Encouraged by God's Word

Archive for the ‘Overcoming’ Category

Hello Family,

The great poet Maya Angelou wrote a poem titled Still I Rise and there are a lot of people that I know who love it. As a matter of fact, some of them love it so much they know it by heart.

It’s very inspirational and every time I heard someone recite it, it motivated me.

The poem is about being bold. It’s moving and it’s emotional. It’s powerful, beautiful and wonderful all wrapped up into one.

Some parts of the poem talk about struggling and being down…

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

But later in the poem she writes…

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise

Maya Angelou talks about being broken and weary but later on proclaims victory while referring to leaving behind dark circumstances.

She also proclaims victory many times throughout the poem when she says, “but still…I’ll rise” or “I rise”.

Even though Maya Angelou had some profound words about how to rise above your dark situations, I recently read a bible verse that shows that God also had something to say about the matter many, many, MANY years before Ms. Angelou wrote her famous poem.

Micah 7:8 says Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; when I fall, I will arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.

If you are a child of God you will rise no matter what because our heavenly Father will not let His children be defeated. The enemy has no authority over us so we don’t have to fear him or his tactics. And even when we fall, we will soon arise.

Darkness is not a threat for us either. It may seem as though we don’t know which way to go or we can’t see the vision clearly, our God will be a light for us. He will be our guide. He will direct us and lead us through all of our trials and tribulations.

If we do what we are called to do then we have God’s blessed assurance of prosperity and victory but we must remove sin from our lives. We can’t let that be a barrier to God’s light shining on our lives.

So remember when you fall, trust in God and know for sure that you will arise.

Be Encouraged and Have a Blessed Weekend!

P.S. Please leave a comment on this message and let me know about anytime when you had to rise up. Also, make sure you share this with you family and friends on Facebook and Twitter.

Hello Family,

On Sunday, March 21^st I celebrated the 3^rd anniversary of my 40^th birthday. For those who are a little confused, I turned 43.

A friend of mine sent me an email to tell me happy birthday and I replied to her that I thanked God for another year instead of complaining about getting older like most people do.

She was right in tune with me because she also thanks God everyday she wakes up. My friend is now a 6 year breast cancer survivor but in spite of her past victories, she got some news 2 weeks ago that they detected cancer on her brain.

This was on a Saturday. On Sunday, she went to the alter and “LEFT IT THERE”. By that Wednesday, and three doctors later, she was told “We’re baffled because there is no apparent evidence of cancer and we have to run more tests and refer you somewhere else.” 

Although my friend had a lot to deal with, she wasn’t going to let it burden her down. She knew that there was very little she could do so she turned it over to our God who is more than able.

There’s more, she just lost a friend to pancreatic cancer on February 28^th of this year but in spite of all that she has gone through and is going through, her head is still held high and she emailed me that she is “so happy to be a child of God, covered in His blood!!”

Psalm 55:22 says Cast your burden on the LORD, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.

My friend is not worried about the outcome because she’s not carrying that load around. She left it for God to handle and she knows that He is more than able to heal her body. Why, because He has done it before.

She knows that God will sustain her. She knows that He will give her support and relief when she needs it.

God has shown Himself strong and has sustained her in the past because she didn’t try to solve the problem. She let it go and let God do His thing.

You see you can’t be heavy laden when there is no heavy stuff weighing you down. You must travel light and leave all of that baggage behind for God to deal with. His arms are much stronger than yours and more than capable of handling the load.

Be Encouraged and Have a Great Weekend!

Hello Friends,

There is a saying people use when trying to tackle a task that is humongous. It goes, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

It basically means that you have to break down your major task into smaller, manageable ones in order to accomplish the big one.

Here’s another one for you, “How do you overcome sin? One day at a time.” Yes, there are some sins that we deal with that are big and we need to break it down and deal with it on a daily basis.

How many times have you said, “I’m not going to EVER do that again” and before you know it, you did it again? It’s not that you didn’t want to sustain from sin, you just went about it the wrong way.

Sometimes we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to overcome sins that we have been dealing with for years. We think that if we say we’re done with it, that’s it. No more struggles. No more temptations. No more lures.

