My
Journey to God and My Walk With Him
Introduction
As
a little girl and until the age of fifteen, I went to church every
Sunday with my mom, dad, and sister so I grew up knowing and
believing God existed and that Heaven and Hell exist and so do
angels. But I did not understand the importance of having a
relationship with God or how to be in a close relationship with Him
and at the time it never occurred to me because I was so young. At
one point it was my mom, sister and I going to church but then my
sister left home and my mom and I stopped going to church. I spent a
majority of the next fourteen years not going to church with a couple
of exceptions. One exception was in 2005, a few months after my mom's
health went south after a failed angiogram where the surgeon clogged
my mother's artery and she went into a series of 3 heart attacks in
less than 24 hours and never regained full consciousness after the
final one but lingered in a semi-conscious state. I went to church
with a college friend to pray for my mom. A year and eight months
after the failed angiogram, on June 28, 2006 tragedy struck. I lost
the only person alive on earth who loved me when my mom passed away
in her sleep from pneumonia. I had a feeling earlier the day she
passed on to call and talk to her so she could hear my voice because
I was at University studying but for some reason I convinced myself
it was too late to call due to an 8 hour time difference between
California and England and put it off, a decision I have deeply
regretted ever since. I flew to England to her funeral and after a
week of dreamless sleep, when I returned to California I started
having horrible nightmares. I sunk into a deep depression and lost my
will to live and if not for the support group of a few people at the
University I attended checking up on me regularly, I don't know
what I would have done because at the time I was angry with God for
taking my mom away from me too soon when I still needed her and yet
He still had these people check up on me and also took care of me in
other ways too, which I still believe was partially my mom too but
also realized much later that it was God looking out for me even
though I was angry and hurting. In May 2009, with only 1 semester of
Italian to complete, I decided to walk in my graduation ceremony and
after doing so my father forced me to move away from my support
system and to Miami because at the time, my sister was living there.
I didn't want to leave my friends behind but didn't know I had
any other choices at the time so I moved to Miami at the end of May.
A
month later, I met with a friend of mine I had met online in the
Backstreet Boys fan club chatroom who lives in New York in person
because she was in Miami visiting relatives there. The only day I
could see her was the day she happened to be hanging out with her
relatives she was there to visit. The date was June 27, 2009 and it
was ironic because it was the day before the 3 year anniversary of my
mom passing away, which is why I couldn't meet with my friend the
following day. But June 27, 2009 is a day I will never forget and it
changed my life forever. One of the relatives my friend was hanging
out with was a male cousin a few months younger than me. He spent
three hours ignoring my friend and I and then came over to say
goodbye because he had to go to work. He hugged me and kissed my
cheek and said it was nice meeting me and where he kissed my right
cheek tingled and I felt this weird feeling inside I'd never felt
before, a good weird, and about a week later I sent him a message
online asking if he remembered me and just saying hi and he answered
back telling me he would never forget me. Three months went by with
no other contact from him and then in mid-September he suddenly sent
my friend, his cousin, a friend request and I thought to myself "This
is weird. He ignores my friend for three months and then suddenly out
of the blue reaches out to her?" Out of curiosity I sent him a
friend request, feeling something was wrong for him to be reaching
out, and he accepted my friend request and right away I saw why he
had reached out to his cousin. I was right about there being
something wrong and I wanted to be there for him so I was. We ended
up talking for eight hours and telling each other very personal stuff
about ourselves and for the next three weeks we talked almost daily.
One of the things we talked about during our eight hour conversation
was how I had given up on love after my mom passed away and he told
me never to give up on love and something about the way he said it
stuck with me and even though he cut me out of his life right before
Christmas, I decided to seek a relationship with God on Christmas Day
of 2009. I was in New Jersey for the holidays to visit my mom's
grave and my childhood hangouts and my mom's ashes are buried at
the church we attended when we lived in New Jersey when we went to
church and I decided on Christmas Day I wanted to light a candle
because I'd been trying to do so for my mom since her death but
hadn't been able to. But that day I was finally able to light that
candle inside the church for my mom and I was so thankful I decided
right then and there that I wanted a relationship with God and acted
quickly to get help on how to go about seeking a relationship with
God. I have been on a journey in my walk with God ever since.
Forgiveness
Forgiving
yourself and forgiving others is an important key to happiness and to
God's blessings. It is also extremely freeing. When you hold a grudge
against someone, you are not punishing them, you are only hurting
yourself. Once you come to that realization, you can forgive whoever
has hurt you or whoever you hold a grudge against and know you're not
saying "I'm okay with what he/she did," but are saying, "I
refuse to let what they did to me hurt me and steal my peace
anymore." When you forgive, you lift a huge weight off of you
and are free and feel peace and love instead. It is a bit trickier
when you need to forgive yourself, but that is as important as
forgiving others. When you are angry with yourself, you are punishing
yourself and blocking God's blessings for you. You need to understand
that you are human and are bound to make mistakes but that what is
important is to learn from the mistakes and that starts when you open
your heart and forgive yourself and let yourself receive God's
forgiveness He had already given to you and His love and love of
yourself. Christmas Day of 2009, I was finally able to light a candle
for my mother and I decided right then and there to stop being mad at
God for taking her away from me and the very next day, God led me to
some tools to help me build a relationship with Him.
Then
a few months later, in 2010, after reading Victoria Osteen's book
"Love Your Life," particularly the chapter on forgiveness,
I forgave myself for something I now realize was beyond my control, I
opened the door to God's love and the ability to forgive others. I
then forgave someone who had caused me great pain and sent a long
letter letting them know they were forgiven and as soon as the letter
was sent, I felt a HUGE weight lifted off of me. I felt free and
happy and I felt love pour in, and God blessed me for forgiving
myself and this person who had caused me great pain. I then went on
to mend a friendship by both forgiving a friend and apologizing for
my part of what had happened, like I'd done with the other person who
had hurt me. This time, I got a response and pretty quickly and we
are friends again so I mended another friendship with similar results
and we are sort of friends again. Each time I forgave and apologized,
I got blessed for it in return and felt so much better for having
done so.
Importance
of faith
Around
the time I was finishing reading Victoria Osteen's book, I decided to
catch one of her husband, Joel Osteen's live preaching on TV and
found myself moved and inspired even more. I ended up tuning in
almost every week, whenever I could and I still try to catch his
service on TV every Sunday to this day! I have also read a few of his
books and am in the process of reading his last two books, "Everyday
A Friday" (rereading I should say) and "I Declare,"
which just came out September 18, 2012 and which I ordered that very
day and received it Friday, September 21st. One thing Joel tells us
to do over and over is to have faith and to take action steps to show
God our faith and watch Him respond with His favor and blessings.
It
was growing in my faith in God that set me free and moving to Miami a
year ago, in September/October 2011. It was lack of action behind the
faith that had me fail to find the right job there and had me stuck
moving to San Jose to live with my sister. It is faith that God will
give me the breakthroughs and explosive blessings I need and taking
steps to show that faith combined that will lead me right back to
where God wants me to be, near Jonathan and independent of people,
only dependent on God. I believe that God is working right now to
work everything out in my favor since what I desire is in alignment
with His will for me. Faith is not something you have sometimes. You
need to study God's word every single day for half an hour or longer
and attend church every Sunday and as you study His word more and
more, your faith grows stronger and you are able to show your faith
more and more with your actions and call forth one of His verses of
promises or blessings when negative thoughts try to creep in and
steal your blessings.
In
Hebrews 11:1 of the Bible, it says, "Faith is the confidence
that what we hope for will actually happen."
James,
one of Jesus' disciples, says in the book of James, chapter 2 that
faith without works is dead. And he is right. It is great to have
faith in God. But you need to show Him your faith through your
actions. I realize now that that's part of why I ran out of money
before finding a job in Miami, back in February of this year. I
wasn't using my God-given talent of writing. I was supposed to show
my faith not by looking for any old job, but by writing for myself
every day. If I had written my success story of how I finally made it
to Miami when I first got there and wrote every day for myself, God
would have opened doors to me in writing and I probably would have
gotten callbacks on the auditions I was able to go on. Going on the
auditions showed my faith in His ability to get me an acting job but
I see now that writing is more important and acting will come a
little bit later. I just realized this on Monday, September 24th,
2012. I didn't know at the time I wasn't showing faith by not
writing. Now that I know, I plan to write every day, for myself. I
will not stop writing for this book until I am done. And then I will
edit it and probably re-edit it and send it to someone who can help
me either self-publish it or publish it at a decent cost. I will also
keep trying to write short stories for the magazine about women I've
been trying to write for and of course for my internship. I got a
writing internship for a Christian Magazine in Miami over the summer
and it is helping me improve my writing skills, which will help me
get paying writing jobs. I will keep the internship of course, but I
also believe God is about to open a new door of employment to me in
Miami that will enable me to move back there, get out of debt
completely, and have money left over to bless many people on a larger
scale than I am able to do now. I believe all of this by faith and I
am showing my faith by writing, speaking blessings and favor over my
life, speaking God's promises over my life and the life of my friends
and studying God's word every day and meditating on it. I make sure
the steps I take and the things I do are in alignment with God's will
for me.
The
key is not to get discouraged when it doesn't look like anything is
happening with your prayers being answered or your dreams coming to
pass. Satan will try to mess with your head saying, "It's never
going to happen," or "Forget it, you've made too many
mistakes," or "You missed your opportunity and are stuck."
You have to tell Satan, "I am a Child of the Most High God and
He said that He will bring my dreams to pass. He supplies all of my
needs through Christ. God will do exceedingly abundantly above all
that I ask or think. He is working things out in my favor." The
more you speak God's favor and blessings over your life and the more
you thank God for all He has done and for what He hasn't done yet as
if He has already done it (thanking God in advance), the more at
peace you will be and you will see more of God's blessings and favor
and faster than you thought; as long as you take action steps to show
your faith too. When you are unsure what steps to take, just keep
thanking God for all you have and that He is turning your situation
around in your favor and continue doing things in alignment with His
will such as encouraging others and showing love, mercy, and
forgiveness towards others, praying for others (including your
enemies and strangers), helping other people in any way you can, and
showing love for yourself. How can you show love for yourself? By not
listening to negativity and not letting yourself stay around negative
people (unless you are in a situation where you can't avoid negative
people in which case avoid them when you are able to and ignore their
negativity when you can't) - let people's negative words and negative
opinions go in one ear and OUT the other, speak faith and God's
blessings over your situation and over your life, eat healthy,
exercise, and use only positive words when describing yourself or
talking to yourself. Bible study daily is also important because as
you study His word more, your faith grows and His word also gives you
strength and armor against the enemy.
The
flip side of faith is fear. Lots of us let fear rule our lives
imagining worst-case scenarios that will most likely never happen. It
is good to use those fears to motivate us to take steps in FAITH
towards making sure the worst-case scenarios don't happen but that
our best-case scenarios do. That is what fear should do. It should
motivate us to plunge forward with making our dreams a reality and
working hard to achieve them, displaying our faith in God by doing
so. However, we should not let fear stop us from doing anything we
will regret not doing on our deathbed and we should not let fear stop
us from living. I'm not saying take unnecessary risks like swimming
with sharks or walking in dark alleys. No, I am saying if there is
someone you love and you're too scared to tell them, work through
the fear and tell them anyway. If it is meant to be, the other person
will reciprocate at some point (but don't get discouraged if it is
not right away if you feel God telling you they do feel the same way
and how to discern if it is God will become easier as you study His
word more and more). If the person does not feel the same way, you
will have that knowledge and be able to move on. If there is a dream
career or job you want to do but your family is saying it's
"unrealistic" or "you will never make it" don't
let that stop you!!!! Don't let fearful thoughts of "how will I
pay the bills?" Stop you. When you do work you enjoy, money will
eventually start flowing to you and if you are blessed enough to
already have a job, save up to pursue the dream job or work God's
plan for you out with Him. If you are like me and don't have a paying
job, figure out how you can make money doing what you are passionate
about doing (for me it is writing and acting) and do it. I am
fortunate enough to be living with my sister and brother-in-law for
now until God propels me forward with financial abundance. I have
faith my day is coming up very soon to see God shower me with
financial abundance, as I continue to do things in alignment with His
purpose for my life. God promises several times in the bible,
starting in Deuteronomy 31:8 "Be strong and courageous. Never
will I fail (or it says forsake in some versions) you or abandon
you." God originally said it to the Israelites and then He
promises Joshua personally in Joshua 1:9 "This is my command--be
strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord
your God is with you wherever you go." He repeats "Never
will I leave you nor forsake you" in Hebrews 13:5 to all
believers. God promises all of us who believe that He will never fail
(or leave) us nor abandon us and He thought it was important enough
to state it several times in the Bible. There are days when we all
feel abandoned, but don't let the enemy convince you it's true
because if you believe that the Bible is a living breathing testament
of God's word than you have to tell the enemy that, "God
promises to never abandon me or forsake me and I believe Him because
I am His child."
