True Confidence in Prayer

 

It’s cliche, but let’s remember that God isn’t a magical genie.

He is our All-Powerful Lord who certainly knows our every need. But He won’t go around making all our dreams come true.

 

Personally I feel like we take this verse and run with it, right into our selfish, worldly ideas. It doesn’t say, “Now this is the confidence we have in Him, if we ask anything He hears us.” However I feel like this is what most people think. We must ask according to His will to be heard.

 

The Bible is very clear on what is okay. If you’re like I was at sixteen years old wondering why your disastrous first boyfriend/girlfriend relationship isn’t working out even though you pray your heart out, evaluate things… you’re probably living in sin and darkness within that relationship. Or perhaps you wonder why your family is full of tension, you pray it away, but perhaps you always react in anger. We can’t keep begging God to wave a magic wand and fix everything.

 

Check yourself and determine whether or not you are asking according to GOD’S will, or are you asking according to your will? This is a valuable lesson to learn. I hope you all grow closer to God and desire His will more greatly as you seek Him in prayer!

 

Let the journey continue,

~*~ Kasey S

 

 

Set Your Goals for the Right Prize

Friday evening at volleyball practice I was admiring my team’s ability to give themselves the goal of practicing their skills well before I (their coach) directed how things were going to be executed that evening.

Because they were simply goofing off at first, I told them that I was going to use the restroom and that when I came back I wanted to see them practicing purposefully if they were touching a volleyball at all. In the time that it took me to use the restroom and come back and spy on them through the glass in the door for a minute I saw a complete shift for the better! They were still goofing around and having fun together, but they were working hard and aspiring to goals that they assigned themselves!

Walking in on that, middle school girls focusing on their goal to reach the prize (that feeling of exhaustion after a great practice) I was really inspired to dig through my Bible on the word “goal.” This verse is the one that I landed on and read to them, we had a really good time discussing living our lives in honor to our God and aspiring to the prize of the upward call of Christ.

My oh my do these girls teach me a lot as their coach, it’s a valuable moment that I will carry with me for days to come and I hope that you appreciate their faith and discipline demonstrated as much as I do!

Let the journey continue,

Kasey S

Renewing Your Mind by God’s Standards

  “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Let that Scripture sink in.

Seriously. Read it again! 

Read those words aloud, and listen. 

Read those words as though they were written directly to you straight from God’s heart.

Claim the peace that comes from the truth in God’s Word.

You my friend have a choice every waking hour to choose the world’s ways, or God’s ways. Humanity as a whole has some pretty twisted ideas that are the product of sin (sin is something Adam and Eve chose in the garden of Eden) what we need to remember is that we are created in the image of God, our perfect Father.

We (humanity,) were created to enjoy this world in the perfect beauty that God envisioned and created. God created the earth, filled it with beauty, saw that it was good. Then… He wasn’t done! All the beauty of the sky, the ocean, the creatures He created, the sun and moon and stars… the gorgeous nature that He created on a blank canvas simply weren’t enough. God wanted you. He wanted to place you within this beautiful world so that you would have a chance to live!

He created a man in His image, and He created a beautiful woman to be man’s helper. God chose to place humans in His flawless creation, knowing that we have the opportunity to choose evil instead of embracing His way of life. So when we read verses like this from Romans, written ever so long ago, it can be easy to just apply it in the sense of don’t watch too much sex on tv, don’t listen to dirty music, don’t drink and drive, don’t put the playing cards on the family Bible, etc. simply trying to follow a set of rules that humanity laid out. That is exactly what Paul is coming against in his instruction to the early church in Romans. Do not choose the world’s ways above God’s. For His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts! And that my friends, is an astounding truth!

Be transformed from your old self. Choose Jesus, for He is the way, the truth and the life! Renew your mind in Christ, not within the world. For His ways are the absolute best! 🙂

Love to you all! You’re all in my prayers. I am choosing to put this within my verse of the day category… but this is a very important topic on my heart and God keeps inspiring thoughts based off of Scriptures like Romans 12:2 🙂 So this is my featured post for awhile and many of the verse posts will be in relation to this topic. Feel free to comment your thoughts, feel free to share Scriptures you know to be true in how we ought to live 🙂 Ask me questions, challenge my thoughts… because as the body of Christ we are in this together, and we all need to keep our roots in Jesus Christ and the truth of the Word. None of us can do that alone, let’s be a body that nourishes each others’ roots as we all stay connected to Jesus Christ.

