Tag: encouragement

The Sanhedrin, Within and Without

On By Ashley GatewoodIn Healthy LivingLeave a comment

The Scene

One of my favorite conversations in the whole Bible transpires between Jesus of Nazareth and Pontius Pilate. This complex exchange takes place after Jesus stood before the Sanhedrin, the religious authority that ruled over all of Jewish life at the time. He spoke hardly a word to His own people, and they rejected Him. He held a profound conversation with a Gentile ruler, who in turn tried desperately to save His life. I often see the world in these two categories; the supremacists who think they know everything (and God shuns them), and the lost Gentiles of the world who know nothing, with whom God willingly engages.

When to Remain Silent

The Sanhedrin ‘trial’ if you will, took place in Mark 14:53-65. The Son of Man only spoke sparingly, if at all. I think it’s important to note that when He did speak, He told them who He was which in turn made them furious. These are the same individuals that pursued Him throughout His entire three year ministry. They were relentless.

They took Jesus to the high priest, and all the chief priests, the elders and the teachers of the law came together.

It was a big bullying ring. This angers me because I see the same thing today happening in churches who think they are the only ones that God has chosen – and yet, God does not engage with them, or only sparingly. It’s sad too, but it’s hard to have much empathy for legalistic dictators who think they’re always right.

Words carry the full force of life and death; God describes the tongue in such a manner. He knows exactly how the human being works, inside and out. His Spirit divides between our every thought and intention. God cannot be fooled:

“Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.

When to Listen

Sometimes we think silence is just weakness. But silence is actually a powerful force. Why speak when no one is listening? You only diminish your self worth and cast your pearls before people who don’t care for you or like you – which gives them every opportunity to trample over you even more. It’s good to fast our words, our conversations, sometimes in order to reset the board internally and allow the Spirit of God to work in us. We can’t listen if we’re constantly talking, even if it’s prayer to God. To be still and listen for His answer provides a healing balm to our souls.

A Time of Reflection

It’s a good thing to take time to build our relationship with God and commune with the Holy Spirit. I’m glad I can do this with little repercussions. I’d encourage you today to add time to your prayer life where you’re not just presenting your petitions before our Father’s throne but also listening for His answers, His direction and His will in our lives. Practicing His Presence is a beautiful way to build our relationship with Him.

Some Additional Catching Up

So I’m not going to go into a ton of detail (and bellyaching and complaining) but I just recently found out that my thyroid has been under active for over a year. Probably for nearly 3-4 years now, slowly dying while sapping the very life out of me.

I couldn’t figure out what was going on, lifestyle? diet? not enough exercise? And in doing all these things I just thought I needed to do more. But as the years rolled by, I had less and less energy, not more. I was perplexed and concluded that I must’ve just broke, and indeed, I kinda did. When your body sabotages you, it can be a difficult thing to manage when you aren’t sure what’s happening.

I thought, ‘well, I guess I’m just lazy now. covid and all the ptsd broke me.’ And well, it did, but I still couldn’t understand why my recovery wasn’t happening faster. It wasn’t mental or emotional at that point. No, but a little thyroid hormone that decided to copout on me was the culprit! I had been talking to my aunt about this extensively and turned out we were on the right track. Then I found out at least one of my friends was also taking it and she encouraged me with the results she had. Turned her whole life around. Deadly, these hormones zapping away as our bodies show the signs of that mortal inevitability. I’m still going to hope in the promise that ‘He renews my youth like the eagles.’ I like that. No wonder we died at 45 two hundred years ago. Mortality is a creep!

Life is Strange

Well, who knows if this will actually work, taking this tiny little pill everyday, but I sure hope it does. Otherwise I really might as well retire to a tiki hut in Central America and blow away in the next hurricane. There’s nothing worse than having zero energy or enthusiasm about anything and even when you do, you’re so tired all day there’s little fun or enjoyment in it.

To think back over the past three years and how awful I felt about myself….things aren’t always as they appear, sweet people. Knowledge is power. Don’t let the Sanhedrin within dictate your life to you, or dictate to you who you are based solely on an antiquated set of past failures. God says your more than that, and indeed you are. Much more, friends.

