Not all is lost. Many of you had doors slammed in your face very early in life and just the thought of that makes you sit on gifts, talents, hopes, dreams and the very call on your life in your adult years. I dare you to hope again. I dare you to rebound. I dare you to shoot the shot. Free throw. Double dribble until you get the hang of what God is doing. Again, not all is lost. God is not done with you. God has a plan to fulfill through you. Get up again. He will coach you through. Meet Him at the foot of the cross and He will speak to you again and set your feet back on the court. Cheering you on! Go forward! It’s game time beloved! God be glorified!
Beloved, throw the whole box away. You no longer fit in it and God never intended for you to. This season will birth your breakthrough… so no more boxes…Break through it & throw. it. away!
For all the courageous, brave, bold, team players out there, maybe this will ring a bell for you and encourage you.
Speak up for the voiceless, but not for the capable, yet unwilling. There’s a vast difference. Instead, empower people to use their voice with courage, even when it’s inconvenient or uncomfortable.
Today I was chatting with a friend and shared how I have always been the person people use in order to ask or say the “scary” things they don’t want to ask or be responsible for the rejection or repercussions of (kind of like a scapegoat). For example: if there is an issue or concern with something that everyone in a group is seeing, they may say, “Amy can you ask about that in the meeting?” Or “Amy can you speak to them about this situation for me, I’m nervous?”
A year ago, I’d be the one to say “sure, I don’t mind”. What I thought I was doing was helping, but now realize that I was enabling. I have had to repent for allowing people to remain timid behind my voice and willingness to speak up.
I have been recovering from co-dependency (as a “rescuer”) for a over a year and oh my goodness I have seen God do so many things in my heart and break me free from that. It’s unhealthy and enables people to not step into a space where God may be stretching them in.
As one who desires to help, I have had to learn that the line of leading & enabling is often thin. I have found myself in the tension of navigating how to use my voice for the voiceless and to remain silent when my voice or courage are used for others to hide behind. I have also had to learn for to empower people to step into that awkward tension of pressing through timidity.
If you are one to hide behind others courage, let me just remind you that you have a voice that God wants to use too & He did not give you a timid spirit!
God indeed is making all things new & I am so very thankful!
It’s been a while since I’ve sat in this sweet space. Partly because life is pretty full right now and I am processing so much so that I may share it here as God leads, but share things well!
This morning I woke up and read this verse and it gave me the sweetest peace and settled my soul in such a way that simplified so much in this season.
I think many of us have asked this question that I so frequently have asked God, “God what’s Your will for me”?
Many times we have waited and waited for this deep and long blueprint that tells us all the places we will go and and the opportunities we will have, but if we look at the passage of scripture I’m going to share, I think it’ll shift our perspective some. God’s will for us is all the same. The plan in which HE accomplishes His will may be different, however.
God’s will for us is not hidden away for us to figure out through trial and error, and it’s most definitely not this conditional, complicated and confusing concept that we have to unravel.
So what’s His will for us…
You ready for this?
Alright here it goes!
“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV
Whoa right! Simple yet sooooo profound.
To be honest, it is much easier for me to take on new opportunities and go here and there than it is to ALWAYS be thankful and want to pray continually, oh and rejoice. My flesh has a way of wanting to complain at times when I am distracted and discouraged with the cares of this fallen world.
This morning I am reminded with the sweetest reminder of God’s will for me in Christ Jesus. It’s simple and sweet, yet it requires a purified heart posture and a godly perspective. I’m asking God for that this morning! I always need it. I need His grace, especially in this extremely full season.
Maybe you’ve been asking the same question. Maybe your life feels full or joy and busyness or frustration and burdens. Maybe you have felt confused and are waiting for this answer from God that seems life it would change everything. Maybe you’re losing hope through difficult circumstances and are in need of a promise you can hold on to. Well beloved, please hold on tightly to this verse right here and let God carry and encourage you today through His word.
God knows you. God hears you. His sees you. God loves you. Rejoice always beloved. Pray continually, and give thanks to the Lord.
Going our own way will lead us the wrong way every single time. Don’t deviate. Even when others disagree….don’t deviate. Even when you’re feeling down and desperate… don’t deviate…. even when the discomfort hits… don’t deviate. Even when the doctor’s report is different… don’t deviate. Even when you feel discouraged or depressed… don’t deviate. Even when the plan sounds dumb… don’t deviate. Even when _(you fill in the blank)….. don’t deviate.
