Give me, give me, give me...

Hi friends, Elizabeth here! I am delighted to be one of the newest members of the creative worship team and to share my 1st blog post with you. I'm pretty much over the moon excited to be here! One of the 1st things you will learn about me is that I don't do mornings!!! Truth be told, I loathe mornings. I enjoy the freshness of the air and the stillness in my heart but man, that crawling out of my snuggly warm bed just isn't fun for this dedicated night owl. My mornings are not as productive as some would suggest however when I take a step back and look at what a normal "morning" around my place looks like, I see a different view. When I look at it I see that's it's not about how much I can get done, but that the time spent with my Daddy God IS indeed fruitful. You see, it's not about what time you wake up but what you do with that first bit of time that matters.

Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you. Psalm 143:8 NLT

Yes, I want to hear His voice each & every morning & yes, I want to be reminded of His great love for me- who doesn't? It's that last part of the verse that speaks to me the most. He's gonna show me where to go IF I give myself to Him first. 

The Bible talks of bringing your "first fruits" to the Lord in Exodus 34. Verse 26 shares how as you begin your work harvesting your crops, bring the very best of the first part of it to God. I believe we can apply this to our lives. We give Him our very best and the first parts of our day.  May I suggest our time spent with Him in the morning as our 'first fruits' offering? I think of my morning times with Jesus as me giving Him my offering of worship. Since we are often at our best in the morning we can give God our "first fruits' by making His time a priority before we start with all of our tasks and to do lists.

We live in a society and generation that has a problem of the "give me's". Anyone know what I mean? Everyone wants something. "Give me a ride", "Give me some money honey", "Give me a break"... etc. Well, the Lord has some "give Me's" too. He says "Give Me your time, give Me your talents, Give Me your resources" but above that He says "Give Me your heart". 

You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. Matthew 22:37

What I got to say about that is "just give me JESUS". I want Him to give me more of Himself everyday and that looks a whole lot like me giving my 'first fruits' to Him each day in worship, prayer, & Bible study. Will you join me and committing to offer your 'first fruits' offering to Him each morning when you rise?

Art: For the background I used a large flat brush & 3 shades of yellow/orange acrylic paint blending and working quickly while the paint was still wet. I used the masking technique to stamp the sun  & clouds from the Love Your Neighbor set then masking/stamping each portion of the phrase for Give me Jesus set. For the chicken I selected a google image, uploaded it to Cricut Design Studio, and cut out a stencil. Using the stencil & the highly sophisticated ;) baby wipe finger technique I "painted" in the chicken. Added washi, a cute tab, and finished off with black splatters - my fave. 

Give me Jesus!

 Elizabeth - @icolorinmybible

If you are like me and have to have these stamp sets then you can snag In the Morning for yourself here or Love Your Neighbor set here. Check out Instagram & Facebook too for lots more inspiration on these new releases. Can't wait to see what you create!