Walk Boldly With Jesus

There Will Always Be Scoffers

Jude 17-21 “But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.  But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,  keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.”

“In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.”Unfortunately, I don’t think this is limited to the last times.  I think all throughout the ages there have been many scoffers.  Many people who mock our religion and Jesus and the Lord our God.  Jesus even said in John 15:18, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.”  The people of God have been ridiculed since almost the beginning of time.  People don’t always understand why we do the things we do, or believe the things we believe.  I think the part about how they follow their own ungodly desires, is so true, especially today.  It may have always been true, just as it is today, however, I feel as though with how easy everything is to get nowadays, it might be worse.  I feel as though we are definitely a culture that feels like we deserve to have all that we desire and we don’t want anyone tell us any different.  

We are like children rebelling against our parents about all the rules of the house.  We don’t understand that often times rules are given to keep us safe.  When we are younger we need to rely on our parents for these rules as we are not old enough to think for ourselves.  Our parents are older and wiser and can help guide us until we can make our own decisions.  This is the same for God.  He provides us with rules and a way to live so that He can keep us safe.  Until we are wiser and we can make our own decisions about how we want to live.  The problems, a lot of times we don’t make great choices.  Even when we get older, we don’t necessarily get wiser.  The next line in the verse talks about how the people that divide us are those that just follow their instincts and aren’t guided by the Holy Spirit.  Wow, I find that powerful.  I don’t know about you, but I find myself relying on my instincts rather than the Spirit all too often.  

There is a difference between our instincts and that small voice inside of us that is the Holy Spirit.  I was just telling someone the other day that she needed to trust that voice inside of them that was guiding her. I told her to pray for what to do and to really listen and the voice inside her would guide her.  That still small voice inside of you, that is the Holy Spirit.  The one that is so faint you can’t really hear it most of the time, that is the Lord speaking to you.  The difference between following our natural instincts and following the Holy Spirit is prayer and time.  If you are stopping and taking the time to pray about something, and then also taking the time to listen to what the Lord has to say about it, that you are probably following the prompting of the Holy Spirit.  However, if you are just responding automatically based on either your emotions, or on the way you have always done things in the past, then you are not responding to the Holy Spirit.  Responding to our natural instincts without listening for the guidance of the Holy Spirit can lead us to following our ungodly desires.  This will not get us to where we want to go.

 Luckily for us, the verse doesn’t stop there.  The verse continues on to tell us how we get to where we want to go.  The verse says, “But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,  keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.”  Yes, please, sign me up for eternal life.  I want that.  If we don’t want to act on our ungodly desires the verse is telling us that we need to build ourselves up in our most holy faith, to pray in the Holy Spirit, and to keep ourselves in God’s love as we wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.  How do we build ourselves us in our faith?  I think there are a lot of ways.  This is a good thing because what might be good for me, might not be good for you.  What I really like to do is listen to praise and worship music and sing along, loudly, if I am alone.  I love to write in my prayer journal and listen to podcasts and audio books to build my faith.  I also love praying in the Spirit.  However, some of you listening may not really like to write and so a prayer journal would be more of a chore.  Maybe you like to read books instead of listening to them.  Maybe you don’t like music, you prefer silence.  Whatever you preferences are, there is a way to use that to build your faith.  If you learn best around others, find a community.  If you like silence just sit in the silence.  If you like noise, find a way to pray loudly, or listen to music and sing a long.  

God will meet you where you are at.  All you really need is the desire to want to build your faith.  If you have the desire and you search out ways to grow in your faith the Lord will meet you on your journey, right where you are and He will place opportunities in your path.  If you don’t believe this think about how you found this podcast.  Did god use someone you know to put it in your path?  Think about the last book you read, how did you learn about that book?  My friend told me today on the phone that she really wanted to go to a church, but hadn’t decided which one yet and was nervous to go to a new church for the first time.  She went out to lunch and someone paid for her lunch.  She went over to thank him and it turns out he was a pastor of one of the churches on her list.  She went two weeks later and she was welcomed in with open arms. A lot of times we look at a situation and think that it is a coincidence that something happened.  I want to challenge you to change your thinking and think of them as God instances.  They didn’t just happen on accident.  God planned them out perfectly because He has a plan for your life and it is a good plan, it is a great plan. God will help you build your faith.  All he requires is that you desire it and that you say yes when He presents you with an opportunity.  If you have the desire, but you are struggling to say yes to the opportunities, pray about that too.  Take that to God.  Pray for the holy boldness you need to say yes to an opportunity that you are scared to say yet to.  Also, take that fear to a trusted friend.  Let them help you.  That is what friends are for.  You would help them if they asked and you would be happy they asked.  So, why do we always hesitate before we ask?  Why is it we think we would be a burden if we asked for help, but we never think our friends are burdens when they ask?

The Lord wants to have mercy on us and to give us eternal life.  Let’s help Him out.  Let’s do our best to build up our faith so we can resist our own ungodly desires.  Let’s build our faith so we can ignore our scoffers.  In 2 Timothy 3:12 it says, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”  We will be persecuted because we desire to live a Godly life in Christ.  So, let’s build up our faith so we can withstand the persecution and we can stay in God’s love as we wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we want to have eternal life with you.  Please give us the strength to withstand our ungodly desires.  Please give us the holy boldness to say yes to every opportunity you provide to us, even if we are scared.  Lord, help the desire to build our faith grow stronger and stronger in each one of us.  You are amazing Lord, we are so grateful that you have offered us eternal life and we ask that you help us stay in your love until Jesus bring us to it.  We love you Lord!  We are grateful for all you do for us Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus holy name, Amen.

Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk Boldly with Jesus.  Remember tomorrow will be our second week for the new segment called Witness Wednesday.  Tomorrow’s witness is about a woman who lost her father to a hit and run by a teenage driver and her journey towards forgiveness for that driver.  I hope you will join me to listen to her story, as it is truly remarkable.  I also hope as you listen to more and more of these witnesses you will realize that we all have seen the Lord working in big and small ways in our life.  The more we talk about it the more others will begin to see God working in their lives.  I hope every single listener will consider giving their witness.  It is not about us, it is about giving God the glory and helping others see all the different ways God works.  He is not working the same way in my life as He is in someone else’s life.  The more ways we show off God’s work, the more people begin to see it in their lives.  I know you may be nervous, so was everyone that has given a witness.  God will give you the courage to get though it.  Just be open to the idea as you listen each week.  One day you might be listening to your own story. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

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We Are God’s Children

1 John 3:2 “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.”

This first line is something I think a lot of us forget and it’s something the enemy definitely tries to make us forget.  We are God’s children.  You are a child of God.  It is super important that you remember this?  It is important because the enemy is going to try to make your forget.  He is going to try to make you feel alone.  He is going to try to make you feel like you have no one.  This is one of his specialties.  He takes whatever it is you are going through and he tells you that you are alone, no one can understand what you are going through, so don’t bother talking about it to anyone.  He makes you feel as though if you spoke up to your friends then you would be bothering them.  He whispers things in your ear that no one cares, that they are better off without you, that you are a burden.  The enemy is a liar.  

You are a child of God.  You are a part of something bigger than you could even imagine.  I thought I had a large family since I am 1 of 11 children.  That is nothing compared to the family of God.  We are all God’s children.  That makes us all brothers and sisters.  Are you showing love to our brothers and sisters?  Are we treating each other like we are children of God?  God made us as social creatures.  We are not meant to go through life a lone.  We are meant to be in community.  If you are feeling alone right now, that is what the enemy wants.  Fight back.  Find a community.  There are many churches our there.  Find one that feels right for you.  You may attend one church and if you don’t feel at home there, try another one.  I would also suggest that you get involved in the church.  Volunteer to help out with something.  Even if you just pick one things.  You could volunteer to be a reader, or a eucharistic minister, a greeter, or the person that passes the basket around.  Whatever your interests are, there is probably a way to use them to help out your church.  This is a great way to not only help others, but find more of a sense of belonging.  

