It is that time of year again! When one year comes to a close and another begins and many of us begin creating a list of new year's resolutions. The interesting thing about new year's resolutions is that for most of us, our list probably revolves around areas of our life where we feel we are falling short and need improvement. Sometimes they include finally realizing a long time dream or something we have on our “bucket list”, but from what I know to be true of myself and many others, the list revolves around our perceived shortcomings. We seek to improve our lives in the areas we struggle in or perhaps have let slide. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to tackle those areas of weakness, but I believe we need to give just as much attention, if not more, to the areas of our strengths and God given gifts. Looking back on 2018, what is the one thing that you are most proud of? What was your biggest accomplishment for the year? Don't be shy about acknowledging your victory! My biggest accomplishment for 2018 was a double win wrapped in one package. I self-published an initial draft of a multipurpose spiritual journaling tool which I will have a test group of people using this year. Completing it was an accomplishment, but even that would have not been achieved to the fullest extent had I not overcome my fear of having the manuscript portion of the journal professionally edited. I have always loved to write, but I was more than a little scared of having a professional read and critique my work. In the end I was very pleasantly surprised. Of course there were edits to the manuscript and suggestions on how to make parts of it more clear, but overall, the editor had very positive things to say about my manuscript. I would encourage all of you to take the time to recognize your accomplishments for 2018 and then ask yourself if there is a way that you can build upon what you have accomplished and utilize your natural strengths and gifts in a way that will bring further enrichment to your life of the lives of others. I'm not saying you should ignore those areas of weakness you wish to tackle in your life, just don't make your weaknesses your main focus because your strengths are pretty darn awesome! Here's to a GREAT 2019!
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It is only natural that most of us spend some time reflecting on our lives when a new year begins. Some of us even jump on the New Year's resolutions bandwagon with great ambition to make some positive changes in our lives as the new year kicks off. I have done that many, many, many times myself! And if I am completely honest, most of my great ambitions end up falling to the wayside when life goes through its inevitable twists and turns. My focus shifts, and I have a hard time getting back on track most of the time, and the begin to feel defeated for not accomplishing what I had set out to do. This year however, I inquired of the Lord on how to break this cycle I have found myself in so many times. It just so happened that as I asked this question I was looking at the piles of notebooks and random scrap pieces of paper stacked in a pile on my desk. These are items that I had collected over the last year. Notes from books I had read, sermon notes, words of encouragement, prophetic words, and various other items that were on my "someday" to do list. As I looked at the stack on my desk I felt a little sad and frustrated. Here were so many wonderful tidbits that I had read or thought about over the last year and most of them had gotten no further than being written down on a piece of paper, that was now piled up on my desk. I moved the stack to the middle of my desk and sighed. Proverbs 29:18 tells us that "Where there is no vision, the people perish". I had lots of things in these pages that I felt were important enough to write down and that I was passionate about, but I had no clear vision. So this is why year after year I felt as if I was stuck in the same place of making very little progress in various aspects of my life. In some areas of my life I felt unfulfilled and if I was in fact perishing. Then the Lord in His goodness, brought me to Habakkuk 2:2 which states, "Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it." NKJV. This is just what I needed - I wanted to run - run in pursuit of the clear vision of what God has planned for my life! It became clear to me that what I had done in writing these things down was at least one step in the right direction. However I needed to go through and organize all of these random pieces of paper and notebooks. I ended up with three main categories: Encouragement & Prophetic Words, Wisdom & Teachings, and To Do's & Goals. Now I'm going to tell you what I am doing with each of these three categories.
