"There is no reason to live in yesterday when it steals the joy you could have today." Over three years ago I wrote that after healing from a heartbreak, which I never think of today but played an important part in my gratefulness to God. Those words now make me smile on how beautifully it still speaks to me- even when I have the upmost joy in today! I didn't know then the goodness God had for my future- but today, the hope I found in Him led to seeing today how faithful He has been to me. Praise God for the times He grows you through, even if you become broken in the process. Even if you have to let go. Hold on to Him. Brokenness is good. It allows you to be remade; but by better, wiser, steadier, loving, healing hands that shape the most beautiful joys. Restoration of dreams is sweet. Trust Him. That will carry you through. And it isn't about what He does, as much as who He is; it isn't in just receiving your promise or hope, it is the gift of His love for you and knowing Him so much more intimately. The real treasure is Jesus. Yes, your deepest desires fulfilled is amazing and wonderful- even richer is the joy in finding God is what you desire most. I wouldn't trade that for anything. #promise #hope #freedom #joy #allthings #inHim (at Ocean Side California)

This is giving me life.

You can have it all //

@impassioned_pritchard is a passionate & talented friend of mine with a lot of heart that I got to know while I was a student at @indwes. This summer he is directing a film called Wipe Every Tear with @therestoredloveproject. It’s a documentary that tells a story of restoration found within the world of sex trafficking, and gives a voice to girls who have lived through the abuse in the sex trade industry & have been rescued from it an opprotunity to share their stories with the world. Stories of hope and restoration like this to be told, and the artists creating this film will no doubt tell it in a way that will make an impact.

The project needs help raising funds, and I want to give opprotunity to everyone I can to support this. If you can give, today is the day. Watch the video and please consider donating, any amount helps! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/184657040/wipe-every-tear //

Tumblr friends, if you could share this that'd be so rad.

Glory, glory hallelujah Jesus is my liberty.

I am free 🌻 //

Reminders from worship at church this morning: Jesus made a way to set you free so nothing can hold you back from Him. No fear, no doubt, no sin, so discouragement, no depression or anxiety or worry; not your past which He has already washed pure: nothing can seperate you from Him, from the love of God for you in Christ (Romans 8:38-39). He died to give you victory and rose for your righteousness before God. You are free from condemenation (Romans 8:1) and Jesus’ has given you His Spirit in you to overcome ALL things. Say no to those hinderances, cast them off, say yes to the One who loves you and run to Him. You are free! “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed!” (John 8:36)

No One Else (Onething - Live) | Cory Asbury & Laura Hackett   None else can love You like I love You, Lord ‘  Cause I was made unique in Your heart   I was made to bring You joy   Now I have a purpose,   Now I have a destiny   You made me for Your glory,   You made me for Your glory!   I was made for, I was made for, I was made for, I was made for   I was made for love

Todd White 

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. // John 8:32

The only One.

There is nothing more humbling than revisiting the past to reflect on all that Jesus has redeemed me from while at the same time being presently aware of His grace of me being in the process and secure in His love for me.

Today I was filling out an application for an organization I’d love to serve with and one of the questions was: “What have you struggled with in the past? What do you struggle with currently?”

I was brought to tears. All I could think was,

“Jesus died so I could be set free and forgiven of these things.”

There was no other way. Jesus is literally the only One who can make me holy. He is my righteousness; I am not anything I am today apart from Him; I am a product of grace.

He didn’t want me to stay depressed and lonely or hating myself. He didn’t want me to be starved for love but convinced I was unworthy. He wanted me to know His love. He didn’t want death to pull me away. He wanted me to come alive in Him.

Jesus wasn’t looking at the filthiness of my sin, but the treasure of my heart.

He wasn’t criticizing the cracks of my brokenness; He longed to touch my wounds where they hurt most.

The compassion of His heart toward me was greater than I can still grasp to this day. Every time I think about it, I’m humbled. Jesus loved me when my thoughts were far from Him; Jesus loved me when I was in sin; and most amazing of all, Jesus loved me just as much then as He does now. He doesn’t love me less or more dependent on how holy I am; He loves me because He is love. Nothing I can do can change that. And nothing can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38-39).

Jesus had such a love for me even while I chose to love my sin more than Him. And now I know His love is greater. Because of Christ, I am healed, restored, whole, loved. I died to sin and I am alive in Him; those things that used to ruin and rule me have no power because He has overcome my heart with His loving-kindness. None of those things have a place in my life anymore. Sin has no power over me. Christ set me free.

If you have sin in your life, if you are struggling with something, run to Christ. Turn from it and toward Him. He loves you. There is nothing you can bring it to Him that He can’t make new. Jesus didn’t die so we’d stay in bondage or trapped in constant guilt. Repentance is sweet. Surrender is freedom. For those who are in Christ, there is no condemnation (Romans 8:1). Jesus speaks a better word; you are not your past. And the only way you overcome it is in Him. “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).

There is so much joy in knowing I am loved and forgiven and free. The sin that used to keep me bound has no hold on me. I know no struggle I face is ever going to rule me or overcome me; Christ in me is greater. I’m not the same person I was; I’m redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

I am thankful for the grace God has given me.  I am thankful for Christ and what He did for me so I could be set free and forgiven, so I could know truly know His heart and know His love. I praise God that I can see myself through His eyes. Thank You Jesus for loving me. Thank You for doing what only You could do.

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” – Galatians 2:20

// April 9, 2014

"I hear those chains falling."

Heavy iron chains strained taut from the hard prison walls to cuffed wrists. The cuffs cut into his wrist as he strains, muscles and veins flexing across his arms as pulls, pulls, pulls.

