Don't be ashamed

“And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.” – Genesis 3:8

I read this passage again yesterday and I just noticed the specific wording used here, “hid themselves from the presence of the Lord”. Everyone would agree that you are silly when you think that you can hide from God, because He is all seeing and all knowing. Nothing happens without His knowledge and Adam and Eve knew that God already knew what had happened. That is why they didn't just hide from Him, they hid from His presence. 

I just realised that so often in life the devil convinces us to feel ashamed or guilty about our actions or behaviours and even though we know that we cannot hide from God and that He knows everything, we still avoid and hide from His presence because of how we feel. 

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” – John 10:10

Jesus brings life and the devil is on a constant mission to steal this from us. By stealing or destroying our times in God’s presence, the devil succeeds to steal from us the joy, peace and love that we receive so freely in His presence. There is never any reason for us to be afraid to step into God’s presence. Jesus has made the way clear and has received any punishment on our behalf. We are free to enjoy God even if we feel like we do not deserve it. Guilt and shame should not stop us from running to His presence, on the contrary, it should encourage us to run to Him, because it is in His presence where guilt, shame and lies carry no weight and where mercy, grace and love abounds.

“Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.” – Genesis 3:21

Adam and Eve hid because they realised that they were naked and they used leaves to cover themselves up. The realisation of nakedness came due to their disobedience, but God is His grace made them tunics out of skin to clothe them. Because of Jesus’ death on the cross, we can wear His robe of righteousness and we never have to feel naked again.

God does not bring guilt, shame or condemnation; these are the works of the devil. Don’t let these steal from you! Don’t hide from His presence and create a big white elephant in the room, rather run to Him, tell Him what is on your heart and thank Him for what Jesus already did so many years ago. 

Picture credit:journeyintothespectrum

Generosity changes the heart

There are not many things as powerful as generosity. It doesn't just bless the person receiving, but it also changes the heart of the giver. It is not a surprise that Jesus says it is better to give than to receive!

Being able to give your time or money is a privilege. An act of selfless kindness changes our hearts and our capacity to love and be loved. We were not created to function alone, but to find joy in community and helping each other. It gives us an opportunity to escape from the world of me me me and see the world from someone else's perspective. It forces us to leave our stress and worries at the door and focus our attention on the needs of someone else.

Then why is it so hard for us? Maybe it's due to our overcrowded schedules? Thinking we can do more and fit more in. When will we stop and think about quality of life and not quantity?

Maybe we think that giving will drain us or if we start giving our time that people will take advantage of us?

Maybe we should make more time to find a need of someone close to us and help? Maybe make a commitment or a random act of kindness? But I am convinced that somewhere in our week we can find a need and fill it. Listening to a friend for 30min, babysitting or making a meal for a stressed friend or even volunteering an hour a week somewhere.

Generosity is not charity, it's seeing the need when no one else does.

I recently read an article about being happy and living longer and this is what it says about giving:

"One of the most counterintuitive pieces of advice I found is that to make yourself feel happier, you should help others. In fact, 100 hours per year (or two hours per week) is the optimal time we should dedicate to helping others in order to enrich our lives.

If we go back to Shawn Achor’s book again, he says this about helping others:

…when researchers interviewed more than 150 people about their recent purchases, they found that money spent on activities – such as concerts and group dinners out – brought far more pleasure than material purchases like shoes, televisions, or expensive watches. Spending money on other people, called “prosocial spending,” also boosts happiness.

The Journal of Happiness Studies published a study that explored this very topic:

Participants recalled a previous purchase made for either themselves or someone else and then reported their happiness. Afterward, participants chose whether to spend a monetary windfall on themselves or someone else. Participants assigned to recall a purchase made for someone else reported feeling significantly happier immediately after this recollection; most importantly, the happier participants felt, the more likely they were to choose to spend a windfall on someone else in the near future.

So spending money on other people makes us happier than buying stuff for ourselves. What about spending our time on other people?
In his book Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being, University of Pennsylvania professor Martin Seligman explains that helping others can improve our own lives:

…we scientists have found that doing a kindness produces the single most reliable momentary increase in well-being of any exercise we have tested."

Also the following was very exciting for me to read:

"The Terman study, which is covered in The Longevity Project, found that relationships and how we help others were important factors in living long, happy lives:

We figured that if a Terman participant sincerely felt that he or she had friends and relatives to count on when having a hard time then that person would be healthier. Those who felt very loved and cared for, we predicted, would live the longest. Surprise: our prediction was wrong… Beyond social network size, the clearest benefit of social relationships came from helping others. Those who helped their friends and neighbours, advising and caring for others, tended to live to old age."

So it is scientifically proven that being generous and helping others will make us happier and live longer. Maybe it's time to put our fears aside, jump into action and discover the joys of giving!

