Storms of Life

Ever feel like you are just merely surviving in life, like there is no light at the end of the tunnel?  Maybe you even know there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but it sure does not feel that way.  That is how I have felt this last week, I find myself in a particular season where life is just beating me down and it is doing a pretty good job!  Any and all plans that I had for this summer have been tossed out the window, I’m in the process of moving both physically and mentally into a different stage of life, I am stressed about finances and bills, I am dealing with feelings of  loneliness and I am dealing with negativity in the workplace.  Life is winning this battle, and I am letting it.  Have you ever felt this way?

You can only ignore negative emotions for so long, until they come back again.  They will continue to come back until they are defeated for good.  That’s where I am now trying to rise above this storm and gasp for air.  I am drowning in the midst of this storm and if I can just get back to the surface I tell myself that I will be fine.  But eventually this too shall pass, but what about the next storm and the next storm?  There will always be a storm, it is only a matter of how I learn to deal with them.  Every time I find myself trying to defeat my storm on my own, and every time I find that I am not strong enough to do so.

I can do it on my own, and can get stressed out, sick and torn to shreds or I can seek my heavenly Father.  It sounds like such an obvious thing to do, but if you are anything like me it is so hard to ask for help! I am a “I’ve got this!” kind of girl through and through.  Ask my parents they will tell you, I will try and try until I can not do it anymore before I ask for help.  And as much as it hurts to say it this is a pride issue that I have, and all too often it carries over into my spiritual life as well.  “I got this God, thanks anyway”!  If only I could learn to ask for His help when I begin to feel the raindrops rather than after I have begun to drown…

“He calmed the storm to a whisper and stilled the waves”. Psalm 107:29

So here I am again crawling back into His presence tired, and worn out.  As always there He is reaching out His arms to and pulling me safely to shore.  And here I am being vulnerable with each of you, reminding you that you do not have to do it alone.  I do not know where this storm of life is taking me, or what’s on the other side of it.  I do however know that I have a Heavenly Father walking beside me.  He may not calm the storm right now, but He will calm me.  I have everything I need and I find that in Him alone.

“Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in you I take refuge.
I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings
    until the disaster has passed.” Psalm 57:1

That’s where I find myself today, searching for truths in His word to get through today, and then tomorrow I will do the same.  It’s a daily process of choosing God or choosing my way.  I am not promised tomorrow or next week, but I have right now!  Today I find comfort in Isaiah 43: 1-2 :

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
    I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters,
    I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
    they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
    you will not be burned;
    the flames will not set you ablaze.

I do not know what you are dealing with or going through, but I do know that God is so much greater!  This may feel like the end of the world, but it isn’t.  We are not Christians seeking a victory, we are Christians who have the victory.  I have read the last book of the Bible, and we win.  When you come across a storm in life don’t be like me and try to ride it out alone, rather turn to God immediately and grasp His hand.

 ^“What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?  Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won’t He also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own? No one—for God Himself has given us right standing with himself.  Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and He is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?  As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.” No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.  No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. ” Romans 8:31-39

No storm can separate you from God!  If you are going through a storm right now, please feel free to leave a prayer request in the comments, in return I ask that you pray for me that I will continue to seek God and not try to do this own my own!

Thank-you & God Bless ❤︎,

Created To Be Beautiful

I do not consider myself a feminist, at least not in the modern terms of the word.  I believe in equality, but I was not created a man nor do I want the responsibilities of one.  However I do believe in the role of a woman of God.  I believe it is a holy calling, and I believe that accepting that calling is a great and powerful thing.  But if you are a woman or have talked to another woman recently you would know that it is not an easy task.  We as women often spend more time hurting than walking in our calling as powerful women of God.  Why is that?  Why is it so hard to be a woman of God?

God created woman because the earth needed her, man needed her.  She was not an after thought, she was the finishing touch,  God’s grand finale!  She was beautiful and God said it was good.  I often wonder why the serpent came to Eve first, hearing the story growing up I often believed that Eve was weak and naive. But I do not believe that was the case I believe that he went after her because she was a woman.  He saw what God saw, He saw all that she could be, God’s masterpiece and he knew that if he could get her he could destroy God’s glorious plan.  Satan knew this,  if he could destroy the woman and destroy God’s plan for her, he could have the victory. How?  Because she had the power to bring forth life, to bring forth children.  She would be the vessel that brought Jesus into this world, and he knew that Jesus would ultimately defeat him.  Therefore, Satan took direct aim at the woman to make her as miserable as possible. He was killing two birds with one stone, destroy the woman, destroy the children.  Eve wasn’t just skipping through the garden looking for trouble,  Satan made sure she was exactly where he needed her to be, the goal wasn’t to just kick them out of the garden, it was to destroy the vessel of Jesus. And I believe that he has been doing it to all of us since Day 1.