I’m sick of this place. I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be like this.

It’s dark, his body is tired. He’s been trying for months to break the chains. Trying to slip his hands out only chaffed his wrists raw. Using his strength to weaken the links only weakened him, in the end. The struggle was constant, always met by failure, no matter how many times he tried. No matter how hard he pulled.

He could not get out.

But he had to.

I can’t be here any longer. I want out.

///

Many of us will strain and try and in vain never succeed breaking out of where we are at because we are striving in our own efforts. We are looking to our strength. We think we can figure it out. We think ‘if I just try harder’ maybe it will work eventually.

We may really not want to be there, but we can not get out of that place of being bound on our own.

It’s only when we realize that we need God can we be set free.

A prisoner can’t break chains or open jail doors.

But God can, and has.

He has mercy on us; He cares for those who are His; He has not forgotten or forsaken us. He is waiting for us to cry out to Him and say, “God, I need you. Come help. Come save me. I cant’ do it.”

Our hearts have to be humbled. Our eyes have to be opened. And that will never happen so long as we are fixed on our chains.

It’s only when we realize who God is and see what He is able to do that we are able to have true hope.

Your situation is not hopeless. In fact, what is hard for us is easy for God.

You may say to Him, “I’ve tried, it’s impossible. I can’t get free.”

He’ll say, “I can set you free.”

God is drawing us out of places we’ve been stuck, places we’ve been discouraged, places we can’t seem to move on from, places we are confined, places that something has a strong hold on us and we cannot break from it.

He is setting us free so we can have life. He is setting us free so we can be in the light. He is setting us free to a world of possibilities with Him. He is setting us free to pursue, and run after Him with joy and abandon.

There are things we all have allowed to hinder us and hold us back in our relationship with God. We can’t get closer to Him because they are keeping us in that place. We are bound by them. They are holding us back. And if we want to move toward Him, we have to let Him break us free of those things.

Sometimes we are holding on to things. We’ve held on so long, so tightly, we can’t be free of them until we truly believe letting go of them to move toward Christ is infinitely better. They have a hold on us, and only He can break it. Sometimes, we aren’y even aware we’re bound by something until we get sick of being stuck. Sometimes we are chained by things we don’t want to be, but in our flesh we continue to give into them- and we feel we have no power to be truly free.

These bounds and chains keep us because we are believing a lie; the only reason they have any power is because we let them. Every sin begins with a lie we believed and we become deceived. We allow ourselves to think it’s not that harmful, we develop a lax attitude toward sin, we forgot that sin ends in death, that the flesh reaps destruction, that evil does not produce any good. We give in to the easy thing instead of resisting for what God says is better. It’s only once we start experiencing that the sin we chose was in fact only momentarily pleasing to our flesh and later destructive that we realize we don’t want the consequences. We don’t want to be here. But we can’t get out.

Jesus said in John 8:31-32, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

The truth of God’s Word is what sets us free. His Word has power.

Hebrews 4:12 says that the word of God is living and active. It’s sharper than any two-edged sword. It is piercing, dividing the soul and spirit and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

The truth shows you what is true and what is not. When that division is made, all we have to do is believe it.

For the Word to have power, we have to hear it. This is because “faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” The Word we need to know most is about who Jesus is. And then we need to put our faith in Him.

Jesus Christ is the Truth (John 14:6). We need to know Him. God has more for us. He created us for a purpose, and He loves us and wants relationship with us. He doesn’t want anything to come in the way of that. He came to set us free (Galatians 5:1) so we can be close to Him and live life fully in His life. We no longer have to live suffering,brokenness, pain, torment, or defeat. We don’t have to despair about things in our lives so much that we would rather die than live because we are hurting so much and see no hope.

Jesus says, ‘I have the power to heal you, restore the brokenness, redeem what seems lost; I see value in you, I see treasure hidden in your heart that can bless people. You are a unique gift in the way you are made, and you have worth. I created you for good things. I will wash all this away, I will set you free, and I will lead you to new things. I can give you true joy. I know your heart and I can satisfy every longing inside it. You will never be alone, you will never be abandoned, and I will protect you.”

He has so much He wants to speak to us and show us if we just stop focusing on how strong our binds are and see how great and loving He is. He is a big God. He is powerful.

No matter how you got in that place, God can set you free. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were physically in prison. They looked to God, praying and singing to Him. God responded.

The power of God will set you free. It’s not by our might, or our strength, it is by His Spirit (Zechariah 4:6).

Nothing -and I mean nothing- is impossible for Him. We just have to trust Him that letting go of our binds -those things that hold us back from Him, from all He has for us- and leaving where we are is the best thing we can do.  No longer settle for less. Jesus is everything you need.

God will allow us to get to that place of desperation so we will cry out to Him. So we give up trying to do things in our own strength and finally realize we need Him.

If your heart is willing, God is able. It’s not complicated. It’s not hard. It’s simple. Just look to Christ, see who He is, and believe He is able. Then ask Him. Ask Him to set you free, and His Holy Spirit will the work.

Just ask Jesus. He will do it.

///

“Jesus, I need you. Break these chains. I want to be free. I know you can do this by Your Spirit. I want to pursue You.”

The chains fell to the floor at his feet in a rush, the shackles fell off his wrists- they felt bare, strange, gloriously naked.

He was free.

The door swung open, and light warmed his face. He closed his eyes, felt alive for the first time in so long.

He walked out, a joy in his heart that he could not contain.

I can live. I am free.