. . . Tears Fall . . .

James 4:7-10~  ⁷ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

            Sometimes we all just need a good cry… Last night I had this overwhelming feeling. It was the weirdest thing ever, I was in the shower and had recently gotten off the phone with my dad, who unfortunately I have a rocky relationship with, and we had a normal conversation for us, which is rarely ever good, but I got in the shower and just felt so overwhelmed I began just crying out to God and just praying for my dad, because as some of you know he is sick and the doctor’s only gave him so much time to live. Also he had surgery a little while back that went bad and he can now barely walk, on top of all that he is an alcoholic and is honestly a bitter man from his past and losing my mom. …. But I just called out to God asking him what am I suppose to do. My family all encourages me to not be around my dad so much because of his behavior and how he is with me, but I feel bad not being there for my dad. On the other hand, every time I’m around him I’m never good enough and he always wants to fill my head with gossip on everyone we know and he just talks bad about everyone. I want my dad to go to church with me. I want him to get better mentally. I wish he wasn’t so sick. I just don’t know what to do. I was just sobbing there in the shower just saying all of this to God and asking Him what to do and to guide me and just giving it all to Him telling Him I couldn’t handle that weight of my dad anymore and all the sudden my sister opens the bathroom door and asked me if I was ok, apparently she had heard me crying from downstairs, she had asked if I had hurt my back (earlier that night I attempted to do a back handspring again, lol, and it didn’t go so well) … Well all the sudden I started cracking up laughing cause it was just kind of crazy how she had heard me from downstairs and I was just imagining what she was thinking, lol, but just that little moment , with her coming in, and me laughing about it all helped me feel a lot better. . . .  I told my sister I was ok and I just started thinking about what had happened . . . It felt good just to cry out to God and get everything off my chest and just verbally and physically humble myself before Him. …. Sometimes I think we all just need that. And I feel like God had my sister come in at just the right time after I had gotten everything out and just brought joy and laughter in her coming in. God is just so good and amazing in how His hand is in everything and how He shows his comfort to us and loves us. Thank You Lord for who You are and for loving me and comforting me when I need You!

Psalm 29:11~ The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace.

Actions Speak Louder than Words

Actions speak Louder than words. It is so true, isn’t it? Whether it’s in relationships with a boyfriend/husband or how our political leaders act or parents are? Actions always mean more to us as a society than words do.  I’m not saying words aren’t powerful, because they definitely are, but without actions to back up those words there just empty words right? . . .

For example, if a husband or boyfriend tells his wife/girlfriend he loves her, but then abuses her or is an adulterer then obviously those words he uses to express his love aren’t really backed up with true love. If he were a loyal man who was a devoted leader to his wife/ girlfriend those would be the right actions to show his love towards her.

Another example is our political leaders. For example, many people voted for Barak Obama because of his amazing way of speaking and how comfortable with only his words and safe he made some of the American people feel. He uses great rhetoric when speaking, but since his presidency many of those same people who voted for him do not feel the same warm, fuzzy feeling they once felt about him and claim that his actions do not reflect his words and what he said he was going to do. People are mad, hurt, angry. . .

Our parents . . . If you ever got in trouble when you were younger or even now, lol, and your parents yelled at you and grounded you, but never backed up that grounding and went through with it you would think you could get away with anything right? If their cycle was always yelling and threatening punishment but never backing that punishment up and following through with it, it would be easy for us as children not to obey knowing the consequences would never really be there . . .

As Christians we say all the time we love God and we talk about Him to others and tell others our views on Christ and what He means to us and we talk and talk and talk, or blog and blog and blog, whatever it is we do . . . but are our actions backing up our words? I look at myself and I hope that for the most part to whoever is reading this that my actions back up my words, but I also know how many times I can fall short and not let me actions reflect what I say and if I think about it, it’s such a powerful thing. If a non-believer sees me act not in accordance with what I say that can ruin my testimony so much. . . Have you ever heard the story of Marilyn Manson? The ‘Prince of Darkness’, he went to a ‘Christian’ school and this school claimed to be a school full of believers and people who followed after Christ, but the kids in that school just outcaste Manson  and look where he is today . .  It really makes you think. If someone had acted like a Christian, as they had said this school was full of them, maybe Manson wouldn’t be doing what he is doing today? ….

More than just our actions though is our mindset. Because I also believe we can have good words and actions, but our mindset is a HUGE thing also. Because we can be saying and doing all the “right things” but if we don’t have our mindset on Christ and have a pure mind in what we’re doing then it’s not real also. If we’re doing things just to reflect back on us that’s wrong or if we’re only performing our actions to try to “save” ourselves that’s wrong to, because our works are nothing. It’s a relationship with Christ that God wants. He wants us to confess with our words to Him and then through a pure mindset, in just wanting to follow our Amazing creator, wants our actions too purely and truly reflect how we feel and what we say about Christ.