The next part of this verse is something that I think we can struggle with sometimes.  The verse says, “what we will be has not yet been revealed.”  We can struggle with this because we want to know everything up front.  We want all the details, we don’t particularly like all the twists and turns in the road.  If we really think about it though, this could be exciting.  What we will be has not net been revealed.  This means we could be anything.  What do you want to be?  What do you envision your future to hold?  Matthew 19:26 says, “With God all things are possible.”  What would you want to do with your life if nothing was impossible?  If all restraints and obstacles were removed, what is your heart’s desire?  It says in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  Do you see God telling us over and over again that if we rely on Him, nothing is impossible.

Sometimes we get frustrated with where we are in life.  We are not where we want to be.  This could be in all areas, we are not as rich as we would like, we are not as successful as we would like, we are not as happy as we would like.  We get frustrated because we know we could do more, have more and yet we don’t.  If this is the case, we could take comfort in this verse.  “What we will be has not yet be revealed.”  We are still growing.  We are constantly growing and changing until the end of time.  If you are not happy with where you are at then that means that God is not done with you yet.  You are a work in progress and His plan is still in motion.  God has amazing plans for each one of us and those plans are revealed at all different times.  Some people know when they are young what God’s plan for their life is, and some of us it takes a really long time.  Either way, we need to trust that there is a plan and if we haven’t found our purpose, or our calling yet, then God will reveal it to us in His time, not ours.  

The verse ends with, “What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.” From what I have read, this part of the verse is referring to the second coming of Jesus.  When Jesus comes back to judge the living and the dead, then we will see Him as He is and we will be like Him.  Wouldn’t that be great if we could be like Jesus?  I had a friend tell me this weekend that she feels like it is more possible for her to be like John the Baptist, living in the wilderness than it would be to be like Jesus.  Jesus was perfect, He was without sin.  How do try to emulate that?  Even if we strive for perfection we will never be in the same league as Jesus.  I totally get what she is saying.  The bar is set pretty high if we are to be like Jesus.  John the Baptist was living in the wilderness.  He was living separate from the world, other than those that came to see him, get baptized by him and to listen to him talk.  

Living apart from the world seems so appealing at times.  I think when we are alone in nature, we have the tendency to sin a lot less.  When we are apart from the world that doesn’t understand Christianity and questions all we do, then we find it easier to follow the Lord.  I am sure it wasn’t easy living in the wilderness. I have no idea if he had a bed to sleep on or if he slept on the ground.  I do know he ate locusts and wild honey.  I can imagine that was a difficult diet to live off of.  Even with all of that, I wonder if that life, as unglamorous and probably uncomfortable as it was, is better than a life lived among those in the world.  It is so hard to find quite time to pray in this busy world.  It is hard to do what the Lord tells us is right when there are so many others telling us it is wrong.  We have so many outside voices coming into our homes and into phones.  The steady stream of information can feel overwhelming and much of what we are hearing and seeing is contrary to what we believe.  I could see how being more like John the Baptist could be easier and more attainable.

Here’s a secret though, God isn’t expecting perfection from us.  He just wants us to keep trying.  He created us, He has known us since before we were born, He knows we are not perfect.  Jesus is love and that is what the world needs to see.  Our goal is to reflect Jesus’ love back to the world. Some of us were called to live apart from the world, and yet most of us are called to live among the world and yet remember that we are set apart. We are challenged to live our faith in this broken world.  This is difficult if we keep our eyes on all those around us. However, if we keep our eyes fixed on the Lord and we remember to put Him first, then He will help us.  He will make all things possible for us.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we love you and we know that you have good plans for us.  We thank you for those plans.  Lord, we ask you to give us the grace to have patience while we wait for your plans to be revealed.  We ask for the grace to see that all things are possible through you.  We ask you to help us love our brothers and sisters.  Help us to love those that are hard to love.  Help us to feel as though we are not alone.  Lord, there are so many that feel alone, even with 7 billion people on this planet.  Please fill all those that are lonely with your love.  Help them to ignore the enemy and realize that he is a liar.  Help them to see that the world is a better place because they are here.  Lord, you are so amazing and we love you so very much.  We are grateful for all you do for us and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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I’m Not Greedy, I’m Just Needy!

Isaiah 40:28-31 “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

“He will not grow tired or weary.”  I thought two things when I read this, the first was, wouldn’t that be nice?  Wouldn’t it be nice to not grow tired or weary?  I know a lot of us are feeling tired and weary lately.  There is a lot going on in our worlds and we are ready for a break.  This is why my first thought was, wouldn’t that be nice.  My second thought was, do we believe this?  Do we believe that God doesn’t grow tired and weary?  I wondered this because I feel as though often times we treat God as though this is not true.  We treat God as if He is not the almighty and powerful Lord that does not grow tired or weary.

I say this because we tend to be cautious with our prayers.  We save up our prayers for the really important times, as if we only get so many and we don’t want to run out.  This may sound silly, but you know you have all thought that at one time or another.  Maybe you didn’t think that exact thought, but you did hold back from asking God for something because it wasn’t that important and He had bigger things to think about.  We have all done this.  We want to pray that our child wins the football game but then we feel guilty because there are people with real problems and we are taking God’s attention away from them to ask Him to help our kids win a football game, or to help me find a parking spot.  This verse is telling us something that we already know on some level, but have trouble believing.  God does not grow tired or weary.  God can help you with your small request and help someone else with their giant request all at the same time.  He can do it all and still not grow tired or weary. He is that amazing.  

The next line in the verse says his understanding no one can fathom.  We can’t even begin to understand all that the Lord knows.  We see how he is working in our lives and we think He is a little crazy, or we think He is upset with us because things aren’t going our way.  We don’t understand that all these things are happening so that His plan for us to have ridiculous goodness can come to fruition.  We needed to lose that job so that we could get this better one.  We needed lose that sense of security so we could appreciate it when we gained it back.  We needed to go through that hard time so that we could show someone else that they can get through it too.  We can’t fathom the Lord’s understanding.  It’s just like it says in Isaiah 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,”declares the Lord.”  The Lord knows what He is doing.  It is ok if we don’t understand.  It will all make sense one day.  

The next line says, “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.”  This is something that can really help us if we can remember it.  He gives strength to the weary.  How long have we been weary for?  Did we know that God would give us strength?  Did we ask for it?  If there is a lot weighing down on your heart, I want you to know that I am right there with you.  There isn’t a single person I know right now that is just coasting through life, no troubles to speak of.  We are all weary.  I would like to say that it is because of COVID, but I think it is more of a condition of living in a broken world.  We are not perfect, we all hurt each other, sometimes without even knowing it.  We have fallen into an age where our own pleasure, our own wants trump all else.  We don’t want to hurt our loved ones, and we also don’t want to give up the things that we want.  We are weary because we are trying to exist in a world that doesn’t understand the Christian way of life.  We are weary because we are relying on the world to give us our strength, when our Lord is sitting by watching and trying to offer us the strength we need.  However, we are so busy trying to do it all ourselves that we don’t see him there handing it out.  

