What Do You Believe?

This past weekend I went to a conference for young women starting from middle school all the way through college. The theme of the conference was “Reject What You Know.”   In this world that we live in today we, meaning this generation is constantly bombarded with lies about ourselves and who we are, whether it be that you’re not thin or thick enough or you’re not pretty enough, etc…  So my questions for you all (and myself) are what in your life do you need to reject? Who or what do you believe?  Do you believe the lies of the enemy that come from the media and other people, or do you believe the truth of God that comes from His Word?  Do you believe that you’re not good enough or you’re not pretty enough or do you believe that you’re God’s masterpiece and that you were created in His image and that you’re fearfully and wonderfully made?

 If you know me you know that I have such a heavy burden for the girls and women in this generation, it breaks my heart to see these young girls my age and even in elementary believing lies that they aren’t pretty enough if only they knew how precious they are in the sight of God.  The other day my heart broke when my friend came to me with tears running down her face because all her life people have told her that she’s slow and she can’t do anything right and that she must have a disability and how she started to believe that what they said was true.  It was in that moment that God put it on my heart to write about what I’ve learned this past weekend. 

I’m pretty sure we all heard the saying: “Sticks and stones may break my bones but WORDS will never hurt me.” That quote right there is a lie, because we all have been hurt by words that someone has said to us… And the bible says that “The tongue has the power of life and death…” ~Proverbs 18:21 We need to be careful with the words we say to each other, and the words we allow to be said to us, also the words we allow to get into your minds through certain TV shows, movies, music that we listen too, and even sometimes words that our “friends” say to us.  The bible says: “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.  Avoid all perverse talk; stay away from corrupt speech.” Our words hold power in them that is why we have to be very careful what we say to other people, what we listen to, including what we say to ourselves sometimes, because those words that are spoken plants a seed either in your own life or someone's life and if you keep listening to them and meditating on them they will grow. When God created this world, He did so by speaking it into existence. So start speaking life into your life and others, you never know who God may put in your path that may need a small word of truth spoken to them because they’re so caught up in the lies of the enemy.

If I can be honest with you guys I was that person almost a year ago. I believed the lies of the enemy instead of the word of God, I was so swamped with lies that when a person told me the truth about what God’s word says I rejected it because I believed the lies so long that they became the new truth to me. I used to think that God couldn’t use me because of all my past mistakes, or broken inside and He wasn’t able to fix me. Can I just tell you that if you are broken that is the most perfect time for God to move through you and rebuild you for His plan/purpose for your life. Another lie that I believed for a very long time was that God didn’t love me or care about me. A few months before my 12^th birthday my dad passed away, and to a young girl who was raised up in church all her life and witnessing the miracles that God was able to do for others but didn’t answer the prayer that she prayed over and over and over for her father to be healed, left her in distrust.  I started to stop trusting God for many years throughout my early teen years, I stopped believing that He loved and cared for me.

But pretty soon I got to the point in my life where I was tired of listening to the lies of the enemy and I started to reject the lies and started to replace them with scriptures from the word of God. I stopped listening to certain music and hanging out with certain people and watching certain movies, to help clear my mind, and I started praying and reading the bible a little more. One of the bible verses that I meditated on Isaiah 44:22 which says “I, the Lord, made you.  I have swept away your sins like a cloud.  I have scattered your offenses like the morning mist…for I have paid the price to set you free.” This bible verse shows me how much God loves me and how He has redeemed me from my past. Thank you Jesus!  I tell you this because it is so very important to know the word of God.  Without it you can’t defend yourself against anyone, it’s your sword, the words you read and speak from it are living and active, they hold power over the enemies. So again I encourage you to reject the lies of the enemy and start excepting the truth which is God’s word, dig into it and start memorizing scriptures, replace the lies with truth.  Also remember your words have the power to tear someone down or build someone up, be very careful when choosing your words and what you allow yourself to listen to, whether it be from friends, family, music, or a movie/TV show. Stay encouraged! :)

Love ya,

Joy <3

Trusting an Incomprehensible God.

Have you ever been in a situation/circumstance in your life where you just couldn’t understand or see what God was doing in that moment? I know I have. So many times I find myself tired and worn out because I try to figure out what God is doing or wants me to do.  I try so hard to understand the plans He has for my life, to the point where I gets so weary in my journey with Him and I try to direct my own life because I’m unable to fully comprehend everything that He does and I fail to realize that his thoughts are not my thoughts and His ways are so much HIGHER than mine. Isaiah 55:8 says: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways”, declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” And in Proverbs 20:24 says: “The Lord directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way?” Sometimes it can be hard for us to trust God when we don’t understand, when we can’t see clearly, when we don’t have clear directions, but we have to have faith that God WILL fulfill the plans He has for our life.   

Just as a mother wouldn’t give her newborn baby solid food because she knows what’s best for the baby and she knows that the baby isn’t ready to handle that type of food and it can hurt it. But as the baby starts to go through a process of developing and growing teeth and the digestive system starts to get stronger, she will gradually start to give her baby solid food, it’s not like she was withholding it to be mean but to protect her child and make sure that it grows healthy and develops first before trying to give them something else... Same goes for God, He knows EXACTLY what we need before we need it, He also knows that some of the things we are asking for, we aren’t quite ready for them so He’s withholding them from us until the time is right. That doesn’t necessarily mean He won’t give them to us if it’s according to His will for our life. You might ask, “then when is the right time?” and I will tell you I don’t know when God is going to move, and that’s were faith comes in, you have to have faith that He is going to do whatever it is that He said He was going to do. I also know that there’s a process that you have to go through to develop in certain areas in your life before He can trust you with the things you’re asking for. 

A lot of the time we give up way before our process is over, and God begins to show us His plan for our life. What I’ve learned is that I have to have faith in those times where I can’t see or understand or even figure out what He’s doing in my life. There were times in my life were I lost hope, were I was so close to giving up, I was at the end of my rope and all I remember is just crying out to God and pouring my heart out to Him, and that’s when He revealed to me what He wanted me to do in that season of my life.. Sometimes we just need to be still in His presence and spend more time with Him than we do trying to understand and figure Him out. At times we get so caught up with “finding” God’s directions/plans for our life that we get distracted or lost and miss the things that He’s trying to reveal to us in those times. I’m reminded of Jeremiah 29:11-13 where it says- “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Everybody knows Jeremiah 29:11 but what  we all fail to realize is the next couple verses after that, Jeremiah 29:12-13 which says: “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” So you see there are some things that we have to do also, we have to play our parts so God can do His. We all know that God has a plan for our lives and we want him to reveal it to us but we often times forget that in order for Him to be able to show us we have to be in commune with Him, calling out to Him and seeking Him with all our hearts on a daily basis. He will begin to unfold our plans for our lives when we are desperate and truly ready to cry out and search for Him.

We have to except the fact that we will not always be able to fully understand why God chooses to do or allow certain things to happen in our life. We have to trust God enough to believe that He will keep His promises, that He will bring us out of the mess we’re in, He will provide for us, He WILL always be with us, that His love for us is unfailing, never ending, incomprehensible. Trust that He’ll be whatever it is that you need him to be in your life (e.i. father, mother, friend, comforter, provider, etc…). So today start trustin’… and stop stressin’… God’s got EVERY single detail of your life in His hands. Just TRUST HIM!! :)

Love y’all,

-Joy <3