AWAKENING TO – CLOSENESS WITH GOD

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Who am I kidding? Sometimes this time feels so rushed. Sometimes although you’ve had the alone time with God, the chaos in the day doesn’t, at all show evidence of it. It’s like, what just happened in that day? And why? How come? God, am I missing something?

But, like spending time with our little|s is deeply important to us, so, spending time with God is. We know the importance of time spent with our little|s because we know they won’t be that little for very much longer. We know that a minute lost with them is a minute we will never get back again. We know how much every moment counts and we try our best to savor the right memories and get them to stick in theirs and our psyche.

It’s the same way in out time spent with God. The moments we attempt to get with Him, we will never get back again. The day we say, “I’m going to set my alarm to get up early tomorrow and spend time with Jesus before any part of me hits the ground running.” and then miss it, is a moment we’ll never get back again. It’s a moment where He might of wanted to whisper something super juicy into our dry and desperate souls but we didn’t get a chance to spend that time with Him. It’s a moment where He might of wanted to give us that next instruction on our lives, you know the one we’ve been begging and pleading with Him for, but we didn’t make it to our alone time that day.

Now don’t get me wrong, God in His grace, and mercy still knows how to get our attention when He needs it; but I also know that there are things that His Spirit longs to reveal to us if only, we took the steps towards Him that He needed us to. If we possibly approached Him each day with a bit more eagerness. Oh, the things He longs to show us, if we’d just make more room for Him.

This isn’t a blog meant or sent to condemn, it is one so deeply impressed on my heart on this day. Maybe due to my own shortcomings? Possibly, so, be assured that it isn’t to condemn. I just wonder how much He wants to share with you and I that we haven’t given Him the time to.

I distinctly remember a moment in the earlier days of my walk with Christ where I struggled to meet with Jesus each and everyday. I’ve journaled for some time and remember one particular day, where I just sat down and went through all of the notes of glory that God would share with me through His word, in the times that I did make to be alone with Him. And I remember looking at the book with somewhat of tears in my eyes talking to God and saying “This is what you want yo do in me and reveal to me each and everyday?”. It was a very still moment of repentance for me. Where I sat there, and in my will, had decided to meet with God each and everyday thereafter; by way of my Bible, a journal and a pencil.

From that moment on my life, showed a complete difference. It was evident that this was something God had been waiting on me to do. Trials came my way in the process but they seemed to have literally rolled off|away due to my intimacy with the King. It was visible and evident that daily alone time with the Lord, produced fruit in my life. First on the inside of me, and then trickling out into every area|corner of my life.

Hope this encourages you today!

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AWAKENING TO – TIME SPENT WITH GOD

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Time spent with God,

is like going to another world. It’s a place where you get to exchange the present moment for a surreal or unearthly one. You get to exchange the present moment for a supernatural one.

Time spent with God is something we could all use more of.

I’d personally say that it’s a place where God reveals who I really am to me. He shows me my value to Him. He shows me who I was always meant to be, and defines me through His word. His word tells me who He designed me to be, His purposes and plans for my life as well.

He puts life into perspective for me, and He reveals my carnality.

Time spent with God is special to me, it’s where I get to gather the right thinking. We are supposed to live on this side of life with the thoughts of Christ and live in a manner that pleases Him.

I can’t do that apart from His word. We can often underestimate the depth of this scriptures sentiments at times:

I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

Psalm 119:11

The word on meditation in our hearts and minds is life giving. We need it, they produce the right rivers at the right time. They overflow when they need to and become a steady stream within when we just need only to be still.

Scripture is what lights our way and our path. It is God Himself. I learn the nature of God in my time spent with Him. I learn the way He intended things to be here on earth.

I learn of things He wouldn’t share with me, had I not taken the time to meet with Him. He is the purest and most truest source of inspiration there is. He makes me laugh at myself at times, when I go to Him in prayer. He is a friend.

