I didn’t trust God. There I said it. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it is true. At the time, I didn’t realize that was the case, but looking back, that was exactly it. I would often blame my impatience on my impulsive personality but I realize that it went a lot deeper than that. My impatience came from a place of mistrust. I didn’t trust God would work on my behalf if a prayer took too long to get answered. I would then ditch the waiting on God scenario and concoct dead-end ways to answer my own prayers.
For today’s lesson, I have learned to be patient and wait on God! When I don’t, the results are often a hot mess! Proverbs 3:5-6 reminds me that I must trust in the Lord with all my heart. Not some of my heart, but all of it. In all of my ways acknowledge Him-not some of my ways but all of them. Are you seeing a pattern here? God is really into this TOTAL surrender thing. After I have surrendered my all to God, I must then learn to be patient and allow Him to direct my path. The directing may not come as quickly as I would like or in the direction I want to go. However, I must learn to trust that God’s timing and wisdom are always the best option for me. How about you? Do you find that you are impatient or is it easy for you to be still and trust God? Leave me a comment, I would love to hear from you.
Be Blessed
Anika
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct[a] your paths.
I have some breaking news to share with you. Ready for it? Here it is, we all make mistakes! We have all done things that we are not proud of. That’s a fact! But, what do you do when the mistakes from your past seem to constantly haunt you and you struggle to live in the here and now? What happens when past sins are constantly on replay in your mind and the shadow of your past is always present. I am very familiar with the mental torment, the regret and the shame attached to past mistakes.
However, one of the things that I have learned on my road to being forty is that I AM FORGIVEN SO I MUST FORGIVE MYSELF. I don’t have to carry my baggage from the past into my future. I don’t have to live condemned. IF (and this is a big IF here) if I come to God and sincerely repent, He forgives me (1 John 1:9). If God has forgiven me, I must also make the choice to forgive myself. The scripture tells me that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus(Romans 8:1) and that I am a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)! The game changer in all of this is JESUS! He makes it possible for me to unload all of the burden and shame of past sins, but again I must first come to Him. I love how Jesus is about making all things new, so on my road to being forty, I have made the choice to join Him in this newness movement. I am living in the reality that I AM FORGIVEN! How about you? Do you find that you struggle with receiving forgiveness from God and yourself for past sins? Leave me a comment, I would love to hear from you. Below are some scriptures to encourage you in this area.
Be Blessed
Anika
Isaiah 43:25
“I–yes, I alone–will blot out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again.
Psalm 103:12
AAs far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
1 John 1:9
But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
2 Corinthians 5:17
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
Romans 8:1
So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.
My word for this season is PROCESS and I am not always overwhelmingly excited about it. I have noticed an interesting pattern in my life. God speaks, I get excited and I initially pursue what He tells me. However, with time, that excitement diminishes. I was looking through my blog and realized that I had a lot of unfinished blog post in the draft section. Why is that? I get excited about writing a piece and just like that I walk away and never finish it. My unfinished blog posts are reflective of my impatience with the process and my desire to always start something new if the old is taking too long to be completed.
I am uncomfortable with waiting and being patient. For example, at times I become impatient while waiting for my children to become more independent, for my hair to grow, waiting to lose that baby weight from almost five years ago, and on and on. I love the idea of getting to the end and receiving what God promised me. I am often in a hurry for the process to end, but God allows the process to continue because He is trying to do a deeper work in me. I can’t be so quick to move on to another script if the end of my current season doesn’t come as quick as I would like. I leave so much on the table and miss the valuable lessons God is trying to teach me. My prayer is to be more focused and patient while going through the process that is before me. I can relax in knowing that God won’t hold out on the promise that is waiting for me at the end of all of this. What a great comfort! How about you? Do you find that you have patience in the process or are you always looking for it to end? Leave a comment, I would love to hear from you.
Be Blessed,
Anika
Have you ever prayed to hear God’s voice? Have you been stuck, uncertain of your next moves and you need the Lord to speak to you? I have. I go and pour my heart out asking the Lord to provide clarity. However, when He gives me an answer I don’t want, I go back with the same prayer request, “Oh God please let me hear your voice!” But what I am really saying is, “God I heard what you said but I don’t like that response. I don’t want to do it! Can you please come up with some other alternative?” He is God and I am not. Even though I don’t always like what I hear when He speaks to me, it is always in my best interest to respond in obedience. Deuteronomy 28 lists all the blessing that follow when Israel obeyed God’s instructions. We love to shout about those promises, ‘blessed going out blessed coming in!’ But before you get to shouting, don’t forget to read that passage in its entirety. The latter verses share the consequences of disobeying God. This passage reminds us that God does provide direction for His people and tell them what He expects of them. However, the ability to hear His voice demands a response of obedience from the hearer.
