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 ❤
Have you ever felt like you’ve fallen outside of God’s grace? You’ve messed up, done something wrong, sinned against your Everything, the very One who gives you your life and breath, your true love.
It can be difficult to get back up after you’ve fallen especially when you’ve tripped yourself. It’s easy to beat yourself up and start to believe the lies that the enemy wants you to believe. It’s easy to stay down because it’s comfortable, it takes no effort to stay down.
I’ve fallen, and I’ve stayed down long enough to realize that if I don’t get up and run back to the arms of my Saviour then I’m just giving up on everything that His Love has accomplished for me. I would be throwing away my inheritance. His free gift to me of His grace which He shed His very own blood to give me.
The bible says that the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I realize that while I may have messed up, he jumped on that opportunity to steal my joy and excitement and to kill my dreams and destroy my relationship with God. I refuse to give up and instead I give in and surrender to Jesus and I cry out to Him and ask Him for a hand to help me get back up. I don’t need to stay down – it’s a choice – I choose to trust in the love and forgiveness of God. I don’t even have to get back up by myself because He is there to give me a hand and through His strength I am able to get back up and move forward.
If you’ve fallen and need a hand getting back up please join me in this prayer:
Dear God,
You are awesome and faithful. You are love and I am so thankful for your mercy and grace. Father I cry out to you in repentance for the sins that I have committed. Jesus I believe in my heart and I confess with my mouth that you are Lord and you alone have the power to save me and set me free from sin and death. Please have mercy on me and forgive me for my sins. Please create a clean heart in me and restore my fellowship with you. Please fill me with your Holy Spirit and help me to walk in your will for my life. Lord I surrender all of me to you including my emotions, my guilt, my shame and I ask that you renew me. Please restore my joy and excitement so that I may live life with anticipation of your goodness while trusting in your promises. I love you Lord and I thank you for your forgiveness and salvation. Please draw me closer to you Lord and please protect me from the enemy and help me to sin no more. Thank you Lord. In the precious name of Jesus I pray, Amen ❤
“This is my command: Love each other.” ~Jesus Christ (John 15:17)
Have you ever felt so incapacitated when it comes to love, especially the ability to truly love others? …without expecting anything in return? Have you ever felt sick and tired of being sick and tired? …being stuck in a vicious cycle? Well if your answer is Yes, then know that I feel you! I can certainly understand what it feels like to feel incapacitated and to be sick and tired of allowing that to rob me of pursing my God-given dreams. One of the dreams I had before I even entered into a relationship with Jesus was to be able to experience true unconditional love and then to express that love to others. Interestingly enough the two greatest commandments are to first love God and second love others. Tonight God gave me a bit of a reality check in the sense that I’ve realized that I can be a selfish person at times. Most of the time I’m consumed with “me”. Consumed with what’s going on in my life, what going to go on in my future, what I look like, how I’m feeling, how I’m growing and maturing in my faith, how I can keep myself busy so that God-forbid I don’t risk being/feeling alone, blah, blah, blah, me, me, me… I’m not saying that it’s wrong to think or reflect on oneself but even in that it should be done do the glory of God. I’m realizing that I’m way to consumed with myself. Please excuse me if I come off as being hard on myself it’s just that I’m writing from that place of “sick and tired”. I want change, I need change. I want to stop caring so much about myself and what others think of me and start thinking more and caring more about others. The good news is that I’m at a place in my life now where I can finally be free to live out my dream. Not only have I been introduced to true unconditional love, but now as a grateful believer in Jesus Christ I have God’s Holy Spirit living on the inside of me which empowers me to not only love God, but to love others as well. God has loved me so much that he sent Jesus to die for me and now through the awareness of that love, I’m willing to die to my selfish ways so that I could love God first and then others for His glory. It is His love in me that enables me to express it to others, it is not of my own power or ability. I’m excited to step outside of myself and allow God to use me to share His love with others and to share the reason for my hope. I’ve already started looking at volunteer opportunities in my area. I’d love to actually go on a missions trip at some point in the future when the timing is right, but for now I want to start right here where God has placed me, serving in my everyday life.
If you have a desire to love and help others, but you just haven’t reached out yet, maybe out of fear or insecurities or even selfishness then I encourage you to take the focus off of yourself and to place it on God. Look upward and not inward. Step outside of yourself and ask the God of the universe to show you His love and then to show you how to love like He’s loved you. Don’t sell yourself short of the life that God has planned for you and don’t give up on your dreams.
