Recognize Your Inheritance

 Ephesians 1:11(NLT) 
“Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.”

“God's got a Will, and you’re in it!”

In Ephesians 4:23, God commands us to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. This means we are to be aware of how we think, because our thoughts provide the framework for our tomorrows. We have a way of thinking that doesn’t always line up with the mind of Christ. We think the worst of others and we often think the worst about ourselves. We have doubt in many areas of our lives, and we don’t often make the connection between our conditions and the kind of mindset we have about God, His Word, and the life He wants for us. He commands that we examine our mindsets, compare them to Christ, then renew them to line up with the truth. 

To be humble is to recognize that we don’t know everything and that our way of thinking isn’t always right. Boy! That’s a tough one for a lot of people, because most of us think we’re always right. We see ourselves in a certain way, but in order to be the person God created us to be, we need to abandon some aspects of the way we think. We must replace the wrong way of thinking with the right way, so that truth can take root in our lives and blossom. When truth blossoms, it brings nothing but blessings with it, because Jesus Christ said in John 8:32(NLT), “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

The darkest valleys of life take place because we are in bondage in some area of life. In other words, darkness happens in places where light doesn’t exist. We need to let the light in by changing how we think. A person that has been treated badly, feels defeated, and has endured many traumatic events in life may think that changing how they think and feel will not help them. But it isn’t a matter of simply changing our thoughts and feelings, it’s changing them to think like Jesus Christ thinks. His thoughts have power, and when we think like him, a spiritual transaction takes place. 

Jesus Christ tells us in John 14:6(NLT), “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” Jesus Christ is the way to victory! He’s the only way to have victory in this life. Through him, we can overcome all obstacles, because we are God's children. Romans 8:17 says that we are co-heirs with Christ. We are God’s spiritual siblings, and just as the blessings of strength, power, love, peace, joy and all the other spiritual blessings belong to Jesus Christ, they belong to us as well, because he purchased them for us with his life! 

Ephesians 1:18(NLT) says, “I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.” This is the prayer for all eternity! Our hearts must be flooded with the light of Christ, and we are the ones to let that light in. We must make a decision to let Christ change our lives. We must give him permission to do this for us, and the way to give Jesus Christ permission is to take the action of changing our thoughts to his thoughts. 

Through the work that God accomplished through His all-powerful and precious Son, you and I have inherited all the benefits of God’s Kingdom. Some of us have forfeited our rights in Christ because we didn’t know what they were. Hosea 4:6 says that people are destroyed because of a lack of knowledge, but we can put a stop to this. We can refuse to allow the enemy to continue stealing from us by studying, reading, trusting, and applying God’s Word. When we know the Word of God, victory in Christ is ours! 

Isaiah 40:29(NLT) tells us, “He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.” We have the authority of Jesus Christ to handle any circumstance that comes our way. In and of ourselves, we don’t have any power, and we may feel inadequate, but God’s power and strength isn’t dependent on our feelings. His power and strength is the truth, and we must put His truth in our minds and hearts. We must depend on God’s Word and not on how we feel. 

God’s Word never fails, and it is impossible for HIM to fail. When you are feeling weak, God will demonstrate His strength through your faith in Him. Ephesians 1:14(NLT) says, “The Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.” You have an inheritance in Christ, and because of this, you can draw-down from heaven’s overwhelmingly abundant resources. No matter what you’re going through, the Lord is with you, and He will never leave you defenseless. Recognize that your inheritance is in Christ! So, let your thoughts and feelings be anchored in God’s goodness towards you, and begin to thank Him for what He is doing and will do in your life! Keep the faith! ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“Recognize Your Inheritance”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2020. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Let Them Go and Wish Them Well

Colossians 2:10(NLT) “And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power.”

A young woman said to me, “I’ve been hurt before, but this came out of nowhere - I give up!” We had a long conversation, and she talked over an hour about her despair regarding the break-up with her boyfriend. They’d been together for two and a half years, and she thought he was the one. She thought they’d spend the rest of their lives together. To her shock and dismay, he broke it off with her during a phone call, and it was totally unexpected. There were no arguments or disagreements, he just very calmly told her that he wasn’t ready for a commitment with her. He realized he still had feelings for his ex-wife. The emotional pain from this was devastating, but the other thing that surprised her was how it had caused her to repeatedly question her decisions and self-worth. She doesn’t think she’ll have the courage to love again. 

