As I was driving to pick my daughter from school, I saw a picture of a sling shot flash through my mind. I asked the Lord what He has to say and I believe this is what His heart has for you
“ This is the time to prepare not propel “
You might be exhausted and thinking life is going no where. You are tired of staying in that place and wondering when you will get out of that position in your life. Hear what the Lord has to say.
“This is the time to prepare and not propel”
I did a quick Google search on how a slingshot works .. and got the below
“The stored energy is called potential energy. The farther the rubber bands are stretched, the more potential energy is stored. When the rubber bands are released, the potential energy that has been stored up is converted into kinetic energy, which causes motion. This is how your slingshot works! “ Credit : Google
The place where you are right now is the place of your preparation ground for the possible propelling you are about to have in the future. You might be stretched farther than you have ever imagined. This preparation ground equips you with the life skills and helps you store all the potential energy required when you are ready to propel and also when you reach the higher ground. Don’t take matter into your own hands and propel when you are supposed to be on solid ground now
Take encouragement from this verse and declare it with confidence over your situation right now
Ecclesiastes 3:11 He makes everything beautiful in His time
He is never too early not too late. So don’t strive just rest in His unconditional love for you
In these modern days, people tend to get influenced by words from Godly leaders more than the actual God Himself.
‘ God Loves You ‘ …These words from a famous preacher speaks to one more than them reading the Word for themselves and knowing God indeed loves them from John 3:16. Nothing wrong in being influenced by a preacher, but no man or woman should be worshiped so much that they replace the place of God in one’s life. See when a source is misplaced, life is misplaced too.
The source that never drains, the source that is always refreshing, the source that always guides, always protects, always encourages the faint heart is Jesus Himself. Everything else is a depleting sideline.
John 15:5 “I am the sprouting vine and you’re my branches. As you live in union with me as your source, fruitfulness will stream from within you—but when you live separated from me you are powerless.
Let’s look at an example from the Bible, Saul who took consultation from a medium when He did not get an answer from the Lord. The prophet Samuel was dead, and the vast army of Philistines had gathered to fight against Israel. Frightened Saul inquires of the Lord but God was no longer speaking to Saul because of his continual disobedience. So Saul turned back to consulting with a medium, which he himself previously had banned from the Land. Saul was initially connected to the source and when things did not turn out as expected, his impatience and disobedience lead him to make wrong choices that are forbidden by God
1 Samuel 28:3-7Samuel was now dead. All Israel had mourned his death and buried him in Ramah, his hometown. Saul had long since cleaned out all those who held séances with the dead.
4-5 The Philistines had mustered their troops and camped at Shunem. Saul had assembled all Israel and camped at Gilboa. But when Saul saw the Philistine troops, he shook in his boots, scared to death.
6 Saul prayed to God, but God didn’t answer—neither by dream nor by sign nor by prophet.
7 So Saul ordered his officials, “Find me someone who can call up spirits so I may go and seek counsel from those spirits.”
The Bible teaches us and in fact warns us from John 16:33 that in this world we will have tribulations , trials , trouble and hardships. One of the strategies God teaches us to get through these tough times, is to stay connected to the source even when it does not make sense. Staying connected to the source will help us with the strength needed for the journey and encouragement to stay on track. Changing tracks might seem the easiest option at such time but that will eventually lead to the path of destruction and chaos
John 4:13 Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
Today’s heavenly invite is very special for 2 groups of people.
For those that are already connected to the source but finding it hard to stay the course as the mystery is not helping you
For those that are connected to the sidelines and its time to change track to choose the eternal source, Jesus
For Group 1 , the encouragement from the Lord as you are waiting on Him to strengthen you is Isaiah 40:31 ” But those who wait for Yahweh’s grace will experience divine strength.They will rise up on soaring wings and fly like eagles, run their race without growing weary, and walk through life without giving up ” Be encouraged, He sees your heart ! He will come through for you !
