Day 337: When the Heart Goes Bad!

John 14:17

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Philippians 4:7

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Today let’s talk about the heart, and the condition of it. Sometimes our heart can go bad. Not in a sense that sin has completely taken us over, which is one way a heart can go bad but in a sense that sometimes it’s too broken. What I mean by that is, we go on day by day without ever really addressing what is going on within us until it is too late. Our hearts become so broken and battered that we begin to think that there is no way out. Many of us know what a broken heart feels like, and sometimes that can seem to carry on for a very long time, the heart takes time to heal. It sometimes seems like the pain just keeps coming. We all want our hearts to remain healthy and fresh and we even get to the points when we try to convince ourselves that we are okay when we’re not. The truth about life is, sometimes it hurts, and that means our hearts will be broken. But the truth about Christ is He can put the pieces back together and make it stronger than it has ever been.

For those of you who have had your heart broken, you know what can come from it. There is so much pain that takes root, anger starts to arise, then bitterness, and unforgiveness, then hate. When our hearts are ruined because we cannot seem to get past the pain we throw ourselves into a deep and dark world of hurt. I know these things are hard to get over, I know it hurts, but somewhere we have to find hope that we will be okay again. That hope that I’m speaking about is only found in Christ. Christ is the light and the only way out of this deep, dark, painful tunnel. We cannot dwell in our pain it will get us nowhere. Facing the source of our pain is going to hurt in the moment but it’s part of the process of healing. We are in need of some healing to take place. We are all or have all been walking around with our heart’s light going more dim as we go.

I want to talk about how some of us are walking around with a rotten heart and it’s not completely our fault. Sometimes we put our hearts on the line and they get ripped to shreds and we continue to put our hearts on the line for others and continue to get hurt. Some of us are suffering from bitterness and guilt that is eating away at us. Some of us are holding grudges and harboring unforgiveness. Some of us can’t seem to let go of the things ruining us. Some of us are letting fear run wild in our hearts. I name all of these things because we are walking around everyday not dealing with what is really going on in our hearts. We can see everything in everyone else but we tend to overlook it in ourselves.

We live in a time where mental health has become more widely spoken about. But we also live in a generation that is told by older generations that we are too soft. We’re too emotional Therefore we hide our feelings we cover them up because we do not want to come off as week. Let me tell you right now, if no one else wants to deal with your broken heart, God will. If no one else wants to talk you off a ledge God will. There are too many people in our generation that are suffering because their heart has gone bad. Too many people are walking around like zombies because they do not have it in them to love anymore because they have been hurt so much. We are walking around with fake smiles trying to be okay because society says we have to be.  This is not the life God wants us to live. Yes we will go through seasons of pain, yes our hearts will be broken but God is a healer. It is not His will for us to harbor that pain or let it manifest in us. There is peace with the Father, there is healing with the Father. We get to a point where we begin to project our feelings onto God. We forget that the one who created the heart is the only one who can completely heal it.

All this to say, we have to check in with our hearts and be honest about what is really going on within us. There so much pain in each and every one of us, but trust God with your heart. He will protect it and guard it. God gave us feelings for a reason, he gave us emotions for a reason. He gave us tears for a reason. Do not allow your feelings and pain to be suppressed because of what someone else thinks. God cares for them. He sees every tear, He hears every prayer. Look for hope in Him.

Reflection/Prayer Time

Take the time to respond in whatever way you feel led. Pour your heart out to God tonight, if any of this resonated with you talk to God about it and allow Him to heal your heart. God is a healer, he wants to give you peace, let Him do it.

I love you so much! I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 338!

Day 313: Don't Pressure Yourself

1 John 3:20

for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

Romans 8:1

There is no condemnation now for those who live in union with Christ Jesus.

Some of us are way too hard on ourselves. Many of us can say that we are perfectionist. How many times have we looked down upon ourselves for something we did, or felt crappy because we felt like we could have done better? How many times have a put ourselves down because in our eyes we did something wrong. This even goes into self-harm, how many of us have harmed ourselves because we feel like we need to be better or do better or we are not satisfied with who we are. I know I have, done all of these things.

