Lord Send Me The Right People.

We won’t arrive at the fullness of our potential to do God’s will on Earth without receiving and giving help along the way. Characters in the Bible were only able to accomplish what they set out to do with help from the people around them: we saw Noah build the ark with the help of his sons, Jesus had 12 disciples around Him.

God’s plan for us is to have relationships where the help is mutual. So we should choose to have relationships which God can use for His purposes. But in my previous friendships, I felt like the appreciation was one sided and sometimes this was the case so I’ve been really reluctant to make new friends. Today I realised that I’m terrible at judging friendships but our Lord isn’t.

You should ask God to send the right people into your life but you shouldn’t stop there, you need to pray for the spirit of discernment to help decide whether that friendship is right for you. Finally, we should all trust God to be an active participant for good in every relationship He encourages us to develop.

As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another Proverbs 27:17; this should be true of all your relationships in your Godly life.

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You think you have time?

The trouble is, you think you have time. You leave words unsaid, arguments unresolved, bitterness festering, and you find yourself withholding forgiveness, as though you can afford to journey throughout your days harbouring negativity, but instead, you find yourself only hindering His grace and freedom within you, by living every day for your next.

You allow “I’ll get to it later” and “I’ll do it tomorrow” to become the slogans you live by; rather than understanding that reality is –– you may only have today. Living today by the assumption that tomorrow is assured, is an easy way to set yourself up for a very painful fall. With a half-hearted attitude that tomorrow is promised; the deception is that forgiveness and compassion can wait; that a disinterested attitude today can be a loving attitude tomorrow.. And whilst grace often provides the space for this to be the case, living your life knowingly taking advantage of the space grace provides is not how God intended for it to be given and received.

Don’t allow fear to keep you from living today as today; don’t allow resentment to brood within your spirit, well within your soul and hold you captive within your own stubbornness; be quick to offer a hand, provide an embrace and release your own hurts, offences and wrongdoings to Christ — there’s no one more qualified to assist you on the journey of reconciliation or repentance, than Jesus Himself (Ephesians 4:31-32). In the same light, don’t spend your days turning your head to see, experience and recall all that is behind you; your past is a part of you, but it isn’t you — lay the days and experiences that have come and gone at the foot of the cross, allow Him to minister healing to the damaged crevices that remain in your life, and actively pursue a forward motion. If you continually turn your head to keep your eyes on what is behind you, soon your body will follow and you’ll find yourself journeying backwards (Job 17:9). Hasten your spirit; love freely, throw down the arms of judgement, and don’t leave for tomorrow what can be restored today.

Don’t take the roads you’ve always taken.

Take back your right to adventure. Reclaim your right to explore. Don’t take the roads you’ve always taken and turn down the streets that are familiar, simply because they are known. Let your heart be your tour guide and your convictions be your compass, and allow the wisdom He has imparted into your spirit to keep you in check.

Don’t rely on being comfortable, or desperately cling to what is known – release yourself from feeling attached to your past decisions and behaviors. You are not yesterday’s pathways, you are not last weeks steps and movements; you are today’s courage and determination and by His grace, you are free to go, be, do, and think up all that is new, fresh and inviting. Your genetic pattern and make up was designed and created solely for your existence; and the very outworking of how you will achieve your dreams and walk in His plan for you, is like no one that has gone before you. A one off masterpiece in a gallery may explore similar techniques to another; but that does not mean they are carbon copies, they simply share small and familiar aspects of their existence that brought them to be what it is that they are.

In the same way, don’t look to the left or the right, or find yourself comparing your journey to anothers; don’t feel obliged to shift your maps or alter your routes based on how someone else has reached their destination – you were not born to wear someone else’s shoes or walk their walk. Don’t second guess His lead or waste time questioning His authority. He will never guide you without walking ahead of you. History never repeats itself. You exist once, and once only. You can choose to live every day as you lived yesterday, or you can forget mediocrity, forget comfortability and forget everything you’ve always known – and take a chance on faith. You can farewell fear and bury your insecurities. You can shelve your stresses and axe your anxieties. Every great historical achievement and change started with one person giving up on the average, dreaming for the greatest and putting one foot in front of the other. Comparison is the thief of who you are called to be… so give it up. Forget ‘feeling good’ and start ‘feeling God’.

I love you but Jesus loves you more ♡

God’s love for you is unconditional ❤

I want you to know that no matter how many times you’ve been dismissed by people, God loves you with an unconditional and unfailing love. You are not disposable to Him. You are not just another face in the crowd. You are His son, His daughter. No human being defines your worth. HE defines your worth and if what those people are saying does not match the word of God, you need to discard it as a lie. He’s the one who formed you when you were still in your mother’s womb. He’s the one who’s numbered every hair on your head. He’s the one who predestined you for adoption before the world even began. He’s the one who took your place on the cross, so that you could enter into the relationship with Him that you had no hope of attaining on your own. He’s the one who knows you better than any person walking this earth ever could. He’s the one who’s seen the darkest crevices of your heart and loves you just the same. Why? Because He IS love. What He says is what matters. When you’ve been hurt by the words someone else has spoken about you, I encourage you to draw near to Him. Thank Him for what HE says, even if at that moment you don’t feel like it’s true. When you put your focus on Him, everything else will fade into the background.

