Forgiveness & Growth in The Wilderness (Wilderness Series Part 3)

The final installment in my wilderness series is an opportunity to shine the light through darkness; a light that I hope encourages someone who may come upon this post. In my own season of wilderness, the Lord's forgiveness and potential for spiritual growth are things that I am clinging to. Let me just write that none of us will ever arrive without Jesus. We may think we have it all under control, but we remain under a constant threat of deception.

I have had many a stumble and have come upon this realization time and time again; yet, I have continuously struggled in my stubborn flesh. We all struggle and I felt like this week it would be an encouragement to let all know that Christ loves you & wants you to confront those shortcomings head on. Do not let it devour you; that statement can be a hard one to live up to. It is also wise to remember that as believers, we are all immersed in the process of sanctification. At 27, I'm not the same individual as I was five years ago, and five years ago I was someone who had grown from who she was at 18.

Our stories are gradual and through my alone time with Christ, I have recently began praying a prayer that God would not work out situations the way I want Him to, but in a way that is for my eternal good & for His glory. It is wise to know that Satan will always tempt us in similar ways, if we always depend on our powerless souls to remedy an area of weakness. For instance, if you do not confront a behavior through Christ, your actions will never truly change. You will never fully receive the blessings that Christ has for you, because if you are anything like me..your life will always reap chaos and despair. You won't be the friend you need to be. You won't be what God wants you to be.

You'll be left alone with the only person who can meet those needs you so desperately need met.

Christ. 

That may sound lonely. Friend, sometimes lonely in terms of earthly friends is the best place to be. If you have Christ, you are never truly alone. Sometimes Christ has to get you alone to get anything through a thick skull, but alone time with Him is always beneficial in the end. You may lose everything, but Christ gives us second, third, fourth, and fifth chances. A lot of times it takes us a while to allow Him to rid us of negative behaviors and possessions in our lives that don't need to be around. Humans tend to think, "I have everything under control" and I am ridiculously bad at veering off from Christ to live on my own. I stumble and fall flat on my face every time.

Every, Single. Time.

The beautiful part of mistakes is that you can start over. You can choose to surrender your life and actions to Christ right now. You have to trust in the journey, but the goal is to live as close to Christ as you can and lean on Christ 100% of the time. I can guarantee you though, you will continue to stumble in this life; and the part of trusting the journey is simply saying and pushing you to remember that each bad decision you make or have made has worked to mold you in some way. Has it not?

Don't think that you are too far gone to grow anymore. Just start over and surrender. Watch Him move. Learn from your experiences, but don't dwell on them. (That's a hard one for me).

It's not okay to think that you are powerful against deceit. It's not okay to think your flesh can fix everything or that it has all the answers.

But it's also important to know this:

You are beautiful. You live. You learn. Lean on Him. Nothing else. Grow from everything. You are being molded.  You must pray. You must fight. 

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12 King James Version)

The Fight Against Deception (Wilderness Series Part 2)

We all find ourselves surrounded by the wilderness throughout certain moments of our walk through life; as born again believers, we sometimes encounter the learning of lessons through said wilderness. We begin to be strengthened in our walk as a result. Regardless of whether we plop ourselves into the shades of the forest or life just throws a spear into our field of vision, we must always remember to consider Christ. The largest web the wilderness weaves is the spirit of deception. A spirit that becomes proud. We begin to question our need for God. We soak ourselves in self righteousness. We pursue the flesh and its many desires, instead of pursuing His word and wisdom. The minute that we take a bite from the fruit of deception, the seed is fiercely wedged into our soul, and the only plant that grows is one of destruction.

Life can become difficult in the blink of an eye. Your health may fail in one way or another. Unforeseen circumstances might be throwing you for a loop. Whatever the case, we must fight against the device of deception.

How, you may ask?

1) Be Still: The most important component of fighting against a proud spirit is choosing to become quiet and allowing the Lord to work on you to correct any discrepancies in your walk of faith. You may find yourself in a situation that you have no power to repair. Maybe you've tried every possible way to fix it yourself. Be still and let God move you forward onto a clearer path. Surrender your power and let Him move you.