The thing about being a perfectionist and being too hard on ourselves is that we force ourselves to grow. However we do it in a harmful way. As an artist I am a very passionate person, and in general I am very hard on myself, and that allowed me to push to constantly being better, but talking down on myself and hurting myself when I was less than I thought I should be was not a healthy way to get there. I had to realize that discipline and being hard on myself are two completely different things. There is nothing wrong with self-discipline however there is a lot wrong with self-harm. God does not condemn us so why do we do it to ourselves? Why do we think of ourselves as unworthy when to Jesus we are worth everything. No we are not perfect and that is why we need Jesus. He completes us. That perfection we are seeking is only found in Christ, nowhere else. No matter how much we beat ourselves up, or talk down to ourselves, the only one that can make us whole and perfect is Jesus Christ.

Many of us have gone through very tragic things and blamed ourselves from them. Many of us have been abused and mistreated and that has caused us to think we are not enough. Well let me tell you right here and now; YOU ARE ENOUGH! God knew you were enough the moment He made the decision to create you. Don’t spend time coming down on yourself because of what others think or how people have treated you. God’s will for our life is not for us to be mistreated by others or ourselves. He wants us to live with Him and allow our lives to lead others to Him. God does not want us to be out here harming ourselves, it is not HIs desire that we hurt ourselves in any way. God is a healer, and He loves us through the pain. He loves us beyond our sin, and He sees us in our darkest hour. We a meant to live in unity with Him, not trying so hard to be perfect that we separate ourselves from Him.

We sometimes put so much pressure on ourselves to be perfect Christians. When we decide to give our lives to Christ and are dedicated to serving Him ever day of our lives, we find ourselves under our own microscope. What I mean is we want so bad to please God and to live right that we pressure ourselves out of living. Meaning we are often so caught up in getting it right that we can get it wrong. We cannot constantly condemn ourselves for the things we have done or the things we do, no one changes overnight. We all want to be people of God, living right by the word and living a life free of sin, but we must find the line that goes beyond self-discipline and into self-condemnation, or pressuring ourselves to be perfect. The thing about us trying to be perfect on our own is, as I’ve mentioned before we can never get there. The thing about pressure is, too much of it can cause great damage. Think about how much damage we cause ourselves by feeling pressured by the need to be perfect, and the need to always get it right. We are human, and part of our humanity is that sometimes we will get it wrong, sometimes things won’t go the way we planned. But God is so good in the sense that even when we do get it wrong He is there to forgive us and teach us what is right. If we never get something wrongs we’ll never know what was right. Life isn’t about being perfect it is about the willingness to admit our need of a savior. It is about being willing to learn and grow.

All this to say, do not pressure yourself. Do not condemn us and HE created us and knows everything about us. If God, who created us and knows everything there is to know about us and knows what we are going to do before we do it, if He finds no reason to condemn us, let’s not do it to ourselves.  Living in unity with Christ means that there is no condemnation, none.

Reflection

1. Have you ever been too hard on yourself?
2. Has your need to be perfect caused you to harm yourself, whether physically, emotionally or mentally.
3. How has God helped you with that?  

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer today. Have a conversation with God about what we discussed today. If you are that person surrender your worries to God. If you know someone who struggles with this pray for them and reach out to them and let them know they are loved by God and by you.

I love you, I really do. If you are struggling with self harm, please do not suffer in silence, reach out to someone, Anyone. Find someone who will pray with you. I love you and I hope you have an amazing day. Please share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 313!

Day 238: God's Temple

1 Corinthians 3:16-17

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

Temple-A temple is literally a house of the Lord, a holy sanctuary in which sacred ceremonies and ordinances of the gospel are performed by and for the living and also in behalf of the dead. A place where the Lord may come, it is the most holy of any place of worship on the earth. Only the home can compare with the temple in sacredness.

The temple is the place where God dwells, it is the holiest of holy places. God’s spirit remains in the temple. Since God is a Spirit, He cannot dwell in a place where sin is, it doesn’t work, God and sin cannot cohabitate.

I grew up being told that my body is God’s temple, not really understanding what it meant or the depth of that statement until I was older. When we hear this term it is commonly referred to in conversations about sex. How we should not have sex before marriage, or engage in any kind of sexual immorality.  That is spoken about in 1 Corinthians 5. While it is true we should not engage in any acts of sexual immorality, there is so much more to it. Sex isn’t the end all, be all of sin. The church puts a lot of emphasis on sex before marriage as the worst, most condemnable sin of all. However, there are a myriad of things that will make you a sinner, but that is another topic for another day. When we think about God’s temple what do we usually think about?

