All posts tagged: faith

Inevitable Change: Encouragement in Transition

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Revised from August 18, 2015 “Change is inevitable, Growth is optional.”~JOHN C. MAXWELL Change. The only time that most people search out change and willingly run with it is when unsavory circumstances have begun to dim the light and joy form their life and they are desperate to get it back. Otherwise, change is seen as the unwelcome guest who showed up at your perfectly numbered dinner party, uninvited. Change requires sacrifice, which generally goes hand and hand with discomfort and for some of us, discombobulation. But change is necessary. It is going to happen whether we like it or not, whether we are prepared or not. Think about an infant in their mother’s womb. Change comes and is without a doubt a straining shock to everything within the infant and around them. But what awaits them at the end of their travailing journey is something far greater. Consider the caterpillar who crawls through life, knowing in the core of their being that they are meant for greater heights. They must burn with the urge to …

A Word to the Waiting: by Briana Lassiter

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Have you received promises from the Lord that your breakthrough will come this year? Has He given you specific impartations, specific instructions and specific direction about what to look forward to? Have you received attack on attack? Have you felt in a fog? Have your promises seemed untrue? Has the voice of the Lord–however He speaks to you–grown dim and hard to hear? Have you experienced pain and hindrances like never before? Beloved, we are shifting. We are moving. We are coming out and we are breaking forth in a historical move of God. We are like waves crashing on the shore, sometimes being pulled back, but gaining in momentum and power and height with each crash. We feel as if we are walking alone at times, we feel blindsided and oppressed by the enemy. We may carry the fear of being hindered and fear that we will forfeit the promises by how we are getting through this time. But we are being called forth in a new glorious way. We are being called out …

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, nor did he lack the company of women. 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 …

Today is a Good Day: Being Grateful for Those Around Us

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*Revised from November 18, 2016 “Today is a good day! Why? Because you’re in it, I’m in it, and we’re in it together! Praise Jesus for making this day!” ~CANDICE COATES The Psalmist said it best Psalm 118: 24 when they said, “This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.” What a blessing it is to not only know that the Word of the Lord is the truth, but to also choose to live it out. The glory of this life is that the Lord did not design it or us to do it alone (GENESIS 2:18). He created us as communal creatures, beings destined for relationship. When we take the time to celebrate those who the Lord has blessed us to do life with, whether that is for a season or for many years to come, we find it hard to not walk in joy. My prayer for each of us this week is to allow the Lord to shift our focus and to enable us …

Pausing in the Moment: Faith for Creatives

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*Revised from May 25, 2018 “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He (Jesus) went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.” ~MARK 1:35 Our Savior and God, Jesus Christ, did not just come to the world to save us from our sins, but He also came to give us life to the fullest, and in so doing, be our example for how to live our best life. As our example, He shows us how to be in the ‘moment’ with others, to be available to their needs, to do our work in delight, but He also shows us when to pause…and to surrender our hearts to Him in quiet seclusion, just as He did with the Father. Whenever our Savior did this, even with great multitudes at His heels, He was able to return to them empowered, enriched, and able to give of Himself. Being Creatives, we often struggle with the idea of being still especially when we want to keep going. But we have to realize that ‘burnout’ …

Letting Go: A Moment of Meditation

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Updated from August 2, 2015 “You’ve brought me to the end of myself. This has been the longest road. And when my ‘Hallelujah’ was tired, you gave me a new song. Now I’m letting go.”        ~Steffany Gretzinger, Letting Go  It was August 2, 2015, that I first heard this song and felt led to share it. And now, nearly four years later, the same prompting whispers to my heart to share this song with this community. I feel like many of us are seeking a place of rest and abiding with the Lord, a place of peace and fruitfulness. Yet, there seems to be a struggle meeting us at the point of our best efforts. The blessing is the battle is not ours but the Lord’s and all we, His children and sheep of His pasture, need to do is surrender our weakness to His strength. Allowing our souls to be quite in such a hectic world can prove a very difficult thing. But let us all take the time to press in …

Learning To Relax: Abiding Fruitfulness

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“God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which He must work. Only to know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves.” ~A.W TOZER  The word of God instructs and comforts us in Isaiah 40:31, that they that wait on Him shall have their strength renewed. But most of us seem to struggle in our fast pace world to not only slow down but even to wait. We find the urge to rush ahead, to be hurried in not just the seemingly grand things in life but even the small and simple things. We rush to get dressed in the morning, rush through prayer, rush to get the kids fed and off to their activities, all so that we can achieve some goal, that even once we have met it we still don’t quite feel fulfilled. The truth is even though our Heavenly Father has called us to abundant life, abundant life, contrary to what today’s culture says, is not found in rushing and striving, but in resting and abiding. Christ knows …

Be Still & Be Successful: Faith for Creatives

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“Be still and know that I Am God…”~PSALMS 46:10 Instead of trying, diving into the current trend of “hustle and grind” in order to achieve success, let us, as Children of God, the Ultimate Creator, set our hearts to seek His face. Proverbs 9:10 tells us the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. To ‘fear’ the Lord is not to tremble because you are scared but to be in awe and to hold Him in reverence. When we fear Him, when we set our hearts and minds upon Him, then we are able to see through the lens of truth, who He is, and who we are in Him. When we know who we are in Him, then we know our position. We know that we are righteous ( II COR. 5:21) so we are assured that we are destined for success (PSALM 1, ROMANS 5:17) in all the things He has called and created and purposed us to do. More than anything, when we set our minds to a task, we …

Guard Your Heart: Journies of Faith

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“Guard your heart with all diligence for out of it spring forth the issues of life.” ~PROVERBS 4:23 The Lord has been telling me during this season not to allow the enemy to steal my joy. On the cuffs of that admonition, He in His grace, also reminds me that He has also been telling me to “not be nervous but to be expectant.” In all of this, with the ringing of the divine message saying, “guard your heart”, what came to mind was the image and scripture regarding the full armor of God. FULLY ARMED Reading the scriptures about the Armor the Lord calls us to equip ourselves with is how although He has instructed us to be fully dressed in this armor, He doesn’t tell us to fight. In fact, what He instructs us to do is to stand! “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” ~EPHESIANS 6:13 (See Eph. 6:10-20) The Lord wants us to …

It is Finished: Faith for Creatives

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“…It is finished!…” ~JOHN 19:30 The Lord God Yeshua Jesus Who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification has declared that it is finished (ROMANS 4:25)! Because He died, we live. Because He rose, we are justified! He is the firstfruits of all who are born again (I COR. 15:20)! It is finished…now we get to begin again each day with new mercies (LAMENTATIONS 3:22-23) and new opportunities to live to the fullness of life that He has purposed for each of us to have. IT IS FINISHED PRAISE HIM FOR HIS LOVE AND AMAZING GRACE! ~Poiema, Poetry in Motion *Photo by Fuu J on Unsplash