So here’s to looking forward and doing more in the coming future. For now though, I think I’ll stop beating up on myself, pushing myself to do more, and being mad that I can’t do it and instead relax into a better state of mind, taking some time to just recalibrate, reassess and let this little pill work its wonders I think is in order.

Stay strong and rest in Him beautiful people, you are the apple of His eye~

Seizing the Hour and the Day

On By Ashley GatewoodIn Bread & Butter MorselsLeave a comment

Cleansing Toxic Government

When the righteous are in power, the people rejoice. This is biblical truth. I am thankful that we have Donald Trump for President otherwise our country would have been tossed into a gutter of far left radical sludge. I’m not angry with this current administration, am angry at the times. I’m frustrated that no one can give an honest, transparent answer. Mostly, I’m angry that the previous administration seems to have done horrific things to the people of this country and the world – releasing covid, executing tyrannical law complete with vaccine passports and mask mandates and how far apart from one another we could stand (1984 just scaled down a bit), and the destruction of our society by mobs.

Through a massive prayer initiative by the Church, God heard our prayers and the previous administration was removed from office. We succeeded in seizing the hour and the day for the Kingdom of God. I believe we saved our country from the control of the globalists and their heinous agenda.

Choosing God Over Satan’s Worldly Systems

Let’s be real, the Seven Pillars are not metaphorical but active systems Satan and demonic principalities use to hold sway over the children of man. Government, Business, Family, Media, Arts/Entertainment, Religion and Education. These are the highest battle grounds for influence upon all of God’s creation. God laid out what was happening in the spiritual realm:

From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been suffering violence, and the violent have been seizing it by force.

Matthew 11.12

It’s interesting that the word interjects a starting point for this phenomenon as beginning sometime during the days of John the Baptist. People often argue about the differences between the Old and New Testaments. To me they flow together seamlessly when you realize the following:

  • That Christ is the Seed spoken of in Genesis,
  • The same Seed foretold by every Prophet of old,
  • The same Seed born the Son of Man and of God,
  • The same Seed buried in the ground and Who died because as Jesus noted, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit,”
  • And the Seed Who rose again from the grave and pulled us out of darkness along with Him,

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Colossians 2.15

It Isn’t God vs. Satan

Christ is the Seed that crushed the serpents head, Satan himself, by the power of the Cross. We tend to think evil is so powerful but it only bruised Christ’s heal, whereas Christ crushed evil’s head. No contest, I’ve said it before, the fight is not between God and Satan. Satan lost faster than a strike of lightening from the heavens to the earth. The word even speaks symbolically through the King of Tyre regarding this pathetic Cherub: Those who see you stare at you, they look at you carefully, thinking: “Is this the man who shook the earth, the one who made kingdoms tremble?

No. The battle is between the Church and Satan. My, my, my dear people of God, we have to understand this! Destined for the Throne by Paul E. Billheimer beautifully illustrates this truth we must grasp in order to wage this war in the heavens and see the result in the earth of our prayerful labor in Christ.

Seize the Hours, Seize the Days

Arrest the time you’ve been given, saints. Either the Church rises to the sound of the trumpet in battle and seizes the day or else the Seven Pillars will continue to crumble and fall. Israel, because of their disobedience lost all the splendor of the Days of Solomon, all their glory and pride. They lost their land promised to them by God. We have to fight the spiritual battle in prayer and in action. I don’t have time to write everything on my heart which concerns our present times. Either we lose our life for God or the world will devour us.

Someone I listen to regularly said they don’t see the United States anywhere in the Book of Revelation, implying it ceases to be a coherent country by future biblical accounts.

Now I have a difficult time believing this for many reasons I won’t go into here, but the thought of that struck a deep seated belief I thought wouldn’t come to pass – the loss of my nation, my homeland. I pondered this for sometime afterword and still do at times. It haunts me.

