Category: 2018 Goals

The Grand Equation: 5 Steps to Finding Peace – God’s Formula for Balancing Out the Equation of Your Life #5StepstoFindingPeace

Do you sometimes feel like your life is out of balance, like there’s something missing?
Does it seem that no matter what you do, things just don’t “add up”?
Would you like to know how you can find that balance and peace in your life?
My friend, there is a way. But are you really seeing the greater picture, or just going by what you can see immediately around you, as it applies to you?
Stay with me here, this gets really good. I know it has helped me. I know this because I have lived it, and found out most of it the hard way. I am currently 52 years old, soon to be 53, and I can honestly say, when you reach this pinnacle on the journey through life, you want to share the wisdom you’ve gained (most of it the hard way if you’re like me) with others, and hopefully maybe prevent someone else from taking the same falls in life you have.
Isaiah 40:31 is a powerful verse that has guided me through some of the rockiest, toughest roads of my life. It reminds us to see that greater picture through the eyes of the eagle:
“But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.”
We all go through hurt in this life. Most of us can relate to going through these painful times in our life. People you thought you could trust “stab you in the back”, reject you, judge you without getting the facts. Old unforgiven hurts and grudges. People who have written you off a long time ago. So how do you ever find peace despite it all?
1. Look at the Bigger Picture…From the Greater Perspective of Our Creator
The answer is simple. But you must first understand that you need to look at it from the proper perspective. As humans, we only see what is immediately around us. However, the eagle sees all that is on the ground below. If we pray for God to help us “mount up with wings as eagles” as the above scripture promises we can, then we see the picture through the eyes of that eagle, or closer to God’s perspective, seeing the whole picture.
Whether we want to admit it or not, we tend to see ourselves in the middle of our little “circle of life”, envisioning everyone else and everything in life rotating around us. But in reality, we are not seeing the full picture. It is our Heavenly Father, our Creator, Who sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to save us by His grace, which we didn’t even deserve, Who belongs in the middle of that circle. So, the first thing each of us must do is put Him back in the center of our lives, and stop making it about ourselves.
Hey, I am talking to myself here too, friends. I went through years of heartache, dysfunction, and disappointment, because of the bad choices I made early in my life. I’ve also gone through a lot of undue stress and wasted precious time I cannot get back before I could ever get it through my head that it wasn’t all about me.
But what about all those hurtful situations that we find ourselves going through that we feel we didn’t even deserve? How do we forgive those who have hurt us deeply for no good reason, or treated us unfairly?
2. Forgive, Let Go, and Let God…
Well, first, we forgive them with the same grace Christ was willing to forgive us of our own sin. (See Matthew 6:14-15, Mark 11:25, among others).
Romans 12:19 boldly emphasizes this: “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”
He sees that bigger picture a whole lot better than we do, and He sees the hearts. Nothing is hidden from Him and nothing surprises Him. Besides, we never know that when we show them the love of Christ and forgive, it might just touch their hearts and win them over to Him. When we insist on being angry and getting our own vengeance, we rob Him of that.
Once we see it all from His Grander Perspective and forgive, this closes the door to the enemy being able to further use it to control us, and it opens the door for our loving Heavenly Father to work it to our advantage (see Romans 8:28, Galatians 6:9). Then, we apply a simple formula, which I will share with you here. For that, we’re gonna do some math.
I heard those groans! I know, math was never my best subject either, but this is a simple and time-tested process. I know because I have already been tested on it, so now, I am sharing it with you because I know it will work for you just as it has for me…
I have a chapter in my upcoming book, “CPR For Your Faith From Beyond Death’s Door”, called, “God’s Mathematics”…If the “equation” of your life isn’t “balancing out”, try what He has told me (and it won’t, until you do this, trust me, no better yet, trust Him)…
3. Take yourself OUT of the equation.– Hey, I know that’s hard, believe me, it was for me. But like I said, in order for this to work, we each and every one have to get this through our stubborn, human heads…it’s not about us. It’s about Him, and what He did for us. It’s also about what is available to us, if we are only willing to believe, trust Him, and put Him back in control. This means total surrender from all the “I deserve, I shoulda, I coulda, I woulda, I’m gonna…”
Let. It. Go. This is the only way it can work. It represents total surrender to Him, the only One Who can save us…even if it means saving us from ourselves first. Trust me when I say, I went through this one “kicking and screaming” – okay, not literally. 😉
4. Put Him (Jesus, our Lord and Savior) in all the places you’ve been putting yourself.
Then…and only then…will it finally start to balance out. Trust me. It works.
For a long time, I held on to resentment, bitterness, anger, unforgiveness, and the longer I held on to it, the longer I kept making it about “what I felt I should have been entitled to”, what I deserved, ya da ya da… I wasted a lot of time trying to figure it all out myself. It wasn’t until I let all of that go, and turned it all over to Him, and did just what He’d told me, that it all began to work out, and I began to finally have peace.
Now, for no. 5…
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5. Put down the pencil. – That’s right, just give Him the “pencil”!
After all, HE ALREADY HAD YOU FIGURED INTO THE EQUATION – long before you or I were even born. We need only turn to His Word for proof of this…
  • Genesis 15:5 – “And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.”
  • Galatians 3:8-9 – “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.”
  • Galatians 3:29 – “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
  • Matthew 10:30 – “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”
  • Luke 12:7 – “But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.”
  • Matthew 6:26-27 – “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?”
  • Matthew 6:33 – “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

