Don't Be a "Part Time" Christian Who Demands a Full-Time God

First, I would like to start out by wishing everyone a great New Year.  I pray 2016 brings us all a great year.  I would also like to ask forgiveness in that it has been a bit since I blogged.  I stepped back a little while for personal reasons and reflected.  I wanted to make sure this is what I felt God wanted me to do and that I was able to relay messages worthy of what I felt He wanted me to share.  The thing about the blog I have realized is, they are just as much for me as they are for anyone else.  They reflect what I am going through in my life for the most part or things I am in prayer for.  One thing I have noticed, if I "take off" or get off of my prayer schedule, things fall apart.  I don't feel right and literally things feel off balanced.  I was watching the movie, "War Room" and a character in there reminded me that God doesn't want our relationship with Him to be luke warm.  We either are Hot, Cold, or Luke Warm.  Where are you?  Where do you want to be in 2016?  I know where I want to be.  I want to be on fire in 2016 for God!  Everyday.  I pray not to be luke warm or cold.  When we do not make the time for God for prayer that is when we basically invite the Devil to step right in.  Depression, fear, anxiety, anger, etc. just roll right in.  We set ourselves up for failure. We must take the time and make the time to be a full time Christian above all things in order to be strong in Christ and fight off anything Satan and the outside world throws at us.

Romans 12:12 says, "Let your Hope make you glad.  Be patient in time of trouble. And NEVER STOP PRAYING".    I have talked many times about the word of God and prayer being your shield.  It really is.  It is your armor of protection against the enemy.  The Devil never rest and he comes after the strong.  He wants the Children of God more than he wants someone that doesn't know Him.  We are more of a challenge to him.  So must stay suited up and ready all day, everyday.  No excuses. Even if it's in the shower, you have time to praise and pray.  Wake up!  Pray.  Praise and give thanks.  Driving in your car?  Pray and praise! Also,  there is time somewhere in your day to pick that bible up and read at least a verse.  We all are guilty of being "busy".  But as Christians, we are family and it's our job to help each other and remind each other that the ultimate sacrifice He made for us, getting up 15 minutes earlier than planned is not much to offer him in the grand scheme of things.  We more than owe it to Him and honestly, it helps us in the long run because again, you cannot defeat full time devils being a part time Christian. We also have to admit that as soon as something goes wrong, we fall on our knees to God yet, many serve him part time.  Again, if you are asking him to be there for you full time, why should he get less of you in return?  So, for 2016, let's work on putting all of ourselves into being a full time Christian.

I wish each and everyone of you the best and I ask you pray for me that I too do the same thing and am able to remember daily what is most important on the priority list.

Hope for the Hopeless-Reach out to each other

The most joyful time of the year right?  Presents, trees, lights, gifts.  Most importantly, of course, is the celebration of the birth of our King and Savior Jesus Christ.  But then there are the facts.  Facts of that Christian or not there are those dealing with life issues that they feel they can't shake.  Maybe it's a loss of a job and unemployment hasn't happened, maybe the new job hasn't started yet,  Maybe it's a much bigger issue, It's a sick child.  Maybe it's a husband holding the hand of a wife fighting cancer and they haven't given up on God but there is a sense of sadness they can't shake.

I know last week I was guilty of being mad at my husband for not understanding my stress.  Then I read a face book post of a girl back home to her husband she recently lost and she was telling him how much she loved him and how she'd give anything to have him back with her.  Talk about perspective.  I squeezed my husband's hand a little harder that day.  The only way she could communicate with him was his face book wall.  She now will have her first Christmas without him, with their babies.  Now what were we complaining about again????

We get so busy with life.  Stressing.  Worrying.  Trust me when I tell you I am the pot calling the kettle black.  I of all people know that my God has a plan for my family and that he has big plans for my family.  I have written them down.  I have claimed them.   I have claimed restoration, healing, understanding, financial growth and big things for my family.   But we are going through some things for now and late at night or early in the morning before I have time to read,  than  doubt will sneak in and fear will take over telling me we can't make it.  I literally will have to go deep into prayer and talk to God and get my reassurance that the storm didn't come to stay, it came to pass.  That for every storm I go through, I come out the other side stronger and more knowledgeable and able to help more people.