What is coming to me right now is, we need to stop turning to the world to get our strength and our power.  Yes, the world does offer us power, and it might feel good for a while to have that power.  However, if you find your power from he world you will never be fulfilled.  You will always be searching for more.  You will have this part of you that will always feel empty.  However, if you turn to the Lord and you ask him for your strength and your power, He will fill you up completely.  You will be lacking nothing.  It says in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 “But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  God’s power is made perfect in our weakness.  How great would it be if we could be like St. Paul and delight in our weaknesses, insults, hardships and persecutions?  How many times will we need to hear that God will give us strength when we are weary and power when we are weak before we actually believe it?  How long will we turn away from God and look elsewhere to find our power before we turn back to God and ask Him?  He is standing there ready to give us all we need for the day and we are too busy looking every else for it that we don’t see it.  

The verse ends with a really great visual.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” First it is telling us that everyone grows weary.  It is not just those that have been around for a long time, even the youth grow weary.  Actually, our youth in particular these days seem to be growing weary.  None of us are exempt, and yet it says, those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  When we are weary and weak it is hard to hope.  When we are weary it is usually because the enemy has wore us down and we are fresh out of hope.  However, this verse is telling us that if we hope in the Lord, he will renew our strength.  There it is again. There verse is repeating the Lord is our strength.  Maybe this time will be the time that we truly hear it.  Maybe today we will believe that the Lord does not grow weary and He doesn’t grow tired.  Wouldn’t it be great if today is the day that we finally start turning to the Lord and asking him for that strength and power that he is just waiting to give us?

I heard these two phrases a few times over the last few days and they just came to mind again so I would like to share them with you.  The first is the phrase, “more Lord more.”  The Lord has so much more for you.  We don’t want to ask for more sometimes because we don’t want to be greedy.  We settle for little answers to our prayers because we don’t want to push our luck or we feel we should just be happy with what we get.  The Lord wants us to ask for more.  Yes, be grateful for what you receive and yet still ask for more.  In the book “The Circle Maker” the author Mark Batterson talks about a man who was praying for rain as they hadn’t had rain in a very long time.  This man drew a circle in the ground and told the Lord he would not leave that circle until the rain came.  It finally started to sprinkle.  Every started to rejoice and the man started to pray harder.  He said that was not the rain he was praying for, He was praying for more rain, and it began to rain harder.  He still said that was not the rain he was praying for.  Finally it started to rains so hard that everyone had to run for cover.  The Lord wants to do this in your life as well.  Start saying, “Thank you Lord and more Lord more.”  Be open to more, be willing to ask the Lord for more.

The other phrase I heard was in the Life in the Spirit Seminar video.  David Mangan was talking about the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  He was talking about how we should all be open to whatever gifts the Holy Spirit wants to give us, particularly the gift of speaking in tongues.  This is one that people often don’t want as they find it weird.  David was saying that he is open to any gifts the Lord is passing out and he is getting in line twice.  Then he said, “It’s not that I am greedy, it’s that I am needy.”  I love this because it is so true.  We don’t have to feel as though we are greedy when we say “more Lord more.” We are needy, we all are.  We can’t do anything without the Lord, and that makes us pretty needy.  I just keep feeling as though the Holy Spirit really wants you to hear that the Lord has so much more for each and every one of you.  Our prayers are too little, He is bigger than we give Him credit for.  Stop playing little with your prayers.  Step out in faith and ask for what you truly want, God has more for you.  He does not grow weary or get tired.  Keep asking, don’t limit yourself, Our God is a Big God who can do Big things.  He is standing by waiting for you to trust that and for you to step out in faith and ask for the miracle you have been wanting but too afraid to ask for.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless everyone listening to this episode today.  Lord you are amazing.  I love when you speak to me and you give me a specific message for everyone listening.  Lord, help us to believe and truly accept that you don’t grow weary or tired and that you love when we come to you.  Help us to turn to you for all we need Lord.  Help us to look to you for our strength and power Lord. Help us to say “more Lord more” with the expectant faith that you want to give us more, that you have more to give.  Lord, I know you were speaking to some people individually when you were saying we needed to step out in faith and ask for more.  I pray that those individuals hear that message deep in their hearts and that you give them the boldness and trust they need to pray those big prayers.  Help us all to pray those big prayers Lord.  Give us the grace of a more expectant faith Lord.  We believe, help our unbelief.  Lord, I especially want to pray for those that are weary and need your strength.  Help them Lord, give them more.  We love you Lord, you are so amazing.  We are so grateful that with all you give to us, you are telling us to ask for more.  We will take all you have to offer Lord, not because we are greedy, but because we are needy.  We ask all of this in accordance with your word and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to seeing you again on Monday.  Have a blessed weekend!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Fear God, What Does That Mean?

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 “ Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.  For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”


What stood out to me the most is Fear God and keep his commandments.  I was always confused with this before.  I didn’t understand what Fear God meant.  He is a loving God, why do we have to fear Him?  I am not afraid of God, so does that mean I don’t fear Him?  Then it was explained to me one day.  Fear God doesn’t mean that you are afraid of Him.  It does mean that you have a reverence for Him.  It means that you have a deep respect for Him and all that He is capable of doing.  It means that you stop and think twice before doing something that He has asked you not to do.  You think twice not because you are scared of the consequences, although that may be part of it, but mostly it is because you don’t want to do anything to offend or hurt Him.  You don’t want to fracture your relationship with Him.

In the Catholic Church, when we go to confession we end our confession with the Act of Contrition Prayer.  It goes as follows: “My God, I am sorry for my sins with all my heart. In choosing to do wrong and failing to do what is good, I have sinned against You whom I should love above all things, I firmly intend, with Your help, to do penance, to sin no more, and to avoid whatever leads me to sin.”  I really like this prayer because it helps me see why sin is so wrong.  It is me choosing to do what is wrong and failing to do what is good.  It also reminds me that I sinned agains my heavenly Father, whom I should love above all things.  However, I obviously forgot that when I sinned.  I was not showing God that I loved Him above all things when I choose to do the thing that I did.  

For instance, maybe I watched TV instead of praying yesterday, so, which thing did I love more?  Maybe I decided to buy a new shirt instead of giving my tithing to the Church this week.  Did I love God or new clothes more?  Maybe I didn’t even go to church because I wanted to do something else instead.  Was I choosing God first, or something else?   I like this prayer because it spells out what sin is and it helps me to own it.  I say I would do anything for the Lord, just ask and I will do it.  And yet, when it comes to things He asks everyone to do I sometimes struggle.  I don’t always want to go to mass.  Actually lately, the enemy has really been trying to convince me not to go.  Which, by the way, is how I know it is so important to go.  God is so great.  He knows the enemy is making it seem like it is not important to go to mass, and so God is making sure that I am hearing from Father Mike on the Bible in a Year Podcast how important it really is and why it is so important that we worship the Lord in the way that He asked us to, not the way we want to.  

Another reason I really like the Act of Contrition prayer is because it ends with “I firmly intend, with Your help, to do penance, to sin no more and to avoid whatever leads me to sin.”  There is a lot in that one sentence.  First, I love that it acknowledges that we can’t do it alone.  We need the Lord to help us.  We are a broken people and the only way we can resist sin is through the grace of God.  This is a fact that we can’t get away from and the sooner we realize we need God’s help the sooner we can ask Him for it.  

Next, it says that we intend to do penance.  This is an important part of the repenting process.  Even if you are not Catholic and so you do not go to a priest to repent, what are you going to do to make it up to the Lord.  Yes, Jesus died on the cross for our sins, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t make it up to the Lord when we sin against Him.  As Catholics, we have a priest that hears out sins, forgives us on Jesus’ behalf and then gives us a penance.  If you are not going to a priest then come up with your own penance.  It doesn’t have to be anything drastic.  What is something you can do to make it up to the Lord?  For instance, can you spend a few extra minutes in prayer this week?  Can you attend a daily mass to make up for the other mass you missed?  I don’t know what it is that you are repenting for, but you do, and you can come up with a penance.  If you don’t know, ask the Lord, He will be happy to tell you.