As the priority items from each stack made their way to the forefront I began to see a pattern emerge between them. The Holy Spirit began to highlight things from these pages of notes and I could see the vision the Lord was giving me for this new year and passion was ignited in my heart. Through this process I was able to write the vision and make it plain, and I now have a way of keeping that vision in front of me constantly as well. At the beginning of each week I pray and begin filling in my schedule for the week. This helps keep me accountable, not so much to the daily things of life that we deal with all the time, but accountable for the dreams, vision, and passion that God has laid upon my heart, because if I don't make it a priority and schedule the time for it, life will all too easily take over, or I will be tempted to volunteer my time in areas I should not be spending my time. That doesn't mean we shouldn't be flexible. We need to write our plans in pencil and give God the eraser, and let Him lead us each day. God has called us to be an intentional people. Intentional in our pursuit of Him, intentional about the call God has placed on our life, intentional in our love towards others, and intentional in maintaining the vision God has given us. Be intentional this year and pursue your vision - write the vision and make it clear! Have you ever looked back at something you said, did, or wrote and thought to yourself, “Boy, was I ever naive!”and just shook your head and laughed? This is something that happened to me recently; and thankfully, it is something that I can not only laugh about but even be grateful for. I was going through one of my journals from ten years ago. At this time in my life, I was in a very unhealthy relationship and home life for me and my children was very stressful. Walking a day in my shoes was not something I would have wished for anyone. Although the relationships I had established with my church family were a great source of strength to me, I had stopped attending church because it was only causing more conflict in my relationship and I was desperately trying to do whatever I could to lessen the stress and tension in our home. Even though I was not actively attending church, I was still spending time with the Lord, in worship, journaling, praying, and seeking His face in light of the circumstances in my life. There was a couple I had met online who had adopted me into their home group. Though it was not the same as being with fellow Christians in person, I was happy to be included in the fellowship. Their group had reached out to me and began praying for God to give me wisdom and direction in regards to my home life situation. On this particular day they had a word for me that they saw me as a warrior. In my journal I had wrote about how just the day before I was sensing the same thing, so for me this was a confirming word. And I was so excited about it, that I wrote the following at the end of that journal entry: “Show me the way to warrior boot camp!” Now I bet a lot of you are giggling right now. It's okay, I did too. Oh how naive I was to declare such a thing – in writing at that! At the time I really didn't have a good grasp on the power that our words hold. If I had, I probably would not have written that down! During the next couple of years that followed, I was definitely in a warrior boot camp. In retrospect, this was not a bad thing. I was afterall, already living in a war zone of sorts. The problem was, I didn't really know how to spiritually overcome what I was up against. I was simply in survival mode and that was not how God intended me to live. I learned many things during that time. Prayer on new levels, worshiping in the midst of the storm, reading the Word, I listened to many sermons and teachings, and even did some fasting. These were all areas I was familiar with, but never truly devoted myself to them to a point where it was truly what I lived and thrived on. It turned out that not going to church at the time was a blessing as well. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying God intended for us to go it alone, and that you should not be a part of the local church body that God plants you in. We are to be planted in a church because God created us to be in fellowship with one another in order for the Body of Christ to function properly. But for me, before I left my church, I relied too heavily on others to teach me, pray for me, and give me direction. Through this period of being away from church, I had no choice but to truly let the Holy Spirit lead and guide me and I had to really press in to learn how to truly hear from the Lord and block out my own thoughts. This brought me into alignment with how my relationship with the Lord was meant to be. He was to be my source - not my pastors or mentors. My pastors and mentors were meant to be there for guidance and wisdom, but ultimately I had to be the one who sought the Lord. I was actually a bit deceived in thinking I had a good relationship with the Lord. A relationship built on brief encounters and what others tell you of their experiences with the Lord, is really not a relationship at all - all you really have is an acquaintance. Being a warrior required me to have intimate relationship with the Lord, and let me tell you, there is nothing better! I am so grateful that God was willing to take my naive statement as an invitation to an intimate relationship that would equip me to take on every trial I will ever face. As I sit here seven years later I can see how far I have come. While I definitely prefer times of peace over battle, I am learning to embrace the title of warrior, and with that comes a sense of peace because I know I will overcome. I know I will be victorious even when it appears that defeat is eminent, because I do not battle alone, I battle with the one who has overcome it all and has the victory – JESUS. Copyright 2017 Christine Edwards