If you belong to Group 2, He is inviting you to be part of His family. An invitation to connect to the eternal source of life filled with joy and peace which does not depend on any circumstance. This is the day the Lord has made for you to join His family. Choose to say YES to Him
Pray this prayer with me
Father God,
Thank you for the invite. Thank you for meeting me right where I am in my journey. Thank you for refreshing my heart. As I choose to join your family and seek to live this mysterious life on earth, help me to navigate the ups and downs with your wisdom and strength. I seek to honor you in my life through my actions and words. Thank you for the source of life. Teach me wondrous things from your Word everytime I sit down with my Bible
I bought a bike for daughter’s 7th birthday. The bike came with a manual that had specific instructions on how to put it together so it can function as intended. I was too lazy to read that manual. I wanted to save time so ignored the manual and started assembling the bike on my own , not to mention with the little knowledge I had. I got stuck half way through , still not wanting to go to the bulk sized manual that came with the bike, I reverted to youtube videos trying to get some help. The end result after countless hours of trying was a bike put together with no brake functionality, which was pretty much unusable. I finally resolved to what I should have done way earlier – to sit down, read the instructions and then fix the mess. I could have saved myself so much heartache only and only if I had turned to the original source of instruction way early , which is the manual specially designed for this particular bike. I learnt my lesson the hard way
This beautiful life sometimes takes us through ugly turns. We strive and strive, sometimes being the boss of our own lives, sometimes blindly following people ahead of us not even knowing if their path is our path and sometimes with pure ignorance bliss. Along the path, we knowingly or unknowingly take on the labels that life throws at us and believe them to be our identity / destiny. While labels that nourish our souls and propel us towards our destiny are good, there are also negative labels that are purely aimed at destruction and confusion in our life. The devil is clever in playing deceitful tactics on our minds through our situations and if we are not able to discern his lies with the Word of God, which should be our source of truth, we go down a spiral life of negativity and hopelessness.
When the world screams at you ‘ You are unloved and rejected ‘ , you defeat that lie with the Word of Truth ‘ You are so unconditionally loved that God gave His only son to die for YOU ‘ – John 3:16 .
Reading the Word of God equips you in every possible way to expose the lies of the devil and for your heart to declare His truth for your life. It is time to re-label your life. Time to tear down those labels that are not of God and to take on those labels , that God wants you to have and freely given to you. The label of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness and self control
Today is a heavenly invite for you to choose to partner with God to re-label your life with His source of truth, The WORD The Bible. And when you do that, He promises that the Holy Spirit within you will help you live the abundant life He has promised you. What more can be to a life lived glorifying His name !
Galatians 5 ; 25-23 But the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is divine love in all its varied expressions
joy that overflows,
peace that subdues,
patience that endures,
kindness in action,
a life full of virtue,
faith that prevails,
gentleness of heart, and
strength of spirit.
Father God,
As I lay down my life once again before You, please help me to re-label my life with the truth from your Word. I acknowledge that I can do nothing without you and seek Your help here. Open my eyes so I can see wondrous things from the Lord. Equip me to tear down the lies that are trying to steal the joy in my life and my family members life. I declare that no weapon formed against me shall prosper. Thank you for Your Word.
” See the world through my Word. Look through my lens. Change your perspective ” says the Lord
How hard is it to search for a lost something in the dark ? Darkness diminishes the hope of finding the lost item and eventually leads you to quit searching. When there is darkness surrounding you, there is no clarity of vision . Darkness deceives you into believing that the situation is far worse than you imagined
The world could be viewed as a place full of dark spots where if we loose our vision, we could easily get lost. We could sway from the God given purpose for our life and eventually loose perspective of His vision for us. Darkness then takes control of our thoughts and puts us in the perfect rut leading us into the belief that there is no way out of it
The Bible gives us the perfect instruction to protect ourselves from the World. To look at the world through the lens of the WORD.
Psalm 119: 130 The unfolding of Your Words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple
I love Numbers 13 . When Moses sent the spies to Canaan to see what it was like before the Israelites entered the land, all that the spies could see was the ‘giant’ men and the ‘walled city’ . They knew it was a land flowing with milk and honey but their fearful eyes could not see beyond the obstacles. They looked and perceived themselves as ‘grasshoppers’ so small in comparison to those ‘ giant’ men they saw in the land of Canaan. On the contrary, Caleb was presented with the same situation but he saw things differently. He knew there was obstacles but he also knew His God was stronger than the obstacles they faced. His perspective to look through the eyes of God made all the difference here.
Today is a heavenly invite for you to overcome the ‘grasshopper’ perspective and look at your situation / yourself through the lens of the Word .. He says ‘ You are the Apple of My eye – Zechariah 2:8 ‘ . Trust in God and overcome . You can overcome any situation with God.
Claim this verse and declare it over your life. You are more than a conqueror.
