tharseo: to be of good cheer.

Life can throw curve balls at you sometimes. How do you handle tough situations in your life? Stress? Trials?  What are your tendencies in those circumstances? I'm going to give you an inside look in how I handle it and how the Lord has walked patiently with me through all of this. :) 
I tend to run away from situations that I know I'm not capable of handling. I am notorious for suppressing my feelings and (try to forget them) instead of bringing it to the only One who can heal and set me free. It was almost as if I forgot about the cross and what Jesus did for me that I would just get overwhelmed and carry fear, anxiety and hopelessness. I had created space and distance between us. 

BUT, He is patient, waiting for me to come back to him. Because of God's grace, He has given us love, joy and hope because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. I had to go back to that simple truth. That He is enough for me-- that the challenges that I face in life are used for His glory. I have to choose to operate in that instilled joy that Jesus had placed in my heart when He saved me. 

Here's how I handled my problems vs. a heart check from Jesus 

Lie: I was making decisions based on the way I felt. 
Truth: My feelings don't determine my steps. 

Lie: I tried to hide my feelings from God. 
Truth: God knows my heart. He's near to me. He cares. 

Lie:  I tried to run away from the Lord. 
Truth:  He placed peace in my heart I ran towards HIM. 

Lie: I was so afraid of what was in front of me
Truth: God called me to be courageous and have strength. 

Lie: I hated the circumstances in my life. 
Truth: I delight in Jesus. He is taking me through these things and because I have him, i have joy. And with that being said, it is a blessing to go through these things with Jesus.

Lie: I had to carry the burden. 
Truth: No I didn't, Jesus already did that! 

 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will havetribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. 
John 16:33

Find encouragement in him today. He loves giving it to you!  Take heart. Know that He is for you and not against you. Come to him. Draw near to his heart because his love for you is so deep. Seek Him-- 


// i am confident neither life nor death can keep me from the love of christ. though i cannot see... my heart still believes that I am filled with joy. I feel his love running in on the inside of me. all those years been in shame he is setting me free. His love goes deeper than the pain I feel His love goes deeper than depression and fear // 

He will give you peace. Live in joy. freedom. and love. no matter the circumstance. Jesus is big enough. 

Your sister, 

M

"blessed are those who wait"

There's a lot of different directions I could go with this but the Lord pointed me to one very significant verse in psalm 37 that caught my attention. 
It reads: 

verse 7- 
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; 
fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, 
over the man who carries out evil devices! 

Disclaimer: 

You may not relate to the following story at all,  but hey maybe you would. ;)  

I've learned so much about myself in my relationship with God and one of those things is the fact that I am a very antsy! I am in constant motion. I can't sit in one place for an extended amount of time because I'm always in a consistent wave of motion. Call me ADHD! Classify me, why don't ya! I always have to be going somewhere, doing something, something, something, something!  

My mind is the worst. It's always going 99 miles per hour switching from subject to subject. It's ridiculous and I can't stop it! Then, I find myself in a whirlwind of chaos and craziness because I was trying to find all the answers alone and make things happen by myself. It was in that moment that I realized how much I needed to just sit still and exhale. 

First of all, I had to remember that I am not the Creator. I am simply a vessel. I don't have all the answers but praise Jesus, I know the One who knows. //Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4// This gives me absolute joy and PEACE because it is up to Him. He is the Artist who can paint way better and more beautiful paintings than I can ever paint. 

Secondly, the application part.. ACTUALLY sitting down before the Lord (by myself) and soaking in his goodness and peace. When I acknowledge His presence, something in me starts changing. Even, if it's 5 minutes (you gotta start somewhere!) And the more that you get yourself in this place, you'll find yourself not so frantic, worried and busy! 

Third, be confident in the fact that God has a plan for your life. Again, He's the painter, you're not.  Trust me, I've sunken into the plethora of lies that have detoured me from truly believing the best for my life. It may not come in the timing that you were hoping, but we have to realize that our life isn't to bring us glory, it's to bring HIS name glory! 

When you come to this revelation, everything starts changing. You see things in a different light and the desires ad wants that you once desired starts fading away and His desires start piercing through your heart. It is a beautiful thing. Take it and run with it. 

Once you realize the character of God and the hope that He is working on this beautiful painting which is you and the purpose he has called you to, it makes waiting patiently for him and his timing much more bearable and worth it.

Whether it's waiting at a traffic light, grocery store, that next life step (spouse, family, babies) , a purpose, a break through, an adventure or just Jesus; be patient, put God first, seek him and let him move in your life. 

{I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,

    and in his word I hope;

   my soul waits for the Lord

    more than watchmen for the morning,

    more than watchmen for the morning.}

Psalm 130:6 

Trust Him. He knows what He's doing. And remember to breathe! This is not a race, it's a process. 

For his glory, 

M 

Relentless Love

Feelings and emotions are apart of life. I think that the Lord  uses those feelings to help us understand his love for us. It's such a beautiful thing to know that the Creator of the universe really cares about those moments obscurity, anger, the fear of the unknown, loneliness, shame, guilt etc. In these times, I am reminded of one word: relentless. 

 Some synonyms for relentless are words such as persistent, continuing, constant, continual, continuous, nonstop,never-ending, unforgiving,unyielding ferocious, ruthless, uncompromising. 

