Good fight

Fight the good fight of faith….1 Timothy 6:12 (NKJV)

God didn’t have a bad day while He wrote a book about your life. He didn’t say, “This book is too perfect. Should we shake things up and throw in a car accident or something?”

Although God didn’t write painful events into your life, you need to know that there are going to be a few battles along the road. You see, your destiny is a path that God has prepared for you ahead of time. But it’s also your faith-filled journey down that path.

Life won’t hand you your dreams and Satan is going to try to get you off track, so it’s going to take faith to walk out God’s plans.

When the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, God promised them a lush, fertile land that flowed with milk and honey. But just because this was God’s plan didn’t mean the world handed it to them on a silver platter. The occupants of that land didn’t say, “Oh, God said you could have this land? Well then, let us get out of your way!”

The Israelites had to fight for that land. First they had to have faith that they would win. Actually, an entire generation died in the wilderness before the next generation rose up to take what God had promised. Second, they had to fight for what was theirs.

God has promised you a life that is better than you can imagine, but you’re going to need to fight for it. Fight to stay in faith for the joy, health, peace and prosperity He’s promised you. Fight to develop the skills and abilities He’s given you. Fight the good fight of faith to believe that, because of Jesus, you can do what it takes and have what He says! 

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Having Complete Trust in God!

Total trust in God is available to every blood-bought follower of Jesus Christ. It means you give up total control, and the Lord’s assurance replaces your fear with peace. You cannot figure it all out but you do have the capacity to trust Him totally. It is a trust issue, and if He is who He claims to be, He can be trusted. If you can trust Him with the eternal salvation of your soul, you can trust Him with the temporal control of your life.

 

“Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.” With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. ~   Isaiah 12:2-3

 

Wherever God leads He provides. What God initiates He completes. His part is provision and your part is trust. Don’t fall into the trap of trusting Him with some things and not trusting Him with others. Distrust in God is distasteful and insulting to His integrity. How can God not be big enough to handle any situation?  God can be trusted because He is trustworthy. The well of His salvation is infinitely deep. You have limited capacity to bear burdens. However, His character and resources are unlimited. Without the support of a sympathetic Jesus, you will be immobilized even crushed, under the weight of worry. Jesus understands and is saddened when  you do not yoke up with His support. 
    
There is no need to root around and search for answers when He already has it figured out. There is no need to sacrifice your health with worry and overwork when He offers peace and options you have yet to discover. There is no need to rush through life and then ask Him to bless your efforts after the fact. He can be trusted to lead you even before you put a prayerful plan into motion. Trust in God does not mean you act irresponsibly and seek forgiveness later. Trust in God means you patiently walk with Him in your decisions and choices. Slow down, look up, trust Him, and watch Him reap extraordinary results. Partial trust leads to frustration and worry. 

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Have a wonderful day as you put your complete trust in God. Love you all in Christ. Please share this blog and I ask you to share any of them.  God bless you and I pray it brings encouragement to your walk with Jesus!

The Lord Directs the Steps of the godly!

If you are a follower of Christ and you’re living your life for Him, these promises are for you as much as they are for me. Even though our God is busy running the universe each day, He is never too busy to be intimately involved with every little detail of our lives when we invite Him to be. The thing is that God is a gentleman. He won’t push His way into our lives and force us to do His will. He wants to be invited into every area of our lives, and He wants to be asked for His intimate involvement.

“The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.” ~ Psalm 37:23-24

That’s why David says in the same psalm: “Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” (Psalm 37:5) As we “commit” our ways to God each day in every situation and circumstance, we open the door for Him to direct our steps in the paths of His best blessings. Notice that David says in this verse, “Trust also in Him.” That means that when we commit our ways to the Lord, we must do it with an attitude that says to Him, “I believe You have my best interests at heart.” If we have reservations about God’s intentions for us, we will never be able to submit to His will and plans the way we need to, and we will rob ourselves of His best.

Scripture says: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not lean on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6) When we place our trust firmly in God–when we refuse to rely on our own pitiful resources, and earnestly seek His will in every situation–He has promised to guide and guard our steps. Maybe today, you are baffled by some of your own circumstances, and you’re tempted to despair. Let me encourage you to follow the Lord’s recipe for success, and watch Him turn your troubles into triumphs every time!

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Have a wonderful day in His presence allowing Him to direct your steps. Love you all in Christ. Please share this blog with others and I pray that it will bring encouragement in their walk with Jesus! God bless you for sharing!

God is Able…. Trust Him!

