purposefulfaith, Author at Purposeful Faith

When Life Bites

December 21, 2017

National parks have things that bite. We all know this. Mosquitos. Ticks. No-see-ums. Things like that. But my daughter was most terrified of the cat. She remembered it from last time.

This time, she seemed to believe it wanted to come and bite her from behind.

“Madison, I want to tell you, dear one, if the cat comes. . . see this Starbucks bag? If he runs in and tries to bite you, I will swat him. If he comes near you, he will not hurt you.”

Now, this interaction gets me thinking. If I am a pretty good mom and God is a very good God, how much more does God protect us than I watch over my daughter? How much more would he go to any lengths to keep us safe, protected, secure, watched over, and secure?

God swats things away from us. Things we can’t even see. Things we don’t even know.

How many of us can look back at our past and say, “Wow, it is amazing I never got involved in ____. Or, by all accounts, I should be ___. Or, by the grace of God, I avoided ___?”

Jesus. That’s why. Jesus. His grace. Jesus. His covering. Jesus. His love.

“But by the grace of God I am what I am…yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” 1 Cor. 15:10

Friends, the antidote to feeling out of God’s care is recounting how much you’re in it.

I could have become an alcoholic, married to an abuser, co-dependent in every relationship, and in a job I hated. I am not.

I am a woman dependent on Jesus Christ, married to an honorable and trustworthy man of God, in a ministry role that I am blessed to be a part of. This doesn’t mean everything is perfect, or figured out, but it means God is perfectly caring for me, on every account. Even the ones I have not yet seen in the light of His full glory.

But I believe in his glory; I don’t give up in it. The testimony of his faithfulness speaks of the very meaning of the phrase: do it again, God. And when I recount it all, I believe he will.

Why not take a look back into your past? Why not remember all the ways God has kept you and protected you? Why not stand in awe that you are what you are, because the grace of the Lord Jesus is what it is.

Prayer: God, give us a fresh view of what our life would be like without you. Give us understanding of how loving you are. Give us new vision of all the ways you’ve protected us. Keep us in your love. Help us to rest on your faithfulness. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

Kelly’s new book, Fear Fighting: Awakening Courage to Overcome Your Fears has been called “A must read,” “Breathtakingly honest” and a “Great Toolbox to Overcome Fear.” Read it today.

Discover how to flee from fear and fly in faith through 4 Days to Fearless Challenge.

Get all Purposeful Faith blog posts by email – click here.

What does Faith look Like?

December 20, 2017

purposefulfaith

attack, awe, Contentment, faith, fear

3 Comments

A group of friends, full of strength, lowered a sick man from roof to floor, desiring to get him in front of Jesus. Jesus, seeing their faith, healed the man. (Luke 5:20)

Another man told Jesus, “say the word from where you are and my servant will be healed.” Jesus did. From afar and the man was healed. After Jesus remarked, “I haven’t seen faith like this in all the land of Israel” Lu. 7:9

A woman said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” Mt. 9:21 She simply grabs Jesus’ hem and finds herself healed. Jesus tells her to “take heart.” I bet she did.

What do all these three examples have in common? Two things. Desperate need and infinite faith.

Do you have these? Desperate need? Infinite faith?

Coupled, they’re powerful. Yet, one without the other doesn’t work as well. If you have need without faith, you’ll likely camp out in your basement crying. If you have faith without need, you’ll fool yourself into believing Jesus for the wrong things.

What does your heart truly need? What, internally, are you crying for? What would you go any lengths to ask Jesus to do, heal, rectify, fix, or renew?

There is no shame in need. There is hope. Run to Jesus, lower yourself before him, call on friends to pray, grab Him in outstanding ways, cry, reach. . . but no matter what, go and get before Him. Desperately. Hungrily. Believing immensely in his power.

Desperate seekers loaded with wild faith find Jesus.

He notes their belief. He sees their struggle. He tends to their needs. He gives the words that encourage them to “take heart.”