There are things about ourselves that we don’t realize until we go through certain challenges in life. For some of us, these hiccups may not come until later in life, and for some, they come much earlier. But it doesn’t matter when we experience them, the most difficult hiccups to get over emotionally will probably be in the form of heartbreak. As women that love the Lord and that endeavor to walk in the example of Christ, we should hold ourselves to a greater standard of love. Unfortunately, some of us think that loving someone means that we should abandon certain aspects of firmness and stability. We have a difficult time determining when to stand firm on certain principles and when to be vulnerable.

Vulnerability in a relationship is necessary for it to flourish, and this is where many of us get into trouble. This kind of vulnerability should be reserved for those who honor us and honor our standing in Christ. But sometimes, we don’t wait for a green light from God. We don’t know what we’re working with, but assume the man is a blessing simply because he’s interested in us and we’re interested in him. In Matthew 6:33, Jesus Christ commands us to seek the Kingdom of God above all other things, and God will give us all that we need. This verse assures us that God is our Provider. He takes care of all that we need. It also tells us that we must meet the condition of seeking God first. Nothing or no one comes before this extremely beneficial and crucial spiritual practice.

The wisdom of Matthew 6:33 means that we are to consult God before we make life-changing decisions and choices; this is especially necessary when it comes to our significant relationships. James 1:5 tells us that if we lack wisdom about any subject, we must ask God, and He will not be upset with us for asking Him. As a matter of truth, He desires that we consult Him in all that we do. Proverbs 3:6 says that He, and He alone, is the One who directs our paths. God doesn’t overstep our free-will choice. He will not come into our lives and start controlling everything without our permission. We must ask Him to take control, and we must humble ourselves under His mighty hand and follow His guidance and direction.

God leads, guides, and directs us through His Word and through His Spirit. While reading His Word, a scripture might jump out at us, giving us God’s divine revelation. Sometimes, He places people in our lives that will speak the truth prophetically to us. Others of us have dreams and other confirmations that provide God’s guidance. God knows us through and through, and He knows exactly how to get our attention, but we must be humble, and show ourselves willing to obey the direction He provides. 

We often translate being vulnerable in a relationship with someone we really care about as putting everything we are into that relationship. We give it our all, and we think this person will return our investment. Subconsciously or consciously, we think this person can complete us in some way. Colossians 2:10 reminds us that our completeness and wholeness comes from Jesus Christ. He is the living Word of God, and God’s Word is the only solid foundation that exists. This is what we should be clinging to. We should never lose focus on our relationship with God. We should never abandon our firm foundation in Christ by completely wrapping ourselves in another individual.

The young woman asked me, “Can God keep a man from breaking your heart?” God has the power to do absolutely anything, but again, He will never overstep an individual’s freedom of will. He will not stop a man from breaking our hearts, just as He didn’t stop us from pursuing the relationship with this man. God will quicken us through His Spirit, and He will guide us in His love and Word. It is important for us to know that we should never be controlled in any way by another person’s love. They didn’t create us and they can’t complete us. Being loving doesn’t require us to lose ourselves. When Christ is the love of our lives, our confidence in him won’t allow us to walk around with a fear of getting hurt. We should be walking in him, so that we have sharp discernment about someone that isn’t destined to walk with us through life.

The lesson to be learned from heartbreak and heartache is always about trusting God in a greater way and seeing His love in a greater light. Our Heavenly Father will never break our hearts, and we should be continually confident and thankful for His enduring, unconditional, and powerful love. Yes, heartache feels awful, but it shouldn’t linger for too long. Sometimes the man will not or cannot love us the way we’d like. If that’s the case, we should let them go, and wish them well. They were not meant to journey forward with us. God has a great plan for our lives. Trust this, because our love for Christ will not fail us. It will strengthen our hearts, so we will receive the greenlight from God and recognize when the right person has come into our lives.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“Let Them Go and Wish Them Well”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2020. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

See God for Who He Is

Psalm 91:1(NIV)

“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.”

