hope
Stick to it 💪
Well, guys. This is the sad sixth week of the year. The week where 80% of New Years resolutions fail according to statistics. If you are one of those represented in this number, don't despair! There is hope for you to get back up! Read along :)
Others of you might not be into resolutions at the treshold of a new year. You might have marching orders from the Holy Spirit from last year you are simply continuing getting on with. Or you might have other ways you go about making sure you are on the right track in pursuing your dreams, goals and desires for your life. Whatever your situation looks like, I believe these three keys I am about to share can be of encouragement to you in your journey.
For me personally, I have started the year with a new morning routine that I feel like is more than a good idea. I felt it to be a directive from the Holy Spirit for my season. Mostly, I've been going strong but I've also been tempted to give up and question, "Does this really even matter" and even stumbled a few times.
I don't know how you are going with this new year but what I do know is, we all need encouragement to stick to what we are starting out and continuing with. It does not matter how we have started or stumbled, if we get back up again, we win. That is good news!
Here are three keys to stick to your intention for the year:
- Be accountable and encouraged Since my new year goal involves my morning routine, my husband is in really close proximity and he makes sure to keep me both encouraged and accountable. He will literally with a smile on his face take the phone out of my hands and serve me a coffee in bed to make sure I get on with the input I want to be first in my day. Do you have a friend who can keep a loving eye on you and spur you on when the going gets rough? Someone who understands the vision of where you are going is priceless, no matter the physical proximity you have to each other. Let's do what's in our hand to surround ourselves with a few people who can help nourish those fragile seeds and soul longings for the year in the right direction.
"So cheer each other up with the hope you have. Build each other up." 1 Thess 5,11 NIRV.
Build others up and allow others to cheer you up as well. There is nothing better than walking the journey together and in the future get to celebrate that what started out as a seed in our heart has now become a big, visible plant! 🌱
Hi! Did you know I have a mailing list?
To receive encouragement in your inbox, sign up here. ❤
2. Remind yourself of the promises of God
When our goals for the year are lined up with the promises God has for us, we can rest assured in the steps of obedience we are taking, being unattached to the outcome. As we keep our hearts hopeful in the waiting and the walking, we will stay the course fixed on our promised future:
"You're blessed when you stay on course, walking steadily on the road revealed by God. You're blessed when you follow His directions, doing your best to find him. That's right - you don't go off on your own; you walk straight along the road he set. You God, prescribed the right way to live; now you expect us to live it." Psalm 119,2 MSG
God is a lamp to out feet and a light to our path. Let's use the light He has shone on our life to walk out what He has told us this far. To align our heart, expectations and feet in this moment to the promises spoken over us will set us up to receive them in His perfect timing.
If you don't feel like your goals for the year are lining up with what God has spoken to you about to be the focus for this season, there is no shame in shifting direction and realigning to make new goals you know are blessed for the season you are in. In that way, faith can be reactivated as you take steps to partner with Jesus' amazing future for you.
3. Get back up - keep climbing - stay the course
The good news is that even if the righteous falls seven times, we get back up again. Those that do not give up, win! The picture above is of my husband and I climbing a mountain in France when we were only three weeks into dating. We stopped the journey to capture the moment in a quick photo, but if we had stayed there hanging in our ropes 100 metres above the ground for too long, it would have caused trouble to our strength for the remaining climb we had to conquer.
The same goes for our goals! Don't stop for too long and cause unnecesarry weariness and complacency. You might have stumbled but don't let the mental picture of it paralyse you from getting into the game again. Get back up. If you are weary, get your breath and keep climbing. We can do this! <3
"Listen up, you wicked, irreverent ones - don't harass the lovers of God and don't invade their resting place. For the lovers of God may suffer adversity and stumble seven times, but they will continue to rise over and over again. But the unrighteous are brought down by just one calamity and will never be able to rise again." Prov. 24,16 TPT.
This is the good news. We are not being mocked or put to shame when we fall, because with Jesus inside of us, we can rise like He did. Again and again.
Your turn
- Who can keep you encouraged and accountable to the course you've set out on this year?
- What promises from God can you remind yourself of to keep going?
- Is there a place you have stopped, frozen on the journey or completely given up? Remind yourself of Prov.24,16 - the lovers of God rise over and over again!
Let's make this prayer from the Psalms our heart cry as we continue going!