We see nations fall everyday it seems, Syria, Iraq, ancient Persia and Egypt, never putting ourself into that position. Nothing but God is permanent and everything that is permanent on this earth is still temporal to all of eternal life.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:18

Revealing the Truth of the Word

It’s difficult to write like this, to write of spiritual truths because there is a war constantly against truth – a war in the heavenly realm and the natural realm we live in. It takes prayer and sometimes fasting to reveal the spiritual through our clay vessels and into the world to transform it. And I myself am insufficient oftentimes distracted and exhausted, fussy and irritable unwilling to put in the work. We’re all human and whipping ourselves continually isn’t helpful.

Look how many thousands of years it took God to bring to fruition the Promise of His Seed, Christ. This life is no joke. And yet we wrestle with all manner of difficult obstacles from emotional stress to psychological and genetic addictions to personality quirks then sin on top of that and the fire of Hell to top it all off. God knows this. He understands our struggle through Christ.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tested in every respect as we are, but without sinning.

Hebrews 4.15

There is no mistake, no stumble, no wrong, no temptation, no heartbreak that the Lord does not understand or cannot empathize with concerning the children of man. None. We are not alone in our quest for His goodness, to see His goodness in the land of the living, in the land of our own lives, in our hearts and our thoughts. He knows and still forgives, without a moment’s notice.

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Hebrew 8.12

The Holy Spirit is a Helper Not a Punisher; He is the Feminine Aspect of God the Father

God is renewal, He is life. Nothing for us as His people ever ends in death and darkness. Though these things are experienced commonly by us all, He will not suffer death to hold us, He will pull us out of all the darkness even if it is our own doing. That’s what the Cross is all about. We are too weak to save ourselves so God comes to us, as He always will, and rescues us from our wretched fallen state and washes us by His word, clothes us honorably in white clean robes and invites us to the seat at the side of Christ our Redeemer. He will never forsake us and He makes it clear time and time again He means what He says,

No one cared enough for you to do even one of these things out of compassion for you. Instead, you were thrown out into the open field, because you were despised on the day of your birth. Then I passed by and saw you wallowing in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, ‘Live!’ There I said to you, ‘Live!’ I made you thrive like a plant of the field. Ezekiel 16.5-7

Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?” I answered, “Sir, you know.” And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Revelation 7.13-14

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. I will build you up again, and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt. Again you will take up your timbrels and go out to dance with the joyful.

“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 8.38-39

May your soul be at peace, may God bring His peace into every aspect of your life. Rest in Him and knowing that no one is ever so far gone that His arm is not able to reach you and save you.

“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:” Isaiah 59.1

He knows our troubles, He hears our cries. May we in turn hear His heart and do His will upon the earth to bring to fruition His Kingdom among the children of man.

The Folly of Sacrificing Joy and its Benefits

On By Ashley GatewoodIn Love:: Lifestyle:: HealthLeave a comment

Joy should be a non-negotiable. There is no good substitute that brings the same benefits as Joy. The Holy Spirit is the one who allows for Joy, but we have the power to reject Him; and by rejecting Joy we quench His presence in both our lives and other’s. 

Why do some ignore and dismiss the benefits and strengths of having Joy in their life? And how might we quench Joy from our lives or from another? We can do that, esp if we ourselves aren’t experiencing Joy and our friends are. Maybe we feel excluded when this is the case.

Perhaps some people consider Joy trite or immature, yet, it’s all the more difficult to walk the Christian life when we sacrifice Joy in favor of suffering. As if life isn’t difficult and sorrowful enough…

Is there anything worth exchanging Joy for?

Or in a more profound sense, is there anything worth exchanging the presence of the Holy Spirit for? 

That’s when a cost-to-consequences analysis must be examined. This is crucial for the life of the Christian.

“Laughter doeth good like a medicine.”

Joy is like a healing balm and it’s one of three words attributed to the Holy Spirit. If we withdraw from Joy then we are quenching the presence of the Holy Spirit in our life, and in a Christian’s walk, that’s detrimental.

Take some time to look back over your life and see whether it was easier to manage more difficult endeavors when you allowed for Joy; or if somehow things went better for you by rejecting it.