Even when we are in our own storms, we must, as Christians, reach down and pull each other up.  I promise you, the more you pull each other up, the stronger you become.  We are suppose to be there for each other.   It is part of his plan.

In every aspect of your life pray and if he leads you to, pay it forward.  Be it a hug, a "you doing ok today?",  buying a coffee for the person behind you, live your life like God would.  I have found even if it's your last dollar, mysteriously, that dollar will be returned to you almost as quick as you gave it away.  But don't just do it on your own.  Ask God to lead you.  You'll feel it in your heart and know who it is supposed to be for.  It may just be a "it's going to get better".   We all need each other and when we realize God's people need each other and start to help each other the better this crazy world will be.

Our world is hurting and until the hopeless turn back to who can give us Hope, nothing will change and that change starts with you and me.  We really are in a valley of trouble and we need Him to show us how to get out of it.  I will never give up believing in Hope, Love, God or that His people can come together and change things.

  

God speaks to those who take the time to listen...

 A walk with God is a life long journey, or should be.  If you catch yourself letting it be a one time feeling and letting it slip away,  that's on you.  God will not force you to follow him, it is up to you to reach out and make the the time to pray.  Read the word.  Absorb yourself in the word.  Sure we all back slide from time to time, but it is your personal responsibility to try to make sure you don't.  We have to stop making excuses for the dust collecting on the bible.  For making excuses not to go church.  Do you have to go to church to get into heaven?  No.  But you need to be fed.  IF you are not surrounding yourself by like minded people with the same goals you are starving yourself.  I hang out with people that don't  have the same goals as I.  We love each other.  We don't have the same beliefs.  But I have to have the time with people that are on the same track in order to keep me on the same path.  I am not saying you have to spend 24 hours a day with the same people but it is important you have a support group that understand your journey and that your working toward the same goals. You must be fed or you will starve spiritually.

The devil wants you to stumble and fall.  He doesn't want you to know you have power to succeed.  He doesn't want you to know that where there are more than one or more  gathered in prayer they are more powerful.  He doesn't want you to know you actually have the power to speak things into existence.  He wants you to fall on your face.  He wants you sit around with unbelievers having pity parties or temporary celebrations thinking things are good.   His only goal is to steal and destroy.

Christians must armor up!  The word of God is your protection and the more knowledge you have the more protection and shielded you are!!  Remember what I have said, it is like you are a kitten when you first become a Christian but as you pray and get your Shield, you become a bigger beast against the beast himself and Roar like a lion!  That is the mentality you must have at all times.  Like a Warrior that nothing can come against.  You are a Warrior of the one true King and no harm shall come against you as long as you study, pray up and be ready at all times.

This means NO EXCUSES.  We have work, kids, spouses, lives, but you must get in the mindset that NOTHING comes before your time with God.  There is some time during the day that you can set aside for God.  The end.  We must set that time aside.  Honestly,  when you say you can't set that time aside, I want you to think about the time Jesus stayed on the cross and then tell me again how you can't find even 15 minutes a day to read the word and say a prayer.

The gift to my self....Freedom from Religious Judgement

I just got home from a worship service.  The music was amazing a usual.  I prayed and talked to God as I always do.  I praised my God and thanked him.   I thanked him for the struggles of the last weeks that have been brought to me because I know in my heart He has a plan.  Tonight will be my last night I will speak of the struggles I have faced the last few weeks.   My heart has hurt more than words can express.  It felt at times my heart was ripped out of my chest as friends walked away.  Family left and walked away.  I don't know that I will ever comprehend being told I was over the top for Jesus by more than one person.   I don't know that my heart will ever recover being told someone close to me had to distance her self from me because I was too much Jesus.  Wait,  yes I will.  Because as of today, I am choosing to.