Finally, at the end it says, I intend to sin no more and to avoid whatever leads me to sin.  Wow, that one can get right by us if we don’t pay attention to it, so I will say it again.  I intend to avoid whatever leads me to sin.  What does this mean? This means that I won’t tempt myself.  If I know that I have a tendency to watch TV instead of doing my prayer time, then I will do my prayer time before I even turn the TV on so that I can avoid that which leads me to sin.  If I know that I can’t resist a drink and when I drink I get drunk and do things I shouldn’t, then avoiding whatever leads me to sin would be not going to the bar, or not being around alcohol.  If I know I tend to be a glutton when it comes to eating sweets and junk food then avoiding what leads me to sin would mean I don’t buy that stuff to have in the house.  This last line means you stay away from things that lead you to sin.  We all think that our will power is greater than it really is.  However, even if we do have a great will power, why put ourselves in a position where we have to choose between God and anything else.

Before ending for the day I want to point out the last line of the verse above.  It says, "For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”  Whether you are Catholic or not, God will bring all that we do into judgement.  It says every hidden thing.  Sometimes we don’t want to confess something, or bring something to God because we are embarrassed and we don’t want to bring that thing into the light.  God already knows about it. There is nothing that we can do that God doesn’t know about.  We do not have to be ashamed of anything with the Lord.  He is our loving Father and He is ready to welcome us back with open arms if we just confess it to Him and ask for His forgiveness.  The one that wants you to keep your secrets hidden is the enemy.  He knows that if he can convince you that God won’t forgive you, or that you shouldn’t tell anyone and just keep it hidden, then it will continue to eat you up inside.  The enemy knows this and he loves this.  You see, our secrets only have power when they are in the dark.  As soon as you bring them into the light, they loose their power over us.  

I feel strongly that some of you listening to this have some secrets or some things that you have hidden away.  God wants you to know that it is ok to bring them to Him.  He has already forgiven you, and when you bring them to Him and lay them at His feet then you can start to forgive yourself.  He wants me to tell you that it is not your fault He knows that.  He just wants you to know and believe that as well.  I am not sure who that was for this morning, however, I felt god had that message for someone in particular today.

God loves each and every one of you listening today.  If you have anything weighing on your conscious try to get to confession.  If you are not Catholic, or don’t believe in going to a priest for confession, just take a few minutes and repent to the Lord for whatever is weighing on you. He is ready to forgive, He just wants you to say the words.  Can you do that today?  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we thank you for being so forgiving.  We ask that if we have done something to hurt our relationship with you, you put it on our hearts to repent.  Lord, we love you and we fear you.  We don’t want to do anything to damage our relationship with you.  Please give us the grace we need to sin no more and to even avoid the near occasion of sin.  Lord, help us not put ourselves in a situation where we might be lead to sin.  When we do sin, help us not to keep it hidden.  Help us bring it into the light where the enemy can’t use it against us.  We love you Lord, you are so amazing.  Your wilingness to forgive is truly awesome.  We are so grateful and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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His Love Endures Forever

Psalm 136 “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of gods.  His love endures forever.  

Give thanks to the Lord of lords: His love endures forever.

to him who alone does great wonders, His love endures forever.

who by his understanding made the heavens, his love endures forever.

who spread out the earth upon the waters, His love endures forever.  

who made the great lights—His love endures forever.  the sun to govern the day, His love endures forever.
the moon and stars to govern the night; His love endures forever.

to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt His love endures forever.
and brought Israel out from among them His love endures forever.

with a mighty hand and outstretched arm; His love endures forever.

to him who divided the Red Sea[a] asunder His love endures forever.
and brought Israel through the midst of it, His love endures forever.
but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea; His love endures forever.

to him who led his people through the wilderness; His love endures forever.

to him who struck down great kings, His love endures forever.
and killed mighty kings—His love endures forever.
Sihon king of the Amorites His love endures forever.
and Og king of Bashan—His love endures forever.
and gave their land as an inheritance, His love endures forever.
an inheritance to his servant Israel. His love endures forever.

He remembered us in our low estate His love endures forever.

and freed us from our enemies. His love endures forever.
He gives food to every creature. His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever.

I know this verse is a lot longer than I usually do.  I usually pick a verse or two and this is all 26 verses of this Psalm.  Psalm 136:6 “who spread out the earth upon the waters, His love endures forever” was the verse that lead me to this Psalm in the first place.  I decided to read the whole Psalm as I felt perhaps this was a small part of something bigger.  When I read the whole thing I instantly felt like I should share the whole thing.  Since the phrase “His love endures forever” is repeated throughout the whole Psalm, I thought I would just take that out to make it shorter and just repeat it after each section.  However, when I had that thought I immediately got the sense God wanted me to leave it in there.  I felt He was saying to me that we need to have that reminder over and over again today.  

This Psalm today has two purposes.  First and foremost to remind you over and over again so many times that there is no way you can forget that God’s love endures forever.  Forever is a very long time.  It means it never goes away.  God’s love lasts forever, it doesn’t say it lasts a lifetime, it says forever.  It doesn’t say that His love lasts until you do something He doesn’t like, it says forever.  It doesn’t say that it endures until you get sick or are in a seemingly impossible situation and then it goes away.  It says it endures forever.  It also doesn’t say that His love endures forever as long as you don’t walk away, as long as you do all the things you are supposed to do, or as long as you get it right all the time.  No, it says His love endures forever and that’s it.  There are no conditions placed on it, there is no requirement for you, God has loved you from the beginning of time and He will continue to love you forever, regardless of circumstances.  That is pretty amazing when you really think about it.  Who else can you say that about?  Who else’s love will endure forever, regardless of your actions and regardless of time?  

The second purpose of this psalm today is to remind us of some the remarkable things God has done for us over the years.  The sense I am getting this morning is that some of you listening to this episode may be struggling with feeling God’s Love right now. Maybe you are sick, and you feel as though He is not answering your prayers.  Maybe you are feeling stuck in a family situation that seems impossible and feel as though He is not hearing your prayers.  Maybe nothing in particular is wrong, you just don’t really feel a sense that God is with you right now.  Whatever you particular circumstance is God wants you to know that He is speaking directly to you to day.  He hears you, He is answering your prayers, He loves you and most importantly, He is right there with you through it all.  This Psalm is for you.  This is your heavenly Father letting you know that His love endures forever and just as he did all these things for His people in the past He will do just as much for you.  He is moving mountains in your life, He is preparing you for amazing things, you just can’t see it yet.  Hang in there, your miracle is coming!!

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. Give thanks to the God of gods.  Give thanks to the Lord of lords: to him who alone does great wonders, who by his understanding made the heavens, who spread out the earth upon the waters, who made the great lights— the sun to govern the day, the moon and stars to govern the night;”  Can you imagine how powerful God must be to create the whole universe.  He made the heavens, the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars, just for us. Every time you look at the sun, the moon, or the stars, you can think of how much God loves you.  Hopefully, after hearing this verse, when you look at them, it will be a reminder to you that His love endures forever.  When you can’t feel God’s love or His Presence in your life, look to the sun, moon, or stars and remember His promise that His love endures forever.  