Are you in the midst of circumstances that seem insurmountable? Are you tired of fighting the good fight of faith and at the end of your rope? I can relate, all too well. The Bible tells us that “they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” Revelation 12:11 NKJV. Our testimonies are powerful! So I am going to share with you my most recent testimony and I pray that it will encourage you. Several weeks ago I went to a Beth Moore conference with one of my best friends. It came at a time when I was going through a very difficult season in my life. I knew I needed this time away, even though I had just returned from vacation not that long ago. I needed time with my dear sister in Christ, and I definitely needed a fresh word from the Lord. While we were at the conference I felt that I needed to go up for prayer at some point, but I honestly didn't know what to ask for. I was simply so tired of asking God for help to get through the situation I found myself in and to find the answers that I needed for me and my family. I was just totally burnt out on asking God for help, and feeling almost totally hopeless. Yes, each day the Lord gave me new mercies to continue on, but I was just hanging on to the end of my rope by this point. When the opportunity came for prayer I went up even though I had no idea what to ask for. My friend and I approached a woman who had just finished praying for someone else. She asked me what I needed prayer for. I didn't have a good answer because I didn't know what to ask for as I had become numb on so many levels. But suddenly the Holy Spirit quickened my spirit, and I told the her that I needed an upgrade to my spiritual armor. As the thought came out of my mouth it felt so very appropriate. I felt like I needed stronger armor to make it through this season that had been filled with one battle after another. She very willingly prayed with me for what I had asked for. I left not feeling any different. No surge of power had come upon me nor I didn't feel much stronger than I did before I had gotten prayer. Even though I didn't feel any different, I knew God heard the prayer and knew exactly what I needed. When I asked for prayer for an upgrade to my spiritual armor I didn't even think of what might come afterwards. And it was a good thing I didn't, because I wouldn't have asked for it! It is like they always say about people who pray for God to give them more patience, what they actually get are more opportunities to practice patience. When I got back home I was returning to things just as I had left them. As the following weeks progressed things got more difficult, and I felt as if I was being crushed to the breaking point. I knew I couldn't do this alone, and that though I felt like isolating myself, I knew that was the worst thing I could do under the circumstances. So I asked my closest friends to be in prayer for me and the situation I was facing. The best friend that went to the conference with me said something to me that made total sense. She told me that new armor has to be battle-tested. I kind of laughed to myself and joked with her that perhaps I should have asked for a tank instead, because this was getting intense. But she had a very valid point. Now fast forward a few weeks, and praise God, breakthrough in the situation finally came! So how did this upgrade to my spiritual armor stand up under the battle tests? Quite well! In fact had it not been tested, I wouldn't be able to determine that. This is what I have noticed since that first test. I definitely came out a little bruised and beaten but it didn't take me anywhere near as long to recover from the battle and to have my wounds healed by the Lord as it seemed to take in the past. Before the dust had even fully settled on that situation another situation reared its ugly head and a new battle was underway. And as this new battle has ensued I have found that I have a greater confidence and peace that somehow God is going to use this all for His glory. For anyone who knows me, they know me as more soft spoken, compassionate, kind, and loving. A warrior mentality is not something that would be the first thing that came to mind if someone was asked to describe me. Because I am more of a lover than I fighter, this has led me into many abusive relationships where I would just take the abuse rather than rising up and standing my ground. Since I was a child the enemy has set forth a plan to keep me oppressed and in bondage and blind to the truth of who God created me to be. My name is Christine Louise. Christine meaning “follower of Christ” and Louise meaning “famous warrior”. I actually hated my middle name most of my life. Even my mother didn't like it and only named me that out of obligation to my father's side of the family. But when I looked up the meaning of my middle name I began to truly appreciate it on a whole new level. A dear friend I have known for many years recently told me, “When I see you, I see a princess warrior.” Of course this just made me well up in tears, because it struck a cord deep within my soul. While my nature still naturally leans towards being a lover, I am beginning to embrace the warrior within and embracing the spiritual authority that God has given me. There is much I have to learn, but with the Holy Spirit as my guide I will be able to fulfill all God has called me to do in this life, in both showing the love of Christ to others and being an effective spiritual warrior. So if you are going through a major battle right now, be encouraged. You have a warrior within and God has given you all you need to overcome and be victorious! I have been slowing chipping away at typing up some of my old journals over the last several months. It has been quite a process and has brought up many emotions as well. I have seen how far I have come from where I was over ten years ago. I was in a place of bondage and hopelessness, yet there was something that amazed me. Somehow, despite the circumstances of my life at the time, I was steadfast in my relationship with the Lord and furthermore, grateful. My life a decade ago looked much different than it does now. It was filled with anger, anxiety, fear, desperation, and hopelessness. Yet there was a light in that dark cave, and I chose to draw ever closer to that light. The light, love, and warmth of my relationship with Jesus. I knew He was my only hope to the situation I found myself in - a situation brought about by my own bad decisions. What has struck me as I am typing up these entries is that I almost always took the time to thank the Lord for even the littlest things in my life. It has caused me to question, am I as grateful now? Do I express to Him often enough how thankful I am for the blessings He brings to my life each and every day? Sadly, I think I'm not. My life still has issues and obstacles to overcome, but I am not in such a state of absolute despair as I was back then. If anything I should be more grateful because I am out of that dark cave. Sometimes we have to remember how far we have come to regain our perspective and renew a thankful heart within ourselves. So today I have decided my complacency in being thankful to the Lord for even the littlest of things needs to come to an end. I am going to have a change my focus and be more intentional about telling the Lord the things I am