Tag: God’s Promises

Joy in 2019

Published on by BrandiLeave a comment

It wasn’t until late 2017 that I first heard the idea of choosing a word for the year. The idea intrigued me: choose a single word that all of your yearly goals point back to. To be honest, I don’t remember the word I chose for 2018 – or if I even chose one.

As I reflected on 2018, however, I did choose a word for 2019.

Joy.


I am not looking to do any and everything that makes me happy. I am simply doing two things: I am carving out the time to do the small things that I love – and am being grateful that I get to do them – and I am remembering that no matter what is going on in my world, I have a Joy that can never be taken from me.

I spent too much of the previous years trying so hard to do what I felt like I was supposed to do. I had to clean my house a certain way. I had to dress a certain way. I had to set goals a certain way. I spent so much time trying to be who I thought I was supposed to be that I never took the time to figure out who I really was, who God designed me to be.

I looked more to people on social media to figure out what I should do than I did looking to God. I decided I should do things because other people did them rather than because I wanted to do them. I have always struggled with feeling pressured to do what others do because I think it’s “the right thing to do.” I also let my circumstances dictate how I felt, leaving me feeling pretty crummy a lot of the time.

Maybe becoming a mom caused something to change, because quite frankly I got quite tired of living that way. But changing the habit of trying to conform to others’ standards so that I feel like I’m “doing it right?”

Yeah, that’s hard.

I’m a people pleaser by nature. I so badly want to have it all together.

But I don’t. And I never will. And I had to accept that just because something works for someone else doesn’t mean it will work for me – and it doesn’t mean it has to work for me. I also had to accept that if I let the circumstances of my life dictate my life, I was going to be a miserable person.

I decided to stop robbing myself of little things that I love because I felt like I had to be this super-structured person who lived by a strict schedule and always had everything done.

I’ve started doing things that I love again simply because I want to. Small things like reading four books at once, writing fiction, spending time with friends and family, and watching sunsets. These little things may seem insignificant, but they are little moments, little things, that I am so grateful for.

We can’t throw our responsibilities to the wind, but we can learn to be more flexible. We can leave dishes in the sink overnight because it’s been a hard day and we’d like to take a bath and relax. We can fold the laundry later so that we can play with our kids. We can do the things – big or small – that we’ve always wanted to do but never carved out time to do it.

Even more than these things – and these things are great – I’m remembering Who my true joy comes from. Please hear me here: My goal in life is not to be happy, it is to please God.


And to please God, we have to trust in Him always. We can’t give in to worry and anxiety. We have to remember that no matter the circumstance, not matter the battles, our Savior is with us always. Paul instructs us several times in the New Testament to rejoice in the Lord. He is the source of unwavering joy.

This is one of the hardest seasons of my life, but my God has so lovingly reminded me that His love is covering me. He is my true joy.

So this year I am carving out time for things that I enjoy, and I am resting it the unwavering promises of my Savior. I am finding joy in 2019.

With love,

Photo credit:

unsplash-logoTom Sodoge
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With Both Hands

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I was lying in bed last night and got to thinking and praying, and I felt my heart breaking a little bit. The past few weeks I’ve made excuse after excuse as to why I’ve only had a few minutes to read Scripture or pray (but plenty of time to do everything else) and I’ve felt the distance between myself and God growing and growing. It’s as if I thought that because I had encountered God in a very intimate way a few weeks ago, that that would keep the intimacy between me and my Father. What I failed to realize is that by failing to spend intimate, quality time with Him, I was doing anything but keeping the intimacy. It was as if I knew that there was distance between God and myself, and I knew the solution, but I just didn’t do anything about it. I had the head knowledge that this isn’t how it works, but I didn’t let it affect me. And like I said, this realization broke my heart.

After a few minutes, however, my laments turned to praise because I knew that God was patiently waiting for me with open arms. Lamentations 3:23 says it best:

Great is His faithfulness;
    His mercies begin afresh each morning.

While I was faithless, He was faithful. And His mercy was waiting for me to grasp onto it. I am not going to feel guilty or shameful for the past few weeks, I am going to hold onto mercy with both hands. As soon as I admitted, to myself really, that I had been neglecting my relationship with God and expecting to get by just fine, it was as if the deepest part of my being just cried out to God. A cry of praise, of homecoming. I turned my head from the distractions of the world and looked at my Father once again.

This post is a bit of rambling, I know. But I had to share my encounter with God and His mercy, because it shook me to my core. He is so good, friends, so good.

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Photo Credit: Jeremy Yap

Guidance and Choice

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“God, help me to love others.”