“To him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt and brought Israel out from among them with a mighty hand and outstretched arm; to him who divided the Red Sea asunder and brought Israel through the midst of it, but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea; to him who led his people through the wilderness;”  Imagine if God can do all of this for His people, what He will do for you.  God did not just strike down the firstborn of Egypt, first He gave the Pharoh multiple chances to let the Lord’s people go.  He also told His people what to do so that their first born children would not be lost.  He divided the Red Sea for His people.  They felt lost, they could not see a way out with the Red Sea on one side and an army closing in on the other.  I am sure many of them felt as if God had led them to their death.  Yet, God made a way where there wasn’t one.  He did not just lead them to freedom, He also destroyed their enemies, the army that was pursuing them.  God will do the same for you!  He will make a way where you don’t see one.  He will make a way back from this illness, out of the family situation, out of the work situation and out of any other situation you find yourself in, no matter how impossible it seems.  He is the Waymaker. He always finds a way.  

“To him who struck down great kings, and killed mighty kings—Sihon king of the Amorites and Og king of Bashan—and gave their land as an inheritance, an inheritance to his servant Israel.”  The Lord gave His people an inheritance.  The people entering these fights did not always think the would be victorious.  Sometimes, many times, over the years, God’s people were outnumbered.  They would go into battle knowing that they were not only out numbered, but also had less weapons, less resources, less everything.  They definitely wouldn’t have been favored to win if people were betting based on appearances.  However, what they did have was the favor of God.  That is all they needed.  No matter how hopeless your situation seems, God has the power to fix it, to save you from it, and to bring you out of it.  We just have to keep relying on Him and waiting for His time, now our time.  He has struck down kings, He can surely take care of what is in your way.  God’s got you!  He will save you.

“He remembered us in our low estate and freed us from our enemies. He gives food to every creature. Give thanks to the God of heaven.”  God remembers you always, not just when everything is going great and you are high on life.  He remembers you when you are at your lowest as well.  He has freed His people from so many enemies, and He will free you too.  If there is one thing we have learned from reviewing all these things the Lord has done for us it is that nothing is too great for Him. There is no enemy too powerful, no situation too complicated for the Lord our God.  The verse ends with “Give thanks to the God of heaven.”  I think you will be surprised how far the smallest amount of gratitude will get you.  The Lord has done so many incredible things and He really loves it when we acknowledge that.  Who doesn’t like to be appreciated, right?  We owe everything to the Lord.  We have no idea how many things He has saved us from throughout each day and then when you add in all the things He has done for us.  We could never repay Him, and He is not asking us to.  However, we can thank Him.  We can let Him know how grateful we are.  If you are wanting to see God more at work in your lives, I challenge you to take 5 minutes or less our of your day and intentionally thank the Lord of all you have seen Him do in your life that day.  I bet, if you do this, you will begin to see more and more.  I am not sure if God is actually doing more and more when we intentionally thank Him, or if He is doing the same, but we are just noticing more.  Either way, you will see the Lord more at work in your life when you begin to be grateful for each thing you notice.  I want to leave you with the phrase we have heard most today, “His Love endures forever.”

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, you are amazing and we are so grateful for all the things you have done for your people throughout the ages.  We are so grateful that you love us so much.  Lord, thank you for giving us a love that endures forever.  Thank you for taking care of our enemies and protecting us from all things.  Thank you for being more powerful than everything else.  Thank you for making a way when we can’t see one.  We are so grateful your ways are higher than our ways and your thoughts higher than our thoughts.  We would be lost with out you Lord.  Father, help us to be more grateful for all that you do.  Help us to take time out of our days to intentionally try to see you at work in our lives.  We love you so much Lord, help us to feel your love.  You are truly awe inspiring and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I hope you will join me tomorrow for our first ever, Witness Wednesday.  Peggy will be sharing how she has witnessed God’s love in her life.  It is a truly amazing story and you won’t want to miss it!  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow. Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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The Power of God Lives Inside You

John 14:1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.”

Man, we would be rich if we had a $1.00 ever time God told us not to let our hearts be troubled, to not be anxious, or not to worry.  So, why is that so dang hard for us to do?  Why is it so hard for us not to worry?  It seems we are in a constant state of worry these days.  We worry about the state of the economy, we worry about the government, we worry about COVID, we worry about what is going on in other countries.  We can’t seem to help ourselves from worrying.  I think this is exactly what the enemy wants.  He wants us to think of all the ways that things could go wrong.  I wonder what our days would feel like if we turned the tables on all this worry?  I wonder how we would feel if instead of spending all this time worrying about what might go wrong, we focused our attention on what could go right?  

Now, I am not talking about being a Polly Anna or a Ms. Suzy Sunshine and always just looking at the positive things in life.  I am not living in a fantasy world where everything just always works out and everyone is always happy.  I wish I lived in that world. I was just telling my friend on the phone last night that I wish we lived in a world where disease wasn’t a thing that existed and everybody was nice.  No one invaded any one, we just all got along.  I know that is not possible this side of heaven and I am not suggesting it is.  What I am suggesting is that we take control of our thoughts.  This is something else the enemy doesn’t want you to know, but you can be in control of your thoughts.  I know it doesn’t feel like it sometimes, but you can.  It isn’t always easy, and it may take a lot of work, but isn’t it worth it if you didn’t feel anxious or worried all the time.  We feel anxious and worried when we are not living in the present.  There is no anxiety in the present moment, everything just is as it is.  

However, if we start thinking about things that have happened in the past, or things that may happen in the future, this is where we can get anxious and worried.  Eighty-five percent of the things we worry about never happen.  Eighty-five percent!  I know this number sounds high, but if you sit and really think about the things you worry about, how many of them actually happened?  Not many right?  Why is this?  Why are we so worried and tuned into all the things that may go wrong?  I don’t know the answer to that.  If I had to guess I would say it is because the media is reminding us of all that may happen.  They like to throw out their speculations and their ideas because if you are worried about what might happen then you will be tuning into their show to see if it is happening.  We also tend to be a people who like to guess at the outcome of an even.  Have you ever sat next to someone watching a TV show and they are constantly guess what is going to happen next in the show?  We do this in real life too.  We want to be the one to know what will happen next.  

The problem with this is that stress and worry are not good for you, mentally or physically.  Stress can cause some of these physical symptoms: a faster heartbeat, fatigue, headaches, inability to concentrate, irritability, nervous energy, rapid breathing or shortness of breath, and many others.  If you have chronic stress you can suffer from: suppression of the immune system, digestive disorders, muscle tension, short-term memory loss, premature coronary artery disease or heart attacks as well.  So often I hear people say that they can’t help it that they worry, it is just who they are.  I know I say this a lot, but that is what the enemy wants you to think.  He wants you to think that there is nothing you can do about this worrying.  That you have to feel like this all the time. It is part of you just as is your eye color or your age.  This is not true.  You do not have to worry or be anxious all the time.  You can change if you want to.  

When it comes to thinking about what might happen in the future I ask myself two questions.  First, can I change the outcome?  For instance, if I am worried about my children growing up to be responsible adults I ask myself, “Can I do anything to change this outcome?” In this circumstance, I would say yes.  If I work on teaching them to be responsible children, then I could have an affect on the outcome.  In this case, instead of focusing on my thoughts of worry, I focus on my actions that I can do to help achieve the outcome that I want.  I still may wonder if they will grow up to be responsible adults, but I don’t worry about it because I know I am already doing all I can to affect that outcome.  The rest is up to them and to God.  However, what if there isn’t anything I can do to affect the outcome. For instance, many are worried about where this country is headed and what is the future of this country.  I would ask myself, is there anything I can do to change the outcome of this event?  There is not much I can do at the moment.  I can make sure to do my part when it comes to voting or to being environmentally conscientious but other than that, there is not much I can do.  If this is the case, I do not spend a lot of energy thinking about things that I can’t change.  I pray about them, I turn the over to God and then I focus my energy and my thoughts on those things that are in my control.  