How often have you heard that enemy whisper lies into your ear?  How often have you felt crazy, lonely, rejected, ugly, hopeless, depressed, etc.?  I know I do!  I’ve struggled with body image, I’ve been rejected, cast aside without a second thought, depressed, I’ve been tormented to the place that I didn’t think I could go on anymore.  Even to this day if something does not go as planned the enemy will immediately try to make me think that I did something wrong, or that the action was intentional when most of the time it wasn’t.  That maybe just maybe I’m not good enough, or I’m not doing enough.  I want you to know beautiful ladies that this is a lie, you are good enough!  No one else’s opinion of you affects the love God has for you.  You were formed by God, and you have been given the authority to defeat the enemy.

He will try to destroy you, and he will use people to do it.  “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places”, Ephesians 6:12.  I allowed people to do a lot of damage to me, friends walked out on me, boys who I adored made me feel worthless and undesirable, bosses have mistreated me, complete strangers have called out to me and degraded me just walking around a college campus or going to the grocery store, and for too long I’ve let these things define me.  I became strong for the wrong reasons and bitter. No one was going to hurt me anymore, because no one was going to get close to me again.  I decided that isolation was better than hurt and that’s where I found myself for so long.  If I did  find the courage to come out, the enemy made sure that there were certain people or circumstances placed in my life to shut me away again. And it worked for so long!  While people may be used to hurt us, ultimately it is the enemy trying to destroy us again.  He does not want us to be used by God, he does not want you to feel beautiful or loved.  Those are your God given desires and he hates it!  Simply having this blog has been a major battle for me, the enemy will tell me that this is dumb, that no one is going to read it.  He wants to shut me up, but God has given me a burning desire to write and to encourage people with my writing and with every blog post I defeat him.  You can defeat him too, every time you ignore his lies and do exactly what he tells you can’t you defeat him and take a step of faith.

You are not a weak little flower, you are powerful woman of God.  It is time that we accept this calling and walk in freedom.  God promised in Genesis that our offspring will defeat the enemy, you have that power and Satan knows it.

‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.’ (Genesis 3:15).

So stand strong dear sisters, walk in the power and glory of God.  Shut out the voice of the enemy and tune in to the voice of your heavenly Father.  Fall in love with Him,  ^“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need,” Matthew 6:33.  Only His love can quiet the enemy, it’s not going to be easy but with God by your side it will be easier.  God placed you on this earth for a reason, to love and be loved.  You deserve the very best that He has to offer, and nothing less.  People may come and go, material things may provide temporary happiness, but God will never leave you nor forsake you.  If you’re like me and you’ve been hurt or you’ve made mistakes, God can turn those hurts for good.  It may look pointless now, but your hurts will one day help someone who is hurting.  There is no greater joy than when you can finally give your pain a purpose, the ultimate defeat of the enemy is taking what he’s done to you and helping someone else find healing!

“…he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the LORD has planted for his own glory.” Isaiah 61:3 

Dear Sisters, You are BEAUTFUL, You are LOVED, You are WANTED, You are STRONG and You are VICTORIOUS through Christ Jesus! Fall in love with your Savior, He will give you the desires of your heart or better yet He will change your desires to His desires which will be far greater than what you could ever imagine.  Stay in His Word, keep a lifestyle of prayer and love others.  And when you feel tempted to judge another woman, or compare yourself to her, remember that most likely she is dealing with insecurities and hurt as well.  We are all in this together to lift each other up, we are stronger together!

Lots of Love ❤︎,

Fight For Freedom

“…where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” 2 Corinthians 3;17

It’s 2015 and yet we live in world where there are 27 million slaves.  27 people who have been cast aside, forgotten, abused and whose lives consist of nothing but but fear and abuse.  I have a heart for the hurting, and my heart breaks for the 27 million.  If I could responsible for bringing just one person out of slavery I would do it in a heart beat.  I love the quote by Arthur Ashe:  “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”  Because it’s not how much you can do, it’s that you actually do…do something, do anything.  That’s why I have started this fundraising page for A21 to do my part in being a vessel to bring 27 million out of slavery.  My goal is $500 and that’s not a lot, but it’s something!  Please pray and join me in raising whatever you feel led to bring these people out.  There will be removed from the darkness, they will be restored in a safe environment and they will be taught the love of God.  Any donation will help!  Thank-you for standingbeside me and making a difference in the world!

