One day I decided to begin to live out loud! I decided that it was time to stop living behind the curtain of my insecurities and allow my voice to be heard. I decided that it was time to live a life uncovered from the shame of my past, to stop allowing people to make me feel bad about what God had already delivered me from. I decided to stop letting the voices of my prior mistakes and disappointments silence me and to use the lessons that I had learned on my way to destiny as a road map to help someone else find their way.
Trust me, it wasn't easy and definitely something that I had to grow into. I didn't find my voice until I began to seek a deeper relationship with God because I had so many surface things that were holding me back. One of the major things was fear. The enemy uses fear to try to make us keep our voice hidden. Many times we are afraid to live a bold life because of what we think others will say or feel about us. The truth is, people are privately struggling with many of the issues that you have struggled with and they need to hear your story to know that God has a plan for their lives too. They need to know that if He can deliver you from the ugliness of your past, He can do the same for them. I also had to move pass the epidemic of people pleasing. I had a deep desire to want to be accepted. What I didn't realize is that no matter what I did, I could never fully live up to people's expectations of me. Instead I had to become content with being the best ME that I could be. The only person we truly have a responsibility to please is God. We are responsible for our own personal lives and accountable only to Him. In this process, I learned to stop being so hard on myself based on other people's opinions of who I was and where I was in life. There is a quote that I hang on to that says "Success lies not in being the best but in doing your best." Does that mean we shouldn't strive to be the best? Absolutely not! It simply means that success is not always measured by who makes it to the top first, but is heavily weighted on the journey. When you know that you've given your best and done all that you know to do, you don't have anything left to offer. We may all reach our pinnacle at different times but the important thing is that you stayed the course and finished well. I also had to recognize my own worth and stop giving people the authority to make me feel less than. When we truly know our worth, we stop allowing people to sell us short. At one point in my life, I felt the need to settle for "that'll do." But no longer! I am royalty, the daughter of a King, a royal heir. I deserve the very best of what life has to offer. So with that, I began to live out loud. I stop putting limitations on myself and began to walk in my purpose. The Bible tells us that little becomes much in the hands of God. Maybe you're still working on yourself...maybe you haven't quite found your voice or realized your worth. But, I admonish you to put the little that you have in the hands of God and allow Him to stand up in your life and make you great!
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On my way to destiny I realized that there is an anointing in "goodbye." We must understand that the anointing is God's ability in us, or that has been endowed upon us to allow us to do something with ease that would have otherwise been a struggle. Sometimes we have allowed some people to stay in our lives or we have remained in some places where we were not growing simply because we didn't know how to, or were just unwilling to let go for whatever reason.
This week I have been thinking a lot about "destiny." Next Saturday I was supposed to be standing on the beach in a beautiful gown marrying the man that I thought was the answer to my prayers. After ending the relationship, I can remember he said that we were supposed to be married but destiny got in the way. With the date fast approaching, I have been running that around over and over in my head. Then, I got it...I really got it...and a certain freedom came over me. First of all I had to realize destiny is about much more than our final stop. It is more about the journey that we are embarking on to become who God has purposed us to be. Destiny is a predetermined course of events. That lets me know that the things that happen to us while journeying through this life have come as no surprise to God. In fact, He has carefully orchestrated each event. So in my situation, we might have began planning a life with each other, but God's predestined plan was different for each of us. There are somethings that we are trying to hold on to that are not beneficial for where God is trying to take us and we have to be willing to announce the benediction over those things. Understand that some of those things are not necessarily bad. They may have simply run their course, the lesson has been learned, and it's time to say goodbye. Some of the things that we are holding on to might be creating a distraction and God is desiring to call you back to Him in this season. The good thing about it is that if God is calling you FROM something He has a plan to call you TO something better. I have always declared Jeremiah 29:11...For I know the thoughts that I think toward you saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end. But what I have really been concerned with is....Lord what do you have for me in the end??? I know all of this is working for my good...but how does it play out in the end?? But on this new destiny walk, I am not as concerned about WHAT is at the end because I know WHO is at the end. So however He works it out, I know that it will be ok. My major concern as I travel this journey, is that I utilize all the tools that I have been given along the way to make me a better person. I am focused on learning from each lesson that I encounter along the way to my own personal greatness. I am convinced that God will continue to reveal His will for my life at each step of this journey. People always say God knows my heart, but on my way to my destiny, I pray that He will not only know my heart but I will know His. |
AuthorMarshunda Thomas Archives
January 2020
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