The place where God dwells must be a place that is acceptable for Him, and place where no confusion lies, no sin, nothing that separates us from God but a place full of worship. The place where God’s presence is constantly. That’s the temple. Now when we think of ourselves or our bodies as God’s temple we must think of who we are as a Christian and the lifestyle we lead. A question we should ask ourselves is, “Is my body a place where God can dwell?” Meaning am I living my life in such a way that God’s presence is with me at every moment? Am I living and acting in a way that shows the Holy Spirit is within me? Am I holy? I know that’s a scary word for a lot of people, but it’s a simple yet profound word. We all proclaim to be Christians, but are we living like one? Or are we trying to find loopholes in the word of God? Sometimes we try to get around the parts of the bible we think don’t apply to us or shouldn’t apply to us. That’s not how it works, it’s all or nothing. If we are God’s temple we cannot be half in and half out. I think too often we take this as a burden, we view holiness as a burden, and this grand impossible task. It is not, it is more of an opportunity to grow in Christ. It is an opportunity to be in tune with God to remain close to Him. When I think about I am truly honored, and filled with gratitude that God loves us so much that He wants to be where we are. He wants to dwell within us. That’s amazing! Holiness is not a burden it is a lifestyle, and when we view it as such, we will no longer be burdened by it. When we decide that serving God is better and more important than our need and want to sin, this life of holiness will be more rewarding and even more relaxing.

Another question to ask ourselves, are we taking care of our temple? I mean that in every way possible. What are we doing to make sure that our temple is in tip top shape? First I mean it spiritually, is our temple clean? Are we making sure that it’s getting everything it needs to function properly. Meaning, are we diving into our relationship with God, are we feeding our spirit with His Word, are we praying? If we are fully devoted to Christ and committed to this life as a Christian, our temples will not be destroyed. We are the only ones that can destroy our temple. But also are we taking care of ourselves? Are we the vessels that God wants.

This can also be emotional, mental, and physical. Let’s not let anything get in the way of us being used by God. We don’t talk about physical well being in the church a lot, but the way I view it is, we must take care of the the body God has given us. Meaning let’s eat healthy foods, and workout, we only get one body and God gave it to us, so let’s take care of it the best we can. Also we must take care of ourselves emotionally and mentally. We can’t let our emotional or mental well being get in the way of our spiritual lives.  These topics are also topics that are skipped over in the church, but I believe that while God cares about our spiritual lives, He also sees and cares about those of us who are going through heartbreaks and struggling with mental illness. He’s there to help you through it and heal you.

All this to say, we must be the temple of God, as place where His spirit dwells. In order for the Holy Spirit to dwell in a place, that place must be holy. Are we holy?

Reflection

(Ask yourself these questions)

1. Is my temple a place where God can dwell?
2. How am I living?
3. Is my temple clean?
4. Am I taking care of my temple?
5. If anything, what is stopping my temple from being a place where the Holy Spirit dwells?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the about questions guide your prayer. Talk to God about what it is to live and be holy, and be a home for the Holy Spirit. Ask Him to search you and cleanse your spirit and create a new heart within you. Have an honest conversation with Him.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 239.

