Walk Boldly With Jesus

Today, I want to witness about Christmas. This year my sister Dee moved back to CT and bought a new house. She had a Christmas Eve party because my aunt used to have one each year, but she is now moving to FL. I went to Dee’s house on Christmas Eve alone as my family wanted to chill out at home. Well, Sam & Noah were both working. It was great to see my parents, Dee, my sister Suzy & her husband John, two of her boys and her granddaughter, and then my sister Theresa and her husband Glenn. We ate dinner together and talked. Some played games. It was a really great time.

Then, when I got home, Sam & Noah were in the kitchen talking, and then Ryan came down. The boys and I stayed in the kitchen talking for over 2 hours. This in itself is a Christmas miracle as they are teenagers, and so they don’t love talking to their parents. We talked about all kinds of things, and it was so great. Of course, sometimes they were arguing, which I didn’t love, but it was awesome to see them interacting with each other. I feel like 2024 is going to be a great year. I think they are starting to come out of their rooms a bit more. They are starting to talk a bit more and hang out with friends a bit more. I am really looking forward to this upcoming year. Noah is a senior and is planning to go far away for college in the fall, so I am hoping to get to spend some good family time with him before he leaves.

On Christmas day we always go the Duggan’s house. The Desilets, my family, always celebrate on a different day, so we are lucky, and we don't have to alternate. I like that we get to do the same thing each year. I love that we get to see his entire family. His brother and wife, their two girls, my mother and father-in-law, and Tony’s aunt. Usually, when we go, our boys are on their computers, and their cousins are, too. Occasionally, we will play a game or two, but I would say the majority of years, we just hang out. It is nice to get a chance to catch up. They don’t live far away, but we don’t really see them too much. They have kids, we have kids, they work, we work. Life gets busy, and we don’t schedule time to visit.

It’s funny because when we lived in NJ when the boys were younger, we saw them a lot more. We would come up for all the holidays, and so they would come up and visit as well. It has been dawning on me more and more lately that we saw family more when we lived further away than we do now. We are only one and a half hours from Tony’s parent’s house and an hour and 10 minutes from my family, and yet we don’t see them that much. This is something I will change in the New Year as family is important. You never know when the last time you will see someone is.

Regret is something that is difficult to live with. I try to live my life so that I don’t have any regrets later. We can’t ensure this, but we can do our best to live in a way that we will be proud of later. I don’t want to wish I would have spent more time with people when they were alive. I want to actually spend more time with people when they are alive. This is something we can all work on. Do you have people you are unhappy with? Are you waiting for someone else to make the first step or the next move? Don’t wait on others. If someone is hurting you, let them know. What have you got to lose? If they don’t respond well, at least you gave it a try.

We only have one life, and I, for one, do not want to have regrets. Make amends, say the thing you have been wanting to say, and forgive the person you are angry with; you might not get the chance later. I know you may be waiting for them to do the right thing, but what if they never do? Are you ok with things never being said? What if you just confronted them? What if you just said you wanted to get past this? What if you said the thing that hurt you?

Ok, back to Christmas this year. I just want to thank God for it because it was really great. We had to wake our boys up because they are teens, and so they sleep late. I asked the night before, and they agreed to get up at 10. We didn’t actually know what to get the boys this year for Christmas as they didn’t give us too many ideas. We got them some practical gifts, and we weren’t sure how that would go over. They all had a great time opening the gifts, and they all seemed not only happy but appreciative, which you don’t always get with kids. Or at least we don’t always get it. Then we asked if we could change plans and leave earlier than we agreed, and no one got upset. They were all ok with it.

I had bought myself and the boys matching pajamas so we could do a family photo. They were all okay with it, and we wore the pajamas all day. When we got to the Duggan’s house, I realized none of the boys had brought their computers. They were sitting around the table, talking and playing on their phones. I asked if they wanted to play a card game, and they all said yes. So Joanie, the boys, and I all played Monopoly Deal. Then, when Tony’s brother and family arrived, we had dinner. It was great that even those who weren’t eating were sitting at the table. Everyone seemed to be engaged in good conversations and having a good time. After dinner, the kids opened presents and were really happy with all they received. Tony’s mom, Joanie, played piano, and then later Kaylee, his niece, also played piano. It was a great day.  I hope you had an amazing Christmas too!

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Help! My Heart And Mind Are Fighting Each Other!

Psalm 25:16-17 “Look at me and help me! I’m all alone and in big trouble. My heart and mind are fighting each other; Call a truce to this civil war.”

Today, it was hard to pick a verse. I thought I would be writing about Isaiah 35, as my friend wrote to me last week and asked me if I take requests for the podcast. She had read Isaiah 35, and it was really hitting her. She was feeling all the feels, and she wanted to see what I thought about that chapter. I was honored as that was the first time someone had asked me what I thought of a passage in the Bible. When I looked at the chapter, I realized I had already done an episode on that chapter, so I sent it to her. It was episode number 611, “A Way Through The Wilderness,” in case you wanted to check it out. After that, I tried to find a verse for today, and I was struggling. I think I am tired from the holidays. This reminds me, I hope you all had a very merry Christmas! I got to spend the day with family, so that is always nice. My kids were not on their computers, and they were talking to everyone. They even played a game of Monopoly Deal with me before their cousins got there. It was a great day!

Today’s verse reminds us that we can turn to the Lord when we are in trouble, even when we are in big trouble. This is important to remember, and I don’t think we can ever say it enough. Nothing is too big for God. There is nothing in this world that He can’t fix for us. There are all sorts of reasons why we may not turn to Him and ask for help when we are in big trouble. We don’t see how He could help. We don’t want to bother Him. We don’t feel we deserve His help, and so on. I am sure you have thought up very good reasons why you shouldn’t go to the Lord for help when you are in big trouble. One that just popped into my mind is, “I got myself into this mess; I need to get myself out.” This is definitely a human way of thinking, but it is not how God thinks. He has gotten us out of plenty of messes that we got ourselves into.

When we get ourselves into big trouble, all we have to do is be humble and turn back to the Lord. Repent and admit what we have done. Ask for His help, and He will help you. I feel as though I can’t stress this enough. God wants us to ask for help when we need it. Yes, I know He knows when we need help, probably even before we do, and yet He is a perfect Father, and He respects our free will. If we don’t want Him to step in, if we want to do it all ourselves, He will allow us to do that, even if it hurts his heart to watch us struggle. When in trouble, stop and ask the Lord for help. His plan will be much better than any plan we can come up with on our own!

I also liked this verse because of the next line, “My heart and mind are fighting with each other; Call a truce to this civil war.” Has this ever happened to you? It happens to me all the time. My heart wants to do something, and my brain convinces me that I don’t really want to do it, and then they fight over it. It is frustrating because I know what the right thing to do is, and yet my brain tries to convince me to do the opposite. I think the voice of God is in my heart, and yet, at times, the enemy tries to invade my brain, so they argue. I wish I could say I always chose the right thing to do, but that is not always the case. Sometimes I lose out to slothfulness and gluttony. This past year or two, I feel like they have won more than I care to talk about.