God speaks to us in many ways. It may be in a dream, from His word, through another believer, or just a strong inner knowing, among many other ways. Don’t take for granted that the creator of the universe speaks to you! Even if it is not what you want to hear, you know He won’t lead you in the wrong direction. As we prepare to enter a new year, do you find yourself with unfinished God tasks? You know, the things the Lord told you to do when you asked to hear His voice. The things you did not want to do. Yeah, those things. The start of a New Year does not mean that God will change His mind. I encourage you to not only pray to hear God’s voice but to also pray for a heart to obey when He does speak even if it is not what YOU WANT TO DO. His grace is there to attend you!
Deliverance from sin comes only when I want it and I reach that place of true repentance. No one can wish me to deliverance. It is something that I must be desperate for and God in turn meets me in that desperation and brings freedom. The blood of Jesus is what makes deliverance from sin possible, no matter how severe the case. A lack of deliverance is not based on God’s inability. Instead, it is based on my unwillingness to submit to the process and REPENT! At times, I mistake wanting comfort with wanting to be free. There is a huge difference! Many will come and say they want to be delivered from making unwise decisions and being spiritually wayward. When in fact what they are really saying is, I don’t mind the decisions I am making, I don’t mind living in sin but what I really want to be delivered from is the consequences attached to my sinful choices. Feeling bad and trying to avoid the CONSEQUENCES and not the SIN that warrant the consequences reveals a heart that is not repentant. 2 Corinthians 7:10 reads, “For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.” I know I really want to be delivered when I begin to feel sorry about THE ACT OF SINNING and not just the CONSEQUENCES attached to my choices. Take for example a man who is caught stealing and is sentenced to years in prison. The question he must ask is, do I really feel bad about stealing (the sin) or do I just feel bad about being in prison (the consequence)? Other signs that I want to be delivered is that I stop making excuses and pointing the finger at others. Instead, I take responsibility for what I have done wrong. I am also willing to be fully transparent about my sins and not pick and choose what I share. These are all signs of humility and God gives grace to the humble but resist the proud (James 4:6). God’s love, forgiveness and deliverance is available to us. We just have to really want it!
Be blessed!
Anika
Before Jesus was crucified, He made it very clear that he would be resurrected. He knew that death was not the end of His story.
In John 2:19-20, Jesus goes in and clears the temple and calls out the religious leaders for making His father’s house into a place of profit for them instead of a house of prayer. The leaders were upset with Jesus and asked him to show them a sign that He had the authority from God to do these things. Jesus then tells them that if they destroyed this temple that he would raise it up in three days. They were spiritually deaf and dumb and assumed that He was speaking of the physical temple that took 46 years to build. However, Jesus was speaking of His crucifixion and resurrection.
After He was crucified, the religious leaders went to Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember what that deceiver once said while he was still alive: ‘After three days I will rise from the dead.’ So we request that you seal the tomb until the third day. This will prevent his disciples from coming and stealing his body and then telling everyone he was raised from the dead! If that happens, we’ll be worse off than we were at first.” Pilate replied, “Take guards and secure it the best you can.” So they sealed the tomb and posted guards to protect it” (Mathew 27:63-66). Little did they know that no security on their part could stop the supernatural work of God. On the third day, Jesus shook death off of Him and He was resurrected just like he said!
As believers, Jesus’ resurrection has powerful implications for us. God’s intentions are always for life, and that more abundantly. Some of us are facing dead situations, but God has already told us that death is not the end of the story. However, with the passing of time, we can allow the devil to convince us that death is how our story will end. But it is not so! I want to encourage you to partner with God and begin to believe and speak life! Speak what God has already spoken in your ear. Rehearse the promises. Hold on to them regardless of how dead your situation may appear. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power that is able to raise your dead situation. The devil can try to put stones and His guards in the way to block life and hinder the promises of God. However, there is no devil in hell that can hinder what God has spoken. This upcoming Resurrection Sunday I want to encourage you to not only rejoice for the resurrection of Jesus but let out a crazy praise for the life that is coming to your dead situation!