“He will once again fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.” Job 8.21  

Do you believe the Word of God for your life? Or do you reject it? God can move mountains, but it takes faith. 

“I lay before you today the path of life and death…choose Life.”

Through Broken Walls

On By Ashley GatewoodIn Bread & Butter MorselsLeave a comment

A Nuanced Tone

I read a verse in scripture this morning where God is being sarcastic. I’ve never really noticed it before. Maybe it’s my own mood this morning but, it does seem to qualify for sarcasm. And it made me laugh even in the midst of such a chilling address by the Lord.

It’s Amos 4.1-5. This passage is quite terrifying because whatever God speaks accomplishes that which it’s sent to accomplish…and it prospers in its purpose. Gives me chills…

God doesn’t play around y’all.

There’s another verse that really moved me which I’ll get to in a moment. But the sarcasm is found in verses 4 and 5 where God uses a nuanced tone with them and says in essence, ‘Come on to Bethel and transgress! Bring those sacrifices every morning, proclaim and announce your offerings, go right ahead! Because this is who you are and this is what you love!”

Whewwww~ NOBODY wants God speaking sarcastically to them, oh my goodness…

Evildoers Miss the Straight Path

He’s addressing the land of Bashan in Samaria here. I don’t know all the history but one of my favorite lines in this section is as follows:

“You will go out through broken walls..”

No hint of sarcasm there. This is an amazing imagery and description of an exit of power, or a driving out of evil from a place it once inhabited but is being rejected from the land. The scripture says the Lord will make our paths straight. Our path is made easy when we choose God’s way. We may not think this is true, because life is strenuous and confusing at times. But the Lord always makes a way where there seems to be no way. Isaiah 43.16, God made a way through a sea, He made a way through transporting in the belly of a whale, He made a way from death to life for Christ and all of us. There is no path, not even the path through the heart of evil, that God cannot make a way for us to walk out on dry land – a straight path.

But those who are evil, well their way is out through broken crumbled walls, falling debris, stumbling and even dying of their wounds just trying to get away from whatever is pursuing them. It is their own sin that has crumbled the walls of their life and existence. The word of God is tremendous. I like that wording very much, it’s concise and deadly.

God Delivers Us, But Evildoers are Delivered to Their Fate

In Amos 3.11 He speaks another powerful word:

“An adversary shall be all around the land; He shall sap your strength from you, and your palaces shall be plundered.”

Our enemies don’t stand a change against God. However, against us alone…well that’s a different story. But, alas!, we are not alone! We don’t have to deliver ourselves all the time. If we can’t admit we need help, then the issue is far deeper than just trying to act strong. The strongest are able to receive help willingly.

Evil never slips out of the snare – there will always be a final snare that never lets them go. God will see to that. We don’t see to it, God sees to it.

Vengeance is Mine, and recompense;
Their foot shall slip in due time;
For the day of their calamity is at hand,
And the things to come hasten upon them.’

Deuteronomy 32.35

God works contrary to our understanding of the world. When we think we’ve won, we’ve actually lost. When we think it’s the end, it’s actually a newly created beginning. This only happens for those the Bible says are ‘hidden in Christ’. Hiding in any other way won’t save us from the exiting through crumbling walls. God protects and preserves His own, He watches over His word to perform it on our behalf.

Because God is just marvelous like that.

Featured Image by Pawel Czerwinski.

The Tapestry of Life

On By Ashley GatewoodIn Love:: Lifestyle:: HealthLeave a comment

Here we are at the cusp of another year ending and a new one beginning.  Even though it’s a day just like any other, there is something more poignant about observing the calendar change from one year to the next.

It’s a time when many begin to reflect on the previous year and try to summarize its overall theme. If only life could be like that – where we could take certain times and seasons and leave others behind. But our lives are cumulative where each experience, every emotion and every circumstance adds to our life and our character.  Sometimes life doesn’t always imbue a celebratory reaction from us, especially when we’ve suffered loss, setbacks, depression or other difficult circumstances.

