All posts tagged: encouragement

Encouraged in the Wait: Trusting in God in the Trial

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Revised from November 29, 2016 “He [God] gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.” ~ISAIAH 40:29-31 This passage from Isaiah is one that I’ve quoted many of times in my walk with the Lord Jesus. Often times I’ve felt it come up from within my soul during times of, you’ve guessed it, waiting! And although this scripture does indeed tell us, like many others found in the Bible, that the Lord is faithful to those who wait, the power of waiting in the circumstances that the Prophet Isaiah is writing on is what really moved my heart recently and I am certain it will do the same for yours. When the Lord spoke to Isaiah, giving him these verses it was in response to what was going on …

Dressed for the Appointment: Hope for the Promises to Come

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*Revised from December 26th, 2012 Six years ago I was led to write a short message reminding many of my friends on Facebook to keep holding on to the Word of Faith and promise that Christ Jesus had given unto them. Now, six years later, I am urged to do it again. The Lord laid this question upon my heart that only you can answer for yourself, really, and here it is. “Are you dressed and are you ready for the open door?” It is easy to be given a dream and a prophetic vision for your future/destiny/purpose, but it is a whole other thing to not only hold on to it but to be prepared for it at all times. With many of the trails that we face within the monotony of life, it is easy to lose hope in the dream, allowing it to be transformed into the elusive ‘carrot on a stick’ dangling just out of your reach. “Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him quickly out of the dungeon; and …

The One We Serve: Faith for Our Labors

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I’ma tell you like Daddy told me, in everything you do give God the glory. Every opportunity you’re given, sing your song for TWO as you would for a THOUSAND…” ~JOANN ROSARIO The above quote is the opening verse from the song titled “Serve You Only,” by JoAnn Rosario. There is such wisdom in this quote, such encouragement that, to me, really puts life and actions in proper perspective. Sometimes, most of the time, we weigh the value of our efforts by the size of the audience or the applause we may or may not receive as a result of it. We allow the absence of accolades to force our minds into the abysmal depths of disbelief, thinking our work is for not. “No one will buy this painting. No one cares about this poem. Who is going to read this book? I shared the Gospel and no one accepted Christ as their Savior. Is my work in vain?” All of these thoughts, and we all have had them, lead me to the old saying, “If …

Handful of Hope: A Short Story & Encouragement

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She wanted to see if they could float so with faith she tossed them across the sackcloth that would be the sky and watched as her handful of hope like diamonds suspended themselves and twinkled as stars. She wasn’t the King Creator, nor His Glorious Son, but she was born of His Spirit, and thusly imbued with the authority and call to create. She was learning how to do so with a voice and song uniquely her own, a song she longed to sing to please only His ears. So she tossed up another handful of hope and watched it twinkle and grow in light until the inky darkness bled away yielding to the brilliance of life. The cold uncertainty that had once made her limbs stiff with immobility began to retreat as her being grew warm with the fire of expectation and joy. Handful after handful of hope and dreams and faith jettisoned from her vibrant fingertips and ate away at the dreadful nothing that sought to blanket her with fear. Laughter erupted from her …

Pre-Equipped for Success

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“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago…I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.” ~JEREMIAH 1:5 NLT, EPHESIANS 2:10 NLT The Lord sanctified and appointed you to the call and purpose, vision, dream already inside you. To be sanctified is to be set apart for a specific purpose. His Word ensures us that He is our Shepherd and that we lack nothing. This means that you have all you need to succeed and become all that He has called you to (Psalm 23). (See Creatively Established) Consider the work of a potter (Jeremiah 18:1-5). When he takes a lump of clay, he has already decided what he is going to create. Let’s imagine that this potter has decided to make a mug to drink coffee from. When he puts his hands to the clay to fashion the mug, he …