What do we do when this happens? What do we do when our hearts and our minds are fighting with each other? When this happens, we can turn to the Lord, just as it says in this verse. We can ask the Lord to call a truce. We can ask the Lord to give us the wisdom to know what we should do and the courage to do what is right. Our brains our trying to keep us comfortable so when we try to do uncomfortable things, our brains complain and try to convince us that we don’t want to do the uncomfortable thing. The problem with this is that we won’t grow if we don’t ever do something that is uncomfortable. We grow when we are outside of our comfort zone.

This is true with all things, not just our jobs. When we step outside our comfort zone and try something new with our spirituality or our prayer life, we grow closer to the Lord. When we step outside our comfort zone and try something new with our families, it can help us grow closer. Our brain is not bad; it is trying to save us from uncomfortable feelings. It is trying to help us. However, we all know what happens when we are saved from all uncomfortable feelings. Have you ever seen a child who was protected from all uncomfortable things? Actually, I feel as though I have been doing this to my kids recently.

The kids had a pretty challenging childhood. Mostly because of their behaviors, but that doesn’t change the fact that it was rough. They were very unkind to each other, and it took a long time for Tony and I to figure out how to parent them in an effective way. So, I would try to shield them from uncomfortable situations because I felt like they had enough to go through. However, doing this robbed them of building up the resiliency and tenacity that comes along with doing uncomfortable things. I now have two young adults and a 15-year-old, and in some ways, they are so resilient. Then there are all the things they struggle with because I was trying to protect them from the pain.

The same will be true with you and me if we continue to let our brains tell our hearts what to do. That still small voice in our hearts is our the Holy Spirit. We need to start listening to that voice more than the louder voice in our minds. The voice that, although it is trying to protect us, does not really know what we need.  We need to pray for the strength and courage to listen to and follow our hearts more. We need to pray that the Lord will help us with discernment. We need to pray that the Lord opens our ears to hear what our hearts are telling us to do. We need to ask the Lord to call a truce!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening and their families. Lord, help us to listen to your voice in our hearts. Help us to do what is right, what is necessary, not what is comfortable. Lord, we pray you give us the gifts of discernment, courage, & strength so that we can do the things you want us to do. We love you, Lord, and we ask that you call a truce and help bring our hearts and our minds into one with your will. We ask you all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I wanted to remind everyone that my new mentoring program is kicking off one week from today!! I am so excited. I hope you will check out the information on my website and join me. We all spend so much time and energy trying to eat better and look better, but how much time are we investing into our relationship with the Lord and making sure we are right in His eyes? I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My children, I have a mission for you. My mission is to love. Every person that you meet today and every day of your life they are sent to you for you to pour my love out upon them. Forgive them, have mercy on them, and do not judge them. I love them, and I want you to love them too.”

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God Claims All Who Were Rejected!

Romans 9:25-26 “Remember the prophecy God gave in Hosea: “To those who were rejected and not my people, I will say to them: ‘You are mine.’ And to those who were unloved, I will say: ‘You are my darling.’ And: “In the place where they were told, ‘You are nobody,’ this will be the very place where they will be renamed ‘Children of the living God.’”

Today I was going to go back to the end of Romans 8 and talk about God’s love again. I love to talk about God’s love because love, true love, is lacking in this world. Instead, the world is filled with anger and hatred. However, when I went to flip the page to read the end of Romans 8, I flipped two pages instead, and my eyes landed on Romans 9:25-26, and it really spoke to my heart. Christmas is definitely a time to celebrate. God sent his only son to come to earth for us. This shows just how much He loves us. Mary said yes, that shows just how much she loves God. Joseph said yet too. There is a lot to celebrate.

However, not everyone is celebrating this Christmas season. As joyful as holidays are for many people, there are also plenty of people who are sad and depressed at holidays. This can be for many reasons. First, if you have lost someone you love, the holidays can be really hard because you don’t have that person to celebrate with anymore. You remember all the things you used to do together and this year you can’t do that with them. It is sad to have to come up with new holiday traditions or to do the old ones without those people.

Others are sad because they don’t have anyone to share the holiday with. It could be that they are single, and their family does not live close by. It could be a college student who can’t afford to go home for the holidays. It could be they have no living relatives. They may be in a nursing home, and no one comes to visit. It might be that they are living on the streets and no longer talk to their family. Whatever the reason is, holidays are a difficult time to be alone. Even if you are happy you no longer talk with your family, the holidays can still be a tough time because of all the past memories.

Also, it can be a really sad time for kids who don’t have families. Whether they were taken away from their family for safety reasons and placed with a different family, or they grew up in an orphanage and never really had a family. The image that is in my mind is of children waiting for Santa to come, and he doesn’t. The song, in my mind, is from the movie “Annie,” and the line is, “Santa Clause we never see. Santa Clause…what’s that? who’s he?” Some kids don’t like Christmas because it is another reminder that they don’t have a family to celebrate with. It reminds them that another year has gone by without getting adopted or without moving back home with their parents.

Holidays can be hard for so many people for so many reasons. It can leave people feeling alone, and many probably feel rejected. They feel rejected because they have no one to celebrate the holidays with. I think this is why I was drawn to this verse. It says, “To those who were rejected and not my people, I will say to them: ‘You are mine.’ And to those who were unloved, I will say: ‘You are my darling.’” I mean, how amazing is that? God is claiming all those who are rejected. He is not saying all of you who are perfect are mine. He is not saying once you clean yourself up, then you can come to me, and you will be mine. He is saying those who are rejected are His.

For all of us who feel rejected and feel like we have no one who cares about us, God cares. The Holy Spirit keeps bringing an image up in my mind of all those who live on the streets. I feel as though He is saying, yes, those are mine. All those who have been rejected from society, yes, they are mine. All those who have been rejected from the church, yes, those are mine. All those children who have been rejected by countless parents looking to adopt, yes, they are mine. All those people who have been rejected by their loved ones, you are mine. God doesn’t just say, you are mine; he also says, “You are my darling.” How intimate is that? God doesn’t just call you into His family and then ignore you or treat you like you are just one of the many. He calls you darling.

The next part also really hit me right in the heart. It says, “In the place where they were told, ‘You are nobody,’ this will be the very place where they will be renamed ‘Children of the living God.’” Man, that’s good. I feel like this speaks to a lot of people. I bet we all know someone who doesn’t feel good enough. I bet we all know someone who feels like they are a nobody. Maybe it is us? Maybe we were told this by someone over the years. They might not have come right out and said it, yet their actions, their body language, or their attitude made it clear that is what they thought of you. This actually brings up something I feel I should say: we need to be careful how we treat people. When you walk by a homeless person on the street, avoiding eye contact and pretending they are not even there, this can make them feel like they are a nobody. You don’t have to give them money, but you can look them in the eyes and say hello. You can ask how their day is going. You can ask if they need a prayer for anything.