When we detour from God’s plan we open ourselves up to being derailed by the enemy & he so badly would love to devour and destroy you. But beloved, you’re not naive & you won’t be deceived. The Holy Spirit resides in you and He is your internal and eternal navigation source.
The Lord knows exactly how to lead us and He does it very well; that’s His lane. He knows where He’s taking His people. Trust Him even when you don’t think His way makes sense. It doesn’t have to, it’s called a faith walk for a reason! Trust His way.
“So you must carefully do exactly what the LORD your God commands you. Don’t deviate even a bit! You must walk the precise path that the LORD your God indicates for you so that you will live, and so that things will go well for you, and so you will extend your time on the land that you will possess.” Deuteronomy 5:32-33 CEB📍
Keep going beloved. God is faithful. Keeping on following His lead of love.
Freedom will forever be my favorite attire. For so long I didn’t know I could wear it. I was afraid I’d be criticized for walking in such comfort of my ABBA’s love, so I would watch how easily fear would overshadow my freedom.
The more I heal from the affects of false beliefs, I can see a deeper glimpse of this sweet goodness that comes from having confidence in the creator of confidence… GOD himself. God alone. A confidence that has absolutely nothing to do with external appearances (attire, hair, personality) or accomplishments (titles or status), experiences, egos (self-esteem), or efforts (good works) (so that I can’t boast in my self), but a confidence conceived in a love that I have never ever deserved, yet have in fullness. A love that I could never earn by my works, yet I have in it’s entirety. A love that is truly like no other and His name is Jesus. He finished the work so I wouldn’t keep trying to finish what I just simply can’t and don’t need to. I get to simply walk in light of this lavishing love without the need to strive. Freedom is free. Yet it’s costing me me: to lay down all of my own self relying efforts and just be loved with no strings attached. Just God. Just Jesus. Just the work of the Holy Spirit. That’s it🤍
HIS free love is so surreal that sometimes I have felt this strange need to strive for it, but the more I’d strive the more I’d feel further and further from this confidence in Him as I was seeking to find it in myself and ability and would come up short every single time. My aimless attempts wore me out and robbed me of so much. And Yet because God is a redeemer, HE continues to redeem and restore what was robbed. There’s no “levels” to God’s love. There’s just love, and HE is love.
Abba always finds His way to remind me to just simply rest, receive and believe in this simple truth. That’s it. Everyday I’m learning to receive HIS love more and more and more and moooore. It’s never ending and I want to always experience it in abundance as God had always intended since before the foundations of the earth.
So cheers to walking freely in freedom! Freedom looks beautiful on all of God’s children. He delights in teaching us how to walk freely just as a parent teaches their baby to walk! This freedom… No one gave it to us but God and no one can take it away.
I used to feel like I had to pick a side… either I’m gonna grieve and be sad or be grateful and happy. I felt wrong for feeling both together… It was like I had this loyalty to the lie that both emotions were at odds with each other and couldn’t co-exist. Period. I felt like they were complete opposites like night and day. Black and white. Good and bad.
I bought into the lie that there was a brick wall in between grief and gratitude and the worst part of the lie is that I felt like God made it that way… for so long this kept me coming to God masking one emotion (usually grief) with gratitude only..I suppressed so much for the sake of giving God what I though most satisfied Him… joy right?.. but then He told me that He desired TRUTH in my inwards parts (Psalm 51:6) and that began to heal some holes in my heart that kept me from coming to God with the deeper pains that I had pretended weren’t present.
It wasn’t until last year that God brought this revelation through His word and His people as I began to experience both realities.
It was strange. I didn’t have to pick one and neglect the reality of the other. I could, “in faith” feel both without rejecting the truth that God was still good.
Grief is hard, tricky, confusing , painful, sometimes not perceivable and often experienced silently and gratitude is often the same at times. To be honest, these two are more alike than I thought and yet they’re still soooo very different.
I’m acknowledging every emotion in this season unapologetically and I’m taking my grief to a really good God who understands first hand both grief and gratitude through His only son Jesus being crucified, but then resurrected as the propitiation for the sin of the world. God gets it y’all! He’s so faithful.
This truth makes me so grateful. Thank You ABBA for this sweet revelation and for giving me the permission to process and not just in part. You want me while and You make me whole!
Be loved beloved. HE can handle ALL of you! Bring it ALL before Him and let him hold you as you heal.