Day 215: You're Not A Robot

Matthew 16:24

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

My fear within the Christian community and those of us who have grown up in church is that we have conditioned ourselves to be spiritual robots. Meaning when we read this scripture all we see is, deny. Deny yourself in order to follow Christ. We take this to mean, deny your feelings, deny your impulses, deny who you are as a person because following Christ is now our personality. There’s a few points I want to hit today. First let me start by saying, God changes our ways as a person, He changes who we are by changing how we live. Following Christ does not mean we turn ourselves into robots. In fact it means the exact opposite, we  truly find ourselves when we are found in Christ. When Jesus tells us to deny ourselves here, He is telling us to deny our flesh, turn away from our selfish ways, turn away from the things we want to do that will keep us separated for Him. That’s the part of us we have to deny, the impulse to sin, the fleshly desires. God made us who we are for a reason, the personality we have He gave it to, I do not believe that it is God’s desire to strip us of who we are and force us to be robots. I believe that the idea itself is something man made in order to make us look like better or good Christians. What it does is turn us into spiritual robots. Meaning that being a Christian and following Christ will become nothing more than a routine and obligation. We are made to worship, but many times we confuse worshipping God with living a religious life. Based on rules. When we live by religious rules, we are so focused on the things we cannot do because we serve God. We focus on not doing things in order to stay in “good graces” with God. Which is ridiculous, God’s grace doesn’t run out. Religious rules puts pressure on us to prove our spirituality. When we are in a relationship with God, and when we truly follow Him and love Him this relationship isn’t about what we can’t do. It’s about what we can do, it’s about living with God and enjoying the life He has blessed us with. We are so obsessed with the idea of being a good Christian that we start to lead this robotic lifestyle that God never intended for us to live. If God wanted to be served by robots, He would have made robots. No He gave us a mind, and choices and free will. He gave us the brain to think the capacity to love and the choice choose to serve Him. Don’t deny your humanity. He made us the way we are for a reason. He gave us a personality for a reason. Don’t deny it.

The second point I want to get to is how we have made ourselves emotional robots. When we think about denying ourselves we deny our feelings, we deny how we feel. That is not how we are meant to live, we are human, we have feelings, whether good or bad. It’s what makes us human. God gave us feelings for a reason. Feelings are part of the human anatomy, everything from pain to happiness. We as Christians tend to deny the feelings that in our opinion show we are weak. Even if they do, it shows that we are human and it shows the areas of our life where we need the strength of God. We openly accept the good parts of life sometimes.

Religion has taught us that humility means we don’t get too excited when we succeed, it’s taught us to suppress those excited and proud feelings so we won’t be arrogant or boastful. It’s taught us to deny the feelings that are bad, deny anger and pain. Deny depression, because Christians don’t get depressed or have anxiety deny it because it’s not from God. Denying it does nothing but make it worse. Nowhere in the bible does it say that beings angry, sad, upset, or even depressed is a sin. The sin comes when we act on our anger. When we allow how circumstances to dictate who we are and how we lead our lives, when we allow it to keep us away from God. Being emotional or sensitive is not a sin. We have been taught to be strong and persevere, to pick up our cross and continue walking like Jesus. Jesus persevered yes, but we know that He was in pain, however there was something greater than His pain, and He acknowledged. That doesn’t mean that He acted like the pain didn’t exist, it meant that He was willing to take it in order serve a greater purpose. We see that in the Luke 22 when Jesus prayed at the mount of olives.

Luke 22:42-44

“Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him. He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.  

The scripture says that He was in agony. Agony! So much agony that His sweat hit the ground like great drops of blood. Let me give you the definition of agony; extreme and generally prolonged pain; intense physical or mental suffering. Now some say that Jesus was actually sweating blood. That’s how much agony He was in. Now here is a perfect example of denying yourself, taking up your cross and walking. Jesus says, if it be your will God, take this cup from me but not my will, yours be done. Even though He was in pain, He was willing to deal with it if that’s what God wanted. He didn’t pretend like it wasn’t there, in fact He tried to ease it.  But if He had to go through this in order to fulfill His purpose and fulfill God’s plan than He would do it, and He did. And that’s what it means to deny ourselves.

All this to say, when we deny our feelings because of our faith, we are chasing false strength. Meaning we want to look strong because Christians aren’t weak. We put up a facade like everything is okay when we are dying on the inside. Denying our feelings and who we are in order to serve religion only begets more issues and problems within us. Following Christ is not about looking strong or looking like a good Christian. It is about submitting our life to Christ and living a life that follow His plan and purpose.  Embrace your feelings and embrace who you are. Serve God, not religion.

Reflection

1. Are you familiar with the traits of a spiritual or emotional robot?
2. Have you been living your life like a robot?
3. Take the time to search yourself and ask, am I serving God or religion? Am I living to please God or man?

Prayer Time

Allow you answers to the above questions guide your prayer. Talk to God what it truly means to deny yourself and pick up your cross.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 216!

Day 189: Don't Run Away, Deal With It!

Something that I have learned time and time again is that running aways from problems does not solve them. It hides them for the time being but they will always catch up with us.