thankful for - everything from the sun shining outside to the love of my husband. I will start with what prompted this blog post to begin with - the beginning of my journal entry from April 7, 2008: "Lord I want to thank you for all the blessings you have brought into our lives. This house we are now living in, the people who will come through the doors of this house for time of fellowship, the church family that we are so blessed to be a part of and the prayers you have answered on behalf of our family." As we come upon our monthly fellowship gathering this weekend I am reminded that while it was my hearts desire to have our house open to have fellowship with others when I originally wrote those words, there were several years where that was not even a possibility. On any given day you never knew what the atmosphere would be like in the house, but more often than not it was tense and hostile, and not at all inviting. I simply did not invite anyone over because I feared what would result from it. In 2008 I was thankful for it before it was even a reality. I can now very happily say that our home is always open to anyone who stops in. Fellowship thrives in our home and is such a blessing to us. So today Lord, I just want to thank you for answered prayer to one of my heart's desires was all those years ago. Thank you that this home is now a place where your Spirit resides and our doors are open to fellowship with others. I am thankful to have a home where Your peace is all around us. It is no longer a house, but truly a home. "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful." Colossians 3:15 So what are you thankful for? Share in the comments section below. Copyright 2017 Christine Edwards
Last January I did a post on New Year's resolutions and how it seemed so much simpler to choose just one word to focus on for the year than it was a list of things I wanted to accomplish. Last year that word for me was "action". (See last year's blog post here) As the first of this year came around I pondered how effectively I had pursued taking action in 2016. As I reflected I found that I started off strong at the beginning of the year, but a little less than halfway through the year, with life's twist, turns, struggles, and events, action became less of the word that was defining my year and I was continually slipping into survival mode. I have spent most of this month pondering how I should approach 2017 and what word would set the tone for me this year. I wasn't pleased with how my one word resolution for last year turned out and thought perhaps I should use 2017 as a do-over on my "action" resolution from last year. But what I realized was that it wasn't that I was failing to take action on things last year, it wasn't that I was being lazy, or lacked desire; the problem with last year was that I had failed to quickly overcome the stumbling blocks that appeared in my path. I failed to overcome words spoken to me that caused me to doubt my direction and calling in life, or events that happened that were contrary to the vision I had for my life. I let these things devastate me and stop me in my tracks at times. I took the words of people to heart because they came from people I loved and respected, when I should have held tight to God's Word and the words He had spoken to me. I let events make me question if I was on the right path or if I had missed it and gotten off course. Yes, I would eventually get up again and begin moving forward, but often it wasn't for days or even months. My vision became cloudy as self-doubt crept in. I questioned how I could move forward when I could no longer clearly see where I was going. So there it was, it was not lack of action that caused the prior year to be less productive and fruitful than I had hoped, it was my inability to quickly overcome the stumbling blocks placed in my path and hold fast to God's truth. So my word for 2017 is "overcome". John 16:33 tells us, "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." So because Jesus lives in me that means that I have overcome and will continue to overcome. I just need to focus on the truth of God's word and let it take root deep in my soul. May I be of good cheer through tribulation because I know without a doubt that I will overcome, and that in Jesus I have peace no matter what I am facing. I am an overcomer - and so are you! So here is to 2017 - the year of the overcomer! Copyright 2017 Christine Edwards I have always been one that hates to have lots of clutter around me. I go through phases where I feel the need to clean things out and get rid of some things, but somehow, there always seems to be clutter somewhere, or it reappears withing six to twelve months, and sadly, sometimes within just a couple of weeks. I recently watched a documentary on Netflix called Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things. The concept is that less is actually more in your ability to enjoy life and we don't have to buy into what the media and advertising tell us that we need to have the newest gadgets and more stuff to be happy. As a Christian I know that there is only one thing that can fill that void we may feel in our lives and that is a relationship with our Savior Jesus Christ. But it did certainly get me to thinking about how I could minimize in some areas of my life. I have no doubt this will be a work in progress for me as I go through our home room by room and do some spring cleaning along with a cleaning out of unnecessary things that just do nothing more than take up space, either in our home or in our thoughts. As I was pondering this I reached over and grabbed my list of Internet usernames and passwords so that I could access some information online. As I poured through the list to find the one I was looking for, I thought to myself, 'This is ridiculous. Why do I have so many accounts?' So I decided this would be where I started my approach to minimalism. As I looked through this list there were accounts on there that I had not even used for years. I guess I thought after non-use for a period of time, the said providers of that account would simply close out the account do to inactivity. I was surprised to find out this was not usually the case. It turned out to be a rather long process to get through the whole list, but my list is much shorter now and it feels good to know that I don't have open accounts out there that I am not actively using. The accounts I still have open I use on a regular basis, so I am am able to keep track of the activity on these accounts and detect anything suspicious in a timely manner. So what are the benefits I gained from doing this?