There is a woman named Mary who attended the Life in the Spirit seminar we hosted in the fall. She gave a testimony about how she was approached by someone outside the grocery store asking her for some money. She said she didn’t have any money to give but asked if she could pray for them. She asked what they needed prayers for, and they said they needed a place to live. So she prayed with them, and the person who approached her was so happy. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 25:40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” Those we just pass by, those we treat as if they are nobody; they are all God’s children. God is saying in the verse above, “This will be the place they are named Children of the living God.”

If you are feeling rejected this Christmas season, if you are feeling like you are not important to others, if you are feeling like no one cares, please know that God cares. God is calling you to Him. He is saying, You are Mine. He is saying you are His darling. In that very place where someone said you were nobody, he is saying you are not nobody; you are a child of the living God. God is claiming you this day and every day. I feel as if this is speaking to someone in particular today. Someone who has been feeling rejected. Someone who has been feeling they are not enough. Someone has been feeling like no one cares. God cares! You are his darling child.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those who listen to this today. Lord, I pray that whoever needs this message, hears this message today. I pray that each of your children feels loved during this Christmas season. I pray they can feel your love, even if no one else is loving them. Lord, your love is enough! We love you, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I pray each and every one of you has an amazing Christmas. I pray right alongside you for anyone who is praying for a Christmas miracle this year. If you want to reach out and share it with me, I will pray specifically for your Christmas miracle. [email protected] If not, I will still be praying that your miracle comes true because God knows which is your miracle. I want to take a second to say thank you to everyone listening. Your support means so much to me. I will not be posting an episode on Monday as I will be celebrating Christmas with my family, and I hope you will all be enjoying Christmas as well. I look forward to meeting you here again on Tuesday. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed weekend and a very Merry Christmas!

The Word of the Lord for today is: “Peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let it be afraid. My children, let nothing steal the peace I have given you as my last enduring gift. It will sustain you in trouble. My power and love are in this permeating shalom. Peace is your strong protection.”


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The Power of a Prayer Journal

For Christmas, in 2005, my uncle Jeano gave me a notebook. Inside the notebook was a letter from him that explained all about spiritual journaling/prayer journaling. I had never done prayer journaling before, and my first thought was that it was for people who were holier than me. I am sure you can start to see this recurring theme in my thoughts. I tend to feel like I am not holy enough to do all these different things. I am not sure why it took so long to realize these ideas could be a path to becoming more holy. In the letter, my uncle listed four benefits of prayer journaling. These are: 

1. Deepening your relationship with God.
2. Helping you to see God really does answer your prayers as you look back and see it in your own writing time after time.
3. Increasing your confidence (in God) as you take things to Him in your journal.
4. Having someone to go to and unload on, anytime, anywhere, who can truly “handle it.”

All of that sounded amazing. I was always looking for some way to deepen my relationship with God. “What if I do it wrong?” “What if I say the wrong thing?” These questions popped into my head. I decided to try it anyway. What is the worst that can happen, right? I made my first entry on January 11, 2006. This is how I began my first entry, “I’ve written in a journal before, but not regularly, and not a prayer journal. I don’t know if there are certain rules, but I will just write what I am thinking. I am sure I will get better and more focused with practice.” Then I started to write about my day. That first day I wrote four pages in my new journal. I was so excited to start this new practice and I felt great afterwards.

I would love to say that from that day on I spent 10-20 minutes a day writing to God in that journal. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I just took out that journal to check how often I wrote in it, as I remembered it wasn’t often. It turns out after that first entry, on January 11, 2006, my next entry is on June 4, 2010. What?! I did not write in my prayer journal again for another 4 years. In case you had any illusions that I have it all figured out and this spiritual stuff came easier to me, I don’t and it didn’t. I wrote in my journal for a few days in June and then not again until September. Then it was once in September, once in October, and once in December. Just to give you an idea of how inconsistent my journaling was, my journal had 44 pages and it took me until June 2017 to fill it.

In Spring of 2017 I attended a retreat sponsored by the Military Council of Catholic Women (MCCW). I am not sure exactly what was said at this retreat to give me this conviction, but I came home from the retreat with the conviction that I needed to turn to God for help with my family issues. I struggled with parenting our three boys, as they were very strong willed, and Tony and I could not seem to get on the same page. Our marriage was also struggling.

I had read almost every parenting book out there, as well as many marriage books. A thought came to me at the retreat, that I was looking everywhere but to God for answers. I wrestled with this thought because I had been praying to him all along the way. What I heard in response to my question was I was spending more time trying to come up with my own answers than I was spending time trying to hear God’s answers to my prayers. Wow, that was not what I was expecting to hear.

When I got home from this retreat, I made a resolution to get up before the kids each morning and write in my prayer journal. Write to Him and let Him know all that was going on in my life. I know that He already knows what is going on, but it’s nice when we make time to talk with Him about it. You may know that your child went outside to play on the playground, but wouldn’t you still love to hear them explain what they did out there in their own words?

Talk to God about your day, your wins, your struggles, and anything else you want to talk to him about. I believe it makes God happy when we make time to talk with Him. He is our Father, and He wants to talk with His children. I got up almost every morning after that retreat and wrote in a journal. I talked about my day and what things were going on in our family. I thanked God for whatever I could and I asked for help in the areas I needed help in. I was so thankful I was able to have the discipline to get up early each morning and do this. It was such a change from my past attempts, from June 2017-Sept. 2017 I filled a whole journal.

I felt a great sense of peace while I was writing in the journal daily. I did feel my relationship with God deepening. It is similar to having a best friend you can talk to every day. I have heard from many sources that writing is good for your soul. Think how much better for your soul it is when you are writing to your heavenly father.

There are many different techniques to prayer journal and I have tried a few different ones. While writing this chapter I looked back at some of my journals and was reminded of the different formats I have used. There is no right or wrong way to start a prayer journal. You can just get a notebook and start writing. I hope you do that. My wish for you is to get a notebook, any notebook and just start writing. The only reason I am writing this part is because I know I like to have directions. I like to have an example of at least one way someone else did it so I can get started. If I am just told to do something without an example, sometimes I get stuck trying to decide how to start and I never start.

The first type of journaling I did was just writing whatever came to my mind. I would write as if I was talking to someone sitting next to me. I would write about my day, or what I did the day before. I would write about what I had coming up that day or anything I needed prayers for. I would also list any prayer requests I had received from others.

If I happened to be struggling with anything, and let’s be real, I always was, then I would talk about that and ask for God’s help. I would ask for His wisdom in a certain circumstance, or His patience, or strength to make it through. Whatever I felt I needed on that particular day, or in that particular circumstance. Sometimes I would write for a few pages, and sometimes I would fall asleep after writing a paragraph. It doesn’t matter. I truly believe that God loves our desire for holiness and He loves any attempt at trying to grow closer to him.

The next type of journaling I learned from Dynamic Catholic. I have received it on a prayer card with most of my orders. Also, the description is in the book, The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic by Matthew Kelly. Here is the prayer process from Dynamic Catholic:

Gratitude: Begin by thanking God in a personal dialogue for whatever you are most grateful for today.

Awareness: Revisit the times in the past twenty-four hours when you were and were not the-best-version-of-yourself. Talk to God about these situations and what you learned from them.