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give - Sir Winston Churchill

Picture credits: misadventuresblog and stewardship
Article credit: thespiritscience

Fear be gone!

"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear." I have written about this verse before and quite frankly, I hope that I still write about it many more times. The impact of this verse on our daily lives is just phenomenal!

I want to start by elaborating on fear. We don't just fear. We fear something, a situation, a person or maybe a future possible event. Fear always has a root that stems from something and that something is almost always a lie. Satan is the great liar, the father of all lies. He plants these lies in our minds (thoughts) and when we dwell on these thoughts, they create emotions and then ultimately we start acting and responding out of fear. (actions) The sequence is always the same thought, emotion and action.

He plants these lies to sow doubt and to break down our faith. Fear thus takes root and all kinds of emotion ensue for eg. anxiety, worry, stress, nervousness and the list goes on. So you might be wondering how all this links back to "perfect love casts out fear"?

Well the Bible says that God is love, He is perfect love and when we keep our eyes focused on His love, we will not fear, because the greatness of His love for us is far bigger than any fear. So if you feel anxious, worried or stressed and fear has gotten the better of you, take some time out and identify the lie, because when we worry, we have started believing somewhere deep down that God isn't all that He says He is.

For example if you worry because you don't know how you will pay your bills then the lie might be "why would your God provide for you, how sure are you that He will come through for you?" If we fall for the lie, then we start believing that God is not the great provider that the Bible proclaims Him to be and fear creeps in. So in our minds we think that God is our provider, but in our hearts we worry that He won’t provide. We need to take the lie captive and submit it to the Word so that our mind and heart can be in agreement. The truth is that nothing can separate us from the love of God and the more we believe it, the more we will know His love and the fear will be cast out.

Obtain a greater revelation of His love! Sit in His presence, read the Word, write down verses, look back at testimonies in your life, do whatever you can to try and comprehend even slightly the amount of love that He has for you. If we can just grasp the tip-of-the-iceberg of His love for us, then we will never fear again and no worry or anxiousness will ever hold us back from living life to the fullest! Let love grow and watch fear disappear!

Picture credit: lthomason

You are not alone

When you have God in your life, you will never be alone again. He is with you, watching over you, holding you, carrying you and planning your every step. He catches you when you fall and helps you back up in His love. He knows your fears and failures and He loves you still. He is not intimidated by your past or your current situation. He is not there to scold you, but to walk alongside you. He knows your motives and He sees your heart. He knows what He can expect from you and you can never disappoint Him. He knew what you were going to do with everything that He gave you and He still gave it nonetheless.

He loves you, accepts you, cares for you and is proud of you. He has an unlimited storeroom, His heart is to bless you and He cannot wait to spoil you. He waits for you to ask Him and He delights in answering your questions. He provides for you, protects you and dreams of a bright future for you. 

He is everything you want and everything you need. He is unable to lie, unable to disappoint and He will never be able to stop pursuing you, because His love for you is more than you can ever dream of.

Perfect love

It always amazes me how many times I can read the same scripture and then, after I don't know how many times, get something completely different or new from it. Or I just completely forgot about the scripture and then when I read it again it is so refreshing to me. It really is amazing how God put so many layers in the Bible for us to discover!

I recently read the following scripture "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love." 1 John 4:18

This scripture really is amazing! When we have a revelation of how much God loves us, we cannot fear Him. With the word 'fear' I'm referring to 'being afraid of'. Have you ever thought of why you would be afraid of someone? You might be afraid of someone because they can hurt you physically or emotionally or punish you. But God has no intention of hurting us or punishing us. Jesus has already died for every sin that we have ever committed and will ever commit and He has taken the entire punishment upon Himself. There is no more punishment left for us.

Thus if we receive the revelation of God's love for us, we will fear no more and we will be free to walk without feelings of fear, guilt or condemnation as His love casts out all fear and keeps us in relationship with Him. If our revelation of His love is too small, then we are not yet perfected in love and fear might overtake us from time to time and make us feel condemned.

When God looks at us He sees us clothed in righteousness and in right standing with God, because of what Jesus has done. There is no disappointment in His eyes, only love for us. It is His love that sets us free, it fills us with peace and joy and gives us a foundation of security, knowing that we are always in the palm of His hand, that His favour is on us and that He is always in control.

Do not be afraid and do not be ashamed, but run into the arms of God. Ask Him today to give you a greater revelation of His love for you, so that you can be perfected in love. There you will find acceptance, love, rest and a peace that transcends all understanding.

“We love because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

Photo credit: favim

God knows

I think the subtitle to this post should be "Keep calm, God knows".

