At every moment, we have God’s love, power, generosity, strength, wisdom, patience, charm, personality, influence, Spirit, angels, warmth, and friendship backing us up. Are you guys getting this???? God is intimately involved in every nanosecond of our lives, just waiting for us to remember that, although invisible, He is there with us. SWEET!!!
It took a conversation with someone early this morning that brought this idea home. I have a way of making some pretty cutting, hurtful, and rude remarks sometimes, and in that conversation, before making one of those awful comments, I held my tongue, looked to God, and asked, ‘What would please You here?’ I felt Him respond through my Spirit, ‘Nik, don’t say that!’ And I didn’t, and instead responded with gentleness, kindness, and love, all for God’s happiness and honor. Love is not rude.
The BIG lesson is that I need us to up our game in doing an even better job of continuously going to God and responding to EVERYONE and EVERYTHING from His perspective. Trust me, like in that conversation today, instead of saying the wrong things, God gave me His tact, charm, genuineness, and charisma to respond from His loving and kind character. And it’s ALWAYS available to us. GOD IS OUR GREATEST FRIEND.
I so enjoyed talking to a priest recently. We summed up God in three words: GOD IS LOVE. And He is counting on us to reflect that to a watching world. That’s what I believe would please Him greatly. The more beautiful we are, in our words and deeds, the more beautiful God looks. Wink! Wink! NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO BE SAID, EITHER. People should want a relationship with God because of us and not vice versa.
Even with problems. I so want to figure out how I will handle the difficulties of my life, but God is showing me that I don’t have to have everything all figured out. This message showed up on WhatsApp, and I knew I was indeed a message from God to me:
“But God is saying to you…Be still and know that I am your God. I will fight all your battles and give you victory.”
That means relaxing (not in a lazy way!), confident, and having a continuous thought of God being with us and for us, seeking to do what He is asking of us. His constant advice as to what to do, what to say, and where to go, leads us to a life of joy, purpose, peace, success, and victory no matter the challenges – may no darkness weight is down by the grace of God!
Let me tell ya, His direction hasn’t failed me yet! I LOVE MY LIFE WITH GOD! WILL YOU JOIN US?
“Grant me the grace, O Lord and Saviour, to never allow time to elapse between the desiring and the putting into practice that which You want. Amen.” – The Imitation of Christ
“YOU’RE DOING GREAT; KEEP IT UP!!! WE ALL GOT YOU”
Was the comment from my sweet girl, Julie, minutes after I posted a video on YouTube entitled, ‘EVEN AT MY LOWEST…GOD IS THERE.’ I have new love, respect, and loyalty for her and my other daughter, Ember. Let me tell ya, I can boast of my weakness because even when I’m down to my lowest, God is there with the people to assist and support me like both of these fierce and fabulous daughters. Forget spoilt kids; I’m the spoilt momma!
I can’t get over God’s deep love for me. I always say and write that whatever is a concern for me is a concern for God, and this morning, He confirmed that through my meditation book, He and I:
“Everything that affects you touches Me personally.”
Yesterday, this was confirmed when I didn’t have my son Emmie’s birthday celebration at school adequately planned out, and God just had a friend to put together these delicious lunch bags AT THE VERY LAST MINUTE. I started ugly crying, thinking of God’s fidelity to me and my problems. Nik, how could you not have your son’s birthday stuff put together?!? When I’m weak, God’s love comes shining through brightly! As if God personally said, ‘Nik, I got you! Birthday Lunch Bags? No problem. Done.’
That’s the sweetness of God I’ve come to know. That morning, feeling again good for nothing, beating myself up that I’m so far from the person I strive to be, this amazingly showed up in my morning appointment with Him:
“Even when you feel good for nothing (exactly me at that moment), give me this nothing. Didn’t I create with nothing?’ – He and I
Didn’t God create the entire universe from nothing? So, I’m happily giving Him my nothingness, all my past mistakes and failure, knowing He is capable of turning it all into something extraordinary. Will you do the same? Let’s give God everything-the good, bad, and ugly-as we look to Him in every moment to help guide our lives on the most fantastic paths with Him as our Guide and Life Partner. God’s grace is sufficient to take away all the sins and failures of the entire planet. Give Him a chance with your life. Stay with Him. Give every small effort for His honor and glory. Even the slightest gesture, let’s do it for Him. When you do this, I promise you, He will give you much more than you can ever imagine or expect from Him. Wink! Wink!