Significant Moments: Identify something you experienced today and explore what God might be trying to say to you through that event (or person).

Peace: Ask God to forgive you for any wrong you have committed (against yourself, another person, or Him) and to fill you with a deep and abiding peace.

Freedom: Speak with God about how He is inviting you to change your life, so that you can experience the freedom to be the-best-version-of-yourself.

Others: Lift up to God anyone you can feel called to pray for today, asking God to bless and guide them.

Finish by praying the Our Father.

I would look at my day and go through these 6 steps in my journal. Sometimes, it would just be a sentence for each one; sometimes, it would be longer. I think it is important to note that in step two, it says to notice where you were and were not the best version of yourself. I think when we look back over our day, it may be easy to think about all the times we might have missed the mark. Especially if we are a spouse or parent, we can usually see all the places throughout the day when we could have been better. Maybe we yelled at our children or lost our temper with our spouse. I think it’s important to examine these and see how we might be able to respond better next time.

However, I feel it is just as important to look at the things we did right today. How many times did we want to yell, but didn’t? Did we go outside and play with our child even though we really wanted to stay inside and read a book? If we only focus on the negative we may start to feel like all we do is mess up. However, when we are also looking at the things we did right we see we are not the terrible person we thought we were. If we know we are doing some things right, we can try to increase the number of times we get it right and decrease the number of times we get it wrong.

A third type of journaling I did came from the book called Consoling the Heart of Jesus by Father Michael E. Gaitley.1 He presented this method as an Examination of Conscience. I went through these steps before bed, and I wrote them in my journal during this period of journaling. You would begin by putting yourself in the presence of God. Then follow the steps in the acronym B. A. K. E. R.

B = Blessings. Spend the most time here, praising and thanking God for the blessing of the day.

A = Ask. Ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten you, so you can recognize your sins. 

K = Kill. It was our sins that killed and crucified Jesus. Search for commissions and omissions. (This means what did you do that you shouldn’t have done and what didn’t you do that you should have done.)

E = Embrace. Be sorry for sin and allow Jesus to embrace you with rays of his mercy. 

R = Resolution. Look ahead to the next day, anticipating potential pitfalls and opportunities.

I would think about each step and write the things that came to mind. I would think about all of my blessings for that day, all the things I had to be grateful for, and I would write them down. (B) Then I would write in my journal (although you could just say it), “Holy Spirit, come down and show me my sins,” or “Holy Spirit, show me all the ways I have sinned today.” (A) Then I would write down anything that comes to mind. (K) For the next step, I would tell God I was sorry for my sins and ask Him for His help to keep me from sinning again. (E). Next, I would picture God’s rays of mercy shining down on me. Finally, I would think about the following day and write down one thing I could do to help it go more smoothly and to be a better version of myself. Just that intentional few minutes of planning I found to be very helpful.

Another way a lot of people use their prayer journal is to read a Bible verse or chapter and then talk to God in their journal about what the verse said to them. They explain what it meant to them or what they thought of when they read it. Maybe you could relate that scripture to whatever you are going through on that particular day. I think you would be surprised how the same scripture verse can speak to you differently depending on what you are experiencing at the time. You could also read a daily devotional, you don’t have to buy a book, they have some online. After you read the daily devotional, you could write your reactions to it in your journal. Also, some devotionals have questions at the end of them. You could answer these during your journaling time.

Hopefully, these examples show you that there are many different ways to do your prayer journaling. I have used many of them at one time or another. Currently, I am writing a letter to God each day. I begin the letter with “Hi Dad,” “Good Morning, Father,” or some variation of this. I did not feel comfortable when I started referring to God as Dad, as it felt informal and even disrespectful. However, He is our Dad, and I believe He longs for a deep and intimate relationship with us, so I have grown comfortable with addressing my letters in this manner. You may not, and again that is great. We are all on our own journey. No two journeys will be the same. God made us perfectly equipped for our own journey. You know what you feel comfortable with and what you don’t. He loves you because you are you, not because you are trying to be like someone else. Just be yourself, write from the heart, and I bet He will love it!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, I ask that you bless their families, especially during the holiday season. I ask that you help us to remember the reason for the season. Let our focus not get distracted by all the business. Let us remember why we have Christmas and what we are really celebrating. I 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 enjoyed listening to the chapter of my book today. I will place a link in the show notes in case you want to buy a copy. Click Here to get your autographed copy. You can also go on Amazon. If you click on the link below or go to my website, walkboldlywithjesus.com, you can get an autographed copy. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day! 

Today’s word from the Lord is, “Seek me at all times. The more you seek me, the more I will enlighten you and guide you in ways that you never thought possible. Be my light to the world. Reflect in everything that you do that you are mine."

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We have all seen God working in our lives, however, we might not all be aware it is God who is working in our lives.  This is why it is so important we start talking about it more.  The more we share our experiences, the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us.  If you would be willing to share any experience you have had of how God has worked or is working your life, please email me at [email protected] or just click here.  It won’t take up much of your time, and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today.  Prayerfully consider sharing.  Everyone has a story, and the world needs to hear them.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow, and I will have another witness for you next Wednesday.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I. Have a blessed day! 

Thank you so much, Cat, for sharing your witness. Isn’t that an amazing testimony? She has overcome so much, and I love that she can look back and see Jesus all over her life, even before she knew who Jesus was or that it was Jesus. I think it is awesome that God has called her to speak light and love into the lives of all those who are still suffering, as well as those who are in the struggle of recovery. It amazes me when I think that she has only known Jesus since 2017 because she has a trust in Him that you don’t see often. I hope you will check out her podcast. I will put a link for it in the show notes as well as her email address. If you are struggling with an addiction or you are in recovery, if you want some prayer and someone to walk with you, reach out to Catherine. Her email again is [email protected]. Thanks again, Catherine, for sharing your testimony! I hope you will join us again with another story of how the Lord is working in your life. He is clearly working powerfully in your life! 

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Nothing In This Universe Has The Power To Diminish God's Love Towards Us!

Romans 8:35 “Who could ever divorce us from the endless love of God’s Anointed One? Absolutely no one! For nothing in the universe has the power to diminish his love toward us. Troubles, pressures, and problems are unable to come between us and heaven’s love. What about persecutions, deprivations, dangers, and death threats? No, for they are all impotent to hinder omnipotent love.”

This is the passion translation again. I decided this morning to just open it and read some of it and see what jumped out at me. I really liked all of chapter 8, but I thought it best to limit it to a verse or two. I will probably stay in chapter 8 for at least one more episode. It was tough to decide between this verse and the verses at the end of this section. This section in Chapter 8 is called “The Triumph of God’s Love.” Can you tell just by the title why I loved all of it? The end of this section was similar to this verse, yet it said it in a different way that was equally compelling. I will probably use those verses on Thursday or Friday, so stay tuned.

