Embrace Your Purpose

 

“Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments”. (Psalm 119:73)

 As I was reading my daily reading I came across a question the writer wrote, “What could be hindering me from becoming the best me that God created me to be?”.  She asked anyone who was reading, to ask ourselves this very question. For me, I could blame everything starting from my health, finances, and just life period. But the main thing would be me. I say myself because I always tend to allow myself to get in the way of being the best me that God created me to be. 

Truthfully, I could blame others for not being all that I can be; it would be easier, but in all honesty, I’m the only person that can change me. For me to embrace and walk into the purpose, God has set for my life. I must embrace the Holy Spirit into my heart and allow it to bring about change.

I challenge you to ask yourself this very question and say “I will be all that God has created me to be”.

Suffering a Loss

 

We all have suffered a loss in our lifetime whether it be a loved one or something that’s significant to us personally. The question is how do we deal/or get through our loss? I have suffered a few losses in my lifetime, but I never really knew how to handle my losses. Why? Because at that time I believed in God, but I never really trusted or looked to God to get through my loss. Following Jesus doesn’t mean avoiding loss. Whether its death of a loved one or something important to us is taken away------- somehow, we have experienced loss and grief.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4, “(3) Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; (4) Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God”. Paul basically is saying God is the God of all comfort…. meaning God is able to completely comfort every loss and grief. Not in that moment, but through time and steps we must take through the use of faith. 

After going through losses and grief I have found a few steps that have helped me experience God’s comfort through the loss.  1. Turn to Jesus just as you are and trust that God will help you. 2. Provide God with your loss or grief as you are, in that moment. 3. Ask God to help you work through your loss. Remember to trust and believe that he welcomes you as you are and loves you. God will help you as you are, through his mercy and grace.

Through God's promise to comfort us.  He will help us to understand and feel the love he has for us that will help our griefs and losses to ease. They may not be removed, forgotten, but comfort, healed, even at ease. So, pray earnestly for God to increase this work of the Spirit in your heart.

When your heart is full of grief and loss — comfort doesn’t seem possible. But with God all things are possible. He doesn’t take the grief completely away, but he can give you that comfort you need in time.

Sowing Seeds

 

Question? Can we actually reap the benefits of good that we have yet to have sown? If we sow bad seeds there will be only bad seeds. Life is about what we give and what we take. When we speak negatively in our life we mainly are speaking it into existence, then that is all we will ever receive. There are many times in my life that I found myself not reaping the benefits of God. Instead of speaking positively in everything, I said and done; I never really spoke anything. I was always being negative about everything I said & did. I thought the worse of everything. I truly believe that this was my fault and why I was always receiving negative feedback, unwanted stress, and not progressing in the life I wanted to live. I have learned that the right thing to do is speak positively in everything I say and do in life, along with maintaining the Faith I have in God. According to Mark 11:22-24, “22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. 23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. 24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them”. We have to have faith when things are going well and when things are going bad. Speaking and sowing positive seeds into your life and reframe from the negative seeds.

Seen and Unseen

A flower will bloom, but eventually would fade away, but God’s word is forever.            

               As a young child, we had things that we cherished, and eventually, we will outgrow those things. They would either be tossed away, donated, or given away, as a child I never understood why I couldn’t keep those items, but as an adult with children, I realized that we can’t always have what we want, things will change. What we experienced as a child we don’t realize until we become adults, but even then, some of us adults do not realize that most of what we see, touch, and experience in our world is temporary. If life on earth is merely temporary, you should know that your problems are not permanent either. Think about it, what makes us think that our problems will last always? We must not lose hope in the midst of suffering. Our troubles should not tarnish our faith. There is always a purpose behind our suffering. Paul speaks of the troubles that God’s people have and it will not last. The enemy Satan and his followers will not last. We need to concentrate on things that will last, the unseen not what is seen. Money is temporary, a car is temporary, a house is temporary, and a career is temporary, but GOD is ETERNAL (unseen)! Paul references the glory, the beauty, and true greatness of God and what He has prepared for His people when Christ will rule forevermore. "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18, KJV).