~Matthew 12:36-37- “³⁶ But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the Day of Judgment for every empty word they have spoken. ³⁷ For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”~

I liked this little analogy and decided to share it :)

"People often come to Christ in the fog. The fog lifts and we can perceive life in a whole new realm. Even more exciting is the knowledge that the day will come when we stand before Christ, when we will see Him clearly just as He is, in all His glory. Nothing will be able to cloud the true and living Christ from our vision. For now, we must trust Him to see for us, then guide and direct us through His Word and prayer." ~Quiet Moments with God: Devotional Journal for Women.

God You are so good! Help me to see and follow You clearly daily! I love YOU Lord!

Random, lol, but what's Your Bucket List ???

To the Girls . . . :)

I posted this on my facebook a little while ago and decided to go ahead and add it to here :) . . .

      I was talking to my friend Jessica today and what we were talking about today was just about how much we as girls can really rely on guys for our worth. But why do we do that? If a guy doesn't treat you right or respect you the way he should then he is not the guy you should be with. Just because he doesn't see how special you are does not mean you aren't special. Why do we torture ourselves waiting for him to call, or ask us out, or tell us were beautiful, or that he likes us back? Why do we stare at our phones just hoping he'll take the time to send us that text? WHY? Why do we care so much if he likes us back or not? If he does and is a godly man of Christ then he will pursue us in the right way, in the godly way, and things will be clear in that Christ is the center. If he doesn’t like us … then that’s fine to! and we need to realize that God will have someone out there for us, just this one is not, “THE ONE”, lol, but we don’t need to worry cause if we follow Christ hard then we will find “the One” without going through the heart break to find him. And we might even find a good Christian Godly man who we really like and it might not be mutual feelings of him liking us back, but that still just means that God has someone different for us …. I feel like so many of my girl friends and myself have felt this way at some point in our lives. But we neeeeeeeeeeed to realize when God wants us with someone he will bring that person to us and we don't need to worry about a guy giving us self worth. God tells us so many times throughout the Bible how special we are. Remember we are fearfully and wonderfully made Psalm 139:14 "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Also remember, and to me this is so important now just seeing it in my own life recently and in the lives of my friends, that we need to wait for God to bring the right one to us and not try and start something that isn't right for the time or isn't right for what we know God wants, Song of Solomon 2:7  "Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires." This same verse is repeated word for word 3 more times (3:5, 5:8, 8:4) So I think we really need to remember this verse and take it to heart!...

           2 Corinthians 6:14-  “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” Ok girls whose been there? Another important point is not dating someone to try and convert them or even dating a person that says their a Christian, but there are no fruits. If you've been there then you know that usually the one who gets hurt in that type of relationship is the believer. My friend told me once she dated a guy who use to say that, “she made him want to be a better person”, when he would say that to her she would feel good about that and felt like she was really helping him... But then she thought about him and if she felt he was doing the same for her, making her want to be a better person, and it was definitely the opposite. She could see how much she let him bring her down in her walk with God and then she got in a position where she felt too weak to leave him and let Satan fool her into putting all of her self-worth in that guy. In relationships we need to be equally yoked both pulling each other towards Christ not just one person doing all the work cause its way easier to be pulled down than to try and pull yourself plus another person up (and guys are usually a lot heavier than girls, j/k lol)

            In conclusion, lol, Ladies God is going to take care of us! He is all the man we will ever need! Hopefully we find good Godly men in our lifetime on earth, but in order to do that we need to really be in continual prayer about our future spouse and the guys we choose to date. Wait for the guy God has for you. Wait in every way possible (physically, emotionally, and spiritually) We’ve all probably fallen short in one or all 3 of these areas with past relationships, but that doesn’t mean we can’t change and re-dedicate our dating lives for Christ! God has great plans for us and we never need to worry as long as we trust in Him! Believe me of all people, I am saying this all to myself! lol …. But I wanted to maybe be able to encourage some of you as well! Have a good night! You all are BEAUTIFUL!

"For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, they are plans for good, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

P.S.- Listen to this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J95rAr0gOFU … The lyrics in it really spoke to me a while ago when I was listened to it,

 “Why are you looking for love,

Why are you still searching as if I'm not enough,

To where will you go child,

Tell me where will you run”



Trails

Trials…. We all go through them…

What has been a big trial in your life? Has someone close passed away? Have your parent’s gotten a divorce or you yourself? Have you physically gone through hardships? Have you lost someone you love to another or felt betrayed by a friend? Have you experienced financial struggles? We’ve all gone through trials. . .  How do you feel when you’re going through them? Not good… Right? Do you feel lonely, sad, lost, emotionless, angry, confused, hurt? Do you blame others? Do you blame God? We ask, “WHY?”