God's
promises, Faithfulness, and Unfailing Love
God
makes a lot of promises, many of them over and over again, and as
long as we are faithful to obey His commands, He will honor those
promises. We also have to repent of our sins, believe God's word and
be baptized in the Holy Spirit, and serve Him. And we must love Him
with all our heart and soul. God also puts promises specific to each
of us individually in our hearts and as long as we do our part, God
is faithful to honor every promise He makes to us and bring our
dreams to pass. If we will do what we can, God will do what we can't.
Even when it looks like your darkest night or darkest hour, remember
it is always darkest before dawn (before the light). If you will
continue to keep your faith, you will see that dawn which is God's
blessings and favor and sometimes explosive blessings and extreme
favor. Do not let the enemy talk you out of God's blessings. When he
attacks with lies like "You're not enough," "That will
never happen for you," "You're stuck and will stay this way
forever," "You will never get better," or any other
negative thoughts like that, tell the enemy, "I am a child of
the Most High God and no weapon formed against me shall prosper,"
"I am
enough," "When my situation does not align with God's good
plan for my life, I thank Him that it is temporary and victory is in
my future," and "I am healthy, I am strong, I am whole, I
am getting better every day."
God
also promises a bunch of blessings in Deuteronomy 28 and 30 to
prosper us, give us the land He promised, to make everything we do
succeed and other blessings as long as we love Him with all our heart
and soul and obey His commands. His most important command is to love
Him and to love others as Jesus loved us (and love ourselves too
since we were created in His image). So keep His commands in your
heart and obey them and love God with all your being and follow His
ways and you will be prosperous!
Adding
value to someone else's life
I
always used to be a people pleaser. Now my goal is to be a God
pleaser. I now try to stand up for myself and seek to do what God
asks me and not do what anyone tells me. But one thing that does not
change in this transition is enjoying building other people up,
encouraging them, and helping them in any way that I can. And it's
funny because the day I met Jonathan, my life changed forever. I met
him almost 3 years to the day that my mom had passed away and I was
still grieving over her death. But every time Jonathan talked to me
or returned a message of mine, I found myself wearing a ridiculous
smile on my face and feeling uplifted, and that is still true today.
Whenever Jonathan talks to me or I hear from him I still smile
broadly and feel good. And that is what I enjoy doing for other
people: making them smile and making them feel good.
It
is important to add value to other people's lives. My dream is not
just to write but to inspire many more people and encourage them in
their faith in God, in themselves, & in pursuing their own
dreams. It feels good to encourage and uplift others and even better
to inspire them and add to that the fact that whenever you do any of
those things, adding value to someone else's life by doing so, that
it pleases God and also builds close, healthy, loving relationships.
Speaking
of dreams, when someone says "be realistic," "find a
'real' job," they are really projecting what is or was possible
for THEM and not what is possible for those of us who have faith in
God and know with Him our dreams can become a reality and we can have
jobs we love doing and are passionate about that support us
financially because when we do what is in alignment with God and
serve others too, overflow in cash will chase us down. God promises
to supply all of our needs (Philippians 4:19) and do exceedingly
abundantly beyond all we can ask or think (Ephesians 3:20) and gives
us prosperity (Psalm 41:1-3). All of the Bible's words are
God-breathed and true. All God requires is for us to believe/have
faith, obey Him & His commands, love Him and love others (and
love yourself), and seek His will in all you do (and serve Him and
others through Him) and you can ask for anything in the Lord's name
and it will be done and you will see God's goodness and faithfulness.
This is what I choose to do and I hope you will too.
Getting
back to adding value to someone else's life, everyone needs to hear
that making their dreams come true IS possible and you can be the
inspirational voice that speaks faith into someone else's dreams
coming true and help them achieve their dreams by encouraging them in
their faith in God, in themselves, and in their dreams. Also, when
someone is in need of prayer for their health or health of a loved
one or for any other reason, pray with/for them and then thank God
that He heard your prayers and that healing and health restoration
are on the way to the person (or baby/child) in need or whatever it
is you prayed for. And when a friend or loved one comes to you with
good news, Thank God for His goodness and celebrate with that person
for their success. Be a people builder and build long-lasting, loving
and healthy relationships.
I
just told the man I am in love with last night via a private message
that he has been a miracle in my life since we met and I thank God
for the two of us meeting and for keeping him in my life. If you feel
someone you have met has been a blessing to you, don't be afraid to
tell them! Let them know you are thankful to God for bringing them
into your life and keeping them there. My friend Julie told me that
more than once and I've told her and it feels good not just to hear
it but to tell someone else that we feel that way about them. And God
also gets the glory He deserves as we praise Him for bringing these
special people into our lives and keeping them in our lives.
Grateful
heart and thankful attitude
It
is important throughout the day and every night before bed to thank
God for all He has given you and all He has done for you. When you
are praising Him for all His good deeds it is impossible to complain
or feel stress because you are reminding yourself of all God has done
for you and all you have when you are praising Him. It is also
important to thank God in advance as if He has already done what He
has promised you He would do. For example, God promised me financial
abundance, full restoration of health, and mended relationships with
certain people and I am believing God to honor these promises so
every day and night I thank God for the stuff He has already done for
me and the things He has already given to me and then I thank Him for
my health being restored and I thank Him for financial abundance and
mended relationships as if God has already brought these promises to
pass, showing Him I have faith He will bring those promises to pass.
There is always something to be thankful for. Thank God for the
stable roof over your head and the bed you have to sleep in. Thank
God that you are alive and still breathing. Thank God for all the
beauty He has created that you enjoy watching or seeing. Thank God
for the amazing people in your life, and when you are ready, thank
God for the difficult people in your life because of the lessons they
teach you such as being kind even when it is hard to do and patience.
Did you make it to work on time? Thank God for that and for blessing
you with the job you made it on time too. Are you not yet employed or
between jobs? This will be tougher but thank God in faith for the
amazing job He has in store for you. What I am getting at is, no
matter how tough your situation is, there is always something to be
thankful for and when you thank God for what you have and especially
when you go a step further and thank Him in faith for things you need
and prayed for but do not yet have, that moves God to go to work on
your behalf.
God's
Will and living a self-approved and God-approved life
I
take action steps to show my faith, as mentioned earlier, too like I
am doing right now by writing for myself since writing is my passion
and despite what some people (who are living their own nightmare and
not their dreams) say about writing not a way to make money, I choose
to believe what God says about my gift and about me and about my
situation. I am who God says I am, I have what God says I have (or
will very soon have what God promises me I will have) and I can do
what God says I can do. I love how Joel Osteen has us say that with
him every Sunday when he preaches to us. I thank God that the way He
sees me does not match the way that anti-Christ people and my own
"family" member see me. I love the way God sees me and I
try every day to display myself the way God sees me. I do my best to
live my life in alignment with God's will for me because His purpose
for me aligns with my dreams and because it is right to live by God's
will and His commandments. Every day I strive to be more and more
like Christ.
You
should live life based on what God wants not what anyone else wants.
You should not live the live your parents want you to live, the way
your boss wants you to live, the way siblings want you to live or the
way your friends want you to live. You need to live your life in a
way that is in alignment with God's plan for you and His plan is to
make your dreams a reality so you can have a job you are passionate
about doing and give Him glory for and anyone who tries telling you
that your dreams are only dreams or who says anything negative or out
of alignment with what God tells you, are not people living their
dreams but their nightmares. So I say this respectfully, but don't
listen to them even if they are well-meaning. Take advice from people
who are living their dreams and talk to people doing what you want to
be doing and ask them how they did it. And seek wisdom and
understanding from God and it will be given to you so you may live a
life pleasing to God and a life you are happy with because you are
living your dream. It will take hard work and not all of it will be
easy or fun but most of it should be fun and bring you joy and peace.
The only person
whose approval you need is your
own.
And you must believe in God and
in yourself and the abilities God has given you to live your dreams.
Bold
Prayers/Faith
You
must pray bold prayers too. Don't just ask for enough money to get
by, ask for God to open the door to your dream job and that you will
make enough money not just to pay rent and bills and for food, but to
get out of debt and have money left over to be a huge blessing to a
whole lot of people on a large scale. Jesus says in Mark 11:24, "I
tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you've
received it, it will be yours." Jesus says we can ask Him for
anything in His name and according to our faith it will be done. So
don't feel as though you are being selfish with big prayers for big
things. Bold prayers get God's attention. Before Elijah died, his
assistant asked him to be twice as powerful and Elijah could have
told him that he had a lot of nerve asking such a bold prayer, but
instead he said that it would be done if he saw Elijah get taken up
to Heaven. And he saw it happen so Elisha's request was granted. You
can find the verses about this at the beginning of 2 Kings Chapter 2
in the Bible. So don't be afraid to ask God to get you out of debt
and to have enough money left over to help get someone else out of
debt. Ask God for a better job, for your dream job. Ask God to
restore your health fully. And when you have asked God once, switch
into gratitude mode and thank God for that better job, for getting
you out of debt and having money left over to give back to God and to
bless others with and live on the rest of your life. Thank God that
full health is being restored to you and that you are completely
healed. Thank God that you are stronger and healthier every day.
On
a topic semi-related to a thankful attitude is speaking as if your
dreams have already come to pass. Don't talk about your problems or
how things look now, in the natural. No, you need to zip that up, as
Joel Osteen would say. You need to think, talk, and act like the
situation has already been turned around into how you want things to
be. Trying to lose weight? "Thank you God that I am losing
weight as I eat healthy and exercise and thank you that the weight
will stay off." You may even go a step further, budget
permitting, and buy a couple of outfits in the size you are aiming to
be for your health and use it not only as a step in faith, but as
motivation to keep going. Hoping to get that dream job and in a
different state? See yourself working that dream job and on an
airplane then at your destination of where you want to live (for
example, if you want to be living in your own house on the beach (a
clean, safe, peaceful house with multiple bedrooms and bathrooms) get
a vision of being there already and look for houses that match your
vision in the correct state (for example, for me that would be
Broward County, Florida and writing and acting are what I want to be
doing). You have to first believe that what you want to happen will
happen, and then get a vision for it. Then you take steps in faith to
make it happen. Want to be with that special someone and you know
they want to be with you too but are just too afraid to be? Believe
it will happen, get a vision for it, and say to God, "Thank You
God that you are revealing the truth to (insert person's name here,
in my case that would be Jonathan) about the two of us being meant to
be together. Thank You that he will realize we are meant to be
together and accept it and be happy about it. Thank you that we will
soon be together, declaring our love for one another and then
becoming a couple." You can even go a bit further and say,
"Thank You God that (enter name here) and I will be married and
that we will have beautiful healthy kids together and share a long,
happy, healthy, prosperous life together." Also, when you pray
to God about a situation and you hear a certain verse from the bible
or lyrics to a song or some other sign that is God speaking to you
telling you what to do, take a moment to make sure what is being
asked of you to do is in alignment with what God says in the Bible or
about His purpose for you and anything that does align itself with
God's will, do it. If God says, "talk to that person and tell
him or her) not to get discouraged and send 'this verse' (and God
puts a verse in your head to send to that person), and tell him to
keep the faith" then do it. As soon as you are given a command
from God, do it to show your obedience, trust, faith, and love for
Him.
Patience
and Endurance
In
Romans 5:3-4, the apostle Paul says, "We can rejoice too, when
we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us
develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and
strength of character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.