For year I have kept all of my journals. They have been the home to many healing sessions with Jesus. They have been filled with prayers, notes, thoughts, fears, frustrations, and the list goes on. These pages have tasted tons of tears over the years and have endured every emotion I have experienced. They’ve also captured many celebratory victories and even the challenges I’ve faced. These pages have been a place of safety for me. Since I was a little girl (as early as 8 years old) I can ALWAYS recall having a journal with me. But yesterday the Lord instructed me to go through some of them from the last 10 years and throw some of them away. I knew why. It was baggage.
Some of my documented hurts held me hostage from further healing.
Though the pages carried the weight, so did my soul at times as I would revisit the pages at times instead of leaving the weight in God’s hands instead.
Some of the words written in some of these prayers had been filled with lamenting, and I carried this weight literally (baggage) for years.
I held on to some of these journals as a part of me. A part of my story. A part of my testimony. A partial picture of Amy. A distorted view at times through a blurry lens of battlefield wounds.
But then God reminded me that He’s rewriting a lot of it and it’s time to not only turn the page, but throw the whole page away! So that’s what I did. I literally felt a weight lifted as I did that and forgiveness was released in my heart for some of the wounds the words in my prayer journals were about. God is so faithful.
I believe He is ready to rewrite many of our stories. I believe that He is still redeeming all things! I believe that there is something He wants you to throw out too. Search Him out and ask God what “that” weight is and wait for His reply and then go for it by faith and in obedience. I believe more clarity will come through it. He is lifting every burden, bondage, brokenness and baggage. His blood is washing away every battle wound right now. So go ahead and bag up the baggage, toss it and watch God write a whole new book for you. You are greatly loved beloved! Know that. 💛
I took pride in pushing past the pain & conquering satans low blows quick. There was much too much to get to than sit or quit. Dips and turns and then some slips. Passion and pain both poured from these lucid lips. Heart hurting and turning from offense after offense. Eye balls looking for ways to bounce back in defense. Resilient yet restless. Struggling to let God call the shots with unfamiliar blessings. And then I came up to a battle much bigger than I and my teary eyes could not see a strategy on how I’d knock this wall down. My troubled mind fought and thought… Maybe I can climb over it? No, my arms were too tired to hold my own weight in the wait of my redemption so I found myself stuck. Maybe I can leap over it with a dance? No, my legs didn’t stand a chance. They were much too weary from the walk of shame and blame. Maybe I can pray the wall away? Had not pride hindered my pain filled prayers I would not be burned by battle wounds. So I had no choice but to stand by it. Stand at the wall that was placed there to place my faith in the one true love who uses walls to take down the walls of my heart. God you are my forever refuge and wall breaker. Break every chain and take down every wall. In YOU alone I can stand after I fall.
We need only to be still and Know that YOU are God, my all in all.
I love that we serve a God who uses simple everyday things to remind of just how much he paid for our redemption! I praise God for free salvation and that it’s value doesn’t depreciate with time!
Those who know me know I loooove to thrift shop and garage sale hunt! I’ve been this way since I was a very young girl. I get bored in regular stores, except for a few like target and Ross lol!
This past weekend one of my bonus boys and I went driving in our neighborhood to check out some of the garage sales! Another thing I really love is a good leather vintage bag, so when I came across this little cute Dooney and Burke cross body, I was excited to snag it! The lady told me it was $3. Yep you heard that! Just $3. I practically got it for free. She then mentioned that her mom purchased it in the 90s and that the original tags and receipt were in the pocket.
When I got home and pulled the tag out, I was shocked at how much that bag cost the original owner when she purchased it. She paid $319 😳…back then that was a lot of money and today it still is too, especially for a small little bag…. I thought, “wow that women spent all that money for this bag just for her daughter to sell it for $3.” The reality is that with time, that $300 bag just depreciated over time.
I couldn’t help think about how much God paid when He sent His only son Jesus to be crucified for a sinner like me. It cost Him everything and yet I got salvation for FREE. Sure it cost me something too, but not nearly as much as it cost Him.
In Christ, we are literally beneficiaries because of the beautiful blood of Jesus. He paid full price for us and yet we just get to enjoy the benefits of His bruises as a gift. Don’t cheapen the gift! Don’t sell it for sin and worldly gains. It is priceless. Though we didn’t pay full price for this sweet gift of salvation, may we value it and cherish it for all its worth by living a life of holiness. The value of salvation doesn’t change because some don’t honor the cost. May we be those whose faith in Jesus never depreciates over time, but only grows in appropriation. What a faithful God we serve! What a precious purchase He made for us. 🤍
Be loved beloved!
-Amy
The $319 purchase that cost me $3. Oh the cost of the cross. Salvation is free. What a sweet gift!
Amy Isom 