Today,  I will move forward from having a "friend" tell me that if  God or the Holy Spirit is talking to me, I needed a professional.  Because serial killers started out like that.  I was dumb founded that a educated person could let those words come out of their mouth.  But then as hurt as I was, I realized that she may be worried for me, I felt as much sadness for her that she lives a life not knowing God like she may think she does.  Because if she did, and if she read her bible and believed it, she would know with all that she is that God nor the Holy Spirit would NEVER tell you or lead you to harm any one.  God is love.  My God leads me to do good for people.  What a sad life that someone would sit around gossiping about a Christian that something so hateful is the best they could come up with.  Instead of gossiping about me or other Christians,  a simple conversation face to face would be nice.  But they obviously have never experienced God in the way most Christians have and I choose to pray for them and still love them though the comment did hurt.  Millions of Christians pray and feel and/or hear the Holy Spirit.

Tonight,  As I witnessed many Christians praising God and worshiping I thought of all the people who thought I was over the top and I thought how proud I was to be surrounded by God's people and a ton of people that are just like me.

I also decided that not another tear will be shed over what I can't understand.  Not another anxiety attack will be had over what I can't change.  Not another moment of time can or will be spent worrying about trying to make people love me or accept me, that simply can't or won't.  Because you can't make people stay that don't want to.  And if they walk away that easy,  they weren't meant to stay, and what does it say about their love for you?

This is the Eve of my 43 Birthday.  I am giving myself a present.  Forgiveness.  Forgiveness for the anger I had for the hurt I had.  I give myself light.   Where all the darkness was inside, I release it in Jesus name.  I will not let anyone have control over me to control my feelings to make me anxious, sad or depressed.   I will not be persecuted by anyone or anything.  My 43rd will be freedom.  What ever God's will is, is what is will be done.   I will be blessed and the people that walked away, if they come back, they do but I can't control if they choose not to.  I can't force friends or  family to love me.   Especially when it comes to the love I have for Jesus.  That is not changing.  Because I made a promise to Him first and foremost and I am not breaking it.

So Happy 43rd to me.  I pray that all I prayed for comes to pass and I truly let all the darkness go and all the negative comes to pass.  I pray good, positive things for my family and that nothing but good, Godly things happen to my family and I.   No more pain.  No more hurt.  No more opinion's of others can hurt me.  It is over and done.  My gift to myself is freedom of religious judgement.

Hey you! Get back up! HE HAS PLANS FOR YOU!

We often have this fairy tale Christian belief that once we accept Jesus Christ as our own that all is new and we now will skip off like Alice in Wonderland once she climbs out of that rabbit hole and we will know who we are and we will live happily ever after.   Love will not hurt.  Relationships will not fail.  Bank accounts will automatically prosper.  Kids will never get on our nerves, they are perfect behaving beings and may our language never be that of a trucker or a sailor.  Well, let me go a head and break the news to you Sunshine, hard times are going to still happen.  Kids will still drive you almost to the point of hitting the bottle, though I highly recommend you don't do that but yet you turn to God.  But let's be honest.  Jobs will be lost.  (Raises hand!!  Ask me!  I know.  Got hit like a ton of bricks at 42 years of age when we already lived from pay check to pay check).  Relationships can fail.  I pray they don't.  I pray you are are strong enough to turn to God and and fully rely on him to speak things back into existence.  As brothers and sisters in Christ we have to be honest through.   Pain is pain.  I consider myself to be one of the strong Christians, a warrior.  The one people call on when prayer is needed.  I pray every day more than I talk to most people.  I dive into the word of God more than I watch tv or socialize now.  I am not better than anyone else.  We all are capable of the exact same thing.  It is on us on how much time we choose to give him.

If you are new to Christ or restarting a relationship with him, I am reminding you do not give up when obstacles pop up.  I am here to remind you once again,  the stronger you get in him, the more Satan will come at you.  The more your past will haunt you.  I remind you again,  you must tell Satan and your past they have NO ROOM IN YOU NOW.  They are your past for a reason and not who you are TODAY.