Then in Hebrews 10:36, Paul says "Patient endurance is what you
need now, so that you will continue to do God's will. Then you will
receive all that He has promised." God promises to reward us for
our patience and endurance. It is easy to give up or to start
complaining when things are not happening as fast as you wanted or
expected them to, but it shows great faith to switch off the
complaining and worrying and to keep going and waiting patiently for
God's promises to come to pass. We honor God when we wait with
patience and be still and at peace, acknowledging that we know and
trust then God is in control, working things out in our favor the
things we can't do for ourselves. Don't listen to those negative
voices that tell you, "It's been too long. It's never going to
happen for you," "You will never get out of debt,"
"You're too sick and have been sick too long, you're never going
to get better," or any other negative thoughts about missed
opportunities or not getting something. Instead counter those
thoughts with, "I am a Child of the Most High God and He has
anointed me with all spiritual blessings," "I am equipped,"
"This situation is temporary, and I may not see how I'm coming
out of it, but God does know and I have faith I will come through
this better off than before," "God is restoring full health
unto me and I'm getting healthier and stronger every day," and
other faith-filled thoughts. When we patiently wait on God to bring
our dreams to pass and speak to our problems about how big our God
is, miracles happen. Unexpected blessings that enable you to do
something much more quickly than you would have been able to do on
your own. And remember, when it seems like God isn't doing anything,
He is working behind the scenes as He tests our faith. We pass the
test every time we kick discouragement in the behind by thinking and
speaking words of faith over our situation. Patience builds endurance
and endurance builds character. That's what Apostle Paul tells us and
it's true. Trust in God's timing. If things do not happen when you
expected, it could be because there is someone else involved and they
aren't ready yet, or the place you are meant to live isn't ready yet,
or that perfect job God has in mind for you isn't available just yet,
or He is doing a work in you to grow spiritually to prepare you. Now
I know it is easier to say or write this than it is to put it into
practice, but keep studying God's word, keep a thankful attitude,
hold onto your peace, and patiently endure the wait and trust God's
perfect timing for things and the reward will be well worth it. If we
receive what we ask for right away all of the time, we may end up
with long-term results we don't like. For instance, if God enabled me
to move back to Miami, but the job God intends for me to do isn't
available yet, I would run into the problem I ran into before: I will
run out of money too quickly.
Another
way patient endurance benefits us is, that when we put our trust in
God for His timing on when He brings our dreams and His promises to
us to pass is that we can go about our life stress free and worry
free, knowing God is in control supplying all of our needs and
waiting for the right time to give us what He promised us. I'm not
saying to sit around doing nothing, no. I am saying to get a vision
of how you want things to be, have faith it will happen, and speak
and act like it is already so and continue to honor God in all of the
things you do each day. Isn't that a nice thought? Living stress free
and worry free, knowing God has you in the palm of His hand and is
guiding you and directing all of your steps and will give you the
breaks and breakthroughs you need at just the right time? I know it
may seem like the right time is now, but trust God when He says it
isn't and see how blessed you are for it.
Spiritual
Success
For
4 Bible study classes, in the past 5 Wednesdays, Bible study was
about spiritual success. The first class we were asked what we feel
is needed for spiritual success. So what is needed? Faith in God's
existence, believing He sacrificed Jesus to wash away our sins (to
save us) and raised Jesus from the dead to bring us into a right
relationship with Him, being baptized in the Holy Spirit (so you can
be saved on Judgment Day), and faith, hope, trust and love. You need
to have faith that God will honor His promises in His perfect time
(and trust in His timing). You need to trust that God will never
abandon you or fail you or forsake you and that He will rescue you
from your enemies and help you in times of trouble. You need to trust
God to already know all of your needs and to supply them without
worrying or doubting. Love is the most important. You must love God
with all of your heart, mind, and soul and you must love others as
Jesus loved us (and you have to love yourself since you too are one
of God's creations).
God
promises in Deuteronomy 31 and again in Joshua 1 and then a 3rd time
in Hebrews 13:5 "Never will I leave you nor forsake you."
God also states several times throughout the Bible Himself and
through other speakers that He is our helper. In the first 2
(Deuteronomy 31 and Joshua 1) He tells us not to be troubled (or
distressed in some translations) or afraid. In Hebrews 5, right
before telling us He will never leave us nor forsake us, He tells us
to be content with what we have and to not love money, for He
supplies our needs. (This is another promise He makes, to supply all
of our needs.) We must believe God when He tells us all of this in
order to have spiritual success. So when we believe God is for us and
with us always, supplying all of our needs, and helping us in times
of trouble, then we need not worry or be afraid and we can live a
peaceful life and have spiritual success.
You
know you are on your way to spiritual success when you are able to
continue speaking God's promises and blessings over your life even
when it doesn't look like God is doing anything and when adversity
strikes hard. When you can tell the enemy and your obstacles and
problems how big your God is and declare His favor and blessings over
your situation, you are choosing faith over fear and it is pleasing
to God. Then you will see things work out in your favor in every area
of your life. Remember, things may not always happen how you
envisioned it, but that just means it will work out better because
God can do exceedingly above all we can ask or imagine Him doing for
us. He is a Mighty God and loves to bless us bigger than we are able
to ever imagine because He loves us and it brings him glory.
Tonight
at Bible study, Brother Kerry started a topic on excuses. The part I
had a problem with is the lying part because I don't lie. However,
upon thinking about it, I do let "excuses" hold me back
from doing things that could benefit me and God's plan for me such as
making a video of me introducing myself and talking about being an
actress in one video and a writer in another. I let fear hold me back
and I need to stop doing that. I stopped letting fear prevent me from
writing every single day so I should face my other fears (of
rejection and of failing and being homeless) and trust God that my
worst-case scenarios will not
happen. When you let fear hold you back, and come up with excuses
like "I can't," "I didn't have time," "I was
too busy doing other things," "I don't have the energy -
(when you are low on energy tell yourself you feel vibrant and
energetic and can
do it)," or any other excuse not to do something that you
actually want
to
do, you are getting yourself stuck and halting God's blessings from
elevating you and bringing you to new, higher levels in life. You
need to tell that fear "I am
a Child of the Most High God and I can
do all
things through Christ, who strengthens me." Tell it, "I
will make time and do this with confidence knowing God has me in the
palm of His hand and that a reward awaits me for doing this difficult
task that is made difficult due to fear. I will NOT let fear stop me
anymore!" Say to the low energy, "I have God's strength and
His energy to do this. I am young and vibrant and full of energy!"
When you forget something important, learn to not forget by writing
things down and saying "I will remember to (fill in the blank
here)," or if it is something you can do right away, do whatever
it is while you are thinking of it. That way you won't have to beat
yourself up and go with the excuse "I forgot!" Instead you
can have peace knowing you remembered to do what you were supposed to
do and that is one less thing you have to do and no need to worry.
Don't let worry get in your way or be an excuse either. Instead, use
fear and worry to motivate you instead of letting them hold you back.
God
always ends on Yes and Amen/Confidence in The Lord
Yesterday,
which was Monday, October 22nd, 2012, as I watched Joel Osteen's
weekly message I was reminded of a message he had given where I'd
taken notes, about yes being in your future. He said not to be
discouraged when we keep receiving No's but to be persistent and stay
in faith that each no is one step closer to our Yes. God placed the
dreams in our hearts and created us to be healthy so anything we
experience that is not
in alignment with God's plan for you is only temporary and even
though we are currently experiencing the no's,
Yeses are in our future. Yes to full health restoration, yes to
healing, yes to abundance in finances, yes to relationships being
restored and meeting new people who will support you and care about
you, yes to restoration and healing in every area of your life, yes
to double blessings for each trouble you have suffered. If you have
kids and any of them are out of control, God has a Yes for them
turning their lives around for the better. If you are struggling with
an addiction, God has a Yes in your future that will enable you to
break free from the addiction for good.
Then
today, a friend of mine who is also fairly new to her faith brought
up the matter of confidence. And this is something we have talked
about on and off the past few months as well. Our confidence comes
from The Lord so as we trust in Him and let our faith in Him grow, we
can have confidence that our dreams will come to pass and confidence
in who we are. God did not create any of you to live forever with a
disability. If you have one, have faith God will use it to show other
people how powerful He is and to show you that you can get around
your limitations by having confidence you can and by having
confidence that God will do for you what you can't do for yourself.
All you have to do is to do what you can on your own and trust God to
do the rest. He will not let His children down. And God does not see
you with a disability, He sees you as whole because He created you as
whole. He loves you and wants you to succeed in every area of your
life. And if you are facing a difficult situation, whether you are
sick or healthy, know that God has good plans for the situation that
was meant for your harm and that God will bring you through your
difficult situations far better off than you were before because you
believed He could and would and because of His unfailing love, mercy,
grace, and faithfulness. Jeremiah 29:11 states, "'For I know the
plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not harm you,"
says the Lord." So if you are stuck in a bad situation
currently, bad health, relationship problems, financial troubles,
battling an addiction or with a troublesome child, know that the
situation is temporary and you will see full health restored and be
whole, relationships restored, finances restored, and a breakthrough
in beating your addiction or a breakthrough in getting through to
your child and them turning their lives around for the better. If you
hold on to your faith and remain confident in the Lord and confident
in who you are and Whose you are, and take steps in faith or wait
patiently for the Lord to act that you will see those breakthroughs,
that door opened to an opportunity that will help bring your dreams
to pass, you will see explosive blessings. I declare it in the name
of Jesus!
I
admit that these topics I am talking about, I am still learning to do
these things myself. I am still in the process of strengthening my
faith, having more confidence in myself and in God and in focusing on
God and His promises instead of my circumstances. Everything I have
written about so far, I am still in the process of practicing at this
point in time on October 24, 2012. And I say this not only because it
is true but to let you know I know I am not perfect and that nobody
is. Love your imperfections and know God loves you and sees you as
whole and as His masterpiece. Tonight at bible study we discussed
excuses for the second Wednesday. Examples of Moses and Gideon
telling God why they could not do the task He told them to do were
given and then we were asked how many of us give excuses to God as to
why we cannot do something He is commanding or urging us to do. My
main reasons I have when I don't do something I should be doing are
fear of failure and fear of rejection. Both have fear in common and I
am working on not letting fear stop me from doing the things I need
to do. I am a work in progress but I am blessed to serve a patient
God who is forgiving and merciful. All children of God are blessed
with this same Amazing God so know God loves you and call on Him when
you need help doing things you can't do on your own and if it is
something God is asking or telling you to do, but you feel you cannot
do it, ask God to give you the strength and courage to do it and
thank Him that whatever He asks you to do, He gives you the ability
to do.
Studying
God's word every day for half an hour, or longer whenever possible,
is key to growing in your faith in Him. When you grow in your faith
in God and show your faith everyday more and more through your
actions, you will see God do amazing things in your life. Setbacks
will suddenly be turned around and you will see breakthroughs where
they are needed. Jesus says that if you have faith as small as a
mustard seed, you can say to this mountain 'move from here to there'
and it will and nothing will be impossible. And that is because with
God all
things are possible. What is impossible in the natural to do on your
own, is made possible with God's supernatural power when we have
faith in Him and show Him by praying, then thanking God for all He
has done and thanking Him for what you just asked for as if God
already brought it to pass, and by taking steps in faith that show it
and sometimes that step is waiting patiently for God to act. Other
times, like if you're praying for moving, whether it be to another
state or just out of your relative's or friend's house then get a
vision for it and see yourself victorious as if God already brought
it to pass and talk as if God already brought what your praying for
to pass and start looking up flights and places to live. You could
also start packing if you feel you're really close to your miracle
moving date. So first you pray, then thank God as if your prayer has
already been answered in the affirmative, third is get a vision for
what you're praying for coming to pass as if it's been done and then
take action steps in faith towards making it a reality.
Healing
of God
I
had really missed being able to attend services in Calvary Chapel in
Hollywood, Florida since I had to move back to San Jose to live with
my sister so I would not be living in a homeless shelter and of
course my laptop got damaged on the trip so I was unable to watch
even via podcast online. However, God blessed me with a new laptop,
which arrived this Wednesday - October 24th, 2012 - and tonight I was
able to successfully download iTunes and listen to a couple of Pastor
Bob's, from Calvary Chapel Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood, Florida, daily
bible study devotionals. I listened to Him talk about God's healing
and 4 reasons why when we pray to God to heal us, one of 4 possible
reasons we haven't been healed right away. The first reason was
personal sin. So if any of you reading this have sinned, repent and
apologize to God and whoever you did wrong, even if the person you
wronged was yourself and God will forgive you and heal you. The
second reason given was that we live in a fallen world and eventually
all humans get sick. I would like to add to Pastor Bob's second
reason, that if this is the case, your sickness is temporary as long
as you keep yourself from sin, repent when you do sin, and hold
firmly to your faith in God and believe healing will come to you if
you just hold on a little longer and trust God. The third reason
given is the powerful hand of Satan can be the reason we are sick and
not being healed. Or unbelief that God can heal you could be
preventing Him from healing you. Pastor Bob led us to a scripture in
Luke 13 where the former is true, where Satan's bondage prevented a
woman from being able to walk straight and Jesus healed her on a
Sabbath day and the leader of the synagogue Jesus been teaching in
got angry about it and Jesus told them that the dear woman He had
just healed had been held in bondage by Satan for the last 18 years
and "Isn't it right that she be released, even on the Sabbath?"
Jesus partially stated but partially asked. So it is possible that
Satan's power is what made you sick and is preventing immediate
healing. But notice that Jesus was able to heal her because His power
is stronger than Satan's. This brings me to the 4th reason you may
not be healed immediate after becoming ill and praying for healing.