 If you are going through a difficult time right now, perhaps God intends to use this trial to teach you to overcome it with His help. We can choose to doubt and be in despair, or ride the wave with confidence—not in ourselves—but in God alone. One of the most common questions asked of Believers is:  “How can anyone be at peace when the world is crashing down around us?” When peace cannot be found, doubt creeps in. Circumstances often dictate our feelings. Waking up to the morning news is enough to put thoughts of despair and fear into the heart. Does God even care about what’s going on? If He does, why doesn’t He do something? Doubt, insidious and deadly, causes the faint of heart to lose hope. Forget the platitudes that we overuse to comfort the hopeless. They are just salt on the wounds. Let us embrace the impossible…God is able (2 Timothy 1:12). That is why we must put our trust in God who is more than able and not in our feelings.

“But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.” ~  James 1:6

It is easy to look around and see the seemingly unsolvable problems. Anyone can do that. Believers, we have the Lord God Jehovah, the Creator of the Universe, fighting for us! If we will but our trust Him for the outcome to our woes and trust Him for sustenance through the trial, we will have perfect peace. When doubt in God’s love and power start to take over your thoughts, you must stop them. They are lies straight from the pits of Hell. Think, who gains if you walk away from our Lord?

The Bible says we can control our thoughts. It takes diligence and practice to close our mind to lies. Too often we choose salvation and forgiveness of sin with the promise of eternal life with Him, but we reject His lordship over us. If we can trust Him for our eternity, why can’t we trust Him for our daily life?  His ways are not our ways the Bible teaches us in Isaiah 55:8-9:

We cannot know the thoughts and intents of God, but we can trust that He loves us and that His way is perfect to accomplish His will. We are mere sinful humans without the foresight to know what His will accomplishes or to know the whys of our sufferings.  We must endure, because we have placed ourselves in the palm of His hand so that He might exercise His will over us.To get our hearts and minds set on Him, we must pray, not necessarily for understanding, but to be able to submit to His will, trusting Him for the outcome. The fight is much larger than our own interests. Let us not allow Satan to rob us of our reward in heaven through doubt.

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Please share this blog with others and I pray it will encourage others in their walk with Jesus!  God bless you!

I can do all things …..

I can’t tell you how many times I repeated this verse to myself. Philippians 4:13, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” The only place we can find strength is in the Lord. There are many hurdles in life, but God is there to give the strength we need to LEAP OVER them. I love that Proverbs 18:10 says, “I can run to the Lord and be safe.”

Don’t you love that we are safe with God. He is always there to catch us when we fall. He’s there to give us the strength when we don’t think we can bear another moment. He’s there to ever push us forward and remind us that it’s not enough to just finish. We want to finish our race well for the Lord. We want to run with reckless abandonment to God’s open arms and find security in Him alone.

To tell you the truth…I love the “you are safe” part this verse tells me to run… to Run… TO RUN! I have the ability to run to God!!

 

He gives us the strength to move forward. He wants us to realize that we can’t do anything on our own. We do not have what it takes to survive without God. He wants us to come running to the grace that saved us… to the love that set us free. He wants us to run to the promises found in His Word. He wants us to come with all our garbage and lay it down at His feet (the only place where our garbage is safe).

God does not ridicule us for not have everything perfect in life. He never gets fed up with us! He never stops loving us! He never stops being a strong tower that we can run to! He is God and He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for each and every one of us, so that we can experience true life. I have a relationship with my Father because Jesus laid down His life for my sins. I no longer have to shed my blood or the sacrifice of an animal to please God. Jesus took my place and yours! He laid down His life. He made it possible for us to have the freedom to run to God.

 

 

Overcome!

“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” ~ 1 John 4:4

Are you facing a situation today that seems impossible? Even if you don´t see how things will work out, remember, you are created to overcome. If you are a born-again believer you are a child of the Most High God, the Greater One lives on the inside of you. There are seeds of faith planted in your heart, and the way you activate those seeds is by the words of your mouth. Begin to declare, “I am bigger than this problem. I am created to overcome. I am destined to live in victory because the Greater One lives inside of me.”

My friends, when you start speaking like that, all of heaven hears you and gets behind what you are saying. That´s why it´s so important to stir up the fire that God has placed on the inside of you. Don´t just sit back and be passive. That obstacle may look impossible, but God would not have allowed it in your life if He did not already know that you could overcome it! Quit looking at your difficulties as obstacles that are going to hold you back and start looking at them as opportunities that are going to push you forward into the live of victory He has in store for you!

Stop Relying on Yourself and Learn to Rely only on God!

Did Jesus suffer? Was Jesus sometimes lonely? Was He tempted to be discouraged? Was He misunderstood, maligned, and criticized unjustly? Of course! None of us are exempt from suffering, loneliness, discouragement, or unjust criticism, because God is developing within us the character of Christ, and, in order to do this, He must take us through all of the circumstances in life through which he took Christ. Does this mean God causes tragedies? No. God is good, and He will not cause evil or do evil. But God can use dark and stressful times for good. He’ll use them to teach us to trust Him to show us how to help others and to draw us closer to other believers. 