Copyright Christine Edwards
Faithful & True. This was my new name coming away from a women's encounter a little over a year ago. It was part of an activity where we prayed and reflected on the things the Lord wanted us to depart from - bondage, sin, wounds, unforgiveness, or anything else the Lord quickened us to. We were then to go to the wooden cross they had laying on the floor, pick up a hammer and pound a nail into the cross. Upon finishing this we were to pick up one of the cards that were scattered on the floor laying face down and that was to be our new name that we would be walking away from this encounter with. Mine was Faithful & True. It struck a cord with me as I had not always been like that in my relationship with the Lord, or my relationships with others, but I knew without a doubt that this was something that had been transformed in my life and I could honestly take hold of that new name. It wasn't something I had to aspire to or grow into, it was already what I had become.
Do you ever feel like your story doesn't matter and that the past is the past and should just be left there? I feel that way myself from time to time. But this week something happened that changed my perspective. I recently spoke with a friend of mine and she told me that she has really been enjoying the things I have been posting on Facebook recently. In particular, she brought up an article I had shared on 3 Signs of Sexual Abuse in Marriage. I didn't say much in reference to the article other than that as I was reading the article it was a snapshot of my daily life at one point in time, and that I was truly thankful to not be living like that any longer. I talked about how it made me sad that the issue was not addressed more than it was and that most women are afraid to speak about it. I ended my thoughts by encouraging women who are experiencing this type of abuse to find someone they could trust to speak to and not to suffer alone. When I made that post I didn't put a lot of thought into it, it was something I could relate to and makes my heart ache for others who are going through such abuse. I didn't even really share much about my personal story, but that little tidbit I did share affected someone and meant a lot to them. It greatly encouraged me when she shared this with me. Aside from the people I am real close to, I have not shared a lot of my personal story. But by putting that little bit of my story out there, it made a difference to someone, and perhaps even more. We have all gone through hardships in life that have left us wounded and disoriented. But when we receive healing and are able to move past those things and even talk about them with others, then we should know that God can use those things in our lives to help and encourage others. So no matter what your story is, don't be afraid to share it when you feel that it will benefit another person. All things - the good, the bad, and the ugly can help encourage and uplift someone else. Your story matters and it can make a difference in another person's life. Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Copyright 2016 Christine Edwards 'Maybe you are one of those people who commit to New Year's resolutions each year and by this time of year you have already fallen off track from where you wanted to be. I myself am one of those that struggle to keep all the resolutions I put on my list at the beginning of each year. A couple weeks ago I noticed that my husband (John) had started a new devotional on the YouVersion Bible app called One Word That Will Change Your Life. So I decided to check it out for myself. It challenges you to seek the Lord and choose one word to be the theme for your year. It is a unique spin on New Year's resolutions that I had never heard of, and I can tell you this much, one word is so much easier to remember than everything I had written down on my list of New Year's resolutions. Over the course of a few days I had a three words that I felt would be good words for me for 2016. As I prayed about it the Lord made it clear to me which of those words I needed to choose to make my word for the year. It was the word ACTION. I am a thinker. I think and ponder a lot. That is not a bad thing, but doing a lot of thinking and not taking much action doesn't accomplish a whole lot when all is said and done. I often write notes and to do lists when the Lord gives me ideas, or shows me things I need to do, or things that I need to work on. But sometimes that is far as I get, especially when it is not a pressing matter. Sometimes time gets away from me or things come up in life that take over. The reasons why I don't take action vary, but the end result when I don't take action on things is often a feeling of failure and being disappointed in myself. Just as the Word tells us in James 1:22 to "be doers of the word, and not hearers only," I believe the Lord wants us to not only think about things, but to do the things He has laid upon our hearts. So this is my one word theme for the year - ACTION. If you have gotten sidetracked from your New Year's resolutions I would encourage you to try this one word approach. It may take you further in the course of a year than the list ever would have. Copyright 2016 Christine Edwards |
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