I'm asking God to be present in every situation! How about you? Just the light from the face of of God can bring clairity and victory.
"It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them."
Psalm 44:3
Yesterday, Pastor Derick's message resonated with a familiar internal struggle of mine: The desire to belong and fit in...to be liked, wanted and needed. But, it's more than just belonging and wanting people to like me. Its my dream to contribute, collaborate, plan, and actually be a part of hearing and initiating what God wants to do at my church and my circle of influence. I have untapped potential and talents inside of me that should not longer sit dormant. I am not a bench warmer! No one on God's team are meant to be bench warmers. We are all on the starting line up in some way, and we all possess untapped potential!
God created me therefore,
I matter,
I belong, I fit in,
I am not only liked, but loved.
If you knew beforehand that today you would be attacked, would you take precautions? Well, you should take precautions...Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.
Belt of Truth. Breastplate of Righteousness. Shoes of Peace. Shield of Faith. Helmet of Salvation. Sword of the Spirit. Pray. Ephesians 6:11-18 NLT
With God, the best is always yet to come. He is my hope, my deliverer, my Savior in every situation. I strive to not become discouraged with what looks like a storm or disapointments, but to be grateful for what I am learning and for all that I am already blessed with. God's provision isn't always packaged how I WANT it to look, but it is always perfect to provide what I NEED.
Sometimes following Jesus is hard and we don't always see clearly or understand the road we're traveling. Don't lose sight of the light. Staying close to Jesus on each step of our journey is the absolute key to success. He is the light and promises to walk with us illuminating our way just enough. Step by step he leads, we trust and follow.
Reflect upon His faithfulness, be in reverence of His greatness, remember you are standing on holy ground.
Integrity. I wouldn't say I've always been a subject matter expert on this topic! A work in progress, I am. What I've leaned (mostly the hard way) is that integrity must be fought for daily. Character must be guarded and protected. It's a choice. A choice to learn with diligence the truth of God's word for it is the instruction manual. A choice to be guided by the Spirit. A choice to humbly love myself and others with grace and forgiveness. Daily choosing to live a life worthy of my calling.
...whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these... John 14:12 NIV
Sometimes I read this verse and see a huge divide between what Jesus says my potential is, compared to the life I am currently living. How about you? I know for myself I can tend to discount my effectiveness due to my own insecurities and failures. But God is not deterred by our weaknesses. It's only through our weaknesses that Christ's power can be made perfect.
What if we just started to live our lives believing what Jesus said about living a greater life beyond the ordinary. In 1 Kings 19:15-21, Elisha's ordinary life was was interrupted and the course of his whole life changed. Even now, God is always working behind the scenes, orchestrating little interruptions, waiting on us to accept his invitation to a life beyond mediocrity into something greater. Small steps at a time.
We will not be blessed by the Word of God if we won't put it into action. If we don't have the intention to act upon the truth of His word, let us not expect payment of His promises. #faithisaction
"RIP" to your old self
●Relationship ~ Know God, not just about God.
●Identity ~ Believe you are who God says you are.
●Progress ~ Go forward with confidence in what God has tasked you to do.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Many of us know Romans 8:1, "There is now no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus." I can't tell you how thankful I am for this promise. But, if we keep reading on to verse 2 (shown in the picture), we go beyond grace and tap into His power. As we walk daily with Jesus, we have the WEALTH of the LIFE-GIVING PRESENCE, and the ABUNDANCE of LIFE-CHANGING POWER!
Remember how Pastor Derick said those words a few weeks ago?..I can still hear the way he said it.... With, hope, purpose and strength behind each word: Go! Now! Leave your life of sin!
Because you belong to Jesus you absolutely have the Presence who gives you the power to overcome. ♡
Recently I allowed a comment made by someone affect me to the point it changed my experience for the rest of the day. Sometimes it is so hard to not let things like this dictate our mood and state of being. The sobering truth is--the offending party is most likely oblivious to the fact they hurt me, and are going about their day...meanwhile I am allowing the offender to affect my joy, and influence how I treat others. This is reacting. Reacting implies no control; emotions take over and as a result we gossip, can't focus, make hasty decisions, etc.
Instead, I would rather respond. Responding implies choice and with Godly choices, freedom takes over. Choose to believe my worth in Christ = freedom. Choose to take negative words and thoughts captive and discarding what is not the truth = freedom. You get the idea :)
This week, I keep being drawn back to these words from Isaiah. "Don't think like everyone else." It's the beginning of a great passage that encourages us to make the Lord of Heaven's Army, holy in our life...to be in reverence and awe of Him and as we do, he will be our sanctuary! Don't think like everyone else! Wait on Him and trust in Him, he is a hiding place. {Isaiah 8:11-17}
Girlfriends: It's a lie to think you're not good enough. It's a lie to think you don't matter. You are more than enough. You are the most important being on earth. God created you especially because there was no other living thing on earth that could handle the job of a woman. And He said this is not good. So he got to work and gave you life. You have a specific job that no one else can do that is ordained by the Creator! You are life! Be life to those around you!
"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Gods power and strength can not be reconciled or explained by our human understanding. It is a guarantee that our bodies and minds will fail, which is why, I think, we become so overwhelmed when trying to do everything by our own strenth. So... I strive to do life by his strength, not my own.
Girlfriends: God says... You are amazing and capable of great things. You are beautiful today, just the way you are, no matter what size the label says. You are strong and can endure what ever comes your way. You matter to so many, to more than you may ever know. You are always more than enough. You have everything you need to be who God has called you to be. Those voices inside your mind that contradict the above, are LIES from satan himself. Remind that loser that he is in fact, a loser. Go on about your day smiling and standing tall like the daughter of a king.
You go step by step,
He'll show step by step.
We must trust in the Lord even when we don't have all the details of the journey. The details of the journey are less important to God than our faithful obedience and trust in him day by day. God wants us to include him every day in every way, because he loves us and desires a relationship with us. If we knew all the details to what he has in store for us, then we wouldn't need him and the relationship would be lost, and we would miss out on the blessing of his presence in our life.
You go step by step,
He'll show step by step.
"Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of Faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water" Hebrews 10:22
But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. James 1:6
The thief comes only to kill, steal and destroy, I have come so that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10 --- Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8I have always believed that there was an enemy but I never really realized the seriousness of how evil the enemy is and how much he hates me. All the little sins that I struggled with I just passed off with a "that's life and it doesn't matter that much" attitude. When really it was Satan at work all along. When you seek to grow in God, Satan is your adversary. We need to think of Satan as an assassin and he has his sights set on us. The worst thing that Satan can do to us is separate us from God because he knows that our life apart from God is death. He is subtle and leads us off track little bits at a time. Next thing you know, we are far away from God and going down a road we never thought that we would be on. Here's what I want to do: Turn the tables on Satan! The Bible says that all things work together for my good. (Romans 8:28) Let's use the tactics he intends for harm, for our good; as a stepping stone that will ultimately bring us closer to God. This thinking goes way back to Joseph in the book of Genesis. In fact Joseph said those exact words to his enemies, his own brothers, who conspired against him. He said, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.." That's what we can say to Satan. Every morning, I want the enemy to be like......"not her again, she resists in every way!" I don't want to assist Satan in leading me astray, I want to resist him. I want to say to him every time I feel tempted, "you intend to harm me, but God intends good for me....oh and by the way Satan, don't forget you lose."
