Sweet Release

In a world where I devour and crave things, I look around at a life that is overflowing with clothes, bags, and electronics but not enough of Christ. I stuff the space around me with things that are pleasing to the senses, but shy away from those spiritual tools that will strengthen, sharpen, and place me closer to Christ. I cram minutes of the day with Facebook scrolls and email checks, satisfying nothing but the flesh that covers my hungry soul.

In a world where I have plenty my soul lacks, because I give in to the temptation of my flesh. The world is never enough, and my laziness consumes me. Enticing me to inhabit a space that is comforting, but produces no growth.

In a world where I have plenty, people around me lack. Lack the resources, knowledge, and necessities of life.  Lack the encouragement, hugs, and prayers needed in order to move in the right direction.

In a world where I have plenty, others should have plenty. Christ came to give, and that same spirit lives within me.  A spirit that is begging to be let out of the chains that holds it captive. Begging to be released and showered upon the world around me, knowing that joy upon joy will be packed upon me with its release (Proverbs 11:24).  Joy that this world cannot give nor can it take away without my permission.

Joy that comes with a simple release and a surrendered life. A life that is attached to the movement of Christ, wherever He goes my heart, my resources, and my life should follow. 

A surrendered life that seems scary and produces worry when standing with the world. Causing me to hesitate when Christ says a generous person will prosper (Proverbs 11:25), and that my barns and vats will be overflowing and brim over with new wine (Proverbs 3: 9,10).  A surrendered life that seems like I would be falling into the depths of the Grand Canyon with no comforts, no joy or peace.

But Christ is whispering that it won’t be like that. Yes I will have to take a leap of faith, but he’ll be there to catch me. He will be there to inject his joy and peace in the holes that the world and my flesh created.  He’ll be there to lavish me with his love and produce a world that is bursting with his presence. His presence that will never leave me nor forsake me. His presence that will go with me to the ends of the earth, and will wrap me up in his bosom.

A surrendered life. A sweet release.

Gosh I don’t know if you’re struggling like me, or if the Lord is tugging on your heart. But let us be open to what he has for us. He wants more for us. He wants eternity. We can receive some of what he has for us, or we can enter into a life that is overflowing with his goodness. Use some time today to rest in his presence. Open up your heart and take in what he is telling you. Most importantly ask that he would give you an obedient heart and you would say yes to whatever he is telling you to do. Gosh it’s scary. I know. It’s hard. I know. But let us begin to trust God with our life. He hasn’t failed us yet.

What is Christ asking for you to release?

Photo: Mine

Pray sisters. Pray like your heart depends on it (because it does).

I’m praying for you, please pray for me.

If you need specific prayer please send requests to chnlprpst10@gmail.com or pursuedcharlotte@gmail.com

Sweet Mornings

This morning I was woken out of my sleep around 6:58 am, by the incessant alarm of my carbon monoxide detector. The sound prompted me to figure out what was causing the alarm: the battery needing to be changed or truly carbon monoxide. As I proceeded to call the necessary people to ensure that my apartment was free of poisonous gases I headed outside on the balcony.

 The sun was just coloring the horizon and spreading warmth across the city, slowly easing out the lingering coolness. The air was still and full of silence, being pierced here or there with the rumble of a car engine or the delicate chirping of bird. Morning was slowly emerging from the darkness of night and was tranquil yet expectant of what was to come. Creating wide-open spaces, ready to capture whatever might spill from my lips or the thoughts of my heart.

Although my body wished I were still snuggled inside of my bed in the comfort of my cozy apartment, the spirit within knew that a morning of stillness was the “coffee” I needed to energize my day. Mornings of stillness give me space and more importantly time to commune with God. To ask God to help #getmylife before the world attempts to knock me off course and drag me into territories I wasn’t meant for. It’s a time where I can level set and begin the process of tearing down my flesh by slipping on the word.

 

My view midmorning 

Morning: a time for some that is full of grogginess and bouts of sleepiness, is time of meditation and spiritual awakening for me. A time where life’s anxieties and worries aren’t crowding my mind and I can breathe out my thankfulness and draw in the presence of God.

When is your "morning"?

What time do you have throughout the day where you can awaken spiritually and escape from the noise of the world? Is it on your back porch when the sky is encrusted with twinkling lights and crickets create a steady background rhythm? Is it your mid-day run or walk where your eyes can drink in the beauties that blanket the grounds and clutter the sky? Or maybe it’s in the afternoon while resting in a quaint coffee shop swollen with rich aromas.

I encourage you to find that time whenever it is, and protect it. Guard it; ensure that you spend that time with God. He desires to communicate with you, and he cant do that unless its you make time for him.

