Keep Pressing…

“Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.” -James 1:12

I wish I could say that this Christian walk is easy, but in all honesty it’s not. We are constantly fighting against the temptations of this fallen world. But the fruits and rewards that come from faithfully enduring the different test and trials that come with this walk with Christ is incomparable to the temporary pleasures that this world offers. Keep Pressing.

Cheaters…

“Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?” -Proverbs 20:6

If you have been in a relationship with anyone nine times out of ten you’ve encountered a time where you had discovered that the person that you were in love with had either been cheating on you or you may have been suspicious of something of that sort going on. If you are blessed enough to never go through that kind of situation then I guarantee that you know someone who did suffer through something similar to this. How horrible it is to feel that you are giving your all to somebody for little to nothing in return. How awful it must be to know that no matter how many times you are there for this person, they may never recognize the love you have for them because their attention is in other places. Well I often think of how Jesus must feel.

Jesus paid the ultimate price for all humanity by being nailed to a cross for our sins. Yet today the vast majority of the world neglects the one and true savior. But see Jesus knew while he was still yet hanging on that cross that many of us would not choose him despite of his efforts to give us a chance at eternal life. However he still decided if he could save only a few, it would be well worth it. I imagine though that it is MOST heartbreaking for Jesus to see those of us who DO proclaim to be lovers of him to be “cheating” on him. When you’re in a relationship or marriage your spouse comes first. You are expected to spend time with that person and communicate, etc. There is no difference in our relationship with Jesus.

What many people fail to realize is that cheating can go far beyond sexual acts with someone other than who you are faithful to.  With Jesus we often cheat on him with addictions, television, work, people, money, material things, drugs, and the list goes on and on. How is this cheating though? When you are in a relationship with Christ, He must come first. Many people believe that you go up to an altar and say a prayer and you are set for life and have a golden ticket into heaven. This is not the case. Our relationship with Jesus is a daily battle on who will come first, ourselves, this world, or him? When you start cheating on Jesus with putting other things before him you begin to diminish your spiritual life in certain areas such as your prayer life, being able to hear from God, being able to feel the presence of God, etc. Just like if you cheated on someone you were in an earthly relationship, Jesus will eventually remove his presence from you. No one wants to stay with someone who is unfaithful. Jesus isn’t going to stay in a heart where he is not welcomed.

The scripture says, “Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?” Many people are claiming Christ. We are telling God that we love him to the moon and back, yet we can’t spend 10 minutes out of our day to communicate with him. We tell the Lord that we will do what he tells us to do, yet we don’t open our bibles but one day of the week, making it impossible to even know what his will is for our lives. The bible say’s in Matthew 7:21-23,

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

Wouldn’t it be horribly embarrassing to leave this earth and enter into the presence of God and you’ve been putting on a show making others think you have this amazing relationship with the Father and Son, and he tell you that he never even knew you? It’s time to stop cheating. It’s time to put the one who died for our salvation first in our lives and to seek him like never before, with all of our hearts. So many people including me have been guilty of placing a relationship or other things before him. But if you really think about it, If you can’t be faithful to the one who died to save your soul, then how on earth will you be able to remain faithful to anyone else? Work on being faithful to God.

The thing that gets me the most is that Jesus is so faithful to us even when we are still in our mess and denying him with our actions. He deserves so much better than this from us though. Talk is cheap. A faithful person is hard to find, a faithful servant is even more rare to find. I’m striving to be a faithful servant, I hope you are too.

Be encouraged.

#iHaveDecided

“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” -Joshua 24:15

 

Lately it seems as if the Lord has been placing the old school songs in my heart heavily! Those songs and old hymns have so many messages that are simple but necessary for this daily walk with Christ.  The one song that is constantly in my head goes something like this, “Some folks would rather have houses, and land. Then there’s some folks who choose silver and gold… But see, these things they treasure and FORGET about their SOULS…… so I’VE DECIDED to make JESUS my choice…” These lyrics are so deep and mean so much to me in so many ways.

Choice is something that we all posses as human and spiritual beings. We have choices on what to eat, wear, what we will say, and do, etc. Spiritually the choices are infinite as well for us. Will we fear, or trust God? Will we give god time, or do something else with our time? As many choices as there are though the main choice is who you will serve. At the end of the day your choices are either you serve God or this world. So now that you know you have a choice, you now have to make a DECISION. Before Joshua renewed the covenant with the people of Israel he wanted them to make sure that they had DECIDED to make Jesus their Choice!

Here’s why I love this word Decided so much. 

So when you have Decided something that means your mind is made up, unshakable, unyielding, unbending. So knowing this, you can now realize how powerful the statement is now when you say I have decided to make Jesus my choice. Job could have cursed God and died but he decided that Jesus would be his choice. The blind man was thrown out of the synagogue after his contact with Jesus, but still decided to make Jesus his choice. Jesus himself even had a choice. He didn’t have to come down and save us from our sins but he decided that God’s will was going to be his choice. He didn’t have to take the beating, he could’ve called every angel down from heaven to take him down from that cross, but instead he stayed there and died, because WE were his choice.

