Truth Revealed 2.0

I didn't plan on writing this post. I thought I would share a poem I've been working on and wait until my muse came calling to come up with another (I'm not even sure what to call it) inspirational prose (?)

But my muse came early and pressed onto me something I think everyone should be reminded of every day:

You are not alone.

You may be physically alone at times. You might not have someone tangible to share your life with, but even on your loneliest days, God is with you.

I was reading a devotional, Get Lost by Dannah Gresh, and it shared Romans 8:35-39 and it got me excited with the truth it held.

It reads:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." 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!

I don't know where you are in your life but God knows because He's right there in the midst of it all. He is with you. And He will never leave you. He died on the cross and rose from the grave so that you can approach Him with boldness, with certainty that you can and will reach Him.

But you have to receive that truth. Although nothing can keep Him from you, you can be an obstacle between yourself and God.

You might think that you don't need Him. You might be scared of what it may mean to be with Him, to surrender to Him. You may even think that He doesn't care about you, that He has more important things to tend to. But all those excuses are lies!

He cares so much about you. He knows how many hairs grace your head. He counts your tears. God loves you. He is in love with you and wants to be with you. He also wants you to want to be with Him but He gave you a freewill for a reason. He's not going to remove the last obstacle. He's not going to make you come.

God wants you to come of your own accord. That's the only way true love grows. And He wants that. He wants a real relationship with you.

So you have to receive it. Let go of all the preconceptions, all the doubts, all the insecurities and allow God to shower you with His love and His Spirit. Allow Him to be there for you. Allow God to be God, to be your God.

Reach out to Him, call on Him and His presence, His love will envelope you. His peace will transcend all the chaos in your life. He won't hold back when it comes to loving you.

The world is the devil's playground and he's placing stumbling blocks to get you frustrated, flustered, depressed, hopeless but if you remember the truth that God will never leave you, never forsake you, never forget about you, that He is right there in the trenches with you, then you'll be able to see God use those things that were meant to hurt you as stepping stones for the purpose He has for your life.

And He has great plans for you. Never forget that.

Whatever you are going through, don't call it a set back. It's a set-up for your destiny.

Truth Revealed

I'm a battlefield. We all are. We're tattered and bruised from the war within. People and situations chip away at us until we give up, until we stop trying.

For me personally, I'm fighting between complacency and greatness. 

Sometimes, I want to burrow into the wall and not be seen, not receive any type of attention or recognition. Just lie there and be (whatever that means).

But most of the time, there's a voice inside that refuses to let that happen. Each time I retreat, it calls out to me, asking me why am I hiding, why am I afraid?

And I don't have an answer for it, so I ignore it. However, the voice just gets louder and louder until my little corner gets too uncomfortable, too unsettling with echos that I have to move. So I do; I step out from the familiar and walk out into the unknown.

The journey is exhausting because the voice doesn't let me stay in one place. It keeps urging me on, encouraging me to keep up with the baby steps because they are better than no steps. The voice applauds me even when I'm crawling and is patient especially when I turn away.

It's been about four years since I've started this walk and I am changing by His grace.

And the promises He's been sharing with me are too good to be true. But God is faithful. I'm living proof of that and you are too.

You are the child of the Most High. Even if you don't acknowledge His existence, He breathed life into you, knitted you in your mother's womb and claimed you as His own. As His child, you can inherit His power. You are royalty and once you let that sink in, you wouldn't let anything shake you with fear because "He didn't give you a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, love and self-discipline."

This is why I can't stay still. This is why I keep moving. This is probably why there's longing within your soul because you have an inkling that you can do so much more. And you can, through His strength that is readily available to you.

But you have to break that mindset that keeps you enslaved and replace it with truth.

Let this marinate for a bit: Death can't even hold Him back. He conquered the grave with the same power that is accessible to you, so why are you letting the devil lie to you, convincing you that you're nothing?

Learn the truth, learn Whose you are because that changes everything.

Playing Small or Standing Tall?

It has been a while since we've hung out but it never takes him too long to flash a light onto my insecurities.

He sat across from me in a booth when he said, "You're okay with being a footnote." I brushed him off with a roll of my eyes, hating that he could speak so clearly into my life.

And he didn't stop there (he rarely does). Later in the car, he said, "You are more important than you think you are. Thinking otherwise cheapens the value you have in other people's lives."

A few days later, his words are still in my head, making themselves at home. I'll never (easily) let him know how right he is when it comes to me but since the beginning of the year (probably before that), I've been thinking along the same  lines. And God has been using him and other people to affirm what I have been feeling.

Then He sent me Romans 9:33:

See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.

This verse brings to my mind the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They were a self-righteous group of people, those who observed the Law of Moses and believed that their works made them blameless in God's eyes. They thought they were in the right but when Jesus came, He showed that everything about them was wrong.

Although they knew the Bible, their hearts were far from God's and they didn't take that news too well.

Jesus was a stumbling block for those who exalted themselves but I realized lately, He's also been tripping me up.

And I don't think too much of myself.

One of my greatest fears is not being enough. I am afraid of putting myself out there and not measuring up to someone's standard, someone's requirement, or worse, my own expectation. So, he's right: I make myself small; I become a footnote. I belittle and force myself into everyone's peripheral vision, praying that I don't become the center of attention in order to avoid failing publicly, embarrassingly and miserably.

I stay within my means and don't take risks. I sit on the sidelines, burying the regret of not being out on the field, convincing myself that it's better to just sit this one (and everything else) out.

But the funny thing is that not only does Jesus become a stumbling block for the proud and the conceited, He also trips up those who don't think they have anything to offer, those who are overlooked, those who are small.

Regardless if you think that the sun shines out of your ass or that you're unfit to do anything, He's going to knock the self right out of you.

Boundaries shatter against this Rock. Comfort zones have to give way in His presence. Nothing born out of self-sufficiency will hold up against Him.

He will consume you and yes, Jesus is a gentleman, but sooner or later you'll realize what you've been depending on to get you this far will run on empty and then, only then will His strength be made perfect in your weakness.

That's what I've been realizing: the way I see myself, my insecurities don't mean a thing when I look at that cross. His grace is sufficient for me and my perceived lack. What He did on Calvary was enough. And as long as I play it safe, I won't see His power, His grace manifest in my life. I won't get to see me blossom and see what He has made me to be.

Even if it scares me, I can't play small anymore. I can't! I have to step outside of myself, step out in faith and know that where I end, He begins. I have to trust Him.

Don't be a footnote. Be the whole damn book, be the main character. Don't be the supporting actress to your own life.

Aren't you tired of sitting down? I know I am!!!!

Go ahead and take the center stage. Even if you don't think you deserve it, that's okay. That's what Grace is about.