Walk Boldly With Jesus

Can Unforgiveness Affect My Eternal Salvation?

Colossians 3:13 “Bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.” 

I recently attended a boot camp to learn about the unbound method of deliverance. Unbound is a technique to set people free from the things that weigh them down. The reality is that our enemy, the devil, wants to keep us from living out our destinies as children of God.  Evil spirits can gain influence in our lives through open doorways. These are opened, often in childhood, by us or by other people.  Through these doors, Satan’s lies and deceptions limit our access to the blessing of the kingdom of God. Sometimes we open doors to the enemy in ways we don’t know, for instance, participating in the occult, holding on to bitterness or unforgiveness, harboring resentment, and so on. On our first night of training, we learned about the first two essential steps. 

The first one was repenting of sin and expressing faith in Jesus. We all sin, it is a part of our daily life, and yet when we sin it hurts our relationship with God. When we sin we are opening a door for the enemy to come in. Repentance for our sins is a big part of our freedom. If we truly want to be free we can’t have our sins hanging over us. One way our sins can invite the enemy in is because he will then use that sin to make us ashamed of what we did. Shame is straight from hell, it is not from God. Once we start to feel ashamed then we pull away and we tend to isolate ourselves because we feel as though we aren’t worth anything. Once we repent we bring our sins out of the darkness and into the light and they no longer have hold over us. 

The second essential step that we talked about is forgiveness. This is the one that left the biggest impression on me. This is the one that I don’t think we realize how important it is. I remember when I was at a Bible study and they were talking about forgiveness. We were talking about Matthew 6:14, “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” When they said that God forgives us the same way we forgive those who trespass against us, I was so surprised. I had no idea what they were talking about. Now, I have been a Catholic for my whole life and this was only about 10 years ago. I have probably said the Our Father prayer more times than I can count and yet I never really put two and two together. 

Have you ever had a time when you heard something or realized something and it was life-changing for you? I can remember two times this has happened for me with scripture. The first one was when I discovered Romans 8:11, “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.” When I discovered we have the power of the one who raised Jesus from the dead, the same power Jesus had, that was life-changing for me. The second time was when I discovered what I am really saying when I say the Our Father prayer. “Forgive us O Lord as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Did you know that is what you are saying? How many times have you said that prayer? Each time you say the rosary you say it at least 6 times. We also say it every time we attend mass. 

When I heard this I was determined to learn how to forgive better. I was determined to not hold things against people. I have done my best to do this. Over the course of the last 10 years, I have learned quite a bit about forgiveness in my quest to become better at it. First I learned what forgiveness is and is not. Forgiveness is making a decision that you are no longer going to give the thing that happened any space in your brain anymore. You are not going to think about it and you are not going to let it dictate what you do and how you act. Forgiveness is an act of the will, it is not a feeling. You can forgive someone even if you don’t feel like it. You can forgive someone and yet not feel like anything has changed. Forgiveness is not saying the thing that the other person did was ok, it was not. When you forgive you are not letting the other person off the hook and condoning their behavior. Forgiveness is making a decision to turn the judgment over to God. Forgiveness is making a decision that you are no longer going to let unforgiveness eat you up inside. The person you are refusing to forgive probably has moved on and your unforgiveness is not bothering them at all. 

The analogy that I have heard time and time again about forgiveness is that it is like taking a little sip of poison every single day with the expectation that the other person will die. I know you are angry, hurt, and sad. I am sure you have every right to be, and also, as long as you keep thinking about it and refusing to forgive, you can’t really heal. I talk to people I know about unforgiveness all the time since learning we will be forgiven as we forgive. I can’t help it, I understand what is at stake and I know it is not worth it. Whomever you are refusing to forgive has probably taken enough from you, are you really going to let them take your eternal salvation too? No matter what they did to you, is not forgiving them worth the risk of God not forgiving you? 

Our teacher told the story about a preacher/minister who had died and found out he was on his way to hell. He said he saw how horrible it was. In hell, this man saw another man on all fours on fire from head to toe. He had a collar around his neck attached to a chain and a demon was holding the chain. Our teacher told us that this man went to hell because he had unforgiveness in his heart. I was curious to hear the exact story so I looked it up online. It turns out it was a priest who had a heart attack and must have flatlined at some point. Here is what the priest said, "I thought I was going upward because I thought I had done so much good in this lifetime trying to help so many people and made so many decisions that were godly decisions, but instead of me going up, I went down!” This priest was very angry as he said he did so much good in his lifetime. Then he said he saw Jesus and Jesus gave him a personal message. "Jesus said, 'You have been secretly upset with the people who have hurt you. You had been hoping that I would punish the people that hurt you. These are not your people. These are my people.' He said, 'I only want you to focus on the assignment I am giving you.’ The priest explains, “Although I did good, the thing I had in my heart was unforgiveness for the people who wronged me. A person that can't forgive is a person that has forgotten how much they have been forgiven of.” 

This example is probably not what we want to hear. I know it scared me when I heard it and yet we must hear it. We have to know what will keep us from spending eternity with our Father. This is why God sends people to share these messages with us. Mary gave the little children of Fatima an image of hell and told them that more people than we know are ending up there. Forgiveness is not easy, I know that. I know that I don’t understand some of the things that have happened to you. I know people can be terrible and they do terrible things. If you are struggling to forgive I ask you to review what forgiveness is and is not again. You don’t have to forgive and forget. You don't have to forgive the person and invite them over for Christmas. It is perfectly ok to forgive the person and never see them again, never tell them you forgave them, never talk to them again. Forgiveness is for you, it is not for them. 

The last line the priest said really hit me. “A person that can’t forgive is a person that has forgotten how much they have been forgiven of.” What if all the people we wronged refused to forgive us? What if God held original sin against us and refused to forgive us? What if he refused to send His only son to save us? Forgiveness is so much more important than we think it is. I know so many people who are refusing to forgive because they say the other person doesn’t deserve forgiveness. You might be right. Forgiveness is not about them, it is about you. It is about setting yourself free from the spirit of unforgiveness. Unforgiveness can block so much from the Lord. It can block healing, it can block graces, and it can block your forgiveness from the Lord. Is it really worth it? 

