God is Greater

Hey Treasures, how is it going??  I hope and pray that you are having a great week.

Have you ever had those days when you just feel tired or when you are battling shame, guilt, condemnation?  Days when you are just wounded, the pain in your heart is not letting up?  When sorrow suffocates you and you just feel like you can not take another breathe?

I have had these days sometimes all that and some all in a day. In our lives here in this world, we will go through things, we will experience things. Many times we allow our emotions to get the best of us. We allow the enemy to whisper lies right into our ear when he should be no wear near our ears but rather under our feet.  He has been defeated.

We can overcome doubts, fears, hurts, condemnation, lies and sin. We are no longer bound to any of this " `cause the cross already won the war" (from the song Greater by MercyMe)

Romans 6:6-7 The Voice (VOICE)
⁶ We know this: whatever we used to be with our old sinful ways has been nailed to His cross. So our entire record of sin has been canceled, and we no longer have to bow down to sin’s power. ⁷ A dead man, you see, cannot be bound by sin.

Source

This is why it is so important for us to read our Bibles, and read them again and then read them once again! The bible is clear and it is not a book of rules for us to follow. It is God's very own love letter to you and to me. It is the greatest love story there is and you know what Mr. Aguila and I have a pretty amazing love story BUT God's love for us is far GREATER. 

A few months ago, I started listening to AIR 1, a Christian music station. The stations mission statement is pretty cool, "To Create Compelling Media that Inspires and Encourages You to Have a Meaningful Relationship With Christ." (Read this on their About section on the website).  The website is pretty cool as well. You can look up the songs and listen, buy them and/or find the lyrics.

On my way to work I usually start my day with this station and the other day while driving into work, I heard this song by Mercy Me. I am sharing the video because it's pretty cool. The video has the lyrics but I want to share them with you.
No matter what is going on with us we must remember this scripture,
1 John 4:4  The Voice (VOICE)
My children, you have come from God and have conquered these spirits because the One who lives within you is greater than the one in this world.


MercyMe - Greater 
From the album Welcome To The New
Bring your tired
Bring your shame
Bring your guilt
Bring your pain
Don't you know that's not your name
You will always be much more to me

Everyday I wrestle with the voices
That keep telling me I'm not right
But that's alright

‘Cause I hear a voice and He calls me redeemed
When others say I'll never be enough
And greater is the One living inside of me
Than he who is living in the world
In the world
In the world
And greater is the One living inside of me
Than he who is living in the world

Bring your doubts
Bring your fears
Bring your hurt
Bring your tears
There'll be no condemnation here
You are holy, righteous and redeemed

Every time I fall
There'll be those who will call me
A mistake
Well, that's ok

There'll be days I lose the battle
Grace says that it doesn't matter
‘Cause the cross already won the war
He's greater
He's greater
I am learning to run freely
Understanding just how He sees me
And it makes me love Him more and more
He's greater
He's greater



I am still trying to keep up with 30 days of Radical Growth with Havilah Cunnington and you can also watch the videos here. They are each about 7 minutes long so you can catch up really quick. The playlist for the devotion is HERE.

So I pray that we all begin to walk in the power and authority that God has given us and that we remember that He is greater than any fear, any sin, any doubt, any condemnation, any lie, any emotion and His grace is sufficient. Let us continue to press forward and love Him more and more and continual in radical growth, In Jesus name amen.

Are you THRIVING?

Hey Treasures, welcome back to my blog.  I am so glad you are here with me and I hope you enjoy this.

So a blogged about Change with Seasons and in continuation with the theme of change and growth and seasons I wanted to talk a little about what it means to THRIVE.

According to Webster Dictionary, the word THRIVE means, to grow or develop successfully;  to grow vigorously;   to gain in wealth or possessions (prosper);  to progress toward or realize a goal despite or because of circumstances.

My favorite definition was, "to grow vigorously".  In this season, that it my goal, to grow vigorously, to grow radically. Any growth, however, is good growth. Even if I am growing in small increments, growth is growth BUT let's ponder on THRIVING.

In Proverbs 11:28, (NIV) the scripture tells us that "those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will THRIVE like a green leaf." 

We must always trust in the Lord and His riches and glory, not our own. We must remain righteous in the eyes of God (not man) so that we can THRIVE like a green leaf.  When I think of a green leaf, I think of watered. refreshed, liveliness, growth. What about you?

Jeremiah 17:7-8 gives us a great description of a growing tree with green leaves and compares this to a man who trusts in the Lord.

7"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD. 8"For he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit.

This portion of scripture is so rich. As we trust in the Lord, we will be blessed and we will be like that tree that is firmly planted by the water and our roots go deep into the fresh wet soil and our leaves remain green and fresh and alive and growing and we will not stop growing fruit.

Psalm 1 is a great chapter. I would recommend reading through it. I enjoy reading the VOICE version but of course you read it in any translation that speaks to you.

