How many times have we go to do what God has called us to do and then doubt came creeping in? Or can you remember a time when you have gone to take a big leap of faith and you have accidentally stumbled on the way to making the jump?
We all have dealt with fear, doubt, and worry.
As I was drinking my coffee outside this morning I saw a squirrel running across the fence, unto our shed, and then he paused. He looked at the tree which his final destination, which was a pretty far distance away, and LEAPED. To my surprise, squirrels can leap a distance. I was amazed. Holy Spirit’s gentle voice said, “If he would’ve hesitated he would have been like one of those squirrel videos you see that miss their target”. My first reaction was to laugh at the fact that God brought up a squirrel video. But then I became still and listened. He began to show me that we are the squirrel and where we are now is on the shed. Where he has called us to be is on the tree. There are times when he tells us to make the jump and we become hesitant because we feel like we are going to fail or something could go wrong. What he revealed to me was a giant hand, his hand, which will uphold us even when we stumble.
If you do not know already, we get our sense of humor from God. He is hilarious and I think enjoys laughter even more than we do. He speaks to us in different ways and this morning he knew that a squirrel was the way to speak to me.
Wherever you are in this moment, if God is telling you to make the jump or you in a season of transition and change, his hand is withholding you. Most of the time the fear of failure and hesitation is what makes us miss the target. But if we just trust that God is for us, that because he has called us to it he will equip us to do it, and that he is working everything out for our good, our faith should increase and we should reach the “tree”. Do not let fear paralyze you. He does not give you a spirit of fear. He gives you power, love, and a sound mind. His gentle hand is keeping you afloat in your days of trouble, he is with you always.
“A man’s steps are established by the Lord, and He takes pleasure in his way. Though he falls, he will not be overwhelmed, because the Lord holds his hand.”-Psalm 37:23-24 CSB
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” -2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV
I have been going through a lonnnnnng season of trial and tribulations. I want to share a little bit of what God has put on my heart and taught me during this season.
He has pointed out many people throughout the bible who have been straight up vulnerable with God. It didn’t matter what they were going through they didn’t leave a piece of their heart hidden from God. Their prayers and calls to God were in deep anguish, agony, and sorrow. We see this throughout the Psalms a lot! Another example that God has had me focus on is in 1 Samuel 1-2.
Often times it wasn’t that I was intentionally keeping what I was going through hidden. I just didn’t want to complain. I didn’t want to be negative. What really happened when I didn’t tell God what was on my heart, was my thoughts of hurt and negativity later spread to my heart and soon my actions began to change. I was no longer acting in the spirit, I was acting in my flesh. In a sense, I was trying be independent instead of relying on God. Instead of speaking to him what was on my heart, I buried it down deep and it blossomed into one ugly rotten mess. Oh man was it a mess. It seems silly now, but I almost didn’t want God to feel like I was burdening him with my problems. What I was doing was keeping God out the equation. I was not coming to a solution because I was hoarding the problem. By not being real with God about what was going on, I was carrying a burden I was never meant to carry. I didn’t give room for God to be God. I was acting in pride. Not being real didn’t allow him to change my heart and see things from his perspective.
God spoke very clearly to me and said:
Be vulnerable with me. Give me enough time for me to speak. Listen to my voice. I already know what you are going to say before you say it. I am not like anyone else. I am not like those who have hurt you. My love is not conditional based upon circumstances. I am the one you can count on. I am like no one else you know. I want every piece of your heart. I am all knowing. I keep my promises. Follow the Spirit. Be a woman of prayer, endless faith, and constant worship.
I’m really not sure where I began to feel like I was “burdening God with my problems” but that is not how God feels when we come to him in surrender. We are never meant to be without the guidance of the Spirit. God wants us to come to him with our prayers being real and raw and messy. He is the one we should be coming to like that. God is the one who can turn the worst situation, feelings, or unpleasant thoughts into a thankful heart.
When we withhold what is truly going on with us from an all knowing, steadfast, everlasting, loving God, we are really cutting ourselves short. We aren’t avoiding complaining. We aren’t avoiding negativity. God wants us completely surrendered in every part of our heart. He wants us to completely trust him and be vulnerable and messy. There is nothing that can surprise him. There is nothing he can’t do. He wants to love on us through our messes. He wants to love on us through our hurt. There’s never a moment he doesn’t want to be with us.
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”-Philippians 4:6-7 NLT
“Because of Christ and our faith in him,we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence.”-Ephesians 3:12 NLT
“I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”-Ephesians 3:16-20 NLT
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”-Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV
Side note:I am so sorry I have been sparingly posting on here. College has slowly taken over my life but God is still at work in my heart and life. I try to post a verse of the day every single day on Instagram and Facebook. So be sure to get connected. You can find the links on My Mission & Vision page 🙂 I can’t wait to be able to write more soon but feel free to search through old posts and share what God is doing in your life. I would love to hear from you!