I want to take a minute to add some hope to the end of this talk because if you are harboring unforgiveness it might be very scary to think of the consequences. You might have had some truly terrible things done to you and you want the Lord to forgive you and yet you have no idea where to even begin forgiving the other person or people. Here is the thing, the Lord doesn’t expect you to forgive on your own. We can’t actually forgive on our own. All we can do is say, yes Lord, I want to forgive, and the Lord can change your heart for you. If you are at a point right now where you really can’t even say,” Lord, I want to forgive, please help me.” That's ok. The Lord meets us where we are. Can you say I want to, want to forgive? Can you say, Jesus, please give me the grace to want, to want to forgive? If so, Jesus will help you get to that point and then you can move to actually forgiving. 

My teacher told a story about a woman who was doing an Unbound session and the woman with whom she was working refused to forgive her sister. Well, this is the first step, you can’t move on to the rest if you can’t first get through forgiveness. The woman was adamant that she would not forgive or even pray for her sister. The woman leading the session asked if she would be able to ask Jesus to help her want, to want to forgive. She said yes and she asked Jesus. She said ok, now she wanted to want forgive, but she still couldn’t forgive. The leader asked her if she would be willing to do 1% of the work to forgive if Jesus could do the other 99%. She said she thought she might be able to do that and so she forgave her sister 1% and Jesus did the rest. 

Remember, forgiveness is an act of the will, it is not a feeling. She might not have felt any different after she forgave her sister that 1% but she was willing to do it. God will meet you where you are too! If all you can say right now is, “Lord please give me the grace to want, to want, to want to forgive.” That’s ok, just say it. God is the one who does the forgiving. We just need to say the words and God does all the hard parts. God is asking us to let Him in, to not refuse to let Him work on any area of us. Can we do that? Can we give God even a tiny little crack of a window where He can come in and transform our hearts? Don’t let the unforgiveness of what others did to you dictate the level of forgiveness you get from God. Haven’t they done enough? Don’t let them continue to have an effect on your life and definitely not your eternity. A wonderful way to conclude your forgiveness of another is to pray the Father’s Blessing upon them. God will rejoice in your wholehearted generosity because that is the way He is with us.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we want to spend eternity with you.  We don’t want anything to get in our way, especially unforgiveness.  Please show us whom we need to forgive and then help us forgive them. For those we feel we can’t forgive, please help us Lord.  Soften our hearts and give us the grace we need to at least want to forgive them.  Help us say the words to allow you to come in and work on our hearts Lord.  We want to hold nothing back from you.  Help us also repent of our sins Lord.  We don’t want to give the enemy any ammunition and when we keep our sins from you the enemy uses them against us.  Help us turn them over to you Lord.  Help us repent and turn back to you.  Help us repair our relationship with you. 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.  I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow.  Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I! Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Your Prayers Will Be Answered!

James 5:16: "The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”

The Big Life Devotional Podcast has an excellent episode yesterday titled “Praying in Circles.”  What I loved most about this episode is that it gave us an action we can do to pray for our children, or really anything we are praying for.  The idea of praying in circles comes from a book called The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson.  This is an amazing book that talks about praying circles around our problems.  Mark starts his book off by telling us the legend of Honi the Circle Maker—a man bold enough to draw a circle in the sand and not budge from inside it until God answered his prayers for his people. Honi was a man of God.  

I am not sure if He was a prophet, or just a prayer warrior, or what.  It had not rained in a very long time and the people in the village came to Honi and begged him to pray to God for rain.  Honi agreed and he drew a circle in the dirt and prayed to God for rain.  He told God he would not step foot out of that circle until it rained.  He prayed and he prayed.  Eventually, it started to sprinkle.  When he saw this he could have stopped praying.  He could have said thank you, Lord, I truly appreciate this little rain that you sent us.  However, He didn’t.  He said thank you Lord and also, this is not the rain I am praying for, I am praying for more rain.  He continued to pray and praise the Lord.  Finally, it was raining down so hard it was starting to flood the area, and all those that were standing around watching him pray were running for shelter.  

What the Lord just put on my heart as I was typing is that we stop praying too early sometimes.  At the first sign of our prayers being answered we stop praying and accept that small offering as the answer when God actually has so much more to give us.  It is not that we don’t want more it is that we think we will be bothering God, or we will be greedy if we expect more.  God wants you to know that is not true.  He has so much more for you and He is just waiting for you to be open to receiving it.  God wants us to expect big things, amazing things.

For instance, when we have partial healing, yes, absolutely thank God for that, and also let Him know you are expecting full healing.  Keep asking for what you want.  Don’t shy away because you are afraid you are asking for too much. I heard a phrase once and I love it.  It reminds us why we ask for a lot.  The phrase is “I’m not greedy, I’m just needy.” We aren’t asking God for more because we are being greedy, we are asking God because we know that we can’t do anything on our own and yet through Him, we can do all things.  

The verse above says, “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” Do you know what earnest means?  The definition of earnest is “resulting from or showing sincere and intense conviction."  What are you praying for right now?  What is that prayer that you keep asking God about?  That one prayer that you wonder if it will ever be answered?  Are you praying earnestly for it?  The Bible verses we read are talking to us directly.  Each one of us and they are promised by God.  Today’s verse tells us that the earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.  You can take this to the bank.  This is a factual statement that you can rely on.  If this is true, why haven’t some of our prayers been answered?

There are a couple of reasons for this.  First and foremost is explained in Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” God is sovereign.  He has a plan and it is better than our plan, even though we tend to think our plan and our timing is better.  God knows what He is doing and so sometimes our prayers take longer than we would like or are answered differently than we would like because God has a better plan than we do.

However, I think sometimes our prayers take longer to be answered because of things we do or don’t do.  Are we praying earnestly?  Are we asking every single day?  Are we asking for enough or are we settling for scraps?  God doesn’t want to give you crumbs from the table.  He wants to give you the whole cake.  Why aren’t we asking for the cake?  We will not be bothering God by asking Him for big, bold prayers.  We will be honoring Him.  Have you ever been asked to do something at work or in your personal life and the thing you were being asked to do was really difficult?  How did you feel when someone asked you to do it?  Did you feel honored that they thought you were capable of doing it?  Yes, you might have been nervous, as it was a difficult thing or even just a new thing, and yet you felt honored that someone thought you could handle it or you could be good at it.

I remember each time the ladies in my prayer group asked to do a new thing.  For instance when they asked me to be on the discernment team, or they asked me to be on the prayer team.  I was so honored.  It felt amazing to know they thought I was capable of doing those things.  In a similar way, we honor God when we ask really big, bold prayers.  We show Him we know how amazing He is.  We show Him that we know He can do the impossible and that nothing is too big for Him. We are not asking God for too much, we are asking too little of Him.  