I decided on this verse today because it drives home something that I try to help people see. Something I wish everyone in the world knew down deep in the depths of their hearts. God loves us ALWAYS, NO MATTER WHAT WE DO! The verse starts by asking us a question. “Who could ever divorce us from the endless love of God’s Anointed One?” I like that it uses the word divorce as that is a word where, unfortunately, everyone knows the meaning. The verse answers that question with an, “Absolutely no one!” There is so much in that one sentence. That one sentence tells us that no one could ever divorce us from Jesus’ love. Divorce means to separate something from something else. The verse is saying no one can separate us from the endless love of God’s Anointed One. This tells us that the love is endless. It is not fickle like human love. It doesn’t come and go with the changing of the winds or the changing of our moods. God’s love is endless.

The next line says, “For nothing in the universe has the power to diminish his love toward us. Troubles, pressures, and problems are unable to come between us and heaven’s love.” The first part was saying no one could come between us; now this verse is saying nothing can come between us. We might agree that no person could come between us and God, and yet we struggle to believe that nothing can come between us. We think our failures make it so God can’t love us. We think our sins make it so God can’t love us. This verse shows us that NOTHING in this universe has the power to diminish His love towards us.

It even says that troubles, pressures, and problems are unable to come between us and heaven’s love. I think it is really important to know this because what it doesn’t say in this verse is no one, and nothing will try to come in between us and heaven’s love. You will find plenty of people that want to come between you and heaven’s love. You will find plenty of things that the devil will use to try to come between you and heaven’s love. If we know that these things aren’t strong enough to block God’s love for us, then we won’t worry so much. We won’t pay them so much attention. The enemy tries to convince us that every little thing we do makes us unworthy of God’s love. He tries to convince us that God could never love us; look at all we have done. This is why it is important to read God’s Word. It is important to know what the Lord is actually saying to us so we can stand up to the enemy and know when He is lying, which by the way, is always!

The last line in this verse says, “What about persecutions, deprivations, dangers, and death threats? No, for they are all impotent to hinder omnipotent love.” This last part is interesting. You might think, why would these things hinder God’s love? I am not doing them; they are being done to me. For instance, persecution is hostility and ill-treatment, especially on the basis of ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or political beliefs. Why would someone being hostile to me get in the way of God’s love? The reason we think this is because of the things they say to us. Their primary purpose is to make us feel like we are not good enough. They want us to think God could never love us. This verse confirms that even if we might feel far from God because of deprivations, dangers, and death threats, He is still right there with us, and He is loving us no matter what.

I love the language the last line uses. It says that all these tactics the enemy uses are impotent to hinder God’s love. Impotent means unable to take effective action; helpless or powerless. I love to think about how powerless the enemy and His tactics are to separate us from God’s love. The only thing is, we have to know this, we have to believe this, and we have to live this. If we don’t know this, then we will believe the enemy's lies, and we will think we are unloved. We will feel like we are unloved. When we believe the lie, we empower the liar. The enemy is convincing many people that the Lord couldn’t possibly love them. We have to get His word out. We have to share what we know, which is that the Lord’s love is endless and unconditional. Nothing we can do or anyone else can do can take it away from us. He loved us before we were born, and He will love us Always!!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening today and all of their families. I ask that you bless their holiday season and that you help us remember the reason for the season. Help us be ridiculously kind this holiday season. Lord, help us hear this message today and let it take root down deep in our hearts. Let us know that we know that we know that you love us always and nothing can change that. We ask that you reach out to all those who feel unloved this Christmas Season and help them feel loved! We love you right back, Lord, just not quite as perfectly as you love us. We ask all of this in accordance with our will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I am so excited because my new mentoring group starts two weeks from today! If you have any questions about it, please reach out to me on social media or with an email to [email protected]. If you know someone who would love to grow closer to the Lord in this upcoming year, you could gift them a membership for the first month and see what they think. It is just $30 a month for 4 weekly sessions and the private Facebook group. That is about a dollar a day. Also, if you or someone you know wants to grow closer to the Lord and yet really can’t afford the $30 a month, then let me know. I can send them a link to pay what they can afford to pay. I can’t wait to meet some of you in my new mentoring program. I hope you give it a try! I look forward to bringing you a witness from my good friend Catherine tomorrow. She has been on here before, but it was over a year ago, and I don’t think many of you heard her witness. I know you will love it, as it is an incredible testimony. She is a very strong woman. I hope you will tune in and listen tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

The Lord’s Word for you today from my prayer group is, “Even though we are in troubled times, my graces abound for you and yours. Fear not to move forward in trust every day. Do not be anxious. Believe in me. I will take care of you forever.”

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God Has Infinitely More For You Than Your Most Unbelievable Dream!

Ephesians 3:20 “Never doubt God's mighty power to work in you. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energizes you.”

I know I have mentioned it before, yet I will say it again. I really love the passion translation. It gets the point of the verse across in a very passionate way. I talked last week about how the ladies in my mentoring group always pick a word and mantra for the year. This helps them remember throughout the year what they want that year, and then when they have to make a decision, they can hold all the choices up to their wants and needs for the year and see which choices align best. The other thing I recommend you do each year is to come up with some goals at the beginning of the year.

I think it is important that everyone has at least a few goals, as it gives us some direction. I am not talking about New Year's Resolutions that you set on December 31st and have already forgotten about two weeks later. I am talking about taking some time to think about where you want to be at the end of  2024. What would have liked to accomplish? I am not just talking about one area of your life either. Where would you like to be in your job, your relationship with the Lord, your relationships with your family members and friends? Where would you like to be financially? Once you know where you want to be at the end of the year, you set goals that help you get there. Time goes by so quickly, and we only get one life here on Earth. If we don’t live it intentionally, it will pass us by, and we will just go through it on autopilot.

The verse above is a great verse to think about when you are thinking of where you want to be at the end of this year. It is a great reminder that God’s mighty power is at work in you! I think this is so important to remember. Remembering this one thing could be the key to so many of our worries. If we can remember that His power is at work inside of us, then it takes the pressure off of us to think we need to do it all.  We don’t have to worry if we are strong enough to handle this upcoming surgery because God’s mighty power is at work in us, and that is surely strong enough. We don’t have to worry about whether we are good enough because God’s mighty power is at work in us, and He is definitely enough. We don’t have to worry if we are brave enough to do the thing we need to do because God’s mighty power is at work in us and that will make us brave enough. Do you see my point?

There is one catch, though, we need to ask Him to help us. Our heavenly Father believes in free will, and he wants us to ask Him for help. He wants us to give Him permission to work in our lives. Have you done this? Have you given God permission to do whatever He needs to do in your life? What about starting each day with a simple prayer? God, I give this day to you, do with it what you want. Imagine what your days would look like if you put God in control of them. Imagine the amazing things that could happen. Imagine how much less trouble we would get into if we weren’t steering this boat we call life. Yes, God’s mighty power lives in us and works in us, and yet we need to call on that power. If we want to do life on our own and we don’t want God to interfere, then He will let us do that. Unfortunately, that is our choice. I say unfortunately because sometimes I wish we didn’t have free will. I think our free will gets us into all sorts of trouble.

