Strip Everything Away

A phrase keeps coming to mind these past few weeks, "Strip Everything Away."  At first I wasn't quite sure what God was trying to tell me, until this morning.  This morning, I sat at my desk, and I felt like God asked me to write out all the lies that filled my head and my heart.  I took out my notebook and before I knew it I had half a page of lies and fears that I was battling day-to-day.

We all have those lies that creep into our head, they start with:
"you will never..."
"you are not..."
"you are this..."
"this will never..."
and they end with whatever lie you are battling that day.

I'm sure you have already thought through about 5 or 6 lies of your own.  The lies creep into our head and somehow make their way to our hearts and before we know it, we have built our days, our weeks, our years, and sometimes our lives surrounded by the constant lies of fear, defeat, believing we are not worthy.  We have formed our identities and based our futures on the lies we have chosen to believe, whether we realize it or not.

We are God's masterpieces, created with purpose, created with passion. The very things that the lies attack--our identities, our talents, our dreams, our future are the truths that God created you with.
Those deep longings, desires, passions, and interests that are deep in your heart were placed inside of you by the Creator Himself.  God formed you in the womb, before you were even born, He had a purpose and a path for you.  Somewhere along that path a lie was spoken over you, and you believed it--You held onto that lie, and you started shaping your identity around the lie instead of the truth.

God created you with truth, Satan longs to destroy you with a lie.  
God's truth inspires, Satan's lie defeats.

Are you living a life that is inspired or that is defeated?
Its time to re-evaluate what shapes your decisions, your self-worth, your purpose.
It's time to strip EVERYTHING away.
God's truth will never fade--He carries it out until completion.
Its time to strip away the lies, you've been held back long enough.

You have purpose.  You were created with purpose. 
You are the enemies greatest threat. 
It's time to make him nervous with all you can do when you stop believing the lies.

Good is not Always God

I find myself consumed with busyness--I make a list in order to simplify and yet everything on that list is good, nothing stands out as, "Ah-Ha--this is it!" I keep thinking if I just write everything out that somewhere down the list I will see the big bold thing that is causing all the stress and exhaustion in my life; instead, I see a list full of good things.
It goes against our nature to stop or to take a break from what is good; usually if it is what the world deems good, we then set out to consume ourselves even more with it.  Have you ever stopped to think though that maybe all the sickness, stress, worry, fear, exhaustion, and burn out is not caused by something bad in our lives but perhaps by something "good" in our life?

It is time to reevaluate, reconsider, and reprogram our brains to not go by a standard of good but of God.

What has God called you to?  What has God filled you with?  What does God want for your life?
There are plenty of good people in the world but that does not mean that they are saved by God. Why do we then assume that just because something is good or beneficial that it means it is from God or what God wants for our lives. Its time to take out that list, pray over all that fills the page, and ask God to separate what is good from what is of God.

I don't want to be filled by weariness. I want to be consumed by wonder.

Good is not always God.

Your Hallelujah

There are those words that seem to capture much more then just their few letters.  The word Hallelujah to me has always been a powerful word.  It is always the word that comes to mind to me when my heart is heavy, when my cries are loud, but when my desire to be in God's presence is strong.  The word Hallelujah somehow takes what I can't say, what I can't feel, and what I can't see and it tells God simply...I know you are God and I am not.  When you don't have words, when emotions blind your vision, when your strength is failing in the midst of your greatest battle...cry out to God in Hallelujah because your day of triumph is near.

Wait with Strength

Be Still with Purpose

Your Heart's Cries are Heard

No Tear Falls Without Notice

Your Day of Triumph is Near

So Lift Up Those Weary Arms

Let Your Cries Be Hallelujahs

Your God is Near

Hallelujah-- We Sing of Your Great Strength

Hallelujah-- We Cry Out Your Praise

Hallelujah-- We Draw Our Hearts to You

I Will Wait

I Will Be Still

I Will Draw Near

You are my Hallelujah

You are my Strength

You are my Purpose

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

My Heart is Yours

Draw Me Near--I Wait for You

You are my Hallelujah

Hold on to Hope

Tomorrow's Hope is Today's Healing for Yesterday's Hurts.

Your Hope is His Healing

Your Promise is His Purpose

May your life be a testimony of the Hope you hold and the lies you let go.

Empowered by His Presence

I have found that worship is not just us singing praises to a deserving God—I have found that worship is God pouring His love back into our undeserving hearts.

In our brokenness we long to be filled but yet it is so hard for us to surrender. Our own pride keeps us from the healing that our souls long for.  We over complicate such a simple process—one name has the power to move mountains, to make demons run and flee;  yet we are the ones that believe more in the power of our emotions then in the power of the name of Jesus.

God does not keep His power to Himself, He empowers His people. 

I think many of us have grown up with the misconception that God is selfish, that He is unfair, that He is waiting to judge us and hold us back.  When we enter into worship with that mindset, we hold our hearts back, we hold onto our brokenness, and we refuse to surrender ourselves to Him.  Oh, how I long for you to truly understand the love of God, the love He has for you, the passion that stirs in His heart for you.  He longs for your complete surrender because it is then that He can completely fill you with His power and His presence—it is then and only then that He can break the chains of brokenness within you.  He has dreams for you, He has plans for you, He believes in you. 

“Whispers can sometimes turn into shouts, that turn into cries, that turn into prayers, that turn into songs that the whole world will sing.” –Steggany Frizzell Gretzinger (Bethel Music)

Our songs of worship are songs that begin as deep struggles or battles.  We cry out the name of Jesus, we cry out in surrender.  As our hearts pour out, as our cries scream out, the ballad begins to build and God’s power and faithfulness pour out of our mouths—His power becomes our anthem.  

Worship is our heart’s surrender.   You weren’t meant to hold on to your hurts, to your burdens, to your pains—you were meant to turn them into a song of hope; a song that nations to come can sing and know that your God never left you or forsake you.

You have a God that longs to hear your song, who longs to hold your heart. 
You have a God that longs for your worship because He longs to empower you with His presence.

Sing out, cry out, pour out your heart—

let your brokenness be a melody 

that turns into an anthem of God’s unfailing love for you.