It talks about persistence in the circle maker too.  Mark Batterson talks about how we give up too soon sometimes when we are praying.  We assume it is not God’s will if He takes too long to answer and yet maybe God is just waiting to see how badly we want it.  What we are willing to do for it.  For instance what if Honi, drew that circle in the sand and stood there for 5 hours and then gave up and yet God was going to make it rain after the 6th hour?  We don’t know God’s timing, we just need to keep asking.  Is there anything you want so badly you would be willing to draw a circle in the sand around that prayer?  It doesn’t have to be standing in a circle in the sand until you get it, but maybe you could pray for 5 minutes every single day about that one thing until you get an answer.  Maybe you could sit in a church every day for a few minutes until it is answered.  Maybe you could commit to going to daily mass until it is answered.  It doesn’t matter what you commit to as much as it matters that you are willing to commit to something.  

I think you will see more answers to prayers if you do this because you will be more focused on your prayers.  You will be searching for that answer because you are expecting it to come.  It is as if you know it will be answered and so you are waiting expectantly.  I wonder if that is the problem.  I wonder if we are praying expectantly or not.  Do you honestly expect God to answer your prayers?  Are you on the lookout for the answers?  Maybe that is why Honi’s prayer we answered so quickly.  Actually, I have no idea how long he was standing in that circle, but I know it wasn’t months.  He knew God would answer His prayer and He was willing to stand there in a circle, looking foolish, until God did.  He put his pride aside and was willing to look foolish to wait on God.  When we do this, when we step out in faith and put all of our trust in God, He never lets us down.  There was no way God was going to not show up for Honi.  Honi was honoring God by showing everyone in that town that God is the one to turn to when we need something.  When you step out in faith, trusting God, He will always show up.  He will not leave you hanging.   Pray big, bold prayers, and watch how the Lord shows up for you.  Pray earnestly and watch the amazing results.  I just looked up in The Circle Maker Book, to see how long Honi prayed for and it said as his prayers went up the rain came down.  So I guess his prayer was anwered pretty quickly. Batterson said Honi’s prayer was resolute yet humble, confident yet meek, expectant yet unassuming.  I think we can all learn a lot from that statement.  How can we follow Honi’s example of how to pray?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we want to pray earnestly, show us how.  We want to step out in faith and demonstrate your awesomeness to all those around us, give us the holy boldness we need.  Give us the persistence and the fortitude we need to continue to pray those prayers that don’t seem to be answered.  Don’t let us give up Lord, help us keep asking.  Show us, put on our hearts what it is you want us to do. If you want us to commit to doing something while we wait, put that on our hearts, let us know, and then give us the strength to do it.  We love you, Lord, you are truly amazing.  We thank you for always showing up.  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 remind everyone that my retreat in October is open for registration.  It is going to be a great weekend full of love.  The Lord has been talking to me a lot about what that weekend should look like and I know it will be amazing.  If you feel like you would like to feel a little more love from God these days, this retreat is for you. If you feel like you would like to have a deeper, more intimate relationship with the Lord, this retreat is for you.  If you feel like you could use a little time away getting to know some really awesome people, this retreat is for you! Come join us, it will be great.  CLICK HERE for the retreat or to walkboldlywithJesus.com. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Stay Focused on Jesus!

Colossians 3:1-2 "So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

Today’s prayer point to help us get ready for this weekend's healing service is “Focus on Jesus Christ.” This is a tough one.  It may sound simple, we may all look at that and think we do a good job focusing on Jesus.  I mean we pray each day, right? Good question, do we pray each day?  How often do we pray?  Is it once a day for 5 minutes, is it anytime we think to do it during the day, or is it only when someone we know asks us for prayers? I am sure it is a combination of all of that for all of us.

The question with this verse is, do we seek the things above, are our minds on Jesus, or are our minds on the things of this world?  Because we live in this world, I am not sure if it will ever be possible to have our minds on things above all of the time.  However, it is possible to spend more and more time thinking about the things in heaven and less and less time thinking about the things in this world.  How do we do this though?  How do we focus more on Jesus and less on this world?

What we spend our time doing is what we will spend our time thinking about.  For instance, Tony and I just started watching a new TV series called Homeland.  It is about a Prisoner of War that was in the middle east for 8 years and then was found and returned home to his family.  Today, all morning I could not stop thinking about this show.  I went over in my mind the various episodes we had watched, what I knew already, and what I was trying to figure out.  Of course, it ended on a cliffhanger, so you are left wondering what will happen next.  My mind has been so preoccupied with this show because we spent the majority of the day Sunday binge-watching it.  We worked hard outside for several hours before it got hot outside and then were wiped out and decided to watch TV for the rest of the day.  This show is on my mind because I spent so much time with it recently.  

The same can be true with our Lord.  If we spend our time focused on what is of Him, He will be what we can’t get out of our minds.  Does this mean that we need to spend all day at church, or reading the Bible?  No, it doesn’t.  It does mean that while you go throughout your day, you can still have your focus on Him. For instance, when you are having your morning coffee and breakfast, you can be having a conversation with the Lord.  You can talk to Him as if He is sitting right there with you.  When you are driving into work, or wherever you need to drive to you can do several things to keep your focus on the Lord.  One thing you could do is to talk with Him.  

The second thing you could do is to listen to praise and worship music either on the radio or on an app like Spotify.  You could pray for all those you know who are suffering and need the Lord’s help.  You could listen to an audiobook that helps you grow in your faith.  You could listen to a podcast that helps you keep your focus on the Lord.  There is so much you can do while driving to keep your focus on the Lord. You can also do these same things while you go about any tasks throughout the day that don’t require a lot of thought, such as household chores, outside work, etc.  

Another way you can increase your focus on Jesus is to have an attitude of gratitude. When we think about how grateful we are for all that we have then we remember why we have all that we have. This brings to mind who is responsible for giving us everything.  Our focus is turned to the Lord. When we focus on gratitude we are focusing on what is good in our lives instead of focusing on what isn’t great in our lives. Also, gratitude helps us focus on what God is doing for us and is giving us, instead of focusing on what we don't have and what He isn’t doing for us.  

One saying that I love and I think goes along great for today’s message is, “What if, instead of focusing on how big our problems are, we focused on how big God is?” I love that because it is so true.  Another way to focus on God is to think about Him first when we encounter a problem.  How many of us think of everything else before we think of God?  Think about your thought process when you encounter a problem.  Most of us, first get upset, then we wonder what we can do about it.  Next, we try to do all we can to solve this problem ourselves.  If we can’t we enlist the help of those around us.  We rack our brains trying to think of who can help us and how they can help us.  Finally, when we have done all we can do and our problem has not been solved yet, then we turn to the Lord and ask Him for help.  Does this sound about right?  