God, or Jesus, may be using your sickness to display His power and is
waiting for the right opportunity to display His healing power like
in the Gospels when Jesus was asked why a certain man had been born
blind and they asked what sin he or his parents had committed but
Jesus told them that neither he or his parents had sinned, but God
wanted to display His power so people would see the miracle of the
blind man receiving His site back after Jesus touched him and healed
him. Pastor Bob had also said somewhere in the beginning of the
two-part study on God's healing that sometimes God strikes people
with sickness to get their attention and work on their spiritual
health and on their spiritual side because we, as humans, respond to
pain and eventually when we are not healed after praying, we will ask
God what's up and what we need to do for Him to be healed by Him. But
no matter what reason you are sick, know that it is temporary and
that when you feed your spirit with healthy spiritual food (reading
God's word, encouraging others, helping someone else in any way you
can be it giving them food, shelter, clothing, a smile, a hug, or
whatever they need that you are able to give and by not sinning and
repenting when you do sin, and believing your sickness is temporary
and that God has the ability to fully heal you and faith that He will
fully heal you, then I believe you WILL be healed of all sickness
when God feels it is the right time. So if He is waiting to display
His power, then also believe you will be rewarded extra for waiting
patiently for God to heal you and for believing He would.
Hope
is For Everyone
Yesterday
before church, I was able to watch a service from Calvary Chapel,
Fort Lauderdale, Florida streamed from a couple of weeks ago about
"Hope Is For Everyone" and it was another amazing message. He
mainly talked about king Manasseh and how evil he had been but how
when he cried out to God for mercy and humbled himself before the
Lord after God had punished him for his sins, the Lord listened and
was moved by king Manasseh's plea and confession. The Lord returned
the king to his kingdom and reinstated him as king and restored
everything to him. The Pastor also talked briefly about Apostle
Paul's redemption and how other people who had sinned greatly had
been forgiven by Jesus or God. His point was that if someone as
fallen as king Manasseh and Apostle Paul, before he was appointed as
Apostle Paul, could have their sins forgiven and be saved then there
is still hope for everyone. There is even hope for those who feel
there is no hope for them because they feel they are too far gone to
be saved. The Pastor was, in effect, saying that you are not
too far gone or hopeless and that there is
still hope that you can be saved if you want to be. God's love is
unfailing, faithful, forgiving, and merciful. It is the Lord's
greatest desire for everybody to be saved on Judgment Day. So
redemption is for everyone. All you have to do is believe in God,
believe His word to be true, repent your sins and be baptized in the
Holy Spirit, and dedicate your life to serving God and living a godly
life. You also need to believe God loves you and that you are worthy
of being saved and of serving God.
At
the church service, Brother Francisco talked about how God did not
create us to fail, but to succeed. He compared it to people liking
rainbows and how you cannot have a rainbow without rain or a storm.
The storm and/or rain are the difficulties we face and the rainbow is
God's blessings and His favor, our victory, which comes from God in
other words. Once we were in the darkness, before we converted to
following Jesus. When we were saved, God saved us with the intention
of making us useful to Him. When we were transferred from darkness to
light, it was exclusively to serve the Lord. Brother Francisco says
this is another reason why we get persecuted for being holy, or
godly. He directed us to 1 Corinthians 1:1-10 and highlighted a few
of those verses more specifically in relation to this. One of those
verses was verse 5, which says, "Through Him, God has enriched your
church in every way - with all of your eloquent words and all of
your knowledge." Brother Francisco also directed us to verse to,
which says, "I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the
authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each
other. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose." That
is the NLT translation. In the NIV translation, it says, "I appeal
to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that you all agree with one another in what you say and that there be
no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and
thought." Fellowship with Christ and friendship with other
followers are important to God. We may not be perfect, but God is and
He loves us. And our attitudes when we face challenges or difficult
situations determines how blessed we will be. When we keep a positive
attitude and hold onto our faith, we have adopted the Christian
attitude and we pass the test and will see God's favor and eternal
life for patiently enduring our struggles.
Fear
is False Evidence Appearing Real
I
would like to take a moment to go back to the topic of fear. It has
been said by inspirational people, including Joel Osteen's wife
Victoria that fear is an acronym which stands for False Evidence
Appearing Real. Of course that is not to say all fear is false. There
is rational fear, like when you are in a dark alley or someone is
chasing you or following you and you do not know who they are, but
then there is irrational fear like the fear that if you start writing
that book or screenplay you have been dreaming of writing, that you
will die or ultimately fail. And I heard a life coach say more than
once that there is no such thing as failing, as long as you keep
trying but that you end up with a result that does not work. The only
time we truly fail is when we give up trying. When we keep trying and
do not get the result we want, we can choose to take it as a lesson
that the way we tried did not work and go at it from a different
angle and repeat the process over and over until we get the desired
result. And when we dare to call irrational fear out for the lie that
it is and put our trust in God and in ourselves, then amazing things
will begin to happen. You may not see a change overnight, but when
you step out in faith towards your dreams and leading the life God
has planned for you, then you will slowly begin to see the positive
changes and you will accomplish making your dreams a reality if you
keep working hard at it every single day. Another irrational fear is
assuming that because you got hurt once or a few times in that past,
that everyone is going to hurt you or that every relationship will
end up the same way, with you getting hurt. When you are in love with
someone and you know how they feel about you, then you need to look
fear in the face and tell it what a liar it is and you take a step in
faith and tell the person how you feel. If they do not reciprocate,
then move on. However, if they do reciprocate then you will find
happiness with them. But when you love someone, you need to take that
risk. It's not really love if you are not willing to risk getting
hurt. When you truly love someone, you take the chance and have faith
that things will work out for the best for you and for the other
person involved.
I
myself have recently gone out on a limb by telling the man I am in
love with that I love him. I actually indirectly told him a few weeks
ago and he seemed pleased by the information. But then last night, in
response to a wall poster status he posted, I asked him, "What
about mad, passionate, extraordinary unconditional love? Is that
worth it? It is to me." The poster said that the only love that is
worth it is "mad, passionate, extraordinary love." So I had added
the part about love being unconditional and he stopped responding
after that. Previously, I had finally gotten him to say hi to me and
to tell me what he wanted to be growing up and what he wants to do
now. Today, I thought I received a sign from God telling me to call
this man that I am in love with at 9pm my time, and a friend of mine
confirmed the feeling when I told her about it and then I thought I
heard God tell me to ask him for his phone number and I will be
calling him. I sent him a message asking him first if he was busy and
then I stated that I was wondering about talking to him on the phone
and I hope I was not being too pushy but have not received a response
yet. I hope to be moving back to Miami soon so my next task is to
find a laptop bag that will hold this big laptop I am writing on,
which God recently blessed me with and also to fit some more stuff I
will be needing immediately or right away upon arrival back in
Hollywood, Florida. I am taking the steps in faith that God has told
me to take to show Him that I believe Him and His promises to me. I
may not see how I am getting the money and other resources I need to
be able to move back to Miami, but that's okay because I know God
already has the solution and that He will reveal it to me in his
perfect time.
Just
Live By Faith
I
was not given the phone number of the man I am in love with and we
did not talk on the phone but I suspect that he wanted to give me his
number but something held him back from giving it to me. I will not
lose faith that he will come around and that we will be together
because God promised me it will happen. I also didn't make it to
Bible study today because I was not feeling well. I could not stop
coughing. The enemy tried to make me feel badly about missing it but
to make up for not going to bible study, I listened to another
devotional from Pastor Bob Coy in Fort Lauderdale, Florida that he
had just recorded yesterday. It was titled "Just Live by Faith."
He did a whole set of devotionals on faith and this appears to be a
two-part ending to the set of devotionals on faith. He was telling us
that there are different types of faith: Christian, Hindu, Muslim,
Islamic, and so on. He pointed out four main differences between
Christian faith and all of those other types of faith. The first
major difference between Christian faith and Islamic faith, Pastor
Bob said, is that no matter how faithful you are to your Islamic God,
you are not guaranteed a place in Heaven. However, with Christian
faith, when you are saved, God automatically saves a place for you in
Heaven. The second point was that the purpose is different.
Christians have an appointed time to die and then we are judged on
Judgment day and Jesus decides who makes it to Heaven. However, in
Hinduism, you can die and come back again many times and if you did
something bad or led a lesser life this life then you will come back
living a lesser life next time. The third difference is provision.
Jesus died to take away our sins and we all do our best to reach up
and do good and to please God, but Christians have the only God who
reaches down to us. The fourth and final difference is that the
person is different. Jesus became human to bear our sins and he is
the Lord of Lords and the King of all kings. He is the only Messiah.
Jesus' name means "to save." And that is exactly what Jesus
did. He died on the cross to save all of us from our sins. None of
the other Gods in the other religions have done that for their
people. God is the only God and Jesus is the only Messiah. He is the
only one who saves us from our sins, and we are all sinners. We all
fall short because we are not perfect. Only God is perfect. Earth is
not that great of a place to live. It is full of diseases, natural
disasters, and crime. We need to fix our eyes on Heaven, which is our
real home and where the saved will go. There is also a struggle with
sin within us, and Pastor Bob directed us to Romans 7:14-19 to
illustrate his point. And then he said the solution to our struggle
with sin comes in Romans 7:25. "Thank God! The answer is Jesus
Christ." No One else can save us from our sins or make us right
with God. No foreign Gods can, only Jesus. Only the Christian God is
compassionate and desires for all of his children to be saved on
Judgment Day.
This
was not the message I was expecting as far as faith is concerned,
since Pastor Bob was talking about faith in different types of Gods
and religions when I was thinking he would talk about what to do to
live by faith the way God tells us to in the bible. I was not
disappointed though. It was still an amazing message and tomorrow I
hope to hear the second half of the message. I started watching a
message from Joel Osteen entitled: "Double For Your Troubles,"
but for some reason it went blank after eight minutes. I will try
watching it again later. From the eight minutes I did catch, it was
another amazing and inspirational message from Joel. He was telling
us that if we do not get discouraged in our times of trouble, no
matter how bad the situation is or how bad it feels, then God
promises if we stay in faith that we will be rewarded double the
blessings for our troubles. He compared us to palm trees and
referenced Psalm 92:12 since God also compared us, the godly, to palm
trees. Palm trees are the only trees who can weather a storm. When a
bad storm such as a hurricane hits, the palm tree bends over and when
the storm is over, the tree bounces back upright and the roots grow
stronger. Joel was saying that we have that same bounce back ability
inside of us and that when we stay firmly planted in our faith
through the metaphorical storm, we will come out of the situation
stronger, healthier, and better off than before. And today's daily
devotional email message from Joel was to "Close the Door to Fear."
It is amazing how lately I have been hearing so many inspirational
messages from inspirational people telling us to not let fear stop us
from receiving God's blessings but to move forward and step into
God's favor and we can do that by reading and meditating on God's
word, His promises and love and receiving His truth. Then we can
boldly take the steps in faith that He asks us to take and wait
patiently when we do not hear from Him knowing that He is on the
throne and in control and that our situation is only temporary. God's
truth can set you free and lead you into victory.
How
to Truly Be Saved
For
the first time in several months, I went to morning service at church
today. I was a little late since it started half an hour earlier than
I had thought and missed communion and the first few minutes of this
morning's message, but I caught most of it. Brother Kerry was
talking about how to truly be saved. He drew our attention to Romans
10:13, Acts 2:17-21, Matthew 7:21, and Joel 2:28-32. He pointed out
how both Paul and Peter did not fully quote Joel's prophesy of what
is to come on how to be saved. Paul says, "All who call on the name
of the Lord will be saved." Peter quoted most of Joel's prophesy,
except the second half of verse 2:32. Jesus told us in Matthew 7:21,
"Not everyone who says 'Lord Lord!' will enter the Kingdom of
Heaven." Then the full account of what Joel said was quoted out
loud by brother Kerry, followed by what Paul and then Peter say after
their verses were quoted about how it is not enough to call on the
name of the Lord, there are other things you have to do as well. You
have to admit you are a sinner and confess your sins and repent. Then
you must confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior and that He died for
your sins and be baptized so you will receive the Holy Spirit. If God
called you, and you do these things, then will be saved. The part
about repenting and being baptized can be found in Acts 2:38 of
scripture. Brother Kerry went on telling us the importance of making
sure we spread the truth on how to be saved instead of letting people
believe that just calling on the name of the Lord will save you. He
says it is our duty as Christians to educate others on how to truly
be saved and to make sure that people receive the full and correct
information about God. Tonight I thought to put what Brother Kerry
said into practice. I have been sending Jonathan verses from God
every now and then and tonight God led me to verses I think He felt
both Jonathan and I needed to read and when I got done sending them
not too long ago, I remember thinking, "Well now Jonathan has the
full information on how to receive God's blessings. It is not
enough to just ask for them, but he must love the Lord and listen to
and obey His commands to receive God's blessings, which I informed
him of through Deuteronomy 30:20 and 28:7,8 and 13,14. You may also
want to read these verses so that you can have a better understanding
of how to be saved and how to release God's blessings and favor in
your life. It is also good to read all four gospels: Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John, when you are a new believer because you receive a ton
of important information on our Lord and Savior, Jesus.