Your desperation, whether hidden, apparent or ignored, is not bad. It is good when brought before a loving Father wanting to love. This is who God is. One with a greater capacity to care than even the best man. One with greater insight to teach than even the best teacher. One with greater ability to counsel than even the best therapist.

Faith believes God can.

Need lets Him in.

Open the doors to your heart. Then run after Jesus, ready to be changed.

Prayer:
Jesus, thank you that you are not after pretty images of perfection, nor righteous people who know everything, nor biblical experts of ancient times, nor striving hearts that never relax. You are after hearts in need. It was for those people, you stopped. It was for the sinners, you came. Help us to turn toward you in need and receive the best of you, in belief. Do a new thing. Give us the faith to trust you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Kelly’s new book, Fear Fighting: Awakening Courage to Overcome Your Fears has been called “A must read,” “Breathtakingly honest” and a “Great Toolbox to Overcome Fear.” Read it today.

Discover how to flee from fear and fly in faith through 4 Days to Fearless Challenge.

Get all Purposeful Faith blog posts by email – click here.

A Truth I love

December 19, 2017

purposefulfaith

awe, busy, Contentment, doubt, dreams

12 Comments

“Believing we can have it all, all the time is a myth and a lie and a joy-stealer. What I do believe is that we can have God’s best for us. A full life and a life to the full are two very different things. One is about grasping, the other is about receiving. One is about cramming in, the other is about room to breathe. One is about striving, the other is about trust. One is about control, the other letting go – sometimes for a moment and sometimes for always.”

When I read this, in Holley Gerth’s new book, Fierce Hearted, all I could think was, yes, yes, yes. She nailed it and was saying everything I was living. You see, God recently invited me into this beautiful place of, “Set it all down Kelly. Come. And follow me.”

Set down the social media stuff. Follow me.

Set down your plans. Follow me.

Set down your busy work. Follow me.

Set down your dreams. Be with me.

My answer was, “Yes, God!!!”

But you see, it’s easy to speak, but much more difficult to do. To leave behind the striving to be seen, to turn away from the control that comes with manhandling my schedule and to surrender my busyness that covers over the sense of lack I don’t want to see. . . well, it all sounds nice, but. . .

It leaves me feeling exposed. What if I am not doing what I should be? What if I miss out? What if I am left behind? What if I don’t get what I dream of? What if my time spent with God ends up (and I’d probably never vocalize this). . . wasted? What if I get disappointed?

Yet I am finding it is always in the letting go that God works his way in. It is always in the relinquishing that we get a broad-stroke view of what God is doing. It is always in carved-out space that we see God draw new stories right over the old versions of insecurity.

But we must give leeway to His ways. It’s the only way.

When we clear out everything so God can come, He does. With power, strength, dignity, honor and a pen that redraws all we ever wanted – and more. He also has an eraser. One that doesn’t feel like denial, remorse or pretending, but recovery.

“Our everything” is not found in “our doing,” but “His everything” is found in “our undoing” before Him.

Ahh…peace.

Come, Jesus. Restructure us. Let us let go of what we clench so tightly so we can find ourselves held tight in the power of your love. Amen. (and thank you Holley!)

Buy Fiercehearted: Live Fully, Love Bravely on Amazon or wherever books are found.

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Your Worst Enemy Isn’t Them…

December 18, 2017

purposefulfaith

awe, Contentment, doubt, faith, fear

2 Comments

Have you hurt someone, but can’t seem to apologize?
Is there an argument you feel completely entitled to uphold?
Does anger overwhelm you?
Do you have the feeling your assumptions were completely off base?
Are you ashamed of what you’ve done?

Sometimes, I internally know I am 100% wrong, but externally cannot admit the truth. It’s like my heart knows what it needs to do, but my mouth can’t speak.

It feels like everyone might hate me or turn away. It feels like I might be the bad egg that falls down the chute. Bye-bye…Kelly….!

Ever been there?