"Oh, that my steps might be steady, keeping to the course you set; Then I'd never have any regrets in comparing my life with your counsel. I thank you for speaking straight from your heart; I learn the pattern of your righteous ways. I'm going to do what you tell me to do; don't ever walk off and leave me." Psalm 119,2 MSG
2018 is still new and fresh. We recommit and say, it's still our intention to keep being the head and not the tail, and intentionally go after all this year is meant to hold.
Stick to it,
Sandra.
Get more posts like this straight to your inbox.
Join my mailing list here.
When life treats you tight
Have you ever been in a tight spot?
Have you experienced a tight financial situation or have you felt tight on friends? Have your to-do lists and deadlines been so tight that it feels like they are teasing you and about to squeeze the life out of you? Well, no matter what kind of 'tight' you are experiencing, our tolerance sure gets tested when the treadmill of life seem to treat us terrible or tight trials arrive.
Hi! Did you know I have a mailing list?
To receive weekly blog posts to your inbox, sign up here.
All this tightness we can experience can threaten our trust in Jesus or totally trash our trust. Thanksgiving becomes tight. The thrill of being alive becomes tight when we have a hard time imagining the transformation that's truly possible for our situation. The tenacity we once had turns tiring.
Synonyms to the word 'tight' are words like unyielding, solid, compact, compressed, stretched, strained and stressed. Life can definitely feel that way.
It did for me in the Summer of 2017. My sense of overwhelm was enormous with the responsibility of leading a newly started department of church, building a new marriage, intense health issues arising, having to move apartments and on top of that finishing a four year education, and not having the vision of what awaited me afterwards. In all of this, I felt God pruning and taking away stuff in my life; it was an excavation of my life. God was tilting the soil of my heart which exposed all sorts of ugly stuff in my character. I felt a spiritual battle going on for my future and I felt like I had no energy to fight it. The tightness was tough. And for me, I was dancing around the edge of burnout.
So what do we do when life throws that at us? What's the good news in all of this?
The word 'tight' has synonyms like to fix, fasten, and be closed firmly; hard to move, undo, or open. I believe that's the exact kind of TIGHT that GOD is holding you with! He is holding tight to you in this hour - his firm hands are strong and not letting go of you. It may look like you're surrounded, but you're surrounded by Him!
"If anyone stands in your way, if anyone tries to get you out of the way, Know this: Your God-honored life is tightly bound in the bundle of God-protected life; But the lives of your enemies will be hurled aside as a stone is thrown from a sling." (1 Sam 25,29 MSG)
Remember He is fighting the battle for you. Even when the path you know God has for you seems rough, don't doubt that He is holding you tight to Himself, even when the trials seem to hold you tighter. Call out to Jesus, and let this be your testimony, like it was David's:
"When I call, give me answers. God, take my side! Once, in a tight place, you gave me room." (Psalm 4,1 MSG)
What kind of room do you need in your life? Room to have fun, to rest, to create, to unload some burdens, just to breathe? Ask Him for that and see Him do the divine exchange He is so famous for doing; giving us His rest for our heaviness, His joy for our mourning and His comfort for our angst.
God brought me out of a tight place that Summer and into a revelation and sense that He was holding me even tighter to me than what was coming against me, and it gave me room to experience joy and rest again.
Side note is, I do still feel overwhelmed every day! There is nothing wrong with that in and of itself. But what I am learning is to be more overwhelmed by Jesus than whatever task is at hand, the art of bending without breaking and to rejoice in getting to live a big life and embrace the crazy that comes with it.
Can I encourage you, when you feel like life is tight, keep your eyes open, hold tight to your convictions through those circumstances, give it all you’ve got, be resolute, and love without stopping. (1 Cor 16:13-14 MSG.) Let the lines of purpose in our lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to our future in heaven, kept taut by hope. (Col. 1,3.5 MSG)
This prayer from King David I've made own, and you can do that as well <3
"With your very own hands you formed me; now breathe your wisdom over me so I can understand you. When they see me waiting, expecting your Word, those who fear you will take heart and be glad. I can see now, God, that your decisions are right; your testing has taught me what’s true and right. Oh, love me—and right now!—hold me tight! just the way you promised.
Now comfort me so I can live, really live; your revelation is the tune I dance to. Let the fast-talking tricksters be exposed as frauds; they tried to sell me a bill of goods, but I kept my mind fixed on your counsel. Let those who fear you turn to me for evidence of your wise guidance. And let me live whole and holy, soul and body, so I can always walk with my head held high." (Psalm 119,73-80 MSG)
Hold tight to Jesus. He is holding tight to you!