Let the Journey Continue,

Kasey S.

Tuesday’s Verse of the Day: This Is God’s Word, Not Man’s :)

​I know that I have used this verse before, I really do love this one! We hear the Word of God from each other often enough between church, the radio, certain conversations, etc. that it’s normal for us to come across a Scripture. Imagine being a part of the culture hearing the Gospel for the first time. If you were to hear several men telling you about Jesus who lived a life teaching to end His life in sacrifice for the forgiveness of your sins you’d probably have a difficult time wrapping your mind around the idea. The great thing is that the people who were a part of this culture believed the amazing thing they were told. They knew the story of Christ was God’s truth, they didn’t just chalk it up to man’s words… It excites me that God gave us His Word to trust in!

Love to you all!
Have a fabulous day!

Tuesday’s Verse of the Day: Encourage One Another

2 Corinthians 13:11
Encourage one another,
be of one mind, live in peace.
And the God of love and peace will be with you.

After having spent a little over an hour visiting with my Gramma Emmy this evening that verse up there feels so right. We talked about a lot of different things in that hour, and the whole entire time she was encouraging towards whoever she spoke about. I am so blessed to have that example, and that relationship in my life! Now, as I type this I think about how often we misunderstand the word “encourage.” It doesn’t mean to cover up the flaws, or ignore the shadows, or turn thorns into roses… Encouragement is the support that we need to keep us running the race strong! So I shall end with two thoughts 🙂
1. The next time someone encourages you, receive the love, support, hope, confidence, and strength that they’re trying to share… without trying to brush it off.
2. The next time you feel the nudge to encourage, don’t think that there’s someone better for the task, or that the person doesn’t really need it… Say the encouraging thing that you were inspired to say.

Love to you all!
Have a fabulous evening!

Sunday’s Verse of the Day: Happy Father’s Day!

James 1:23-25 NKJV
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;
for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it,
and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work,
this one will be blessed in what he does.

In honor of my Daddio’s favorite book of the Bible being James, I chose to read chapter one this morning. That sounds really familiar to me, I have a feeling this happens most every Father’s Day!

Now, I realize that today is a difficult holiday for many of you; all for your own reasons. Some of you are not with your father today, whether because of distance in miles, distance in relationship, or the fact that your beloved father made it to heaven already. My hope and prayer is that today we love on our dad’s everywhere, and that these dads look into the perfect law of liberty and continue in it!

Okay fathers, you are loved! If you’re doubting that right now look to your Father, seek His comfort, healing, guidance, instruction, and unconditional love. For God is the perfect Father, the most wonderful example of all that it takes to be an incredible father, and… well He is your Father, so we should celebrate Him too 🙂

Love to you all!
Have a fantastic day spreading and receiving love this Father’s Day!

Will You Safely Journey Down, or Close Your Eyes and Trip?

Imagine that you’re standing on a cliff, far from the boundary with water far below the edge. Now go to the very edge at whatever pace you’d like to. Are you there? Look down, what is the water like? Is it gentle and calm, like a lake at dusk on a clear day… Or is it choppy, rough, and strong like a lake on a windy night? Be super creative as you picture your cliff, how you approach the edge to gain a view of what’s beneath you, and how you see the water… use YOUR imagination. Okay, now please keep that picture in your mind’s eye as I attempt to accurately convey what I’ve been thinking on this evening. 

We all know about falling ♥ in love ♥ right? Well I did that once, or so I thought… but really I fell in lust. While I was with this guy, we “knew that we had fallen in love! And it was the most exciting and beautiful thing ever.” Well there are a lot of layers as to why I knew this to be true, but I’ll just share what the actual truth was: though we called it love, really this guy and I were making very inappropriate choices for our hearts, souls, minds and bodies. Mmmk, so the gist is that the way we “fell in love” was pretty standard, flirty eye contact, inside jokes, compliments, liking similar foods… all the stuff that happens when two people are mutually attracted. It was cute, at first. Then we stopped tiptoeing (flirting) on the top of this cliff safely from the edge and we ran full force to embrace the beautiful water of love beneath our cliff of identity and adventure, hand in hand we went! He jumped off before I was ready… feet planted hard in the ground I wouldn’t let go of him, but I would not allow myself to go off the cliff. 

