Psalm 86: A Prayer of Protection

I love Psalm 86. I've been sharing the verses of this chapter on my twitter (@itsbrandirose) and my facebook page (A Traveler's Thoughts). Now, I would like to share with you what I've learned from this beautiful chapter.

"Hear me, Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.Guard my life, for I am faithful to you; save your servant who trusts in you.You are my God; have mercy on me, Lord, For I call to you all day long." ~Psalm 86:1-3
We can tell God we need Him to hear us. We are poor and needy people because we are designed to need God! I love that! The Maker of everything loves us so much He just wants us to want Him! God is our Protector we don't have to be afraid! God wants us to talk to Him contently. It's okay to call on Him all day!
"Bring joy to your servant, Lord, for I put my trust in you. You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you. Hear my prayer, Lord; listen to my cry for mercy." ~Psalm 86:4-6
God is FORGIVING! God is GOOD! God is ABOUNDING IN LOVE! Just call on Him.
"When I am in distress, I call to you, because you answer me. Among the gods there is none like you, Lord, no deeds can compare with yours. All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord; they will bring glory to your name. For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God." ~Psalm 86:7-10
God answers, so when I'm troubled that's Who I need to turn to! Nothing can compare to God! God is GREAT! God does MARVELOUS DEEDS! HE ALONE IS GOD! WOW!
"Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name." ~Psalm 86:11
This has to be my favorite verse in this whole chapter. Let's read it again, but this time slower.
Teach me YOUR way LORD. Ask and allow God to teach you. He will and it's amazing the blessings you feel and see.
That I may rely on YOUR FAITHFULNESS. This world is going to bring pain. But don't cling to a person or thing. rely on GOD's faithfulness. This will be enough!
Give me an UNDIVIDED HEART, that I may fear Your Name. This is the part of the verse I like best. I allow the world to pull me in many different directions. But every time I spend time with God my heart is so happy. This is the best part of the prayer and is what I pray for you and me. That we'll have an undivided heart!
"I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths, from the realm of the dead. Arrogant foes are attacking me, O God; ruthless people are trying to kill me— they have no regard for you." ~Psalm 86:12-14
I may be repeating myself here, but praise God with all of your heart! He is amazing! People will try to bring you down, but...
"But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.Turn to me and have mercy on me; show your strength in behalf of your servant;save me, because I serve you just as my mother did. Give me a sign of your goodness, that my enemies may see it and be put to shame, for you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me." ~Psalm 86:15-17
God defeats the people after you. He protects you. He is compassionate. He is gracious. He is slow to anger. He is abounding in love. He is abounding in faithfulness. He has mercy on you. He shows you His strength. He gives you signs of His goodness (just look outside.) He helps you. He comforts you.
I don't know about you, but I'm so thankful I serve a God Who is all of this!

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It's been a year!

One year ago today I sat in the back of my college math class, after class was over, and wrote the first post for A Traveler's Thoughts. At the time I didn't know if I was going to keep the blog or not. It was something I was just trying to see if people wanted to read about what I had to say.
Here we are a year later, thanks to all of you who read my posts! This blog wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you! A big thanks goes to Victoria over at Miss Tadoodles Corner for helping me with the set up of this blog.
Of course this blog would be nothing if it wasn't for God and my relationship with Him. He's given me a desire to share about Him and He is with me all the way!
I want to apologize for not posting regularly these past few weeks. I've been sick and school has been crazy. But, I'm back on schedule and next week we will be talking about Operation Christmas Child.
Again, thank you to everyone who reads these posts and likes my Facebook page and follows me on Twitter and Instagram! I can't wait to see what the next year looks like!
"The Lord is my Rock, my Fortress, my Deliverer, my God, my Stronghold in whom I take refuge, my Shield, the glory of my salvation, and my High Tower." ~Psalm 18:2

True modesty during the prom season

    "I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God." ~1 Timothy 2:9-10 (NIV)
     I want to do some posts on modest prom dresses since prom season is around the corner. I feel that it is getting harder and harder to find modest clothes these days, but especially prom dresses! Girls it is important to remember that no matter what the event we are suppose to be a light for God and He wants us to dress modest. Guys in the same way you need to look for girls who you know will e modest and has virtue.
    Here are a couple of dresses I have picked out that I think are modest and very cute for prom:

This dress is so beautiful! I love the color and the tulle bottom! It has just enough sparkle and the straps work great with it!