I've stepped away

I’ve stepped away…

Stepped away from the pad and the pencil that I used to sketch the details of my future

Details that when reviewed look like mere stick figures compared to the intricate work my Savior has created

His breath has created lasting brushstrokes sweeping colorful hues across the years of my life

Hues that can only come from heaven’s paintbrush

A paintbrush where vibrant colors drip into the days, weeks, and years of my life

Dripping into the crevices that I thought would never see color, never see light

But now has been stained with God’s beauty

A beauty mark that will never fade, never diminish

And I’m left captivated

Captivated by where his hands can take me, and the light that floods my eyes

Purging me of old habits and thoughts that once held me captive

And I’m set free

Free to love God’s way

Free to see God’s way

Free to live God’s way… In Christ

All because I stepped away…

Step away today from your pad and pencil and let God write the story of your life.

Direction

This is a mass of jumbled thoughts that I poured out some weeks ago. Hope that it in someway helps you.

“I may not know where I’m going, but I’m on my way.”  This quote by Carl Sanderburg describes me perfectly. I have no idea where I’m going in life, but I’m moving forward. I don’t like that though. I don’t like the idea that I am wondering aimlessly across my life. With no sense of direction, no direct goals, and just placing myself in situations as they come up. I don’t want to be one of those people who is lost in a whirlwind of decisions, and so caught up in life that I lose myself. You know the type right, so involved in living the “American Dream’ that they lose sight of their dreams and goals. Too scared to take a risk… scared to lose the freedom that comes along with wandering.

 It’s like I haven’t identified what it is that I want, because I’m being flung to & fro in a pinball machine of others dreams, accomplishments, and goals. I’ve yet to settle into my life, settle into what I want to become. It’s nauseating. It’s scary, what if I never make it?  What if I morph into the people around me, absorbing their dreams, accomplishments, and goals? Never being bold enough to step out into what I desire to accomplish, or set goals that will lead me into the direction that I want to go. Maybe that’s just it. I don’t know where I want to go. I’m at a crossroads faced with many roads that seem pleasing to me, and I’m trying to go down all of them at once. Lugging all the baggage for each trip on my shoulders, and never analyzing which route(s) I should take first, combine, or eliminate.

I want to further my education, I want to succeed in my career, and I most definitely want to advance the kingdom through the ministries God has planted in my head. Can I do it all at once without giving something up: Probably not. And that’s what worries me.

Priorities...Balance…Words that I vaguely know keep flooding my head.  I’m the girl juggling ten things, but maybe only a couple successfully. Gosh, how do people live? How do we get through this web we weave of goals & desires, without getting stuck on something that glimmered in the rain. Is it a straight shot, where I will check off my goals one by one, or will I find that life will take me on a journey that I haven’t planned? Where I’ll seem like a disorganized person from close up, but from afar I’ll be full steam ahead…tackling goals, desires, and dreams as they make themselves evident on the path set before me.

So, “I may not know where I’m going, but I’m on my way.” 

So maybe all the paths lead to one grand path. Maybe I am at a crossroads where the first big decision will feel like I’m stepping off a cliff in the Grand Canyon. Maybe I do know where I’m going I just don’t know how to get there. Confused at how everything will flow into one another. But I know one thing, I want to be my own boss, set my own schedule, make a difference in this world, and leave behind a legacy.

So again the mass jumble of thoughts in my head must be spilled out on paper for me to see the connecting points. Yet this still does not eliminate the fear that is swelling at the pit of my stomach or stops the anxiousness that is trying “beat” the clock of life. You see this clock tells me that my time is up once I get out of my twenties. Crazy, right? It whispers that once I get out of my twenties I’ll be average, and ev eryone will be doing what I’m doing. You see I want to be this kind of young prodigy…who blows the odds and does wonderful things at such a young age. So I guess that my mind is telling me that once I step out of my twenties I will have failed. A complete face plant fail.

But I know that is not the case, I just have to somehow signal to my flesh and my brain that there is no ultimate finish line at the end of my twenties that prevents me from creating beautiful tapestries from the spools of thread God has placed in my hands . Unlike Forest Gump I won’t stop running…I will keep running with such fervor such determination, that my legs won’t want to stop. My legs strengthen from the marathons I ran in my twenties, will carry me forward, propelling me into the depths of my future and my hope in Christ.

So, “I may not know where I’m going, but I’m on my way.”  I’m on my way to MY future that will look exactly how God planned it and will probably look nothing like the visions my eyes have cast upon the screen of my life; eyes that have drunk everyone else’s dreams & visions, sucking them down into my belly causing me to slowly settle in a shock of hurried anticipation.

But now I breathe those out, releasing and making room for my visions to be nurtured and nourished in the cradle of my belly.  Giving them room to expand, while they bring upon characteristics that change the way I walk, the words that feed me, and my belly… that will be round and full and ready to birth the great seeds that have been planted within me.

So, “I may not know where I’m going, but I’m on my way.”   Pregnant with full expectations of what is yet to come.