If, instead of thinking about what a big mess we got ourselves into, we thought about how amazing God is at getting us out of crazy situations, then we would be able to save ourselves a lot of stress and worry.  We would probably also save ourselves some time.  What if, instead of trying to do all we can before going to the Lord, we went to the Lord first?  What if we went straight to the Lord and spent some quiet time with Him asking Him what we should do and then listening for His answer? Think about how much time you could save if you didn’t have to trial and error your way through solving your problem.  Imagine the Lord showed you the solution before you even tried anything.

The last line in the verse above says, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” What you spend your time doing is what you will spend your time thinking about.  If we want to think more about the things that are above, we need to spend our time doing things that bring that to mind.  If you spend all your time doing things of this world, then your thoughts will be about this world.  Often it is not what you are doing it is the subject matter.  If you are listening to music, is it of this world or above?  If you are reading books, are they of this world or above?  Where could you make small shifts in your life to be thinking more of what is above than what is here on earth?  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we love you and we want to think of you all day every day, show us how.  Please put on our hearts any way in which we could be more focused on you.  Please put on our hearts any ways that we are focused on what is of this world instead. Lord, you are amazing!  You are Lord of Lords and King of Kings.  You are the almighty one and we ask all these things 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 meeting you again tomorrow. In case you missed the announcement the other day I will be hosting a retreat from Oct 7-9th and the focus of the retreat will be to pour God’s love into you.  CLICK HERE for retreat info.  Remember Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

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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!

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The Lord Is Close To The Brokenhearted

Psalm 34:17-19 “The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles.  The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed. The righteous person faces many troubles, but the Lord comes to the rescue each time.”

Yesterday I talked about how the Lord is with us to deliver us.  If you are going through a hard time this can be hard to hear. You might want to believe it and yet you find it hard to see in your own life, especially if you have been struggling for a long time.  Maybe you have witnessed God delivering your friends from their situations while you still struggle with yours.  This can make it really difficult to believe that God is with you or that He will deliver you.  Sometimes we can be delivered from a situation quickly.  For instance, we pray for our child’s fever to go down, and it does.  However, sometimes it can take a long time to be delivered and sometimes the way we are delivered is not the way we wanted to be delivered.  

I know how hard it is to hear that God will deliver you if you are stuck in a place you feel you have been for a very long time.  I struggled with parenting my children and in my marriage for over 10 years.  It was a very long uphill battle.  It was one where you get so excited because something you are doing is working, you are moving forward 2 steps and then the next day you are back 3 steps.  I know that is extremely frustrating.  I get it.  If this is you right now, maybe not the same situation or trouble, but the same feeling of 2 steps forward and 3 steps back I want you to know you are not alone.  I have been there and so many others are right there with you right now.  If this is you, this verse is for you also.

“The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles.” The Lord hears you when you call Him for help.  He hears you when you cry out that you are angry with Him.  He hears that you are worried and anxious about many things.  He hears that you are praying for healing for a loved one.  He hears that you want the perfect house.  He hears that you want the perfect wedding.  He hears that you are struggling and He rescues you from all your troubles.  The Lord will rescue you.  Even if you don’t believe that He will.  Even if you don’t understand how He will.  If you need proof that the Lord will come to rescue you, sit down with a paper and a pen and ask the Lord to show you where He has rescued you in the past.  The Lord is the same today, yesterday, and forever.  If He has rescued you in the past, He will rescue you again.  

The next line says, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.” I love the imagery of this line.  “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.”  I just picture sitting on the Lord’s lap as I once sat on my dad’s lap.  I picture us as little children, going to our heavenly father with a broken heart.  I picture Him scooping us up onto his lap and pulling us in close for a hug.  Close your eyes and see if you can picture your head on His chest, just listening to His heartbeat. Just be there in His loving embrace.  Can you feel the warmth of His body and the strength of His arms that are holding you tight? Can you imagine how safe you feel in His arms?  

This verse is talking about you.  You are the “brokenhearted.” God is talking to you. No matter what you are going through, God is near you.  He never leaves your side.  The next time you feel alone, the next time you feel like God has abandoned you, sit down and imagine Him right there with you.  I imagine you are sitting on His lap and He is holding you. The other day at prayer group one of the ladies and a vision of herself sitting on the Father’s lap.  She said she was filled with love and then she felt the need to get down so that she wasn’t taking up all His time.  She wanted to make room for someone else and He told her to stay.  He said something like, “Stay my daughter, do not worry.  Right now I am holding all my children to my heart.”  God is holding you, even when you can’t feel Him.

The second part of that line says, “He rescues those whose spirits are crushed.”  Are you spirits crushed right now?  Were you hoping for something and it didn’t happen?  Were you praying and you can’t seem to find any answers to those prayers?  Were you sure God would rescue you and yet He does not appear to be rescuing you?  If so, this verse is for you.  God rescues those whose spirits are crushed.  It doesn’t say those who believe He will.  It doesn’t say God rescues those who never gave up hope.  It doesn’t say those who weren’t angry with Him.  It says God rescues those whose spirits are crushed.  If this is you, know that God is with you and that He will rescue you.  The Bible doesn’t lie and there are no exceptions.  God is not talking to some of us and not all of us through the Bible.  The passages in the Bible apply to each and every one of us.  The Lord is speaking directly to you through His Word in the Bible.

The last line in this verse is, “The righteous person faces many troubles, but the Lord comes to the rescue each time.” We talked about this a bit yesterday and here it is again.  This verse is telling us that even if we are a really good person.  Even if we are doing all the right things, and following God’s law, we will still face many troubles.  Life is not going to be easy just because we follow the Lord.  We will face trouble.  The difference between us and someone who is not following the Lord is that we don’t have to face that trouble alone.  The Lord is with us each step of the way.  An image just came to mind of a child standing there with our heavenly Father standing right next to the child.  He was holding the child’s hand and the sense I got was that we are like that child.  As we go through life, as we face the many challenges we will face, our heavenly Father is right there with us holding our hand.  