However, without free will, we wouldn’t be free to love the Lord truly. It is not true love if it is not freely given. So, we do the best we can with our brokenness. God is there, and He wants to help us. All we need to do is ask. All we need to do is let God know He is welcome in our lives. We want Him here. We want Him right next to us, guiding us and helping us. If we do this, we can call upon His power to work in us at any time. It is always available without any notice, and it never runs out. What else in this world can you say that about?

The next line of the verse says, "He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination!” I love this!! I know this to be true as it has happened in my own life, and yet I don’t think many others know this to be true. God is telling us in our prayer group week after week that we are not asking for too much. We are asking for too little. Yet, I think we all continue to feel as though we should just be happy and content with what we have, and we shouldn’t bother the Lord by asking for more. We think if we ask for more, then that means we are ungrateful for what we have already received. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

We are honoring the Lord when we ask for more because we are showing Him that we believe He can give us more and also that we know what we have came from Him. Our desires, those down deep in our hearts, came from the Lord; he put them there. He is not going to put desires down deep in our hearts and then not help us achieve those desires. This verse reminds us of this. God will not only help us achieve those desires but also help us achieve infinitely more than we request of Him. Has this happened to you before? Have you asked for one thing and yet received something so much better? My sister was praying for a job once. She wanted part-time, but that is hard to find in her line of work. She made a list of all the things she really wanted this job to have, and yet she knew she would probably have to compromise on some of the things as this job she created in her mind would be impossible to find.

She got offered a lot of jobs, most were full-time, or they required travel, or they didn’t pay enough. She was starting to get frustrated and was getting ready to give up on finding a job that fit her criteria. However, her word for the year was trust, and so she kept asking the Lord for a job that would be perfect for her, and she kept trusting He would provide. Finally, a job became available that was more than she could have asked for. It checked all the boxes she had written down and also had several bonus things that she didn’t even know she wanted, but God did! If we can trust Him long enough, He always comes through. Sometimes, we get tired of waiting, and we choose one of the options that we don’t really want. This verse could be a great reminder to look back to when we are tempted to settle for less than we desire. "He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination!” Write this down somewhere that you will see it every day and read it every day. Remind yourself that you are a child of the one true King, and you don’t have to settle. God has so much more in store for you!

The last line of this verse says, “He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energizes you.” This is an important one for us to hear because it seems we could all use some extra energy, especially during the holiday season. We can rely on the miraculous power of God to energize us. I am betting we have all experienced this miraculous power over the years in our lives and yet maybe we didn’t realize where it came from. If you have children, think about how you stayed up all night with a crying baby or teething toddler and then still had enough energy to get out of bed in the morning. Anyone who has lived through that can tell you that is miraculous. How do you think doctors, nurses, police, and firefighters make it through their shifts working overtime? God’s miraculous power gives us energy to get out of bed when we really don’t want to. Think about a time when all you wanted to do was curl up in bed and never leave it. Did you eventually find the energy to get out of that bed? Was it miraculous?

I feel God has tasked me with two missions. One is to help as many people in the world as I can come to know that God is Love. He loves us all unconditionally and freely. There is nothing we need to do or even could do that would make Him love us any more or any less than He already does. Our past does not matter to the Lord. We are always just one good confession away from being right with Him again. Repent and turn back to the Lord; that was the message of all the prophets of old. God’s message hasn’t changed. You have never done something so bad that He can’t forgive you or that would make Him stop loving you. You are in His heart forever!! The second thing I believe He has called me to is to help everyone understand the power they have living inside of them. This verse is a great one for that. I think if we all knew exactly how much power we had living inside of us, it would blow our minds. The enemy wants us to feel we are weak and we can’t do anything. This is a lie. We can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us. He strengthens us because His spirit is literally living inside of us. How can we be weak with the Holy Spirit living inside of us? Can you imagine what the world would look like if we all started to live in this power?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless each person listening to this today. Lord, I ask you to bless their families too. Lord, we ask that you help us all to realize that you want more for us than we want. Help us to see that we are now asking for too much but, in fact, too little. Help us to believe with our whole hearts that this verse is true. Help us take this verse into this upcoming year and expect great things to happen in our lives. Help us to expect your power to help us. Help us expect the miraculous energy when we need it the most. Lord, help us remember to invite you into our lives each and every day. 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 more boldly with Jesus. As we get closer and closer to the new year, I want to invite you all to think about how you want to grow closer to the Lord over this next year. We must be intentional, or it doesn’t happen. If we are waiting for more time to pray with the Lord to appear, we will still be waiting next year. We need to make time. Do you want to read more books, listen to more podcasts, read the Bible, spend more time with the Lord? What can you do to intentionally grow closer to the Lord? Would you like some help learning to grow closer to the Lord this year? With my new mentoring program, I will teach you lots of ways to grow closer to the Lord. You will also have a set time each week devoted to learning and coming up with a plan about how you will check in with the Lord over the upcoming week. Planning in advance is the key to being successful. If we fail to plan, then we plan to fail. Let’s all go into the New Year with a concrete plan on how we will grow closer to the Lord this year. Whether it is in my mentoring program or some other way, have a plan. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

God’s word from my Prayer Group today is: “I have called you by name into life. I have called you every day by your name because I know you; I love you because you are my friend. My children, I have so much more for you. I have more for you every single day — more for yourself, more for you to give away, and more for you to enrich the world around you.”

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Discipline & The Seven Deadly Sins

Proverbs 5:21-23 "For your ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all your paths. The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them; the cords of their sins hold them fast. For lack of discipline, they will die, led astray by their own great folly.”

Today I couldn’t seem to come up with a verse for the episode. This is unusual, although it does happen sometimes. I decided to go to the proverbs since that is a book full of instructions on how we should live. I figured that would have some good advice for us. This verse came right after verse 20, which says, “Why, my son, be intoxicated with another man’s wife? Why embrace the bosom of a wayward woman?” This is where the verse above begins, "For your ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all your paths. The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them; the cords of their sins hold them fast. For lack of discipline, they will die, led astray by their own great folly.”

This verse does not just apply when we are talking about adultery. We should remember this all day as we go throughout our days. Everything we do is in full view of the Lord, and He examines our paths. I think we forget this sometimes. I think we truly believe that we can hide things from the Lord. If we aren’t thinking about Him, He is not thinking about us. Kind of like when we are kids, we think if we do something when our parents’ backs are turned then they won’t know what we did. Guess what, they always know. Parents are much smarter than we give them credit for. This is something I don’t think we truly understand until we become parents. Once we become parents and we get an inside look at what it is like, then we gain a much greater understanding of our parents and what we put them through.

I think it helps us to understand our relationship with God as well. When we are a child, we feel as though our parents are just doing things because they can or because they like to punish up. We think they take things away because they don’t want us to have any fun or because we like to see them suffer. However, once we become parents, we realize that they were trying to protect us, or they were trying to teach us important life lessons. Once we have our own children, or maybe we don’t have our own children, but we have the benefit of hindsight, then we can see they were trying to prepare us to enter into the world as independent adults.