It’s Worth the Mess: 3 Reasons to Keep Creating

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Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly . . . until you can learn to do it well.” ~Zig Ziglar I have always been a believer that anything worth having is definitely worth fighting for. Having healthy relationships? Worth fighting for. Having security? Worth fighting for. Having victory in maintaining faith? Worth fighting for. I could go on and I am sure that you could add several things to the ‘worth fighting for’ list. But one thing I have often lost the fight in (because I didn’t show up) was in learning new avenues of creating. Why? Because more times than not I was afraid of failure. I wonder if you can relate. The thing about being a creative person–the thing about being human–is that the beginnings of all of our successes begin in a mess. We don’t begin walking with elegant or confident gaits. We fall and we scuff our hands and knees. The same is true for each and every creative venture that we embark upon. Our first drafts will likely be, well, garbage …

Guard Your Future: Creative Motivation

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Stop cheating on your Future with your Past” ~Pastor Kenny, Associate Pastor of Covenant Church The phrase sounds simple enough, but it is often the simple things in life that cause people to stumble the most. We all know that it is true. But then, maybe the quote isn’t that simple. What does it really mean? To not cheat on your Future with your Past, is to not allow the “baggage” and the “failures” of yesterday-be they your own failures or those of someone else-to keep you from embracing the goodness that is ahead. “Holding on to yesterday becomes nothing short of a robbing bondage. We lose everything if we don’t let go. We have to divorce yesterday.”   We have all heard the saying (and I paraphrase) “You can’t drive your car through the rear view mirror.” Well trying to do so is the equivalent of allowing your eye to wander back toward the past instead of being committed to the opportunity of the present future. If we take this attitude into a romantic …

Made Wonder Full: Faith Filled Encouragment for Creatives

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For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. ~PSALM 139:13-14 NKJV You are fearfully and wonderfully made! Some translations of verse 13 say, not that God ‘covered us in our mother’s wombs’ but that He knit us together in our mother’s wombs. When scripture uses the word ‘fearful,’ it doesn’t mean to be afraid, for what exactly did our Heavenly Father have to fear when He created you? What the word ‘fearful’ means here is that He created you with awe, care, and absolute reverence. Not only did the God of all Creation create you fearfully, but He knit you together, which means He got personal when He formed you! You mean so much that He made you from scratch with His own hands. Christ wouldn’t have created you if He had plans to erase your unique qualities and individual voice. On the contrary, He has plans to plant and cultivate you, to multiply the ‘wonder‘ that He …

Creatives in Action Coming Soon!!!

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What is the first word that comes to mind when you hear the word, ‘creative’? Do you, like many people, think of a person who spends hours slinging paint on canvas or sewing stories on elaborate quilts? Maybe a singer, like Celine Dion comes to mind, and you, like me think, Wow, she is so whimsical. “…being a Creative goes beyond, but certainly encompasses, the creative passions of the visional, musical, and written arts, but it does not exclude other forms of creativity.”   The most important question to ask here, is do you picture yourself when you hear the word creative? If not, let this be the day that this changes. What does it even mean to be creative anyway? First, let’s define what it means to create. Create: transitive verb 1: to bring into existence … God created the heaven and the earth.  —Genesis 1:1 (King James Version) 2a : to invest with a new form, office, or rank  She was created a lieutenant. b : to produce or bring about by a course of action or behavior  Her arrival created a terrible fuss.  …

This One Thing: Faith for Creatives

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I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind…The end of the matter, all having been heard: fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole man.”~ECCLESIASTES 1:14;12:13 The book of Ecclesiastes was inspired by the Living Spirit of God and written by not only the wisest man to ever live, besides our Savior, Jesus Christ, but the wealthiest man of all creation; King Solomon. In his lifetime, he had tasted of every indulgence he could, wealth was in abundance, of women he did not lack. There was nothing under the sun that was denied him. And yet, after running around the mountain of indulgence and want, whether of Godly pursuit or in the attempt to appease the longings of his own flesh and desires; he came to the simple and yet profound conclusion, that nothing, NOTHING else was of true value, all was as chasing the wind, except loving God. The word “fear” used in the scripture in regard to …