Jesus, is so good to us, in leaving us in this nugget in scripture. It’s like a peek into the intimacy He desires for us to have with our Father in heaven.

He goes:

“I and the Father are one”

“I only do what I see my Father in heaven do.”

You mean to tell me that I can see what the Father does and do it too, Jesus?

The possibilities are endless when we become one with Him!

The things we can do when we make our relationship with God a priority and the main thing is awe inspiring.

The Father and I are one.”

John 10:30

So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.

John 15:9

Time spent with God, is time spent that will never be regretted.

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AWAKENING TO – WHO YOU ARE CAN CHANGE AND WHO YOU ARE NEVER CHANGES

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Who you are can change. This is a statement, and a true one. Who you are can change, especially if it is something you want to change.

Thankfully, as a blood bought believer, we know that even if we change, our God given identity never has to.

Another statement worth repeating to yourself a few times:

“I am not my do, I am my who.”

Like a Dr. Seuss phrase this statement can definitely catch one off guard. It’s one that I heard plenty of times in the earlier years of my faith.

What it means is that what you do does not equate to your “who”.

Now don’t get me wrong, you may, in fact be identified or associated with what you do.

But it is still not your who.

Who you are is who God says you are, and that is final.

Even if your do hasn’t completely come into alignment with your “who” yet, you are still your “who” and NOT your “do”.

It can take time for your actions to line up with what you know to be true of and about yourself.

And this doesn’t mean that you are not your “who”.

Now back to this thought:

“Who you are can change AND who you are never changes.”

According to the word of God, as believers, we are continually changing into the image of God:

So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

2 Corinthians 3:18

That means we are to look more like Him|Christ as we continue walking with Him. Much like the way older spouses tend to look like each other as they get older in relationships. They tend to mimic each other, know what the other is thinking without them even having to say anything; and the like.

You can change and never change at the same time. There are things about you and I that are bound to change but our depths never does. Our true identity never does. Who we are in Christ never changes.

Now, the enemy is cunning and a deceiver and I don’t put him guilting us into believing that it has changed, or him plaguing us with thoughts opposite of our true identity, past him. Confusing one is his nature. I really believe, he’d like nothing more than for you and I to believe opposite of our true identity in all circumstances and in all things.

Be on guard, know “who” you are in spite of your change so that when the enemy comes with his deception, you can spot his lies from a mile away.

he is slippery, sneaky and a serpent, he enjoys flipping what God made good and calling it evil or trying to claim it as his own.

We are not outside of his radar but we are “who” we are, and equipped with “what” we need.

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AWAKENING TO – AN ENCOUNTER

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This blog was posted to serve as a reminder to you and I.

It’s a reminder, not to, minimize your experience(s) with God.

Don’t minimize the effects of your quiet time don’t minimize the time you spend with Him.

Looking back on the story of my conversion and first encounters with God, now. I don’t think I would of experienced the things I did in His presence, had I minimized the experiences I had with the Lord.

If I minimized my first service in attendance at the church I got saved at…

Would I have journeyed on some of the most fulfilling moments of my life, probably not?

If I’d made light of each sermon I heard…

Would I have gone deeper in my study of God and the Bible?

If I made light of the tears that fell from my eyes as I sat in the pews each time I heard the Word of God ministered…

Would things have been different in every Spirit invoked, call to action that I answered?

If I made light of the sweet tangible presence of Jesus during worship moments…

Would I know the truth?

The thing about sin is that it causes our conscious to be dulled.

The thing about living a life in the world is that it teaches you to suppress your experiences, feelings and the like.

It teaches you to bottle up every feeling inside and to only allow the sudden bursts of anger out at the slightest moments of irritation or inconvenience.

Things that have hurt you, you are told to “toughen up.” and “let it go”.

Things that make you smile, you are told, “they aren’t that big of a deal” and|or to “calm down”.