If Jesus had to decide, why would we not have that responsibility also? We live in a world with many distractions and different influences. So much is going on to make people forget, or stray away from when they Decided to make Jesus their choice. When you decide to make Jesus your choice it’s not an easy decision. It doesn’t always look good. It doesn’t always feel good. People aren’t going to like your decision. But in Matthew 16:24 Jesus reminds us, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” So reading that I have engrave the choice that I DECIDED to make. The world cant change my mind, I have DECIDED. Even when my friends walk away from me, I have DECIDED. Even when people are talking about me behind my back, I have DECIDED. When temptation comes knocking on my door, I have DECIDED. When the bills are due and it doesn’t look like I’m going to make it, I have DECIDED. This life may get a little rough and it may get a little tough, But I have DECIDED…. to make JESUS… he is, MY CHOICE.

-God bless you

 

Dear God,

Some days I’m so deep in love with you..

Other days I’m so convicted I run from you…

But there’s one thing that always remains true..

I can say you never.. no never gave up on me

Thank you

Be encouraged✨

Blindfolded

“I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.”

– Harriet Tubman

This is sooooo deep to me ! Now substitue Harriet tubman and place Jesus in!! So many are bound and don’t even realize it. Bound by sin, unforgiveness, guilt, shame. People are bound to money, sex, drugs, violence, pornography, brokenness, family curses. The sad thing about this is that a lot of people don’t even realize that they are bound because it is all they have known their entire life. Others are bound because they practiced it so long and are now bound by  habit. But the most heart breaking thing is that a lot of people that are bound, don’t know that their freedom has already been paid for.

2 Corinthians 5:21 says that, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Meaning Jesus took all of the things that have us bound and he carried those things to the cross in OUR place and they died with him there on that cross so that we may become a free from those things. But in order to be free you first must be able to see that you are bound.

Don’t let another day go by and you are living your life not ever realizing the freedom that was given to you by Christ himself. You don’t have to be bound to whatever it is that has you tied up. Freedom is a choice and in most cases comes with a price. The price for your spiritual freedom has already been paid for. Accept the freedom and Jesus into your heart. It’s never to late.

God’s got you covered

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” – Romans 8:28

Some blessings come in disguise even the ones that are hard to understand. Life has a habit of leading you to where you need to be… Especially when you are allowing yourself to be led by God. So even though it may not feel like it’s under control, sit back and know that it is because God won’t fail you.

Be encouraged✨

There is no plan B…

“And let us not get tired of doing what is right, for after a while we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t get discouraged and give up.”

-Galatians 6:9

One misconception of this Christian walk that people have is that when you give your life to God, all of your problems suddenly just disappear. However, Jesus promises that we will have many hard times and trials in our walk with him. The good news though is that Jesus promised that he would never leave us or forsake us meaning, he is with us through each and every situation that we face. The only issue with his promise we as believers tend to have is always wondering WHEN, WHERE, HOW. “When are you going to come through for me Lord?” “God I’ve been in this situation for to long where is my breakthrough and miracle?” “God I’m getting tired of waiting and I just don’t see how you are going to come through for me.”  These are all  things we begin to think and say when we have been waiting on God to do something for a while and it hasn’t happened on our time yet.

I know for me personally whenever God wasn’t moving fast enough for me I would always go on to what I would call my “Plan B.” Plan B was my fall back option if I didn’t get the response I wanted or if something I asked God to do didn’t happen when I wanted to. Plan B would be me going after a person that God closed the door on our relationship. Plan B would be me deciding to solve a confrontation off of my own judgment and etc. I would always come to find out though that “Plan B” would ALWAYS fail me. As human beings we are taught to have a vision and a plan. We are often told that if those visions or plans don’t work out that we should always have a fall back option. I don’t think it works like that spiritually though.

God wants us to trust him regardless of what things look like. No matter how bad, hopeless, desperate, frustrating and tiresome the issue may be. Jesus wants us to trust him and in his promises he made to us. A lot of times we know why God hasn’t moved for us and our situation though. Sometimes we know that it’s our disobedience, lack of patience, unforgiveness,  strife, and other things standing in the way of what God wants to do for us. But it is especially tough when you are doing EVERYTHING you can to do right. What do you do when you are reading your word, praying like you should, loving everyone, giving, witnessing, and standing for Christ and you still see no results? That is the toughest scenario to be in but the answer is simple.

You STILL have to continue to do good and trust in God’s promise. Just because you are doing what you are supposed to be doing and you can’t see God moving for you yet does not give you a pass to stop doing what God requires of you. It also doesn’t give you a pass to do things your own way and move on to “plan B”. No, God is looking for FAITHFUL people who have enough faith in him to say, “you know what? I don’t even have a plan B because if God doesn’t do it then it can’t be done”

Don’t get tired of doing well brothers and sisters because your time IS COMING. Don’t go after temporary happiness to gain long term despair. Me personally, I want a heart that will obey God no matter the cost… I want a heart like that widow in the bible that gave her last. To obtain that heart and what we are looking for God to do in our lives no matter what it is, we have to stay consistent with our walk with God and in well doing. Trust God enough to throw your Plan B out of the window. Because having a plan B tells God that he is replaceable in your life and that your faith in him only goes so far. Trust God with your whole heart, it’s all or nothing in our walk with Christ.