I don’t know about you, but I love the idea of my heavenly Father holding my hand as I walk through life.  I love the idea of Him being right there next to me.  I feel safer knowing if I wanted to run toward danger, He would be able to hold me back because He is that close to me.  God is that close to you too! He is right there.  If you can’t see Him, if you can’t feel Him, that’s ok.  Can you believe He is there? Can you talk to Him?  Can you listen and see what He has to say to you?  God is there, there is not a doubt in my mind about that.  I know He is there because I have seen Him so often in my life.  However, even if I had never seen Him in my life, I would know He is right here with me because it says it so often in scripture and the Word of God is factual. This verse is true. “The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles.  The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed. The righteous person faces many troubles, but the Lord comes to the rescue each time.” The last timeline is important to remember.  It doesn’t say the Lord comes to the rescue sometimes.  It says, “The Lord comes to the rescue each time.”  Yes, He is coming this time too!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we thank you for always rescuing us.  We thank you for staying close to us even when we push you away.  Thank you for never leaving our side Lord.  Thanks for being a good, good Father to each of us.  Lord, we ask that you help us see how you have rescued us in the past.  Lord, we ask you to show us where you are now in our situation.  We ask you to give us renewed hope that you will in fact rescue us from whatever it is we are struggling with.  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.  In case you did not hear yesterday, registration is open for the retreat that I am hosting from October 8-9th.  It will be an awesome time of filling up on the Lord’s love so we can then go out and share that love with others.  If you are feeling like you could use a little more love, I hope you will join me.  If you have ever wished you could have a deeper, more intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father, I hope you will join me.  I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow with three witnesses.  All three things happened at the Encounter School of Ministry Boston Campus’ Summer Intensive and they are all wonderful.  Remember Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

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“I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you!”

Jeremiah 1:19 "They will fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you.”

I know a lot of people who could use this promise right about now.  I know a lot of people who are struggling with a lot of different things.  There are some who are battling addiction, cancer, family members treating them badly, recovering from a stroke, recovering from a car accident, dealing with depression and anxiety, you name it and I probably know someone who is going through it right now.  This is a great verse to keep handy and rely on when we are in a tough situation.  “They will fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you.”

The Lord is saying this verse to you, yes you.  You can even change this verse so it is talking you specifically.  This is a great way to personalize the scriptures.  Here is one way you can change it.  “They will fight against me; but they shall not prevail against me, for God is with me and will deliver me.” Another way to personalize it would be to add your name.  “They will fight against you, Catherine; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you, Catherine.” Do you see how both of these ways help me to see more clearly that the Lord is talking directly to me?  

This is a promise that the Lord is making to you.  His Word is truth.  Whatever you read in the Bible, you can be sure it is true.  The Lord doesn’t say things lightly, and he doesn’t say things He doesn’t mean.  There isn’t anything in the Bible that was put there by accident.  If it is in the Bible it is because it is something God wanted us to know.  I think there are two things in this verse that God wants us to know and both are equally important.

First, God wants us to know that we will encounter hard times.  There will be people that will want to fight with us.  We will not just skate through life without any difficulties.  Some people believe that once they decide to give their life to Christ, once they decide that they will follow God and live according to His law, everything will be ok.  Life will be easy and they will not encounter the difficulties they had been facing.  This is not the case.  God never promised us an easy life.  If you look at the faithful people in the Bible they had plenty of struggles.  They struggled to pay bills, to put food on the table, they struggled to conceive children and they lost people they loved.  Believing in God and following His ways doesn’t mean that struggle and tragedy will no longer exist.  What it means is that you will no longer be dealing with these things on your own.  You will no longer be dealing with them with your human strength, you will now have the strength of the Holy Spirit within you as well.  

Looking back at the people in the Bible who have struggled with something you are struggling with can be a great way to find a way through your struggle.  You might read the story of how they struggled and you may find out they did something that made all the difference and you can try to do the same thing.  For instance, in the story of Ruth, she lost her husband, her brother-in-law, and her father-in-law.  Her mother-in-law, Naomi, wanted to move back to be with her people, the Israelites.  Those were not Ruth’s people and yet Ruth went with Naomi back to her homeland. They had both lost their husbands, they had no money, no food, and Naomi was ashamed as she lost everything and was coming home with nothing.  Ruth was obedient and did all that Naomi told her to do. Because of this obedience, Ruth met a man, married him, and eventually became the great-grandmother to King David.  None of this would have happened if she had decided not to stay with her mother-in-law and if she had decided not to be obedient. We can learn from her example.

Obedience can be hard.  Sometimes we don’t want to do what we are being asked to do. One example of this was when Tony asked me if I could help outside yesterday.  I did not want to help outside, that is one of my least favorite things to do.  Our flower beds really needed to be weeded along with the sand surrounding our fire pit.  Weeding is not fun.  We also needed to redo the railings on our porch.  That is not something I really know how to do, so I was asked to do the weeding while he did the porch railing.  I knew he needed the help and since we both live in the house it is not just his responsibility to do the weeding.  I put in my headphones and listened to a few episodes of the Elevation Podcast.  I was obedient, even though I didn’t want to, and now our flowerbeds look great!

Sometimes what we are being asked to do is really difficult.  Maybe you are being asked to watch as your loved one re-learns how to walk, talk, eat, and swallow after a stroke or brain bleed.  Maybe you are being asked to wait for weeks for your radiation to start.  Maybe you are being asked to watch while your child struggles with mental health. Maybe you are being asked to wait for the courts to decide what they will do about your situation.  Whatever it is that you are waiting for or what you have been asked to do, be obedient in the situation.  If God is calling you to be patient, then try to be more patient.  If God is calling you to wait, then try to wait joyfully.  When we can be obedient, even when it’s hard, then amazing things will happen to us.  

The second thing I believe God is trying to tell us in the verse today is that even though we will have people and things that will come against us, they will not prevail.  God is there for us and he will deliver us from whatever comes against us.  He will deliver you from the situation at work.  He will deliver you from that cancer.  He will deliver you from that struggling relationship.  He will deliver you from your enemies.  God did not promise us an easy life and yet He did promise to always be there with us.  He promises He will protect us from evil and from all that comes against us.  

This verse is telling us we won’t sink, we won’t go under.  We may feel like what we are going through will get the best of us, but it won’t.  God is with us, He will protect us, He will save us.  He will deliver us from whatever is troubling us.  "They will fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you.”

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we thank you for always being with us.  We thank you for protecting us and delivering us.  Lord, you are amazing.  Help us to rely on you.  Help us to believe you are there with us each step of the way and that you will deliver us.  Lord, we ask for strength when they come against us.  Give us the strength we need Lord.  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.  I am so excited to announce that the retreat I am hosting is officially open for registration.  CLICK HERE for more details and registration in the show notes and you can also go to walkboldlywithjesus.com and click on the link for the retreat link.  The retreat will be from October 7th-9th and it will be at the Holy Cross Retreat House in Easton, MA. It will be a weekend to get filled up with God’s love.  Have you ever wanted to personally experience God’s love?  Yes, God loves us all.  He also loves each one of us individually and He wants to have a personal relationship with each one of us.  This retreat could be your first step in discovering a deeper, more intimate relationship with Him.  I hope you will join me! I look forward to seeing you here again tomorrow.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

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Yes, It’s Ok To Be Weak!

