Tag: kindness

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.

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.

Faith First.

When it comes to living the life of your dreams, you must expect challenges. Challenges in mindset, confidence, relationships, skills..etc. They can come in many different forms, and they will. Most people won’t take the chance of stepping into their dream life because they simply do not wish to give up the comfort of security. The fear of the unknown is too strong, therefore they stay at bay. 

I was in this place for a few years with my business idea. I kept looking around to see if someone else would do it. Over and over again God whispers “I am calling you to do this”. 

The questions start racing…why me? How me? I don’t have industry experience, coding skills or CEO experience..the list goes on. God says, you may not have all of those things but you have everything you NEED to get this done. You have leadership skills, people skills, decision making skills, organization skills, program management skills…the list goes on. Not to mention you also have  kindness, integrity and most importantly…you have ME. 

That last part is what got me, the God of the Universe says I have HIM. In all ways, he has proven this to me over and over again. At that moment, I knew I had to commit to bringing this vision I have cultivated (for over 3 years) to life. God is on my side, I will not fail (Psalm 46:5).

Accepting the belief that I am called and I CAN do it is only the beginning. The next part is where the real work begins. You must find a way to stay rooted in that belief as the emails pile up, decisions must be made, capital must be raised, investor meetings must be scheduled, meeting notes must be entered, follow ups, coaching, learning, growing…the list only increases. I will be honest here, I was riding an emotional rollercoaster of highs and lows and I knew God wanted me to have stable peace...not rollercoaster emotions. 

I went to prayer to seek his help and as always, God provided. He gave me a SUPER POWER phrase to help me recenter and realign my spirit with his whenever I felt unstable, scared, anxious, nervous, etc. 

What is this thought life super power phrase?  “FAITH FIRST.”  

What does that even mean? It means that you are guaranteed unexpected curveballs in life and in those moments, you hold the power to decide HOW you live your life. Do you live in a state of fear or faith? I made a decision early on that I choose to live from a place of love, faith & abundance. 

How can you use this? Whenever you feel scared, overwhelmed, stressed, anxious about whatever is going on…think (or say out loud) “faith first” and make the decision that you lead with faith. It will be undoubtedly true that fears will exist in this moment and what I found helpful is to acknowledge my fears, even thank them (because most of the time they are simply trying to keep me safe) and allow them to be present, but never let them lead the way. The analogy I like to use is driving a car…fears can sit in the backseat but faith is always the one driving the car. 

I pray you are blessed by this message! Let me know if this message resonates with you, if you tried & what your results were, or if you have a request for a specific topic to be covered in my next post. 

Thank you for stopping by. ❤