Be encouraged

What Really Matters..

^“15 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. ¹⁶ For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. ¹⁷ And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.”      

-1 John 2:15-17

It’s so easy to be sucked into the lifestyles we live. Whether you are a college student with a busy schedule, or parent just working day to day, it can be so easy to be consumed by life and all of it’s priorities. Tons of things take away from our attention each and everyday demanding our time. As a young person I can definitely relate to my time being drawn in to relationships, school, having a job or trying to find a job, technology, and the list goes on and on. However, at the end of the day all of the things I mentioned that many tend to spend so much energy and effort working for and thinking about, although they are all very necessary, they are also very TEMPORARY.

  I get that we have things to do and to take care of but often times I catch myself losing balance with focusing on what truly matters. We have to start asking ourselves what is the status of our SOULS? How are we spiritually? We are too concerned with stuff that only matters a small percentage, and if you haven’t noticed this is just how the enemy works. He gets you distracted and all worked up about things that God is going to work out anyways. You will find yourself worked up and focused and putting all your energy into these things and you will look up and suddenly notice that you haven’t prayed in a few days, haven’t picked up your bible. Slowly you will begin to die spiritually because the worries and constant demands of the world is draining every bit of spiritual energy you have.

It’s critical to place Jesus at the center of everything you do. Pray before every action because it is so easy to be caught up in the times we are living in. We have so much ambition and so many goals and want to do so much and there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with that at all. What we must realize is that it’s only what we do for Christ is what’s going to matter in the end. Don’t be one of those who want to be so great and want all of God’s blessings but don’t want God himself. Don’t be deceived as many are in society today, know that your soul is the most important thing to hold on to. What really matters is that you stay in the word and stay working on your relationship with the Lord. What really matters is that at the end of all this, you hear Jesus say, “Well done.”

Lay aside every weight…

When I take a trip I DREAD packing and taking my baggage and luggage with me. I don’t like it for the simple fact that it is such a hassle having to carry 3 and 4 bags with me everywhere I go. However it is such a relief when I get those bags checked in and I can travel in total freedom because I have no bags limiting my mobility and having to worry about slow down.

Spiritually baggage can weigh us down just as much as it can physically. We all have some sort of baggage whether it comes from a bad breakup, hurt, insecurity, fear, anger, depression… Etc. You see these things all weigh us down and though you can’t physically see these things, they are spiritual baggage that keeps us in bondage our entire lives instead of being FREE in CHRIST….
My brothers and sisters realize that you don’t have to carry that baggage anymore! Jesus Christ is our burden bearer and tells us to lay aside every weight withholding nothing! We are FREE !! those things that had us weighted down … The guilt the shame the hurt, people…. We are FREE … Don’t let it control you anymore! Today is a new day ! You have got to claim freedom over your life….
Begin to speak that I am free from sickness, in the name of Jesus! I am free from insecurity, in the name of Jesus… I am free from fornication and adultery, in the name of Jesus… I am free from jealousy and hatred, in the name of Jesus… YOU’VE GOT TO SPEAK OVER YOUR LIFE !
But people… Since we are dealing with baggage, let’s speak on the biggest of them all. Romans 6:18 says “you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness” my brothers and sisters we are FREE from SIN …! Hallelujah.
Christ went to that tree just for you and me so that we might be free and live for eternity. Don’t spend your life day after day carrying around the baggage of this world because you don’t have to! Give it to Jesus … Be Free

Here’s a song I think will serve greatly to this message and please be encouraged! And be FREE!

Kierra Sheard – Free: http://youtu.be/LOlQ4iz6jr8

You need a PERSONAL relationship….

I know a lot of people who struggle with living for Christ because they see others doing wrong and being hypocrites and hindrances to them living right. For instance I always hear, “Why should I do this when so and so is doing that even though she CLAIMS TO know and love God?” It’s tough because real believers are moved and angered at the wolves in sheeps clothing and for them being stumbling blocks for those that are really trying to observe and live right for God. However there is something that must be said…..

This walk is PERSONAL…. meaning that you can not be looking to the left and to the right at what this person and that person is doing. You want to know why? Because when you die and have to stand before the Lord on judgement day that person that you were looking at and used as an excuse to also not do what YOU know is right to do will not be there with you on judgement day… only YOU will be able to give an account for your actions and not the actions of others. Yes as irritating as it is to see others preach one thing and live another, you have to learn how to look past the foolery and trickery and KEEP YOUR EYES ON CHRIST because this walk is personal!

People will fail you every single time, this is why we need to keep focused and in the word and know it for yourself because in the times we live in today VERY FEW are sincere in their walk with God. If you don’t want to be led astray by people … STOP looking at what they are doing… don’t get caught up in the mess you see… instead be real in YOUR walk with Jesus, Be truthful in your relationship with the Lord! …. Because truly God isn’t going to accept your excuse of someone else wasn’t living right either so why should I…? That isn’t going to fly… Pray that God shows you the way to honor him with your life, which he already has in his word… just open it and take a look. =)

Be encouraged