You are trained to be silent about your experiences if they aren’t as “big” as someone else’s and the list can and does, go on.

The value that we place on our experiences and encounters with God, matter.

Attention to them can shape our entire destiny. It can be the driving force behind much of what we do for the glory and honor of our Lord.

Magnifying our experiences and encounters with God can edify our personal lives as well as those we choose to fellowship with and testify to.

1a

: EXTOL, LAUD

while they magnified the art, they often belittled the artist

— Havelock Ellis

b

: to cause to be held in greater esteem or respect

2a

: to increase in significance : INTENSIFY

b

: EXAGGERATE

magnifies every minor issue to crisis proportions

3

: to enlarge in fact or in appearance

You overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of your testimony.

Revelation 12:11

Don’t minimize your testimony. Don’t minimize your experiences and encounters with God.

Don’t make light of the things that God’s, One and Only, Son came to this earth for you to have.

Do you know?

That Jesus Christ left His place in glory for you and I to know the Father.

Do you know?

That, God sent Him to this earth to do what no one else could do.

That God sent Him to this earth to win back you and I, unto Himself and that He couldn’t leave this earth until He made this possible again.

Jesus Christ came here on a mission and, through the strength of God Himself, that mission was accomplished.

Jesus, being innocent, was stretched wide and hung high for sins He never committed.

Being God, in the flesh, He humbled Himself under the mighty Hand of God:

Phillipians 2:6-10

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

Have you ever had a “Do you know who I am?!” moment?

Being God son or daughter, and knowing it, can bring that thought out of you.

Well, Jesus never did and He is the “I Am!”

Exodus 3:14

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

He paid the highest price and ultimate sacrifice for you and I to magnify our encounters with OUR Heavenly Father.

Romans 8:15 BSB

For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

Isaiah 53:4-5 BSB

Surely He took on our infirmities and carried our sorrows; yet we considered Him stricken by God, struck down and afflicted.

But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

Isaiah 53:10-11 NKJV

Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.

He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.

I pray that we’d make it count. That we’d make the encounter(s) that Jesus died for us to have count.

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AWAKENING TO – WITH ALL OF OUR HEARTS

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…

“we can work up to the “with all our heart”

but what we can’t do is accept staying where we are or the same”

“with all of our hearts”

God is patient, He is such a patient God. When I look over the stories in scripture and see how merciful He was to people in the moments He really didn’t have to be I get overwhelmed with sorrow.

For example, the children of Israel rebelled against God, time and time again. He would tell them what their punishment would look like and still, they’d cry out to Him and be rescued by Him almost immediately after they’d call on Him with a broken spirit and repentant heart.

Psalm 51:17

It is a reminder to me that God doesn’t like to see any of us suffer or face the consequences that, at times we’ve caused. He is a loving Father and loves us too much to leave us. He loves us too much to allow us to wallow in our sin for long. When we call out, He answers, sometimes almost immediately and then there’re other times we wonder if He’s running late. No matter when, where or how He answers, knowing that He is always there; in-spite of and while we face the things we do brings some sort of assurance to circumstances that could be anything but that.

He is here, He listens and He sees it all.

Which brings me to the greatest commandment:

Matthew 22:37

Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’

If I were to be honest sometimes this can be something I’ve struggled with throughout our relationship. Our, meaning, mine and God’s relationship. I’ve wrestled with giving my whole heart to God and being afraid that it might be too much.

I’ve been afraid of loving God with my whole heart because then that would mean that He would be able to tug on (metaphorically speaking), my heart strings as He pleases and I wouldn’t want that.

If I allowed God complete access to my love I’d be fully at His mercies and for anyone who likes to control things, this can be a tough one.

Proverbs 4:23

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

The thing about this scripture is that we never have to guard our hearts from God. He is fully capable of caring for and handling the things we entrust to Him.

2 Timothy 1:12

…But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return.

If you struggle with the topics of giving your whole heart to God, here are a few scriptures that may help:

1 John 4:18

Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.