When I think about God and I think about these words, I am immediately taken back because I am reminded of how He's already paid the price for me. He fought for me even before I was born. When it seems like all hope is gone, that everything seems dead, dry and defeated; His promise reigns true. Don't get me wrong, God has many promises for his children. But the biggest promise and truth that we can remember is this. God is constant. He is persistent. He is the same yesterday as he is today. (Hebrews 13:8) That promise is filled with peace and hope. Every time I am feeling low, hurt or attacked I can run back to the arms of the Father. And his arms are wide open softly telling me "I am always here."

His love is not performance based. 

Instead it's fierce, unshaken, unconditional. 

Romans 8:38-39

[For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.]

How gracious is our father that He will never ever relent on us. He won't just up and leave when things get ugly or weird. Instead he reminds us of the covenant he had made with us. The one where He writes your name on his hand? Yeah, that's right. You are His, He is yours. 

I pray that you would experience God's love today. Anything that is hindering you to receive, I ask that the Lord would remove that and replace it with his love. In Jesus Name. I encourage you to go to Him with your issues and feelings because he really cares about even the number of hairs on your head! 
{O God, God of Israel, there is no God like you in the skies above or on the earth below who unswervingly keeps covenant with his servants and relentlessly loves them as they sincerely live in obedience to your way. You kept your word to David my father, your personal word. You did exactly what you promised—every detail. The proof is before us today! 1 Kings 8:22-25 MSG}

Solomon was praying at the alter in the presence of the Lord because He was simply overwhelmed by God's love. May we continue to press into Him like Solomon did in this passage! 

Be blessed! 

M

credits: Pastor Bryan Houston- Relentless love Part 1 & Biblegateway.com and bethel music photo

Pulling roots.

This season of my life has been by far the most freeing I've ever experienced with Jesus.
It has been really crazy thinking back on the many times I've attempted to "one up" God. I've tried carrying and fixing myself. I even got to a point where I thought everything was just fine and dandy. I didn't realize how blinded I was. (Warning: this is terrible, horrible, dangerous spot to be in)

I suddenly found myself in the desert all by myself. Raw, bare and exposed. My heart was out in the open and I felt naked. I felt like I couldn't cover up myself, my feelings and my identity anymore. Exposed from past ugly, nasty, dirty wounds, I had no place to go except to the one place where I know that I am accepted, loved, clean, NEW... that place is the cross of Jesus Christ.

 By His grace, He patiently showed, taught and trained me to humble myself before Him. He has killed my pride time and time again. But, it took that moment of total surrender to the Lord, realizing that I am human and not God. I can't fix and save myself. I realized I was in desperate need of a savior.  Just like in Psalm 23, I had to lay down on green pastures and let the Shepherd pick me up because my legs were broken and I was too tired and weak to pick myself up. I needed Him to release me of deep bondage and roots that I didn't know still existed in my heart. I realized that if these things were still in me, I wouldn't be able to move on with my life and the blessings God has in store for me.

So here we go --

the roots

• feeling invisible  
• not accepted or belonging
• bitterness towards heritage
• rejection
• carrying around guilt 

Jesus' role 

• He sees me 
• He allows me to be apart of His family 
• I ask for forgiveness, I am forgiven 
• He knows me 
• He accepts me 

Here are two bible stories that the Lord used to speak life and heal me.

1) John 4

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her,f“Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (gFor Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you hliving water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 iAre you greater than our father Jacob? jHe gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but kwhoever drinks of the water that I will give him lwill never be thirsty again.2 The water that I will give him will become min him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, ngive me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, ocall your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that pyou are qa prophet.

{FIRST OF ALL, Jesus was a Jew and the woman was a Samaritan. You can probably compare these two groups to the house of Verona and the house of Montague in Romeo and Juliet. These two groups DID NOT associate themselves with each other. But back to John 4, Jesus talked to the woman. She came to him broken, distraught and holding so much guilt.  He knew that she had many husbands, and he graced her with truth, gentleness and grace. I love seeing Jesus' character radiating through this story. It is beautiful and absolutely magnificent to see how he treated this woman even through her brokenness.} 

2) John 8
but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 bEarly in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and che satdown and taught them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.5 Now din the Law Moses commanded us eto stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 This they said fto test him, gthat they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, h“Let him who is without sin among you ibe the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground.9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, j“Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on ksin no more.”

// This is one of my favorite stories in the bible because it demonstrates how forgiving and loving Jesus is.  Here are some points I've learn from this passage.
1) He bent down to her and the ground. Even when he knew she had committed adultery. This is a display of his forgiveness and a foreshadowing of what he was about to do on the cross.
2) He sees sin as sin and does not condemn at all. It is such a beautiful thing.
3) When the world and people around you  rejects, judges and starts throwing stones at you for how sinful you are, God embraces. 
4) This is a great picture of true love!! The way Jesus loves people is admirable. The way He thinks gets me.//  

With Jesus I am.. 

• chosen
• loved 
• accepted into God's family 
• forgiven 
• able to forgive 
• clean

This is the freedom we have in Christ. Run to Him. Know that you can't save yourself and fix your own problems! He throws away the old and makes us new. He is good. Cling on to Jesus!

Be encouraged! The cross is enough to fix your hardships, broknness, wounds, and bad roots.

In Him, 
M

credits: ESV bible