Perhaps, you’re trying to maintain a good status at work, or defending an issue you know you need to change your mind on or coming down on hard on one specific person because you always have. Maybe you do this. . . all to the detriment of truth.

But, it is the truth that sets us free. (Jo. 8:32)

John Piper boils this vicious cycle down to one issue. He puts it like this:

“Pride is the enemy inside us that speaks to us like a friend. Its counsel sounds so much like self-protection, preservation, and promotion we are often blinded to the fact that it’s destroying us and others. It rises in great indignation as a prosecuting attorney when others’ pride damages us, but it minimizes, qualifies, excuses, rationalizes and blame-shifts our behavior when we damage others. We can easily be deceived into believing that our pride wants to save us, when really, it’s our internal Judas betraying us with a kiss.” – John Piper, DesiringGod.com

What if rather than being tethered to insular pride, we were released to outpouring love? What freedom might God have for us?

“And the truth will set you free.” Jo. 8:32

Kelly’s new book, Fear Fighting: Awakening Courage to Overcome Your Fears has been called “A must read,” “Breathtakingly honest” and a “Great Toolbox to Overcome Fear.” Read it today.

Discover how to flee from fear and fly in faith through 4 Days to Fearless Challenge.

Get all Purposeful Faith blog posts by email – click here.

Need Answers?

December 15, 2017

purposefulfaith

blessings, busy, Contentment, doubt, faith

2 Comments

You don’t have to have all the answers.

Relieve yourself of this. You don’t have to have it all marked out with lines pointing to things, with circles around events, checkmarks next to your part and supporting roles delineated.

It’s not your show. It’s not your story to write.

God is Creator. He is also Author God. Let him write a better story than you can. Give up your need to theorize, summarize and categorize people and all the details that go with them.

If Jesus wanted you to be ruler, he would have let you know this before he died, but he didn’t.

His grace is your grace when you give Jesus space to fill the blank lines. Then, you actually get a chance to see God work. But if you already have every line filled in and filled up, what room does this leave an active, always-writing, ever-working God?

Avoid your need to know. Eve wanted to know everything. Satan wanted to know he was higher than God.

Knowing is not our goal. Abiding is. Stick to abiding. Self-soaked ambition masked in some cover of godliness is still nastiness. Intellectual know-how covered with a know-it-all attitude still stinks.

Jesus talked to the Pharisees like this:

“You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” Mt. 23:27-28

Choose instead to let Jesus wash you. White. Clean.

Need him.

Let him be highest. The highest scheduler. The highest orchestrator. The highest lover. The highest mountain. The highest plan.

You don’t have to have it all figured out. You don’t have to know every detail. You don’t have to be in tune with the whens or the whys. You know the WHO. It’s Jesus. He has you. He has a plan.

Prayer: Jesus, it’s all about your heart. It’s all about your desires. It’s all about you coming to earth, so that we could come to heaven and be with you always. Don’t let us lose sight of what matters. What a waste it is to have eternity with you, but to miss daily life with you. We want every moment with you. Restore that to us. We repent of what is not ours to keep, manage and rule. We trust you with what you want to give us. We lean on you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Kelly’s new book, Fear Fighting: Awakening Courage to Overcome Your Fears has been called “A must read,” “Breathtakingly honest” and a “Great Toolbox to Overcome Fear.” Read it today.

Discover how to flee from fear and fly in faith through 4 Days to Fearless Challenge.

Get all Purposeful Faith blog posts by email – click here.

To Freak or Not to Freak?

December 13, 2017

purposefulfaith

Contentment

1 Comment

You’re lying if you say life is absent of turbulence. You’re either lying or denying.

We all have rough spots. If we’re honest we all have itchy spots we think unworthy of prayer, problem areas we’re tired of addressing, or pasts we’ve tried to pretend are done.

So we stuff them away in some cob-webby attic, pretending.

Out of sight, out of mind.