1 Peter 5:7

Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

Numbers 23:19

God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?

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AWAKENING TO – THE VALUE OF THE WO

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21 nuggets on my heart regarding the value that God has places on WOmen:

1. The first people to see Jesus – out of His tomb and to tell others about it – were women. This, speaks to the value that God has placed on the voice of a woman. (Woman, reading this, remember, your voice is powerful not meant to be used to tear down or for gossip but to be used to build up and strengthen.) Mark 16:9-10, John 20:14-17

2. Jesus didn’t shy away from the passion of a woman or tell her to be less passionate – He gave her passion assignment, He assigned, her passion – He put meaning on her passion – Ex. A. The woman at the well left Him and evangelized her entire community with the Gospel. John 4 B. The woman who washed His feet with her hair and oil. Wherever you hear the gospel her story will be told too. Luke 7 C. The women who touch the hem of his garment, who never dreamed that her faith would be referred to almost 2,000 years later throughout the community of faith. Matthew 9:20

3. Even Jesus’s mother, with her commitment to Him. Her request at the wedding at Cana. It isn’t by chance that the miracle to kick off the ministry of the Christ was at the request of His very own mother. This showed honor, He didn’t reject her request. I personally believe that the details of these stories are woven into God’s plan for the influence of the woman. He (Jesus) acknowledged her request. This could have been symbolic of a mothers blessing over everything she helped nurture in Him over and throughout His upbringing. His coming out and coming into His divine purpose on this earth believed and accepted by His own mother, first. John 2:1-11

4. Women are blessed with a life giving feature. This nugget speaks to those who are personally mothering. It touches on the topic of being given the responsibility and privilege of having life develop on the inside of you. Let’s, for a moment acknowledge and realize the gift of stewardship women have been given to nurture and care for a life, from and outside of the womb.

5. Jesus included women.

6. Women are loyal even to the point of what can look like stupidity. God has allowed this same loyalty to benefit His Kingdom time and time again in the stories of brave, bold and faith-filled women of the Bible. The stories of Esther and Abigail are great examples of this. Esther & 1 Samuel 25

7. Ever heard of the phrase “A woman’s touch.”. A woman’s touch is a powerful tool in the Hand of God. It is an effective instrument that can add to God’s plan and purposes on the earth today. The enemies influence on today’s society can portray the ability to hear from a man, as something that is extremely difficult. Whether the reason is caused by some sort of childhood trauma like fatherlessness, growing up with a stern father, having a distorted view of men and the authoritative role of a man in a home, or the hypocrisy of some men and the like. Hearing from a man can be hard for some. Which is where the touch of a woman can most definitely fit right in.

8. Woman are innovators, deep thinkers and inclined to feel with their audience. See the story of Pontius Pilate’s Wife or the Proverbs 31 Woman. Matthew 27

9. Women are beautiful. Jesus loves to hear our voice, He is inclined to our cry. See the story of the Woman Caught In An Adultery, Jesus knelt down and spoke to this woman in all of her shame after His convicting question cleared out her accusers. John 8

10. See the story of Hannah and her plea and commitment made at the altar, Esther’s authoritative leadership and answer when her people were in trouble. Look at Ruth and her devotion to follow a God she only just observed and knew from a distance. There has and still is a willingness found in woman to take ownership; see the example of the 2 Sisters that went to Moses for their father’s share of land when land was being disrupted. 1 Samuel 1, Esther, Ruth & Numbers 27

11. From the beginning of creation to now, women have been the reason not to be alone. IE. Eve. Women are solutions, answers to problems and we didn’t stop being that with Eve. We have since evolved into, greater solutions and remain valuable answers to the problems found in this world.