2) Let Him Humble You: Throughout my journey on this Earth, a humble spirit is one thing that I have had to fight tooth and nail to hold onto. I've missed out on blessings all because I possessed a proud spirit. I thought "I don't need any help." What a sad day it is when we fall through the cracks of life and we think we don't need Christ. When is there ever a time when we don't need Him? Hindsight always provides me with the thought of, "Man, I should have handled that situation better. I should have acted maturely." If you aren't humbled, you need to seriously be in prayer. It doesn't take you long to receive humility once you address it in prayer, but if you never do, you will not receive it. Your proud spirit will continue to destroy you until you have nothing left but God.

My anxiety issues are a device the devil uses against me; and he often defeats me because I don't really fight back. I admit it. I am inconsistent in everything I do. I am horrible at remembering to take my medication daily and worst of all, there have been times (even recently) where I never considered prayer or other people's lives or needs. Anxiety is terrible and mood issues are extremely real, but life is all about how we deal with those circumstances. It is important to realize that our decisions not only affect us, but they impact those around us as well. One of my main problems that is being worked on through Christ is my not so wonderful talent of speaking and acting before I think.

3) Pray & Be Grateful: As I have mentioned earlier, prayer needs to become a daily occurrence if one wishes to truly overcome the device of deception. We are all human, so we will always be imperfect, but we must strive to do our best in serving and loving God. As an example, I have traveled through a recent wilderness that saw my focus fall completely off of Christ. I stopped enjoying being a writer. I had no inspiration. I had no drive. I lost sight of what I was doing with my life. I had a million voids that needed filled. We all fall into the trap of ingratitude in one way or another. When we aren't thankful, nothing the Lord has given us is enough. We might not have the life we want. We might not be able to jump in the car when we want to. We might not have the amount of friends that someone else has. We might not be blessed in the same way that someone else is. Our talents aren't making us famous. Any reason to cry "Woe is me", humans find a reason to do so. I am guilty of this so much and I admit it publicly.  Life may not be what you pictured, but it is wise to be grateful and enjoy it. Follow your passions and pray over them. You may not become famous, but in everything the Lord will use you if you choose to make yourself available to Him.

I chose to write on this topic because this is a struggle I have faced in my own time of wilderness. I watched a service at my church on this topic recently and I felt it so deeply in my soul that I had to share. I don't have a specific verse to go along with my message this week, these are just words I had laid on my heart. I truly hope this helps someone out.

Encouragement in The Wilderness (Wilderness Series Part 1)

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted: A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;" (Ecclesiastes 3:1-3 King James Version)

Life so often throws us down pathways that we never could have fathomed traveling. I just relaunched the blog recently and while I usually spend a week preparing a draft, this series is one in which I am just choosing to "wing it" and hope it helps another soul along their personal journey. Last week, I wrote about riding down a path of wilderness during the past year and a half;  yet, it is another off road that I still am finding myself enduring. My whole concept for the next few weeks consisted of: prayer, purpose, and praise in the wilderness. As I was led to an unexpected snippet of light last night while flipping through my Bible and asking the Lord to lead me to words I needed to see, I felt instantly encouraged by what was in front of my eyes and it is Scripture in which I have written this post around.

A time to break down. A time to build up. Such a powerful statement. 

So often, we forget that as born again believers we are in the process of being continuously molded into who Christ intends for us to be. We became a new creature after accepting Christ as our Savior, but we still battle our flesh & the old sinful nature. We can do our best to follow Christ as closely as we can, but we are still human and therefore we will make mistakes.

We are quick to pummel ourselves with negative thoughts and we find ourselves in situations that seem impossible to escape from. We feel all alone, no one is around us, and we begin to question life; every detail seems to fall apart before our eyes. We make desperate attempts to reconcile the issue, and that only makes things worse.