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In a way, our lives are like tapestries where everything and everyone we experience are woven into the fabric and as time passes, the colors change and the work of art expands and begins to show the intricacies of God’s hand in our lives. People are woven in that continue in the tapestry for the whole of our lives. Others are woven in only for a few seasons, and then their thread ends. Sometimes when we go through the rough patches in life, we can’t see the whole picture, we don’t fully understand how it could be of any use to us at all to lose things, to hurt, or to experience difficulties.

And really, God has given us every means of getting through this life while keeping joy, peace and love close to us, surrounding us and keeping us through all the darker hours of our life. But I will be the first to admit, this is difficult in and of itself. I have at certain times in my life clung tightly to joy so as not to drown in sorrow; but alas, I drowned anyway.

But isn’t this life? Isn’t life a choice? If so, then we need to choose life. God never said we wouldn’t have to endure suffering; but he doesn’t at anytime say depression, darkness and fear are things we have to live with. No. That is the Good News of the word of God, that we do not have to fall prey to these things. We will have to work through them, but the promise is that love, joy and peace can be had throughout our suffering. The promise is that Jesus has made the way for each of us to commune with God having paid that price for us. And with God, all things are possible, this instills hope, which in turn increases joy. And suffering won’t last. To everything there is a season, as Solomon said, so just know that your season of happiness and peace and freedom are coming.

If it’s one thing that should be remembered, it is that we should never feel guilty about our emotions and how we work through them. It is never acceptable to hurt others because we cannot control our own emotions. But don’t feel guilty if you are in a place of mourning, or sadness or regrouping and getting your life back on track and it’s taking you longer than you thought. Your true friends will always be there to encourage and help.  (But if anyone is hurting you because of their inability to take responsibility for themselves and their own emotions, then think long and hard about why you are allowing this person to stay in your life.) Sometimes moving forward and making positive changes means walking away from someone who is hurtful to you.

Trials make us stronger. They dig into the deepest part of our soul and challenge us to rise up and overcome. Don’t get down on yourself if you are unable to rise immediately to the task. We have all fought many battles that have taken multiple attempts to first understand, then overcome.  Sometimes the hardest part is first realizing our situation and circumstance, then finding the courage to take action and do the right thing.

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Life is about people – but don’t forget you are a ‘people’ as well. Don’t forget to look after you. After all, if we don’t know how to love ourselves, how can we effectively love anyone else? If we don’t know how to overcome self-doubt, fear, loneliness, hardship and  suffering, how can we help others do the same?  These are the lessons, it seems, that are the most colorful in that tapestry of life we were talking about earlier. They are the hardest to work through and overcome but the pigments are the brightest and most elaborate because they are the fabric of our existence.

Let me say that once more: The harder lessons are the pigments that shine the brightest and are most elaborate because they are the fabric of our existence – because we have that choice remember? Choose life so that others can see what you’ve overcome and take courage to do the same in their own difficult circumstances.

These are the stories that resonate most with others, pulls them up out of the pits they’re stuck in, shines the light into the world’s darkness so that others can find their way out of a tough time. Don’t ever think that the hardships that befall you are for your demise.  No, instead they are for your victory that you might rejoice in God and others also may see you and gain triumph over their circumstances as well.

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Looking into 2018, let’s not make resolutions. Instead let’s make peace.  Peace with ourselves, with others and with life’s twists and turns. Let’s decide that no hardships or troubles are going to be the end of the story for us – but instead let’s trust that God will work those times into our tapestry of life so that they shine brightest that others may follow. We have a choice, as hard as it can be to rise up over difficult circumstances, we have a choice to be joyful or let it depress us. Let’s choose to be at peace with ourselves and others, forgiving and moving forward with love in our hearts.  Let’s forgive ourselves for not living up to our own standards or others, and let’s take courage to not live blindly and comfortably but instead to branch out into the unknown, fully trusting God has us in his very capable hands.

Let’s dare to be great.

