And if not, He is still GOOD…

Is he still good if he says No?

Have you ever had one of those moments where God says No? Maybe you asked for something to work out and no matter how much you prayed and cried out to him it seemed like he wasn’t listening?

Maybe it was the job you wanted that didn’t work out, you studied for an exam but your marks don’t reflect the effort you put in, you prayed for healing, but God did not heal them…they died. There’s that problem you’ve been praying for a while now…and nothing seems to change. There’s wars, poverty, conflict there’s so much sadness in the world… why???

I’m sitting here trying to reconcile all of this in my mind. But he said “ask and it shall be given to you”. He said “Look, I am the LORD, the God who rules over all flesh. Is anything too difficult for me?”

He was the same God who turned water into wine- he didn’t even flinch when he did this miracle, he raised Lazarus from the dead. Yet all this evil still persists and I sit here and ask myself..but why God??

Daniel 3 tells the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who stepped into King Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace because they refused to bow down to the Kings statue. In verse 17-18 they say “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” When they stepped into that furnace, they did not know for certain whether they would be saved… but they did it anyways. Though the situation looked hopeless, they knew they served a God who is greater than kings and armies. In this case God came in and saved them. The important thing that I learn from this story is that they were prepared to die for God whether or not he saved them. Scary as it sounds, I think we need to develop that kind of attitude too. Will we praise God and still serve him even when things don’t work out they way we had hoped?

Isaiah 43:2 says: When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.

It doesn’t say I will save you from the waters OR you will not walk through fires. Gods promise is to be with us even in those difficult times.

I don’t have all the answers, but I know that hard times do come. In fact the Bible also promises us of that. John 16:33 says “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

The hope that I have is not in this world, but in the world to come- In eternity. My hope is in the fact that we will sit at the feet of our maker and none of these things will matter at all. When we begin to look at our problems in light of eternity, all of a sudden all these things don’t seem as big and they don’t hurt as much.

I guess what I’m saying is that despite all that happens, I have hope. That’s what keeps me going. My hope is not in anything this world has to offer- its not in wealth, in success, in that job, in health, in status or other people’s approval. My hope is in Jesus- I fix my eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of my faith. So without a doubt, I can say that even if he says no… I know that he is still good.

For the God on the mountain, is still God in the valley
When things go wrong, he’ll make them right
And the God of the good times, is still God in the bad times
The God of the day, is still God in the night

Lord help us, so when the day of testing comes… may we know that you are still God and that you are still in control. May we have faith to trust you and may we resolve in our hearts that we serve a God who is mighty and able to save. But if he does not we will still serve him.

Monday Motivation

“I want to scream it out, from every mountain top-Your goodness knows no bounds, Your goodness never stops, Your Mercy follows me, Your kindness fills my life, Your love amazes me”

Today I wanted to share a little bit of something I’ve been dealing with for awhile now. It’s that whole issue of ‘gratitude’ being thankful and giving thanks for where I am in my life right now. I would say to myself ‘why should I be grateful to God when I am in this situation?’ If he would just help me out a little bit more then maybe it would be easier to be grateful-to give thanks.

You see what we (if your not part of this problem just smile and nod like you understand us little people) often fail to see are the blessings that we already have in our lives. Right now I lay on my warm bed after waking up from a full 8 hours of sleep.  I’m well rested and in a while I will walk to the kitchen and make breakfast. I may even stare at the fridge for a while wondering what to eat because I will have several choices staring back at me. I will workout for anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour today (because I’m alive, I’m healthy and because I can). I will have lunch, I will have dinner. I say these things…not because any of it is remarkable, but because most likely, most of you reading this will have a similar day today. Yet there are people who can only dream of having 3 meals today. Some people are not well enough to get out of bed in the morning. It is not because we are remarkable in any way, but because for some reason God has chosen to favour us in this way.

My point in all of this? No matter what situation we may face today, we all have a reason to praise God. If we’re alive, we have a prayer answered and we should be grateful to him whose mercies know no end.

My prayer for everyone reading this post this week is that we would be transformed in such a way that we would be able to give thanks to the Lord in any season we may find ourselves in. May our eyes be focused on him and all the good that he has done for us, instead of on our problems.

I was forever changed when I stopped looking for a change in my circumstance to make life better and started looking to Jesus and his hand in my Today. I realize that he will be with me tomorrow, he was with me yesterday and he is also with me Today. I really don’t need my situation to change to start giving him thanks, I can start right now.

He is Good. He is Faithful. Amen.

To Love at all is to be vulnerable

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

Today, I am praying for a heart that is willing to be vulnerable and for the courage to love 🙏🏾

#mondaymotivation

I Shall not be moved…

Life is a constant rollercoaster of ups and downs, moving forward then backwards, stalls, delays and then of course there are those times when you feel like you cant keep up.  One of my friend says this ‘This life is just a pot of beans’. I have no idea what that means.. but i know that a lot of times, life is really just not easy. Thats why I like to share encouragement. And I share it in the only way I know how- from The word of God. That’s what speaks to me and my life has literally been transformed since the day I allowed the Lord to enter my life.