Either we're in a situation that we didn't create, and it just seemed to happen to us; or we most likely created the mess ourselves. If you are like me, you most likely create your own messes.

Regardless of how the situation came about, it is highly fixable. Most of the time we become better versions of ourselves through any sort of mess without realizing it. Satan wants to distract us and get our eyes off of Christ; he will throw anything in your path: desired friendships, acceptance desires, anxiety about not being a "good enough" Christian, the chase of self glory, approval from others, or he'll tell you that you need to serve Him another way because doing what you love to do just isn't cutting it.  Those are nothing but devious lies, and are to be prayed out of your mind!

How can we be encouraged during storms such as this? How can we know that we are to remain joyful when our  unfounded negative thoughts dampen our spirits? The Bible tells us so. We are not good ourselves, but we are to remain joyful in what He is.

"I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life." (Ecclesiastes 3:12 King James Version)

Let me ask a question: Does it seem like you keep failing at life in the same way? Maybe there's a weakness in you that you just can't seem to overcome.

The first thing we are to do is to put a halt to the negative self talk. It is a trap one can easily become engulfed by, and it is a powerful detriment to our growth in Christ. It serves no purpose other than to make us miserable, which is what Satan desires most.

We are to be encouraged in every season of wilderness that we come to encounter. We are to seek His face. He will listen even when we feel like He has given up on us. He never does. Look at it this way:

If you've been in a similar situation before, and you've had victory in that storm through Him..He will carry you through it again! Perhaps it is a similar situation, but a different season with a different lesson. God isn't done with you yet, so don't give up on Him. Allow Him to keep shaping the clay that is you.

"He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also He hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end." (Ecclesiastes 3:11 King James Version) 

Wilderness brings forth growth, which takes time. Every situation you go through makes you who you are; you wouldn't be the person you are today if it weren't for those experiences, now would you? Take heart and know He is there through it all. He corrects you but He loves you and wants you to flourish. He's working on you piece by piece to make you beautiful in His time.

Be encouraged. Be joyful. Pray and seek His guidance. Know that even if situations don't resolve themselves the way you want them to, it will always work out the way that it is supposed to. Take the lesson from it & grow in your walk with Christ. Don't let the devil have the satisfaction of keeping you in your emotional prison.

Keep going. God has a plan for you. He will encourage you in the midst of your wilderness. You cannot mess up His plan for you. Just begin again.

"I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him." (Ecclesiastes 3: 14 King James Version) 

God Is Not Done With You Yet

I am truly elated to revive Molly's Zone, and allow myself to rise from the ashes of the journey I have traveled . The blog has always been a true passion and love in my life; my work is extremely dear to my soul and I have always felt that words are the most powerful weapon we have against Satan's devious schemes.

One of my goals in starting this blog nearly four years ago was to inspire readers and to uplift them; to share my faith with all who would read. I have gone through a wilderness recently, and my motivation to create seemingly dissipated. I believe that we all go through times of having a dry spirit in order for God to continue molding us into who we are meant to be. I have lived with a space edging between my craft and I; the distance lasting a full year and a half. I wrote countless pieces that just failed to exude the same amount of heart; the words instead cast an essence of distraction.

I dropped all of my previous outlets & recently joined Coffee House Writers. I am enjoying working with editors weekly once again and I know Molly's Zone has to continue as well. I am in prayer constantly for new motivation, inspiration & a strength that I never can find on my own. I am no longer allowing Satan to unleash his power by throwing me off of my game. Writing provides me with the deepest joy, and not participating in my job for the Lord has taken a toll on my creativity and overall sense of fulfillment.

The greatest thing about Christ is that He gives us endless chances to follow Him incessantly. He gives us opportunities to glorify Him through our messes; even those we create ourselves. My goal for today's post is a simple message the Lord has laid on my heart throughout the past several days: God is not done with you yet! Keep going! Keep praying! Keep seeking Him! 

"Have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." (Joshua 1:9 King James Version)