“We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.”~ 2 Corinthians 1:8-9

This is perhaps one of the clearest indications in the Bible as to why we may experience difficulties. In this incident, Paul and his companions experienced difficulties so they would rely on God and his resources. It is a hard lesson to learn because often we think we are resourceful enough not to need help from God or others. The world would tell us we can achieve anything we want, if we try hard enough. But the truth is we are so dependent on God we cannot even take our next breath unless he allows us to do so. Somehow it is in the hard times we realize we are not as competent and self-sufficient as we would like to think. Sometimes God allows difficult circumstances so we trust in God alone.

So often it is the sorrows and hardships of our lives which bring us to a point of seeking God, either for the first time or a subsequent time. C.S. Lewis explains it this way, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world”. So, what should you do when you’re going through difficult times? Refuse to be discouraged. Remember God is with you.

Rely on God’s protection and guidance.

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Have a wonderful day in His presence. Love you all. Please share this blog with others and I pray that it will encourage others in their journey with Jesus!  God bless you!

Do you Need Rest from the Burdens that you are Carrying?

I was led to this message for anyone who needs rest from their burdens that they are carrying. Are you soul weary? Are you having a difficult time seeing the light at the end of the tunnel? Is your heart heavy for someone right now?  Do you just need a moment of rest, a moment to breathe, a moment to escape the downpour in your life? Jesus has the answer. He has made a way for you then just thank Him for always being there for us and giving us the rest we need to move forward.

 “Come to me all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

Do you ever feel like the world is crashing down around you? Like, if one more thing goes wrong you will collapse under the weight of it all? Where you are so stressed out, it just seemed like everything was going wrong. Have you ever felt that way or is that how you’re feeling at this moment? Where it seems like your life is all planned out for you and you don’t feel like you can live up to expectations. Or maybe it’s something different, but equally as weighty. It doesn’t matter what it is, Jesus calls us to come to Him when we are weary and burdened. We shouldn’t wait until it feels like we have the time, we need to make the time.

Just take a few moments to pray, or open your Bible and read His Word. As soon you do this and take that time today, as soon as you turn to Christ you will feel so much better. You see, when we take that time to come to Him, He gives us rest. He lifts the weight off of our shoulders, and reminds us that it really is in His hands and that we need to trust Him. That doesn’t mean that everything will be downhill from there, it just reminds us that no matter how many bad things happen, He will never leave us or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:8).

So do you feel weary or burdened at this moment? Bring it to Jesus He will comfort and guide you. He will give you rest. Right now, in the midst of that worry or issue or concern, the God of the universe is asking you to turn it over to Him. Let Him work it out in His timing and His perfect way. Let Jesus carry your burdens today!

Have a wonderful day in the presence of the Lord. Please share this blog with others and I pray it will bring them comfort and encouragement!  God bless you!

God has a purpose for you!

God has a Master Plan and a Purpose for our Lives!

How thrilling it is to be reminded that God has designed and created us, and He has a master-plan for our lives. So many times in life we find ourselves looking for significance. What is my purpose? Why am I here? Does my life really matter? We see the vastness of the universe and wonder, “Can I really matter that much?” The good news is that God is keenly aware of who you are.

“I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me. He will send help from heaven to rescue me.” ~ Psalm 57:2-3

The answer to the questions above is a resounding, “Yes!” You do matter, God does care and you are very significant. Like the Psalmist, when we feel overwhelmed, when we doubt whether we matter or not, we can cry out to God, the same God who said that He will fulfill His purpose for you. Did you get that? God has a purpose for you and He will fulfill it. And God is committed to do whatever it takes to fulfill that purpose, even if it means sending help from Heaven itself to help you. So today rejoice in your significance. God loves you. God is vitally interested in you. God will fulfill His purpose for you.

Visualize yourself yearning to know your purpose. You can sense an emptiness, a grief over a sense of your own insignificance. And so you yearn. As you are feeling low God comes by and calls you by name. He puts His arm around you and begins to tell you all about the purpose He has for your life. Feel the joy in knowing that you were created for a purpose. Feel the peace that comes from knowing that God loves you and has always had you in His plans. Rejoice and then affirm, “I have a purpose.”

 

Please share this blog with others and I pray it will brighten their day and give them hope.  Please find me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!  God bless you!

Understanding Unanswered Prayers (my story)

I know this is long, but I also know that God knows someone today needs to read this…I pray it helps many and I hope that each one of you will take the four to five minutes it takes to read it. Please feel free to share as well.

Unanswered Prayers!

Our all-powerful, all-loving God encourages us to ask Him for what we want. But sometimes, after we’ve put it out there, He seems to turn and walk in the opposite direction. We are left with questions: Why did He want us to pray if He was just going to say no, anyway? Were we praying “wrong” in the first place? What are we supposed to do now?

