Month: July 2015

The title to this post may be a little confusing to those of you who are well versed in the story of the prodigal son in the Bible. However, God is trying to convey a serious message to us all, and it should not be overlooked.

First, for those who aren’t familiar with the prodigal son, lets dive into this beautiful story.

In Luke 15:11-33, Jesus tells this story. It begins with a Father who had two sons. He divided his inheritance among both of them equally. The younger of the two sons then went off into a path of wild living and soon spent all that He had received from his Father. A famine came over the land and soon the younger son was desperately in need. He then received a job from a citizen of that country, helping him to feed pigs. The son was so hungry He even longed to fill his stomach with the pods the pigs were eating. The son then came to his senses and decided that He would go back to his Father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.

As the son was walking home, his Father saw him still a long ways off and ran to him and was overjoyed and filled with compassion for him. He threw his arms around him and kissed him. The Father then told his servants to bring him an expensive robe to wrap around him. He placed a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. The Father had a huge feast to celebrate the coming home of his son. The older brother became very angry because all these years he had been loyal to his father and had been working for him. He did not believe the younger son deserved all of this. Yet, the Father assured the older son that the coming home of this once lost son is to be lavishly celebrated.

This story never really held any significance in my head and heart until recently. This younger Son is much like so many of us. We receive with open arms the blessings our heavenly Father generously gives to us, yet we run away from Him. Something else entices us and we no longer feel the need to stay close to our Father. Once we finally come to our senses, we are absolutely mortified at what we have done and how we have ran away from our Creator. We expect and we deserve to be given up on and rejected. Yet, when we decide to come back to our heavenly Father, He is waiting with open arms with a huge smile on his face.

We deserve to be punished for everything we do against the Fathers will. However, He chooses to forgive us of ALL of our sins. We are never too far gone. In Gods eyes. nothing can separate us from his love. He is waiting with open arms for you to fall into him and allow him to hold you and protect you. God will meet you EXACTLY right where you are, and HE will love you. So come running back to the Father. He is waiting for you to leap into his arms, holding nothing back. With open arms.

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 8:37-39

Before my brother and I were born, my mother gave birth to triplets just a year before. They were extremely premature. Each one weighed well under the healthy weight a baby should be. The weight was light, but the burden was heavy. As the days passed after their birth, one by one each took their last breath here on earth. Whether it’s cancer, losing a loved one, failing health, a shattered relationship, or mental illness, we never quite are able to grasp why these sort of tragedies happen to us. The number one question people ask me when attempting to understand why I follow Jesus is: If God really loved us, why would he allow such terrible things to happen in our lives?

Well, first off, I would just like to say that we may NEVER fully understand the reason God allows certain things to happen to us. I know this may come off harsh, but it is just something we
ought to recognize and start to accept. Life here on earth will never become any easier. However, we can hold onto a certain promise. The promise given to us by our Creator, our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ.

“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.

Isaiah 55:8-9

God clearly tells us that his ways are higher than our ways. We may see this tragedy in our lives as the end of the road. God sees the bigger picture though. He has planned out your ENTIRE life. God only wants what is best for us. That is a statement that I know many will fight against. But if God is our Creator and if HE truly is who He says HE is, then why would we expect anything less? Cancer is not right. Depression should not be wished upon even the most evil soul.  Losing a loved one feels like you have lost everything you have ever known. However, there is a hope we can always put our faith in. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

He will walk with you through the fire and help you through whatever difficult season of life you may be facing. Recently I have had to learn what it truly means to trust God with every aspect of my life. In the past, I was so afraid of what God may do with my life, but since God is always for me, I know that I can always trust in him and that he will ultimately NEVER fail me. You can place all of your trust in Him because he knows you better than you know yourself. He will love you better than anyone else can here on earth. If you never had that relationship you’ve always wanted with your earthly father, you can be assured that your heavenly Father will love you like no other. He will wrap you in his arms and shelter you from the storms of life.

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
    and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
    and the flame shall not consume you.”

Isaiah 43:2

Life may feel so overwhelming right now. It feels like everything and everyone is against you. I know that feeling all too well. But it is not until we hit the ground that we finally start looking up. When we go through difficult times in life, we can be comforted by the fact that God is always with us. Nothing in life will be able to take us away from the love of our heavenly father. God never said life here on earth would be easy. In fact, He said it is going to be extremely difficult and full of sorrow at times. However, if we choose to follow Him through it all, we will be rewarded beyond our wildest dreams. It will all be worth it. I promise. Just hold on to that hope. The hope that never fails. Jesus Christ is with you right now. Waiting for you to grab his hand. To take you through this difficult time and to bring you closer to him. Everything will work together for the good of those who love God.

Ever since I was a little girl, beauty was something I noticed each and every women strived towards gaining more of. Make up. Plastic Surgery. Highlights. The list could go on and on. Beauty is something that we have greatly confused. Somehow over the years, beauty has taken on this artificial mold. It is something now that some can only dream of fitting into. However, most people who try to achieve this certain “beauty” can never possibly live up to its standards based on the simple idea that the type of beauty our society conveys is near to impossible. Beauty is no longer something each and every person possesses but is something for the elite few. Those with “the right genes”. Yet, this is completely far from the truth.

“Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight”

1 Peter 3:3-4

Unfading beauty. Now doesn’t that sound wonderful. Beauty that comes not from outward adornment. We don’t need to worry about what our hair looks like, whether we are skinny enough to fit into that dress, or whether our clothes match the right “style”. Because we have a heavenly Father who made each and every one of us in his image. The image of absolute perfection. Now, I don’t know about you, but this comes as a HUGE relief to me. To know that a gentle and quite spirit is what pure beauty looks like is completely contrary to what we have all been taught growing up by the media. If we place our standards in God’s eyes and not in the eyes of the media, we will begin to see that our true beauty, the kind of beauty that comes from an inward heart change, is the one we should all be striving towards. Because with God, each and every single one of you are beautiful. You are loved. God made you and he thinks you are absolutely gorgeous just the way He made you. God looks at the heart. He recognizes that we will all fall short of the glory of God. Yet, He wants us. He wants YOU. Each and every second of every day. There is not a moment that passes that God doesn’t want you. It doesn’t matter how many times you have messed up, He didn’t send his one and only Son down to die for all of the sins of mankind for nothing.

God will never regret saving you. You are precious and dearly dearly loved. You are BEAUTIFUL exactly the way you are and your true worth is placed in the Creator of the universe. Your true beauty comes from within. And let me just tell you… you are gorgeous.

Recently I listened to a sermon on the power of the Gospel and how it could radically change our lives. I listened closely to each word that particular pastor was saying and i couldn’t help but question myself. Did I REALLY believe that? Did I really believe in the Gospel? It is a very tough question to answer. Because the Gospel is so much bigger than many people have always thought it to be.

“ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”

John 3:16

This is the verse many of us are taught countless times to memorize, right? But here is the problem. We are taught to memorize it and it has been drilled into our heads that Jesus came into the world, died for our sins, and then rose again. There is so much more, though, that lay beneath the surface of that simple statement. Jesus. A perfect man. Many will try to argue against that statement but if they read the bible they can see clearly that Jesus was without fault and without blame. Jesus. A miracle worker. A healer. And yet, what did WE do to him? I say WE because as he hung there on that cross it was our sins that were holding him up. The weight of our sins hung upon him. He thought of YOU and everything YOU would do. Yes, YOU, whoever is reading this,  He knew every sin that you would ever commit against him. And yet… he loves you. He wouldn’t have died for you if he didn’t love you. He loved you then as he hung on that cross, paying the penalty for our sins, and he loves you RIGHT NOW. He loves you just as you are. Jesus not only died, but he rose again. Proving that the grave could not hold him. Sin was broken as Jesus’ blood poured out the grave was no match for the true King. We can place all of our hope and faith in Him because he has more then proven it to us that he will never fail us. Let that soak in for just a moment…He will NEVER fail us.

Every sin that you will ever commit is no surprise to the God of the universe who knit you together in your mothers womb. Every flaw YOU see, he sees as perfection. Every unique and special thing about you was intricately designed by your heavenly father. So we can live with joy. Because our sins are paid IN FULL! How exciting is that?? We owe absolutely EVERYTHING to our Lord and Savior. So we should live in joy and peace, holding nothing back from our heavenly Father. He will meet you right where you are, in all of the pain, in the joy, in the suffering, in the tears. He will come and wrap his arms around you and He will never ever fail. Because He displayed his perfect love for us on that cross. Now that… is the power of the cross.

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”

Romans 5:6-8

I know the feeling. The weight of anxiety can creep up when you least expect it and then… bam. It hits you like a rock. Wave after wave of sheer panic come over you. Your heart begins to race. Sweat begins to drip from your hairline. This is the start of something bad. I know that feeling all too well. Over the past year or so I’ve had my fair share of struggles that I’ve had to overcome. Anxiety has certainly been one of the biggest. I am not going to tell you overcoming this terrible obstacle in your life is going to be easy. But who needs easy in this lifetime? I certainly don’t. I just need possible. And isn’t that all anyone needs? If we know it is possible, if we have even that tiny sliver of hope, we will always try to achieve that goal we are striving towards.

“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33

Sometimes we forget that God never said life here on earth would be easy. In fact, we see in this verse that He has made it pretty clear that we will face many trials here on earth. When I first read the first part of that verse I became very sad. I knew time on earth would be temporary and that I would be with my heavenly Father for eternity, but I wanted to live a life that was worry free and full of happiness. But as I began to examine that verse after many years of just briefly skimming over it, I realized something extremely powerful. First, that God wants us to live in peace. He wants that with all of his heart. However, we can never achieve that peace apart from Him. He wants us to be close with Him so that we may grow in peace and in love. He knows us way better than we know ourselves. And that statement itself is extremely comforting to me. You may be going through something that you think is the worst thing in the entire world, yet God is working everything out for your good. He knows exactly what you’re going through. Each and every breath you take on earth is no surprise to him. Because he knows every hair on your head. He knows every move that you make. He is walking with you through it all. When you mess up, He already knew you would do that before you were born. God choose you for a REASON. You matter to this world and nothing, and I mean nothing, will ever be able to separate you from that fact. Lastly, we also forget that nothing can actually be “that bad”. Jesus has overcome the world. The battle is already won! We can celebrate and live our lives out in joy! We have the blessed assurance that Jesus Christ will walk with us all of the days of our life if we just let him into our lives and let him transform us and our hearts from the inside out.

“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love”

Romans 8:38

To everyone who may have stumbled upon this blog, hello! I am so glad you are here:) On this blog you will get a whole lot of everything. From advice to deep deep posts, you will get the best of everything. Thank you for tagging along with me on this wonderful journey! Let’s see where this blessing of an adventure takes us!:)