And this one, which speaks for itself, as all of God’s Word does…

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  • Psalm 139:13-16 – “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.”
The Grand Equation…
Too many times, the hurt, damaged self esteem, and feelings of worthlessness we have suffered at the hands of others leaves us damaged in ways that have left us unable to trust our Heavenly Father, Who only wants the best for us, and created us with His perfect plan in mind for each of us.
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Only He sees the grand equation of the plan He had for our lives, fully balanced out, with all the factors in place, blessings He had originally intended for us, many of which we often forfeit when we insist on being in control and doing things our way. Far too often, we grieve His Spirit when we do this, and we hinder, or delay His ultimate plan for us.
Jeremiah 29:11 “sums” it up best: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” – KJV
The New King James Version renders it this way: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
In truth, it is only in finally letting go, releasing it all to Him, turning the “pencil” over to Him, and trusting Him to balance it all out, in His perfect, all-knowing, all-seeing way, as He sees fit, that we will finally begin to see that we are already a part of a far grander equation than we could have ever dreamed possible. We only see one page, of the greater “book” that He sees, the “bestseller” He penned, with you as the main character, long before you were even born. 
If you know someone who needs this word of encouragement, please share via the buttons below! And don’t forget to subscribe to my email, via the tab above so you can receive email notifications of my book, “CPR For Your Faith From Beyond Death’s Door”, coming soon, as well as future book releases. 

Stumbling Stones or Stepping Stones: Is There a Book Stuck Inside You? #writeyourbook #whatsyourstory?

Write that book
What’s YOUR story? What’s holding you back?

Could God be calling YOU to write a book and tell your story? The truth is, God is no respecter of persons (see Acts 10:34 & Romans 2:11), and what He has done for one, He will do for another. If you have a testimony of a traumatic event or trying situation God has delivered you from, then it is now your testimony! What have you learned from it? How could the wisdom and strength you’ve gained from it help others? Here are some Bible verses about letting God use our testimony to help others.

Is writing a book one of your goals? If not, maybe it should be. Maybe like a lot of folks, you have been walking around with a book stuck inside of you, you just haven’t known how to go about writing it. Or if you are like many I’ve talked to, you may not even realize you have a story that needs to be told. In truth, I think a lot of people are in that last category. I know I was for a long time.

In too many cases, I think it is too easy for us to allow the devil to convince us that we are useless, that whatever it is that happened to us has destroyed us to the point that there is no way possible that we can ever be any good to others. So, the reality is, there are a lot of people walking around feeling lost, defeated, and useless, but this could not be farther from the truth, when in fact, their stories could help others. All we have to do is surrender it all to Jesus, the “Author and finisher of our faith” (See Hebrews 12:1-2, this of course, is put in better context if you read the 11th chapter, what has been referred to as the faith chapter.)

He is able to take what the devil meant to use to destroy us, and make it into our testimony. This is something I get into more in my upcoming book, “CPR For Your Faith From Beyond Death’s Door”, which will have my testimony of my Near Death Experience in a very traumatic automobile accident in November 1985. Click here for more on this. Be sure to subscribe if you want to know when it comes out!

