#Empowered

Empower

 verb

1. to give or delegate power or authority to; authorize

2. to give ability to; enable or permit

Instead of a setting resolutions at the New Year, I choose a couple words :

Crave and Intentional.

Then I had to decide what I was going to Crave and be Intentional about.

I have been a this road the last few years of craving God, one bible study after another. So when Online Bible Studies decided to do Made to Crave and sign ups started I wasn't sure if I was going to join again or not. I very much enjoyed the last two studies and my Group 63 ladies. But I wasn't sure about the book. I really don't struggle with food or my weight.  And I knew this book was more than a food/ weight thing. So I prayed about what to do. Then my answer came when I knew I wouldn't have the accountability I so craved with my Group 63 ladies. There are days I am closer to them then people I see everyday, weird how you can be close to ladies that you have never met expect for one. We have gotten close the last year. and shared our struggles with each other and that only happened because of God. He has done that. So I told our leader Cindy, I was staying in the group and signing up. So here I am in this study Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst. Along with this study I am also involved with Community Bible Study as a 3 year old teacher and am joining in the Good Morning Girls bible study of Intentional Focused. And just because I am doing all these studies trust me when I say I still struggle with the bible but I am soaking in God's Word even if I don't feel as I am. So with these studies it helped choosing my words for the year: Crave and Intentional. It means not  being at the beck and call with my phone, iPad, computer, buying clothes or stuff. It means I'm going to CRAVE God,  and be INTENTIONAL with God first, my husband second, our kids third, family and friends fourth.

As I said I don't struggle with food or weight but I do struggle with my time management, shopping, not exercising, generally zoning out, rushing to do all these bible studies on time, my prayer time. Putting everything else before God but I pray this is the year I turn it all around and truly put him first. Exercise more and really dig deep into these bible studies and my prayer life. So the first word being EMPOWERED is a great word to start out with. You almost can't say the word without feeling it it deep inside. 

And as Psalms 84:4 states:

My soul yearns, even faints,
    for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out
    for the living God.

Our whole body wants to be empowered for God.  Just as a child cries out for their parents when they want something. Our soul, heart, flesh Cry out for God who is our Father.  The word, empowered, means to give or delegate power or authority to. So to me, who or what I give power to is what I crave. This year I choose to Crave God and be EMPOWERED by Him because He is inside of me as a believer.

1 Corinthians 6:19

  Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

	~hugs and prayers~ kms