These seasons are shorter looking back from the other side. Don’t let these moments slip away.
Stretch out the sentences with your honesty; it’s a treasure that loses power the longer we wait. Even the tears unlock a vault of vulnerability that acts more like gravity between two hearts.
Unbridle the laughter when life brings you immense joy.
This place of surrender and trust is the shortest path between two people. This is how we love.
Sometimes crazy gets the breakthrough.
When you’ve been waiting and believing and trusting for a miracle, some days can just drain you. You might wake up thinking, ‘This is going to be the day’! The evening comes and you return with nothing more than the weight of requests unanswered and an exhausted spirit.
I want you to know that it’s okay to still get loud about these miracles. Your worship can turn the tide of the battle in your favor.
This kind of praise confuses the enemy because you haven’t received your miracle yet but here you are praising and shouting and lifting up the name of the only one who can turn your situation around.
The enemy wants to mute your praise because the currency of the miraculous is in your mouth. How loud would you get if your miracle was on the other side of your praises?
Get desperate about your requests when doubt creeps in. When you are so low that you feel you can’t get any lower and there’s no reason for you to believe that God is going to do anything about it…
Lift your voice. Hope will rise on the inside.
Hope when it doesn’t make sense. Hope in the midst of fear. Hope when the situation gets worse because hope gives way to strength. The Lord didn’t bring you this far to leave you. There’s a miracle with your name on it.
It’s time to get loud for your ‘all of a sudden…’ Your miracle is right behind you.
Those who have never run a race in their lives are happy to give you all the reasons why you can’t win yours. Start a new habit of saying yes to your own ideas. Count all the ways you can and will achieve these dreams and then add one more because there will always be that voice rattling off why you can’t or won’t.
You may have never crossed a finish line, yet. Here’s the key to silencing the voice whispering defeat over your plans… simply start. Break the heartstrings your old nature and say yes. Even if your soul throbs with the lonely, gushing groans of Gethsemane.
So what is your passion? Where do your desires find rest? What are the names of those stars that illuminate your blackest of nights? When you close your eyes, what wakes the spirit and quenches your thirsty soul? What is your undoing? Then say yes to that.
Take one step today. And take one more tomorrow. Ask yourself, “Am I content to leave it at that?” And, if not, address “Where do I go from here?”
The scars will testify that you at least tried. Your ideas matter.
Throwing his arms around me, the warmth holds me like I am His. Like He has been here the whole time waiting. We look at each other for a long while, until the corners of my smile tremble and the tears flush away the last remnants of fear.
This life is a race of sort. Not the kind we measure by who crossed the finish first or who did it best but rather who endured to the end. We do this by keeping our head up when the heat is on. We show up when the struggle hurts. We narrow our focus to Christ when the world offers greener and wider pastures.
We are more capable than we think we are. We have more in us. When we show up, we practice not giving up. I assure you, joy is waiting just on the other side.
If you feel like there’s no way you can win now… the debt is too high, the mistakes too many, the burdens too heavy… hear this assurance, Jesus already secured victory before you even began. Rest up. Soak in His grace. Lay down the weight in your prayers tonight. Tomorrow, pick up only His peace. Take it slow. It doesn’t matter how fast or how far you go. He’s waiting for you at the finish. #RunReady @brooksrunning #globalrunningday
When the sun falls below the horizon, evidence of its work remains for some time. The skies continue to glow a bit longer after it is gone.
In the same way, when a great person’s life comes to that final sunset, the skies of this world stay illuminated with traces of bravery and courage long after they are out of view. This kind of extraordinary person does not die from this world. When they depart they leave much of themselves behind. From the grave, their voice still speaks.
Remembering the extraordinary men and women who have gone before us with their courage and still have a voice in our world today.
I want you to remember that life isn’t just about getting what you want. Sometimes it involves giving up the things you love for what you love even more.
When you are confused or curious about the way things are going and which direction to walk in, ask God if there’s something he’d like to say to you. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. – Isaiah 30:21
Are you struggling to make a decision? The battle over your time can keep your strengths and dreams locked up in procrastination, confusion, and forgetfulness. Life is based on making decisions, and not making them holds you hostage to compromise in your calling.
You can spend more time dreaming about tomorrow and rob the opportunities to walk out the steps today. Moses used his speech as an excuse. Jeremiah and Gideon used their age. There’s no shortage of excuses that can tie up the process.
Whether you are a parent, a spouse, a leader, or someone passionate about a cause, your choices need internal clarity and courage versus external social pressure.
Lord, grant me the boldness that I may speak forth (Acts 4:29).
The truth is that what you do today will determine whether you have success with tomorrow. And, some invitations that look like opportunities today can actually distract and derail you from the best use of time.
“Doing something good is not good enough”, says Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism – The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. This is not selective enough criteria for your time. So how do you start making strategic decisions that support the work of your life?
McKeown offers advice on how to make the decisions based on what’s essential to your life. He suggests starting with this question, ‘What is most important right now’? McKeown recommends three steps to benchmark a discerning ‘yes’:
Fear can have you struggling to say ‘no’. You might be afraid this answer will shut down other opportunities, or result in a frayed relationship. You might be tempted to accept a request based on a ‘what if’ scenario you’ve dreamed up. Just say ‘no’.
I have boldness and access with confidence by faith in Christ (Eph. 3:12). I boldly say, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man will do to me” (Heb. 13:6).
You must eliminate every excuse that is hindering you from doing what you have been called to do. There is no rationalization worth stopping the success God has already set before you. God’s grace is sufficient.
I come boldly to the throne of grace, that I may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16).
Successful people are doers of the Word (James 1:22). This means you can’t sit passively and expect a lucrative life. If you want to experience the full provision of God’s covenant operating in your time, then you must be proactive with your response to these decisions.
When you waver or avoid choices that need to be made, you open up a door to doubt. When we don’t have clarity, the enemy capitalizes on the uncertainty with more questions to cause confusion.
You can’t be slow to act when God is telling you to move. You are commanded in Romans 12:11 to be “fervent in spirit [and to] serve the Lord.”
When we feel like we’re going nowhere, this keeps our minds feeling defeated. And if we’re not careful, we can become tired and idle. So let’s make that plan centered around our priorities and start making bold decisions based on the Lord’s calling in our lives.
I will be strong and courageous; I will not be afraid, for the Lord is with me wherever I go (Josh. 1:9).
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This post, Crack the Confusion, by Trisha Keehn, appeared first on LiftUpYourDay.com
The greatest gift I have been given today is J O Y. It is where we get our strength.
Not every day is a walk in the garden of roses. Sometimes it’s more like patches of thorns. But even then, it is a day the Lord has made. I have a choice to be glad in it. I can choose to have a good attitude through it. I make the choice to extend good things to someone else, no matter what has happened.
The enemy can change up the circumstances, but joy in the Lord is lasting. Defeat only comes when I hand over my joy to fickle situations. I choose to rise above everything that comes against me and keep my focus on the Lord’s unwavering goodness. Today, I have the gift of J O Y.
