{"id":15014,"date":"2013-10-03T01:00:33","date_gmt":"2013-10-03T06:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=15014"},"modified":"2013-10-02T07:25:06","modified_gmt":"2013-10-02T12:25:06","slug":"free-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/10\/03\/free-hand\/","title":{"rendered":"A Free Hand"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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I will praise You as long as I live, and in Your name I will lift up my hands.
\nPsalm 63:4<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As a child, I was the quiet one. \u00a0I was a shy, curly-haired, red-headed little girl who wanted to hide behind others.\u00a0 If I was thrown into the spotlight, I was not comfortable there, like others. Can you relate?<\/p>\n

In third grade, I was about to play in a piano recital. I knew the piece, “Suppose<\/em>” by memory very well.\u00a0 But as I stepped in front of the huge crowd, sat on the bench and my long blue skirt brushed over my black shiny shoes, fear captured me<\/i>!\u00a0 My hand would not move away from “middle C” on the keyboard. \u00a0I played that note over and over again. (My Mom stood to applaud, and everyone else did, too, in order to release me from my agony.\u00a0 I may be the only person ever to get a standing ovation for playing one note!)\u00a0 This is only one of many examples when I\u2019d let fear overtake me where I could not move forward\u2014not completely\u2014for fear of mistakes or fear\u00a0 of hurting someone or fear of letting someone down.\u00a0 And when the fear cycle began, it easily could snowball into a cycle of bigger fears. Can you relate?<\/p>\n

I had asked Jesus into my heart at the age of eight.\u00a0 I knew I needed a Savior!\u00a0 But for a long time, it was hard for me to release some of my fears…even some hidden ones.\u00a0 In my twenties though, in God\u2019s wisdom, He allowed me to come to the end of myself.\u00a0 I realized in that time of complete brokenness that my focus must be on Him\u2014faith<\/i> not fears, depth in relationship<\/i> with Him<\/i> instead of people-pleasing and swirling circumstances.\u00a0 My life dramatically changed for the better when I became very God-focused<\/i>!\u00a0 (I still have my moments, but I get back on track quickly.)<\/p>\n

The freedom, comfort, guidance, and peace that He lavished on me when I needed it most increased my faith and love in my relationship with Jesus!\u00a0 For many years, I have expressed myself and moved forward\u2014especially where Jesus is concerned!\u00a0 \u00a0My hand is no longer like that paralyzed hand that could not move in one direction or the other during that piano recital as a child.\u00a0 My hand can easily be lifted up to praise Jesus in a worship service.\u00a0 (It\u2019s just an external expression of the overflow of a thankful heart!)\u00a0 My hand can write\/type words (in various written formats) that praise and glorify Jesus as I share with others about His great saving love!\u00a0 And with great expression, passion, and boldness, my hands have moved in grand gestures as I have taught Bible studies and directed drama or acted on the stages of churches over the years. \u00a0(I share all of this for the great glory of God!\u00a0 For you see, He took me to a greater level of understanding of freedom and faith in Him and a greater awareness of His Holy Spirit working in me and God\u2019s amazing, continuous grace\u2026or else\u2026those things just listed would not have happened.)<\/p>\n

To God\u2026ALL glory and praise! I am nothing without Him!\u00a0 Oh, how I will praise Him as long as I live\u2026please join me.<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

Dear Lord, let us be in awe of You.\u00a0 Let us move forward each day\u2014with thankful hearts\u2014 following You!\u00a0 Let us give our hearts and lives completely to You to use for Your glory!\u00a0 We love You, so let us praise You as long as we live, and let us lift our hands to praise You!\u00a0 Let us keep our focus on You as stated in Hebrews 12:2, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the Cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 Name we pray, Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I will praise You as long as I live, and in Your name I will lift up my hands. Psalm 63:4 As a child, I was the quiet one. \u00a0I was a shy, curly-haired, red-headed little girl who wanted to hide behind others.\u00a0 If I was thrown into the spotlight, I was not comfortable there, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[3175,3173,376,2389,425,3964,3387,3966,3214,3551,3963,3965,3174],"class_list":["post-15014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-cheris-gaston","tag-daily-devotional","tag-fear","tag-freedom-from-fear","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-hands-worshipping","tag-hebrews-122","tag-joy-set-before-him-endured-the-cross","tag-praise-god","tag-praise-him","tag-psalm-634","tag-release-from-fear","tag-seeking-him-devotional","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-3Ua","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15015,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15014\/revisions\/15015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}