He knows. He knows. He knows. I just want to keep on writing that for an entire page. He knows the desires of your heart, He knows what you need and He knows the plans which He has for you. He is a good God, a loving father and a best friend. He knitted you together in your mother's womb. His heart is for you, His love is over you and His favour is upon you.

He sees your every need and hears your every heart cry and He is not panicking, He has a plan. He has plans for good and not for evil, plans to prosper you, for a future and a hope. He knows every desire that you haven't even discovered yet, He knows what you are going to ask before you even ask it and He plans how to meet it. He knows what will fulfil you and what you enjoy doing the most and He works everything together for your good. Sometimes we might not understand things or the reasons for things changing, but He knows. He's protecting you, shaping you and changing you or moving you into the person or situation which He knows you will find most fulfilling. He is a good God and that is something we should never forget. He is in all the details and He planned it all in advance.

His ways are perfect and often unconventional, but beauty will always be evident, His grace will abound and His love will overflow. He looks at the heart, not the face and He listens to the story, not judge the consequences. His mercy is great and His arms are wide open. He is a comfort to all who seek Him, He rebuilds whatever is broken and restores all that was stolen. He is the epitome of kindness and the lover of our souls.

Come today and bring it all to Him. There is no prerequisite, no perfect way, just come and bring it all. He sees you, the hurt part of you, the broken you, the misunderstood you, the beautiful you, He knows you and He still loves you.

“He fulfils the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.” Psalm 145:19

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Isaiah 55:1

“But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14

Photo credit: favim

These words...

How often do we monitor the words that come out of our mouths? The Bible says that “Death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruits.” Proverbs 18:21

Recently I was sitting at a cafe eating breakfast and just enjoying the view. I couldn't help but pick up on some of the conversations going on around me. As I heard little snippets, I realised how much people had to complain about. I didn't consciously follow the conversations, but negative thoughts and complaints were all over the place. It is so sad that negative stories are made so much more sensational than all the good things and beauty around us.

I do realise that sometimes we just need to talk about the things that we are struggling with or dealing with in our lives. We confide in a friend, we encourage each other and we talk about solutions and this is all up building. When our conversations stray from solutions and struggles and only focus on criticism, slander and everything that is wrong in the world, we start sowing bad seeds and soon we will reap a negative attitude.

A negative attitude has never changed the world, needless to say changed the conditions surrounding our own lives. Attitude is everything and when we sow good seeds with our words our focus moves from everything that can be wrong or go wrong to the beautiful things in life and those things that we can be thankful for. A positive attitude cannot always change the issues in our lives, but it can help us deal with them in a better way.

There is so much power in our words. We have the ability to change our friends, family, children and the people around us by speaking life over them and encouraging them to be all that they can be by focussing on their strengths and appreciating them for who they are. When we start seeing them in this light, love will flow freely and relationships will grow stronger. It is too easy to spot the faults and it's a decision to move them aside and focus on the positives. Maybe your words of love are all someone needs to boost their confidence and initiate a change.

There are too many people in this world walking around feeling useless and worthless and most likely they didn't choose to have this attitude, but was told over and over again by people in their lives that they will never amount to anything. Consequently these feelings don't encourage them to take pride in their work or to love people around them, how could they if they don't even love themselves? My heart breaks.

But we have the words of life, we can make a difference, because when we speak, we speak life and Jesus flows through us. You can be the change that someone needs. Let's instead of criticise, speak life and encourage with love and change the conditions around us by our words. Let's lift our gaze to heaven and get a perspective of love and tame the tongue. Let's put on positivity and walk confidently in the abundance of love which Jesus gave to us. Let’s be the difference that we want to see in the world.

Photo credit: favim

No judgement

When we realise that God is not "out to get" us and that He does not condemn us, then our view of God and the world will change so dramatically. God is more interested in loving people than pointing out their flaws and sins. We all have flaws and sins, but God is not panicking about them. Jesus has already died for all of our sins and any flaw that you have, God can overcome with the power of His Spirit that is in you.

When our revelation of God's love for us starts to grow, our vision will grow as well. We will start to see people through God's eyes and with a heavenly perspective instead of with our own judgmental eyes.

"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, "Let me take the speck out of your eye," when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
Matthew 7:1-5

It is a process and the journey starts with us. As we grow closer to Jesus our definition of love will change and our perspective will change. We will see ourselves through the eyes of God, we will see who He made us to be, perfect and in His likeness. He will reveal to us our strengths, abilities and gifts and shower us with His love. This will make us less critical of ourselves and will enable us to love ourselves more as His love covers every hurt, failure and wound and empowers us with confidence. As we learn more and more who we truly are, we become more comfortable in our own skin and around other people.

