Getting my stride back with God is all, folks. Vanity of vanities is a life lived after my own ways. God’s way is so so much better.

Currently in a season where I’m learning to fight the want of man’s acceptance while learning to embrace the need of God’s approval.

God is closer than the distance your shame makes Him out to be.

You have tasted of and you have seen the Lord’s goodness. Why would you ever wanna go back?

hi ur post back in january about being ‘comfortable in ur sin’ really spoke to me. it’s exactly how i feel about myself right now. i’m terrible. i hope you’re doing alright and doing well in your relationship with God. getting closer to christ everyday. God bless u sis. <3

Hey, I appreciate you taking the time to reach out and I’m glad my words could minister to you 💫 I know exactly what you’re feeling. It’s crazy because to think back at my past self— the season where I’d first gotten saved— all i wanted was Jesus. All i could talk about was Jesus. All i could think about was Jesus. I wanted to be in His presence ALL of the time and wanted nothing else but to be with Him. And I look at where I am now, like, God… what happened..? How did I end up here? My spirit longs for Him and it cries out to Him every single day, but it’s my flesh that succeeds. And it really comes down to holding myself accountable. I’m not where I am now because He changed. I’m here because I changed. Somewhere along the way, i entertained something. I don’t know really what that something is, but I know I let my guard down with some sort of distraction. It’s the distractions that really kill our faith. And it doesn’t take long for a distraction to become an idol. And I believe that’s what the issue boils down to and the question stands: what have I been putting before God? I’m not exactly where I want to be still, but I’ve matured a bit more in my faith since January <3 I still fall and struggle with feelings of condemnation, but I have to continue to seek the Lord. Sometimes that feels I’m fighting to break through an entanglement of thorny vines with this flesh. But the scripture that has really kicked me in the butt here lately as a wake up call is the one where Jesus tells His disciple that many are called, but few are chosen. And if the righteous scarcely be saved, I wanna make sure that I’m doing all that I can on my part to please God. Faith is all that it takes to please God, but it shouldn’t be a stationary faith. Living and active faith should be constantly moving us towards God because faith without works is dead.

Tomoko M

The light that God has given you should be a light that is approachable and that draws people near like a lighthouse for the lost— not a harsh like that people avoid like drivers who constantly have their high beams/brights on.

Matthew 9:10-13 | KJV

10 And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.

11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?

12 But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.

13 But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

What are we doing? Really, church. What are we doing? We are the salt of the earth, but what good is salt if it's lost its savor? Why have we gone back to the snares that God once delivered us from? Why have we turned back to the sin that Jesus already freed us from? We've placed our candles underneath bushels in hopes of avoiding persecution. Our spirit has grown deprived while our flesh is yet to still be satisfied. We've been filled with everything but the Spirit and lulled to sleep in the comfort of our own sin. We are the light of the world, saints. It's time that we start walking in this truth.

Diana Kuznetsova

I need you, Jesus. I need you like how I needed you the day that I first found you.

I am an imperfect mess perfected by God

God, I really am tired of constantly feeling like I have to fit the the various molds of everyone's assumptions, expectations, and ideas of me. I just want to be free to be me and it's been really hard to do that when it seems that I've been placed on this high pedal stool that I never asked to be set on. I'm equally as human as my neighbor, yet when I fall short, I'm judged extra by the world because of my faith.

I know that there are things I need to work on and allow you to rid me of, and it bothers me that I’m viewed as this perfect, sinless, and innocent girl. I struggle with sin just as much as anyone else and desperately need your grace and mercy every single second of the day.

Help me to be raw, authentic, real, and as open as I need to be so that I can better relate to those around me. Where there be flaws in me, let them be seen in hopes of connecting with the lost that they may be saved. Whatever image has been painted in the minds of my peers, let it be destroyed and recreated by you.

I get that not everyone will like or accept me, and I just ask that you would help me to be okay with that. my only hope is that when people see me, they see you. Forgive me for falsely displaying your character as well as misinterpreting who you are to the world. As I decrease, Lord, I ask that you increase in me. Have your way in me, God. My life is yours.

No matter what season I may find myself in—

In the valley, low

Or on the mountain, high,

The Lord will be with me there.

And suddenly, I found myself watching sunrises again.

Romans 9

I thank God that He doesn't call us because our self-righteousness. I'm thankful that He hasn’t left it to our good deeds to determine His mercy toward us because I have done no good thing. Unworthy and undeserving of His goodness, yet He’s called me according to His own purposes. It's God who decides to show mercy, and we can never choose it or do anything to work for it. From the womb when I had done no good, when I could do no evil, I was called, I was chosen, I was loved.

Romans 9:10-12 | NLT

10 This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins.

11 But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes;

12 he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.”