2 Corinthians 12:9 “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me.”

I love this verse.  When I hear this verse I remember that we don’t always have to be strong.  We don’t always have to be perfect.  We don’t always have to get it right.  When I hear this verse I am reminded that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness, not in our strength. I don’t know about you, but I find that awfully comforting.  We tend to feel like we have to be strong for everyone else around us.  Whether we are a parent, a spouse, a friend, we want to be the strong ones for those around us.    Do you ever feel like that?  Do you ever get tired of feeling like you have to be strong?  This verse gives you permission to not be the strong one all the time.  

I have kiddos that struggle with their mental health at times.  When they are struggling it feels like we have to be strong as they need us to be there for them. They need us to be the safe place that they can land.  They need us not to fall apart because they are already falling apart and they need us to hold them together.  This isn’t just kids either.  Maybe you have a spouse or a friend who struggles with mental illness.  When they are falling apart, you feel you need to be strong to help hold them together.  Is this you?  Do you feel like if you fall apart everything will fall apart? I get it, I understand how that feels.  This is why I love this verse.  We may have to be strong with others and for others, and yet we don’t have to be strong for God or when we are with God.

When we are with God we can let it all go.  We can be weak. We can cry, we can yell, we can fall apart.  The beauty of it all is that when we are weak with God, He actually makes us stronger.  I just thought of an analogy and I don’t know if it’s an exact fit but it came to my mind so I am trusting the Holy Spirit wants me to share it with you. The analogy I just thought of was something my son was talking about the other day.  He was talking about how when we work out, our muscles are broken down, and then when they heal they are stronger.  This is what came to mind when thinking of being stronger when we are weak with the Lord.  God said His power is made perfect in our weakness.  When we are weak with God we are strong, why is this?

One reason for this is that when we allow ourselves to be weak, we make more room for the Lord.  We finally admit that we can’t do it all ourselves and that we need help.  We turn to Him and we ask him to help us.  Actually, at this point, we usually beg Him to help us.  When we finally decide to be weak it’s because we have done all that we could do and it didn’t work.  When we are finally ready to admit we need God we are so desperate and we would do anything for our prayers to be answered.  This is when God can help us the most.  This is when we are the most ready for His help.

God is just waiting for us to realize that we need His help. He is such a good Father that He waits for us to ask for help.  He does not try to force Himself on us.  He is patient too!  He will sit by patiently watching us make the same mistakes over and over again until we finally realize that we don’t have to do it by ourselves. I imagine it must be frustrating for Him to sit there and watch us make the same mistakes time and time again.  I heard this story at Christmas Eve mass once and I never forgot it.  It just popped into my head when I thought about how frustrated God must be watching us. It was a Christmas poem/story called The Man and The Birds as told by Paul Harvey. I guess the author is unknown. Let me read it in case you have not heard it.  

The Man and the Birds (Click Here for website)

Author Unknown (As told by Paul Harvey)

The man I’m going to tell you about was not a Scrooge, he was a kind decent, mostly good man. Generous to his family and upright in his dealings with other men. But he just didn’t believe in all of that incarnation stuff that the churches proclaim at Christmas time. It just didn’t make sense and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just couldn’t swallow the Jesus story, about God coming to Earth as a man.

He told his wife I’m truly sorry to distress you, but I’m not going with you to church this Christmas Eve. He said he would feel like a hypocrite and that he would much rather just stay at home, but that he would wait up for them. So he stayed and they went to the midnight service.

Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier and then he went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper.

Minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound. Then another ... and then another. At first, he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against the living room window. But when he went to the front door to investigate he found a flock of birds huddled outside miserably in the snow. They’d been caught in the storm and in a desperate search for shelter they had tried to fly through his large landscape window. That is what had been making the sound.

Well, he couldn’t let the poor creatures just lie there and freeze, so he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter. All he would have to do is to direct the birds into the shelter.

Quickly, he put on a coat and galoshes and he tramped through the deepening snow to the barn. He opened the doors wide and turned on a light so the birds would know the way in. But the birds did not come in.

So, he figured that food would entice them. He hurried back to the house and fetched some bread crumbs. He sprinkled them on the snow, making a trail of bread crumbs to the yellow-lighted wide open doorway of the stable. But to his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs.

The birds continued to flap around helplessly in the snow. He tried catching them but could not. He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around and waving his arms. Instead, they scattered in every direction ... every direction except into the warm lighted barn.

And that’s when he realized they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature. If only I could think of some way to let them know that they can trust me. That I am not trying to hurt them but to help them. But how? Any move he made tended to frighten them and confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him.

He thought to himself if only I could be a bird and mingle with them and speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid. Then I could show them the way to the safe warm barn. But I would have to be one of them so they could see ... and hear ... and understand.

At that moment the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind.

He stood there listening to the bells, Adeste Fidelis, listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas.

And he sank to his knees in the snow …

I just love that story.  In the story, the man finally understood why God sent His only Son to save us. To me, it also shows how frustrating it must be for God to watch us live our lives.  This man wasn’t angry at the birds, he was full of compassion and just wanted to help them.  I believe this is how God looks at us too.  I think he watches us live our lives and He knows things would be easier if we listened to Him.  He knows we wouldn’t be suffering as much if we lived in this world but were not of this world.  He is not up there judging us and thinking we are stupid and wondering why we just don’t get it.  I think he looks at us with compassion and is just waiting for us to stop trying to do it ourselves and finally turn to Him.  When we do he is ready to jump in and help us.  I think when we are weak, when we finally give in and ask for help God smiles and says, “Finally my child, how can I help you!”