WEROLLWITHGOD.COM
“I’M A WARRIOR, NOT A WORRIER”
That was me to my husband and sons a short while ago after my hubby asked why I roll up my exercise shirt sleeves like a crazy person. No shame in my game; that’s my reminder every morning that I have to be tough, strong, and brave (warrior style!), ready to tackle anything that comes my way. Hubs had a good time laughing about it, but being his wife alone calls for a double dose of a warrior mindset because he is not the most comfortable person to be around sometimes, let me tell ya. LOL! But I use his hardness as motivation to be BETTER! Heehaw!
Fast forward to my sons leaving out for school, I go to have an appointment with God at 7:52, so I decided to read page 52 of our family’s website, and look what incredibly showed up at the top of the page:
“Warrior Nikki, baby” Wink! Wink!
Believe it or not, this was another one of my God winks when everything lines up a little bit too perfect to be considered a mere coincident. It was God’s sweet way of revealing His invisible Presence with me. Yesterday, I had another fun wink from Him when I got frustrated looking for a t-shirt to exercise in from my closet. I couldn’t find one I was happy with, so I got a white shirt from my husband’s drawer.
Fast forward to my sons coming home from school, Joshie starts playing a song, Franchise by Travis Scott, and I instantaneously fell in love with it, adding it to my playlist. We kept playing it repeatedly when I finally paid attention to the lyrics that began:
“In my white tee” (Wink! Wink!)
Again, God having some fun with my sons and me, sweetly reminding me that He is familiar with all my ways. For me to be annoyed at my shirt selection that morning, to go looking to get my husband’s white tee drawer, to Joshie playing this song of all songs, was God revealing His sweet, loving, and invisible Presence with us.
And this love from Him is what keeps me going. I felt like a failure waking up today because I haven’t been the person I’m proud of these days. I’ve been fighting my demons, y’all! But again God sweetly showed up in a recent post when I said this to my son after he was feeling bad about a mistake he had made:
“What happens if a child is running across a street and falls? Does that child stay there crying, or does that child pick themselves up and keep going? That’s how we have to be in life. Constantly picking ourselves up after falls and failures, and keep going.”
Warrior style, baby! Rise and shine! All for the glory of God!
WEROLLWITHGOD.COM
“WHAT IS THE BALL IN THE AIR YOU KEEP REFERRING TO?”
Asked my sister, Juanita. I explained to her that I have a crucial matter I’m attending to in Nigeria. In this life you will have trouble! I consider myself the proud Vice-President of my hubby. “I’m at the service of the President,” I say to him. Meaning I’m here to support him in any way I can. So, when a situation came up, I had to leave the US and fly to Nigeria to help tackle it – this life is not for weaklings! But, I didn’t come alone; I brought Back-up: God.
That’s the message I hope you guys are getting: WE HAVE GOD TO HELP US FIGHT ALL OUR BATTLES!!! I’m the God maniac here, but He freaked me out yesterday when I investigated a matter that had your girl here all agitated. Unbelievably, it magically resolved, pretty much on it’s own! Like poof. Disappeared. It’s another testimony of how God is at work in the spiritual realm on our behalf. I can show up every day, do my best with whatever God would have me to do, then I can turn the hard and challenging parts over to Him. That goes for every aspect of my life: parenting, marriage, business, health, and other significant relationships.
I still have my anxious moments, like when that issue first came up. I remember stopping at a gas station to have an appointment with God. To remind myself that I wasn’t handling the problem alone. Within minutes (AGAIN, God working in the spiritual realm on my behalf!), I got a phone from the person who took the entire matter into hands and beautifully resolved it for us. This was after his boss told me that there was nothing he could do to help us. God is too much! He used the boss’ assistant to help us. The only thing I honestly did from that point was to follow up on the status with a couple of emails and calls. Next thing I knew, poof! The problem was gone!
That’s why I stress to you guys that everything is between God and us, not between us and anyone else. I’ve decided to use all the disappointments, losses, and frustrations as fuel to motivate myself to be better: a better wife, a better mom, a better person for God, no matter what anyone else is doing. To step up my life in every area and, most importantly, make God, even more, a part of every moment. THEREBY TURNING THE LOSSES INTO HUGE WINS, BABY!!!