When life starts to unravel and fall apart, or tragedy knocks at the door, people that have never done so before will finally turn to God and seek His help. Fear and discomfort have a way of making us gravitate to whatever feels safe and secure. As women, we sometimes look to a man to make us feel this way, but God is our true and everlasting shelter of protection. He tells us in Psalm 91:1 that we can dwell in His shelter. It doesn’t matter who we are or what we’ve done in the past, Heavenly Father welcomes us through Jesus Christ to hang-out with Him. He wants us to enjoy His covering and bask in His care. There, in His shelter, we will find rest for our souls, and we can stay in the shadow of all that God is continually. 

A person can’t build confidence in something they don’t know or haven’t been taught, so if you don’t know or you’ve never heard that we can come boldly to God for help, then you might allow fear to dominate your life. I had a relationship with God in my youth, but I didn’t know Him very well. As a matter of fact, I never believed that He wanted to get to know me. So, I went on about my life, not really consulting God about my decisions and not really asking Him for help unless there was a huge problem I couldn’t solve on my own.

It was in my late twenties and early thirties that I began to make mistakes that had big-time consequences. I felt as if I was the devil’s punching bag because I’d take one step forward and two steps backward. I couldn’t understand what was happening, and I wanted so desperately for my life to change. One of the reasons that I couldn’t see a way forward is because of the emotional entanglements with men who said they loved me but tried to hurt me. They were used by the devil, and because of this, they weren’t satisfied to see me being free, happy, and secure. Through them, the enemy tried to steal my liberty, and keep me enslaved to darkness and fear.

God tells us in Galatians 5:1(MSG), “Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.” This is one of the most important building blocks to life in Christ that you and I must know; Christ has set us free! Our liberty comes from him, and we must know that it is God’s desire that we walk in the liberty of Christ every moment of each day. I didn’t realize that the devil was trying to destroy me, and that he was trying to rob the plan God had for my life. I had experienced the trauma of domestic violence as a child, and I didn’t recognize how fear was still impacting me as an adult. God lovingly taught me about the liberty Christ offers. We should all want to know this kind of freedom, and we should want to know how to live it boldly through Christ. All we need to do is ask the Lord to teach us. 

We must also know the most important commandment that Jesus Christ gives. Then, we should begin to rededicate ourselves to it. In Mark 12:30(NIV), Jesus Christ commands “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” This means that we should love God with all that we are, holding nothing back. We don’t need to try to hide our fears or our flaws. He knows us inside out, and we can come to Him flaws and all. Some of us make the mistake of putting our significant relationships before God. We make the man the center of our lives. This is a violation of the commandment of Christ. Do you know what happens when we put anything before God? We become blind to the love and help God wants to give us. This is where many women are today.

Philippians 4:6(NLT) gives us a good practical guide to keeping Jesus Christ in the driver’s seat of our lives. It says, “Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” Worrying is what we do when we don’t know who God is, and we don’t trust in His willingness and ability to rescue us from any and all danger. We have to see our Heavenly Father for who He is. He’s our Protector and Provider. He is our refuge, and He must have this place in our hearts and minds, because it’s who He is.

We must continue to study and learn more about God through His Word, because this is the only way that our faith in Him will increase. He wants us to seek Him first, above all other things, because only He can guarantee our safety. His love never fails, and He watches over us every day of our lives. Bring pleasure to Heavenly Father by seeing Him for the loving and powerful God that He is. Because of His great love, you and I are free through Jesus Christ, and if we let Him, Heavenly Father will make sure we continually abide in the protection of His shelter.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

(MSG) Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

“See God for Who He Is”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2020. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

This is Not What I Signed Up For

 

Isaiah 43:15-19 (NLT)

“15 I am the Lord, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator and King. 16 I am the Lord, who opened a way through the waters, making a dry path through the sea. 17 I called forth the mighty army of Egypt with all its chariots and horses. I drew them beneath the waves, and they drowned, their lives snuffed out like a smoldering candlewick. 18 “But forget all that—it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. 19 For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”

“I don’t know how I’m going to make it through this situation – every time I turn around there’s a problem to deal with. I can’t take it anymore. This is not the Christian walk I signed up for!”