This verse says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.”  If we believe in God and we believe in Jesus, then we know they are looking out for us.  We don’t have to know everything that will happen in the future, God will take care of those details as He always does.  If we don’t want to worry all the time, we have to protect our thoughts.  It’s not that we can’t ever worry about something, we will all have things that we worry about.  The key is to recognize those thoughts and then turn them over to the Lord,  In 2 Corinthians 10:5 it says, “…and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  We have this power!  We are children of God.  When we notice our thoughts are starting to make us anxious we can capture them and turn them over to the Lord.  Just say something to yourself like, “Jesus I capture this thought and I turn it over to you.  Jesus I trust in you.”  Then tell yourself that you have handed it over and you are not going to think about it anymore and direct your thoughts elsewhere.  I know even though this sounds simple, it is not easy.  However, I promise you, if you give it a try, it will get easier and easier.  If nothing fruitful is coming form your worry, then release it.  God doesn’t want that for you.  Think of who benefits from you feeling worried, anxious, scared, depressed, and hopeless?  It is not the Lord.  In 2 Timothy 1:7 it says, “For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of self-control.”  God did not give us this spirit of fear, but He did give us a spirit of power and love and self-control.  Why are we choosing the spirit of fear that is from the enemy instead of the spirit that the Lord Himself gave us?  The Lord is constantly telling us not to be anxious and worried, when are we finally going to listen?  When are we finally going to say, “Not today Satan,” and fight back against his spirit of fear?  You have the power of God inside you.  Romans 8:11 says, “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you.”  When will we decide to use this power?  When will we decide we want to be free once and for all from this spirit of fear?  I think today seems like a good day, how about you?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those who are listing to this episode.  Lord, help us to protect our thought and turn over to you any that are making us anxious and nervous.  We want to follow your instructions Lord, to not let our hearts be troubled we need your help.  Lord, there is a lot that we could be nervous about in this world, however, we know you are our Lord and Savior.  Help us to trust in that and to not worry about the things of this world.  Help us to stay in the present moment.  There is no worry or anxiety there.  Help us to not stay in the past or the present too long.  We love you Lord, you are so amazing.  We know you are in control and we don’t want to worry all the time. Help us to be grateful for all you do for us and to see that you will keep doing it.  You are so amazing and we know this, so help us remember this when we start to worry.  We love you and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  Remember to listen this Wednesday for our first ever “Witness Wednesday.”  You are going to love the story of how Peggy has witnessed God’s love throughout her adult life and the amazing things He did for her.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

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God Loves and Longs For You, Yes You!

Philippians 4:1 “ Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.”  

Did you know that the Lord longs for you?  Over the years I have hear a lot of talk about how the Lord desires to have an intimate relationship with you.  Have you ever heard this? Did you understand what they meant whey they said it?  At first, I had no idea.  How do you have an intimate relationship with someone that you can’t talk to?  Well, you can talk to Him, but He doesn’t talk back.  Isn’t that one sided?  How do you get to know someone that doesn’t talk back to you?  How do you have an intimate relationship with someone you barely know?  These are all the thoughts that went through my head.  Now that I have grown in my faith I can see how I was so wrong.  

Joining the Charismatic Renewal really helped me see that God does talk to us, we just don’t usually sit and listen for it.  We don’t expect Him to talk to us so we don’t give Him the quite time to just sit and listen.  We are all pretty good at asking God for things, especially if we are in an urgent or desperate situation.  However, if you sit and just BE with God, He will talk with you.  Probably not in an audible voice, like you and I could talk.  More of thoughts in your heard, or some people get visions.  The reason it took me joining the Charismatic Renewal to learn this is because I got to see this in action.  Most of us learn better with examples.  You can tell me how to cook a turkey all day long, but until you show me, and I get to try it on my own, I won’t remember.  The same is true with hearing the Word of God.  

When I would go to these prayer group meetings, every week, there would be words of prophesy.  There would be people that could hear what the Lord wanted to tell us and they would tell us what they heard.  Unfortunately, often times seeing is believing.  When you see people every single week hearing the word of God, you start to believe that if they can hear it, you can too!  Also, I took a course to become a spiritual coach from the Life Coach Institute.  The director Fern Gorin taught us an exercise where you write a letter to God, and then you ask the Lord to speak through your pen and you write a letter back to yourself.  I have integrated this practice into my prayer journaling and it has been amazing.  Learning to listen to the Lord’s voice takes practice and it takes trust.  It is easy to second guess yourself and wondering if you are just making up these things.  This is when it is important to remember that God has told us multiple times in the Bible that if we ask He will answer.  We need to trust that if we asked He is answering.

The other thing I had thought was how can you have an intimate relationship with someone that you don’t really know that well.  I had this thought before I began reading scripture.  If you read scripture, you will get to know God very well.  When you read the Bible you learn all about who God is, the things He has done in the past, and everything you could want to know about Him.  You get to know the Lord more intimately than you know most other people.  You get to see how consistent He has been over thousands of years.  You can see how He reacted in various situations and with various people.  You get to see what makes Him, angry, happy, sad, all the different emotions.  How many other people in your life can you say that you know that well?  

The reason I knew this was the verse for today was because of a phone call I had yesterday.  The prayer group I belong to has been around for 50 years.  That is a long time.  There was an article in Pentecost Today, a publication about all things Charismatic, about our group celebrating the 50th anniversary.  A man from Texas called to ask some questions as that is a long time for a group to still be meeting.  Among the many questions he asked, one was about having an intimate relationship with the Lord.  I thought about how I have grown in that area and I attribute my growth to going to the Charismatic Prayer groups.  I knew just from reading the scripture and doing Bible studies, along with conferences, that Jesus loves me.  I knew that God is Love.  That is the best way that I could describe God.  God is love.  Sometimes we get all caught up in the religion of it all, but at the end of the day, God is love.  I feel that with my whole being.  

However, it wasn’t until I started attending this Charismatic Prayer Group that I realized just how much God loves us.  I know many of you that are listening do not attend Charismatic Prayer groups so I want to explain briefly what I am talking about.  Imagine each week you go and sit with about 15-20 men and woman who spend 30-40 minutes praising and worshiping the Lord.  Then they spend about 15 minutes just sitting and listening to the Lord.  They not only listen, but they are obedient to share any words of prophesy that He gives them.  If you sat in a room each week and every week the Lord showed up to talk with you, how could you not see how much He loves you?  An intimate relationship just forms almost on its own, after hearing what He has to say each week.  

The reason I wanted to share this verse with you today is because I don’t know if many of you realize that the Lord not only loves you, He longs for you.  It says so, right here in the Bible.  Here is an example of the a word that we heard at one of our prayer groups, “Your praises reach the throne of the father, who pours out his love on you. Be at peace my loved ones. I am well pleased with your praises. I long to commune with you. Come more often to me and speak your heart. I am always here longing and waiting and longing to hear from you.”  Imagine hearing things like this each week from our heavenly Father.  These words are not just for those of us in the group.  The Lord longs to hear from each one of us.  He is longing and waiting for you.  Try to spend some time this week, even just five minutes a day listening to what the Lord has to say.  If you give him the time, He will talk with you.

Another example of how much the Lord loves us as a whole, but then also individually is something that happened yesterday at prayer group.  We have a member who has been sick with COVID since December 5th.  She is still having trouble breathing, she has trouble sleeping, she is anxious and just all around tired from three months of all of this.  During our time to listen yesterday, the very last thing the Lord gave someone was a scripture verse.  Job 11:18 says, “Having hope will give you courage.  You will be protected and will rest in safety.”  Do you see how He gives personal messages out of love.  Our friend is having so much trouble breathing and the Lord is telling her, “You will be protected and will rest in safety.”  She really needed to hear this and He knew that.  Now before she sleeps she can turn to Job 11:18 and find comfort.  