Romans 8:37-39
37 Yet even in the midst of all these things, we triumph over them all, for God has made us to be more than conquerors, and his demonstrated love is our glorious victory over everything!
38 So now I live with the confidence that there is nothing in the universe with the power to separate us from God’s love. I’m convinced that his love will triumph over death, life’s troubles,[c] fallen angels, or dark rulers in the heavens. There is nothing in our present or future circumstances that can weaken his love. 39 There is no power above us or beneath us—no power that could ever be found in the universe that can distance us from God’s passionate love, which is lavished upon us through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One!
If you are ready to become an overcome through Christ , pray this prayer with me !
Dear Father,
Thank You for speaking to me today. Thank you for understanding my struggles and teaching me a way out of it. As I choose to get rid of my ‘grasshopper’ mentality help me to see things through the eyes of your Word. Teach me strategies to overcome things of this world that are not of You and help me to live out a life that glorifies You.
We program our logical minds to instantaneous answers and into believing that anything that is not clearly visible with our naked eyes is either false or non-existent. So a making in the process is a long lost fairy tale due to the impatience we dearly hold onto
As Christians, time and time again, throughout the Bible God reminds us to trust in the process. The Bible tells us that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever from Hebrews 13:8. His loving grace and never ending compassion has always held His children’s hands, especially during the difficult and challenging times
In Psalm 56:3, God tells us that when we are afraid to put our trust in Him. It can be quite daunting to go through a process, when we don’t know the whole plan laid out. But God is trustworthy and His process can be trusted. He affirms you from Jeremiah 29:11
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
2020 was a year that no one expected. ” This is definitely not how I pictured it ” was a common statement I came across. ‘ Unprecedented times ‘ was another common phrase used which means ‘ never before known or experienced ‘
Looking at our own lives, we all can agree that everyone has experienced things in our lives that we never thought we would go through. Marriage dreams that end up in divorce, baby dreams that become empty cradles, well to do person ending up homeless just to name a few. There is a bigger temptation to believe that our lives are over as our dreams are shattered and that is no hope left for us. We are heartbroken, disappointed, hopeless and disheartened.There is a tendency to get distracted from the bigger picture as we focus too much on the inner circle, much like the frog in the well. We base our faith on our feelings and emotions and things that happen to / with us. When in fact faith should be Christ focused and Christ centered.
Let’s look at David’s life. Pretty sure, he would not have pictured his life as he experienced. After becoming a successful hero defeating Goliath, the giant with a sling shot he would not have thought he will be spending 10 years or so in a cave just because Saul was jealous of him. God’s promise on his life was that he would become the King of Israel. But the circumstances were no where to that promise. The only way David was able to raise above the circumstance was to go through that process, which was his difficult 10 years or so, to become the king God intended for him to be. David had to do his part for the promise of God to be fulfilled in his life. David believed despite the circumstances, his destiny does not change as His future is destined by a God that loves him unconditionally.
But in the day that I’m afraid, I lay all my fears before you and trust in you with all my heart – Psalm 56:3
As Christians, we have a responsibility to be part of the solution than contribute to an existing problem. Our current challenge we all face globally is Covid, it no longer is ‘ my’ problem or ‘their’ problem it is collectively ‘ our’ problem. WHY you may ask ? As one person’s negligence will cost someone else’s life.
So how do we biblically apply trusting the process to the so-relatable current Covid situation ? We all know COVID is an airborne virus, which means it can infect people through air very quickly. As responsible Christians and citizens, one logical way to stop the spread is just wear a mask. God has given humans a sound mind and when clinical experts suggest precautions, as part of the process our job is just to follow the rules. It is easy to rebel, create a controversy or question the authorities with a zillion reasoning, but at the end of the day we can only come of this situation when we realize it is ‘teamwork’ that will get us out of lock downs. Not constant whinging and blame game at each other.
All 4 developmental stages in the life cycle of a butterfly are equally important , for it to become the beautiful creature God intended it to be. So is the circumstance or situation or current stage in your life. They all are beautifully planned by your Heavenly Father and today He is just asking you to trust in His plans for your life. He is asking for your co-operation to go through the uncomfortable process you are experiencing right now, as He knows you are going to be the refined diamond at the end of this process.
Today is your heavenly invite from your loving Father asking you to trust in His process for your life.