Blessings
and Excitement
The
past few days have been nerve-wracking but also exciting. On Tuesday
night, I sent someone who hurt me a long time ago an e-mail telling
him I forgive him and I got the shock of my life when I woke up
yesterday to discover that his reply was an apology and wishing me a
life of happiness. And then the ex I mentioned in the first chapter,
whom I had sent an e-mail to forgiving, actually talked to me on a
mutual friend's status and ended up telling me to send him a friend
request, which he accepted. And we talked a bit last night and a
little bit more today and sounds like I may be talking to him
tomorrow. Today, I sent Jonathan the lyrics to two songs that
describe perfectly how I feel about him and told him I love him and I
believe God is pleased with that since I had a strong urge to send
those lyrics after listening to both songs. If you are wondering what
two songs, they are "Beautiful Soul" by Jesse McCartney and "Let
Me Be The One" by the Christian pop band called Plus One. These
breakthroughs touch more than one subject I have been talking about.
First, there is the power of forgiveness and how even when you don't
think your forgiveness will matter to the person you forgiving, it
could be just what they need to hear to truly move on with their
lives and be happy.
Opening
Up To Others
Another
subject is one I am not sure I have really discussed yet, opening up
to others. In order to open up to someone about how you feel, you
need to have some level of trust in them that they will not hurt you,
and more importantly you have to have faith that because God is
guiding you to be open with certain people that things will turn out
how they are meant to and that only good will come out of it. Which
brings me to the third topic these breakthroughs have to do with,
which is trusting God. There is a fourth topic too, obedience to God.
I was following God's will when I sent the person from my past an
e-mail forgiving him, when I reached out and talked directly to my ex
on a mutual friend's status, and again today when I sent those lyrics
along with a brief message to Jonathan telling him I love him. And
obedience to God's will is crucial to succeeding in life. As long
as you are showing love and obedience to God, then even if you are in
a bad situation like I am, you can have faith that it will be
temporary and that you will be rewarded for your love and obedience
to the Lord. God wants to know though, that we do His will because we
love him and not only to receive rewards for it. Yes we will be
rewarded for our obedience, but it should not be the reason why we do
what God tells us to. We should obey God because we love Him and
because we want to. The story of Jesus walking on water and Peter
saying "If it is You, tell me to come to you." And then Jesus
replies, "Yes, come." Peter jumps out of the boat and starts
walking towards Jesus, but then he makes the mistake of taking his
eyes off of the Lord and he starts panicking that about drowning and
Jesus catches him and asks him why he still has so little faith. I
feel like Jesus is saying the same thing to me, to keep my eyes on
Him and He will not let me drown, but will make sure that everything
turns out the way He has promised it will as long as I keep obeying
His commands and keep my eyes focused on Him and His promises and not
on my problems. As long as you keep your eyes on Jesus and His
promises in your heart and mind, and as long as you obey His
commands, I believe that you will see your own promises from God come
to pass in your life.
More
Confidence
I
would like to also go back to the subject of confidence for a little
bit. It's an issue the person who apologized to me for hurting me
is experiencing, my ex is dealing with major self-confidence issues
and I am of course still a work in progress. When God had me reach
out to these two guys and then on top of that express to Jonathan how
I feel, each time I experienced a ton of self-doubt but I wanted to
be obedient to God to I worked through the self-doubt and I am glad I
did because I never in a million years would have expected an apology
from the man who apologized for hurting me so long ago and I was
beginning to think maybe my ex had not accepted my forgiveness or my
apology for my part in what happened, but I took a chance in speaking
directly to him when I agreed with something he posted on a mutual
friend's status and it turned out well for me since we are talking
again. And I believe that because these past hurts have finally been
resolved once and for all, that the man I love will be coming around
soon and be in a happy and stable long-term relationship with him
that I hope will last forever. However, on the flip side, the man
from my past who replied to my forgiveness email still has not found
the right girl and I suspect it stems from the lack of
self-confidence that also killed our relationship before it ever
really started over a decade ago. I am hoping that the reason God had
me let him know he is forgiven is so that he can move on and find the
confidence he needs to be in a relationship and also to find the
right woman for him.
When
you have confidence in God and trust in Him, then you will see your
fears are not real and your faith in God will help you see that what
looks impossible in the natural is made possible with our
supernatural God and you will also see that fears that stop you from
doing what God calls you to do and possibly even stops you from
living at all, are false evidence appearing real and that God's word
is truth. God promises to protect you and that His plan for your life
is for good, to give you hope and prosperity. And with God's
protection, mercy, grace, and unfailing love and forgiveness what
could you possibly have to fear? I am working on this, putting my
faith in God instead of in fear, and if you let fear rule your life
and stop you from making your dreams a reality, stop you from being
with the person you are in love with, or prevent you from doing
anything you should be doing then you need to get this into your
heart and into your head as well. When God is for you, who dare be
against you? God's power is stronger than any man's, anything in this
world and stronger than the enemy too.
Emotions
are Foundational Faith for Phobic Fear
Tonight
I listened to both parts of Pastor Bob's radio podcast called
"Emotions: Foundational Faith for Phobic Fear" and he said
that some of our fears, such as reverent fear of God, fear for God
and fear without God are good fears because they prevent you from
sinning and can motivate you to move forward in the right direction.
But there is also bad fear, and that is fear over God or fears that
stop you dead in your tracks from doing what God is calling you to do
such as writing that book or screenplay you have been wanting to
write or talking to that friend who is on the path of destructive
behavior, or fears like fear of bad drivers on the road that prevent
you from ever stepping foot outside of your house. These are bad
fears and when your fear prevents you from being obedient to God, you
need to change so that you can make things right with God. You need
to dive deeply into God's word daily and write His words and faithful
promises in your heart so that when bad fear comes up and tries to
stop you from obeying God or receiving God's blessings, you can tell
that fear it has no foundation or truth to it and quote the right
verses from the Bible that cover the lies bad fear are telling you.
And when you are able to manage your fear you can turn it into a good
fear that motivates you to make sure that your worst-case scenario
never happens. For instance, one of my deepest fears is failing and
being rejecting and ending up living on the streets or homeless
shelter. Studying God's word and receiving help from Mastin Kipp and
inspiration from Joel Osteen have been helping me work through this
fear. I write every single day for myself because writing is God's
will for my life so my words can help and inspire others. Even though
I am still a work in progress, I have definitely been making
progress, as I have been sharing with you. And you can make real
progress in seeing your dreams come to pass too as you let go of bad
fear and use the good kind of fear Pastor Bob talked about to
motivate you to move forward in the right direction.
Destructive
Attitudes and Behavior
Today,
after waking up from a somewhat disturbing dream, I felt myself
battling annoyance, anger, irritation, and frustration. I got annoyed
at the tiniest things like the new laptop freezing up as I played a
word game and my sister's dog incessantly barking. Throughout the
day I prayed to God in Jesus' name for my sinful attitude and
emotions to be forgiven. I finally found some peace when I was
walking back from Walgreens after being told by someone I donated a
dollar to for helping families and women in need, "God bless you."
I told him, "God bless you" back and he told me that was the
first blessing he received since he woke up and the Lord blessed him.
I told him that God will surely bless him for what he is doing and
then walked back to my sister's house with a sense of peace even
though it was still cold outside as it had been all day and will be
colder tonight. Thank God for working heat! I lost my sense of peace
when I read that Jonathan made a comment on his Facebook status about
it not being fair that women get free drinks and men don't because
Jonathan has been battling with staying sober for at least as long as
I have known him and it upsets me and makes me anxious whenever he
drinks alcohol. I sent him a bunch of verses in relation to turning
to God and also about how good God is and how merciful in hopes that
he will realize the message I am trying to send him about turning to
God instead of alcohol and keeping a sense of peace and joy instead
of letting man or emotions rule him. And to you who are reading this,
may you also find yourself turning to God instead of to alcohol,
food, idols of any kind or to any form of sin and destructive
behavior. Let God take care of your battles and worries and allow His
peace and joy to fill you. In times of trouble, remember God is with
you and let it be written in your heart that "no weapon formed
against you shall prosper" as promised in Isaiah 54:17, "Never
will I leave you nor forsake you" as promised in Deuteronomy 31:6,
"The Lord hears His people when they call on Him for help. He
rescues them from all their troubles" and other faithful promises
made by God in His word in the Bible. That way you will know to turn
to God instead of drowning your troubles in alcohol or in any other
sin. Keep your eyes focused on the Lord and His words written in your
heart so that you may constantly be at peace and feel joy and be
thankful. When you can find things to be thankful for, such as having
your eyesight, the Lord dying on the cross to save us from our sins
and raised to have a right relationship with God, for the roof you
have over your head and bed you have to sleep in, or for anything
else you can find to be thankful for and when you thank God for
whatever you are thankful for, you will find peace and blessings.
Then you will find more things to be thankful for and you can give
God the praise He deserves for blessing you with more things to be
thankful for. And if you find yourself having a day similar to mine,
where you wake up feeling annoyed or angry or any other negative
emotions, fight them with peaceful verses from the Bible which speak
of God's faithful promises and pray to God to take those emotions
away and replace them with peace and joy. Release all the bad stuff
you are feeling inside and all your worries all to God and He will
give you peace. Then Thank God for His faithfulness and for bringing
you peace of mind and heart and thank Him for everything else you are
thankful for. And think of it this way, what if you woke up tomorrow
with only the things God has blessed you with? Someone said this to
me and at the time I thought, "Uh-oh, I would be in trouble!"
because I sometimes forget to thank God for the roof I have over my
head, the bed I have to sleep in, for my eye sight, hearing, sense of
smell and sense of taste, sense of touch, ability to walk, and other
important things. I have made it a point and a habit to thank God
every night before I go to bed for all of these things and for
everything else He has given me and has done for me so that when I
wake up the next day, I can be at peace knowing that I will still
have everything I thanked God for blessing me with and that I will
soon have even more to be thankful for as I remain faithful,
thankful, obedient, and loving to God and work to be loving towards
everyone, even people it is difficult to be loving to, because Jesus
was loving even to the people who persecuted Him and betrayed Him so
if He can do it, I want to be able to as well. And that is an
honorable goal to work towards, to be more loving to others, and to
yourself, even to the difficult people who treat you badly. I am not
saying to be a door mat or pushover and to just take abuse from
people. No! What I am saying is, do not let their poor treatment or
negativity bother you. Let it roll off your back and find peace in
God and His love and trust Him to take care of you and fight your
battles. This is a lesson I am slowly learning and I hope you will
learn it to so you can always be full of joy and peace.
Listen
to me children of God. If you feel guilty or ashamed of something you
have done, know that there is nothing you can do to make God stop
loving you. His love for all of His children is unconditional and
faithful, even when we are not faithful to Him. If you feel guilty
for the way you feel, release your guilt to God. If you have sinned,
confess your sins and know that God forgives you as soon as you have
confessed your sins. Nothing you do is a surprise to God. He
already knows all you have done and all you will ever do because He
created you and wrote out your life before you were born. Even better
news is that it is never too late to get back on His righteous path
and never too late to carry out His good plan for your life, as long
as you still have breath left in you.
Opportunities
for others to be saved
Tonight
at church, Brother Francisco's message was about "Opportunities
for Others to be Saved" and how it is our responsibility as
Christians to preach God's word to others. He had us go to 2
Timothy 4:1-5 and said just like the apostles went around preaching,
we too need to do that because we all have that same commitment to
bring the Word to those who don't know it. Even if we cannot go
around the world to do this, we can certainly preach God's word to
our immediate family, our relatives, our neighbors and our friends
and if you have a job you can also spread God's word to your boss
and co-workers. Now I am not saying to go jamming God's word down
anyone's throats. I am not saying that at all! No, I am saying that
you can find people among you, in your life or living nearby to you
who has not heard God's word. When an opportunity to talk about God
arises, take advantage of it by informing the people you have been
given an opportunity to preach to about the good news about salvation
and let them know how they can receive this wonderful free gift. You
never know who your words could have a positive affect one or who's
life you could change for the better! And remember to not get
discouraged if some of the people you tell the good news to don't
accept it. Your job is to spread the good news, not to save everyone.
