Have you ever reached a point in your life where you’ve hit the end of the road? The point where you literally have to choose to step out in faith and walk on water! Well I’ve hit it! And it’s scary at first but amazing and exhilarating to say the least. What’s so scary yet amazing is that this is the point where you completely give yourself over to God because it is only by His power alone that we can stand. It takes a lot of trust and courage to get to this point because Love is so awesome that we can feel afraid to approach Him. In our human brokenness it is easy to shy away from Love yet Love is our only way to life and freedom. We need Love in every way! Let me encourage you today… No matter what you may be facing currently in your life, you are not alone! You are loved and loved beyond measure! Don’t give up hope! Breakthroughs are on the way and closer than you think.
Let me pray for you:
Dear God, You are so faithful and loving. I come before your mercy seat and pray on behalf of the person reading this. Please forgive our sins and lead us into everlasting life. Lead us with You to walk on water and to live in complete freedom. Teach us to love you and love one another with all of our heart, soul, and mind. You are awesome and we love you! Please heal, deliver, and restore us. In Jesus name, Amen ❤
I usually like to start my blog posts with a scripture or quote… Today I decided to share on of my poems with you. I hope that this poem will inspire and encourage you if you can read and relate in any way. I will also include (as I usually do…lol) a youtube video that really touched me. Finally let me pray for you today…
Dear God,
In the name of Jesus I come to you on behalf of the person reading this today. I pray for wholeness of heart, mind, body, soul, and spirit. Save the lost Daddy and bring them home to you today. Please heal them of every illness and set them free to live the life you have willed for them to live. Bring them to a place of complete surrender where only you alone can be their God and cast down every idol in Your precious name. Thank you God for your faithfulness in answering our prayers. You are awesome and we are so blessed to be Yours. We love you ❤
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1 NKJV)
Are you afraid of your feelings? Afraid that you may drown in your overwhelming emotions? Do you bottle up your feelings because the thought of the pain that comes with feeling is too much to handle? I can relate!
I used to fall on either extreme of bottling up my feelings or drowning in them. I’m happy to say that even though I can be sensitive, I express my feelings in a much healthier way now. I’m no longer afraid of feeling because it may hurt. It’s actually quite relieving to experience the pain because in doing so I can be free to experience healing and move forward.
Maybe you’re wondering what changed for me… Well truthfully I began to feel safe when I entered into a relationship with God through His Son Jesus. I knew that I was no longer alone and that I didn’t have to be afraid anymore. My emotions may have felt bigger than me, but they definitely weren’t bigger than my God. He could handle them. I had to surrender everything over to Him especially my broken heart. The more I poured my heart and soul out to Him the more healing I experienced.
I guess you could say that if it wasn’t for my FAITH in God I’d most likely still be bottling up my feelings or exploding and drowning in a sea of emotions. I highlight the word faith because sometimes it literally feels like your feelings and emotions are at odds with your faith. It’s a battle that requires looking up, and despite what we’re feeling, holding onto our faith. The truth of God’s promises are so vital for when we are going through a battle of our feelings vs. our faith.
Sometimes in my efforts to be pious, I shy away from fully expressing to God what I’m really feeling as though it would be displeasing to Him. An example of this would be when I’m feeling lonely in my singlehood and my heart is longing to be with my future husband. At first I think that if I admit that I’m feeling sad and lonely that God would see that as me being dissatisfied in my relationship with Him, or as lack of faith on my part in that God wouldn’t provide for my desire. Fortunately, I realize the truth that He cares about every detail and that nothing is a surprise to Him. He knows my heart and He’s aware of my pain. The Bible says that He is close to the broken hearted. That is so comforting!
Though I’m an imperfect, sinful human being, He perfectly heals the brokenness of my heart and helps me to feel and express in a safe and healthy way. I’ve entrusted my heart to the one who created it. I encourage you to do the same.
If you’re reading this and you want to ask Jesus to be your Lord and Saviour then with a sincere heart please pray the following prayer out loud since Romans 10:9 says that, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved”:
Dear Jesus,
I confess that I am a sinner in need of a Saviour. I believe that you are Lord and that God raised You from the dead. Please forgive me of all of my sins and fill me with your Holy Spirit. I receive Your gift of eternal life and I thank You for saving me. It is my desire to follow You all the days of my life and to do Your will. Please deliver me, heal and restore me. In Jesus name I pray, Amen ❤
“When the pain of staying the same outweighs the pain of change – you’ll change!” ~Author unknown
There is never a dull moment on the journey of transformation when you’re hand in hand with the Creator of the universe. I believe that in order to truly change we need God’s power combined with our faith. There’s so much information available to us that tells us that we hold the power within ourselves, but faith apart from God is insufficient. Hence the Scriptures that tells us that “[we] can do all things THROUGH CHRIST who strengthens [us]” and that “greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world”.
