirsty for this water? The water that satisfies your soul. The type of water that requires only one drink and you will never thirst again.

I don’t know about you but as great as my relationships are, I always need a little more.

So instead of running to my phone, I can run to Christ. He has the water I need to thirst no more.

If you would like to read another post checkout Will You Follow
Bible References used from BibleHub.com

The post Thirst No More appeared first on Seeking God with Jaime Wiebel.

When They Look At Me

Jaime Wiebel — Thu, 28 May 2015 19:29:00 +0000

The Jesus They See In Me

Driving down the road, I glance in the rear-view mirror.

The little guy I dropped off at
the beginning of the school year is now a whole year bigger.

I can’t believe a whole school year
has passed. I can’t believe my guy is getting so big.

He is so sweet. I turn around to see his beautiful face that
is now almost a third grader and give him a great big smile. I keep sneaking
peeks of him in the mirror and he just laughs and looks away like he doesn’t
notice. Being my first born and the only one in school I can only hope that
this gets easier.

The end of the school year is hardest for me. I know some
people struggle at the beginning of the year but I spend the last few days of
school sad about another year passing by.

As the tears stream down my face, I quickly search for my
sunglasses to keep him from seeing me melt right in front of him. As I force a
smile through my sadness, he just giggles. Thank God for those angel smiles
that He sends through our little kids when times are tough.

As I look in the rear view mirror at my guy, I wonder what
he sees when he looks back at me.

My inner struggle lately has been with second guessing my
thoughts, actions, and reactions to my children. My greatest desire is that my
kids will grow up to love Jesus with all their hearts. I feel this pressure as
being the person that they look at and see the genuine love of Jesus. I just
wonder who the Jesus is they see in me. As mothers we have a great influence on
our children that we should consider carefully.

One of our favorite things to do is sing. We spend every
morning driving to school singing to the tunes of our favorite Christian radio
station. We crank up the radio and sing loudly, well okay maybe just I sing
loudly. But I can see their little mouths ready to break out in song any day
now.

I often times get strange looks as I am driving down the
road because I have one hand on the wheel and the other hand lifted to the heavens
praising my Lord. I usually get funny looks because people are not sure if I am
waving at them or yelling at them (I do sing loudly in my car, not well, just
loudly). Don’t worry I focus on my
driving.

My kids know that I love Jesus. We talk about Him at every
opportunity. He is a part of who we are but my desire is that He is not just a
part of who we are or just pieces of us but that He defines all our actions,
thoughts, and ways. We Praise Him for constantly transforming us and making us
more like Him every day.

Paul gives us great direction for our personal
responsibility in Romans 12. In verse 1 Paul tells us that we are to give
ourselves to God because all He has done for us. This means that daily we have
to consciously and intently give up our own desires to follow Him.

In verse 2 Paul
continues, Don’t copy the behavior and customs
of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way
you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and
pleasing and perfect.

If I want to be able to look at my kids in the mirror and
wonder what they are seeing when they look back at me I can always look to the
instruction manual that God gave us for daily living, His Word.

Don’t copy the behavior or customs of this world. That is
hard. That is why we have to be intent about our choices. Proverbs
3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean
on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will
make your paths straight.

How many of us often times turn to the people around us for
counsel on our daily lives. We turn to our significant others, our family, our
friends, and social media. What is the problem with that? Some of you may be
thinking, nothing. Look at these two verses.

Proverbs tells us to trust in the Lord
and not in ourselves and our own understanding, Romans 12:2 says Let God transform you and your thinking, not
to conform to the thinking of this world.

What is the harm with turning to others? What is the problem
with going for advice or help with our kids, family, marriage, jobs, and
finances, to other people?

My thoughts and your thoughts are limited to our own
understanding. We are finite. Limited to what we can see and understand.

Psalm 147:5 says,
Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit. (NIV) Other
versions use the word infinite. He can see it all, past, present, and future.
He can see the whole picture.

If I want my kids to see Jesus in me, Proverbs 3:6 says, In
all my ways, every situation, the Good, the bad, and the often times messy, I
turn to Him. I acknowledge Him first. I
go to Him first to teach me to be the mom He wants me be and to be like more
like Him.

His promises are He will guide my paths, He will make my
paths straight. He will guide me and transform me to be more like Him. I have
to let God transform me into a
new person by changing the way I think. Changing the way I act. Changing me
from the inside out.

Please SHARE with us. How do you handle the end of the school year? Please comment below and encourage us with your walk with God.

