Good day! I want to invite you to see God today in each moment of your day and seek Him with all of your heart.
Over the last several years, I have asked people how they begin their day. I love asking this to people who are incredibly motivated, encouraging, and moving forward toward their dreams, hand in hand with Jesus, walking by faith with Him. Here are some of the responses that I have received:
"How can I make today better than yesterday?"
"What am I believing?"
"Lord, what do you want to do today?"
In 2002, when I traveled to Honduras for a mission trip, I met a doctor/minister/evangelist who attended my university and moved back to his home country to serve Jesus with all of his heart. He would come into the breakfast room where we started our day and with focus, joy, and ambition, he would ask our group, "What are we going to do for Jesus today?" This stuck with me. He did not lose sight of his purpose to serve Jesus and share His love with others.
What do you ask yourself in the morning when you wake up? Do you invite God into your day? What are you believing to happen?
Many times I try to ask God in my heart and mind for a book of the Bible to focus on or read that day or maybe He will highlight a word. For example, today he highlighted the book "Lamentations," reminding me of a truth found in this book of the Bible that His mercies are new every morning.
"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."
-Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV)
Yesterday, God dropped in my spirit "Alabaster," which reminded me of a friend's devotional thought to pour out to Jesus in worship like the woman with the Alabaster jar who poured out her love/oil to Jesus in the New Testament. (Matthew 26:7)
How do you set your intention for the day? For me, I gain mental clarity and clarity in the Spirit if I can get out on a walk early in the morning to get moving and lean into God's heart. One morning over the summer, I woke up and saw in my mind's eye a picture I had seen on Instagram of a door that said "Faith" and the mat said "Feelings," and I felt this strength and clarity that the Lord wanted me to get up and go to a local park. My focus was to walk by faith and to stay in tune with God's promptings. I felt led to go to my favorite spot at a park to journal and read the Word. I opened to a Scripture that talked about a gazelle and sensed that the Lord wanted to invite me into the freedom and joy of living life as a gazelle joyfully gliding across a field. As I began hiking, I saw two doe and a fawn joyfully running through the field in front of me! Wow! God is so good! The Lord led me to a Scripture and then blessed me with a confirmation of the Scripture in nature. He then put key people in my path to confirm further that He had led me to go to that park at that time in the morning. Feeling a nudge in your spirit to go somewhere and then discovering God in the details of the day is a faith-filled adventure as we believe in faith for Him to guide us.
That has especially been true with my writing journey with Jesus.
Last year, my focus was on revising, designing a cover for, and illustrating, Adventures with God/Aventuras con Dios. I am grateful to now have this book in print and ready to share. This story invites readers to walk with God throughout their day. As I wrote, illustrated, and published this book, God led me on a journey of learning to walk with Him as well.
The story, Adventures with God/Aventuras con Dios begins, with John, the young boy in the story, having a conversation with God:
--¡Buenos días, Dios! --dijo Juan, hablando con Dios. -Gracias por un día nuevo! ¿Qué aventuras tienes para nosotros hoy? --Juan abrió su Biblia en Juan 21. Leyó que los discípulos atraparon muchos peces cuando Jesús les dijo dónde pescar. Esto le dio a Juan una idea maravillosa.
"'Good morning, God!' -John said, talking with God, 'Thank you for the new day! What adventures do you have for us today?' John opened his Bible to John 21. He read that the disciples caught a lot of fish when Jesus told them where to fish! This gave John a brilliant idea."
-Adventures with God/Aventuras con Dios, p. 1
There are a few reasons I begin the story this way.
We enter into relationship with God (or anyone) through gratitude.
"Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name." -Psalm 100:4
Jesus is the Word. So, when we read the Word, He guides us, and we become in tune with the Shepherd's voice. (John 1:1, John 10:27-28)
When we tune into His voice and trust Him, He guides us in pathways of peace, life, and joy.
"You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy." -Psalm 16:11 (NIV)
"And He will illuminate the path that leads to the way of peace." -Luke 1:79 (TPT)
4. I was inspired by the missionary, Tony's, focus on Jesus.
5. I am inspired by my journey with God and want to invite readers into that same personal journey with Jesus to be on adventure with Him each day.
As you think about your daily adventures with God, I want to share a few of my faith-filled adventures over the last couple of years while working on Adventures with God/Aventuras con Dios to inspire you in your faith.
Last year, I was at a prayer retreat, and a young lady named Lydia shared with me that the Lord impressed upon her heart that "even the trees have a season of rest." This was one of those Holy Spirit moments. I asked her if I could incorporate this into one of the chapters in my book. She agreed.
Later that month I began to reflect on the story of Lydia in the Bible. I expanded the paragraph in Adventures with God/Aventuras con Dios about Lydia to almost 2 pages. One new observation I had was that the character Lydia in the Bible had the gift of hospitality and invited Paul and the other missionaries to a place of rest in her home. That week, I got sick and I needed to slow down. I reflected on how in that moment God was inviting me to rest. I was not wanting to be still, but God encouraged me to use that time to rest. Just like He gives the trees a season of rest, He invites us to rest with Him- to rest physically, emotionally, and in communion with Him as we rest. My last name is "Winter." I have desired the last name "Spring" or "Primavera" to mean "new life." However, the resting season in winter is important. As I realized this, I embraced my last name. Just as Lydia invited missionaries into a space of rest, I can invite others into a space of rest with the Lord, trusting in Him. Easier said than done, but when we do rest, then there is time to sit with Jesus, and in that time of abiding, He fills us with His love.
After that time of rest, reflection, and writing, I entered into a fun adventurous faith-filled week, and God gave me focus and energy to create illustrations for my book, experience deep faith and healing in an online faith-building conference, worship night full of joy, fun God surprises, like having a deer show up to our doorstep that week! This was a first!
Earlier that year I had spent a month or two studying deer, sketching deer, and designing a deer for the cover of my book to inspire children to go outside on an adventure with God.