So occasionally, I will share my favourite verses for encouragement- because I think its important to have HOPE ❤

I like to meditate on this sometimes…the verse says God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day…

Other translations say:

‘God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns’ (ESV)

‘God dwells in that city; it cannot be destroyed. From the very break of day, God will protect it’ (NLT)

Meditate on this for a second…

I don’t mean to say that my life is suddenly perfect and that I never experience failure, saddness or dissapointment. It really encourages me to hope and trust in God DESPITE my situation. Though circumstances come and try to defeat us, we stand knowing that God is near and can provide strength in any circumstance. So let us not be troubled by the challenges we seem to face. Instead lets put our hope in God.

Today- read the rest of Psalm 46.. write it down, memorize it, keep it with you for a rainy day. It really is a Psalm to remind you that God is there to help and he will not fail to rescue those who love him.

xoxo lovelies

The Story of the Tea Cup

I heard this story told by Joyce Meyer and I’ve always loved it so much I thought I’d share.

A couple went into an antique shop and found a beautiful teacup sitting on a shelf. They took it off the shelf to look at it more closely and all of a sudden the teacup started talking. It said “I wasn’t always like this. There was a time when I was just a cold, hard, colorless lump of clay. One day my master picked me up and said, ‘I could do something with this.’ Then he started to pat me, and roll me, and change my shape. I said ‘What are you doing? That hurts. I don’t know if I want to look like this! Stop!’ But he said, ‘Not yet.’
“Then he put me on a wheel and began to spin me around until I screamed, ‘Let me off, I am getting dizzy!’ ‘Not yet,’ he said. Then he shaped me into a cup and put me in a hot oven. I cried, ‘Let me out! It’s hot in here, I am suffocating.’ But he just looked at me through the little glass window and smiled and said, ‘Not yet.’
“When he took me out, I thought his work on me was over, but then he started to paint me. I couldn’t believe what he did next. He put me back in the oven, and I said, ‘You have to believe me; I cant stand this! Please let me out!’ But he said, ‘Not yet.’ Finally he took me out of the oven and set me up on a shelf and held me before a mirror. I couldn’t believe my eyes, I had become a beautiful teacup that everyone wants to buy.”

Isaiah 64 vs 8- Yet O Lord, You are our Father, we are the clay, and you our Potter, and we all are the work of your hands.

There may be things going on inside of us that we don’t understand. But when we finally arrive to the place where God wants to bring us, we will see how it has prepared us for what God wanted us for all along. 

Im thankful each day because though I am still a work in progress, I know that his work (his masterpiece as he calls me) is being made PERFECT!! His word says that he has made everything beautiful in his time (Ecc 3:11).

Accept the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.
Accept the journey you are on.
Accept the story that is changing.
~Graham Cooke

Who Are You? A Message to ALL Women

Look in the mirror what do you see?
I won’t lie, just a few years ago, I couldn’t actually look at myself in the mirror. I would look for a few seconds to do whatever I needed to do then I would look away for fear of what I would see staring back at me.
You see because I had dark skin, hair that never quite did what it was supposed to, a smile that showed a little too much teeth, a forehead… sorry its now called five-head that you could not ignore, I could go on and on but the point is I wasn’t fully happy with who I was.

I know I’m not alone in this- thats why I write this.

Many women in our society today suffer from self esteem issues. The advertising, fashion and cosmetic industries have painted an image in our minds of what it means to possess beauty. Our society today praises the size 2 model with straight hair and straight teeth and calls them beautiful. But what about the rest of us? We seem to buy into this idea and are constantly trying to emulate what we see portrayed in the media (often with much disappointment).

The fact is that societies standards and expectations is constantly changing. What is considered beautiful in 2015 may not be the same as what was considered beautiful in 2000 or even 2014 for that matter. Society also places a huge emphasis on the outer appearance and not in the true depth of what it is to be a WOMAN.

There lies the conflict- when we begin to measure ourselves using a standard that is far from perfect, we cannot attain perfection. The truth is that most women will never check all the boxes or fit perfectly into societies expectation of what beauty means, so many suffer the psychological consequences.

Anyway, The point of this post you may be asking?
I want to address my viewpoint as a Christian, of what it means to be beautiful. I am not an expert by any means, but the one thing that I know is that each one of us is LOVED (no matter what shape, colour or size) because we are crafted by a GOD who created us wonderfully.

Psalm 139:14- I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Believing anything different is simply a LIE. We have to begin to believe that we are CHILDREN OF GOD. We are created as his MASTERPIECE- and he definitely does not make mistakes!
When you feel worthless or even begin to hate yourself, you should remember how our maker sees you. Have as much respect for yourself as your maker does.

The difference between me today and me 3 years ago (no its not plastic surgery) is the fact that I can know that I AM LOVED. I may not be what you see on the magazines, you may not be either (or maybe you are..lol ), but that does not affect the way our maker sees us.
In a non-egotistic way, know this:
YOU ARE OH SO VALUABLE 
YOU ARE THE MOST STUNNING OF ALL GOD’S CREATION 
YOU ARE WORTH DYING FOR!!

I came across this video today. I hope that this helps someone ❤