Empowered

Empowered is not a word I have always associated with myself. In the past I have felt defeated, overwhelmed, forgotten, unloved, unsatisfied, unworthy, and alone. I have labeled myself and then proceeded to live as if those labels were true. I have viewed myself not through God's loving eyes but through how I viewed my life experiences.

 In Max Lucado's book "You Are Special" Punchinello learns that the dots placed by others don't have to stick. For much of my life I have lived with the dots of others opinion placed on my forehead. More often I have put the dots there myself. I have "hidden" my feelings by eating. I have watched my self esteem plummet and have felt like a failure. I have made excuses so that I didn't have to change my behavior. It has been a vicious cycle of shame, embarrassment, hopelessness and "feeding" those feelings of defeat with sugary treats and mindless eating. What I really needed to be doing was to believe my Maker. Because I am His, I matter to him. 

I have, quite frankly, spent a lifetime dealing with unhealthy attitudes towards food. Food has been my closest friend at times as well as my greatest enemy. I have lost weight successfully following a healthy eating plan and exercising but inwardly my heart hadn't fully yielded to God. Eventually the outward changes couldn't keep up with the stagnant and stubborn inward heart.

 Inwardly I didn't really believe that this time would be different. I had lost hope throughout years of feeling that I was unable to lose weight. In the past few months God has sparked a message of hope within me. He has spent the past several months preparing me because this time is different.

 EMPOWERED

 Empowered is a part tense verb. It means to invest someone with power, or "the power or authority to do something". Synonyms include qualify, enable, equip. This time is different because this time I have yielded my heart to God. I'm willing to give up the soda and treats that I have "secretly" held back from giving to God. This time is different because I have hope. God has given me a message of hope. It has started as a small spark deep inside of me and through his confirmation from His Word, worship and sermons it is growing. This time is different because God has given me the power, through the blood of Christ. He has equipped me with resources and support. He has qualified me to "Loose the chains of injustice that have bound me" Isaidh 58:6 to a limited life. Instead of continuing in the limited life that I am leading, i can live a limitless life in Christ. My past mistakes, hurts that have happened to me, reasons that I have stuffed my emotions through food no longer matter. I am empowered to live my life celebrating being a beautiful, beloved daughter of the Most High King. Wherever you are at in your life you can live a limitless life empowered by the precious blood of Christ and through Him who gives you strength and equips you for the task!

"You are precious in His sight"

My Favorite Scripture

How do I choose only one "favorite scripture" when different verses have meant different things at different times to me? I find that it is impossible to have one "favorite". Some of them are familiar old friends such as the verses I memorized back in VBS. The ones that I can still remember after more years than I want to admit. Oftentimes the memorization was frantically done to win a prize since the youthful mind didn't realize that in actuality the prize is memorizing the scripture. Teachers encourage you to memorize those verses knowing that down the road you will fall back on them. Those same verses that you recited nervously, hoping to get each word right and earn the prize that you so desperately sought, become the prize that gets you through the tough times.

 "The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want. 
He makes me lie down in green pastures, 
he leads me beside the still waters". 
 Familiar words recited over and over throughout my lifetime. A beautiful word picture so meaningful to me throughout the years. As a teen I raised sheep and embraced the concept of "Shepherd". In turbulent years the "still waters" were so desperately needed and sough after. There have been times when I would have been lost without my Shepherd to 
guide me where I needed to go.

Another well loved and familiar scripture is Psalm 27:1 
"The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear"? 
This has been a saving rope throw to a desperately seeking woman. This woman who has held onto that verse so that she didn't drown in the depths of confusion or fear. A familiar verse that has been a lifeline far more often than I could count.

Worshiping the majesty of God is always easier when immersed in the words of the Psalms. Just this morning I read the wonderful words of Psalm 8:1 
 "O LORD, our Lord, 
how majestic is your name in all the earth!"

The past couple of years God has been pushing me to address and work through things in my life that have held me back from living in the fullness of Him. During this time different verses have touched my heart and soul. Different phrases and snippets of words have floated through my mind as I have sought God. Several months ago at a ministry conference the phrase "watered by God" and "rest in Him" were words that spoke to me. I didn't know where I was supposed to go with them but I wrote them down knowing in that moment that they had great importance for my life. When I look at the point where God has brought me in these 7 months I am amazed 
and in awe of Him. These phrased have shaped me into 
a new creation in Him.

Other verse have taken on great importance in this new year.

 Isaiah 58:6 
"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: 
To loose the chains of  injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke"?

 Our local church started out January with 21 days of fasting and prayer. God impressed upon me that it is time to yield my heart totally to him and deal with my food issue. When I found myself saying "I can give up soda for 21 days" but noticed that I was panicking over the thought of giving it up forever I realized that I had put something else in importance of where God should be. I'm a work in progress but my eyes are opening daily to things that have held me in bondage and my heart is growing in its willingness to yield.

The other verse that God has given me, an avid gardener

Isaiah 58:11

"The Lord will always lead you,

satisfy you in a parched land,

and strengthen your bones.

You will be like a watered garden

and like a spring whose waters never run dry." HCSB

"You’ll be like a well-watered garden,

a gurgling spring that never runs dry.

You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,

rebuild the foundations from out of your past." The Message

A well watered garden that is balanced and produces beauty. Not weighted down with a heavy overload of water and drooping under its weight. Nor is it dried out, parched and desperately seeking to receive life giving water. 
Rather it is alive and in balance.
Who doesn't want to be a gurgling spring that never runs dry?
 I seek his life giving water to my life so that I live a life glorifying him in balance and experiencing peace.
 I want my life to spring forth such an abundance of Christ, living water, that it spills over onto those around me.

May we all spring forth with gurgling waters that never run 

dry for our Lord as we live in the beauty of a life yielded completely to Him.