Tag: grace

You have to FAIL to FLY

If you want to grow, you have to be willing to learn along the way. The tough part about this is that learning means “failing” and trying again. This requires a lot of humility. Not many are brave enough to do this. It takes a lot of courage, resilience, grit and passion.

As a child, you get credit for “how quickly you can learn” which inspires kids to keep trying (failing and learning) and growing!!! As an adult, that narrative changes and we only want to be good at things because that is when we get praise. Oh it is so tempting to only get praise!

When it comes to creating your dream life, you will have to do things you’ve never done to get to places you’ve never been. So if you are dreaming of something BIGGER, it is time to take action. This is the part that is less talked about because you experience intense growing pains. Yes, parts will be painful – but in the end, it will be beautiful because Romans 8:28 says “all things work together for good to those who love God”

Now, this blog is for my sisters in Christ so I do have to share the secret sauce: Ask the Holy Spirit for help. There will be times of uncertainty and you have to have the humility to understand you are only one person, you will never know everything – BUT, you have a resource who does.

Scriptures to lean on:

  • Phil. 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”
  • Matt. 7:7 “Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find”
  • Prov. 9:10 “The fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom”
  • 2 Corin 12:9 “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”

I hope these scriptures can be your armor as you step out in faith!

He is RISEN.

Easter Sunday is one of my favorite days of the year. It is a day to appreciate and reflect on the relentless love, never-ending grace and the abundance of blessings that Jesus sacrificed his life for. This day tends to bring tears because it reminds me of Gods love and blessings…fully undeserved by me, but given freely through Christ.

May you choose that TODAY, you reset your faith in Jesus. If the past year has been turbulent, challenging…and maybe even stolen your peace – I encourage you to call on the name of Jesus and let his resurrection power begin to renew your soul, your mind and your life.

Jesus LIVES for this so it is not about what you deserve or don’t deserve – remember that Jesus is the one who gains the credit and we are simply his fully favored & blessed children.

Easter is a reminder of all that HE has done for us. May we remember and keep that centered in our hearts for the rest of the year.

Prayer: Jesus, thank you for the ultimate sacrifice. You gave yourself so that we mat live in freedom. You covered our sins by your blood, you washed us clean. This is not anything we did to earn, but fully given freely by you because you are the living example of LOVE. Love is beautiful & love is sacrifice. You are not just a version of truth..you say I AM the way, the truth and the life. It is only in you and through you that we know the Father. Jesus I ask in your name, please stay in our hearts and remind us that you are always there for us and that your gift was free to us. May we learn how to RECEIVE this gift with hearts full of gratitude, love and forgiveness…yes. May your love inspire us to love those around us with more mercy & grace. Amen.

Grace for Yourself.

Life feels like a stage sometimes, at least I feel that way lately. Leaving a secure job to step out into the unknown on faith alone feels like I am being watched more than ever, by others and myself. I feel the pressure rising from around me, but also from within me. Performance starts to kick in…last week I shared a perspective on pressure & performance and today I want to elaborate on performance but in a different way. 

Yes, performance usually stems from trying to take control of a situation and spiritually it means I am taking my eyes off of Jesus and not trusting that he already has a victory planned. However, physically I found that it means I am protecting myself. We all have our own ways of “creating safety” and it usually stems from childhood patterns. 

One of the biggest ways I “created safety” when I was young was by performing to please my parents. Early on it was as innocent as a silly dance or story, but as I grew older (and I am sure you relate) it turned into performing in school/chores (or maybe something different for you…sports/hobbies/talents/etc). Later in my life when any problem big or small would overwhelm my parents and I learned to be hyper-aware of problems on the horizon (living in a tension state of trying to predict the next thing) in order to foresee any “problems” so I could fix it before it happens. I believe this is what we call anxiety. Trying to control things we have no control over, living in a future state instead of the present. 

The point I am making is that my constant hyper-awareness of whats happening around me and a need to control it, stems from a need to feel safe. As a child, when you don’t understand how to process things you create your own solutions to keep you safe. Hyper-awareness was my solution and I got good enough at it that even I didn’t realize I was doing it. All I knew is that in certain settings, I would curate and perform leaving myself feeling drained but not understanding the underlying roots (to feel safe). 

A lot of our habits stem from childhood…but enough about that. The main takeaway is that God has grace for your need to perform (or whichever habit you’re struggling with) because he sees the heart of a confused child trying to feel safe. He is not mad at you for it, not threatened by it but he is so in love with you and hopes you run to him for healing. 