Happy New Year to you all~

 

If you have questions or need direction on how to begin to make a change, don’t hesitate to contact me. Leave a comment or email me – you can also reach out on social media like Linked In. 

Love will get you to where you need to be~

Get Busy While You’re Waiting on God

On By Ashley GatewoodIn How to Follow Your Dream, Love:: Lifestyle:: Health2 Comments

Be ready when God starts moving.

When God moves, things begin to happen fast; in the meantime, take advantage of the ‘wait’ and learn more about him, about yourself, gain knowledge and strength because once things start moving you will not have time at that point to figure out what to do. Either you’re ready or you will be dragging behind – and that’s no place to be!

“For the Lord will execute His word upon the earth, thoroughly and quickly” (Rom. 9:28).

I love it when God moves. It’s precise and accurate and wow does it ever make an impact! God is not messing around, playing games and doing things just for the heck of it. He is deliberate. I love that about him.

There are seasons for everything.

Solomon tells us this. Two seasons I’m very familiar with: sowing and reaping. Or, to put it another way working-waiting-working.

You have to sow a seed, an idea, a dream before you can reap the benefits of it. You have to place it in the ground and let it die – isn’t that what Jesus said?

“I assure you that unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it can only be a single seed. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.” John 12:24 CEB

That takes work. Sowing isn’t easy. You have to let some things go, make changes, work on yourself and be diligent in your pursuit even when you can’t see one scrap of evidence that God is doing anything in your life or that anything is going to change. You have to, in essence, start living the change before it occurs. People can think you’re crazy, but remember, with God, all things are possible.

Being productive during the waiting season.

Then comes the waiting season. When the seed is growing, pushing out from the dirt (oh God, is it ever going to happen!?) This can be a very frustrating season. But sitting idle while you’re waiting is not the thing to do! Never wait without also filling your time with productive work.

Waiting on God is a two-part process. You are indeed waiting on him for direction or an answer or a way forward so that you don’t hastily make the wrong decision. This is a good thing. However, you should definitely be learning and growing in all aspects of your life during the waiting season. Never just sit and grow lazy during these times. I know, because I’ve done that – and it is absolutely no fun once God starts to move and I’m totally unprepared! That’s when I encounter disappointment and heartache.

Be learning; about him about you about the aspects of your dream or vision.

Gain knowledge and be ravenous when it comes to learning about his ways and about the people out there who are living in their dream. Learn from them, study missionaries and martyrs and business men and women – anyone who is living for God – and keep growing and stretching while you are waiting for your own harvest to come. By learning, you are in essence watering your seeds that you’ve sown. Your fertilizing and tending what you sowed. This is how to do it!

Then, one day when God says the time has come, your harvest will come in and it will be time to move. And guess what? After all the hard work you put in during the ‘waiting’ season, you’ll be ready to move with him!

 

If you have questions or need direction on how to begin to make a change, don’t hesitate to contact me. Leave a comment or email me – you can also reach out on social media like Linked In or Google+. 

Love will get you to where you need to be~

For more on the power of a seed and how faith works like one, click here.

Doing Things God’s Way

On By Ashley GatewoodIn How to Follow Your DreamLeave a comment

I’m not trying to get my way in the world’s way. I’m trying to get your way your Word’s way. I’m staying on your trail; I’m putting one foot in front of the other. I’m not giving up. -Psalm 17:4-5 The Message

Aligning your way with God’s way doesn’t mean you have to give up on your dreams and aspirations. Many of us work because it’s necessary, not because we find it deeply fulfilling. Do you ever find yourself pausing at your desk or while you’re waiting at the dock for a shipment to be loaded on your truck and think surly there is something else I could be doing with my time that is more productive and gives me greater satisfaction than this. We’ve all been there. You may find yourself there right now.

But have you ever thought how you might take a step away from your current life and towards the one you always hoped for?  At this point is where we let our current reality dissuade us from making that first step. We get overwhelmed with questions of how and what to do about it. You may have family or financial strain that pops your dream like a frail soap bubble. One moment here, the next moment non-existent.