12. We are answers, the very heartbeat of a woman contributes to the fruitfulness of life.

13. Women are gifted with special attention to detail and the right timing. A woman is a crown to what she takes part in and with less than as much as glance, she can improve the things she takes notice in. See the story of Deborah the Judge in the Bible or Moses’ mom or Pharaoh’s Daughter or Moses’s Sister in her youth and the Virtuous Woman described in Proverbs 31.

14. Since and before the days of Jesus’s earthly visit, people have been yelling “No, Stop!” to women and Jesus has been saying, “No, Let her!”. Just like He bid children to come when others shooed them, I see Him motioning us over to Himself. Bidding us to exercise our faith, unoffendably; saying “Great is your faith, your request has been granted!” Matthew 15:28

15. He is opening up a passage way that always existed, a passage way “to:” and “from,” Himself. Where women will be called on, beyond measure to display His glory and power all while using the distinct passageway and access the correct code. So that He can tell us things in the dark that we speak in the light. Matthew 10:27 So He can whisper in our ear and we, it from the housetops.

16. Because day break is here and all who has ears to hear will hear.

17. He wants woman to take part in what He is doing throughout the earth.

18. With our specific skill sets, giftings and abilities; all of us. At His feet, accessible for His will and willing to partake in obedience.

19. With power, boldness and authority in God’s ability through you.

20. Women are perfect at creating perfect environments, even when things aren’t so perfect.

21. And, He is perfect at perfecting His will in each of us.

You are treasure to the Kingdom of God. I pray you grasp this revelation as much as God wants to thrust (it,) His truth upon you.

God bless you always!

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AWAKENING TO – PLACING OUR TRUST IN GOD

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“Since when did you think it was ok for you not to trust Him with your all?”

This is a question I recently asked myself.

Overtime, the measured trust that we initially gave over to God can change.

We can easily and unknowingly begin to place trust elsewhere without even taking notice of it.

We can begin to trust:

•others

•things

•or what is preferred

Slowly but surely we can even begin to pry our trust out of the hands of our God and rummage to keep bits of it as our own possession.

I remember specific moments when I’d surrender more and more of my trust to God. I distinctly remember when I’d let God know that my trust was completely in Him and nothing or no one else.

This came about overtime. I would test my words through my actions and God would test them as well.

It was a process of releasing my trust to the God who can be trusted.

Because of life before Christ, trauma that we are aware of and unaware of and so many other outside forces and influences; we can naturally be closed off to completely opening up to God and others as well as in our ability to trust.

God breaks down these barriers, hurt and defenses by allowing us to know Him. As we grow in our knowing of God, our trust in and for Him grows also. Which is why it took me time to completely place my trust in Him. This is also why we have to be reminded of where our trust is and how easy we can place it elsewhere every now and then.

We can become complacent in our pursuit and loose the thirst that we once longed to be quenched of by God.

John 4:13-14

Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”

We can use a reminder of the only sure place to put our trust throughout our walk with God and in this journey called life.

Life comes with twist and turns and because of this we have to check our trust and where we’ve placed or misplaced it. We have to do and allow corrective work to be done when we find that we’ve taken it from the only safe place and put it somewhere else.

Prayer:

May His word be that constant reminder to us of this.

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Psalm 119:114

You are my refuge and my shield; your word is my source of hope.

AWAKENING TO – RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

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Everyone can have one?

Once experienced, it’s something you’d rather not be without.

It isn’t something reserved for a specific person or group.

God created you to have relationship with you.

He will not go back on this, He made us for His pleasure.

Can you imagine a God who creates simply because He chooses to?

Can you imagine knowing that He delighted in making you?

That He saw you and knew you’d need intimacy with Him?

Isaiah 43:7

Bring all who claim me as their God, for I have made them for my glory. It was I who created them.’”

Can you imagine a God that wants to fellowship with you?

I once saw my relationship with God as something so far off. I knew He existed, I even knew He cared about me. I knew He was the True and Living God and would argue anyone down who tried to tell me otherwise. I just knew it, don’t ask me how I did but I just did.

