Two extremes in one day

       I started this day extremely discouraged. Most of the day I was trying to fight through the discouragement, until I realized that all this fighting is creating more fatigue. Slowly I began to rest and just allow God to love on me, little by little His words would sink into my heart.

             I finally cave into a nap that lasted for an hour. It was a hard heavy nap. This was the type of nap that took strength from the Lord to get up from; a nap that was both a breakthrough and a struggle; it gave me the rest I needed to continue through the day and peace from thoughts of discouragement.

         Time and time again, God continues to show me how good and faithful he is, and how powerful His loving grace is.  On my worst day he poured out blessings in abundance. One of my worst days was transformed into one of my best days. How does this happen? How does God take something negative and bad and completely take hold of it and make blessings flow out of it. It puzzles me, it amazes me, I am in awe of God’s marvelous works.

          I don’t remember a time, where I went from extreme discouragement to abundantly being encouraged in the same day like I was today. Moment after moment God let me know that he cared and that I am loved and accepted. He let me know I wasn’t forgotten. He let me know that there is a purpose and He is doing wonderful things in my life. Each day I am keeping my eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith and allowing His love to mold and strengthen me.

         Forgive me for being vague and not putting in much details. I would like to but sometimes certain things that God does you have to cherish it in your heart.

Learning to live every day of my life with an adventure with God

I am learning to live every day of my life as an adventure with God. To tell you the truth I am not sure how this works. How do we have an adventure with God? Is there something that we do? How do we live a life where we allow God to move in our day with greatness that causes us to marvel at him? I don’t want to go through life “just going through the motions” or “just enduring through the day” or “doing the day to day stuff”. I don’t want the mundane. I want excitement and adventure. I want joy and laughter; I want to be amazed every day. I don’t know how that looks like or what it is I am really looking for or expecting. But all I know is that I want to have a God encounter each and every day where my world is rocked by God.

 I want to be in awe of him and his wonders. I want to be filled with abundance of joy exploding from my life. I want to have extravagant praise and worship. I want to see God in everything I do, everywhere I go, and everything I experience. I am not sure how this all looks, sounds or feels like, but all I know is that I am hungry for it. I am craving for an adventure; to be in awe, struck by the glorious and loving wonder of God my Father. I am thirsty for a waterfall experience in and through my spirit. I want more, I don’t want to settle, I don’t want to be content with normality; I want supernatural experiences. I want God’s amazing love to blow my mind and melt my heart every day. I want to write adventurous stories of God and me.

I want to live not letting my feelings and emotions dictate my God experiences. I want to be rooted in truth. I want to be rooted in God’s goodness and love for me, rooted in Christ and in mercy. I want to be established in grace and thriving in the spirit. I want all of God’s promises and blessings to manifest and flow through my life. I want to live heaven on earth. I want to live like Christ is now in his glory, seated at the right hand of the Father. I want the fullness of God to consume all of me. Christ in me, I in Christ, Christ in the Father.

Why are we so quick to be discouraged?

        As soon as something doesn’t look like it is going to turn out good or right, we automatically give up and stop fighting and believing. Why, when we come across a wall we stop and just sit at the base of the wall and just cry with frustration and discouragement? Why do we stop and give up?

When an obstacle comes our way, why is our first response discouragement? What about being encouraged first? Why not look at the obstacle as a challenge; a challenge that requires you to be creative and persistent, a challenge that stretches your thinking and abilities. A challenge that gives you the opportunity to see what you are capable of, a challenge that provides the opportunity for you to unleash the stored up potential that has been locked away inside of you for years.

Challenge is greatness’s best friend. It is in obstacles that a person’s greatness is challenged to be woken up. The greatness within a person is shaken from its slumber. This challenge requires excellence that one has to put forward, which ultimately results in producing greatness. Your character is strengthened, your personality is refined, and your gifts are sharpened. You become alive.  The roaring lion sleeps no more and its eyes are fixed on the prize, it is ready for the challenge, it is ready to show its might and greatness. It is ready to conquer and to rule.

Process to Destination

It’s interesting how life operates. To get what I want I have to work for it. Life is all about process, not destination. It is the process that makes the destination worth it. When we are hungry we have to prepare the food and cook it, then we can enjoy the taste and substance of the food. We have to go through a waiting and preparation period to get what we want and desire. To take it even further with this example of food, in order to prepare the food we need money to purchase the food, which comes when we work 40 hour weeks doing tasks required of us to get the money.  The food I get to eat today is a process that took two weeks to develop, which is the time the income check gets processed from the last pay period.

                If I don’t work, I don’t get paid, resulting in no money, leading to me starving. We see this process or sowing and reaping all throughout our lives. Each day we are sowing or planting something and waiting for it to grow so we can enjoy the fruits of our labor. This process of work is laborious, it is not easy, and it requires hard work, sweat, sometimes tears and blood. Earlier I said that Life is all about the process, the reason for this is, because in the process, our character is being developed. When we wait, work and prepare, it is a time when our character is being refined. We are being shaped into Men and Women. There is something special and powerful when we endure through hard times and struggles. Our hearts are enlarged, our minds become more stable, and our spirits become more alive and free. During this time we have no choice but to rely on something bigger than ourselves. We see that our strength and ability is not enough and we begin to look around us. But everyone else is just like you. Then you hear a voice in your spirit say “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

                For the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the cross. He had to go through a process of beatings and bloodshed for the destination that he was looking at and working towards. He wanted something passionately that required him to go through bloodshed and the cross. He wanted us to have life and life abundantly; he wanted us to know the Father and his love for us. He wanted a bride, a family of brothers and sisters inheriting His righteousness and Kingdom, sitting with Him in heavenly places. It was done for people to be free and victorious, for friends to be compelled by love. For royal priests to live by the Spirit in all holiness and purity from what He accomplished.

                He went to the cross for the joy set before Him. Keep your eyes on the joy that is set before you, so you can endure your process of life with Jesus guiding and strengthening you.