Naturally this will also flow out into the way that we view the people around us. We will stop seeing people as they stand in front of us and start seeing people for who God has made them to be. We get a download from heaven for each person and we see them through God's eyes and with His heart. This ability is absolutely amazing and enables us to unconditionally love others, to speak life over them and to encourage them to be who God made them to be.

There is so much beauty in the world and God has enabled us to love people and to help them shine. Don't miss out on this amazing opportunity to inspire others and to see the potential that God has placed in each one of them unfold!

Photo credit: tumblr

An overflow of love!

Today I just want to share about how amazing God is! I just feel such an overflow in my heart as I feel Him loving me and see Him loving people around me. I have noticed how it’s the people who don’t realise that He loves them so deeply, the people who feel disconnected from Him or the people that are so flustered in life that He just surprises with His love. It’s so amazing. He is so good and there is no requirement to receive His love. You might think this is ridiculous, but 8 weeks ago I stuck a note on my door saying God loves me and I’ve made a point to think about it more and more during the day. I truly believe that our revelation of His love for us cannot be too big! He loves us more than we can ever imagine!

The problem comes in that it’s often so hard for us to believe it, even a little bit. The lies in our minds also don’t help as they constantly remind us of how we fall short and try to convince us that we are doing something wrong. The truth is that we really do fall short. “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23 BUT “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

So yes, we do fall short as we all have sinned in our lives, but because of Christ’s love for us that sin cannot hold us back from God, it cannot separate us from God’s love for us and it cannot be used as an excuse to not receive God’s love. Nothing we can do can stop His love. Sin is powerless. His love is available to us, we just need to believe it. I have started making a habit of quieting the voices in my head. When they come against His love and try to make me feel guilty and condemned, I actually tell them to shut up! And I can honestly say that the less I listen to them, the quieter they have become.

When we believe in His love, it empowers us, it gives us confidence, because it teaches us who we are and that the God of the universe and our best friend is standing right beside us.

I doesn’t matter what you are going through in your life, God loves you and He is with you. Nothing you can do can scare Him away! He is the God of compassion and He doesn’t want anyone to be excluded, not one single person. Jesus didn’t die for some, He died for all and as He showed this love to us, so we should be the conduit of His love to the world. You will be amazed how He will start loving people through you if you allow Him to.

Maybe you feel like your rivers of living water have dried up? Do not worry or be anxious He has more than enough! Everything that you need is in Him. Sit with Him today and fill up until you overflow with His love.

“We love because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

Picture credit: Daylightstarlight

The power of love

What do you think when I tell you: “God loves you”? Maybe you know His love well, maybe you don’t care or will just brush me off by saying: “whatever”. In some way the phrase “God loves you” has become such a cliché and so easily said and I wonder how many people truly know that God loves them incredibly much and experience His love? I was at a wedding this weekend and the person speaking mentioned that the wife is God’s vessel through which He can tangibly show her husband how much He loves him and vice versa. There is no other relationship where love can be demonstrated so intimately, in so many ways and on so many levels than in marriage. A wife lifts up her husband by loving him the way God loves him and the husband lifts up the wife by loving her the way God loves her.

No wonder Jesus calls the church His bride. His people are destined to live in an intimate relationship of love with Him. There is so incredibly much power in the love of God and nothing can stand against it. I love that the Bible says: “Perfect love casts out all fear.” and we have the perfect love inside of us. I wonder how our lives will look when we truly, truly grasp this wonderful truth. We cannot comprehend how much God loves us. It’s not just a little love, it’s a BIG love and everything He does demonstrates His love for you. You get to know Him by His love. It is who He is.

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Eph 3:14-19

Paul says that we need to be “rooted and grounded in love” meaning rooted and grounded in God’s love. If we just begin to understand how much God loves us, we will bounce up and down every day with joy, our fears will be extinct and we will overflow with peace. Not to mention the confidence and power we will walk in. No feeling of guilt or condemnation will hold us down and no manipulating thoughts will distract us from Him. We will feel in love and light as a feather 24 hours a day and this IS possible.

As God is teaching me to walk in His love and Spirit, I feel everything around me changing. There are fewer things that try to get me down and their effects don’t last long. I feel more and more unstoppable every day, because He is in me and when He is for me, who can be against me?

We don’t live by what we feel, but by what we know and what you can ask for you can have if you believe. Everything starts with faith, because without faith we cannot please God. We need to believe He loves us whether we feel it or not. We need to believe He listens whether we feel it or not. We need to believe He speaks whether we hear Him or not and then we will start experiencing things. Then our eyes will open and we will see His love, feel His love and hear His voice.

