Category: Help Blog

God’s presence is always with you, but it is something we need to practice. Train yourself to be aware that He is there, right by your side. When you wake up in the morning He is there. He’s there in everyday tasks and chores. He’s there when you are tempted to do wrong. He doesn’t leave you even when you leave Him. He’s waiting right by your side for you to talk to Him, cry out to Him, share your heart with Him.

We fail to realize that He is also for us, not against us! Usually our shame and guilt keep us from turning to Him. But nothing is ever hidden from Him. He knows you better than you know yourself. AND He knows what you need more than you do. God wants to help, not turn away from you.

Life is hard. But God is good. We can rely on Him to provide what we need. It’s His strength that He will provide, It’s His wisdom that He will give.

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 2 Corinthians 4:8-9

“But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9

God can work through our weakness, struggles, and triumphs for our good and His glory. HE IS WITH YOU AND HE IS FOR YOU!

If only someone had told me these five truths when I was 12.

That God had designed me with specifications only unique to me. That He didn’t make a mistake with my personality, looks, & talents. They were given to me for a reason and a purpose.

That God’s Love is not based on my performance. It is totally unconditional. It doesn’t ebb and flow. He doesn’t love me more the better I behave. He loves me the same even when I fail.

That the enemy of my worth is comparison. God values me, and wishing I was like someone else can utterly destroy my knowledge of His love for me. My obsessed thoughts, on how I didn’t measure up to someone else, was placing them on the throne, not God. That He wanted to be my source of security.

That God is our guide and help through all of life’s struggles. He is just wating for us to invite Him into all that we are going through. He knows everything already. He wants to help, even when the struggle is with sin, addictions, relationships, etc. He wants us to run to Him even when we don’t deserve it.

That there is a joy & freedom when we find our purpose and worth in God. It frees us to look down the road, past middle school and high school, to a future created by God specifically for you. You feel like the world you are in right now is what will always be. There is a whole future waiting for you! As you discover God’s specifications that He designed you with, He will lead you into a path designed just for you. Get excited about that!

It was a learning curve for me to see God’s redemption as a free gift and not something I had to earn. I think that although the Bible clearly says we are saved by grace and not works, the church of this day does not always practice what it preaches. Most of us who grew up in church would say that we definitely felt there were hoops to jump through and boxes to fit in. I will once a again repeat what my counselor said to me, “Jesus loves you, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. In the book, The Furious Longing of God, the author, Brennan Manning says, “For His (God’s) love is never, never, never based on our performance, never conditioned by our moods-elation or depression. The furious love of God knows no shadow of alteration or change. It is reliable. And always tender”.

I started studying God’s love for me. In Ephesians 3:16-19 Paul prays, “That according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith-that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, and to know the love of God that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God”.

I am convinced, that as we begin to know the love of God, and that He is for us and not against us, it gives us strength to overcome. Run to His arms. He sees your heart of despair. He wants to help you!

When we struggle with a sin, an addiction, or an unhealthy behavior, we tend to run from God, not run to Him. We can’t imagine that a perfect God could even look at us, let alone love us.
The truth is this…The hero in our story is God and the theme is grace.
I once had a great Christian counselor say to me, “Jesus loves you, this I know, for the Bible tells me so”. (If you went to Sunday School as a child, you sang these exact lyrics). She said that as we grow up, we make it harder than that.

The simple truth is God loves us unconditionally.
There are so many people in the Bible that did great things for God, but also did some pretty awful things, or struggled with life’s stuff. God redeemed their stories.
God can redeem your story too. God is greater than any sin, addiction, or disorder. Job 42:2 says. “I know God can do all things, no purpose of His can be thwarted.”
God hears you, God loves you, God is with you, and God is for you. Even in the middle of anything that you are struggling with. He is not waiting for you to get it all together before He can be all that for you.

Telling my story is not something I had any intention of doing. EVER!
When I finally found my way to freedom I vowed this skeleton in my closet would remain there forever. Never to see the light of day.
God had a different idea. Two years ago he planted the idea of a blog in my heart. I told Him every reason why that was not a good idea.
I still lived in my home town. I feared what people would think if I came clean with my past. I also didn’t know if I could really help someone, so why would I take that chance? Fear ruled in me. But this is what the Bible says “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, and of power, and of a sound mind” 2 Timothy 1:7.
God has His ways. Two years ago, my husband and I purchased a “fixer upper” in another town in a neighboring county, an hour from my home town. Our goal was to fix it up and live there in 4 years.
Long story short, we sold our home in my home town that next year and decided to speed up the plan. We were sure God had led us to do this. We thought His reasons were to get us out of mortgage debt (as we were downsizing). At the end of this project, that financial goal was not met, and I had to ask myself if I had missed God. I had a wise friend tell me that maybe there was a different reason that we felt led to move. I at first rejected that idea, but as I struggled with the changes in my life, I once again felt the tug of God. The fear of being known for my past, was way less in this new town and county. I suddenly entertained the thought that maybe God had moved us so that I would be free to tell my story.
I decided that if I could help one person, it was worth it.
So here it goes!