 

New Year....New Beginnings!!

 

I know I can say for all of us 2020 was a tough year. You probably are thinking it’s a new year, so I want to be a new me, or maybe that is just me. I know for me there is one thing I want to experience and that is to learn how to live peacefully through God. How can I do this? Verse 2 Corinthians 5:17 states, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new”. In other words, for me to live peacefully I have to allow change to happen in my life in this new year and I need to remove old things that are not allowing me to grow and embrace the new things that will help me to grow. New year new you have a fresh start in your life. You are wiping away the old and becoming into the new. The year 2020 has been a rough year for all of us and countless times I have heard people say over and over I can’t wait for 2020 to be over. Something has to change in 2021, regardless of the blessings and good things we experienced in 2020. We must apply 2 Corinthians 5:17 to our change. The verse is telling us we are new creations through Christ. It is telling us by accepting Christ as our Savior in our hearts conquers all sin that defines us. With Christ in our lives, we are wiped clean of our sins and made new, but when we do fall short and sin we are about to repent and reject its grasp. As we embark on this journey through the new year 2021, we have to embrace Gods word into our lives daily. This will help remove the sin that follows us daily through ourselves and other people’s behaviors. In order to embark on your journey of a new year and new you just recant 2 Corinthians 5:17 “You are made new” walking through his word helping you to live right while being surrounded by sin.

Is there a Bridge between Anxiety and Christ?

 

Have you ever had a bit of anxiety knocking at your door? Have you ever asked the question: Why Me? Where are you, God?

A lot of the time we find ourselves worrying about things that never happen. Anxiety is a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome. Anxiety is nothing that comes from God.  Philippians 4:6-7 says, “(6) Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. (7) And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (KJV). What this is basically saying is we should never worry about anything; instead, pray about it. We must tell God what we need and thank him for all that he has done. This is when we will feel the peace of God all over us. With his peace, it will guard our hearts and minds while following Gods word.

The devil can use anxiety in many ways for negativity and cause you to lose a bit of faith in God. For example, I was placed in a situation where I became very anxious and lost my way to where I was having an anxiety attack. Instead of me going to God, praying, and asking him to guide my heart; I went the other way and started thinking the worse of things. See when fear, anxiousness, and uncertainty come over you, that’s when those questions above start popping in your head. The good thing about this is, God has already provided us ways out of feeling anxious.

This all starts with us remembering our relationship with God. We must remember the key points to our relationship with God: We should always have trust in God, God has gone through tremendous pain before, he has great things in store for us, he will never lose his love for us, and never leave us. My 6-year-old son said something to me while I was going through my ordeal he said, “Mama, by Jesus Blood the virus will be removed from our bodies”.  Although he meant by the blood of Jesus the virus will be removed from our bodies. He was right, I was shocked he knew of this and to have so much faith in God (very proud mom moment). I knew then I had to get myself together and get back on track. “For God has not given us the Spirit of fear, but he has given us power, love, and a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).  This verse right here shoots volume to me. This is something I have to remember time and time again. Be blessed!!

Fill me Up

Hebrews 12:28-29 

"Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: 29 For our God is a consuming fire" (KJV).

One day I was sitting in my family room when I looked at our fireplace and the song “Fill Me Up” by Casey J popped into my head. The words to this song are incredible and speak on God filling us with the Holy Spirit while we open our hearts to receive it. I thought to myself, as Christians, we are similar to a fireplace. The Holy Spirit is the fire and our willingness to give God praise is the wood. As Christians, we offer our sacrifice to God. When we get cold, we need more wood. Often times we think our fire has gone out, but if we add a little more wood to the fire, the flame would get bigger. This is similar to us giving God praise if we just open our hearts, and add our willingness to give God praise our flames will become bigger! When our hearts cry out to him, God is Faithful. He fills us up and causes an overflow so we can pour into others.