James 1:2-4

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

The keywords in these scriptures is, “face trials”. It doesn’t say have problems or run away from them. It says consider it pure joy when you face trials. That to me means we have to face the trials in our lives head on if we want to keep our joy. We cannot ignore what is going on in our lives because we don’t want to deal with it. If we want to move forward we have to face whatever it is in our lives that is bothering us or presenting a problem.

This is something that God has been teaching me recently, to get in touch with my feelings and not ignore what is going on in my life. I believe that mental and emotional health is just as important as our spiritual health because if we are not mentally and emotionally healthy, then it will start to take a toll on our spiritual wellness. I think many times as Christians we tend to ignore these things because we are Christian, we feel like we don’t have to deal with a problem because we pray. Sometimes it starts with a prayer, and then we have to do some deep digging to get to the root of the issue, then we pray some more. We have to be honest with ourselves if we want to grow, yes prayer changes things, I believe in the power of prayer, but we sometimes use, “I’m praying about it.” as an excuse not to deal with it. We use prayer as our scapegoat.  

If we want to grow in life we have to learn how to access our true feelings and not shy away from them, no matter what they may be. Pinpoint the problem and face it head on like David did Goliath. Now the thing about prayer is that it will get us through, God will give us all we need to get through the trials, but we still have to go through them, we still have to deal with it. That is how we persevere and become stronger, we look to God to help us face trials, not to help us skip over them. In the end we will be stronger. We have to choose to do this however. We have to choose to stop running and hiding and dare I say it again, deal with it.

Reflection

1. Check in with yourself from time to time. Set a reminder to check in with yourself. Take the time to examine every area of your life. How you’re doing spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically. Set a reminder, take at least 10 minutes at the end of every day or every other day to see how you are doing. You must prioritize yourself.
2. Find a way to let out whatever it is you're going through, to get to the root of it. For me I write and make video diaries.
3. Find a way of release, pray first and then do whatever it is you need to do to release yourself. For me this is working out, painting, or going for walks or hikes. Spend this time alone to recuperate and really talk to God.
4. Last but not least, talk to someone. Someone you can trust. Don’t be afraid to set up an appointment with a therapist. God has given therapist the gift they have to serve others, He knew we would need it at some point. If you need to see a therapist, go. You don’t have to tell anyone about it unless you want to.
5. This is your life, take care of yourself, take care of your spiritual, mental, and emotional health.

Prayer Time

Pray about what we talked about today, start by checking in with yourself and pray about, Talk to God about whatever is on your heart ask Him to help you face your problems head on and uncover the truth that needs to be revealed within you. This is between you and God, if you choose to share with others, do so. If not, then you don’t have to share.

I love you so much, and I hope you have an amazing day. Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 190!  

Day 123: Don't Wear Yourself Out

Today’s message ironically is about taking it easy, slowing it down, stopping for a moment and taking a breath. As I am currently in the midst of finals and being an RA at the end of the year, so that means preparing myself and a whole floor of college students to move out. Getting plane tickets and storages. Trying to sleep, which I have not do much of the past two days, in the last 48 hour I’ve slept for 8 of them. It is hard for me to sit down at the moment, everything is so crazy, trying to make sure I stay on top of everything as much as possible. With all this going on I find myself falling apart, losing it.

Genesis 2:2-3

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day, he rested from all his work.

Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Mark 2:27

Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

Exodus 34:21

"You shall work six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during plowing time and harvest, you shall rest.

John 4:3-6

So he left Judea and returned to Galilee. He had to go through Samaria on the way. Eventually, he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime.

Mark 4:38

Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?"

Sometimes we can get so caught in everything we are doing and things we need to do that we sometimes forget to take care of ourselves. We forget that sometimes we have to give ourselves a little TLC. There is nothing wrong with sitting down and resting, especially after a lot of hard work.

Our generation gets a lot of slack for being lazy but when it is time to work we are probably the hardest workers in the room. Sometimes we can work a little too hard, and overwork ourselves, and we don’t want to do that. We have to take care of the body God has given we cannot run it into the ground. We have to recuperate and rest when it’s needed.