You see, long before this boy and I ever began entertaining the idea of us I personally had placed a lovely safety fence at the edge of my cliff, with the guidance of my parents and many others of course… Anyways, I had established my own boundaries to keep me safe from tripping and falling off of the cliff before it was safe and pure for me to hit the water (water is sex by the way, just to keep that clear.) But, this boy hadn’t put up a fence… he was okay with having the boundaries in place on my cliff but never cared to establish a safety zone on his own cliff. So by the time our cliffs budged each other (because yes, these cliffs serving as a visual for our identities/bodies can shift around) mine was in a frenzy. 

His lack of boundaries contradicted my lovely fence with beauty on the other side and he gently tugged, then yanked, pulled, called out to me, he did everything he possibly could to trip me into thinking I chose to jump onto his cliff and stumble into the risky waters below with him. However that was far from the truth, he was only one good tug away from forcing me to go down with him. Finally as I looked at my tattered up fence, color faded, blossoms dying beneath it I embraced the strength I once knew! Bravely I decided to let go of his hand so I would regain my footing. Ever so quickly as I made the long needed decision to care for my cliff, and mend my fence the guy I once called “mine” didn’t stumble back in surprise atop his own rock. No… he knew the dangerous game he had been playing with not only my body, but my mind, heart, and soul. He knew that if he would have taken a dive off the cliff head first that I would rip down my fence to either try to catch him, or give up on even trying to hold him above reproach… and just go after him. Praise God that I rediscovered my identity in Christ! All the blossoms vibrantly sprang back to life! Yes, I found the spring to my step that I had buried in the rocks

That was my journey from tiptoeing in flirtatious comings and goings, to running to the edge lustfully but knowing that I wanted to keep my fence up and stay away from sex with this guy. You see, before this guy caught my attention, I was more than content sitting in the sun soaked grass, sniffing wildflowers… enjoying innocence while fully loving the Lord and waiting patiently on the man He chose for me, one who had constructed a fence of his own. It is a scary thing when the person we choose to be with pulls away from the Father who has loved us the most for the longest of days. 

Now that I have experienced two years of freedom, growth, healing, redefined purity, and so much more bliss as a single young lady after God’s heart I am again content enjoying the view from atop my rock. Can I let you in on a secret? About three months ago, after I had begun writing openly and honestly about my experiences I started discussing the idea of falling in love vs. falling in lust, which is true in an uncontaminated way?

Well I had one dear friend of mine suggest that perhaps one could jump ♥ in love ♥ after intelligently choosing a spouse based on righteous character demonstrated. Upon sharing his viewpoint with another beloved friend of mine, she suggested that perhaps falling ♥ in love ♥ isn’t as bad as I had experienced, because it could be more like a trust fall than being manipulatively tripped into lust. Stand firm on your cliff, still have your safety zone, and when the time is pure (ahem 😉 marriage) you can intentionally fall down to the waters below with your spouse completely trusting one another. 

Discussing this topic with both friends of mine (who each have wisdom only from the Lord) made me drop my stubbornness and realize that there’s no one verb (jump, fall, fly, roll, flutter, twirl, on and on I could go) that is the “right way to _______ ♥ in love ♥” with someone. What is important is that whatever verb you choose, whatever pace you set, let it be what you are comfortable with based off of your relationship with God and your identity as a child of the Light. Whatever the waters of intimacy look like, let it be beautiful, crisp, pure, clean, refreshing and right as God intended sex to be.

Please, don’t run full force with your eyes closed on a dark, stormy night to discover shocking, cold, vicious waters below that will push you up against the sharp rocks over and over. If you are in a storm right now, turn to Jesus… the true Rock. Let Him be your protector, your strength, your place of healing. Storms don’t last forever, with His guidance you can climb back and start anew, learning from your growth moments. 

Here are my final words for this post: being ♥ in love ♥ is in fact a delightful thing! God blessed love, so the best way for us to determine whether we are ♥ in love ♥ or in lust is by looking to see if their are signs of life and light around our relationship with “that person” or! if there are signs of death and darkness around our relationship with “that person.” The choice is FULLY yours on whether you want dark, scary waters… or if you would rather enjoy blissful, peace filled waters that light shines upon.