You may feel you have to be strong with others, but you do not have to be strong with God.  Let him shoulder your problems.  Hand Him your worry, your cares, and your deepest desires, and let him carry them for you.  In your weakness, His power is made perfect. Wouldn’t it be great to have more of God’s power in your life?  I know I could definitely use more.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we want to be weak with you, show us how.  We want your power to be made perfect in us.  We love you Lord and we know your grace is sufficient for us.  We know this and we also forget it when times get tough, please remind us, Lord.  Remind us that we don’t have to always be strong.  Remind us that your power is made perfect in weakness.  Remind us that we can be ourselves with you.  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.  This has been a rough week for my family.  I won’t go into details as it is not my story to share.  However, I will say that being a parent is hard, and raising kids who struggle with mental illness, and let's be honest there aren’t many that don’t struggle with something these days, is even harder.  If you have a child struggling please know you are not alone.  You are doing a great job.  You are a good parent, even when it feels like you are failing.  The unkind things they say when they are struggling are not true.  They love you, even if they can’t show it at the moment.  I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

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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!

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Unity Is the Goal

Ephesians 4:3-4 “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one home when you were called; one lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.  

Today’s prayer point for my healing ministry team is Unity. This is something I believe so many of us have been praying for quite some time now.  Our country is more divided than I can remember it ever being.  We really need unity in this country.  This verse is also saying God would like unity within the church. This verse begins by saying, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”  Are we doing that?  I think the most important part of that line might be “through the bond of peace.”  There does not seem to be a lot of peace in the world right now.  It does not seem like anyone can disagree with anyone peacefully.  It seems as though most of us have forgotten that we can be peaceful and still disagree.

There are a few problems with this idea.  First, if we aren’t peacefully talking about the issues then people probably aren’t listening.  If people aren’t listening then how can we understand each other? If we want to get to unity we need to begin with understanding.  We need to first understand where we are each coming from and then find some common ground.  We need to make sure we are listening too.  If we enter a conversation seeking to change the other person's mind, then we have already lost.  We need to enter every conversation with the mindset of truly understanding what they are saying.

Imagine if we did this for each conversation we had.  We didn’t enter the conversation with any preconceived notions of what the other person was going to say. What if we didn’t enter each conversation with the idea that we were right and they were wrong?  What if we just entered the conversation with curiosity?  I wonder how this would change our conversation.

Another issue with not peacefully discussing our issues is that if we get angry, or we frustrated then the other person stops listening.  Think about the last time you got into an argument with someone about something.  Did you continue to listen to them when they were raising their voice?  When the conversation turns into an argument then you both stop listening to each other and the goal becomes to be right, to be the winner of the argument.  This is not a way to gain unity.  If unity is what you are seeking then arguing will not get you what you want.  Arguing will just make people angry and may even make people not want to talk with you.  If you are someone who tends to start arguments a lot, then people may avoid talking with you or spending time with you.  

However, if you are someone who enters a conversation with a curiosity and a willingness to understand what the other person is saying then people will enjoy having a conversation with you.  People will seek you out because they feel you really listen.  People don’t really feel heard these days, especially with electronics.  We are on our phones a lot these days and it can be very distracting.  I have realized in the past few days that I have been on my phone while my kids have been talking to me.  I am usually better about that and yet recently I have heard them get my attention and tell me they have said the same thing 3 times.  

On one hand, I hate when I hear this. It makes me so frustrated that they have to tell me this.  It makes me frustrated when it seems my phone controls me instead of just being a tool I use when I need it.  On the other hand, I am thankful when they point it out so I can get it back under control.  I don’t want to always be looking at my phone.  I especially don’t want to be looking at my phone when my boys are trying to talk with me.  I have teenage boys and the time they want to talk with their mom is limited.  It is precious and I don’t want to waste any of it by being on my phone.  Also, when we are on our phone when someone is talking to us that shows them that what they are saying is not important enough to look away from our phone.  That is definitely not how I feel and not the message I want them to take away.  

Now that we have talked about the importance of listening with curiosity and with the goal of understanding, another thing that I believe will help with unity is knowledge.  If you want to be able to help unite then you have to know what you believe and why you believe it.  I was once on a road trip with a fellow Christian. We were not the same denomination as I am Catholic and she is protestant.  We talked a lot about our religions on the road trip.  We talked about the things we both believe and the things one of us believed that the other one doesn’t.  We were not arguing, we were not trying to convince the other person to believe what we believe, we were trying to understand where these varying beliefs came from.  My friend had several incorrect beliefs about what Catholics actually believe and why we do what we do.

This is not an uncommon occurrence.  We think we know what others believe or what they think and yet we get it wrong often.  Misunderstanding can be a barrier to unity.  We can’t be united if we don’t know what we believe.  If we are having a conversation and yet we can’t explain what we believe and why we believe we won’t get anywhere.  People can’t understand what you believe if you don’t even know.  If we are talking about unity in the church, we need to understand as much as we can about the church.  For instance, why am I Catholic?  What do I believe and why do I believe it?  It is also helpful to know common misunderstandings and what the truth is.  

One example is that many people feel like Catholics pray to the Saints and they feel this is idolatry.  They also don’t understand why we would pray to a Saint when we could pray straight to God.  Catholics ask for the intercession of Saints.  We are not praying to the Saints the way we pray to God.  We know and believe we can pray straight to God, and we do, often.  However, sometimes you are going through something that feels so big you need others to pray for you as well.  Have you ever had something so big going on in your life that you asked everyone you know to pray for you?  You called your pastor, you asked your friends, you asked anyone you know that prays to pray for you.  This is similar to what it is like when Catholics pray to the Saints.  

We are praying for the Saints to intercede for us. They are up in heaven with our heavenly Father, they served him faithfully while they were here on earth, and so we are asking them to go to the Lord and present our request as well.  We tend to pray for the intercession of a Saint that has had some experience in whatever our struggle is.  For instance, if we are praying for healing from cancer, we will pray for the intercession of St. Peregrine as God healed him and then used him to cure many others.  

There are patron Saints for almost anything you could be going through and a quick internet search will give you the name of that patron Saint.  In order to become a Saint, one of the qualifications you need to have is at least one miracle attributed to your name.  In other words, after the saint died, people prayed for their intercession and after praying for their intercession if God granted that miracle, then they could become a Saint. Just to be clear, we attribute all the Glory to God for the miracle.  We do not believe that the Saint performs the miracle.  The Saint is just the intercessor, God is the miracle worker.  

Do you see how important it is to understand why you believe what you believe?  If you are having a conversation with someone and they want to know why you hold those beliefs or why you think the way you do, it is important to be able to explain it.  The other really important thing to remember when your aim is unity it to lead with love.  If you can change people’s hearts, you will change their minds.  If people feel loved, respected, and listened to, they will usually stay in a conversation a lot longer than if they don’t.  Unity is important and it is something this country and I think this world is really hungry for.  Let’s help them out.  Let’s approach people with love in our hearts and with the goal of curiosity and understanding in our minds.  Let's judge less and understand more.  Let’s argue less and love more.  Isn’t it at least worth the try?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless everyone listening to this episode today.  Lord, we know you want unity in your church and we want to help you with that, show us how. Help us to approach each new conversation with openness, compassion, love, and curiosity.  Help us to truly listen to the person we are talking to without any distractions.  Help us to listen with the goal of understanding.  Help us to be “little Christs” in this world.  We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with you 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 bringing you a witness tomorrow.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I!  Have a blessed day!
 

