ARE YOU GETTING TO KNOW GOD BETTER?
I am! I am! I am! So, I wrote this yesterday:
“You can’t beat God’s school of HARD LESSONS! It’s a constant struggle and a strong fight to be this person who I know He is calling me to be, but that’s the challenge for us all: For God to be the Guide of our hearts and to make some super tough decisions from His GOD IS LOVE perspective. He wants to remove the weeds from our hearts like bitterness, envy, jealousy, hate, greed, selfishness, temptations, evil thoughts, anger, doing and saying hurtful things and replace them with mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience bearing with and forgiving each other, clothing ourselves ALWAYS in love. Phew! Did you get all of that?”
Again, THIS IS SUPER HARD! But I’ve come up with a little strategy with God to help me. When I see the crazy lady is making an appearance with all her evil thoughts, I quickly catch myself and say, ‘Hug, Nikki. Hug.’ I imagine that I’m getting a hug from God who I know doesn’t want me with dwelling on unpleasant things. I add in a little fun smile with Him, we laugh at the crazy lady, and she goes quietly away. It’s a constant struggle, but by God’s grace, I’m getting better every day. Thanks, Boss! That includes the worrisome and fearsome thoughts too. HUG! God is on our side!
I’m loving the constant God winks from Him, especially a fun one where He got my daughter, Julie, in on it. We were having a fun time laughing about something, and I asked her, “Your Muslim friends. What do they call their dads?” She said, “Baba!” And we had a little private joke having the best time laughing. Incredibly, a few minutes later, Julie comes in, and says, “Mommy, you’re not going to believe this. I wanted to see what homework I have for tomorrow and look at what was one of the questions:
“What were Amir and Hassan’s connection to BABA?”” (Wink! Wink!)
For that “BABA” to show up minutes later after our little joke, was no coincident, it was God’s sweet way of revealing His loving Presence with my daughter and me. God is quite funny, you know! Let’s live our entire lives, enjoying the pleasure of His company, even in the super tough moments looking to Him for His wisdom, taking a lighthearted view on our troubles. Like I’m having fun when the crazy lady appears, “HUG!!!” Are you getting closer to Him? Don’t miss out on the sweetest life with God as our Boss as we aim to be the best versions of ourselves, all for His glory! Where my superhumans at?
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HEALTH MATTERS
I’m loving the fasting! I told my daughters that even after the Ramadan fasting with the Muslims, I want to get back to fasting on a regular basis. It’s healthy to give your body a break from digesting food all the time if you are medicaly able to do so. Let’s keep stepping up our games to be ALL God has designed us to be.
LET FOOD BE THY MEDICINE AND MEDICINE THY FOOD
GOD, THIS IS HARD!!! ??❤️
‘GOD THIS IS HARD!!!’
That has been me to God a lot lately. But God has such a great sense of humor because, in one of my appointments with Him, He took me back to this old post from January when I sent this text to my daughters after running for two and a half miles to Starbucks:
“Made it. Let’s do HARD THINGS this year for God.”
And now that the hard things are here for me to do, I’m like, ‘God, what is this?!? I didn’t want it to be this hard!’ LOL! But, I love how I have this relationship with Him where we can have fun with each other. I say no problem, God, when the going gets tough, the tough (ME!!!) gets going. I got this handled! I know that this difficult and sometimes overwhelming stuff I have to deal with is God’s way of challenging me to be better, training me as an athlete to be stronger (mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally). God, let’s do this! I’m a soldier in God’s army, baby!
I know I will come through it happier, more mature, more disciplined, more focused, and more at peace. You can’t beat God’s school of HARD LESSONS! It’s a constant struggle and a strong fight to be this person who I know He is calling me to be, but that’s the challenge for us all: For God to be or Guide of our hearts and to make some super tough decisions from His GOD IS LOVE perspective. He wants to remove the weeds from our hearts like bitterness, envy, jealousy, hate, greed, selfishness, temptations, evil thoughts, anger, doing and saying hurtful things and replace them with mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience bearing with and forgiving each other, clothing ourselves ALWAYS in love. Phew! Did you get all of that?
SUPER HARD, I KNOW!!! But that’s where the PRACTICE, PRACTICE, and more PRACTICE comes in. Looking to God in every moment and seeking to please Him. With all the training from Him, we’ll have a heart and mind filled with His love, joy, and Presence knowing He is our intimate life Partner and Guide.
Everything is between God and us, not between us and anyone else – His BLESSINGS amaze me. A strong run today with my daughters had me going crazy over His love. Those who hope in God will not be disappointed! AMEN!!! Hard stuff here, but we can do all things through Him who strengthens us! Amen.
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HEALTH MATTERS
This 46 year old here is competing with her 16 and 17 year old daughters in interval speed runs and I’m again giving God the glory in nudging me to give up the sweets lately, incorporating small meat and chicken again in my diet (I was becoming malnourished without them!) and the fasting that I feel is giving my body a chance to rest and regroup. Woohoo! God is involved in every aspect of our lives!!!
LET FOOD BE THY MEDICINE AND MEDICINE THY FOOD
GOD HAS ME GOING CRAZY OVER HIS LOVE
EXPECTATION
I’M EMBARRASSED TO TALK ABOUT THIS
For someone who claims to be a God maniac preaching about love and forgiveness all the time, I’ve been heavily burdened lately with bitterness from something that happened over a month ago. ‘What’s wrong with you?’ I keep asking myself. But the truth of the matter is, I’m human. And I’ve been praying for God to help me with it, and He sent someone: Devon Franklin, who put it down like this for me after he held onto resentments about his mother:
“I had to let go because I can’t go back in the past to fix it. IT IS THE WAY IT IS. Some of us have been holding on to something that can’t be fixed. It happened. I wish I can tell you that there is a magic wand to take it out of your past or your story. But somebody you trusted let you down. God sent you here to this service today because he is trying to take you to a new place in 2019, but if you bring the resentments that you’ve been carrying around this year into next year, its going to weigh you down. So, God wants you to make peace with the person you feel didn’t meet your expectation, AND GOD IS ASKING ME TO ASK YOU TO FORGIVE THEM. I pray that as you release this, you will feel freedom.”
I’m talking a direct message from God to the crazy lady over here. Hearing that “God is asking me to ask you to forgive them,” I knew it was definitely a message from my Big Boss. See how intimately God is involved in our lives. He always has the perfect people ready to help me whenever I need help. This sermon was recorded at the end of 2018, but God knew I would need it right now.
Devon wished everyone a Happy New Year, and I’m claiming that for us all today. That we can all forgive anyone who has disappointed us and begin again. A fresh start of our lives handing all the bitterness, hurts, resentments, anger, disappointments, and pain over to God. He has great plans for us, but first we must let go of our little expectations and focus on God, who has HUGE expectations for us. I look at my life in amazement, sometimes asking, “How did I get here?’ And the answer is no doubt God. He can do more than we can ever ask or imagine when we stick with Him, being FAITHFUL to what He asks of us. He has exceeded my expectations in every aspect of my life.
I told y’all, God is pretty talkative when you have ears to hear Him. He nudged me to begin the fasting and He nudged me to watch Devon on YouTube and I paid attention. I want us all getting closer to God and hearing what He has to say to us. That may mean waking up a little earlier every day and having appointments with God asking Him to be our Guide and Partner. To enjoy the happy moments with as well as to help us with our struggles. Can you commit with me that we will make God a priority making a relationship with Him the most important aspect of our lives? He has great plans for us, but if we do not hear His voice, we miss out on His grand plans. Check out Devon’s Franklin’s channel on YouTube, he has lots of great advice for EVERYONE.