Psalm 1:3 Voice says this,
You are like a tree, planted by flowing, cool streams of water that never run dry.
Your fruit ripens in its time;  your leaves never fade or curl in the summer sun. No matter what you do, you prosper.

The Voice (VOICE) The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

I would say these scriptures depict THRIVING.  "the righteous will THRIVE like a green leaf." (Proverbs 11:28b).  So that means to me, like a leaf that is watered, like a leaf that is alive, like a leaf that is growing.  Let us plant our roots by the streams of Living Water. Water our leaves with the Word of God that refreshes our spirit and progress towards our goal of continued growth. We can not wither away or dry up but THRIVE both despite and because of our circumstances.

Maybe today you find yourself withering away or as if you have dried up. Maybe you are feeling the thirst for the Living Water to refresh your leaves once again. I have been there!  It's a good thing if we are able to discern that we are withering away or drying up and in need of drawing closer to the stream of Living Water to get refreshed and renewed.  We must continue to Thrive. Ask yourself if you are you THRIVING or withering away and then let's make the necessary changes to be back in alignment and THRIVE.

Let's pray:  God we praise your mighty name and we thank you for who You are. I ask you to increase our thirst for Your Living Water. I pray that you will refresh each and every one of us. As we draw near to you, we thank you that our roots are going deeper and our leaves are getting greener and we are growing in this season.  Thank you for the grace and the mercy that you have for us and thank you for your love that draws us to the Sweet Sweet Stream.  Be magnified Oh Lord, IN Jesus name I pray Amen.

Here is the video of the song that spoke to me and caused me to look up the word Thrive and then God gave me all the rest. Take a watch and be blessed by these lyrics.

Casting Crowns - Thrive from casting-crowns on GodTube.

The Power of the Word of God

Hey Treasures, so its been awhile since I blogged. I don't really have a good reason but here I am finally sharing some thoughts with you.  I hope everyone is doing well. I'd love to hear all about what you are up to.

So I shared this on my Facebook page the other day.  It was one of those "aha" God moments for me. Does that happen to you? Like you have read the scriptures before BUT this time that you read it, it just came out and slapped some revelation into you?  Afterall, the Word is Alive and Powerful right?

This is the scripture I was reading,

Hebrews 4:12 Amplified Bible (AMP)

For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.

I often ask myself, why am I feeling this or why am I feeling that. Issues of the heart arise and I sit in frustration and think I don't understand why i am feeling this way. What is this God, Help me God, Show me God, Expose it God, Heal me God! Pleading for my sanity because sometimes my emotions get the very best of me. I know it's deeper, surely I know it's deeper than the small triggers BUT I struggle to get to the root issue to "dig deep" within myself and figure this out.

Today I am finding comfort in knowing that it isn't about me digging deep or figuring it out but it is about me getting into the Word and letting the Word that is alive and full of power penetrate in the deepest parts of my nature.

I love that it says DEEPEST, like not just the deep rooted stuff but it gets all the way to the DEEPEST rooted stuff and it continues with this..."exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart."  While I love this, it is also makes me uncomfortable. I mean think about it, God, the creator of the universe, my Heavenly Father, the Holy One of Israel, is exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of my heart. EEEEEEKKKKKKKK

Matthew 15:18-19 Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹⁸ But whatever comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this is what makes a man unclean and defiles [him].

¹⁹ For out of the heart come evil thoughts (reasonings and disputings and designs) such as murder, adultery, sexual vice, theft, false witnessing, slander, and irreverent speech.

 While it makes one uncomfortable, it is necessary to get into the Word and allow it to fill us up and flush out all that is unclean.  I am one that tries to be careful about what I say and how I say it. Try to tame the tongue and use my words to build up and not tear down and that is all fine and good HOWEVER, we also have to be careful with that because we can walk the walk and talk the talk but when God starts searching our hearts and analyzing and judging our thoughts and the purpose of our hearts, he isn't going to base it on how well we walked that walk or talked that talk. He will see right through all that and He will expose it. In a moment of anger or disappointment or disputing, the evil thoughts in our hearts will come out. (see Matthew 15:19 above)

 It is by the Word of God that we guard our hearts.  We can try and try and work on this area BUT that alone will not guard our hearts. We need to be reading and studying and meditating on the Word of God.  This will build up boundaries of Truth and Holiness around our hearts so we can recognize the lies and the uncleanliness that try to penetrate into our hearts when it should be the Word of God penetrating into the deepest parts of our nature.

Proverbs 4:23 Amplified Bible (AMP)

²³ Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.

While it is good to guard our mouth gates, it is better to guard our heart gate.  That is where the deepest stuff is at. Today let us commit to studying the Word of God and be vigilant and above all else guard our hearts.  Let the Word of God be our shield against the fiery darts,  against the lies of the enemy, against our unclean thoughts, against anything that would defile our hearts.

Who is with me, to spend more time with God and asking Him that through His Word, He cover our hearts with His shield of Truth and Love?

We can do this Treasures!!
Please contact me with any questions, prayer requests or your own "Aha" revelations as you study God's Word!