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” – John 14:27
“Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the LORD’s salvation (deliverance from harm), which He will accomplish for you today…The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” – Exodus 14: 13-14
I loved a recent alone time with God when He said to me, “Watch to see what I will do!” God, I’m watching with total confidence in You! He said it saddens Him when we doubt Him! Let’s kick our faith in Him up a notch! Shall we? Using all the past times when He has come through for us as our reminders that our God doesn’t disappoint! He is the same today, yesterday, and forever!
WEROLLWITHGOD.COM
THE HORROR!
Of all nights for us NOT to have electricity, can you believe it was last night when we hosted out of town visitors! Oh, my goodness! But strangely enough, I woke up feeling EXTREMELY GRATEFUL. This verse came clearly to mind:
“give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you…” – 1 Thessalonians 5:18
Fast forward less than thirty minutes later, and this exact verse showed up as the last message posted in my WhatsApp group. Then, before writing this post, looking for inspiration, it showed up AGAIN in an appointment with God reading only a few posts on Tumblr.com. So, I’m taking this as a message from God for us all today!
2020 hasn’t been an easy one, but honestly, I’m thanking God for EVERYTHING I’ve experienced. No lie. Every moment I’m saying God, THANK YOU!!!! I’ve had only about 4 hours of sleep, if that, but I still have this overwhelming feeling of gratitude – You had no light. Not much sleep. So what. Look at all the other huge BLESSINGS you have. Even I was unable to iron my sons’ uniforms for school. Our cook said, “Just give the clothes a strong shake and let them go!” I did that, and the boys were off to school! YOU HAVE NOTHING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT, NIK!!!
I especially loved reading this post on Tumblr.com:
“My dear friend, when grief presses you to the dust, worship there.” – Spurgeon
Exactly how I’m feeling after venting to God yesterday afternoon about my silly little issue asking Him what was wrong with me. He showed up and lovingly corrected me by comparing me to Eve, who had everything in the garden of Eden but focused instead on the one forbidden fruit that darkened her mind. That WAS your girl here. SO INCREDIBLY BLESSED but so ungrateful because of one negative focus that has tormented me. Thanks, God for the correction!!! I needed it! And for God (the Creator of the Universe) to come and meet me at my lowest time, when I went to shamefully vent to Him, asking Him what was wrong with me, was AGAIN Him showing me such intimate and intense LOVE (He cares about my struggles!!!) that I honestly will take the advice of this post:
“My dear friend, when grief presses you to the dust, worship there.” – Spurgeon
In everything? Give thanks!!! Now back to enjoying my very gorgeous life. God, I’m grateful for everything!!!!
HERE’S THE DEAL: Life is full of challenges, trials, tribulations, stress, disappointments, frustrations, sadness, and sorrow. I open my life to tell you that I have my share of them all, but more importantly, I tell you about God showing up to help me get through ANYTHING that comes my way. Heehaw!!!
I love reading my fav devotional, Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, that has brought me so close to God. I hear direct messages from Him that I even keep a copy in our bathroom so that even when I peepee (too much information!), I open it to see what God has to say to me. No shame in my game! And He never fails to reveal His invisible Presence. I especially loved a recent one:
“YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED PERSONAL BENEFITS from thanking me for hard situations, but there is more—much more! Your sacrifice of thanksgiving has divine Power to weaken spiritual stronghold of evil. Moreover, your patient endurance of suffering can strengthen and encourage My people on earth.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” – Proverbs 3:5
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” – 2 Corinthians 10:3-4
WE ARE NOT GOING BY THE ORDINARY RULES OF LIFE!!! Nothing is impossible for God, baby! That’s why it is so crucial for us to not lean on our own understanding but trust God wholeheartedly. God can make ANYTHING happen in the spiritual realm on our behalf, even when we don’t see a way.
“The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” – Exodus 14:14
It’s just for us to show up every day as our BEST selves for Him, following His lead by seeking His direction in the 1,000 decisions we make every day. Being tough, brave, courageous, persevering, and STRONG, yet at the same time, calm, patient, gentle, loyal, loving, and forgiving. I promise you, like Sarah Young wrote: “there is more—much more!” (Wink! Wink!) I wish I could tell you guys everything that God is doing for me, but trust me, He gives me more than I can ever ask or imagine from Him. That when He asks me to do difficult things, I simply say, ‘No problem, My Love, I GOT YOU!!!’ Superhero Nik, in the house, all for God’s glory!
