Once we decide to put God first~
Get up early for prayer and Bible study ~
When we decide to not allow negativity to have priority in our thoughts~
That’s when life actually begins to turn around for us.
Just like our decisions to take bottles from our toddling babies, switching baby beds to big boy beds, the day we decide it is time to conquer the potty training battle we’ve put off…one final, solid decision changed everything. If you have ever woken up determined to fight a toddler for his beloved binky, nookie, bookie, whatever weirdo name you’ve called it, I know we, as God-fearing, God-loving women, can face the other giants and decide it is time to change.
Just like the decisions you’ve made to fall for your man, saying yes to the dress, saying yes to inviting and trusting Jesus with your heart, life as you knew it shifted into a different gear, took drastic sharp turns and rapidly your life was changed and rearranged for eternity. You slowly get used to the negativity, daily doses of discouragement, but one day you woke up just a little stronger and you said THIS IS ENOUGH. You make a decision and things start to change. As women we can take negativity for awhile, we can put ourselves down for so many months, we can allow others to talk down to us for a little while but one day, one of those moments too many and we snap. Something breaks and we demand the madness to halt.
We are strong women. We are doers, not takers, we are get the job done or die doing the job kind of women, but push a girl to the edge and one day, out of the blue when no one, not even you see it coming, you stomp your foot and say NO. Thank God for this amazingly complex and mysterious instinct. God has made us soft, beautiful, kind, caring, and nurturing. We are unique Eve’s standing next to Adam’s. We are blessed and called precious by God. But along with those special unique gifts, God has placed the gift of a lioness. She lies resting, compliant, sleeping on most days but when pushed to her limits, discouraged or knocked down, the lioness begins to stand, steadies her legs of muscle and she roars loudly, “Enough.” There is a lioness in each of our souls that one day we have to surrender and allow to speak. She is strong, protective and she is determined.
Ladies hear me loud and clear. If you are in a time of your life where you feel silenced, last on everyone’s list, underestimated, undervalued, continually used, frowned and looked down upon, the butt-end of every joke, stuck in a time of discouragement and doubt, it is time you steady your legs and decide today that you have had enough.
Decisions to stand instead of lie are found streaming from Gods Word. Noah decided to obey God even when the command of building an ark sounded absurd. Moses stood on shaky legs when he decided to put one foot in front of the other to walk into the city to demand Pharaoh to release Gods chosen. Joshua, Deborah, Esther, Daniel, Nehemiah, Paul, Peter, Jesus…and many, many more made decisions that changed their lives and the course of history for all of eternity. If these Bible greats could swallow their pride, laziness, doubt, and fear in the midst of violent times to obey their God, to wake up mad enough to fight, SO CAN YOU. God values you as much as He valued king David. You are loved with the same love and compassion. If you could take just a few moments of reverence and quiet with God you can hear His still small voice of encouragement saying, ‘Come on my sweet girl, you can do it, rise up, choose Me, choose My strength and not your own.’ He is fighting for you, He will be your source of strength, He is waiting for your surrender.
In God’s Word we find; rest, trust, quiet, silence, peace. But when searching the words lazy (slothfulness), giving up…it equals starvation and death. Let’s refuse to choose the flesh that tempts us to remain asleep, lazy and negative. Today let’s choose the Spirit, for this is where we find strength and trust, for this is ultimately where we find life and our healing begins.
It is a choice:
To sleep longer than necessary
To eat that second helping
To allow your child to be disobedient
To not put prayer as first place in your day
To not study and search Gods word
To disrespect your husband
To allow people to hurt you with words or otherwise
Get mad enough to make a decision today. Stay mad enough to make better choices every day. Choosing to do what is right will lead to life but choosing the flesh, which is incredibly weak, will ultimately lead to death.
Romans 7:15-20: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate to do, I do (15). For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing (19).”
Romans 8:5 (NIV) “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.”
I love this version of Romans 8:5 as well: (ICB) “Those who live following their sinful selves think only about things that their sinful selves want. But those who live following the Spirit are thinking about the things that the Spirit wants them to do.”
Romans 8:6 “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.”
Romans 8:7-8 “The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.”
Matthew 26:41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Galatians 5:16 “But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”
Proverbs 13:4 (ESV) “The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.”
Romans 12:11 “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in Spirit, serve the Lord.”