I am on a journey towards living the life of my dreams with God – the dream giver Himself! My Hero has rescued me and has set me on the path of freedom to becoming who He created me to be – He created you and I to be GREAT! Did you know that you are created for greatness? Have you ever let lies that you believe to be true about yourself get in the way of believing that you are truly great? I certainly have and was faced with one today. I believed that I was not worthy of greatness or success! How sad is that… brought me to tears.
I realize that while the choices I made in the past may have been messed up, I am not the sum of my past mistakes. I am no longer who I was and not because of anything I’ve done, but because of what Jesus did for me. When He rescued me, he washed me clean of my sin and shame. The Bible says that all who are in Christ are a new creation. The work has already been done for me, now I just have to be transformed by the renewing of my mind. That is done by believing truth instead of the lies that try to keep us enslaved to the circumstances of our past.
Part of my journey involves healing and in doing so to discover my true worth. I’m excited to share this journey with you and hope that you may be inspired to allow God to lead you on your very own adventurous journey with Him on the path to greatness and living your dreams!
Prayer: Gracious God, Thank You so much for Your awesome power and truth that enables us to move the mountains in our lives that try to get in the way on our path to achieving our dreams. Thank You that in You our true worth is found. And thank You for everyone who reads this post. I pray especially for those that are hurting and in need of rescuing, please draw them close to You Lord where they can find strength and healing for their hearts. Make us humble Lord and help us to understand what it truly means to be great. We are created in Your image – what an honor. Thank You God 🙂 I pray that You would be glorified. In Jesus name, Amen ❤
“You have to dream before your dreams can come true!” ~A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
I love starting out each post with some food for thought that sets the stage… I know it’s a short quote and may even seem obvious when you first read it, but really and truly there is so much depth in the quote. It is profound. I encourage you to take a moment and just read it again. Notice that there is a process that takes place when it comes to actually realizing or achieving our dreams. We must dream in the first place! How many of us have buried dreams that are so near and dear to our hearts? How many of us have actually stopped dreaming altogether?
I was at a leadership seminar earlier this evening and the speakers shared a lot of helpful information about success and leadership, but what was most vital is that there is a beginning point to success and it begins with a dream. Tonight I was asked a question about what my childhood dream was and then I had the privilege of witnessing one of the speakers share how her childhood dream is now (many years later) coming true and that was so moving and inspiring. I was inspired to actually stop for a moment and reflect back on my childhood and ask myself what my dreams were. Sadly I thought about the fact that I didn’t really have any dreams of who I wanted to be or what I wanted to do when I grew up. I knew immediately why that was and realized that I did have a dream, but my dream was different, and maybe somebody reading this can relate. My dream was birthed from a broken heart. My dream was for my family – that my parents would stay together, be in love, and not get divorced. Sadly they did and not only was my heart broken but that also crushed my own dreams for family in the future. Failed relationship after failed relationship, then illness followed by depression only reinforced that the crushed dream was indeed impossible. Only recently has the dream that once seemed impossible to me actually start to seem possible again. I can’t speak for everyone, but I think it’s common among little girls to dream of having a family of their own one day. We play house with baby dolls, etc. I hear my little cousins say they can’t wait to have babies one day. I realize that I was actually envious of them because they were children and they had more confidence and belief than me when it came to having a family one day. On an even deeper level, a part of why that dream seemed impossible, is because I have struggled with fear of not being capable of being a good mom. The enemy used my childhood experiences to torment me and feed me lies. Thankfully God’s light is shinning where there once was darkness and the lies are being replaced with truth. I am being renewed daily and I’m so thankful to my sweet Lord for His awesome work in me.
Recently, I visited a sweepstakes giveaway dream home as a dream building exercise with my leadership team and we were asked how this experience inspired us. I wasn’t inspired by the fancy home, but instead, the dream that was buried so deep in me was beginning to be awakened and revived because I was inspired by the idea that a family could live in this home – my future family. So my childhood dream which is so near and dear to my heart is to have a loving family of my own.
Now, maybe you’re thinking well that that’s out of my control. If you are, you are absolutely right! My life is in God’s hands and He is in control of whether or not I live to get married and to whom and whether or not I could even have children, but I’m not worried because even though those events are not in my control, I do have control of whether or not I prepare myself for this dream becoming reality. If my mentality or mindset is one of scarcity instead of abundance, I won’t be prepared to receive the blessings God has for me. I do have the option to prepare for my dream but first I have to begin by dreaming it and believing that with God what seemed impossible to me is possible with Him. The Bible says to delight yourself in the Lord and he will grant you the desires of your heart. I’m trusting God in faith for this dream!
So now I turn the stage over to you… Did you have a childhood dream? What was it? What dream is near and dear to your heart? Let’s stop waiting and start taking steps, then strides, then leaps towards running this race of life toward living out our dreams and experiencing the live we’ve always wanted!