Love,
Sandra.
Get more posts like this straight to your inbox.
Join my mailing list here.
"Head and not the tail" pt. 2 - Head towards your promised land 👉🏻
(For pt. 1 in the "Head and not the tail"-series, click here.)
Have you ever been in a frustrating situation, dreaming yourself away to another reality? Most likely you've already experienced this in 2018.
That was me a couple of days ago. Let me set the scene for you. I was waiting on delayed public transport and in that extra hour spent on the station, I saw a bus driver being kicked and screamed at and then having to continue his work teary eyed. A gang of guys were also making waiting passengers feel unsafe with their angry behaviour. Minus degrees did not help the situation either. Topping the situation off with being a woman on an empty station late at night made it plain uncomfortable.
Hi! Did you know I have a mailing list?
To receive encouragement in your inbox, sign up here. ❤
As I was freezing and going in circles in a seven eleven-shop to keep warm, I looked to heaven and desperately wanted it to come down in the midst of my frustrating circumstance. It was like heaven bent over and whispered back: "Freeze frame this moment for it will not always be like this. 🖼 To be the head and not the tail is the desire I have for my people."
The bible speak about it like this:
"The Lord will give you great prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open for you His good treasure house, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow.
The Lord will make you the head (leader) and not the tail (follower); and you will be above only, and you will not be beneath, if you listen and pay attention to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today, to observe them carefully. " Deut. 28,11-14 AMP.
The purpose of Deuteronomy was to provide guidelines for the new covenant community - the generation of Israel entering the promised land - to enable them to live obediently before God and to carry out His intentions for them. In the same way, we will be prepared for the promised land God has for us as we obediently follow his guidelines above. If this is not fully your reality yet, don't despair:
Do not get weary in the waiting
There is a season for everything, and a process until a promise is prepared to prosper in your life. Perspective, knowing that what we are sowing now is not in vain, is crucial. If you are hustling several jobs, paying off debt and just getting on with what you know is right for building the right foundation, good on you. God does not despise small beginnings. He delights to see the work begin, and so should we. He delights in seeing you put healthy habits in place over hurried hustling. Gain a healthy irresistable desire for His promises to become part of your life. And then hold the tension. Because where you are now is significant for that future to become present tense. Praise Him in the middle. Build your vision from the ground up. Steward all that's in your hand the best you know how to, and then watch what God will do.
Freeze frame this moment
How does your life look if you took a freeze frame now? What beautiful lessons would leak from the photo that would be of service to your future not to forget? As God is elevating us in life, we must never forget where His rescuing grace brought us from. There are gifts inside of you that has not been fully manifested as of yet. When these gifts are brought forth, you will be the head and not the tail. Don't forget how tail-living is for when you are brought out of that, you will have to go back to that mental snapshot and remember and have compassion for those still trapped in that mindset. Your testimony will be a bridge others can walk on over to the other side. As they cross the bridge by loyalty to their current assignment, they will see the promise come about and enjoy the process because they will start living in a "head mindset" long before it is a reality in their circumstances.
There will be an end to this.
Your current reality does not have to be your final destination. God has so more for you. This does not mean we won't be facing hardships anymore in our lives as we are entering our promised land. Far from that actually. We are promised by Jesus we will have trouble. But as we obediently put one foot in front of the other, walking closely with Jesus, and apply wisdom, understanding and wise counsel to the journey, our lives will prosper and in due time, we will reap a harvest. Tail-living is not where we settle when God's intention is to make us 'the head.' What your eyes have seen this far is only the beginning. Where do you need to believe, "there will be an end to this?" Is it to believe you can become an owner, not only a renter? Is it believing for a time where your passion becomes your fulltime job instead of having to make ends meet with working several jobs? The scenaries are countless, and rarely even about money. Whatever it is, listen to hope, and remember, true success is being obedient right where you are.
All my love,
Sandra.
Get more posts like this straight to your inbox.
Join my mailing list here.
I love the word victory. 'Cause who really loves defeat and struggle? I think everyone enjoys winning!
The dictionary defines victory among other things as the overcoming of an enemy, the achievement of mastery or success in a struggle or endeavor against odds or difficulties.