But if we’ve been doing something for the past 30 years, don’t you think it may be a little difficult to overcome it immediately? Now there are some instances where God completely removes the desire to sin from our hearts but that’s not always the case. Sometimes we have to work hard to overcome the sin.

Sometimes we need to really assess our struggles and take on the challenge of overcoming them one day at a time. We need to break it down into “bite size” portions in order to beat it.

2 Timothy 2:22 says Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

When overcoming sin, sometimes we just need to escape those foolish, childish things that tempt us. We need to get up and run from the things that make us weak.

Whatever we desire that causes us to sin, we need to consciously tell ourselves everyday to leave it alone and stay away from it.

And as we’re fleeing sin, we need to pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace; the things that God adores. If we do that on a consistent basis, we won’t have the mindset to do the things that cause us to sin.

So the next time you struggle with a sin that is major in your life, don’t worry about trying to overcome it for the rest of your life, just try to tackle it one day at a time.

It’s a cinch by the inch but hard by the yard.

Be Encouraged and Have a Great Day!

Hello Friends,

Have you ever had a person go out of their way to try to get you upset? Those of us who work with kids see it a lot. Every now and then they do things that they assume will make us mad.

For instance, if I tell someone that their behavior is unacceptable and could get them in trouble, they intentionally misbehave just to get me upset. But what they don’t realize is I DON’T CARE.

Now I really do care about all of the youth I work with and I do care about their well being but they can’t make me upset because they don’t want to do what they’re supposed to do. They think they’re hurting me by being disobedient. It’s not hurting me, it’s hurting them and they don’t fully understand that.

When I go to sleep at night I’m not stressed over the fact that a young person is not working hard to better themselves. I really don’t loose any sleep over it because if I took on that position, all of my nights would be sleepless because there is always someone out there not doing what they’re supposed to do.

The peace I have at night is not contingent upon those around me. I don’t have peace based on what people say or do to me or how they treat me.

The source of my peace is much deeper than that.

John 16:33 says These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

In life you will experience a lot of suffering, pain and stress. People and things of the world are non reliable and can cause us tribulations. But in God you can experience peace amongst all the turmoil.

God wants us to know that no matter how bad things are, if we abide in Him, He will provide us the peace to make it through. We may still need to go through the tribulation but instead of us losing our minds, acting like fools and being defeated we will come through as conquerors.

We will conquer oppressive thoughts, fears and emotions. We will conquer bad habits. We will conquer destructive behaviors.

So whenever you experience some tribulation in your life, cheer up and know that God has overcome the world for you and if you trust in Him, you will become a over comer as well.

Be Encouraged and Have a Great Day!

Hello Friends,

At times we all face ch

allenges in our life and many times we just want to throw in the towel. We feel overburdened with all that we are going through and it just doesn’t seem worth the effort.

Your struggles are so bad that when you hear about others who are going through their struggles, it’s hard for you to be concerned about them because you’re trying to maintain yourself. You don’t want to be selfish it’s just that it’s hard for you to give of yourself when you don’t have much of you left to give.

You feel beat up, broken down, depressed, stressed and whipped. All you want to do is quit and stop fighting. You want to give up.

Giving up is so tempting because it’s easy but we must realize that God did not design us to be quitters. He designed us to be able to accomplish everything we put our minds to.

Philippians 4:13 says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

God says that with Him we can do everything. Nothing is impossible if we depend on Him.

1 Corinthians 15:58 says Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Continue to press on, be persistent and be consistent in the things of God. Know that there is a purpose to everything that you do.

Psalm 46:1 says God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Whatever your problem is, God is your protection and He is your place of safety. He is the force that is there to help you overcome. He is ALWAYS there for you.

Isaiah 40:29 says He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength.

When you are feeling weak and fragile, God will give you strength to make it. Your power to make it comes from Him and not from yourself.

So no matter what you’re facing, you can make it. You can overcome with the power of God. Don’t quit, don’t stop, don’t concede, don’t give in, don’t forfeit…

Don’t Give Up!

Be Encouraged and Have a Great Day!