Then I knew Him as someone who wanted a relationship with me. I always knew He cared, always knew He was over me but just never knew He wanted to know me and for me to know Him. I didn’t know that God really wanted to know me and be known by me. So I started after this.

Since then, I’ve grown to see our relationship and connection as much more.

I see it as a flow now. I used to be really disappointed in myself if I missed quite time with Him. I would think that He wouldn’t want to know me anymore because of it and that just isn’t how a relationship with Jesus works.

I see it as a flow now, similar to a faucet turned on, or a river. It doesn’t stop because I miss a day in my seeking or searching. It may slow down or not flow in the manner I would like it to but the beauty about this is that it can be adjusted.

If there is something missing or needs to be implemented in my life I can adjust the faucet.

Now, I am not in control of God in this relationship, but I am in control of myself.

We oftentimes speak of the Spirit of God flowing through us. Or we reference God’s presence as One moving or speaking through us. Our connectivity to Him oftentimes determines that flow.

There have been cases in the Bible where God used or operated through something or someone for a specific purpose and never did it again and there are other moments in scripture where God was undeniably with a person or group throughout their entire lifetime.

God wants to flow through you and I today, and our connection to Him will determine this flow.

God doesn’t leave us when we fail at communing with Him like we should but the flow can definitely be affected by this…

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1 Chronicles 28:9

“…For the LORD sees every heart and knows every plan and thought. If you seek him, you will find him…”

AWAKENING TO – FINDING A FRIEND IN JESUS

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…

It sounds so cliche, am I right?

But the magnitude of the act of finding a friend in Jesus is unmatched.

There is a scripture that says:

Proverbs 18:24

There are “friends” who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother.

To be honest I have always wrestled with this scripture. Either I felt like I was this to someone and they hadn’t been it to me. Or, knowing that I’ve always had some deep longing to live out this scripture in such a pure way and not ever really feeling like I got close to it in that way, in any of my friendships has bugged me a bit.

(That was an absolute transparent moment, but attempting to live out scripture takes you there at times.)

It takes you to the vulnerable places the places where transparency is all you can truly give and present.

The word of God has often times been described by scholars and those desiring to depict it in words, as something that acts like a mirror. Although it is a book of instruction and guidance, it also acts as a light that pierces through every dark place you’d wish wasn’t there or you’d buried so far beneath what you let on that you didn’t even know it was there.

Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

When the word of God hits you, and please know that if it hasn’t already, it will. It will wreck your (spiritual) insides, finding everything that is hidden and every area you’d rather not uncover or deal with.

It is an all in your business type of friend, the kind that can be annoying but the One you know you need as well. The One who comforts you like no other and then deals with your ratchet and the unnecessary in you too.

The word of God, the Holy Spirit, Jesus and God the Father are all one. They act and show up in different ways in scripture and in our lives but they are all One. They work as One, they function as One, they don’t contradict or go against each other. They are a cohesive unit that operates as needed according to the plan, purposes and will of God the Father.

See:

John 10:30, John 1:14, John 14:16, John 1:1

We are so loved to have a God who isn’t playing tricks on us. He doesn’t lie to us about anything and He isn’t holding out on us either. He wants the best for each of us and cares that we experience His fullness and embrace all of Him. His Sovereignty knows no end and He can be trusted until the end. He is the One who “sticks closer” than them all and will never leave or forsake.

See Deuteronomy 31:8

“Why would you want to make a friend of Jesus?” you ask. My question would be the exact opposite, “Why wouldn’t you want to make a friend of Jesus? would be what I’d ask.

He is:

the most truthful

the most loyal

the most trustworthy

and strong

the wisest

the most experienced

the One who’s got the purest motives towards you

the one who won’t stop until you’re found (He leaves the 99)

He’ll honor His commitments to you, and no cost is too high

He’s the One who won’t let a tear fall from you without vowing to wipe every tear from your eye – Revelation 21:4

the One who keeps His promises

and the One who bears all our sins and grief

the One you can take everything to, and just unload and it still wouldn’t be too much for Him.