You can donate on my Fundraising page:

http://www.a21.org/fundraising.php?id=1325

Want to find out more about A21 and what they are doing?:

http://www.a21.org/

Thank-you!

God Loves Bruce Jenner

If you’ve been anywhere on social media, in the checkout line at the grocery store or turned on your TV in the last couple months you probably heard about Bruce Jenner and his decision to change his image and name to Caitlyn.  He has undergone a lot of surgeries to feminize his face, gotten breast implants and changed his name.  Bruce, once an Olympic athlete, later the father Kylie and Kendall Jenner and step-father to the Kardashian family has been all over the news lately.  I have watched people support him and I have seen some pretty hateful things out there about him.  This story breaks my heart, I want to cry just thinking about it.  He said in an interview recently the following statement:

“God’s looking down, making little Bruce. He’s looking down and he says, “Okay, what are we going to do with this one?” Make him a smart kid, very determined, and he gave me all these wonderful qualities. And then at the end when he’s just finishing, he goes, “Wait a second, we gotta give him something. Everybody has stuff in their life that they have to deal with, what are we going to give him?” And God looks down and chuckles a bit and goes, “Hey let’s give him the soul of a female and let’s see how he deals with that.”

It breaks my heart that the enemy has lied to this man his entire life, that somehow down the line he came to believe that God hated him.  That God found joy in his confusion that for some reason God himself set out to torment Bruce.  That for whatever reason he thought that his life was a mistake!  That is not the God I know, and that is not who God is. That is a lie from the very pits of hell.  God is not a God of confusion, and He is not a God of hate.  He loves me, He loves you and yes He loves Bruce Jenner.  I believe that God’s heart is broken as well.

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.”

Psalm 139:14

He knew us before our parents had even thought of us, He knitted us together in our mother’s womb.  He made us exactly who we were meant to be, God does not make mistakes, people do.  You are exactly who you are meant to be and exactly where you are meant to be.  Anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar.  The enemy wants nothing more than you destroy you, and he will do whatever it takes to make you miserable, and blame God.

“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

That is exactly what the enemy has done to Bruce, Olympic medals couldn’t him happy, his family couldn’t make him happy, money and fame let him done, and eventually Caitlyn will let him down as well.  He has a Jesus shaped whole in his heart, and only that will make him complete.  He has a God that loves him and only God can save Bruce from himself.  Jesus did not come to this earth and die for perfect people, He came to that cross the die for hurting people, He came to die for Bruce Jenner.

So I challenge you stop with the opinions, stop with the hate and stop glorifying the decision that he has made out of hurt.  Please join me in prayer for Bruce, and all of the other people who think that God made a mistake on them.  A study showed that 41% of people who are transgender or gender-nonconforming have attempted suicide sometime in their lives.  Once again that brings us back to 1 Peter 5:8, the enemy is devouring these broken people.  He is lying to them and telling them they are a mistake.  Genesis 1:31 says that God made everything and it was good, there were no mistakes.  He made male and female in His very image, and it was good.

“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” Genesis 1: 31

It’s so easy to judge when we have never bought into these lies, but we have bought into other lies.  We have all struggled with some form of our identity.  “I’m not smart enough”, “rich enough”, “pretty enough”, “thin enough”, etc.  Bruce was lied to as well, he was told  “I am a mistake” and he believed it.  You may have people in your own life struggling with their identity or maybe you yourself have bought into a lie.  I want you know that JESUS LOVES YOU!  He came down to this earth and dies for YOU!  God doesn’t make mistakes, and nothing disqualifies you for His grace and love.

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 8:37-39

And if you don’t know that love I hope you find it, because it is the only thing that can heal your hurt and fill the void in your heart.  And if you’re hurting and you have no one to talk to please seek out someone who can, in fact message me if you’d like!  I don’t want one more person to buy into the lie that they are a mistake and that God does not love them!  Because He does so much!

So Pray for Bruce and those like him struggling to find their identity , pray that they can find the love and grace of Jesus!  Caitlyn can not make Bruce happy only Jesus can.  GOD LOVES BRUCE JENNER.

Lots of Love,