It would be nice if we could save the whole world, but because of
free will, that is not a task we can take on ourselves. As long as
you have done your part by giving the people around you who don't
know God the good news, God is pleased with you and you have carried
out His will in that respect. There will be people who will receive
the good news that you give them openly and then it will touch your
heart as you see another life being added to God's book of life as
the person you talked to about God accepts Jesus as their Lord and
Savior and your faith will instantly be boosted too.
Excuses,
Excuses
Last
night's bible study was really good. We finished our discussion on
excuses. Last night Brother Kerry was telling us how the things that
people judge us on in the world: too young or too old, not the right
color, not the right gender, too tall or too short, and a bunch of
other discriminating judgments are not how God judges us. He judges
us impartially and looks at what is inside of our hearts. He judges
based on the works we have done for Him and how fruitful we are in
our works for Him. When you come before him to be judged, you do not
have any excuses, whether or not they are valid on earth, when you
receive judgment on the way you lived your life. God promises that if
He asks us to do something, He will always equip us with everything
we need to do it. He created us so He knows what we can do on our own
and what we need help with from Him to do for Him. We cannot go
through life being lazy or making excuse after excuse as to why we
did not do something God asked us or told us to do. Yes, He may ask
us to do some things we do not want to do, but God promises that if
we do it anyway, we will be blessed for it and that He will never ask
us to do something we are unable to do.
Faith
and a Fruitful Life
Today
I listened to a couple of podcasts from Pastor Bob Coy. I listened to
both parts of "Faith of a Farmer" where His main point lay in 2
Timothy 2:1-6 with emphasis on verse 6, and the first part of
"Fruitful Life." In the podcast about "Faith of the Farmer, he
was saying that our faith had to be like one of a farmer who plants
their seeds and does work and puts in effort to make sure the seeds
grow and then has faith that they will grow and that they will be
able to harvest what they planted in due season. Our faith needs to
be like that. We need to plant the seeds of faith, water them by
reading God's word daily and applying His word to our lives, and
watch as our seed of faith blossoms and we become very fruitful.
Pastor Bob stated that just by choosing to be there (or listen to the
podcast) that we sowed a seed. Then he talked about how we need to
prepare our hearts in good soil to prepare good fruit. He read from
the book of Matthew the parable of the scattering seed and said we
need our hearts to be the fourth kind of heart - the one that truly
heard and understood Jesus' word and ended up harvesting 60-100
times the seed planted. The funny about this is that less than 24
hours apart, I heard Brother Kerry talk about the parable of the
scattering seed and said that although three of the four hearts
receive the message only one produces good fruit. I ended up sending
Jonathan a message on FB copying and pasting the whole parable
because I felt like it was an important message from the Bible to
share, especially since I heard the same message from two different
Pastors/ministers in less than 24 hours! But I have been giving him
time to read the three (total) messages I sent him Thursday (it is
now Sunday night) and I will wait until I either have excellent news
from God or until God tells me what to send Jonathan next in the way
of verses before I send anymore messages to him. I am trying the
whole "give a person some space" and "be patient" ideas. I am
also working on staying in faith because God promised me that this
week, by
Thanksgiving,
I will be back in Miami and together with Jonathan. I am doing my
best to take the advice I have given to you about faith and patience
and trusting God and His timing and apply it to my situation. I am
waiting patiently for God to either reveal what I need to do to
release the blessings I need to move or to just finally reveal to me
the solution and send the breakthroughs and miracles I need for His
promise to come to pass. and also for my cellphone to not be shut off
in the next 24 hours. God told me on Thursday to pay a specific
amount and to trust Him so I did what He told me to and trusting Him
that I will not have my cellphone service interrupted (and that He
will honor His promise for me to move back to the Miami area and be
with Jonathan by
Thanksgiving,
which is this Thursday. I am going to take Joel Osteen's advice,
and here is what the advice is in case you need to follow it too: I
declare that all
curses
in my life are broken right now in the name of Jesus and that I am
blessed and cannot be cursed. I declare I have the gracious hand of
God on my life and that He is turning everything around in my favor
right now. I am expecting explosive blessings, major breakthroughs, a
flood of increase in every area of my life and unprecedented favor
all this week starting tomorrow (Monday, November 19th,
2012). I declare this is my set time for favor and that God is a
faithful God who honors all of His promises and I choose to focus on
Him instead of on my current problems because they are temporary and
about to be solved by God's massive favor.
Going
back to what Pastor Bob was saying about being fruitful, He said that
we may not be the polluted soil but we are not necessarily the good
soil he mentioned either (for the good soil produces only good
fruit). In order to be the well-tended soil, we need to follow Jesus
and His advice and commandments. As we grow deeper in our knowledge
of Jesus, our soil becomes well-attended and as we follow His
commandments and His ways, we are lead down the righteous path to the
good life God has planned for us. Pastor Bob said in order to be
fruitful, we have to expect change and embrace it, letting God prune
out the bad stuff in our lives such as wrong relationships, foul
language, addictions, and everything else God feels does not belong
in our life and interferes with His plan and will for us. God wants
us to blossom so He wants to get rid of the stuff that keeps us from
reaching our full potential. And when you let Him cut out the bad,
hatred, fear, and anxiety he promises to replace it with the good,
love, and peace. When you read and study the bible you will grow
spiritually and be able to apply His word to your life. - In most of
our lives He is not looking for disease because we were purged on
conversion but Jesus wants to give us more love, more peace, less
anxiety and conquer our fears and keep growing. Jesus wants to
sanctify us to become the person we never dreamed we would be.
So
part one of Pastor Bob's advice is to expect change and welcome it.
He then tells us that Jesus' advice is his second piece of advice
for us and that advice is that once we are open to change, we need to
stay connected by abiding in Jesus, which is what Jesus tells us to
do in John 15. His final advice in the second part of "Fruitful
Life" is to "enjoy the gift of access to God. God has the keys
that open every door on the planet. He has the key to a new job, to
overcoming fears, and anything else we need. God wants us to ask Him
things and wants us to be full of joy." Joy, Grace, and Charisma
(in the Greek dictionary are all near each other).
Spiritual
Worship and Obedience to God
Last
evening at church service, the message was about spiritual worship.
It seems in the morning I had missed the message on what can hinder
us from proper spiritual worship and the evening service was about
four things that can enhance our Sunday worship experience. The first
thing was proper preparation. Brother Kerry talked about how for a
vacation or a wedding, we plan things ahead of time and do not just
wake up on the day of our vacation and start packing or on the day of
our wedding and start planning but that we take time to make
preparations. He asked us if we get excited about Sunday being near
and going to worship God or if we feel like it's a chore or
obligation. If worship is important to us, Brother Kerry stated, then
we should prepare properly for it ahead of time just like we do for
vacations and weddings. The proper way to prepare for worship is to
get things done that need doing the day before at a decent hour and
to get a good night of sleep. The right amount of rest is important
so that you don't show up to church and go to sleep. Church is not
for sleeping, it is for worshiping God and when we come to church
tired, even if we don't fall asleep, we miss important information
being given to us about God during the service. So to properly
prepare for Sunday morning and all day Sunday worship, we need to get
to bed early and with a peace of mind so we can get the right amount
of sleep before coming to worship God on Sunday morning. The second
thing that can enhance our worship experience, Brother Kerry said, is
participation. We can't simply go and sit in our seats and watch
while people sing, give, and pray. We must sing, give what we can
when we are able to give, and participate in praying as well. We must
then give our full attention to the message being given to us and not
be distracted, which is the third point Brother Kerry made. He said
the third thing that can enhance our worship time is to avoid
distractions and also to sit up front. In the back, he says people
are talking to one another, talking or texting on their cell phones,
reading books other than the Bible, or parents are letting their kids
get away with doing disruptive things that they should not be getting
away with because they are in the back. He said some people in the
back even leave during service while a message from God is being
given to us from the minister talking and the person translating. But
in the front, there are fewer distractions, he says and we are more
focused on listening to and paying attention to the message being
given to us and we tend to be better participators in the front rows.
The final thing Brother Kerry believes will enhance our worship time
is by realizing that we are not the audience, but God is. We are not
just there to listen to the message being given, we are there to
participate and to really hear to what message we are being given
about God and that God is the audience watching us, seeing if we are
really paying attention and participating. If we do worship service
the right way and do what we come to do when we attend worship
service, then we should have a satisfying service and have nothing to
fear when God judges us on our performance. However, if we have an
unsatisfactory service experience, we should not blame anybody else
but take responsibility for allowing anything to distract us from
properly worshipping our God.
Sometimes
It's The Little Things
Today
I had to go to the bank because I need to link one of my bank
accounts to Amazon for Kickstarter.com, which is the site I made
mention of earlier that a publisher mentioned to me to help me raise
funds for my book. God commanded me to go to a particular bank, where
I have an account but haven't really used it since opening it
because I opened it for when I have a job. So I went to that bank
even though it was well over two miles away and I had no bus fare. I
walked there and didn't ask directions at all but followed God's
guidance. I am glad I obeyed God's command to go to that particular
bank because I had hesitated due to fear I owed money for not having
money in the account but it turned out I didn't owe anything, had
three dollars in the account and needed a new bank debit card because
the other one was no longer valid since I had not been using it and
it had been a temporary card. I did God's will and got rewarded
with free cookies and water that the bank was serving, I have a few
dollars left in my bank account, and as soon as I got to the bus stop
after going to Target for some groceries, the bus I needed arrived
immediately before I could even really sit down. I thanked God of
course since He is the one who sent the bus right away instead of
making me wait. So what am I saying here? God gave me a command, I
obeyed it despite my concerns, and God rewarded me for it. I am
currently waiting for God to tell me what to do where Jonathan is
concerned. He hasn't read my verses or the devotional I sent him
yesterday at all today and usually Jonathan has been good about
reading my verses and other God-related messages I send within a
short amount of time of me sending them to him but it does not appear
he has been online at all today. I am hoping he is just taking some
time to think or got busy with work, sleeping, or that if he is
thinking that it is about what I said about faith in God and about my
love for him being true and my words from the heart and everything
else I have said to him recently (or ever maybe). I of course, will
be praying for him to be kept safe from Satan's temptations and
that Jonathan not give in to Satan's evil attempts to turn him away
from God or to destroy his life. But I have been quick to obey God's
commands, especially lately, and if I do not receive any additional
commands tonight, I will go to bed to sleep soon and during my
nightly prayer time before bed, after thanking God for all I have I
will ask Him to reveal His will for me for tomorrow when I wake up
and pray that only His will be done in my life. I encourage you to
get in the habit of doing that too. If you do not pray daily and then
every night before bed, start doing so now. Thank God for all you
have and all He is working behind the scenes to do for you, pray for
whatever you need to pray for to find peace so you can sleep
peacefully and release all fears, doubts, frustrations and other
negativity to God in exchange for peace.; Then thank God that He will
bless you with a full night of restful, peaceful sleep that will give
you energy, peace, and healing and ask God that when you wake up, He
reveals His will for you and that you seek to do only His will. God
is pleased when we seek to do His will and then actually do it when
He gives us a command and it pleases Him when we thank Him not only
for all He has already given us, but when we use our faith to thank
God for what He is doing for us now as if He has already done it. It
goes along with taking action to back up out faith, which also
pleases God. Blessed is the person with an obedient and thankful
heart and attitude, and filled with faith in God and peace knowing
God is in control and has you in the palm of His hand.