Note: Healing can look different – sometimes through prayer he brings peace, sometimes he reveals a season of growth in an area to prepare you, sometimes he brings life challenges to teach a specific lesson, sometimes he makes you wait, sometimes he leads you to new friendships, sometimes he urges you to ask for help whether it be from a pastor/mentor or therapist. Different people, different situations…God tailors his approach to you.

God is always in the midst of it with you & has so much grace to pour over you. It never runs out – not for you or anyone else. So today the message is this – God has grace for you, so have grace for yourself. Forgive yourself if you need to, let go of things if you need to…but don’t shame/guilt yourself when you are trying your best. Stand confident knowing God’s grace will catch you every single time and he is doing a good work in you.

Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you for your unending grace. Please forgive me of my sins and teach me the true way to live & serve you. Help me understand the conflicts within myself but always with self-compassion and grace – just as you extend it. Help me learn and grow to be more like you without focusing on the areas where I am not. May your grace for me create in me a heart of compassion for others. In Jesus name, amen.

Struggling with Identity

Are you struggling with something in your life? Chances are…you are. I will be the first to admit that lately, I have felt a lot of struggles from within myself. It feels like a war has begun in my spirit and the distorted approach is that I didn’t recognize that it was the enemy who quickly planted the thought “something is wrong with you” and I believed it. I start asking “what is wrong with me” and that spirals into trying to pick apart my past and trying to understand my own psychology through analytical self-reflection. I convinced myself I am approaching it well, I am doing “the work” but God reminds me that the root “issue” is NOT me..I am not an issue, I am his beloved child and the issue is that Satan wants to convince me otherwise – that I am not capable, wise, worthy or truly loved and when I allow one thought in, the others burst through the door along with it.

I am reminded of Ephesians 6:12 that states “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”

Recently, this verse has not been top of mind and the quality of life has gone down significantly. All of the sudden, everything feels like a personal attack and offense when it is not. We must remember who GOD says we are, not the lies of the enemy. It is so dangerous to believe Satan when he says:

No one loves you.

You are not worthy of good things happening in your life.

Who do you think you are?

Am I alone or have you heard these voices in your head? My guess is you have heard them on some level, and if not…I will just share my perspective because I do wrestle with these voices. In all honestly, some seasons it is less of a struggle but other times…it takes center stage. I believe when God is trying to grow us, teach us and take us into a new place of intimacy with him…that is when Satan strikes hard with these thoughts because he desperately wants to derail us from the TRUTH that God has spoken over our lives:

You are loved – not just a little, but DEEPLY loved. So much so God sent his only Son to die on the cross for your sins. It is personal, God knew of you in that time and did it for YOU, for your sins. God’s ability to love is beyond what our earthly understanding of love is, so if we think of “love” just know that whatever our version of that is, God’s love is a million times stronger and deeper. I think this is the truth Satan is desperately trying to distort for his own gain.

You are WORTHY because through Christ, we are pure. The old has gone, the new has come! When we accept Jesus, we accept that our sins are forgiven…not because we earned it, but because Gods grace is the gift we were given through Jesus Christ. I feel like our flesh tends to reject this gift but when we reject the gift of grace, we reject the grandiosity of Jesus’ sacrifice and call it “humility” when in reality…it is not humility that causes you to reject grace, it is shame. It is the shame that we carry around that causes us to say “no, I cant accept this” when God extends his grace.For some reason, it is hard for us to forgive ourselves but if we can’t forgive ourselves, we haven’t accepted that God has forgiven us…again, short-selling the work on the cross. The sad part is…we aren’t trying to do this, but this is the spiritual fight referenced in Ephesians.

You are a child of God, THAT is WHO YOU ARE. You are NOT the feelings you have about yourself today, you are always a child of God who is deeply loved, cared for, protected, blessed and favored. This is Gods promise to us…and it is so dangerous when we forget his promises. This is why it is so important to memorize verses so that when Satan strikes…we know how to strike back.

I will admit, I have struggled with striking back lately. I felt shame for it. I wanted to hide but God reminded me that I am not alone. That he is still my God, that his mercies are new EACH day and that I am never out of his reach. I think it is important to acknowledge that when this type of season is present, it is not an immediate fix and we should not expect it to be. We should be rebuking those thoughts but it is a consistent rebuking, not one and done. So if you prayed/rebuked..and still struggle: you are not alone. It is a process and my prayer for you and anyone who is going through a struggle is that you hold tight to God’s promises. That if you mess up or break down, know that God is not judging you..his heart hurts to see you hurt and his hope is that you seek Him in that moment. He is ready to pour out his love on you but he also knows that you are being made stronger, more whole and more equipped to step into the person he has called you to be so don’t give up.

I pray you are blessed & encouraged today! We are not alone, we stand in this life together and remember…we really have more in common with one another than we think so stay compassionate & kind.