He’s the One you don’t have to question if what you are sharing is too much for Him to handle, because it never will be.

He’s the One that truly has said, He’s not leaving!

The friendship and the privilege of a lifetime found in One five letter word.

He is the friend who is unforgettable, unending, always right, always loving, caring and thoughtful at the same time.

Proverbs 17:17

A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need.

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Listen to this song when you get a chance

Or read the lyrics to yourself:

“What a friend we have in Jesus

All our sins and griefs to bear

What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!

O what peace we often forfeit

O what needless pain we bear

All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer

Have we trials and temptations?

Is there trouble anywhere?

We should never be discouraged

Take it to the Lord in prayer

Can we find a friend so faithful

Who will all our sorrows share?

Jesus knows our every weakness

Take it to the Lord in prayer”

AWAKENING TO – SUFFERING IN SILENCE

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I oftentimes stop and wonder about the heartache of others that no one knows of.

The moments that one may go through that no one knows about. The occurrences that try to harden our hearts, in the lives of others. The things that have pained another more than they take the time to stop, and give it credit for.

In the most recent time my mind drifted on this thought, I thought about how sorry I had been to even think about those whose hearts ache in that way.

Even if I am not the one who hurt them or the cause of their pain, hearing the words “I’m sorry!” for what you’ve gone through means something.

I also want to remind our reader that you can always find a friend in Jesus.

He’s decided that the name “friend” is more suitable for you and I.

John 15:15

I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.

Did you know He died for you to know Him intimately? That He died for your friendship and fellowship? He longs for it?

Now, not only did He die for these things but He also rose from the dead with the solution and healing needed to mend those specific heartaches.

What I love so much about Jesus is that He already knows the deepest and darkest of our secrets and still, only sees the you He died for you to be.

He’s doesn’t obsess over those stories and moments, and neither should we. He wants to put our lives together.

Genesis 35:10

saying, “Your name is Jacob, but you will not be called Jacob any longer. From now on your name will be Israel.” So God renamed him Israel.

Isaiah 62:4

Never again will you be called “The Forsaken City” or “The Desolate Land.” Your new name will be “The City of God’s Delight” and “The Bride of God,” for the LORD delights in you and will claim you as his bride.

vs12

“They will be called “The Holy People” and “The People Redeemed by the LORD.”…”

John 1:42

Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus. Looking intently at Simon, Jesus said, “Your name is Simon, son of John—but you will be called Cephas” (which means “Peter”).

things to note:

• life is too short to surround yourself with people who don’t see you the way God does

• or bring out the best in you

• you can go through or could have been through so much, yet no one ever really know; be kind to you

“I’m sorry” that you had no one to walk through those moments with. Im sorry, you did go through it with others by your side but you still felt so alone.

Just here to remind you that He was always there, and He always will be there. He also empathizes with what you’ve been through or are going through more than you probably know. You see Jesus died feeling forsaken. The weight of our sins all on Him, combined with the physical agony experienced made Him feel alone.

(Matthew 27:46)

He did something for you and I that we can easily not grasp the weight of. Went through something that no one could ever physically, mentally or emotionally relate to. Even those on the crosses next to Him didn’t feel what He felt. The weight of the world was on His cross, and that made all the difference. Injustice and mocking accompanied Him to the cross.

Hebrews 4:5 AMP

For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize and understand our weaknesses and temptations, but One who has been tempted [knowing exactly how it feels to be human] in every respect as we are, yet without [committing any] sin.

you are not alone:

• open the scriptures, allow it to wash over you

• therapy is a great tool for healing, putting verbiage to what we face, and renewing the mind

• help hotlines and accountability partners are accessible and available

• Jesus with you is assurance that you don’t have to go through anything you face alone

The victory has already been won for you and God delights in being with you always.

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