The Bible says:

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Matt 7:7

“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Jer 29:13

“Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
be gracious to me and answer me!
You have said, “Seek my face.”
My heart says to you,
“Your face, Lord, do I seek.” Psalm 27:7-8

God does not disappoint. Seek and you will find. Seek His love and you will come to know it and it will blow your mind! As it says above “the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge”, it is not something that we can understand with our minds. It is above our knowledge, it does not make sense, it is a crazy, I-did-not-do- anything- to deserve-this kind of love. It is unstoppable, unbreakable and 100% unconditional. There is nothing we can do to earn His love, all we can do is accept it and be thankful. It’s when we stop trying to earn it, when we realise that we have it all already.

Photo credit: favim

Love, love, love!

Love, love, love, love, love, I cannot say it enough! It’s just so intensely on my heart today. To love is to live. I’m referring to all kinds of love, friendship, relationship, family and neighbourly love. To love people intensely is such an amazing experience. Yes, you can get hurt sometimes and sometimes you have to say goodbye, but you are still blessed to have loved. God has put something so amazing in each person on earth and if we can see each person through God’s eyes then we would only feel love for them.

The Bible says that God is love and therefore loving is probably the greatest thing you can do. It is not always easy and sometimes it doesn’t come naturally, but if we get God’s perspective on someone our love for them will grow in our hearts, because God looks down on us with love.

“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as He is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:16-19

Sometimes I feel as if I want to explode with love and the more time I spend with God, the more I feel loved and the more I love. God increases our capacity to love. Loving people didn’t come naturally to me before I met Jesus. I loved my friends and family, but that’s about where it stopped. I even kept my friends at a certain distance, because I felt that I was a private person and I also saw emotions as a sort of weakness. Now I can confidently say that my strength lies in my ability to love. Not with my own love, because my own love expects a return and runs dry, but with God’s love, the love which loves unconditionally without expecting returns. There is a difference between the love of God and the love of this world. Our minds cannot understand the love of God, but our hearts cannot deny it. We are drawn like a moth to a flame. When you are consumed with God’s love there is no space for jealousy, bitterness, unforgiveness, envy and strife. God’s love knows no bounds, it never ends and as the Bible says: “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”  1 Peter 4:8 Love covers everything, it wipes the slate clean, it builds up and encourage.

That is what Jesus did for us on the cross. He died for us, because He loved us. He covered us with His love and in that separated us from sin and death and gave us life. If we struggle with negative or destructive thoughts against other people, we should not ask God to remove the thoughts, but ask Him to increase our capacity to love. He is the only one who can fill you with pure love. If you have not yet felt His pure love running through your veins, I ask you to sit with Him and ask Him to fill you with his love. Ask Him for an experience of His love. Ask Him every day until you meet Him in that place of pure love and joy. God delights in us and His desire and love is for us. Don’t settle for anything less.

“and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:5

“so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-21

Amazing song: Be my love

Picture credit: favim

Love or fear?

I was busy reading a book yesterday and the author commented that “all our actions come from one of two basic emotions – fear or love.” Wow, I couldn't agree more and I haven't thought about it in this way before. I started thinking of the motive behind why I do the things I do. Out of love or fear?

I started thinking about the kind of life that I want to live with God, at the office, at home and in relationships. A life of love or fear? Why do I stay at my current job? Because I am passionate or because I fear that I won't have enough money if I  do something which I am passionate about? Why do I spend time with certain people? Because I love them, care for them or because I'm too scared to be alone?

We can all recognise love and passion in our lives and it brings joy, freedom and life. God is the ultimate example of love. He is love and love is everywhere where His Spirit and presence are on earth. We can all also recognise fear in our lives and it breeds anxiety, stress, shame, doubt and limits us. Lies breed fear. When we are close to breakthrough or a new adventure in our lives, fear can step in and limit us. Breaking limits and overcoming fear takes courage and if we want a life that goes beyond the normal, fear will always try and takes us down first. We have a choice, life is a choice, God created choice not robots.

Fear does not help anyone, fear does not set us free, but it keeps us in bondage. How do we overcome fear? If God is asking you to take a new step, then you need to learn to trust Him, to have faith. God will give you everything you need to overcome your fear, but it starts with you and it starts with faith. The Bible says that even when we are faithless, God is faithful. When you are faithless, take your faithlessness to Him. Ask Him for the faith you need. The Bible says that He is the author and perfecter of our faith. He starts and perfects our faith. The Bible says that faith comes from hearing the Word. Read your Bible and find out what it says about you and about God and about who you are, because you have put your faith in Jesus. It empowers you, it makes your courage grow and it catapults you to new heights.

Lay your fears down at His feet. Let Him carry your burdens, you are not alone. Tell Him that you are putting your faith in Him today and read the word of God so that you can know Who you now are in Jesus. Start reading 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 and start to see that you are a new creation. Read Romans 8 and learn about life in the Spirit, that you are heirs with Christ and God’s everlasting love for you. God is for you, not against you. He loves you and He’s calling you to greater things. Do not let fear of the unknown hold you back. What kind of life do you want to live? Cling to the things of love, cut loose the bonds of fear and start living the life you always dreamed of.

“looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2

“if we are faithless, He remains faithful— for He cannot deny himself.” 2 Timothy 2:13

Song: Jesus Culture – Holy Spirit(AMAZING!!) 

Picture credit: Julia Stotlar 

God is patient

 

Today I was thinking about how patient God is with us and how impatient we can sometimes be towards Him. We know that God's timing is perfect, but we ask "when, when, when?" and we become impatient and discouraged so quickly.

If I think back over the years, I can just thank God for how patient He has been with me. All the times that I didn't love Him the way I should've, listened to what He said or did what He asked me to do. He didn't ask me "when, when, when?" but patiently walked with me on my journey until I understood what He was saying or saw what He was busy doing and left my selfishness behind and obeyed His voice. He has always approached me with kindness and patience.

I thank God that He didn't give up on me, turned His back on me or withheld promises from me just because I didn't do everything that He asked me to do. How often do we want to give up on God, turn our backs on Him or get angry with Him just because He is not doing what we think He should be doing right now? Then a few weeks into the struggle we realise why He held back or why He didn't jump when we wanted Him to jump and we end up feeling embarrassed because of our impatience.

God is love and "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 ESV)

Look back at the times when He was there for you, where He showed you the way and led you through dark hours. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow and He has shown us much patience, much more than we deserve. He patiently waited for you to follow and choose Him and He did not count your sin against you even if you have mocked or slandered His name. He has shown us unending mercy, kindness, grace and love.

Maybe today you feel as if you want to give up on God, that He is not coming through for you or that He is not being all that you believe He is. I want to encourage you that God IS love and He IS faithful and that He has never given up on you and He believes in you. Even if you don't see it yet or have been waiting for a long time, don't give up, He is for you and not against you. Find comfort in Him and know that He is your Father and that He has only the best in store for you. You can overcome any challenge with Him at your side and He will guide and comfort you through anything that life can throw your way.

"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare Him own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:31, 32 ESV)

Photo credit: favim

What is the condition of your heart?

What is the condition of your heart? If you had to draw a picture of your heart, what would it look like? When I met Jesus years ago, I underwent a radical transformation. I remember seeing my heart depicted as a house, it looked like one of those deserted, wooden houses standing in a field with a big tree next to it. As Jesus invaded my heart it turned into a beautiful glass house. He opened every window, old door, cupboard and spring cleaned so thoroughly that there was no darkness or weed to be found. I felt as if my heart was made out of glass and that there was nothing hidden and that I can stand in front of Him and He can see through me. I was hiding nothing and nothing was holding me back.

It is our responsibility to keep our hearts in that condition. We need to be careful what we allow into our hearts. I can immediately feel when anger, bitterness, resentment, hatred, unforgiveness, offence etc. try and worm its way into my heart. It’s like a rotten egg thrown at my window and I just know that there is something unpleasant going on. If you don’t realise it immediately then it might happen over a few days, you start feeling less peaceful and more irritable and the condition worsens the longer we take to deal with it.

The problem with the emotions mentioned above is that they take up space in our hearts, the space which love used to fill and this makes us feel drained, burdened and irritable. Your glass house now has weeds growing out the window and this is embarrassing, so you just withdraw because of shame and anger towards others. And if the weeds are not dealt with, our hearts close up, the glass turns to wood and we design walls to keep others out, mostly because we are angry at the world, vulnerable and ashamed of our pain. The worst thing is that we don’t just keep people out, but we also keep the love of God out and then our hearts can grow hard.

If you find yourself in this situation, whether there is a small weed growing or whether your house is completely closed with extra barbed wire around the wall and a big “keep out” sign out front, it does not matter to God. Nothing is impossible for Him and there is no heart that He cannot heal. God is more than capable to deal with any issues that you might have. All you need to do is allow Him to enter.

Often we already know what we have allowed into our hearts, especially if it’s something small, but sometimes it can be years of brokenness, hurt and rejection and these things will take time. Remember that He is gentle and kind and that He operates in love. He knows how fast He can clean and what you can and cannot handle. He works at your pace, slowly pulling out weeds and replacing them with love.

I’m not encouraging you to go on a journey of introspection and to find issues in yourself, but rather take the things that you do know of or the things that are bothering you and sit with the Holy Spirit and ask Him to show you how to deal with them and to fill your heart with love. God is taking us from glory to glory on this wonderful journey with Him. Do not be anxious because of where you are at in your journey, but know that if you hold His hand you will always reach your intended destination.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Ps 51:10

“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” 2 Cor 3:18

“Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!” Psalm 139:23-24

Photo credit: favim

When the heart goes numb

Photo credit: vi.sualize.us

I feel today to speak to people who have been hurt. Hurt, shamed, abused or disappointed so much so that a part of your heart has gone numb and you just locked it away in a cold place somewhere where no one can hurt it or see the pain again.

