A letter for when you are hurting

Have you been under a lot of attacks lately? When the enemy throws his fiery darts your way, you hold your shield high! But sometimes, when the attacks, rejection, and judgments are coming from people who claim to be believers, it hurts more than his usual arrows.

What do you do when fellow Christians are the ones throwing those darts at you?
What do you do when people who are supposed to love you, don't?

You can curl up into a little ball and cry, (which is understandable)... 
but then it's time to ask the Lord to pick you back up again.

A couple lines from a Natalie Grant song come to mind, 
"Hiding my heartache, 
will this glass house break? 
How much will they take before I'm empty?"

When people tear you down, eventually you can feel empty.

The Lord is the ONLY ONE that can fill you back up again. When you release your hurt and pain to Him, He takes it from you, and still has room to hold you. He wants to embrace you. 
And the way you feel an embrace from the God Almighty in His unseen form is to open your Bible and absorb His promises.

I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Trust in me, lean on Me, and I will make your paths straight.

I will comfort the afflicted, and give rest to the weary.

(Promises pulled from Deuteronomy 31:8, Proverbs 3:5-6, Matthew 11:28)

 
Then turn your palms up, close your eyes and praise Him. When you do this you will feel His presence. As tears course down your cheeks You will feel His love filling your spirit up again. 

With His love comes strength. And with that strength comes the ability to pray for your enemies, which is what we are called to do. With palms up, pray that the Lord would draw your enemies to Himself. You can pray for their salvation, or that they would return to Him. 
Then, before you know it, the tears have ceased, peace takes place of the pain, and you are ready to face another day.

The longer we avoid giving this to the Lord and letting Him heal us, the longer we stay in our little cave. And it's in the cave with your armor down, where the enemy has free reign. Depression is the gateway for the enemy to do his best work. Don't let yourself get that far. Pull yourself up, open your Bible, and lift your hands to the Lord.

The end of that song I quoted earlier goes like this,

"Hiding in my skin, broken from within
Unveil me completely
I'm loosening my grasp
There's no need to mask my frailty
Cause you see the real me
and you love me just as I am
Wonderful, beautiful is what you see
When you look at me."

You are His beautiful and wonderful child that He wants to protect and carry through the storms. When you let Him do that, He can then use you to pray for His other beautiful and wonderful children that are hurting (a.k.a your enemies). 
Who is praying for them if you aren't?

So let's give our pain to Him today. Let Him fill us completely with His love and grace so that we can continue to run the race before us and be used for His purposes. 
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us," Hebrews 12:1 (ESV)

Your call is so much bigger than yourself. Don't let your pain keep you from it. Let the Lord use the enemy's attacks to draw you closer to Him so you can do what He is asking you to do.

Armor up believer! There's kingdom work to be done.

Would you call yourself a Disciple Maker?

Everyday is an opportunity to pour the love of Christ into someone. 

Are you doing that? 

Look back at your day today. Did you invest in someone else? You might say, "My kids!" And that's great, I will not discount that. Our little ones need to be discipled by mom and dad. But if you are saved, then you have the power of the Risen One inside you, and He is asking for way more than just your family. He wants you living like He lived. 

John 14:12-14 says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it." (ESV)

Wow. Jesus just said that whoever believes in Him will do the works that He did. 
Am I doing what Jesus did??
And then He said "and greater works than these he will do because I am going to the Father." 
So we could do even greater works than Christ?? This is crazy to me BUT because Jesus said it, I will believe it! He is saying that because He has risen and is living in us, we can call upon Him and in His name ask for anything and He will do it. CRAZY.

Now obviously this doesn't apply to selfish things like asking for a million dollars for you to spend on yourself. But if you asked the Lord for a million dollars to spend on starving children and widows I bet He would work some really creative way out to make that happen. It could come over your entire lifetime or in one lump sum, but if the Holy Spirit is impressing on your heart to ask for something in Jesus' name, then He will do it. 

So let's change up our daily routine tomorrow. Instead of focusing on everything we need to do for OUR immediate life and family, let's look beyond that to whoever we come in contact with. Let's start the day in His Word and in prayer asking and seeking for His will for today. If you ask for a person to bless for His glory today, He WILL give it to you. Just watch.

This is what making disciples is all about. Abiding in the Lord, praying for opportunity, and following through when you see your moment…or rather, His moment. His moment to shine through YOU. That is what we are here for.

When you die someday, you know what's going to matter? I'll tell you, it's NOT going to be the house that you had built, or the corporate ladder that you climbed, or the amazing talents you got to display for the world to see. All that will matter is how you loved. How you loved Christ and how you loved others.

So get your head out of your own life and start investing in others. We are here to glorify God and make disciples! Lets do it!!

Have you lost your way friend?

Do you ever feel lost? Or maybe you just find yourself making the same mistakes over and over again? Believer, this should not be.

In John 8:12 Jesus says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (ESV)

Why are you struggling friend? You were meant to walk in the light with the One who loves you and who made a way for you.

I'm going to be brutally honest: Following Jesus is HARD. There I said it. 

It takes action, commitment, sacrifice, humility, perseverance, and desire. First, you have to want it. You have to want to follow Christ. If you truly want it then you have to make the necessary adjustments in your heart and your life.

Matthew 16:24 says it all: Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. (NLT)

If you feel lost, it's because you have allowed selfish desires to lead you away from the lighted path of Jesus. If you keep making the same mistakes over and over again then it's because you aren't truly following Christ. He will never lead you astray. 

I did this for 10 years so I completely understand where you are.  But I am living proof that you can be found and you can have life change!  It wasn't like magic though, it took WORK. Reading my bible everyday is still something that I have to consciously make an effort to do otherwise it doesn't happen.  Following Christ is a commitment and just going to church every sunday ain't gonna do it.  Are you a Church-goer or are you a true follower of Jesus?

If you are tired of feeling lost and you want to break the cycle of making bad choices then please pray this prayer with me:
Lord, I come to you today ready for a change. Please forgive me for wandering away from You and trying to do things on my own. Help me to walk in Your light. Create a new life in me that desires You above all else! Please use your Holy Spirit to convict me of my selfish desires. Help me to turn away from them and turn back to you, daily. Bring people into my life that will encourage this new way of life. Change my heart God, and use me for Your glory. Thank you Lord, I love you, In Jesus' name, Amen.

Now don't just sit there, get your Bible and start reading! Read Psalms, Matthew, Ephesians, or whatever book you feel led to read. Write down your "ah-ha" moments as you read. These are things that the Holy Spirit is showing you for a reason. Ask Him to teach you as you read. 
If the thought of reading your Bible is intimidating then just do 5 minutes of reading and pray for another 5 minutes. Do this EVERYDAY (preferably morning) until you find yourself desiring to read more.  Believe me it will happen. Before you know it you'll be spending so much time with God that you will feel His presence AT ALL TIMES. 

It IS possible to stay on His lighted path and never walk in darkness again, but you have to turn from your worldly desires and fix your eyes on Jesus. You can do it! You call yourself a Believer, now live it out!