You are like the clay in the potter’s hands, and I am the potter – Jeremiah 18:6
He knows you by name, He hears your every cry and He is with you forever
Will you choose to trust Him today ?
Father God, Thank you for speaking to me. As I lay down my desires, my hearts longings and dreams I invite you to come into my heart and life. I ask of your forgiveness for trying to be the boss of my own life. I need you now. Thank you for your love. In Jesus Name Amen
As I sat with the Lord yesterday, soaking in His presence and seeking answers for the current covid situation, the Lord laid upon my heart a bold call out to His children, an invitation from Him to connect over the next 7 days.
The Lord revealed to me 7 strategies that will help us navigate tough times, especially moments of fear and uncertainty that try to cripple us. I believe it is highly applicable for such a time as this.
Please join me for a time of devotion with the Lord over the next 7 days. He is waiting to hear from you and speak to you
How often we get frustrated when we dream of a beautiful garden just to watch the weeds kill the life in them. Maintaining a beautiful garden requires consistent care and most importantly ensuring it is no place for weeds as they suck the life out of the garden plants.The first step towards a beautiful garden is IDENTIFYing the weeds that destroy the garden and then UPROOTing them from a place where they don’t belong
Lets look at our lives the same way, a beautiful garden where God wants us to have an ABUNDANT life full of joy and peace. But most often, there are some things that creep into our life without our knowledge that are more destructive than constructive. This week I am going to help you identify some of those dreadful weeds in your life that are stealing the joy of your purpose driven life. Are you ready for your first step towards living an abundant life ? The first step is to uproot the lies that are not from God.
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it ABUNDANTLY – John 10:10
Stay Tuned ! God has amazing things in store for you this week. Just connect with him and allow Him to work on you
2020 has so far been a very unpredictable year. It has come with its own uninvited surprises and as a result infinite changes to our way of life.
During the COVID lockdown months, one thing I constantly struggled to keep up with is communication with my 7 year old. With screaming demands of a busy life, a full time remote working job, remote learning needs for a primary aged child, Bible study classes during the week, leadership training and other charity responsibilities I am involved with seem to stretch my time in all directions. Our normal long beach walks, conversations over coffee dates, movie night chit chats all seem to have been handicapped by the COVID 19 restrictions. While we strive to keep our physical bodies safe from the virus, I felt the need to keep our mental selves equally healthy and normal.
The goal was to find a way to keep up with the healthy conversations we used to have but with a slight adjustment adapting to the current situation. We had an idea. We came up with a concept of ‘ Chat Couch ‘ , I must admit the fancy name invention is from my child.
Whenever we felt a need to chat or have a conversation in the family, we were free to come to the couch and the other person will know that there is a matter to be discussed. We moved the couch to our outdoor area and we have had such good conversations to build each other up in our ‘ Chat Couch’ . I don’t believe in punishments to discipline a child in my home so our ‘Chat Couch’ also served a place where we need to discuss on behaviors that are not appropriate. As I always say’ there is a solution to every problem we face. We just need to change our perspective to think differently ‘
I was reminded of ‘ Chat Couch ‘ this evening and inspired to write this post. If you have been struggling with your ME time with GOD, then this post is just for you. With the current uncertain COVID 19 scenario, the first thing under attack is our communication with the Lord. With the various demands of life, topped up with COVID lock down challenges, it might seem impossible to have a conversation with God. It is easy to convince ourselves of excuses that we can’t do long walks or coffee dates or get some alone me time due to the restrictions. But here is the thing. A blurry windscreen will hinder your vision on what lies ahead. We are created for fellowship with the Creator. The longer we try to handle things our own, the longer it is going to take to find solutions and the more frustrated we are bound to become with zero results.
Today I encourage you to change your perspective. Look at things differently around you. Find creative ways to commune with the Lord. Once you re-discover, re-invent and re-establish your very own ‘ Chat Couch’ with Him, He will lead you and guide you through whatever mountain or challenge is trying to intimidate you or cause you to fear. It is time to re-connect with Him and take your place as His child. That’s where your strength for the journey ahead lies.
Hear this invitation from the Lord
“Come, let’s take a break and find a secluded place where you can rest a while.”
-Matthew 6: 31
Lord, as we draw near to you, I pray that you will engulf us with your love and teach us how to be an overcomer admist trials. Give us a clear faith-filled vision and an obedient heart to do what is right. Thank you for your unfailing mercy and grace to us.