A piece of our heart (an area in our lives) can so easily grow cold and hard. I've been speaking in previous posts about having a willing and open heart towards God, but it is possible to have your heart open to God is some areas, but not in others. It is also possible to have a willing heart towards God, but a cold heart towards certain people.

It might be that someone has hurt, offended or disappointed you and your heart has closed up towards that person or even a group of people. You might have forgiven and tried to forget, but consequently you were left with a piece of your heart numbed. A piece of your heart that got so hurt that you don't want to use it again, because you are not sure how much more you can handle.

You may be in a place where you have lost all hope in a situation and gave up trying. You have locked that area so far away, because you fear that you will feel the pain of disappointment or humiliation again. You fear having another failed or disappointing relationship, friendship, community, health, pregnancy, career, business etc. you fill in the blanks.

I want to tell you today that you are not alone. God knows what you are going through and He knows what you have locked up in your closet. Whatever it is, it is not something that God cannot deal with, it is not something that that He cannot restore completely. He can breathe life into any cold part of your heart and restore your faith, not just your faith in Him, but also your trust in people and in yourself.

You are not a failure, God does not create failures. Bring your broken pieces to Jesus today and He will restore your heart/situation with gentleness and kindness into something even more beautiful. Do not be afraid, you can put your trust in Him and He will never disappoint you. Allow Him to remove that coldness and hurt and bring you to a place of greater joy, freedom and confidence. When we try with Jesus, we can never fail, when we try with Him, we are more than conquerors.

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Rom 8:37

“For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame.”” Rom 10:11

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Ps 147:3

“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26

“for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” 2 Tim 1:7

“Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.” Isaiah 49:23

Level burnout!

You might reach a point where you just feel drained and empty. You just feel as if all you are doing is giving, loving and serving, but you get nothing in return. You start feeling irritable and a little resentful towards other people and you might even think that no one really cares about you, but you just have to care for everyone. I will call it the “burnt-out” level. I think this happens to everyone once in a while and we need to learn how to handle it and take preventative action against it.

When we start our relationship with Jesus He expands our hearts. He gives us the ability to have and receive more love, so that we can give more love, it’s pretty simple. The problem is this, we get used to His overflow of love and we start giving more and more love and the people around us get used to taking more love (because we give more). Then suddenly we get busy, we neglect spending time with Jesus, but we still give, give, give, because we are so used to it and it is now part of our nature to give and love. What we do not realise is that we can only give what we have received and if we don’t spend time with Jesus and get refreshed in Him, we will end up with low levels of love and then resentment and irritation sets in and then suddenly everyone becomes too demanding and everything becomes too much for us to handle.

Don’t get me wrong, we have God is us, so we have all the love that we need in us, but spending time in God’s presence activates our love, it reminds us of who God is and how amazingly gracious and lovable He is and then instantly we just feel fabulous again. We feel as if we just want to burst at the seams with love. We realise that we don’t need to be satisfied by the people around us, but that He can satisfy our every need. He makes us feel worthy, appreciated and most of all incredibly loved. This then catapults us into the world to once again give, love and serve with a genuine smile.

It does not mean that we don’t appreciate or need the love and affection of the people around us, it just means that we don’t have to connect our sense of worth to the amount of love and affection that we receive from the world. God will always make us see how much we are worth and how precious we are and this is where our confidence comes from. God’s words to us are life and as children of God our spirits crave His words every day.

“But He answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”” Matt 4:4

Remember to replenish the “love battery” as my friend described it today. Let us ensure that we spend enough time in God’s presence to prevent “level burnout” and this will enable us to constantly be a joy to everyone around us without feeling irritable or empty. You are SO incredibly loved, believe it!

“We love because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

“This is real love--not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” 1 John 4:10

“Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.” Romans 5:1-5

But the greatest of these is love



Photo credit: bohomoth



“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

            Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

            Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”1 Corinthians 13

There is nothing stronger than love. That’s why God describes Himself as love in 1 John 4:9. He could have called Himself “power”, “success”, “freedom”, “truth” etc, but He chose to be called “God is love.” God is all the things mentioned above and more, but He chose to be love. This is so powerful! To think that love is not just an emotion or an act, it is an actual person and when you meet Him, His loves changes you. It’s like a powerful drug and you keep wanting more and more.