We deny them, hoping we’ll get by them. But the problem is, we don’t get by them because much of what we do is driven by them. The crux of our responses, defensive ways and judgements are a result of them.

Sometimes, the only way to get through a storm is by addressing it.

Jesus did that.

“Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!’

He replied, ‘You of little faith, why are you so afraid?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.” Mark 8:23-26, emphasis mine

Jesus spoke to the waves, “Stop.” They did. He rebuked the winds. They listened.

Jesus did not see the storm and hide from it. He met it face to face. What if we did the same?

Let’s consider things from the disciples’ perspective for a moment. Did they meet the storm face-to-face? In some ways, yes. They saw it before them. In other ways, no. They took things in their own hands. They demanded Jesus handle the storm the way they thought right. They woke Jesus up from the rest he needed.

But Jesus is always aware. Jesus always sees. Jesus always knows. Jesus always has a plan.

He may look voiceless, but he is interceding for you.

He may look silent, but he is advocating for you.

He may look immobile, but his will prevails.

Rather than being the ones who demand our way to God, what if we trusted his ways no matter what problem was trying to sink us?

What if we said, “Christ, with the power to calm every storm, can powerfully calm my storm and I am standing on that fact. Jesus, with the heart to bring people where they are meant to go, will bring me, and I am banking on that. Jesus, who has a plan, has not lost the plan for my life – and I believe that.”

What kind of miracle would we see if we didn’t wake Jesus, but trusted him?

How might he arise to say, “You of great faith,” verses, “You of little?”

What might we see transpire?

Kelly’s new book, Fear Fighting: Awakening Courage to Overcome Your Fears has been called “A must read,” “Breathtakingly honest” and a “Great Toolbox to Overcome Fear.” Read it today.

Discover how to flee from fear and fly in faith through 4 Days to Fearless Challenge.

Get all Purposeful Faith blog posts by email – click here.

Beware of Forcing the Wrong Season

December 12, 2017

purposefulfaith

Contentment, doubt, failure, fear, grace

16 Comments

I worked really hard to get up the hill. Pumping, huffing, standing, sitting, then standing again, I. Was. Going. To. Make. It. To. The. Top.

Nothing would stop me and my bike.

It’s often easy to get on a mission. We want to get somewhere and when we’re really committed, we see it through.

I made it to the top. Then came the decline.

Victory. As I glided down, I kept on peddling hard. Why?

No, really. . . why?

Why did I feed the need to peddle when it was a time to glide?

God says there is a time for everything:

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” Ec. 3:1KJV

There is a season to pump our legs hard; there is a season to glide; there is a season to cry; there is a season to rest; there is a season to give; there is a season to take.

Peaceful living, I am determining, has much to do with knowing the season God has placed you in. You don’t want to be laughing in the midst of your spouse’s grieving.

As I went down the hill, it was representative of a season: to glide. To let go of worries. To trust God with all the stuff I normally do. To hear his voice calling me to ministry outside of the internet. To wonder and awe at him doing really special things alone with me.

To step away from life, demands, blog requirements, and doing stuff as usual, because it’s not God’s heart for today…(noticing is half the battle).

Letting go is the other half. It’s recognizing that our current season doesn’t have to look like our last. In fact, I have to tell you, it shouldn’t. This is my opinion, however. It is my belief that when we push a round peg into a square hole, frustration feels as ever present as a hangnail.

But to move with the grace of God. . . this is like windsurfing in the direction of God’s move. You go with him. You let go of what you think things should be. You enjoy the wind on your face. You feel the moment. You come alive in what he is doing.

What season is God calling you into? What if instead of despising it, you decided to embrace it?

Prayer: God, in your presence there is fullness of joy. Keep me in your presence and peace. Keep me going in the direction you desire for me, and nowhere else. Let me go not according to what I think I should do, but according to what your heart is for me. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Get all Purposeful Faith blog posts by email – click here.

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What is in a Name?

