Humility

katzyserrano:

True humility isn’t bashing yourself on how much of a sinner you are, ranting about how unworthy you are to receive God’s love and walking around with bad posture.

Men take note!

I ask that men pay attention to this please. Remember: Yes, women want to be pursued and fought for. Yes, they want to be irreplaceable in a great adventure. BUT women don’t want to be a man’s adventure…a woman wants to share in a great adventure with a man. So please, godly men as you pursue after godly women please make sure that she is someone who you would want to share in a great adventure WITH not someone who IS your adventure. After all, God calls us to a life of adventure in Him, and that is the great adventure that you godly men can share with your special girl.

Just a little reminder for us girls :)

Just a reminder for you girls about how we should put the armor of God on. This is a prayer that a lady sent in to the authors of, Captivating. They put it into their book. It struck me, and maybe it will resonate with some of you as well. :)

“I now put on with thanks the armor which you have provided for me- girding myself with the belt of truth; binding up all that is vulnerable in my femininity; first my need to be pursued and fought for. Thank you for daily pursuing me and fighting for me as well.

I also gird up my desire to be irreplaceable in a grand scheme of Yours. You have placed this desire within me and I wrap Your truth around it, in hope of what You will do. Grant me eyes to see each day in light of Your activity, to live in the big-ness of Your story.

I gird up my desire to offer life through my gifting, the beauty You have bestowed on me. I ask You to continue to reveal and confirm what You desire to do through me and all You have given to me. I trust that You have called me by name and have given me a love, a beauty, a gift to pour out on my family, my friends, and those You bring to me. May this day be an offering of love poured out before You on the alter of my life.” -Captivating.

JOY!!!!

So after months of not blogging (though I only had one post before) I decided to start this blog up again. This note is something I wanted to write on a week ago but I had forgotten my password to get into tumblr :/. Oh well, better late than never! Here we go!

I realized a couple weeks ago that my life verse is, “The joy of the Lord is your strength,” -Nehemiah 8:10. I feel that the joy of the Lord is a good topic for this Christmas season. More specifically I wanted to talk about how joy pertained and functioned in my life specifically. The joy of the Lord is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit that develops in us once we receive Christ as our savior and therefore the Holy Spirit. This is backed up in scripture in the book of Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” The joy of the Lord was the first of the fruits of the Spirit that I noticed in me after renewing my life in Christ.  I remember in those first couple months I was skipping, dancing randomly, and laughing at the smallest things. There was just an immense joy within me even though I was dealing with a health problem at the time, the joy of the Lord was in me giving me immense comfort during a trying time. This joy of the Lord continued to dwell in me over the next year and a half going into this last semester of school. I remember when I first started working at my current job people would always ask me things like, “why are you so happy to be at work?” Its not that I was so happy to be at work but rather it is the joy of the Lord that God is giving me through His Spirit that is shining through.

During this last semester I was going through something internally that I had to deal with, one that I let few people in on. For awhile I thought I had lost that joy of the Lord. I thought it was gone and because of that I was sad. But the last 3 weeks starting at the beginning of December that joy I had, that childlike joy, is back. And it’s back in full force. I realized that the joy had never left me, but I was too worried about what was going on in my life to see the joy that the Lord was giving me. Not only is he giving me joy but peace as well. God has been giving me a sense of peace in my heart and wanting more peace between others that I am so thankful for. This is something that is promised to us too in the book of Proverbs 3:24, “When you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.” It is this sense of joy and peace that had been abundant in my life lately. God gives us these two so that we may have our hope in Him, “May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”-Romans 15:13. He also gives us comfort through these two things so that we can help others, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”- 2 Corinthians 1:3-4. At the end of the day, and not just at the end but during the day have joy in God because as Isaiah 49:13 states, “Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth; burst into song, you mountains! For the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.” Rejoice to the Lord, even when you are going through times of trouble because He will NEVER forsake you and be there for YOU every step of the way.

Choosing to do what God is telling you to do…and trusting Him with the results…

Author’s Note: Hey everyone…I’m Nikki and this blog is meant to describe how I as a Christian is living in a world that is dying around me. I am a very honest person and am not afraid to show my struggles and I am sure some of my future posts will be dealing with those. Anyways this is my first post, so enjoy!

Do you ever wonder why God tells you to do certain things, especially if the results don’t come out the way you expected? 

There have been times where I feel God is telling me to speak in to certain people’s lives and so after it being confirmed several times I will go for it.  You know that feeling right? That feeling where you feel so convicted that God wants you to speak to someone for Him that you know you must do it. There has been so many times in the past 9 months where God has had me speak into people’s lives to give Him glory, and every time he asks I am always surprised that he would ask little old me. But that’s how God works. He can use any of us to reach the lost or just other Christians who need an encouraging word. It has been wonderful to see God work in people’s hearts through the words He gives me to share. It’s such a blessing to be used in that way. But there are also times when you go out on a limb for God because you know He wants you to speak to someone for Him and you end up looking like an idiot. It has happened to me once or twice. When I am trying to reach  out to people for God and I will try to meet up with them. Its really hard if your not friends with them because they are like uuuuummmm why do you want to meet up? What do you say in response if they are not Christians? What do you say if you don’t know what their belief is on God? There have been times when I know God has told me to reach out to people but their responses have not been the greatest. The outcomes have not been what I expected. During those times I just have to humble myself and take away my pride as I continue to show them love. Just my thoughts for the day.

1 John 3:13 ”Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.”