Another example someone in our prayer group had yesterday.  She has macular degeneration and so if something falls on the floor she can’t find it.  She dropped the tiny backing to an earring the other day.  She prayed to her guardian angel to help her find it and the next step she took she stepped on it.  God is so good!  He knows exactly what we need, when we need it!!  God loves you, He longs for you.  Spend some time getting to know Him.  Whether it is just sitting with Him, or whether it is listening to scripture and learning more about Him.  He longs for us to grow closer and closer to Him.  Let us not keep Him waiting.  Let’s spend time with Him today!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this podcast today.  Lord, you are amazing and we love you.  The fact that you long for us, is hard for us to comprehend sometimes.  You are so wonderful and we are a broken people and yet you long to commune with us.  You long to spend time with us and Lord we ask that you help us to make that a priority.  We ask that you help take away any distractions and help us put our focus where it belongs, which is on you Lord.  Help us grow closer and closer to you and help us give you time where we just sit and listen to what you have to say.  We love you Lord, and we are so grateful for everything about you. Lord we also ask that you be with all those that are fighting in Europe right now.  Lord, we ask that you protect all the innocent and give them whatever they need to live through this awful situation.  We ask that you place a bubble of protection around them.  Lord, we know that you are the God of the Impossible and that you can make a way even when we don’t see one.  We are asking for you to end this conflict quickly and without any more casualties.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen

Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you on Monday.  Have a blessed weekend!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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God Is In Control

Proverbs 3:5-6 "Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths."

I thought this was really fitting for something that I wanted to share with you today.  I was sent a prayer of sorts on Facebook last week and it has such a good message that I really wanted to share it with all of you.  Its an example of how something in our everyday life can help us understand God or something he has done so much more than we normally.  I feel as though God uses our every day life sometimes to show us what he is doing or what he is thinking.  For instance, if we are struggling with understanding how He can forgive us for something and then our child does something and we understand a little better how, as our father, He could forgive us as we would forgive our children.  This is one of those times when God used this woman’s everyday life to help her understand Him a little better. The person who wrote this is Mary Katherine Backstrom.  (CLICK HERE for Facebook page) She is a virtual blogger, speaker, and best selling author.  I will put a link in the show notes to her facebook page because she has a lot of things like this on her page.  

Hey, God.

Sorry it’s been a minute. But something happened today, and for the first time in a long time, I felt like I understood Your heart a little better. You probably already know why I’m talking, because well...You are God. But I guess the whole point of prayer is to talk, so I’m gonna tell You what happened.  Today, I was at a traffic light staring at Holland, who was screaming in her car seat because a friend gave her a paper clip during preschool and she snuck it home in her clothes, and then accidentally dropped it into the abyss that is my car’s floorboard. Then, despite her desperate pleas, I wouldn’t pull over so she could unbuckle and climb around the car looking for said paper clip.  That made her BIG mad.We are talking wailing and crying and gnashing of teeth mad.  *sigh* Moving on.

Now, if she had known that I couldn’t pull over because I was hurrying to take her somewhere special before soccer practice, maybe she wouldn’t have minded. But she was screaming too loudly about her paper clip for me to explain. “You are an EVIL mommy! A wicked step mother! I wish I had a better mommy!” Un-freaking-believable, right? I gave birth to that little turdlet and she had the audacity to disown me over a paper clip. So, I let her mourn and scream. There was no reasoning with her, anyways. She wanted what she wanted.

To Holland, that paper clip was the most valuable thing she’d ever owned. But I couldn’t stop thinking: If only she knew what was coming. If only she knew why I wouldn’t pull over. If only she knew that I wanted to take her out for ice cream—just the two of us—maybe she would have gotten excited. Maybe she would have forgotten about that stupid paper clip. I had something in store for her that was so much better than a milligram of bent wire. But that bent wire was her heart’s desire. She could see nothing else.

I was contemplating this to myself and I realized, holy cow, God. I’m no better than my toddler.

I am essentially riding around in life’s car seat, clutching tight to my precious paper clips, and raging at you when one falls out of my hands. My writing job changes, but I liked my job. A speaking gig falls between my fingers, but it’s the one I was most excited about. My husband changes as a human, but I was comfortable with who he was. “My paper clips, God! Pull over and let me collect them! PULL OVER GOD WAAAAAAAH!”

All the while you are watching my tears from the front seat, waiting for the wailing to stop so you can tell me MY DAUGHTER. Let go of that trinket. Stop your crying. I have something better just up ahead. So, God. I just want you to know that, in this one small way, my Mama heart understood a little more about your Daddy heart today.

To be honest, I don’t want to lose any of the things I hold unto so tightly. My youth, my writing career, my children being little, my marriage being comfortable. But, if change must happen, I pray you comfort my heart and remind me that Your plans are for my good.

And remind me that for goodness sake, if I can just stop wailing over lost paper clips for one stinking minute, You’ve been trying to take me out for ice cream.  I think this was a prayer. Perhaps a revelation. Maybe more of a brain dump.  Either way, I feel a little closer to you tonight, God.And I think that deserves an “amen”.

This touched me so much because it is something we all do.  We all want what we want and we don’t understand when we can’t have it.  We can’t see that God has something better in store because we are too caught up in mourning the loss of the thing we didn’t get or the thing we lost.  Jeremiah 29:11 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.”  Most of us know this, we believe this, and yet, when it comes time to trust in this, it is really hard.  We like things comfortable, we like things to stay the same.  When we are praying we may say that we want this job if it is according to God’s will and yet we really mean we really want the job because we want it.  We want to want what God wants, and yet we don’t want to give up on what we want.  We have all heard the phrase when one door closes another one opens.  But, what do we do while we wait for that other door to open?  What if it doesn’t open for a few months or a year.  We have a sister Katie that was a member here and moved away.  She has been looking for a job for a very long time and I don’t know if she has found one yet or not.  How do we continue to trust that the Lord has amazing things planned for us when we have been waiting so long?  

There is an article that I will put a link to in the show notes titled When God’s Timing is Taking Too Long by Joyce Meyers. (CLICK HERE for article) This articles talks about how God uses this waiting period to stretch our faith in Him and to bring about change and growth in our lives.  Joyce outlines 4 ways to make this waiting time easier.  First, she talks about Waiting with Patience.  You will be waiting anyway, so do you want to be miserable while you wait, or do you want to try and enjoy the wait.  Patience is a virtue and it is also a fruit of the Spirit. It is developed under trial, so we can’t avoid difficult circumstances if we want to grow in patience.  This is why people say not to pray for more patience, because as soon as you do you will find yourself stuck in a situation that helps your develop more patience, like sitting in traffic.  

The second thing is to Accept God’s Timing.  This is not easy, but it is necessary.  Joyce states that although it is frustrating, not knowing God’s time might be the thing that keeps us in the game.  If we knew how long it would take, we might give up.  Do you think the Israelites would have left Egypt if they knew they were going to wander in the desert for 40 years?  Joyce said, “We know that God's plan for our lives is good, and when we entrust ourselves to Him, we can experience total peace and happiness.”  The third things she talks about is Learning to Rely on God.  Proverbs 16:9 says, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps” and Proverbs 20:24 says “Man's steps are ordered by the Lord. How then can a man understand his way?”  We don’t always understand the way that God is leading us.  It doesn’t always make sense to us and if we try to understand we can struggle and get confused and frustrated.  A better way is described in Proverbs 3:5-6, “Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.” We try to figure everything out ourselves.  Sometime, often times, we need to just lean in and trust that God has got this.  He has always taken care of us in the past and He will continue to do so.  