“God, help me to trust You.”

“God, give me patience.”

I often pray these prayers of guidance, but I often miss the prayers of choice. We have to make the choice to love people, to trust God, to be patient. How often do we pray with intention?

“God, help me to understand further what showing Your love looks like and give me opportunities to show others Your love.”

“God, I’m trusting You with this situation, lead me where You want me to go, and remind me of Your promises and faithfulness.”

“God, I’m going to choose to be patient in this situation. When I am tempted to become impatient, remind me that impatience is not from you.”

Prayers of guidance and choice go hand in hand.

We can’t just pray comfortable prayers and expect big things to happen. Pray the bold prayers. Pray for opportunities. Don’t be passive. Make the choice.

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Photo Credit: Chris Barbalis

Do Not Be Afraid

Published on by Brandi1 Comment

God has recently called me to something bigger than myself, something that scares me. I was writing in my journal last night right before bed and I wrote that I’m scared, but it’s okay because that fear is causing me to rely on God. First thing this morning I began the book of Jeremiah and I got to a passage that stopped me in my tracks.

“The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.’

‘Alas, Sovereign Lord, ‘ I said, I do not know how to speak; I am too young.’

But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,’ declares the Lord. Then the Lord reached out His hand and touched my mouth and said to me, ‘I have put My words in your mouth.'”

Jeremiah 1:4-9

God has not called me, or you for that matter, to be afraid. He has called us to have courage in what He calls us to do, holding fast to the knowledge that He is going before us and He will equip us.

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Photo Credit: Connor McSheffrey

Real Life

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As time goes on, I realize that life isn’t always what I think it should be. It seems that the Christian life is portrayed as a life with no problems or that if problems do arise, we are sad for a moment and then are miraculously  better. I’ve come to realize that this is not true in the slightest. Life as a follower of Christ can be just as difficult as that of a non-believer. Tragedies still happen, depression is still a real thing, stress still exists. The list goes on and on. The difference is that having hope in the Creator of all things, having hope that the One who paints the sky and crafted nothing into a functioning universe holds our lives in His hands, having hope that He can make beauty out of ashes brings us peace. But even as followers of Christ we sometimes still have a problem with holding onto that hope. We let the problem consume us and it enslaves us, making our God seem small. Our God is so much bigger than any problem or circumstance, but if you hold onto the problem, your heart hardens, when all you can talk or think about is your situation, you become bitter. God waits with open arms and I bet it breaks His heart to see us clinging to our problem instead of Him. God has shown me to worship Him through the storm I’m in, because the thing is, worship isn’t based on how we feel, it’s based on who He is, and He is good and deserving of our praise. Bad things happen in real life, but we get to choose how to handle them, we choose what to cling to.

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Photo Credit: Daryan Shamkhali

God Says

Published on by Brandi1 Comment

My, oh, my. The Christian walk doesn’t always feel easy, does it? There are some days that I just get so fed up with myself and my inability to do what I know God wants me to do. Some days I am just too tired to be nice or to go out of my way to help someone. Sometimes I get so overwhelmed by guilt and shame because I deliberately go against what God says. I feel like a dirty, broken sinner.

And I am.

I am a sinner with blood on my hands and lies in my heart.

But I am also so loved by God.

The other night I was talking to someone about letting go of guilt and shame and embracing the love of God. I remember saying something along the lines of, “When we wallow in the fact that we sinned, when we let the guilt chain us down, we are focusing on ourselves. We get this self-righteous attitude because we’re making it all about us. We ignore God’s promises in favor of our self-pity. It’s so hard to face God with blood on our hands rather than running the other way, but we have got to stop making it about ourselves. Jesus didn’t die so that we could get caught up in ourselves and our inability to live the life we are called to live. You see, it’s not about us, it’s not about what we can’t do, it’s about what He did. Jesus died to cleanse us, to free us. We need to take the focus off of ourselves and put it on the One who saves us, the One who set us free, the One who loves us despite our sin, the One who died knowing already every act of treason that we would commit against Him, the One who said ‘Father, forgive them, they know not what they do’ as He was dying.” 

I finished speaking and I sat back. I said, “That wasn’t me. Those were not my words. I needed to hear that so much.”

God put words into my mouth to say to someone else that I desperately needed to hear. It’s not about me.

When I look at myself, all I is that I feel worthless, undeserving, broken, tainted.

But when I look at God, all I see is mercy, love, grace, forgiveness.