The closer you walk to His love, the less power everything else in your life has over you. Addictions have to leave, unforgiveness becomes forgiveness, anger becomes kindness and the list goes on. And the beauty of it all is that we do not have to do a single thing to earn it. We just come, we just come to Him with a willing heart and His love just changes us.

He finds us in our need and in our brokenness, in our sadness, hurt and honesty, He comes with gentleness and He freely gives. His love heals, it restores and it multiplies. 1 John 4:19 says: “We love, because He first loved us.” We have no idea what love is before we experience His love and only then we can go and share what He pours into us with others. We are filled with His love everyday so that what we have can overflow into the lives of others.

Love is not just a candlelight dinner and a bunch of roses, it “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” and it never ends, never tires and never runs out. Sometimes love does not look like the “fluffy love” we imagine. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 and this is what love looks like. It is to lay your life down for a friend. Even if you were the only person on earth, God still would have put Jesus on the cross, because God is love.

“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgement, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:14-19          

And there was grace...

Sometimes it can feel as if life is hanging by a thread, a nervous moment of tension, so many things have been said and done and decisions have been made. Sometimes we just reach a point, a point of “What now God”? “Where to now?” A point where you have put it all in His hands and your stomach makes a nervous turn. That is where we meet faith, at the end of the line where nothing else can save you, when options are scarce and opinions plentiful. That is where we can say, not my will God, but your will God.

It does not matter how you got to this place or how many bad decisions you have made, God will meet you there. His love is big enough and His grace is abounding. There might still be natural consequences for your actions in this world, but God in His mercy and grace will pull you through it all. Nothing you have done can scare Him away, He is always ready, waiting for each son and daughter to return to Him so that He can restore to them all that this world has stolen.

Pour your heart out to Him, be honest, even blunt, He can handle it, trust me He has heard worse. He knows your most inner thoughts and hurts and He knows where you are coming from and how to deal with you. In Him you find all answers and all comfort, in Him there is no condemnation, but love and freedom.

At the end it’s you and Him and there is no stronger team. Wait on Him, trust in faith, listen to His voice and know that He will catch you, lift you up and restore you. You are not alone.

“Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” John 8:2-11

The most powerful thing to me about this scripture is that Jesus invited those without sin to cast the first stone and yet Jesus himself, who is completely without sin, did not cast a stone, but released the woman to be free. How good is God?!

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.” 1 Peter 5:6

“God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful grace became more abundant.” Romans 5:20

Picture credit: Luis Montemayor

And there was Love



Photo credit: Here



God has put a treasure of gifts and abilities in each one of us. Gifts and abilities which He wants to reveal, develop and bless other people with. Often we don’t even see what our own gifts and abilities are, because it’s to “close to us” so to speak or so deeply hidden that we don’t even know about it or sometimes we are so busy doing what we think we ought to do, that we don’t listen to our hearts and find our real passion.

Sometimes, actually often, God uses people and circumstances to reveal gifts and abilities in us that we never knew we had. I count it such a privilege when God shows me what He sees in somebody even if it is just for a second, to see another person through His eyes. He takes you beyond their physical appearance, beyond brokenness, walls of defences, pretence, the hurt which the world has placed on someone, their pain, their suffering and He shows you, “Look, see what a treasure I have hidden inside this person, see who I have made him to be.” And suddenly your heart floods with love for this person as you recognise with what beauty he/she has been made.

People walk around believing what the world has said about them, “You are so lazy, so stubborn, so broken, so weak, so undesirable, so ugly, such a failure" and the list goes on. It’s time that we get a second opinion, an opinion from the One whose opinion really matters. It is time we stop believing the lies and allow God to show us who we are and what He has put in us and in other people.

It is your responsibility to look at your spouse, family and friends and to encourage them into the person which God has made them to be. Our words can make or break a person. Get a download from heaven and speak love and life over the people in your life and over yourself. Allow God to set them free from the lies and bonds that this world has spoken over them by encouraging them and loving them for who they are, without reservation or prejudice.

Then take it a step further and look for the treasure in each person that you meet. Even if you cannot initially see it, look for it, it is there, God is a good God and He does not create failures. There is a treasure in each person and when we love them, we accept them and we free them to be who God intended them to be.

I do not love because I’m a good person and because I was just born this way, all happy and full of love. I love because I had an encounter with the One who is Love. I love because loving is the unstoppable effect of meeting with Jesus. I love because He has taken me from a dark, lost and selfish place and set my feet upon a rock. I love not because I am good, but because someone good is now in me. I do not have the capacity in me to extend love to every person, but He fills the gap between my possible and the impossible and I thank God that Love has found me.

“You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you.” Songs 4:7

“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.  And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” Phil 1:3-11

When you listen to this song, don’t look at the pictures, but close your eyes and listen with your heart.

Lindsey Kane - Measure of Beauty