Stumbling Stone or Stepping Stone?

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Pic taken on a trip to Cherokee, NC in 2012. Are you going to be a “rock” in your own path, or the water that goes around it?

So, what about you? Have you been through a traumatic experience? Do you want to learn more about how God can use your story to help others? Are you ready to learn how you can surrender it all to Christ and let Him turn it into a dynamic and powerful testimony to be used for His glory? Whatever it is that happened to you, you can either let it continue to be a stumbling stone, or give it to Him and let Him turn it into a stepping stone, one that will lead to greater paths as you pursue your destiny. The above picture was taken on a trip I took to Cherokee, NC in, I believe it was May, 2012. I was at a very low point in my life. I stayed at the Dancing Stones Cabin. I needed to just get away from it all, and desperately needed some “Me and God” time. When I first saw it online, it was like I felt the place was calling me.

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On the back porch of the Dancing Stones Cabin, where I “had coffee with God”.

That last morning, as I sat out there on the porch, sipping my coffee and just being in His presence, one of the things He said to me was, “The water in the river, when it comes to a rock, does not stop and wait for the rock to move. It simply goes around the rock and continues on its merry way. Are you going to be a rock in your own path, or are you going to be the water that goes around the rock?” I sat there and thought about what He had said, and later went down to spend a few moments by the river. Now, when I look at the above picture, I think about those words He said to me that morning, and how long I was a “rock in my own path”, allowing the devil to use all that had happened to me to “cripple” me spiritually. I had allowed it all to be a stumbling stone, but now, through God’s grace, it has now been turned into a stepping stone.

Perhaps you are more the type to write fiction. In truth, I think it is possible to write life-changing, thought provoking fictional stories that will truly inspire others. The important thing to remember here is, don’t just get caught up in writing what the world wants to read, what will get you a place on the New York Times Best Seller List. Okay, yes, that would be nice. But Paul reminds us in Philippians 2:3 to “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit”. Trust me. I was that person for too long, and that is where my main motive with my writing was. Now, I understand more, why God led me to that verse again and again, until it finally started to sink in, just what He was trying to tell me. It is no longer enough for me to just write what I think will hit the best seller lists, but to write what He gives me, the message, or the stories that He has put in my heart, as He has guided me through the experiences of my life, the wisdom I have gained in my walk with Him. The truth is, it is far too easy these days, to go with what the rest of the world is doing, and too easy to allow that “selfish ambition” to take over and be our main motivation. For me, the rewards of serving Him will be far greater than any best seller status could ever offer, and much greater than anything the world has to offer.

For more on how to write a book, here is a simple guide from bestselling author, Jerry Jenkins. Here is another helpful post by Joanna Penn on her website/blog for writers, The Creative Penn. She also has a course she is offering, scroll down toward the bottom of the page to see it, along with tons of helpful articles she’s posted, and resources to help you get started. A simple Google search will reveal other courses on how to write your novel, many of them free, and by bestselling authors.

As I have said earlier, I have mainly taken the self publishing route up until now, but I have my reasons for it, as my first two books aren’t in popular genres, but my husband and I are very excited about what God is going to do with my latest projects. Here are a couple of earlier posts I did recently, in a little “mini series,” Book Writing for Procrastinators, Part 1 and Part 2, which are loaded with tips and links to more helpful resources from a few of my friends in the writing field who have helped to pave the way for others.

Book Writing for Procrastinators… 8 Ways to Learn from the Pros, Get Started, and Write that Best Seller! #writingtipsfornewbies

Book Writing for Procrastinators, Part 2: Overcoming Distractions & Mind Blocks #WhatsYourStory #WritersHelpingWriters

I think you will find these exciting to get into and explore. After all, I am only one writer helping others, shining my light for Him in whatever way I can to help others, and do all I can to make sure that no one I may pass by goes through their life with a story trapped inside of them.

I have learned from my mistakes. I chose to surrender it all to Jesus, and let Him take my “stumbling stones” and turn them into “stepping stones” that will lead to the greater path of being the best I can be, through Him (Philippians 4:13), and helping others along the way, to be the best they can be too. I hope you will be one of them!

So, what’s YOUR story? The world is waiting!