I stopped in the middle of writing this post to go to church. Tonight we sang – and I heard for the first time – “Who You Say We Are” by Steven Curtis Chapman. The song really resonated with me and paralleled so well with the message in my heart that I had been writing about just 3o minutes before; I smiled and praised God about how amazing His timing is.  While I was singing I just thought about the words, “Hallelujah! We are who You say we are.” God says we are His forgiven, clean, and loved children; hallelujah indeed

I encourage you to embrace God’s truth:

 God is calling you to live outside of guilt  (Hebrews 10:22  “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”);

He has made us clean (1 John 1:7 “but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”);

He gives us peace (Romans 5:1 “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”);

All because He loves us (John 3:16 “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.”)

And wants us to live for Him (1 Peter 2:24 “‘He Himself bore our sins’ in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by His wounds you have been healed.'”).

My brothers and sisters, do not turn your face away from God, He loves you despite all you have done, all you will ever do; turn towards Him. He loves you so much.

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Steven Curtis Chapman – Who You Say We Are

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Photo Credit: Christopher Campbell

The List

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Yesterday morning I began the book of Matthew.  I haven’t read it in over three years and it’s one of my favorite books of the Bible, so I’m pretty excited.

So I began chapter one, the first half of which is the genealogy of Jesus.  Now, I’m pretty sure the first time I read it, I skipped this part.  Since then, someone has pointed out to me how cool genealogies can be, and I’m going to elaborate a bit on the cool stuff I found in the genealogy of Matthew 1.

  • It shows how God fulfilled His promise of the Messiah through the line of David.
  • It shows that Old Testament stories are more relevant than we think – did you know that Rahab the prostitute that hid the Israelite spies is the mother of Boaz who married Ruth? or that Ruth and Boaz were the great-grandparents of David?
  • It shows that God can use anyone and everyone – Tamar seduced her father-in-law, Rahab was a prostitute, David was an adulterer and murderer,  Mary the mother of Jesus was a virgin.
  • It show’s God’s faithfulness.  The genealogy starts with Abraham – the first to be called by God – and it continues through a list of unqualified, messed up people who were each a part of God’s plan to bring the Messiah into the dying world.

Every part of God’s Word is alive and relevant. This list of name after name points to the faithfulness, love, and ability of the Father.  God orchestrated the lives of hundreds of people to bring the Messiah into the world in the exact context that He wanted Him to, yet we think God doesn’t know what He’s doing when it comes to our lives.  Scripture says differently.

Remember, you are loved by a mighty God. Until next time, lovelies.

Photo Credit: Michał Grosicki

A Few Thoughts on Isaiah 44

Published on by Brandi1 Comment

Hi, guys, I just wanted to share some thoughts I had while reading Isaiah chapter 44 the other day.

There were three things right off the bat in verse 2:

“The Eternal who made you, who formed you in the womb and promised to help you has this to say: ‘Don’t be afraid, My servant Jacob, My dear Jeshurun – My chosen.'” (VOICE)

  1. God formed us, He created us, He designed us.  We are not random, we are not unplanned.
  2. God promises to help us.  We do not have to go through this life by ourselves with our own strength, God is with us.
  3. God tells us not to be afraid.  It’s like numbers one and two lead into three: God created us and promises to help us; therefore, do not be afraid.  We were created by a loving God, a God who has a plan for us and who plans on helping us live out that plan, there’s nothing to be afraid of.

Something else I noticed throughout Isaiah, when Isaiah is announcing what God has to say, he doesn’t just say “Hey, guys, God says.”  God is introduced as “The Eternal, Commander of the heavenly armies, King of Israel, who paid their ransom (verse 6),” or “The Eternal, your rescuing hero who formed you before birth (verse 24).”  These things are important because we are given attributes about God that, along with the words He speaks and the way He works in the lives of His people, help us to understand His character.

The Bible is not meant to be read like some book, it’s living Truth that gives us life and gives us deeper insight about the God who saves.  Until next time, lovelies.

 Photo Credit: Priscilla Du Preez

Thoughts from my Journal

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I just wanted to share with you guys some thoughts I had last night while journaling.

As humans, we are creatures of inconsistency, we change like the weather in East Tennessee, yet God is constant; His love does not change, His promises never prove untrue, He is the one constant in our ever-changing lives.

I change my major? God is constant.

I lose someone? God is constant.

I lose my job? God is constant.

I’m not giving God 100%? God is constant.

I constantly sin and mess up and stray? God is constant.

God’s love, His relentless love, never stops. He will never stop pursuing me, loving me, waiting for me with arms open wide. No matter what.

Photo Credit: Good Free Photos