December 11, 2017

purposefulfaith

approval, awe, Contentment

5 Comments

Names. What is in a name?

I didn’t used to think a name amounted to much. Until years later…

Now, you all might see me as a fighter kind of girl. If you’re read this blog long enough, you know I wrote a book called, “Fear Fighting.” But, what you may not know is I am also writing a book called, “Battle Ready.” You’ll meet it come July.

The point is not me; it is my name. My name means “warrior”. Kelly is warrior. I never knew that. I never knew I was a warrior, until God called me to write these books.

Before this point I would have laughed at this idea. But, now. Now I say, “Wow, God, I really am who you say I am. You knew day #1 who I would be, even though I never believed in who you made me to be.”

He is amazing.

Even though I used to call myself other names, like… “You stupid!,” “You idiot!”, “You worthless piece of…”

Still, God never had names like those for me.

What names do you give yourself? What name might God give you?

Did you know, even if your name has no obvious meaning…God gives you names: daughter, loved, friend, royal priest, light of the world? These are your names, even if you can’t believe them now, Christ’s fulfillment is written over each and every name, just like I learned mine was.

I pray you come to see…

Sometimes, I doubt my name. I am all…I am not a warrior today. But, do you know what is best of all? Jesus always is Jesus. Father always is Father. Daddy is always still there.

Knowing the firm names of God supersedes the names of doubt we call ourselves.

This is why, this Christmas, I delight in the names included in the Christmas book, “The Unwrapping of the Names of Jesus” by Asheritah CiuCiu.

Jesus is:

King of Kings (the height above any height moving on our behalf)
Light of the World (the light that casts out all darkness, always and forever)
Lion of Judah (the roar that makes every knee bow)
Alpha and Omega (the start of everything and the end that has no end)
Prince of Peace (the only answer to peace and the fulfillment of it in our lives)
Bread of Life (the only truth we eat to feel full)
Lamb of God (the lamb slain so that we don’t have to be when we feel self-doubt and shame)

Jesus’s name is the height of all names. It gives cause to my name, even when I doubt myself. This does not matter, because God remains the same, consistent and power-full.

This Christmas Season, what if you were to usher in, not just the baby, but the power of Jesus’ name with a humble in-awe view of the saving light it casts on you?

How might, through Christ, you begin to see yourself differently?

Learn more about Asheritah’s new book, Unwrapping the Names of Jesus: An Advent Devotional.

Get all Purposeful Faith blog posts by email – click here.

3 Faith Halters that Make Faith Falter

December 8, 2017

purposefulfaith

Contentment

2 Comments

Faith. We want her to be alive and well. We want her to thrive so we see the miraculous, the amazing and God’s handiwork all over our lives. We want relationships changed due to faith. Hardships pacified, due to faith. Loneliness gone, due to faith. A marriage healed, due to faith. A deep authentic closeness to God, due to faith.

In God’s economy, faith finances the spiritual great. Yet, doubt robs our spiritual banks.

I should know; I just emerged out of a horrible season of doubt. While shame tells me to hide this fact and feign godliness to you, authenticity tells me, “Everyone has moments of doubt, fear and uncertainty. Freedom is fighting the urge to hide.”

So friends, today I tell you that as much as I wanted to believe God was near me, I kept on believing He was far and He didn’t much care for me. Thank God, I’ve stepped up and out of that pit.

So today, from a place of retrospect, I look back to discover the faith-halters that make intimacy with God falter.

What are they? How can I avoid them in the future? What do we need to be aware of?

3 Faith Halters that Make Faith Falter

1. Demanding Understanding.

When we demand to figure out godliness completely, we can figure ourselves right out of it. I wanted to have every I dotted and every T crossed, so much so that I was cross-eyed with frustration because I couldn’t figure God out. Guess what? God isn’t meant to be figured out by human understanding.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways…” Is. 55:8-9

Beware of: Trying to understand what, by faith, God simply says – is.