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Your Sins Become Like Snow

Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let us argue it out, says the Lord: If your sins are like scarlet, will they become like snow?  If they are red like crimson, will they become like wool?”

I am a part of a healing ministry and we have a healing service coming up in two weeks.  Before the service the leader sends out a different prayer point for each day along with scriptures to go with the prayer point.  Today we are to pray for God’s mercy and forgiveness.  We had several scriptures and this was one of them.  I liked this one because of the imagery and because of the message.  I like the idea of my sins changing from scarlet to white like snow.  I love thinking about God’s mercy.  Do you ever spend time and think about God’s mercy?  Do you think about how all of your sins are forgiven just by asking God and then repenting.  You can’t ask God to forgive your sins when you aren’t sorry for them.  However, if you are sorry and you repent, your sins are forgiven.  It truly is that simple.

I talk to my kids a lot about how things can be pretty simple and yet they are not easy.  It can be simple to confess your sins and to be forgiven and yet it is not always easy.  It isn’t always easy to walk into a confessional and tell the priest all you have done.  It isn’t even easy to find a day or time that you can go to confession.  The enemy knows how powerful it is when you go to confession. He knows what a great grace it is for your soul and he doesn’t want that.  He will do whatever he can to get in they way.  Have you ever noticed when you want to go to confession, you can’t find somewhere that is open?  Did you ever notice how you plan to go Saturday at 3 and yet somehow always manage to forget or something else comes up?  

There are many churches within a 30 minute radius of me.  There is probably confession most days.  Actually, I think there might be confession every day available at the shrine in Lowell.  The problem is not the availability of confession the problem is the thoughts the enemy puts in our heads.  As soon as we start looking for somewhere to go to confession we start to think of all the reasons we can’t make any of those available times.  We start to think about what and inconvenience it is to go and we start to tell ourselves that we can just tell God our sins, we don’t need a priest.  However, that is the enemy keeping you from an amazing grace.  Fight through the temptation not to go.  If you have never been to confession with a priest can I suggest you give it a try.  There is just something about the grace that comes from it that makes you feel amazing.  You truly feel like your scarlet sins become white as snow.  You feel so clean and so free.  

Even if you do not believe that you need to go to a priest to confess your sins, even just confessing them to God is not always easy.  It’s not easy to admit when we messed up.  It’s not easy to claim our failures.  It’s not easy to approach God time after time and say, “I messed up again. Yep, I did the same thing I keep telling you about.” Even though God forgives us every time, even though God loves it when we come to Him with our sins, it still is not easy for us to tell Him over and over again.  

It’s also not always easy to be sorry for our sins.  This may sound strange, but we live in the world and the world make sin seem fun.  It has normalized sin so much that we don’t always feel sorry for doing things we know are wrong.  Instead we try to justify it and try to convince ourselves that it really isn’t that wrong.  The example that comes to mind for me was when I was watching Game of Thrones.  I knew I shouldn’t really be watching it because of all the graphic sex scenes in it.  Yet, I really wanted to know what happened in the show.  I justified it to myself saying the sex scenes were not the reason I was watching it, and that there was more to it than just those scenes.  However, I felt bad every time I watched it.  I knew for me, it was wrong and yet I really wanted to watch it anyway.  

The same can be true for something you might be doing.  What about if you had an affair?  Do you think that would be something that would be hard to confess, even just to God?  What about if you were unkind to your spouse or to your kids, would that be hard to confess?  The thing about sin is that it is usually accompanied by shame.  When we know we are doing something that we shouldn’t be doing we start to feel shame.  When we feel shame we usually don’t want to talk about it.  Shame does not come from God.  Some people think that is God’s way of letting them know what they are doing is wrong.  That is not true.  God does sometimes correct us but never with shame.  Shame comes straight from the enemy.  

If you want to know if something is from God or from the enemy the Bible tells us that we can look at it’s fruit.  What is the fruit of shame, meaning, what does shame produce?  Shame produces bad feelings.  It not only makes us feel bad, it also makes us feel alone.  It makes us want to hide so that no one knows what happened.  It makes us want to keep that thing that we did a secret.  It makes us feel like we need to stay in the dark.  Does that sound like it would be from God?  God is all about light, not darkness.  Confession can bring those sins into the light.  It can remove all shame if you let it.  

The thing about confessing our sins to a priest or to God is that we need to accept His forgiveness.  It does no good if we confess and then refuse to accept His forgiveness.  It is important that we believe God loves us more than we could ever really know.  It is important to know that God is merciful and forgiving and he is just waiting for us to ask, so that he can forgive us.  He is just like the father from the prodigal son parable.  God is there waiting patiently for us to confess, for us to realize the error of our ways.  When we do He is right there to welcome us back with open arms.  He is a good and loving father.  He does not want to punish us He wants to love us and to hug us.  God can make our sins white like the snow.  We just have to let Him.  We just have to believe and accept his forgiveness. What if we each took 5 minutes right now and thought about all the things we have done that might have offended the Lord and then told Him we were sorry.  What if we just decided to say that thing that we have been afraid to say?  What if we said the thing we are sure he couldn’t forgive and then accept his forgiveness.  If you are truly struggling to believe that He could forgive you I recommend talking to a priest or your pastor.  I recommend doing a bible study on God’s love or God’s forgiveness.  You do not have to keep living with shame or guilt. That is not what God wants for you!  He wants us to all be free!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we want to be forgiven, please help us.  Lord, help us to believe with our hearts and minds that there isn’t anything too big for your mercy.  Help us to believe you are a loving Father waiting to welcome us back each time we repent.  We love you Lord and we are so grateful you are so merciful.  We ask that you put on our hearts anything that we need to talk with you about Lord.  I pray that each person listening to this has a conversation with you today about whatever is heavy on their heart.  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 want to remind everyone that I am on vacation in Maine and there is no internet accept at the Lodge.  So I am still planning to post each day, however, depending on the internet connection and what is going on with the family I may not be able to.  If I miss a day just know that nothing is wrong, I am just enjoying vacation and/or there was no internet connection.  I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

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