Don’t waste another moment! “Your chances of getting your goals and dreams in this life greatly diminish when you’re on the wrong side of the grass.” ~Tim Marks~
Dear God, Thank You for bringing back to life the dream that has been buried deeply for so long. Lord I surrender this dream to You and place it into Your hands knowing that You are indeed the author and finisher of my faith. You know the desires of my heart and I trust that as I delight in You, that You will grant them. I pray that Your will be done in my life. I also pray for every person who comes across this page and for those with dreams that need reviving, please help them Lord to look to You first for the hope that is needed to truly live a life of freedom and possibilities. You are awesome God and I love you. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen ❤
“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” ~Jeremiah 33:3
I’m not certain whether this has been your experience or not, but it certainly has been mine – to receive answers to my prayers in ways I did not expect. One of my heartfelt prayers is that God would change me for His glory, that I may be able to live the abundant life that He has offered me and in that share the hope and victory with others that if I can change and overcome through Christ than they can too.
I am no stranger to being a victim of defeat. Growing up I lacked in confidence, esteem, and worth. I grew up believing and feeling inadequate, incapable, unlovable, and of very little if any value to anyone. I suffered from undiagnosed depression and anxiety for many years. I was deeply hurt over life’s circumstances and felt completely abandoned, rejected, and alone. Things got so extreme that during my first psychotic break I almost took my life. If it wasn’t for God and His blessing of my mom, I wouldn’t be alive today to be able to share this with you. After the first of a few psychotic breaks which were followed by the worst depression I had ever experienced, after spending months in the hospital at a time, and after being diagnosed with a severe mental illness, I slowly started to hope again. I believe that God carried me through to a point of wellness where he could set me on my feet and I could finally begin to walk. It was by the power of His mighty love that I was brought back to life. During this time of strengthening I believe that God was preparing me to become the person that He created me to be and He knew that that would mean that I would have to change on every level but primarily my heart and my mind.
Romans 12:2 says: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Right now I am going through some serious growing pains – change is not easy! Science even shows that biologically our bodies react to change by resisting it (I will link a video to support this point). God has offered me a way to achieve my dreams and make them a reality but the process has been challenging and has required me to stretch, grow, and change. This has caused me to feel pressured and stressed because I’m confronting the giants in my mind – the lies that kept me down and defeated most of my past. I was listening to an awesome speaker today named Orrin Woodward discussing that when coal is placed under pressure it becomes diamonds. When I heard that I immediately let out a sigh of relieve and frustration at the same time and thought, “I want to come out of this pressure that I’m feeling shining like a diamond!” I am on the journey and in the process of becoming who God created me to be – a woman with hope from, of faith to, and completely in love with Him -a woman who doesn’t give up on her God-given dreams.
If you have ever given up on your dreams or you are in the process and feel like giving up, I encourage you to be courageous and face the giants that try to defeat you. God will fight for you if you place your trust in Him.
Dear God, I pray for myself and all those who are struggling with growing pains as you take us through the process of change that you would please give us courage and help us to trust in Your strength and victory. For those who have given up I pray that you would resurrect their dreams and the hope in You and belief they need to pursue them. As we call upon you Lord please show us great and mighty things which we do not know. Thank you Lord. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen ❤
“And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish.” (1Samuel1:10)
The above passage of Scripture refers to a woman named Hannah who grieved over her inability to have a child. Today I related to Hannah in her bitterness of soul as I prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish. While my circumstances may differ from Hannah’s, in that my sadness has nothing to do with not being able to bear a child, I can certainly relate to her heart. When I turned my pain over to the Lord today, my question was “How long is this going to hurt?” In trying to understand my pain, and why I was hurting so much, I realized that I was grieving a loss. Nobody physically died, but I did lose someone that I had invested a great deal of myself in, and suddenly this person is gone from my life. It hurt a lot! But thank God for His precious love for me. God is so faithful! As I was in prayer, the Lord led me to a scripture in my bible: “And she said, “Let your maidservant find favor in your sight.” So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.” (1Samuel1:18) The life lessons note in my bible regarding this specific Scripture says the following: “Hannah left behind her grief, not when her circumstances changed – they hadn’t – but after she poured out her soul to the Lord. Because of her grief, she connected with the Lord on a level she had never known.” ~Charles Stanley. This was a huge act of faith on the part of Hannah! She had stopped eating because of her grief and sadness but here in this Scripture she went away after her prayer and ate and was no longer sad. She had placed her faith in God and trusted that He would grant her the desire of her heart. In Hannah’s prayer for a son, she also vowed to dedicate her son to the service of the Lord which was a selfless act on her part. That was her sacrifice onto the Lord. Later Hannah conceived and bore a son!
I was so encouraged by this today and I hope that you will be too. Nothing is too big for God and He can certainly make your dreams come to pass when you put your trust in Him. Let your fear become your fuel for faith. Turn to God in prayer and pour your soul out to Him. This isn’t the first time I’ve turned to God and in the past He has always been faithful even when the answer wasn’t what I expected.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart; Lean not on your own understandings. Acknowledge the Lord in all that you do and He will direct your paths.”
hopetodreamagain 