My prayer tonight is taken from the song lyrics of Hosanna:
Dear Lord, I come before you and confess my selfishness and pray for your forgiveness and mercy. I thank you in faith and ask that You would change me Lord for your glory. I pray that you would show me where and how I can love and serve others and that Your will be done. I also ask the following prayer in the name of Jesus:
Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me
Break my heart for what breaks yours
Everything I am for Your kingdom’s cause
As I walk from earth into eternity
Amen ❤
I’ve included an awesome remix to Hosanna! Hope you enjoy…
“As long as I keep running about asking: “Do you love me? Do you really love me?” I give all power to the voices of the world and put myself in bondage because the world is filled with “ifs.” The world says: “Yes, I love you if you are good-looking, intelligent, and wealthy. I love you if you have a good education, a good job, and good connections. I love you if you produce much, sell much, and buy much.” There are endless “ifs” hidden in the world’s love. These “ifs” enslave me, since it is impossible to respond adequately to all of them. The world’s love is and always will be conditional. As long as I keep looking for my true self in the world of conditional love, I will remain “hooked” to the world – trying, failing, and trying again. It’s a world that fosters addictions because what it offers cannot satisfy the deepest craving of my heart.” ~Henri Nouwen~
I am so thankful for having come across this quote tonight. It both whispered gently and firmly shouted truth into my soul. This was me for so long – addicted to trying and failing and trying again to satisfy my deepest craving through the world and myself. I was “hooked”! I just feel led to pray right now and if this quote speaks truth to your soul then I invite you to join me…
Father,
In the name of Jesus and through the power of Your Holy Spirit I humbly approach your throne of grace and mercy tonight and confess that I have been hooked and addicted to seeking satisfaction for my deepest craving for unconditional love and acceptance from the world and myself which offers merely a false substitute of what only You alone can provide. I ask for your forgiveness and receive it in faith knowing that Your Word says that You will forgive my sins if I repent and confess. Lord, I ask that you free me from this bondage as I surrender myself to You. I ask that You take Your rightful place and be seated in the throne of my heart so that You will forever be my King and that I will worship no other. I acknowledge that I am completely loved and accepted unconditionally by You and that Your love is more than enough. Lord, please help me live out this truth daily resting in the assurance that I am completely safe to be the person you created me to be and that I am free to live a life that isn’t driven by fear but by the power of Your love. You are awesome God and I thank you for the freedom that You have provided for me through Your Son Jesus. My heart longs to fall deeply in love with You, to trust You and follow You wholeheartedly all the days of my life and forevermore.
Love Always,
Your precious daughter
Amen ❤
Isaiah 61 reads:
The Year of the Lord‘s Favor
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord‘s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks; foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers; but you shall be called the priests of the Lord; they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God; you shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory you shall boast. Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy.
For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their offspring shall be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed.
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.”
WoW! Where do I begin… I could write a book to share this story, but I’ll do my best to keep it short & sweet 🙂
As long as I can remember I’ve always dreamt of finding true love. I was for most of my life a hopeless romantic looking for love, acceptance and security in all the wrong places. I hurt myself and others along the way trying hard to get my fill. On this quest to find true love I thought a man was the answer, my knight in shining armour, my prince, my hero. When failed relationship after failed relationship and feelings of rejection and abandonment resurfaced over and over I started to look elsewhere. I needed answers and at the time the world was giving me the wrong one by telling me that the answer was ME… I had to first love myself before I could really find true love or that true love was loving myself?? huh?? So I tried to love and accept myself and provide myself a false sense of security that I so desperately needed. I failed miserably! Who am I apart from God who is Love Himself to be able in my own strength to provide anything for myself. I am an imperfect human being created to be loved and cared for by my Creator. Only I was so lost so far away from the truth, yet He never failed in His pursuit for me. I was so far gone, so far from Him but I was desperate for His love. I was lovesick in need of a Saviour and a cure. In fact I was so lovesick that I became mentally sick. Aside from having suffered with undiagnosed anxiety and depression most of my life, I then developed a mental illness called Psychosis for which I was hospitalized on numerous occasions for having had multiple episodes and relapses for which now the diagnoses is Schizoaffective Disorder. Unlike most people with this disorder, I am high functioning and by the grace of God doing well and relapse free for almost 3 years. Undergoing these psychotic episodes was the most terrifying experience of my life. I literally thought that I had died and gone to hell….but Jesus! Yes, Jesus came to my rescue! I cried out to Him and called on the God of this universe and begged Him to rescue me and He did. He answered and my life has never been the same since. He was the answer to my greatest dream and my greatest desire to be loved, accepted, and secure. He is True Love. True Love found me! I came across a passage of Scripture today from Psalm 12:5 that reads,
“FOR THE OPPRESSION OF THE POOR, FOR THE SIGHING OF THE NEEDY, NOW I WILL ARISE,” SAYS THE LORD, “I WILL SET HIM IN THE SAFETY FOR WHICH HE YEARNS.”
That’s me! I was the oppressed poor person sighing in need to be rescued – to be loved and secured. God performed His word and He did rise up and set me in the safety for which I yearned. You see God is so faithful, even when we aren’t, He is. It has been 3 years since True Love has found me and I’ve wandered so many times still looking for love in all the wrong places, but He never gives up on me. He pursues me daily bringing me back to Him – my first love. I feel like finally now I’m waking up to the reality that it isn’t just a dream anymore – now it’s a dream come true and I am safe and able to fall freely in love with my Saviour, my Hero, my Knight in shining armour, my Prince…
Thank You Jesus… I love You 🙂
Disclaimer: Please know that I’m not discounting the importance of human love and affection. In fact it’s the second greatest commandment which is to love one another. I’m just acknowledging God as the primary source of love since He is Love itself and we cannot love or be loved without first getting it and giving it through Him. First and greatest commandment is to love God:)
P.S. I’ve included a worship song that is dear to my heart and in keeping with the theme of this post. I hope that you enjoy it! If you have already been rescued by our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ then my prayer is that you will continue to fall in love with Him more deeply and follow Him more closely. If you happen to be reading this and you haven’t personally called out to Jesus to rescue you then I encourage you to take a leap of faith and call out to Him and He will answer and rescue you. You are loved and accepted! God Bless 🙂
hopetodreamagain 