My family of eight once lived in a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home that accommodated our needs quite nicely. A few years went by and we downsized to a two bedroom, one-bathroom rental home. In addition to downsizing our space, not long after, the size of my family decreased as well because of a difficult divorce. The mental and emotional twists and turns squeezed us in ways that even shocked me. I married a man with three children, and at first, the combining households appeared to work seamlessly, but in no way was I prepared for how quickly the newly marital bliss would turn into marital hell on earth.

Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into long arduous months of daily competitions between the children, and then between my husband and me. I prayed all the time for God to help me get through it all, but the turmoil at home hardly ever let up. It was despair day after day, and I felt as if I was drowning in it. I did what many others do when they realize that the unexpected craziness and devastating disappointment of life is beyond our capacity to handle it, I blamed God. I became depressed, upset, and angry. Although I may not have spoken it out loud, I was angry with the Lord for allowing things to go so badly for me. And at the same time, I knew I desperately needed Him to do something new in my life.

I was angry because I expected things to be different, and more to the point, I expected to be happy. When I wasn’t happy, but miserable, I thought to myself, “this is not what I signed up for.” I didn’t just feel this way about my marriage, I felt that way about almost everything. I had heard about surrendering to God through Jesus Christ all my Christian life, but I didn’t understand what it meant until I had no other choice but to do just that.

When you grow up in an abusive home, you somehow assume that you will avoid making those same mistakes. This is one of the most insidious characteristics about the tricks of the devil, because he uses our fears and doubts to set us up for failure. God warns us in 1Peter 5:8 to stay alert and watch out for the devil, because he prowls, just like a lion; he’s looking for someone that he can destroy. The question that you and I have to ask is how the devil distinguishes his prey. The answer is that he looks for those that are still living with fear in their hearts and are allowing this fear to call the shots. In other words, he looks for folks that make decisions and steer their own paths instead of allowing God to direct every aspect of their lives.

Fear belongs to the devil; he owns it. If I own a house, I get to control everything in it. When you or I play around with something the devil owns, he knows it because we’re dabbling around in his territory. As women, we are sometimes afraid to be alone, and once we become intrenched in a relationship, even when we’re being abused, we stay because of fear. God tells us to release everything that belongs to the devil. In Hebrews 12:1(NLT), He tells us, through the Apostle Paul, that because we’ve witnessed the examples of others that have walked by faith, we should model their example. Paul tells us to “strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”

God sets the race that you and I should run, but many of us have our own ideas about life and what we want to do with it. God is very patient with us, because He is always willing to come to our aid, but the spiritual lessons of patience and humility will continue throughout our lives. We must recognize that the enemy wants us to stay in a cycle of fear and doubt, so that we never surrender to God. Bondage and suffering is what the devil wants to cause in all our lives, but if we give ourselves to Heavenly Father by being obedient to His Word and following the example of Christ, we will walk in the Spirit’s power and become what God wants us to be. 

It wasn’t until after my divorce that I realized the trap I had fallen into because of the choices I made. Sometimes, we need to change in ways we are not conscious about right now. James 1:5 says that if we lack wisdom, we must ask God, because He gives it to us generously, and He will not be angry with us for asking. There isn’t a better time than the present to ask God to teach us the spiritual lessons we need to learn so that we won’t go down the wrong path. If we are humble, and if we earnestly desire to please Him above all else, God will keep our feet from falling. He will set us on the right path. 

When Jesus Christ is the head of our lives, and we are serious about our relationships with God, Heavenly Father will transform us from the inside out. A different way of living, behaving, thinking and speaking is required, and it makes all the difference in life. But you won’t engage this process until you pray and ask God to help you see the things that you need to see. We aren’t perfect and God knows this, but He requires our willingness to let Him do the heavy lifting of transforming us. This means we must be on board with His agenda for our lives. Do yourself a favor and trust God to turn your life around. Doing your part only requires that you follow His lead.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“This Is Not What I Signed Up For”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2020. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

The Territory of Christian Life

 

 1 Peter 5:6-11(NLT)

6 So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. 7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. 8 Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 9 Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are. 10 In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. 11 All power to him forever! Amen.