God made us new.  People will say, You have changed.  You have and Praise God you have.  Because if you hadn't, you would be stuck in the same rut.  People who constantly sit around and bash who you are now, are dealing with their own issues and I want you to do something bold.  I want you to pray for them.  They are hurting.  Your changes would not faze them unless it stirred something in themselves that was hurting them inside.  Pray hard for them.   They are in pain.  Pray that God moves the pain and shows them what is hurting them on the inside and the Holy Spirit moves in them and deals with the pain trapped in them that causes them to think that it is your Christianity that is causing the problem.

Face each day with a new hope and prayer.  Face it with God.  Tell God,  Cry out to God, Great are you Lord.  I am NOTHING without you Lord and no matter what I face I know I can and will make it with you.

Know when I write these blogs, they are for me too.  I have battle the sames things I write about only I pray to him and ask God, "what am I going through that can help someone else??"   He leads me to write these blogs and I will continue to do so as long as he tells me too.   Today I wanted to have a pity party as I realized my bank account didn't have enough in it for what I needed from the store, but I am ok.  I am alive.  I can breath.  My kids are not hungry. I have a roof.  I have heat.  I have lights.  I just have to keep moving and know God will take care of me and my family.

Forgive. Even when you don't want to. You have to. The End.

Hard couple of weeks.  I've been hurt to the point it feels like a death.  Words have been said that I am not sure can ever be recovered.  By both sides.   The most painful thing I have felt is my faith being questioned but I failed the test.  I let the words get to me and I lashed out.  In order to move forward,  I have to forgive all who spoke them.  Forgive myself for lashing out.  Forgive the anger in my heart.  Forgive the words I never even said because those words are just as bad as if the human ears had heard them or if my mouth had spoken them.  The heart is a funny thing.  When it is truly hurt and damaged it retreats to dark places, childlike places where every hurt we ever felt comes flooding back like a river of pins and needles and can make you feel so unloved and useless.  True hurt is sincerely like a death because it feels like we don't know if we can come back from it.

I prayed today with several people.  Here is what I know.  I can't hold on to hurt.  It is like hate.  It eats at you and nothing good comes from it.  I am telling you that if you are hurt by someone even if they are not sorry you have to let it go TODAY.   Not tomorrow, Not next week, ot next week.  TODAY.  It is like a cancer eating you and you will not and can not grow spiritually through Christ with it in you.  So, no matter who was right or wrong, it is your job to let it go today.   Release it.  Tell God you it release to him right now.  Tell him you are wrong for holding on to it.   You love him more than proving you are right or wrong in an argument.  Christ our Father must come above all and yes, that even means saying you are wrong if you feel you are not just to let it go!

It is unhealthy spiritually.  Our job is to put Him above all and we can't do that if we are going back and forth with people over things, that in the end are not going to matter anyway.

My life is at a uncertain point right now.  I don't know what tomorrow will bring.  Financially or anything.  But what I do know, Christ Jesus will be there.  No matter if I have to move.  He will make sure my kids are fed somehow.  I know my God will not let me or my family fall.  I believe and am speaking it into existence right now that a job will call me tomorrow.  I am speaking life into that my husband will not lose the medications he needs to live and the ones he needs.  I am speaking life into that every need my family needs will be met this week.  The bible promises me that every mountain I face shall be moved because I have the power to say to it be moved.   Well, I am telling you, I am speaking life into it and it shall be moved.  Mountains shall be moved and because I forgive and have been forgiven BIG things are going to move THIS week for my family.

I pray big things for you if you are facing things in your life too.  Remember, SPEAK IT!!  My grandma Susie always said, "Name it and Claim it baby".  Well, In Jesus name, this is your time, this is my time and in Jesus name, I name it and claim it!   Facing a mountain???  Where??   We are a child of God Almighty! You tell that mountain BE MOVED and it SHALL BE MOVED!!