Gratitude
Journal
Last
month, on September 12, 2013, I started a gratitude journal. But let
me go back a little before then. Over the summer, I started writing
at a few different blog sites and one of them is wordpress.com. I
have gotten some followers and tons of likes, as well as a few
comments, so far and I follow back the people who have the potential
to inspire me once I have checked out their pages. This one girl who
reposted one of my blogs on her page turned out to be an
inspirational young lady, such as myself. I got to reading some of
her blog posts and found one about a gratitude journal she started
and was encouraging her readers to start one. I pray to God day and
night, and at night my prayers include all things I am thankful to
God for so I thought "Why not write it down too, throughout the day
each day?" So I started a gratitude journal and write in it 2-3
times a day most days and at least once a day on days it is not 2-3
times per day. I thank God for my senses: eyesight, hearing, taste,
touch, smell, and intuition (which we all have and is called "the
6th
sense" but not everyone listens to it), I thank Him for having all
of my body parts, organs and limbs and for the ability to walk,
think, talk, dress myself, feed myself, bathe myself and other stuff
I am able to do that not everyone is able to do (like dancing and
writing). I have a long list of everything I am thankful for that God
has given to me and has done for me including a roof over my head,
bed to sleep in, working electricity, working cellphones, working
laptop and working internet access, the clothes I have to wear,
working toilets and shower, working water, food to eat, water to
drink, and so on. As I said, my list is long! And when we are
thinking about the things we have and are thankful to God that we
have them, there is no room to complain or feel doubt because you are
too busy realizing how amazing God is and how much He has already
done for you. Once this book is published, I may find a way to add a
couple of pages from my gratitude journal if I can so that once you
have purchased this inspirational book, you can see some examples of
what to be grateful to God for when you are unable to think of
anything to be thankful for. If you have any of the things on my list
or anything different, then you should write it down and thank God
for whatever it is daily! The day after I started the journal, I went
on a Weekend Ladies Retreat with some of the ladies from my church
and we went to a lake about 3 hours or so from San Jose, where I am
still at currently, and stayed either in trailers or things called
Yurts. I stayed in a Yurt with a lady from my church, a lady from a
different congregation in the San Jose area and then 2 ladies from
the Seaside, California area - where I went to college actually! I
had no idea there was a Church of Christ in Seaside, California, but
then I suppose at the time I attended CSUMB, I wasn't really
looking. It was a great weekend and I learned what true fellowship is
and it was peaceful and relaxing. I wrote about it when I got back
from the trip in my gratitude journal in a list of things I was
thankful for that weekend and I also wrote a blog about it on my
wordpress.com blog account. That takes me to my next subject-
blogging.
Blogging
to Get My Writing Noticed
As
I mentioned in the previous chapter, I started blogging in early
summer of this year. I was at my laptop reading emails one day and
thought how I wanted my writing to be noticed so the right person
could see it and say "I want to hire that girl!" I have been
hoping an editor or owner of a newspaper I want to write for or a
magazine I would like to also write for might see my work and like it
and want to hire me to write articles or short stories for them. I
have blogs at blogger.com, blog.com, and a couple of weeks later
(after starting those two blog sites), when I realized I could have a
free page at wordpress.com, I got one there because I heard that it
was a hot blog site for getting your work noticed, especially for
writers. I at first posted previous articles I had written and
attempted to get published by a few different newspapers like the
L.A. Times, Miami Herald, and Miami Times. I would like to work for
any of those newspapers because they are all God-friendly and they
are like big-time papers that everyone reads! I want to inspire
people all across the country and all over the world with my words.
But then something happened: I started getting thoughts in my head
that I wanted to write down based on things that had just happened to
me and God was inspiring me to write it out so I have been doing
that. I have posted about true love, faith, what to do when feeling
blue, what to do when you feel stuck, Kindness (and the effects and
how it is necessary), how to make positive changes in your life, and
a bunch of other inspirational topics like the importance of
patients, and who to turn to for healing when you are sick (which is
my latest blog as of now). I also wrote a random one about protein
and fitness that a conversation with a young man at my church
inspired a couple of weeks ago during Wednesday evening fellowship
dinner before the Bible Study, both of which take place every
Wednesday. I will see about providing the links to my blog sites
either in the intro or in an "after word" at the end of the book
(or maybe in an "about the author" section) so that anyone
interested can see what I have written.
Life's
Too Short
There are people who get
caught up in daily drama, complaining about someone annoying them,
being stuck in traffic, bad day at work, or something else. There are
people who have a knack for always finding something to
complain about. Other people get caught up in their worries and get
stressed out and miss out on God's miracles within the difficulties
they are going through and the one thing all of these people have in
common is they forget that God is in control. That's right, you heard
me! God is still on the throne and he is in control of your
situation.
The death of a loved one
should help
put things into perspective for people and it is good when it does.
However, not everyone who has lost someone close to them has realized
they were being given a wake-up call to stop complaining and to
stop worrying, and to stop focusing on their problems and turn their
attention to praising God, being thankful they are still alive, and
realizing that God is in control and that a change needs to be made
in their lives so that when it is their turn to die, their life is
not full of regrets or a long list of complaints and worrying that
didn't get them anywhere in life.
It sucks when you lose a
loved one and your friends or other people in your life are focused
on their drama and bring it to you when you are in the grieving
process. It is selfish. If someone you care about (who is not related
to you, since chances are if you are related then you feel the loss
too) loses a loved one, then take time out from your drama and your
"all about me" existence and be a good friend. Offer
condolences and be there quietly with them and give them a break
from hearing about your
senseless drama that won't mean anything in 5-10 years from now. This
is not to belittle anyone's troubles or say all troubles people are
facing are meaningless when put next to someone grieving over the
loss of a loved one, but if it is something stupid like someone is
getting on your nerves in some way and you feel the need to complain
about it, stop it! Keep your complaints to yourself and be a good
friend to your friend who is going through the loss of a loved one
and remember what it was like when it was you who was grieving over
the loss of someone you were close to. If you have never lost someone
close to you, then you are seriously blessed and should thank God
daily. Life is too short to always be complaining, worrying,
stressing, or doing any combination of these things.
On the other hand, if
something major is going on with you like you are having a hard time
paying rent or you have an urgent need that only God can provide for
you, then you should let your friends and loved ones know so that
they can help you out directly if they can, or pray to God on your
behalf if they are unable to help you directly. The earnest prayer of
a righteous person offered with a sincere heart has powerful results.
Remember that when Elijah prayed earnestly for it not to rain, no
rain fell for 3 and 1/2 years (1 Kings 17-18 - in 17 Elijah prays for
it not to rain and in chapter 18, we see that he prays for rain and
God sends down rain).
It is important to know the
difference between drama that should be kept to yourself and you
should deal with and when it is something important that your loved
ones should be informed of, and that you and your loved ones can help
out with or need
to be praying to God for solutions to. It shouldn't even take the
death of a loved one for you to know the difference. However, when a
loved one does die, it should be a wake-up call for us to shift our
perspective if all we do is complain, worry, stress, or any
combination. If you are a genuine believer, unless you are new to the
faith, you should know that God is in control. And for new believers,
get this into your head and heart, that God is all powerful and is in
control, and he has you in the palm of his hand. He will not let any
of life's situations crush you. In fact, in Psalm 145:14, God
promises through King David, "The
Lord helps the fallen and lifts those bent beneath their loads."
All of God's promises are true and he keeps them all. God is faithful
and incapable of breaking promises and incapable of lying so when he
will do something, he will do it. God promises in Deuteronomy 31:8 to
never leave us nor forsake us. It says, "Do
not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead
of you. He will be with you; he will never fail you nor abandon you."
Have you lost someone close
to you? Did you take their death as a wake-up call to get your
priorities in life straight and to make sure you are right with God?
If not then you need to do both of these things and if you start with
making yourself right with God, then he can show you what your
priorities should be. God should always be number one in your life.
When God is number one in your life, you are too busy praising him
and thanking him for the amazing things he has done for you
(including being alive) to be complaining about minor nuances or
difficulties you are going through. When you are in praise mode, you
are instead choosing to trust God to deliver you from your current
difficulties into better times. It is hard when you lose someone you
were very close to, but you cannot let their death end your
relationship with God or make you angry with him. You must hold
firmly to your faith and believe that you and everyone else affected
by the person's death will make it through and that the loved one you
lost is in a better place without suffering or pain. You must
continue to have faith that things will get better for you and your
loved ones who are still alive.
It is important not to
question God why they took your loved one away because you are
questioning his authority. Trust that God had a good reason, if you
don't understand it. It could be he was saving your loved one from
the evils of this world or taking them away from pain and suffering
they were enduring due to illness. Maybe God needed to call them home
to help him. Whatever the reason, though it may not be revealed to us
in our lifetime, we have to trust that God did not do it to be mean,
but had a very good reason for doing it. Life is too short to be
angry with God for things you do not understand. If you are angry
with God about something, then shift your perspective and lean on
faith in God and trust that he had his reasons for whatever it is
that happened and that he will bring you to better days when you
refuse to give up and hold firmly to your faith and hope in him and
in his faithful promises.
Life is too short to live
life bitter, angry, hateful, stressed out, worried, and working
yourself to death trying to make ends meet when God promises to
provide all
of your needs. If you are guilty of doing even one of these things,
then take a moment to ask yourself a few of questions: 1) Will this
matter in 1 year? in 5 years? in 10 years? 2) What would Jesus do in
this situation? 3) What would God want me
to do in this situation? 4) If I were to die tonight or tomorrow, is
this how I want my life to end? Answer these questions openly and
honestly in your mind and then decide that you will make the changes
that need to be made and pray to God to help you make these changes
and he will do so willingly. The apostle James tells us in James 1:5,
"If you need wisdom, ask
our generous God and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you
for asking." However, in
verse 6, James goes on to tell us to make sure we are asking with
faith in God alone and that we are not divided by faith in God and
the world. We need to have unwavering faith in God to receive what we
ask for and what we need from God. Today let go of all bitterness,
all unforgiveness, all hate, stress, worry, frustrations, and all
of the bad stuff and place it all at Jesus' feet in return for peace.
The peace God offers cannot be found in this world, it is an inner
peace of mind and heart. When you trust God with your worries and
with your life, you can have this kind of peace from him. You are not
alone in your struggles. God knows all, sees all, and hears all. God
will bring you through all of the difficulties you will ever
encounter in your life and each time you will come out better off
than you were before the difficult time started. Today, if there is
someone you've been holding a grudge against, decide to let it go and
leave revenge to God. The apostle Paul warns us in Romans 12:19 not
to take revenge but tells us God will pay them back. That also means
that we should not hold a grudge because it will hurt you more than
the other person and nothing gets solved by remaining angry and
letting yourself suffer for something someone else did. You need to
let it go and decide not to be angry anymore. Decide peace and joy
are more important and trust God to take care of the situation once
you have let forgiveness in. Spend each day as if the Lord could be
coming back tonight or tomorrow or as if today is your final day on
earth and live it (each day) giving your love to others, showing
forgiveness, serving the Lord, helping others when you can and going
to someone else who can help if you are unable to, and living in
peace with God, with yourself, and with others. Not to say you should
be morbid and think you will die at any time, but the truth is that
it could be your time at any given time so hope that your day to go
will not be anytime soon but that you can live a long, full, joyous,
peaceful, prosperous life serving God and at the same time, live each
day filled with joy, peace, and kindness towards others and with love
in your heart.
Apologies for the ranting
and if there was any harsh tones to any part of this blog, but
reality can at times be harsh. We all need to face the truth today,
while we are still alive and we need to live our lives in this truth.
God's word is truth and Jesus has set the standards by which we
should be living our lives. May peace be with all of you and if any
of you have recently suffered the loss of a loved one, may God bring
you and your family and everyone else affected by this person's death
comfort, healing, peace, strength, restoration, and everything else
you stand in need of, in Jesus' name.
Australia and 2014 Being
an Awesome Year
Around Christmas time, my
cousin Hayley, who moved to Australia in summer of 2008 invited me to
go visit her for March 2014. Two of my aunts would be there too, one
of which is my cousin's mom. I gave an enthusiastic affirmative and
arrangements were made for me to leave March 15th
and return March 29th.
I got there the morning of March 17th
to Melbourne Airport, since Melbourne was my destination. It was an
amazing experience! I finally got to cross two things off of my
bucket list: Going to Australia and seeing Koalas and Kangaroos up
close. My first day there we went to the beach and then to my
cousin's house to wait for her fianc. I accompanied them both
(my cousin and her fianc) to the gym since they had an evening
Spinning class and I wanted to check out the gym. The next day, my
cousin took my aunts and I shopping but had to leave to pick up a
client of hers from the airport. I was able to find 2 pairs of
sandals for $50 and I also bought this sweet t-shirt with a cherub on
it and a wallet for my Australian dollars since I hadn't been able
to fit my huge black wallet with me for the trip. I also got to eat a
really healthy salad and drink a healthy and yummy smoothie at the
food court of this Shopping Centre we went to. Then we walked along
the riverside since this Shopping Centre was built around a river and
my aunts had some ice cream and I had sorbet since I am lactose
intolerant and cannot have dairy. The guy who served me the
Watermelon sorbet was a bit flirty and approved of me having it in a
cup and not a cone. I told him I didn't like cones and he said he
didn't either. After paying for our desserts, my aunts and I went
to sit down with a view of the river and then shortly after, we went
back to my cousin's house. On Wednesday, we went to the beach
again, but across from this beach was a child's amusement park
called Luna Park and Hayley had us posing silly poses for pics and it
was fun. Then we walked to the beach and sat down for a little bit
and then we had lunch at this lovely vegan cafnearby. Afterwards,
we did a bit of shopping and I found two notebooks for $10 and a cute
kitty reusable (canvas) bag for $2 and purchased them.
Thursday we went back to
the beach and I swam in the ocean for the first time ever.