The same is true with God. We don’t always understand what His plan is and why He does the things He does. Sometimes it can seem like He is punishing us, and other times it seems like He doesn’t care that we are suffering. We know He could take away our pain, and we don’t understand why He doesn’t. Although, usually, when we have the benefit of hindsight, we can see that we need to go through what we went through in order to become the person we are today. I don’t know if “needed” to go through is the right word or not. Sometimes we allow our kids to go through hard things so they come out stronger on the other side. Did we “need” to let them go through it? Not necessarily; there are parents who shield their kids from disappointment, and yet their kids grow up to become independent adults too. They just might not be as resilient as the kids who were allowed to experience the pain of disappointment.

When we have children, they do not come with an instruction manual, so we are all just doing the best we can with what we have been given. The same is not true with God. He is perfect. He is the perfect father. He knows what is best for us, even if we disagree. He knows when we need to experience the pains of our mistakes, and He knows when it is okay to save us from some of our mistakes. Sometimes watching our children suffer through the pains of our mistakes is too much for us to handle, and we rush in to save them. God doesn’t need to do this. He has the benefit of seeing all the good that will come out of it, so He can watch us suffer in the short term so we can gain all the benefits in the long term. We are not blessed with that foresight. We struggle to see our kids struggle, and we want to save them from it.

I am guessing someone really needed to hear that today, as that is not at all what I thought I would be talking about today. What really stood out to me in the verse above was the last line, “For lack of discipline, they will die, led astray by their own great folly.” This is something no one really wants to hear, especially me. I have been struggling with discipline over the last few years. I was really good at it for a while, and then I think I stopped doing all the things that helped me be good at it. One reason lack of discipline can be so harmful to us is because it lets the deadly sins creep in. You know the ones I am talking about, pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth. When we are not disciplined, these creep in ever so slowly and quietly.

I know they have been in my life for the last few years. I tell myself God doesn’t care if I eat this cookie, and maybe he doesn’t. However, is it just that one cookie, or is it half the box of cookies? Is that cookie leading me into gluttony? If I am not disciplined with my eating, I can easily fall into gluttony. I actually believe I have been partaking in gluttony a lot over the last two years, as my clothes just keep getting tighter and tighter. I used to be good about enjoying a cookie at times but not having them all the time. I was good about eating pretty healthy and yet enjoying some cake at a celebration. However, my discipline with food seems to have disappeared in recent years.

If we are not disciplined in many areas, then we will struggle with these sins. For instance, if we don’t take captive our thoughts like it says in 2 Corinthians 10:5, then we can struggle with pride, greed, wrath, envy, and lust. We think that we can’t control our thoughts, and this is simply not true. Yes, you can’t control when a thought comes into your head. However, you can control whether or not you entertain that thought. You can take captive your thoughts and make a conscious choice not to keep thinking about that thought. You can change the thought to one that is not attached to these sins. For instance, if you see a beautiful woman or man, you might first have a lustful thought. However, you can consciously change that thought to an innocent one. If you have a thought about how you envy your neighbor for getting a new car, you can change that thought to say you are happy for them and that God is blessing them. You might not feel that way at the moment, but if you say it, you will begin to think that way.

I am sure all of us want to spend eternity in heaven. I don’t think you would be listening to a podcast named Walk Boldly With Jesus if you didn’t care about God and spending eternity with Him. Do we really want to put our eternity in jeopardy because we aren’t willing to have a little discipline while we are here on Earth? I know that discipline is not easy; believe me, I do. However, the good news is that we are not in this alone. All we need to do is have the desire to do better and then bring it to the Lord. If you are Catholic, bring this lack of discipline to the priest in confession. Bring the deadly sins that are attached to your lack of discipline to confession as well. Ask the Lord for help in overcoming them, and He will give you the strength. If you are not Catholic, you can take your struggle to the Lord and to your minister if you would like. Talk to the Lord about where your struggles are and where you getting caught up, and the Lord will help you.

The first step in change is realizing that there is a problem. I never really put two and two together before that my lack of discipline was leading me into a struggle with the seven deadly sins. I never realized that by not exercising discipline I was allowing those sins to creep into my life and to get comfy and to start directing my life in some ways. I can see where the Lord is talking directly to me this morning. I hope you can see where He might be talking to you as well. We can’t change what we don’t see. I am grateful for this eye-opening message this morning, as I now can start to be more aware of the consequences of my lack of discipline and why it matters if I eat that cookie or not, why it matters if I waste that time or not. Our choices matter. As it says in the verse above, “For your ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all your paths. The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them; the cords of their sins hold them fast. For lack of discipline, they will die, led astray by their own great folly.” Do we want our lack of discipline to lead us astray?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we thank you for being the perfect Father to us. We thank you for knowing when we need to struggle through and when you can save us from the struggle. Lord, we thank you for waking us up this morning to one big reason why discipline is so important. We repent of letting these sins creep into our lives, and we resolve to be more aware going forward. Lord, we know we can only do this with your help. We ask you to help us develop more discipline. We ask you to give us the tenacity we need to keep trying to be disciplined, even when we fail over and over again. We want to spend eternity with you, Lord. Please help us get there. We love you, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. If you would like to dive deeper into how to walk more boldly with Jesus, I hope you will join my mentoring group that is starting in January. I will go over topics such as prayer, growing closer to the Lord, reading scriptures, hearing the Lord’s voice, walking in the confidence that you are a beloved child of God, and learning what it really means to have the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of you. It is going to be a great way to learn how to live your faith more. If you would like more information, click on the link below or go to my website, walkboldlywithjesus.com. I look forward to meeting you here again on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed weekend!

The word from the Lord today is, “I call you. I encourage you. I thirst for you, yet you do not step forward; you step backward. I urge you to step forward, not hinder all that I have for you. For there is more that I long and ache to give you. This is a time of great graces. I want you to grow in leaps and bounds. My mercies are tremendous. My grace, my call, my gifts to you are great. Don’t refuse any of them. Let yourself be free to become much more than you can ever dream of. I have promised; I have given you my Spirit. I do not renege on my promises or hold back my Spirit from you. Let your light shine for me. There is enough darkness in the world. Let the light that is within you from me shine on others. Be not afraid to speak words of hope, love, and peace. Be my witnesses to the love that I have to give to them.”

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The Same Way Fruit Appears In An Orchard

Galatians 5:22-23 “ But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.”

My mentor posted this online yesterday for us to read and think about as we all begin to think about our words and mantra for 2024. In the Big Life Mentoring with Pamela Crim, she has us pick a word and mantra each year. First, she has us fill out worksheets that help us pray about it, ask God about it, and figure out what it is we want and need this year. Then, we ask the Lord to give us a word for the year. Sometimes, we have a word in mind, and then after we do the worksheets, we realize God has a different word in mind. Sometimes He will give us a word that we don’t necessarily want but that we really need. For instance, He gave a friend of mine the word stay, when all she wanted to do was go.