  This beautiful blue one is short but not too short (one of the hardest things to find.) The top does not show too much and the sparkle is amazing! I love the one shoulder strap too!

Okay, so everything about this dress is gorgeous! The fabric, the style, all of it. You can't go wrong with this dress!

      Keep checking back here for more modest prom dress reviews. You can also find a board on my pintrest that is labeled ModestIsHottestProm. Plus I try to post at least one or two pictures to my twitter account today. I pray that all of you getting ready for prom puts God first in this very special event!

A CHRISTmas Praise

On Christmas as I read all the Facebook statuses and Tweeter posts about Christmas and people celebrating Jesus' birthday I thought about how I wanted to post something to show how Thankful I am to Jesus for coming to earth to die for me! I didn't want the regular "Happy Birthday Jesus" or "Merry Christmas", I wanted something from the heart. So I picked up my journal and just started writing my thoughts. This is what came flowing from my pen:

"God thank You so much for loving me and sending Your Son to be born a little, helpless baby and to grow up and die for me! Thank You Jesus for coming to the earth as that helpless baby and being born in a place that honestly had no room for You. Jesus thank You for running for Your life as a child and then working in a town that would not claim You. Jesus thank You for picking true friends and doing what was unpopular, but right. Jesus thank You for facing this hard life and then allowing people to betray, beat, mock, and kill You for me! Thank You for coming out of the grave and going to Heaven to prepare a place for me. Thank You for having a plan for my life and always being with me. Thank You for the Bible, my friends, family, and life I love. Thank you Mary and Joseph for obeying God. Thank you Mary for setting an example of purity. Thank you everyone who obeyed God and listened to Jesus so that the world could have the Bible, the guide book of life. JESUS, EMMANUEL, PRINCE OF PEACE, WONDERFUL COUNSELOR, LOVE OF MY LIFE, BEST FRIEND, GOD, MY KING. Merry Christmas." ~Brandi

The Best Gift Of All

Okay, so I am learning so much from the book of Psalms as I study it more this month. It also helps that my mom just happened (God knew I would need what she brought home) to bring in a devotional on the book of Psalms and that is one of my biggest sources! There will be a link to buy said book from Amazon at the bottom of this post. Now, let's get started.
Psalm 19 really dealt with God's handy work. An example of this is someone watching a sunset and shouting "Way to go God, Fantastic!" This shows someone praising God for what He has made. Now for some science, Did you know that a single human chromosome contains twenty billion bits of information? That would be like having forty-thousand 500 page books! Wow! God is very creative!  Now some people like to say that there is no God and that the earth just happened on it's own, but Romans 1:20 backs up that God created the earth and Paul, the guy who wrote Romans, tells us that we have no excuse not to praise God! Here's the thing though, make sure you are praising GOD nor nature and not NATURE for nature. Some verses warning against praising nature are: Job 31:26-28, 2 Kings 23:5.
Now lets switch gears for a minute and talk about what Psalm 19 teaches us about asking for forgiveness. Verse twelve tells us that we should ask for forgiveness from God and for Him to cleanse us from sin. Verse thirteen tells us that we should ask God to keep us from future sin. Wait! What?!?! Let's read that verse. "Keep Your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression."(NIV). Oops! This is something I don't really do. What about you? Let's remember this verse and ask God for help everyday! Finally verse fourteen tells us to stand firm on the rock of our Salvation. God is wonderful!
Let me tell you a story I read. On March 8, 1839 thirteen miners were caught in a collapsed coal mine in Musselburg, Scotland. Did these miners panic? Did they start blaming each other? The answer is no. Instead they gathered together and started singing Psalm 20! Yeah, you read right, they sang! Psalm 20 is a Psalm that speaks of hope. The opening verse says: "May the Lord answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you." Psalm 20:1 (NIV). I don't know about you, but I can't think of anything better to be protecting me! Now do you want to know what happened to the miners? Well, people were frantically searching for them, and they were running out of oxygen. They were finally rescued and as all thirteen came out of the mine they were still singing Psalm 20!
Now lets go to Paris on March 4, 1437. This was the day that Henry IV of France was imprisoned in Paris because he had Protestant beliefs! Over time he managed to escape and find refuge with the Huguenot, members of the Protestant Reformed church of France. During a service Henry heard Psalm 21 being sung. After hearing this he felt God had prearranged for him to be there and he was in awe of God's providential leading. He knew God had gone before him paving the way just like God did with David in this chapter.
Another interesting fact is that Psalm 20 and Psalm 21 go hand in hand. Both speak about the king. Psalm 20 could be an intercession as the king goes out to battle and Psalm 21 is a thanksgiving, maybe for when the king returns triumphant. Also verses four and nine of Psalm 21 show a deeper meaning of this chapter. It reminds us of Jesus in Revelation 6:16. Many consider Psalm 21 to be speaking of the Messiah, Jesus.
The best gift is knowing that God is going before every one of us and preparing what will happen in our lives. He is standing by us and ready to listen to us and help us not to sin if we ask for His help. He is ready to show us that there is always hope. He is ready to show us His master piece everyday in nature and everything else. For me this is the best gift I can have this Christmas season and all year long!
Psalms Devotional I have been using