2. Keeping track of the attack more than God’s love.

I kept saying, “I am being attacked, I am being attacked…” When we count up attacks more than we count all the ways God loves us, we lose footing. It’s the prodigal daddy running out to fetch us more than the snake ready to bite us that leads us back home.

“Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.” Ps. 63:6

Beware of: Giving the enemy more credence than God’s saving power.

3. Constant Self-Critique

The more I counted my failings, the more I was sure I was failing. The more I was sure I was failing, the more I was sure I was still falling. The more I was sure I was falling, the more far away God felt.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God…” Eph. 2:8

Beware of: Counting up all you’ve done wrong rather than resting under the cross, signifying all Jesus did right.

Beyond these faith-halters, there is one sure-fire faith-exalter. Do you know it? God’s Word. It is always steady, always working, always waiting, always truthful, always healing, always loving, and always our answer.

“Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” Ro. 10:17

Prayer: God, pour out the grace I need to stay strong in you. I pray that I am so spiritually guarded, I remain earthly effective. I ask that you equip me with every good thing I need to stay close to you. Do not remove your hand of protection from me and keep me under the cover of your love. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Kelly’s new book, Fear Fighting: Awakening Courage to Overcome Your Fears has been called “A must read,” “Breathtakingly honest” and a “Great Toolbox to Overcome Fear.” Read it today.

Discover how to flee from fear and fly in faith through 4 Days to Fearless Challenge.

Get all Purposeful Faith blog posts by email – click here.

Dealing with Old Memories

December 6, 2017

purposefulfaith

Contentment

2 Comments

I flew down the hill, free. My bike moved without any exertion. This was supposed to be the fun part. The easy part. The fast-paced glide. But it wasn’t.

My mind flashed back to years ago. The time I got nervous. The time the handlebars shook electricity into my numb hands. The time my mind got scared to death that my bike would flip over on one of the potholes. The time my middle loosened like a noodle in anticipation of what would certainly befall me…

And then, so long ago, I fell.

Anticipating my fall, I practically welcomed it. Anticipating demise, we often, subconsciously, do the exact same.

It’s coming. I’m ru….ined!

Tense, scared and precautious, we prepare to fall. Freaked out, we ready our mind for the worst. Even years later, memories haunt us, repeating the same powerful and engrained lies.

Just consider me. As flew downhill, gone was my moment of enjoyment. Active in my mind was a moment of torment.

The pain of yesterday undoubtedly tries to come to steal the joy of today. Often in a form of a memory seared in our insides. Reminding us of what can never be.

What pain of yesterday steals your joy of today? Your hope? Your peace with God?

In what ways does it hold you back? Torment you? Hurt relationships?

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said. (Mt. 4:19)

How can we follow Jesus when we’re too busy looking back? How can we see where Jesus wants us to step, who he wants us to reach, and what paths he wants us to walk when we are busy filling our mind with the past? When we’re busy asking ourselves why that person did that, where we went wrong, how we could have done better?

“Come, follow me.”

Give up your sore neck that’s always looking back and choose today to look ahead. This doesn’t mean those old memories won’t come, but it does mean you don’t have to indulge your time with them. You don’t have to become consumed with them.

Follow Jesus. A simple gospel: walk how He walks, think how He thinks, love how He loves.

Don’t look back. Jesus covers all that. Just follow Him.

Prayer:

“Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing….” Is. 43:18-21

God, we don’t want to be so consumed with old things that we can’t see your new thing. Renew our minds, in you. Renew our strength, in you. Renew our life, in you. Help us to let go of the old, so we can walk into your new. We need you. We hunger for your help. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen.

Kelly’s new book, Fear Fighting: Awakening Courage to Overcome Your Fears has been called “A must read,” “Breathtakingly honest” and a “Great Toolbox to Overcome Fear.” Read it today.

Discover how to flee from fear and fly in faith through 4 Days to Fearless Challenge.

Get all Purposeful Faith blog posts by email – click here.

Author - purposefulfaith