I have repeated this cycle multiple times. More than seven years ago, I began experimenting heavily in drugs and became addicted for about six months. This resulted in losing everything that meant anything to me, my home, my children, my career, my car, my family and friends, you name it. but more importantly, it also resulted in my salvation and my freedom. Praise God! I have always believed in God and Jesus, but never had I truly had a relationship with God nor had I ever read the Bible. For the last seven 1/2 years, I asked God for restoration and to replenish my loss. He has done this slowly but therefore during this time I have grown and grown even more with each passing day.

I must confess that during this last seven years, I have confessed and repented of every sin I can think of, wept, protested and spent more than a few days crippled by despair.

 

WE TEND TO HAVE ONE OF TWO RESPONSES WHEN WHAT WE ASKED FOR IS NOT GIVEN IN A TIMELY FASHION: TRYING HARDER OR ANGRY BLAMING.

Apparently, I am not the only one who struggled because of unanswered prayer. Once, I invited friends to fill in the blank on my Facebook wall: “Unanswered prayer is … ” I received more than 40 responses, including the following: is deeply disappointing, makes me feel unloved, feels like a betrayal, is confusing, can be overwhelming, is business as usual.

Some of our bewilderment emerges because we actually believe that God is all powerful and that He not only wants us to come to Him like little children, but also encourages us to ask Him for everything, from babies to spouses to jobs to housing to help losing weight. Hence the disconnect when He doesn’t always give us what we want.

This paradox reminds me of my daughter’s attitude at Christmas. She starts composing her gift list in September, and for the next four months, she revised, added to and shamelessly shared it. Yet when Christmas day rolls around, she was filled with dread—because experience has shown her that though I am a good parent, I don’t always give her precisely what she requests. She has told me, “Why bother asking me if you aren’t going to buy me exactly what I want?” She’s a good kid, but just a typical teenager… wants everything now! Isn’t this how we feel about our heavenly Father? We tend to have one of two responses when what we asked for is not given in a timely fashion: trying harder or angry blaming.

None of us can make ourselves worthy—that only comes as a gift from Jesus. Angry blaming similarly leads us into a dead-end. In my many nights of an insomnia jag, I remember spewing at God, “Why don’t you help me get to sleep? The Bible tells me that you give sleep to those you love! Don’t you love me?” Powerlessness is its own form of suffering. When we’ve run out of other options, anger and blame give us the illusion of control. But it really is only an illusion. It didn’t help my faith, and it certainly didn’t help me to sleep.

 

WHAT IF, RATHER THAN INTERPRETING GOD’S “NO” OR “NOT YET” AS PUNISHMENT OR INDIFFERENCE, WE VIEW IT AS AN INVITATION TO BE TRANSFORMED?

For us to avoid these and other unhelpful responses when our prayers aren’t answered the way we’d hoped, we need to zoom out and glimpse the larger story.

Every day, there is an epic battle being waged for our hearts. The enemy of our soul has an entire arsenal at his disposal, but his go-to weapon is doubt. Adam and Eve didn’t disobey because they craved the apple, but because they fell for the serpent’s ruse that God was withholding good things from them. If you ever find yourself doubting God’s love or questioning His character, push back—hold to what you know to be true.

Expressing gratitude also helps to defuse our despair and suffering. Due to my past mistakes, there are some things that I may never have restored, but I constantly thank God for the many gifts He bestows upon me daily. I have realized that turning our hearts to God in gratitude has the capacity to flip our disappointment upside-down.

Finally, we must be willing to explore any attachment to entitlement that might contribute to our resentment at how God has answered our prayer. We live in a consumer society and have become accustomed to getting what we want when we want it. Jesus does not promise to give us everything that we want but rather asks us to sacrifice everything—including our own desires for a specific outcome or result. This changes everything when it comes to how we pray.

 

What if, rather than interpreting God’s “no” or “not yet” as punishment or indifference, we view it as an invitation to be transformed? C.S. Lewis writes in The Problem of Pain, “We are a Divine work of art, something that God is making and therefore something with which He will not be satisfied until it has a certain character.”

The possibility that waiting and suffering have the capacity to transform us offers us profound comfort while crushing our fear of God being fickle. Rather than needing God to answer my accusatory questions of “Why?” I am free to ask, “How can I find You in the midst of this?” This inquiry provides us with the traction we need to move beyond our pain and into the transformation that God has for us.

Finally, when God doesn’t answer our prayers choose to see it as a blessing and a chance to grow in wisdom and ask Him to reveal to you when you need to learn here. God wants the best for his children and no matter what we feel or think, God will take care of us because Our Father does know BEST!

 

 

Now my response is….. Teach me Lord, while I wait!