A Psalm a day challenge

Well, December is already here and it feels like it is moving just as fast as all the other months. Before long Christmas is going to be here and then it will be a new year! I just can't believe how fast this year is going and I'm starting to see how a person should take in every moment they get.
I did not realize while I was waiting for Saturday to get here that I didn't know what I would write about this month. On December 5th, while I was reading my Bible, God answered a prayer I didn't know I had been praying. He showed me that I want to do a challenge this December. The book of Psalms is filled with great comfort and support. I go to it a lot when I feel really sad and I don't know what to do. I realized I have only read the book of Psalms two times. It is the longest book in the Bible and sometimes it's still hard to  understand. That is why I am going to challenge myself to read a chapter in Psalms a day this month.
I hope to grow closer to God while studying my Bible and have a more personal relationship with Him and not just a knowledge based relationship! I will post pictures of my favorite verses to my Pinterest board daily with the label A PSALM A DAY. Also on Twitter I will be using the hashtage #APsalmADay. A great link that also will help me is that eight girls on instagram, known as Eight Girls of Faith, are posting pictures about verses from Psalms and talking about them. Here is the link: eight girls of faith. I hope you will join me in this and you all have a blessed December!
Also here is the reading schedule for the month of December:

Thankful November

So I'm a little late on this, but I had an idea this morning. I am going to celebrate Thankful November (Yes, this is something I made up.) This is how I'm going to celebrate it. Everyday on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterset I am going to post something I am thankful for. This is just a way to be very thankful this Thanksgiving and to start a habit of be thankful everyday!
We should be thankful everyday. But unfortunately we are not. I learned in my ACA class (Study Skills) That    if you practice something for 32 days it becomes a habit. So let's see what happens in 30 days.

Day 1: I am thankful for my car because it gets me where I need to be safely

Day 2: I am thankful for doctors, police, firefighters, people who keep us safe

Day 3: I am thankful for paved roads cause it would be quite scary to drive on roads like in some countries

Day 4: I am thankful for spending time with family and having fun

Day 5: I am thankful for living in the country

Day 6: I am thankful for seasons such as summer, fall, winter, and spring

Day 7: I am thankful for technology I have so many writing tools at my fingertips (EX: this blog)

Day 8: I am thankful for heartbreak It shows us we have feelings, draws us closer to God, and shows us how to treat others

Day 9: I am thankful for my two best friends who have been there through everything. They are more than friends, they are my sisters (by heart.)

So... what are you thankful for?