If you missed last week’s posts follow these links and check
them out.

Am I In the Way? and Family Fun Friday

The post When They Look At Me appeared first on Seeking God with Jaime Wiebel.

Change? ME!?!

Jaime Wiebel — Thu, 07 May 2015 22:22:00 +0000

As I look back at my wedding photos that we have hanging on
the walls of our house, I often times look at my husband and I and wonder, who
are those two love birds?

My husband has a few less hairs (I had to add few) and I had
fewer gray hairs. We practically look like babies. Where did the time go? Where
did we go? We used to be fun and wild, crazy, and free. Did he change? Did I
change?

We are going to be celebrating our tenth anniversary this
year and as I reflect on the past years, I see how our lives constantly transform.

Quite honestly, I am glad I am not that girl anymore in some
ways and in some ways I miss her a bit.

Do you ever wish you could go back and tell your younger
self a thing or two or three or are you glad you had to figure it out the hard
way?

Often times you hear couples say, especially in times of
struggle, “You’re not the guy or girl that I married.”

Some of you may be
thinking Hallelujah, and others may be holding onto resentment or bitterness
toward the fact that your spouse is not the same person.

When Scott and I first got married, we struggled, as many
couples do, in our first years of really settling in together. Things become
quite different; kids come along, the daily grind grinds in, and life becomes well,
life. But that man I fell in love with is now my best friend.

What Happens? Those two people that often got married and were head-over-heels in love,
start to change.

Some of us are open to the changing relationships in our
lives but some people are saying, Change? Me!?!

We quickly respond, “I am the
same person or I am not the one that changed.”

Let’s be real, we all change. We were not the same in first grade as we were
when we were seniors in high school. We were not the same when we began college
or our careers as we are five or ten years later.

People have to change, they have to adapt to the changing
environment and life around them. It can be amazing, you can become a better
person, or it can be detrimental and you can go in the opposite direction.

I don’t stress over our changing marriage. In fact, I look
forward to new things and new phases, and praise God for renewed mercies every
morning.

I feel our marriage
is better now than when it began. My husband and I have grown together and
created a bond grounded in faith. With the grace and mercy of our Heavenly Father,
we are not only surviving but we absolutely enjoy each other.

I am not saying that we never struggle, but we have an ingredient
that is, what I believe, key to any marriage. It is grounded in faith and held
together by a foundation in a God that is bigger than all our issues, all our
changes, and all our finicky ways we bring to our relationship.

If you are in a marriage or any
relationship, where you won’t change or the other person won’t change, you will
come into struggles. Change is essential. Just as you get up and change your
clothes everyday (hopefully), you have to change you attitudes and behaviors to
work together and that is okay.

Don’t be afraid to change.

Embrace the change.

Embrace the opportunity for new beginnings and being able to sing a new
song.

The key or the essential element to any strong relationship
is the reliance on a GOD that doesn’t change. He is eternally constant. He is
eternally consistent.

So as we change, as we grow, as we mature, we have a
constant that we can rely on to never change. His promises are the same. His
expectations of us are the same, day to day.

The awesome thing about serving an eternal God is He sees
the big picture, in fact He sees the whole picture. When we see only our day to
day or our past, He knows our future. He knows what He has in store for us, for
our families, for our marriages, and for our friendships.

Personally, I have had to grow up a lot in the past ten
years. Every time I have a struggle it comes down to this, Asking God to change
ME.

No matter whom the relationship has involved: family,
friends, spouse, children, acquaintances, and people I met in my everyday life,
God has required my submission.

He has left me in my, sometimes miserable, state until I
have realized, I cannot change people, but He can. What I can do is ask a God
who is bigger than any situation I have ever faced to

Change Me!

I have asked a God that is bigger than all my struggles
to make me more like Him. It is not always easy, but often times, a
necessary change.

Psalm 102 is a prayer of one overwhelmed with trouble,
pouring our problems before the Lord.

Do you ever feel like the overwhelmed person pouring out
you problems before the Lord?

Here is some constant reassurance for you, Psalm
102:27-28 says: But YOU are always the
same; YOU will live forever. The children of your people will live in security.
Their children’s children will thrive in your presence.”

We can’t say that about the people in our lives but we can say that about an AWESOME GOD!
So you can put your hope and faith and trust in Him.

So as you face your next struggle or next encounter that
may not be a pleasant one, challenge yourself in this way, ask God, to make a
real change, but ask Him to make it in you.

Please leave comments below and read from others about their journeys.

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