God is a good and loving Father. He doesn’t always just tell us what we want to hear, He also tells us what we need to hear. Once we have our word, we come up with a mantra that we say every single day of the year. This is to remind us of what is important and how we said we wanted to live. This is great to have because it is also something to which we can hold all of our decisions up to see if they align with how we want to live our lives. For instance, my word last year was Bold. I knew I wanted to step out in faith more and ask people if I could pray over them. I knew I wanted to live my faith more boldly and not be afraid of what others thought of me. This was going to require me to be more bold.

After filling out the worksheet and finding out everything I wanted next year, I came up with a mantra, and then, at the New Year’s Retreat, my mentor helped me fine-tune it. My mantra for this year is, “I have a divine calling on my life, and I boldly respond, holding nothing back. I’m here to serve God fully and be used as His vessel. I know He is already proud of what I am doing, and I will continue to step out and be BOLD!” This mantra was great because it reminded me of who I wanted to be all throughout the year. Did I always live up to this mantra? No. Sometimes I did not respond boldly, but I believe I responded boldly more often than I would have if I had not had this mantra going through my head.

Now, let's get back to the verse. The verse says, “ But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.” While first reading this verse, I was confused as to what was meant by the saying, “He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard.” How does fruit appear in the orchard? The first thing that came to me was that the tree needs to grow. When the tree is a sapling, it doesn’t have any fruit. However, as it grows up, as it matures as a tree, you will begin to see more and more fruit on it. The second thing that came to me is that the fruit is a gift. The tree didn’t have to do anything to earn the fruit it produced. All the tree had to do was be itself, do the things it was made to do and God took care of the rest.

The same is true for us when it comes to the Holy Spirit. We don’t have to do anything to earn the gifts of the Holy Spirit, they are freely given. However, sometimes we do need to ask for them. God is a big believer in free will, so He does not want to give you something you do not want. However, He is happy to give us gifts when we ask for them. You might know some people who have certain gifts from the Holy Spirit. You might even think to yourself that you asked for that same gift and wonder why they have a much stronger gift than you do. My guess would be that they use the gift more, or they spend more time in communion with the Lord.

Even though our gifts are freely given by the Lord, the power of the gifts we are given flows from our relationship with the Lord. Everything we do flows from our relationship with the Lord. So, we may have the same gifts as someone else, but if they are spending more time cultivating a deeper intimacy with the Lord, it may seem like they have a stronger gift than we do. We all have the same Holy Spirit living inside of us, the exact same Holy Spirit. The Lord has just shown them through that intimacy how to use it more. A second reason it can seem like they are more gifted is because they practice the gift they were given. They exercise those gifts, and so they become stronger.

We were all given the Holy Spirit at baptism and then a refreshing of the Holy Spirit at Confirmation. However, if we aren’t asking for the gifts of the Spirit, then we probably aren’t seeing them in our lives. If we did ask for them and yet we aren’t using them, we probably aren’t seeing the fruits of them in our lives. If you are faithful with little, God will give you more. Sometimes it takes using the gifts in faith for a long time before you actually see any fruit in your lives from them. However, if you ask the Lord for the gift and then you use the gift he gives you, you will grow in it.

The verse goes on to give a few examples- “things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.”  How great would it be if we had a supernatural affection for others? If we could be more Christ-like and love everyone, not just those who met our impossibly high standards, we didn’t know we had. I think we could all use a bit more of a sense of compassion in our lives. That is something that seems to be lacking nowadays.

Next, it says we will develop a willingness to stick with things. If anyone needs this one, it is me. I have really been struggling with that this year. However, I have plans in place to help me next year, and they all begin with spending more time with our heavenly Father. I know when I put Him first and make time first thing in the morning to spend with Him, my day goes better, and my life goes better. I don’t know why it is so easy to forget that. Another great thing this verse mentions that I think is important for all of us to have is a “conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people.” If we go into a situation or a conversation assuming good, assuming holiness is present, we will have much better results. Usually, we go into things assuming the worst, and then we wonder why it goes badly. Our attitude and thoughts matter!!

The last part of the verse that I want to touch on is where it says, “not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.”   If we stick closely to the Lord, this part will be easier. If we are constantly checking in with the Lord, then we don’t have to force things in our lives. God will lead us down the steps He wants us to take. He will lead the way, and we just get to follow. That is not to say following is always easy, but it is not something we need to force. It says right in the verses we will be able to marshal and direct our energies wisely! Who wouldn’t want that?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, help us follow your ways. Help us ask for your gifts and then use them when you give them to us. Help us to know what to ask for, Lord. Help us to assume the good in others and the good in our situations. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I have decided that instead of calling my new program coaching, I will call it mentoring. If you want more info on that program, you can find all the details on my website, walkboldlywithjesus.com. The live mentoring nights will be Tuesday nights, and they will consist of 30 minutes of me teaching/mentoring on a topic and then 30 minutes of small group time where you can see how to use what I taught in your upcoming week. I really think the small group time will turn out to be your favorite part, even though you may be apprehensive at first since you might not know anyone. Growing with a community is the best!

The word of the Lord for today is the bookmark that we will go over in the Prayer Group today. It begins with a call, proclamation, promise, and directive. See if you can spot them.

“Come closer to me. Come deeper with me. Come into my presence because I want you, my diamonds, to sparkle so that all those around you will want to come and be in your presence to absorb your light. Your light is my life in you. I am the God who loves you. I am the God who protects you. I am the God who never stops caring for you. I give you my abundant blessings. No matter what is going on in your life right now. I take each step that you take. When you feel you can’t stand, I am there to carry you. What I share with you, you must share with others. It is I who sends you to share my way, my truth, and my life so that others may grow in me and love me. Arise with the name of Jesus on your lips.”

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We have all seen God working in our lives, however, we might not all be aware it is God who is working in our lives.  This is why it is so important we start talking about it more.  The more we share our experiences the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us.  If you would be willing to share any experience you have had of how God has worked or is working your life, please email me at [email protected] or just click here.  It won’t take up much of your time and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today.  Prayerfully consider sharing.  Everyone has a story and the world needs to hear them.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow and I will have another witness for you next Wednesday.  Remember Jesus loves you and so do I. Have a blessed day!

Thank you so much for sharing your witness. What an amazing testimony of how much freedom you can get from inner healing. Unbound is a remarkable model of inner healing. Unbound deliverance ministry is a model of prayer developed by Neal Lozano. It is the model for deliverance most widely endorsed by Catholic bishops and priests throughout the world. Unbound guides people to surrender more fully to Jesus and encounter the truth that sets them free.UNBOUND is a safe, loving, effective prayer model that helps people respond to the good news of the gospel. UNBOUND ministry teaches how to listen and respond in Five Key areas as people seek greater freedom in Christ and help others to do the same. If you would like to learn more about unbound, Click Here. I have personally been trained in the unbound prayer model as well as having gone through at least two unbound sessions of prayer myself. It is an incredible method that truly frees people from bondage. The freedom felt afterward is amazing. I highly suggest everyone check into it. If you would like more info on Unbound or if you would like Rosa to pray with feel free to email her at [email protected]. Thank you again, Rosa, for your powerful testimony. I hope you will share more testimonies about all the ways the Lord is working in your life. We look forward to hearing from you again.

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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