We all go through trials and tribulations. We all go through things that shape us to be more like Christ. But, when we are going through it in the moment it doesn’t feel like we are becoming more like Jesus. It feels, let’s be honest, painful. We have all most likely had growing pains growing up. As we grow in our walk with God, there is no difference. There will be pain, trials, and tribulations along the way. Keep reading, it gets better!
I really want to focus on these two verses:
“We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—” -2 Corinthians 4:8-9
In other words if we translate it back to the original language it means:
We may be rubbed the wrong way at times, feeling confined but we aren’t held back. We may not know what to do, but we have a way out. We are being chased after to be overtaken but we aren’t lacking anything or left nor forsaken. We are cast down but we are not perishing.
May I just say, I absolutely love this passage of scripture! It is so powerful!!
When we are rubbed the wrong way or feel like we are stuck all we have to do is call upon the name of Jesus and in faith declare his promises.
When we don’t know what to do, we have someone who has torn the veil before us named Jesus.
When the world and the devil himself tries to overtake our minds and hearts, we remember who we are in Christ. We remember we lack nothing because God supplies our every single need because he is a good father that will never leave nor forsake us.
When we are kicked down, we get back up.
See the devil is just mad because he knows the battle is already won. He knows that he has absolutely NO AUTHORITY over us. He can only lie and deceive us into thinking he does. See, the devil likes to keep us unknowledgeable and likes to keep us away from the truth (The Word of God). Here is some biblical truth to back this up. Because this was a lie I once believed (See Romans 6, Luke 10:19, & 22 Other Verses About Man’s Authority Over satan)—–>
So the next time you feel defeated remember the same power that raised Christ from the dead, lives inside you. Remember the biblical truth of who you are, not what the world tries to tell you. Remember the verse stated above and remember YOU are MORE than a CONQUEROR through JESUS.
The next time this life tries to bring you down or even if it’s satan himself, let him know about JESUS and where he’s going to end up!
Ya’ll there is so much power just in the name of Jesus. Darkness doesn’t stand a chance!There is so much power inside of us because of Holy Spirit. We just have to have the boldness and knowledge to use it!
This past weekend my husband and I went to the TobyMac hits deep tour. Outside of the concert while we were waiting in line we were face to face with protestors with signs that said “We will go to hell for our sins” “Repent or go to hell you…*insert every type of sin + er*” as they were quoting scripture OUT of context. I sat there quietly in line praying to God for the people that had such a misconception of the bible. I finally saw the world’s view of God. This very twisted, condemning, not loving, hateful God. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT WHO HE IS!! This, my friends, is what we call satan himself at work, twisting the word of God to make it something hateful instead of the love story to his creation it is.
Am I saying sinning is okay? NO.
Am I saying people won’t go to hell? NO.
Am I the judge? ABSOLUTELY NOT.
Does God look at your heart? YES.
What I am saying is, this particular group of people were lost and didn’t understand the word of God. They don’t understand their creator. There was no love in their chants. There was nothing but condemnation. Which is straight from the pits of hell.
As I prayed I asked Holy Spirit what Jesus would do in this situation. What should I do? Should I talk to them? Should I hug them?
Holy Spirit spoke to me and said “look around you”. As I looked around there were people laughing, people making remarks about the love of God, and others that stood there in silence. What Holy Spirit revealed to me in that moment was powerful. As they stand here judging us, most of us were doing the same as them. WHO is called to judge? Not me, not you, not anyone but God. I asked Holy Spirit why they thought the way they did…I asked him to show me them through the eyes of Jesus. He revealed to me that it was generations and generations of the word being twisted all being rooted in fear and darkness. Years of abuse and ancestry curses haunted them. He spoke to me and reminded me that we never know what people deal with at home. I asked Holy Spirit to let me know what I was supposed to do and if I was supposed to speak up, give away hugs, or anything else, just let me know. He let me know that there are people to get those people who were lost out of darkness, but that wasn’t me. By then I had entered inside.
There were many conversations inside about what was going on outside the 4 walls that surrounded us. One included me telling my exact conversation with Holy Spirit to a lady that was eating to the table next to us. I wasn’t here to gossip. I wasn’t here to slander them. I was here to be the light as God called me to be.
The flesh in me originally wanted to march right up to these people and yell at them about how wrong they were for telling people they were going to hell and judging others. But I would be doing the EXACT SAME thing as them. Trying to be the judge of someone’s sin and pointing fingers when I have no room to do so. I would have spread hate, not the love of God.
Holy Spirit led me on a complete and opposite direction.
BE THE LIGHT TO THE DARKNESS.
LOVE THE PEOPLE WHO NEED IT MOST.
DON’T BE FRIENDS WITH THE WORLD.
STAND WITH GOD.
WALK IN THE SPIRIT.
As Children of God we are called to LOVE.
PERIOD.
Love.
EVERYONE.
ALL.THE.TIME.
Loving One Another
“Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. We love each other because he loved us first.If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters.” 1 John 4:7-21 NLT