I’ll take myself for an example, beware I am about to talk a lot about acting so bear with me for a minute. I’ve had times in classes where teachers have made me sit out because I have tried to work when I was sitting or hurt. For those of you who are performers or in the theater you know how hard the craft can be on our bodies. Today I was in stage combat class, I hadn’t eaten all day, it’s five in the evening and my knees have been bothering me the whole day. As I go to start the fight, I raised my sword, lost my balance and fell. From that point on my knees were hurting even worse. In the meantime, I had a paper due by six so I was taking every little break I could to get it finished. My partner asked me if I was okay, not wanting to stop the fight because our big test is coming up, I pushed through it. Eventually, I had to keep stopping because my knee was throbbing. At one point I stopped the fight and just hopped on one leg because I could not take the pain. That is when I decided to sit down. When I tried to get up and do the fight again my teacher would not allow me to out of fear that I would hurt myself more. I wanted to keep going because I did not want to miss out on any practice. It was good for me to sit down and not do anything because if not I would have hurt myself and not be able to take the test coming up.

All this to say, Know your limits. I know we all want to be limitless and superhuman, but our bodies can only take so much. Listen to your body when it’s telling you to stop or rest, most times it’s right.

Take a look at the above scriptures, God rested after creating for six days. The Sabbath is known as the day of rest, the scripture commands the people not to do anything on those days but rest. Jesus rested when He was tired and slept. Jesus was on that boat getting some rest when the disciples were freaking out about the storm.

Take a break when you can, even if it five minutes take the time to check in with yourself and make sure you are okay, Your physical health is just as important as your spiritual health. We have to stay healthy and not run ourselves to the ground.

Reflection/ Prayer Time

Just take a moment to check in with yourself, ask God to help you recognize when you are overworking yourself and rest. Take the time to rest, your physical body.

I love you I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Share this with someone and make sure you come back tomorrow for Day 124!

Day 94: Let's Talk About It- "Forbidden Subjects"

Mark 7:8

You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

This week we are going have series dedicated to the things you told me you wanted to talk about. These are the forbidden subjects in the church. Yes we will be talking about relationships and sex, which was the main subjects people wanted to talk about. We will also talk about mental health, and other subjects plaguing our generation at the moment. There are things that we need to address and talk about, and this week that is what we are going to do. There are things that are going to be hard to swallow and we have to tough up and take. There will be things that we don’t want to hear, but it is the word of God so we must take it how it is and live the way God has destined us to live.  

We have been following the traditions and laws of man, and have neglected the truth that is in the word. We neglect to speak about certain parts of the bible, or even discuss certain topics because it is uncomfortable and it doesn’t ring holy, in our sense of what holiness is. Well this week will be full of the uncomfortable subjects.

The goal of this week is to open up a discussion or conversation within our this generation of the things that we don’t get to talk about, or the things we told not to speak on. We have to speak the truth, we have to address these things head on or they will continue to be problems within the Christian community.

We have learned to give ourselves completely to God but we cannot do that if we have things laying dormant within us, we must know that we can come to God with anything. No one should tell us that having feelings, or feeling depressed, or wanting to know the why behind why we do and follow these commands, is a sin. It’s not, as we develop a relationship with God, there will be challenges, there will be questions, there will be things that are hard to swallow, and even understand. It is my true belief that God has the answer and He wants to give it to us. We must go to Him, we must seek His face. We must get rid of our shame and pride and lay it all out before God.

Proverbs 4:7 tells us, The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight. And some versions say get an understanding.

As Christians, young Christians, we are constantly told what to do and what not to do without any context given about why we cannot or are not supposed to do it. We are just told not to sin, well yes we know that but what do we do when we feel temptations rise, what do we do when we can’t seem to shake the doubt, how about when we’re too far into addiction, or sex is the only thing we want to do. But these are the things we don’t usually talk about because it is forbidden, however there are answers to these questions, there are reasons, and no there will not be an answer for everything. Sometimes there will be things that will not be answered until we are in eternity with Christ, but as for now there are some answers that we can find in His word. There are explanations, and more importantly there is truth, whether we like it or not.

I want to create a space with this series for us to talk about these “Forbidden subjects”. I believe that it is important for us to at least talk about it. So that we can get an understanding of this lifestyle for ourselves.

This was just the intro to this week, please let me know if there are things you would like to talk about or even discuss. Leave comments, open a discussion, talk about it.

I love you, i hope you have an amazing day or evening. Share this with someone, discuss it with someone. Make sure you come back tomorrow for Day 95!

