If you have spent any time on this blog or ever spent time around me you would know that my testimony is and always will be GOD IS FAITHFUL. Despite ourselves and despite what might be going on around us, He remains faithful (consistent, trustworthy) in our lives. Today I want to discuss “A Call To Communicable Faithfulness.” The word communicable means to transmit or transfer to others. In other words, because we as Christians are in covenant with God, we are called to be faithful because He is faithful. I Corinthians 1:9 in the New Living Translation says “God will do this, for He is faithful to do what He says, and He has invited you into partnership with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” We must understand that faithfulness is essential to the very essence of who God is. For Him to be anything else would be against His nature and impossible. So, we too must continue in the faith knowing that because God has been faithful to us we must be loyal and obedient to Him. The fruit (evidence) of faithfulness is when God’s faithfulness to you takes root and begins to grow and affects the way you think and behave. I have shared my testimony with some people that I experienced a difficult pregnancy with my daughter. I carried two twin girls and at five months the doctor could no longer hear one of the heartbeats. I remember very vividly crying uncontrollably and I called my mother in law at the time and she began to pray over the phone. I remember saying “but God you promised me.” The next morning going into radiology I was resolved that whatever happened God was faithful to see me through. When they confirmed what we had been told, I still remember feeling very calm. Because of the nature of the pregnancy, I still had to carry both babies and one would be delivered live and one stillborn. I knew what the doctor said was a fact and I did not dispute it, but the faith that I had said that EVEN IF the baby was dead, if it be His will, the God I served was able to quicken the body and the baby would live. That may sound strange to some people but that is the kind of faith I have in God. Because He has been so faithful to me, I had no reason to believe that even in this situation He wouldn’t show Himself faithful. After delivering my babies, one healthy and one stillborn the Chaplin came into my room. I remember telling her that even though it did not go as I had plan, I was still thankful that I would be taking a baby home. I realized that there were parents that she would talk to who had lost a child and would have to go home empty handed. I never once believed that God had not been with me. I accepted His will and knew that He still had a plan for my life. Five months later I found out I was expecting my son and the promise of “two small children the same age” had been fulfilled. It didn’t happen the way I thought it would but God did not fail to keep His word. No matter what we are up against we must continue to trust God. He is faithful to us and we must remain faithful to Him. It is often in the most difficult times of our lives that our fleshly nature would have us to give up but those are the times when we must trust Him the most. Even when things don’t go our way, we have to trust that God has a plan to restore us and that every promise that He has made over our lives will be made manifest in the fullness of time. Our only responsibility is to trust Him.
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There Is Purpose On The Other Side Of Your Pain
I was reading a post by Sarah Jakes that really blessed me! She said she was learning to not allow shame to give her a sentence that grace had already covered. How powerful is that! Many times we experience things in our lives that leave us feeling ashamed and unworthy to be loved. That is a trick of the enemy. He wants you to believe you can't recover and that you will never move on from your past. But just know God is waiting to restore you back to Him. There is NO condemnation in Christ Jesus. God is able to clean your life up, restore you, and use your life to get glory. " I am grateful for every opportunity that I am used inspite of my fragile humanity" ~Sarah Jakes There is purpose on the other side of your pain! You may not understand it now but God certainly has a plan for your life. You have been predestined for GREATNESS. Everything that you need to be who God has purposed you to be is inside of you. He is just waiting for you to tap into it and begin walking boldly in your calling. God is using your HERE experience to get you THERE!! "Thank you for allowing me to have everything I wanted and protecting me while I learned it wasn't what I needed." ~Sarah Jakes A Promise Is A Promise....
We have all have, no doubt, prayed and believed God for something that seemingly never happened. It can be devestating! Desiring something so much that you can't imagine being without it only to be disappointed. What now? Did God not hear me? Did I do something to cause my prayer not to be answered? The truth is there are times when we are asking God for things that He knows we are not mature enough to have or appreciate. We want immediate gratification and He is concerned about our overall good. God knows everything about us because He made us. He has not forgotten about us and He wants us to have the desires of our hearts. That is why it is imperative that we develop an intimate relationship with Him. As we begin to develop a relationship with Him not only does He know OUR hearts but we begin to understand HIS heart for us. Our payers become aligned with His word and our desires align with His. When God makes a promise concerning our lives, it becomes a covenant between Him and us that has been settled in Heaven. That means it has immediately taken place in the spirit and will manifest unto us in the fullness of time. The promise remains. The only thing that may change is the path to the promise. Sometimes He puts us on delay to put us in a conditioning period to allow us time to mature and ready ourselves for our blessing. Sometimes the path changes because He desires more for us than we even desire for ourselves. There are times when He knows that we will settle for less for the sake of having when His plan for us is greater than we can even imagine. Whatever the reason you have been placed on divine delay, trust that God has your EXPECTED end in mind. Know that there is nothing that God has purposed for you that you can't have....and if you can't have it then it wasn't yours. I thought that it would be fitting for this very first posting to be related to the purpose of the blog. I have had many experiences in life where I have looked around and found myself seemingly lost and confused. Recently, I found myself face down in my room crying out to God. I began to say, I know that I am not perfect and I have made some decisions and done somethings that were not pleasing to you but I have in all my ways tried to honor you. I read my Bible I spend time in prayer and every chance I get I try to encourage and share your love with people that I come in contact with....GOD I NEED YOU NOW. As I lay there with my heart uncovered and vulnerable before Him a great peace began to move over me and in my spirit I began to hear "grace." I got up and began to read 2 Corinthians 12:9 "My grace is sufficient." The word sufficient means enough, adequate, having or providing as much as is needed. So here I was being reminded that despite what things looked like, the word is clearly telling me that the GRACE of God was sufficient (all that I needed) to make it through. Then I begin to examine exactly what "grace" is and found that in the Christian belief it is the free and unmerited favor of God. The dictionary meaning is a simple elegance or refinement of movement. So I began to say Lord I know that I have to go through this...I know that what is to come is not my choice but your will so I have to endure it, but I pray that you will give me favor and AS I GO THROUGH don't let me walk around with my head held down and don't let the enemy make me feel ashamed or embarrassed. But instead, help me move through this thing with elegance and grace. We all shout on "how He brought us over" but I'm shouting on AS I GO THROUGH because I know even if I have to go through God is not slack concerning His promises for my life and He will see me through. It is often in our period of refining that God deals with us most. It is in these times that we begin to clearly hear His voice, so the next time you find yourself going through a difficult situation don't always just say Lord help me to get out, but begin to say Lord as I go through give me to grace to come out victorious!
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AuthorMarshunda Thomas Archives
January 2020
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