So we tend to start looking for the quickest way out because frankly, it just seems easier. And sometimes that’s addiction, sometimes it’s going numb and just doing the daily routine without thinking.

Get rich quick schemes that sound so legit, gambling and maybe even opting for crime. The world’s way is always going to seem easier and let’s face it, somebody has to win the lottery, right? But going the world’s way is never successful or fulfilling – especially when we are serving God. God’s ways are legit and so much more rewarding. Are they harder? You bet.

You have to dig down into yourself and pull up answers that you don’t want to wrestle with – the whys and hows of your current situation. It’s hard to look at our mistakes and own them. But sometimes that’s where we have to start – humbling ourselves before God and saying ‘I thought I knew the way, but I was wrong’.

God is always listening and ready to help. He never rubs mistakes in our face or makes us pay. Sin has consequences but God has answers! He will move on your behalf, he even states

Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give people in exchange for you, nations in exchange for your life. – Isaiah 43:4 NIV

This is how much He values you! It is nearly unfathomable for us to understand his love. Not even the Apostle Paul could do it:

…that you may be able to comprehend what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. -Ephesians 3:17-19 NKJV

If you are ready to begin stepping out of a life that is unfulfilling and into God’s life that is waiting for you, then He is ready to meet you at the crossroads. Pray diligently for direction, for knowledge and for the courage to begin the journey. Remember, small steps are all you need to start out.  Prayer is God’s way of moving on this earth. Don’t neglect this powerful intimate time with God to exact change in your life.

 

If you have questions or need direction on how to begin to make a change, don’t hesitate to contact me. Leave a comment or email me – you can also reach out on social media like Linked In or Google+. 

Love will get you to where you need to be~

 

If God Gave You A Gift

On By Ashley GatewoodIn How to Follow Your DreamLeave a comment

We can get overloaded with life’s daily duties and not realize how quickly our time here is passing. It’s as if our list of obligations dictate to us how and what our lives are going to be like every minute of the day. And we can be so tired by the end, that we flop into bed without another thought and hope to sleep through the night. (Sometimes if things are really stressful, even a good night’s sleep is difficult to achieve.)

We slumber through our days without realizing that God has a purpose for us. He has a purpose for you. We get what we focus on the most – ever heard that you veer your car in the direction your eyes are going? Same concept here. If we are only focused on getting the next thing on our list checked off, we are stifling our creative side, our own dreams and hopes. The time we spend getting to know and understand what God has called us to and just who we are in Christ is precious. It’s like spending dinner with your family around the table so everyone can talk and share about their day. It’s bonding time, learning about each other and growing together.

We also need time like this to reflect on God and on our own heart’s desire whether it is something creative like painting, or starting that business you’ve been dreaming about for years (if only you weren’t so busy) or turning your hobbies into something more profitable. How much more fulfilled would we be if we pursued and worked at what we loved to do the most?

There are many things that can set you on the path to a more happy and fulfilled life, and the foremost step to achieving this is spending the extra time to get to know God, His word, and who you are in Him. Searching His word and understanding that there’s so much more to life than just the daily grind is a great place to start. God should always be the place from which we branch out in anything – He is our firm foundation. Then we can add on His foundation with confidence.

“If God gives you something you can do, why in God’s name wouldn’t you do it?” -Stephen King

Think about this for a moment. All good things come from God. What has he given you that perhaps you have forgotten about? Something that you are good at doing but maybe you thought it was a small thing of no real significance. What small thing have you always enjoyed doing but you never have time to do it? Could it be that this is the gift God has given you? That this one small (or large) thing could be the key to changing your life and being happier for it?

So I hope you take some thought of these things and begin to think about how you can take control and not let you schedule dictate your life to you; but instead dedicate a portion of your time each day to learn and to reach out and pray God’s will in your life so you can begin to direct your focus on what He is calling you to do.  Search your heart for what truly matters to you and don’t be afraid to begin pursuing it.

If you have questions or need direction on how to begin to make a change, don’t hesitate to contact me, leave a comment or reach out on social media like Linked In.

Love will get you to where you need to be~