Day 55: Toxic Waste

As we grow up one of the thing we start to learn how to do is be responsible and take care of ourselves. At one point of that growing up process we will realize that taking care of ourselves is more than just paying bills, putting food on our table, and providing for ourselves. It is so much more than being independent. In our twenties we are going through so many changes, our mindsets change, our bodies start to change, a lot of things go through changes. We have to make sure we stop and take care of ourselves, weed out anything that is harming us and be happy people. We know how to pay bills and work, today we are going to explore what it means to focus on ourselves for a bit and taking out the toxic waste in our life. The things that are poisoning us,: spiritually, emotionally and/or mentally, and physically.

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things

We must learn to focus on the positive things. It’s so easy to focus on everything going wrong and sometimes it seems to outweigh the good. But trust me when I say that there is always something to thank God for. We cannot dwell on the things that are screwed up about life, or we will fall into a black hole of sadness, or depression. Life is better than what we perceive it to be sometimes. We  just have to realize that we are not our issues, we are not our struggles, we are not our bad days, we are not our depression. We are children of God, we must set our mind on the things above and trust that God is bigger than the fears, and anxieties. He is greater than it all.

It starts with us

1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

A lot of times when we think about detoxing our lives and getting rid of all the things that are not good for us, we start outside of ourselves. We start eliminating people and things out of our lives that are surface issues, not realizing that it is so much deeper. Did we ever think that maybe we’re the problem? We’re the ones wreaking havoc on our own lives. We have to start with ourselves and work from the inside out, or things will never change. We must realize the flaws within ourselves first. A lot of times we are harboring things in our hearts, holding onto pain. hidden sin, unforgiveness. This is toxic to our spiritual health.  We cannot have a real relationship with God if we are harboring all this baggage that keeps us from getting close to Him. Whatever it is we must let it go. Holding on to all this is not doing anything but hurting us, poisoning our spirit. The more we hold on  the worse it gets.

We must take care of our spiritual body as well, if not more, as we take care of our physical body.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst?

Do you think God will dwell in a place that is unclean? If our temple is cluttered with everything that is not of God, and our own mess, is there any room for the true living God? In order to live a righteous life, we must focus on our spiritual wellness and take care of our soul. We must feed it so that it will grow.  Our spirits thrive off of prayer and scripture.

Prayer is essential to having a relationship with God. It is our direct line to Him. prayer is how we communicate with our Heavenly father. We have no relationship without communication. The same way we put in work to make our earthly relationships work is the same amount of time and effort we should be putting in when it comes to our relationship with God.

One the other hand, God gave us this physical body and we must take care of it. A lot of times I feel like many Christians are under the impression that taking care of ourselves physically, i.e. working out and eating healthy is not necessary, because it isn’t about the looks. Taking care of our body isn’t about having a nice six pack or looking good and having glowing skin (Daniel 1:12-15), that’s just a perk(It is okay for Christians to be attractive). It is about taking care of this vessel God has blessed us with and not abusing it. He has given us this body to live in and we only get one so we better take care of it.  

Sometimes we just have to let go

John 8:32

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free

We will come to times in our live when we will realize that the situation we are in is hazardous to our spiritual, mental, and emotional health. We will realize that certain people are not good for us. We will need to remove ourselves from the situation if we want to continue to grow in our spiritual lives, and life in general. Our eyes have been opened and God has revealed the truth, now what are we going to do with it? This is the hard part, letting go of the things that we love, even though we know they are not good for us. This can be anything from friends to relationships or bad habits. We tend to hold on to the things in which we are emotionally invested, even if it’s tearing our souls apart. Once we know the truth it’s very hard to ignore, so what will we do with it?

Once we get ourselves in line with God and get rid of all the things within us that is poisoning our spirits; we will no longer stand for anything or anyone else outside of us causing us harm.

Reflection/Prayer Time

Take the time to reflect on what was talked about today. Which subject spoke to you the most? Respond to God, talk to Him about what resonated with you. And ask Him to remove the toxic waste out of your life. Talk to Him especially about the things you struggle with in secret, confess to HIm all those hidden sins, knowing that He will not judge you. Be an open book with God today, allow him to remove any and everything that is stopping you from growing in you faith.

I love you, I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Make sure you come back tomorrow for Day 56!