In 1Peter 5:6, we have God’s assurance that if and when we humble ourselves under His mighty power, He will lift us up in honor. Heavenly Father makes a connection between humility and honor, and we cannot afford to forget it. Many of us tend to take matters into our own hands, especially when we are under attack by the enemy, but we should never do this, because it wastes our resources of time, energy, and effort. The way to handle any problem is to humble ourselves before God and have faith in His power and willingness to rescue us.

Instead of worrying about all the problems and issues that come with life on earth, we are to give everything over to the Lord. We must also be aware that the devil will try to convince us not to do this. “God doesn’t really care about me. He has bigger problems than mine to think about.” This is just one of the many thoughts the enemy whispers in our ears, trying to persuade us not to have faith in God. It’s how the devil gets us to give our power over to him, because he knows that our faith in Jesus Christ is the key to our victory.

This is one of the reasons why God tells us through the Apostle Peter in 1Peter 5:8 to stay alert, and to watch out for the devil, because he’s walking around the earth looking for someone that has refused to have faith in God. We have a destiny in the Will of God. He has plans for us. These are good plans that will give us fulfillment and purpose. Fear will keep us in doubt about this. It squashes our faith. When we’re attacked by the enemy through domestic violence and abuse, we are attacked at the very core of our being. And the enemy is using our abuser to instill terror and layer it so thick that our self- worth is suffocated. 

We shouldn’t be surprised that there are tribulations and struggles. They come with the territory of being a believer in Christ, but God tells us in 1Peter 5:9 to stand firm in faith. Maybe you’ve been in some tight spaces, you didn’t’ feel like you could make it through another day or that you could overcome the darkness, but trust that the hand of God is on your life. Trust His plan for you. When you feel like you want to sink and give up, have faith in God instead.

1Peter 5:10 tells us that suffering exists, but it also assures us that suffering doesn’t last. Our faith in Jesus Christ means that we can count on God to restore, support, and strengthen us. Only Heavenly Father can put us on a firm foundation. When we’re facing the most challenging situations we’ve ever faced, and the devil is attacking us through another person, it may not seem as though we have a choice, but we do. We can trust in God, cast our every care on Him and know that if we humble ourselves under His mighty power, He will lift us up and restore honor to our lives.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

 “The Territory of Christian Life”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2020. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

What Can Man Do to Me!

 

Hebrews 13:5-6; Keep your life free from love of money and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

Some of the biggest issues in the lives of Christian believer’s is their financial instability.  Everybody has someone within their families who are struggling or having a difficult time some way.  Whether it is in their relationships with their sister, brother, mother, father or child – there isn’t one of us that doesn’t know someone that isn’t going through some kind of turbulence in their lives.  It’s a condition of a continual curve ball after curve ball being thrown your way without knowing how to duck or dive to miss it in life. 

Financial woes, if not tackled with an immediate solution, can cause the believer to lose faith in their ability to believe God to get them out of their mess.  You begin to believe that every Christian has these kinds of problems, and yes, this is true. But it doesn’t have to begin and end there.  God has made it very clear that we should keep our lives free from the love of money and be content with what we have. Now this is not for believers to believe that you should be ok with living a mediocre kind of lifestyle, where you live paycheck to paycheck and say well “ as long as I have food on the table, I’m ok.”

We are to be thankful and grateful for all the many blessings God has bestowed upon us, His children, but we don’t have to sit back and say to ourselves, poverty is where it’s at.  God wants glory’s in us being bountifully blessed and filled to overflowing with His blessings and goodness.  For He has already declared that He will never leave us nor forsake us.  He wants us to get it – He’s not going anywhere, it’s up to us to live according to His plan and will for our lives. Nobody can touch us as long as we are with God.