The last thing that Joyce talks about is From Seedtime to Harvest Time.   Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us: To everything there is a season, and a time for every matter or purpose under heaven.  We will not all be in the same season at the same time.  We don’t need to be jealous if we see someone else enjoying harvest while we are still planting.  We all go through these different seasons.  They went through a season of planting before their harvest and you will go through a season of harvest too.  There was a lot more detail in this article so I hope you will take some time to read the whole article.  God is in control, we don’t have to understand it all, we just need to learn to trust and to have patience while we wait.  Our lives are like a mystery unfolding before our very eyes.  Who doesn’t like a mystery?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we love you and we know that you want what is best for us.  Help us to be patient and joyfully wait for your timing.  Help us to loosen our grip on the things we want and accept when you have something better planned for us.  Lord, help us to see that if you are closing one door, you are opening a better door.  Help us seek out growth in our relationship with you Lord.  Help us to not avoid difficult situations but instead enter into them knowing you are with us and you are leading us to growth.  We are so grateful for all you do for us.  We love you Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I wanted to let you know about a change I am making to this podcast starting next week.  At the beginning of March I am going to start having “Witness Wednesdays.”  We have all experienced God working in our lives.  We need to talk about those experiences more.  We need to share them with others.  These miracles can be used for the Glory of God, but only if we share them.  We all have a story.  Actually, we all probably have a lot of stories.  I am helping to lead a Life in the Spirit Seminar and each week someone gives a witness of how God has worked in their lives.  Seeing these each week has helped me realize that we all need to be talking about when we have witnessed God in our lives.  So, each Wednesday, instead of a regular episode, the episode will be about someone’s witness statement about how God is working in their lives.  If you would like to give me your witness, I would love to record it.  You can email me at [email protected] I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow!  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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God Is At Work In You

Philippians 2:13-16 “For it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

This is an excellent thing to think about and to remember.  It is God who is at work in us, enabling us to both will and to work for His good pleasure  God is the reason we are able to do all things.  Sometimes we fall short of our expectations for ourselves.  Actually often times we fall short of our expectations for ourselves.  When it comes to the Lord, we set high expectations for ourselves.  We want to serve Him, please Him, trust Him.  We want to do all things for Him and we want to do them perfectly.  He is our Father, or course we want to please Him.  This isn’t a bad thing.  It is good that we are striving to do things correctly, the way He wants us to.  It is good if we are striving for Holiness.  He wants us to strive for this and it makes Him happy when we are trying to live the way He asked us to.  All these things are good things.

Where I think we get it wrong is when we think that we have to be perfect.  When we think that God is looking for perfection and that we are letting Him down if we do anything less than our best.  I don’t think that we fall short of the Lord’s expectations.  He knows us better than we know ourselves.  He knew us completely before we were even born.  He knows what we have been through over the years.  He knows what we have done over the years.  He knows everything about it.  He knows what we are capable of giving and what we just can’t give Him right now.  He knows where we are at emotionally and what is in our heart.  You know how you have that one friend?  The one that has been there for you through it all.  The one that has seen you at your best and at your worst.  The one that loves you not in spite of it all, but because of it all.  Do you have a friend like that?  If you had to pick one person that knew you better than anyone else, who would it be.  Know think about how well that person knows you.  God knows you better than even that friend.  God knows you more intimately than you can even imagine.  He has literally been there every second of you life.  He has never left your side.  Even when you tried to walk away, he stayed with you. Even when you said you wanted to be left alone, he was there with you.

Sometimes we have unrealistic expectations for ourselves and even for those we love sometimes.  We expect people to be a certain way and to do certain things and then when they don’t we are disappointed in them.  This is a normal human experience.   We think because we are disappointed with ourselves, then God must be disappointed with us also.  I don’t know if this is true.  The definition of disappointment is sadness or displeasure caused by the nonfulfillment of one's hopes or expectations.  I think if God knows us and He knows where we are at, then I don’t think He sets unrealistic expectations for us.  I think He only expects from us what we are capable of giving Him.  He may get angry sometimes when we don’t live as He has asked us to live, but I think he expects that from us, because He knows us and He knows human nature. We are only disappointed when people do things that we didn’t think they would do.  

How does knowing this help us? When I remember this, it releases the pressure to be perfect.  It allows me to make mistakes and know that God is merciful and that He is not disappointed in me.  Disappointed is such a loaded word.  I don’t know if always was, or it this is a new.  However, if someone says they are disappointed with you, it hurts more than other things.  For instance, no one wants to hear their parent say, “I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed.”  That is the worst, we would rather they be made at us.  I don’t know why this is, I just know it’s true.  We don’t want to let anyone down, especially God.  

In the verse above it says that God is at work in us.  Did you know this?  We have all heard that God is always with us, He never leaves us, but did you know that He was at work in you?  Did you know that He is enabling you to will and to work for his good pleasure?  This means He is the reason that you want to please Him.  He makes it possible for you to want to please Him.  He empowers you to work for His good.  

If you feel like you are not doing enough for the Lord, ask Him to help you do more.  If you feel as though you don’t desire Him enough, ask Him for more.  If you feel you are falling short in any way, ask the Lord for more.  The Lord gives us all we need to do what He wants us to do.  We might feel as though we will let him down because we don’t have what it takes to do what He is asking us to do.  Let me reassure you, if He is asking you to do it, the He has given you all you need to do it.  He would’t ask you to do something without equipping you for the call.  

The other day, my mentor, felt God was calling her to talk about a very sensitive subject on her podcast.  She felt a calling to talk about suicide and how we need to take that option off the table.  She did not feel equipped to talk about that.  She is not a counselor, she is not a doctor or a psychologist, she has not formal training in that area.  And yet, God was calling her.  She resisted for days, because that is what we do when we don’t feel qualified.  We pretend we don’t hear the Lord, or we tell Him we can’t possibly do it.  We tell Him He has the wrong person.  Imagine that, telling God He has the wrong person, like we know better than he does.  And yet we have all done it.  Finally my mentor did the episode that God asked her to do.  It was great and it was much needed as so many of our young people are taking their lives these days.  God gave her the words she needed to get His message out to all of her listeners.  He always gives us what we need.  We just need to step forward with faith that He has given us what we need.  The Lord is working in you.  What are you holding back from doing because you don’t feel equipped?  Where in your life can you step out in faith trusting that if He called you He will equip you?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those that are listening to this episode today.  Lord, we love you so much and we are so grateful for all that you do for us.  We are grateful that you are at work in us and that you equip us for all that you call us to do.  Lord, we apologize for all the times that we have said no when you have called us.  We were scared and we ask that you give us a holy boldness so that we are never scared again.  Lord, we ask that you help us to step out in faith and trust that if you call us then you have equipped us.  Lord, thank you for loving us so well.  Thank you for enabling us to will and to work for your good pleasure.  You are amazing and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I wanted to let you know about a change I am making to this podcast starting next week.  At the beginning of March I am going to start having “Witness Wednesdays.”  We have all experienced God working in our lives.  We need to talk about those experiences more.  We need to share them with others.  These miracles can be used for the Glory of God, but only if we share them.  We all have a story.  Actually, we all probably have a lot of stories.  I am helping to lead a Life in the Spirit Seminar and each week someone gives a witness of how God has worked in their lives.  Seeing these each week has helped me realize that we all need to be talking about when we have witnessed God in our lives.  So, each Wednesday, instead of a regular episode, the episode will be about someone’s witness statement about how God is working in their lives.  If you would like to give me your witness, I would love to record it.  You can email me at [email protected] I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow!  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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