In the end with him you will be alright.

If you arrive at the cliff in the valley, may there be no room in the soul for fear, for you will know God had brought you this far and He will still be with you here. And though you are waiting to see what miraculous thing He will do, may you never let go of His highwind whispers:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” —Jeremiah‬ ‭29:11‬ ⠀

This is a familiar passage, but never a cliché. It is a reminder that even in years of waiting, there is hope. In the end, no matter how long you waited, with Him, things will not end in disaster. In the end, you will not fail. And not because life will be perfect, but because He has called you worth to to be wrapped in His endless perfect Love. In the end, He will always make things right. In the end, with Him, you will be alright. Hold onto this when a relationship is severing or when your plans are falling through. Hold onto this when it feels like God is not speaking. ⠀

If you are standing at a cliff in a valley today, unsure of how you will make it across, let it be here you are graciously reminded even out here, you are not lost. God is with you and you are with Him. And He will be the One to help you fly over this, soaring on wings like eagles you will gain strength and you will be brought where you need to be: wrapped in His Love, His guidance, with Him, you will be safe. So do not be intimidated by any cliffs today. With God, there is still a way high above this. And you already have come so far with Him, and He will still be with you wherever you go, wherever you land, and no matter what does or does not happen.

Is God pleased with me?

The concept of an all-knowing and unchanging God is a difficult one for us to grasp. Because we’re used to dealing with imperfect humans, it’s hard not to draw a correlation to those relationships and the one we have with our Heavenly Father.

Sometimes we fall into the misconception that His love and acceptance is partially dependent ON us. If we do the right things, He’s pleased with us. If we fall short, He’s disappointed. Even when we repent and confess, there can be a lingering fear that we have to earn our way back into His good graces.

The thing is though, God is not imperfect. Our mistakes have no impact on the love He has for us. Even before your conception, He knew all the ways you would fall short, but He still sent His Son to die for you anyway. Not because at some point in the future, you would do something to merit it. He chose to endure the cross for you because HE is love. When you fall into the muck and mire, He’s not shaking His head in disapproval. He’s holding His hand out to you, urging you to get back up again.

In case you missed it the first time, God is NOT disappointed in you. He is omniscient. He knew what would happen before it happened. Yes, when you choose to disobey, He’s not pleased with your actions, but that doesn’t mean He’s not pleased with YOU.

The Bible tells us that when we’re saved, we become new creations. We’re no longer under the curse of the law because Jesus wraps us up in His OWN robes of righteousness. We don’t have to work for His approval. Jesus did the work for us. Our identity is in Him.

Something that really troubled me in the past was the subject of “being pleasing to God”. My lack of understanding put me on unstable ground, which in turn left me wide open to the attacks of the devil. But the more and more I sought God on the matter, the more He began to open my eyes to the truth.

One of the first things He annihilated was the belief that my actions shaped His perception of me. After one particularly bad screw up, I was feeling really defeated and the devil (being the pain that he is) was berating me with the constant thought “See! You’re a failure. How could He be pleased with you?”. To which God immediately responded, “You are not your mistakes, Cas. You are not your inadequacies. You are not the weaknesses of your flesh.”

Don’t let the devil convince you that God’s opinion of you can be altered. We have a greater God than that, One who isn’t swayed by the opinions or actions of others.

He IS pleased with you, because you’re His child. There is a place for LIVING in a manner that’s pleasing to Him as well but it’s important to remember that you don’t have to do in order to be. You are because of grace, and the more you realize that, the more your actions will reflect it too.

Psalm 147:11

The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him,

In those who hope in His mercy.

Ephesians 1:4-6

Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

New Season Of Life.

As I settle into this new season of life, I’ve been thinking often about how God is always with me. I’ve heard it, and I’ve read it, but I think I never really understood it–known it–to be true until recently. Until I had days where it was harder than ever to make time for sitting down with His Word. Until I went weeks without talking to Him. Until the enemy began to, as he does, creep in, slip in, between the cracks. Until I was filled more with anxiety, worry, and doubt than peace. Until I was filled more with him than with Him.

But here’s what I’ve learned: We can’t always fight our battles sitting down or on our knees. Sometimes we have to stand–literally. Some days we have to pray whilst riding the tube, recite Scripture while folding laundry, listen and sing along and hand raise to Praise & Worship music while walking to church/work/ etc. Some days we have to remember that making time for God doesn’t always look like quiet time with His Word and coffee at a table/desk Some days we have to remember that God is always with us, and that we can still–we can always–spend time with Him, even in the chaos, even in the busyness, even standing up.