Joshua 1:9; Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

This verse is perplexing for many Christians, who have a hard time trusting in that last sentence. They try to envision God standing right beside them.  He is literally with us at all times because He lives on the inside of us.  But we have a hard time getting out of our own way.  There are times when we become so used to doing things on our own that we don’t think to slow down and ask God if we’re doing it His way. 

Many times it’s not because we don’t care, but more so out of ignorance or we haven’t been taught anything different. Fortunately, we have the perfect instruction manual on how to get our life right, no questions asked – It’s all in the Word. God gave us His Word so that we can maximize the most out of this life. And if that wasn’t enough, He gave us His son so that we could live and have the most abundance life has to offer.

Psalms 91 tells us that in Him we can put our trust in, our Lord is our refuge and fortress. There is no way we can lose out if we put all our trust in God. You want to make the most out of where you are in life, whether it’s on the job or in your family, the best result is realizing God is proud of your contribution into His Kingdom. He doesn’t require a lot from us, only to keep Him first and to love Him with all of our heart, all of our mind and all of our soul! This isn’t hard to do and it’s not asking too much of us.

 

 

Nothing Is Too Big for God

 

Got a call from a close relative who had just gotten off the phone with one of her closest friends.  What she described was the making of a devastating decision based on a blow to the heart.  Her friend called her after she found out that her nineteen-year old daughter was pregnant.  That was not the part that was upsetting, it was the fact that her youngest daughter, not only kept the pregnancy from her, but that she had confided in others that she felt unloved, and unwanted.  To add insult to injury, she told her mother she was moving out of her home to live with the mother of her unborn child’s father.

“I felt betrayed by my own daughter, because everything I’ve ever done was to make sure my children were always loved and provided for.”  These were the words of a mother broken-hearted by her child.  She immediately went home and disbanded her daughter’s room, and said she never wanted to see her daughter again. 

Feelings of betrayal cut deep to the core, there’s no question about it.  Whether the hurt came from your husband, significant other, or your own child, all you can think about is the pain.  Your emotions are so revved up that you can hardly see straight. Every day we have circumstances all around us that can easily cause us to get angry or become stressed out over but when we focus on is that we can never allow an individual this much power over your life.  We have the power to shape and mold our existence no matter what we face in life.  Nothing is too big for God and if we’re following after his plan and purpose, we can have every assurance that He’s got our backs through it all.

No doubt, pain is pain and hurt is hurt. It’s how we respond to those stimuli, that shapes and molds us as people.  How do you handle problems or situations that are completely out of your control?  Will you become rocked and shaken over what you have no authority over or control?  One very vital truth that I learned years ago – never react to a situation, take it all in, process it in the moment, keep your words to a minimum and if at all possible, remain silent until you’re able to process the information rationally.

There are countless women that confess they can’t help the way they feel and if words are said that cut deep, oh well! Christian women who say they love the Lord, should learn to watch the words that come out of their mouths, not only words, but the way in which we handle uncontrollable situations.  God tells us in His word that our words have power – so much so, we can yield death and life by just the words we speak. 1 Peter 3:10, tells us that Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech.  Colossians 4:6; Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

This verse has always spoke volumes about how I handle my emotions.  Simply for it validates the truth of how we as women should navigate through the thoughts and intents of our hearts. We are such emotional creatures that we learn behavior very young that associates pain and hurt with crying and tantrums.  This is not the behavior or mentality of a Kingdom child of God.

We can’t just seek God out when our life starts to unravel, or when tragedy knocks at your door. We have to see Him as our protector, our refuge, our everything. Just like a lot of women want to view their man as their rescuer, God desires that place in our hearts and minds. When we put our focus on Him, we then become delightful in our intimate relationship, and that’s all our Heavenly Father wants from us, is for us to seek Him out above all things and not put another individual in His place.

How comforting it is to know that when you call out, God will comfort and protect us just as a mother would protect her child from danger, how much more will God do for us.  He is omnipotent, and He is our defender, comforter and shield from the evils of this world, and He’s not like human beings that will fail us every time – God can’t fail us. He watches over us through people in our lives, or any means necessary. And we don’t ever have to worry that help will not come, for He is always with us. Just like we can never take our eyes off of Him, He doesn’t take His eyes off of us.