Come back Roaring Like a Lion

 I read my bible, this verse got me today.  "My Grace is Sufficient for you, My power is perfected in weakness....".   Nothing could have jumped out at me more this week.  Everyone is going through something.  It's not about me.  It's not about you.  It's about us.  We all are facing something.   Heartache,  Emptiness.  Joblessness.  Someone has thought about taking their life out there right now reading this.  They have thought this world would not even miss them.  I am here to tell  you your God does not want that and there are people that love you.  So what if someone you loved turned their back.  It is not and will not be the end of the world.  So what if you got laid off.  Someone you loved broke up with you?  Guess what?  Something bigger is coming your way if you keep your faith and keep your head up.  Dive into the word of God and turn that heartache into a testimony.  No one or nothing materialistic means more than your God does.  Nothing is bigger than the love he has for you.  We can lose every single material possession we have and yes it is hard and yes it hurts but we have to hold our head high and know with all we are as Christians he loves us and has bigger plans for us.

Again, I have always said I will be honest with you because I can not help people by lying.  There have been times when Satan has made me feel so unloved and filled with anxiety that I have begged God to give me a pass.  Let me die.  IF you will give me a pass and let me leave this world, I will go because I am not loved here and I don't know the answers and I am scared of what tomorrow will bring and I can't handle this anymore.  I don't know how to take care of someone that has the issues I am facing.  I am having my own issues now from stress.  Please God.  Give me a way out.  The holy spirit plainly told me I knew better and there was no such thing as pass for me because I was in my right mind to know that I had 2 children who would forever hurt and that I loved them and how would that be explained.   I told him I knew that but the pain was so intense I didn't know any other way out.  He said, there is no way "out" but there is a way "through" it and it is " through me".   I knew I would never do what went through my head but I am just letting you know that when you reach the depths of depression and self hate and anxiety where Satan will drag you, he will make irrational things go through your head that you know are wrong.  I would never kill my self because I now.  I am better and I have 2 kids I have to raise.  But I have friends who have and I hurt that they took that route.  I talk to you about it because it is important to know just how low a person can get and not a soul around them will know.  Please know this was this hardest thing to ever write but when the Holy Spirit told me I would write this blog, Mental Health Awareness was always going to be a big part of this blog.  I know that 1 in 3 people suffer from it so I know I am not the first one that thought these kind of thoughts I may just be one of the few willing to put it on blast in order to help someone else.  I am not in this position now and even though I suffer from anxiety and depression from time to time, this is something I do not suffer from any longer.  But I am not going to fake my life or leave out parts that I feel could help heal someone else.

I want you to understand it doesn't even have to get that bad.  It could just be as simple as self hate.  Depression.  Not wanting to go out.  Satan letting you get hurt by others and instead of you being Christ like, you lashing back out.   That 's not a good place to be either.   I've been guilty of this recently.  It is because the stronger I get in Christ the stronger I get back lash from people calling me out on every mistake I make and pointing fingers, "see that fake Christian"  instead of lashing out,  I have to back down. Satan sends people to say things like this cause he wants you to lash out.  But who are you lashing out to?  Look at who says them. I must not be angered.  I must pray and be more like him.  Instead of letting people call me names who don't even crack the bible open affect me.  I must stand up, hold my head up and know who I am in Christ and Roar like a lion.  Know that I am the daughter of the one true King.  I am untouchable to people that want to cause me harm because he says so.  That which is out to harm me I can rebuke it,  NOT JOIN IN ON IT.  SO CAN YOU!!!!

I am telling you,  anything that is out to interfere with your life or cause you harm you can rebuke it in the name of Jesus right now. We forget our power.  Because we let Satan beat us down.  We are not a little lamb Satan can kick around.  We are a Lion that can Roar and stand strong on the word of God and and his promises and know we will be taken care of.  Every morning before you get out of that bed, you thank Your God and you tell him, "I am going to be a Lion for you today and I am going to Roar and will not bow down before NO ONE but YOU LORD!"