I was experiencing a few firsts on this trip, including being
in
Australia for the first time. We
had a lovely little picnic there too and I got a few pages of reading
done before we called it a day and went back to the house to get
ready for a girl's night out. For a belated birthday present,
Thursday evening my cousin treated me (and we all
5 of us went) to the original
Grease play
as it was back in the 1950s when it first came out! It was amazing!
When we first got to Her Majesty theatre, I went to look at what was
for purchase with Grease merchandise and I found a cool Grease bag
and Grease pen for $5 each and so I purchased them. I also had a nice
chat with the man behind the counter selling the merchandise and I
explained my limited funds and he asked where I was from and I said
New Jersey and he pointed to the girl next to him (who also worked
there) and said that she was from New Jersey too. After I made my
purchases, I walked back over to my cousin's fianc and showed
her my purchases and the man who had sold me the stuff came over with
a big envelope and I opened it and there was a photograph of the
whole cast with their autographs and a pin! I was surprised and so
was my cousin's fianc, Katie, who asked me what I said or did to
him that had him do it. I told her the gist of my conversation with
him and she drew the conclusion that he must like me. I walked over
to the man (who had returned to the merchandise counter) and I asked
if it would be out of line to hug him and he said that would be
alright so I hugged him (and Katie later told me he seemed to enjoy
the hug). During the play, there were parts where I was a bit lost
since they did the original play version and I'd only seen the
movie
version but some of the songs that were played in slightly different
parts in the movie version made a bit more sense in this play version
and I overall enjoyed the play very much! Grease is the word!
On Friday we went on a
light-rail-type thing that took us in a loop (or circle) around the
town and we didn't do much else because one of my aunts was feeling
poorly and had a doctor's appointment that afternoon. When we got
off the tram, we had lunch at a casino that also had a bunch of
restaurants and then Hayley and Katie took my aunt to the doctor and
my other aunt took me back to Hayley's. We had a quiet Friday
night and on Saturday morning, my aunt was feeling a little better so
we went to a Farmer's Market type place that is open 3-4 times a
week. I found some souvenirs/gifts for some people back in San Jose
and that was a bonus since some of them I hadn't been looking for
gifts for them but when I saw the gifts I had
to get them! On Sunday we played
a trivia quiz my cousin found related to history and even though I
lost the first round, I was given another chance (because I lost
gracefully, whereas my aunt who was poorly didn't) to see what
correct answers I remember being heard for the same questions. My
aunt made a big fuss about me getting another chance and collecting
the most overall points and so she was given another chance too and I
still ended up winning myself a trip to Luna Park. I had wanted to go
since I thought it was an actual amusement park, but was a bit
disappointed when I got there. I ended up only going on 3 rides I
paid for by myself, and then the carousel with Katie. I liked the
rollercoaster I went on and the ship/swing ride (the ship that swings
back and forth) but the "ghost ride" was very kiddy and I was
only amused because I was imagining someone else being there with me
and his reaction to it since he is even more sensitive than I am (or
was at some point) to like scary things and stuff. The carousel could
have gone faster but I suspect it would have been romantic with a
certain someone if he had
been there. But Katie enjoyed it so I will say I liked 3 of the 4
rides I went on. I think the main thing that stopped me from
naturally enjoying the carousel (since I usually do
enjoy riding on carousels) is the fact that I couldn't stop
thinking about someone
and wishing he was there.
Monday, we went shopping
again and I got this lovely soft turquoise zippered hoodie and a
couple of more gifts for others, and a romance novel for myself (I
couldn't help myself. I enjoy reading a good romance and this one
had a VW bug (like Herbie) on the cover so I was already intrigued
and when I read the back for what the story was about, I decided to
buy it). Tuesday, we went to the Botanical Gardens which was lovely
to walk through and my aunt and I had excellent breathing days with
all the Eucalyptus trees around. We had a nice lunch by a river there
and we continued walking around afterwards too. We took bunches of
group photos and a couple of individual ones of me and of one of my
aunts and then lots more of the pretty flowers and trees. We also saw
something called a bell bird because of the way it chirped (it
sounded like a bell) and I think I got a pic of that too! I also saw
a black swan and took a photo of it. There were some other
interesting birds there that I took pics of. On Tuesday evening, we
celebrated my birthday again by going to a nice Italian restaurant
called Madonna's. I had a gluten-free pasta! Woohoo! I also had
some chocolate gelato for dessert but that's okay since it was a
birthday celebration for me! I have given up unhealthy foods for lent
(until April 18th)
and I have mainly been able to stick to this for the most part! I am
thinking I may actually make it a lifestyle change where I avoid
unhealthy foods as much as possible and only purposely indulge once
in a while on special occasions or when I've been good for a while
so I don't "fall off the wagon" of healthy foods. We walked to
and from the restaurant since it was within walking distance of
Hayley's house and I wore a pretty peach dress I bought a couple of
weeks before my birthday as an early birthday present to myself and
it was nice to dress up for the evening. Photos were taken before we
left, at the restaurant, and on the walk back and then a couple of
more when we got back inside the house. It was a well-documented
evening. I wasn't originally going to have any photos with this
book but I am considering maybe trying to find a way to have a few
from my trip to Australia added in one way or another.
Wednesday, we went to a
lovely Sanctuary in a place called Healsville! I love the name in
itself! We stopped at a bakery to pick up sandwiches to bring with us
and there were a bunch of records with artists I recognized so I took
a pic and then I took a photo of the name of the bakery too. At the
Sanctuary we first saw a bird show with eagles, parrots, and other
kinds of birds too and one of the parrots talked! It didn't just
repeat what you said, it could give one-word answers in like actual
conversation-mode! I got that
on video! One of my aunts, who brought her camera from England with
her on her trip to Australia, caught a photo of the eagle (which I
had been unable to do) and she kindly sent me a copy of the photo via
email along with pics that had me in them that she or someone else
had taken with her camera. I also saw a bunch of kangaroos and some
Koalas! I got to go inside the habitat of one of the Koalas and have
my picture taken in front of it! I also took pics of it on my camera
phone. I also took video of 3 other Koalas (one a baby who was only a
year old) and because they looked so darn cute all plucking and
eating the Eucalyptus leaves from the trees. I saw a Platypus too but
was unable to get photos unfortunately! I also saw for the first time
ever, a Tasmanian Devil (yes they actually exist) and a Wombat (which
kind of looks like a baby bear). I cannot forget, I saw more parrots
and cockatoos, parakeets, and a couple of other birds and I was able
to feed 3 of them too! At different times, I had 3 different birds
feeding from this plastic plate thing that had bird seed on it. The
visit to the Sanctuary was great! Unlike Zoos, where the animals are
there for entertainment, the Sanctuary I went to is trying to
preserve the animals there because they are endangered. It was a fun
outing.
Thursday we went shopping
again and at the place where we went shopping the first time after I
arrived. This time I got a backpack that could fit everything my rose
bag couldn't so that I didn't have to check any bags. The
backpack was originally $80 and I bought it for $30! Friday was my
last day there so I got to decide what we did. My aunts had been
meant to return to England the Saturday night after
I got there, but because one of them was not feeling well they both
ended up staying longer than me and left the Tuesday after I had
returned to the States. Both of my aunts contended with arrangements
to leave on the coming Tuesday. Hayley and Katie brought their dog
Monty and I to the beach closest to them. We walked there, I rode a
bike for the first time in about 14 years for about an hour along the
beach, and then we walked back to the house. My cousin made me
spaghetti Bolognese since I had requested it and she said I could
make a special request for my last night there and it was yummy.
Saturday morning I woke up really early and said my goodbyes with
hugs to my aunts and then Hayley and Katie took me to the airport. I
had a safe trip both to Australia and then back to northern
California.
2014 is My
Year and Can Be Yours Too
I am very thankful to God
for my trip to Australia! It would not have been possible for me to
go if not for God's awesomeness. When my Nana passed away, she left
me some money which funded my trip and I had leftover money
afterwards. I used that money for the stuff I bought in Australia
(whether for myself or the gifts for others) and brought some back
with me. I have faith God will help me turn that money into USA
dollars and will help me get dollar (Australian) for dollar (USA). I
believe that my trip to Australia is proof positive that 2014 is my
year! 2014 is my year to be fully
healed of all
sickness, disease, and pain.
2014 is my year
to say goodbye
to poverty, lack, debt, dependence on other people for help, and
failed relationships; 2014 is my
year to say hello
to great abundance
in every
area of my life. I believe
2014 is the year that I get the dream job God promised me and stop
relying on other people for shelter or other financial issues and
rely only
on God for all
provisions. I believe 2014 is the year that Jonathan returns to God
with sincere repentance and has his faith in God strengthened, and
the year Jonathan and I finally will be together in person and as a
couple. 2014 can also be your
year if you believe it. You already know the requirements of being
saved and having a right relationship with God, so as long as you are
following God's ways and continue to love and revere God and serve
Him and serve others on His behalf then you could have an amazing
year! You could have an amazing life,
starting today.
It is
now May 4, 2014 and April was a blessed month for me! I was able to
pay off a bike in 3 payments and I picked it up three days ago
(Thursday, May 1, 2014) when it was ready and made the final of three
payments I made on it. I was also able to buy a Backstreet Boys
ticket to their concert they will be having in Mountainview, CA -
which is not too far from me - on May 25th
and my concert ticket arrived safely in the mail last Wednesday. One
thing I forgot to mention about Australia was that while I was there,
I upgraded my free writing.com account (which I got in 2011) to a
Premium one at half price with some of the money I received from my
Nana's inheritance. I did some writing in Australia and as I
mentioned above, I have been writing since I got back quite a bit. I
wrote this one short romance story that I posted on writing.com and
the author of a new magazine just about to launch read this story of
mine called "Summers of Love: Elizabeth's Story" and liked it
so much that he emailed me and asked me if he could publish it in his
magazine (giving me the credit). I agreed to it and so my short story
will be published in the July/August issue of this new magazine
called Mid-Ohio Valley Poetry Magazine. It publishes poetry and short
stories and I am honored that someone liked my story enough to want
to publish it in their magazine. I researched the magazine and it
looks good and is definitely legit. I also received multiple other
blessings including unexpected financial ones (which enabled me to
pay off my bike) last month and anticipate the blessings to come to
me this month and onwards. I have been getting into the habit of not
just reading
God's word but hearing it
and it has helped me lots. I also have some bible study tools which
can easily be found online for free, although if you can afford to
buy a Bible dictionary and some of the other tools, then you will be
well on your way to stronger faith too. I have been looking for a
bible dictionary outside of the free ones offered with the Bible
study tools I found online, but they are a bit expensive so I will be
putting money aside to get one, and also I do not think I've found
the right one yet. I want more than names. I am holding out for a
dictionary that will have all biblical names, all biblical places,
all words used
in the Bible. If the word appears in the Bible, I want to know the
bible's definition
of it. For example, I want the full meaning to the word "grace"
and "faith" as is mentioned in the bible. If you can get access
to such a bible dictionary then you too will be better off because
then you can understand more deeply what God's word is saying and
you will have an easier time applying God's word to your life. I
noticed that the days my faith is strongest are the days I am most
blessed, most of the time. I also noticed that when I refuse to let
the enemy (the Devil) stress me out or upset me, that I usually
receive more of God's blessings too. And when Satan does
stress me out I either quote
scripture from memory or I open my bible to comforting verses or
watch one of my favorite TV shows online (from my phone), or listen
to music. I do something
to relieve the stress. The first
thing I do though, is to pray to God. That is what you should do too.
When the enemy attacks you with lies about why something won't work
out or goes directly against something God has told you (particularly
through scripture), quote scripture to him (to the enemy) and if you
are too upset to remember it by heart, open your bible and find
scripture to quote to him that calls the enemy on his lies. This is
why daily bible study is important: when you study your bible every
day and seek a deeper
understanding of what God is
saying, then you will be able to write the scripture in your heart
and no matter what lie the enemy attacks you with, you will remember
the right verse
or verses to quote out loud (or at least in your head, or to write
down) to the enemy and also to yourself as a reminder that it is
God's word that
has power and it is God who has authority over your life and your
current situation. God's word is truth
so when your thoughts and words line up with God's word then you
will have what you need to fend off the lies of the devil. You will
also see your actions start to align with God's word as you think
and speak it out loud and when you do what is in alignment with God's
will and His word, you will receive the blessings you have been
waiting for to turn your current situation around. There will still
be days of testing, but as you mature in your faith by daily studying
His word, you will find yourself passing the tests more often than
not, and even if you do lost hope for a moment, it will be fleeting
and then you will remember what God
says about your situation and
you will have reason to be hopeful and be able to stand firm in your
faith.
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