“Why God?”

Why do we have to feel this pain? To feel this hurt? I’ve been there. . . Why did my parents have to get a divorce? Why couldn’t I have a Christian dad who wasn’t an alcoholic and loved me more than the alcohol? Why did my dad get sick? Why is he such a mess? Why do I have to take care of him when he should take care of me? . . . Why God?

I’m sure many of you ask, “Why?” It’s a question we ask often, because we don’t understand. We say it doesn’t’ make sense that if God loves us why would allow this pain to come into our lives. But God does love us and does allow the pain and the trials. He allows them so He can test our faith and so that we can grow in him. . .

1 Peter 1:3-9- “³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹ for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

Romans 5:1-5 (Another good verse, you may want to look up )

It hurts to go through these trials God allows, but it really is for our own good. We just need to remember that God is with us through them all. He wants us to draw closer to Him through our trials and he will protect us and hold us through our pain.

Isaiah 41: 13
¹³ For I am the LORD your God   who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear;
   I will help you.

Joshua 1:9 - ⁹Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

            Christ will be with us through everything! He’s with us when we lose that loved one. He holds us when we feel all alone. He’s our greatest friend when we feel like we have none. He can give us a peace in anything we go through that will transcend all understanding of this world. Others can look at us and wonder why we are still strong through the darkness that is in our life and we can tell them about God through our actions when trials come and how we let the peace of God flow through us. Remember we see just the page or the chapter in the story we call life, but God sees the whole thing and He won’t give us more than we can handle (1 Corinthians 10:13) and He knows the ending to our story!

Philippians 4:4-7- ⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

I Cannot Beat Satan . . . But with You I can!

I decided to put The Message version of this verse in here because, It really helped explain the verse, at least for me it did …

Romans 7:14-25 (The Message)

 ^14-16I can anticipate the response that is coming: "I know that all God's commands are spiritual, but I'm not. Isn't this also your experience?" Yes. I'm full of myself—after all, I've spent a long time in sin's prison. What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary. ^17-20But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.  ^21-23It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.  ²⁴I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?  ²⁵The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.

I was reading this passage in Romans today and it really stood out to me. . . Satan is around every corner. He wants us to stumble and fall into temptation. Satan's road always seems easier as well and maybe it is at first, but the consequences of his road can drag any of us into a downward spiral. As Christian’s are we ever truly happy when we give into temptation and do those things that Satan wants us to that look fun to the world? At first they can be awesome and fun and exciting, but they end up leaving us feeling empty and far from God. I’ve had so many friends give into so many different things that the world and Satan have to offer and every time they just feel emptier. I myself have been there many of times and given into Satan. I’ve fallen for his tricks sometimes unintentionally and sometimes intentionally. Why do we want what we can’t have? Why do we go against what we know as Christians we're suppose to be doing? Why do we say we love God, but hurt Him with our sin so often? Why do we ever question God? We know what His word says and what He wants for us yet we still disobey…. Have you ever read the story in Genesis of Eve and Adam taking from tree God specifically said not to and yet they did? Do you ever say,

“I would never do that! Why did they do that? If I would have been there, then I wouldn’t have done that!”

 …. WE WOULD HAVE! … Look how God has told us to love others and yet we still make fun of people and gossip. He tells us not to lie, yet we do. He asks us to trust Him and we don’t? And every other commandment or encouragement God gives us, we ignore and believe Satan! Why? It makes me so angry that I am so weak and give in so much to Satan and his lies! Why do we choose his fakeness over God’s greatness?  And how do we ever become better lights for Christ and stop repeating our wicked ways?

…. I’ve realized I can’t do it! I can’t stop myself from being tempted and giving into sin. Even though I want so badly to not give into sin, I can’t do it on my own. ….Jesus Christ though, can do it! He can help me in overcoming Satan and running from Him. Without Christ, I am nothing. I can’t do anything without Him. I look at the world and the people who don’t believe in God and why wouldn’t they do the wicked things they do? How can you overcome Satan and all he offers of this world without Christ? It's hard even for us as Christians to not succumb to Satan's schemes.  I’ve felt good in the past when I’ve thought I’ve overcame some temptation that Satan set in front me, but that wasn’t me who overcame that temptation that was Christ working in me. I can do nothing on my own. I lose every time. But with God I can do everything and be a champion. With God all things are possible! 

Matthew 19:26- “²⁶ Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

*Thank You Lord for your guidance. For never giving up on me. For forgiving me even when I mess up over and over again and for being with me and helping me overcome temptation when I do. I love YOU GOD! :) I am SOOOOO in love with You!