🙂 I pray that we all choose wisely! 

Tuesday Morning’s Verse of the Day: Embrace the power, love, and sound mind that is available to you

2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV
For God has not given us a spirit of fear,
but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

*How many of you know that verse?
*How many of you know that verse is true?
*How many of you know that verse is true for you, and choose to proclaim that truth over yourself and your life?

The topic of fear has been relatively common in my life, and recently that topic has been about the “fear of flying.” I have a dear friend who is attending school to be a pilot, so we often discuss the thrill of being in the air! To her and I, being in the clouds and leaning as close to the window as possible to see the world God created from THAT perspective is simply astounding! Then there’s the folks to would rather shut the window and sleep their way through so that they don’t have to worry. Now, I’m not trying to criticize anyone 🙂 I am simply pointing out the differences: One person will choose to enjoy the clouds, mountains, sunrise, etc. with the knowledge that something could go wrong with the plane… while the person a few rows back will throw on the headphones and wish it was all over because of the very same knowledge. My encouragement is this: live your life using the power, love, and sound mind that God gave you. Don’t let the fear that He didn’t give you take control of you, take control of the fear! 🙂

Love to you all!
Have a fabulous day!

How About We Jump Off The Wild Ride Of Fear

“Your parents raised a fearless child didn’t they?!” These are words that have been bouncing around in my head for the past several days. A friend’s mom said that to me as I was telling her how my brother recently went skydiving! I chattered on and on about how excited I am for when I am able to skydive, bungee jump, and other exhilarating things like that!

After she shared her comment I pondered for a bit and ran through a few of the average fears we have… While listing off spiders, snakes, the dark, clowns, and all those sorts of things I told her how they don’t really terrify me. Sure spiders are gross and I kill them before they have the chance to claim my bedroom as their kingdom, and snakes aren’t on my list of future pets, but it’s not because I’m afraid. Finishing off I told her that God gave me a sound mind, and I choose to use that mind to keep fear away from me. 

This conversation with my friend’s mom wasn’t too big of a deal in the moment, but I’ve been thinking about it on a deeper level and my thoughts sent me back about four years. During sleepovers or conversations at youth group and such often the topic was, “What are you afraid of?” People would throw out things like heights, drowning, flying, and the like. When it was my turn to answer I pretty much always felt the pressure to quickly say, “Spiders! Ew.” There was always a time and a place to answer this vulnerably, and when I was in the right setting my answer was, “I’m afraid of being raped.” There was certainly a heaviness that came with my answer and you could see it in everyone’s eyes… Eventually someone else would fill the silence after I answered and the conversation usually landed with the awesome tone Thank goodness we have Jesus and don’t need to be afraid of these things!

Being raped really was the biggest fear I had and often I’d fall asleep and have a nightmare about my fear. I never told anyone exactly what my nightmares were about because it scared me to talk about it, but I did tell my parents and youth pastor that I was having awful dreams frequently. There was one dream that I did share and it got my dad and I talking, thankfully he realized that I wasn’t as confident as I needed to be in order to protect myself if a situation ever arose, so we spent more time working on my self-defense skills. This was a mental turning point for me to really embrace confidence and strength, ever since my dad determined what was happening in my brain to cause this dream I started being more intentional about my thoughts on the topic and I was less afraid.

Once she knew I was having terrible dreams my youth pastor encouraged me to pray asking for protection, peaceful sleep, and sweet dreams every night. At fourteen(ish) years old being raised on the foundation of Christ I knew that prayer is powerful, so I took her advice. I also began digging through my Bible for verses on sleeping peacefully, when I found one I would write it down and say it every night. Rather quickly my nightmares vanished and I haven’t had one since, I thank God for that! This is one significant time in my life that proves to me the power of God’s word, especially when we speak it over our lives. 

Many of us have heard, read, or quoted the verse that says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV) Since this conversation with my friend’s mom stirred up a whole bunch of thoughts in my head I have come to this verse in my heart a lot. God didn’t give any of us a spirit of fear, we’re the ones who grab onto fear and let it take us for a wild ride. Our loving Father gave us a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind but it’s our choice to use what God has given us by embracing that power, living in that love, and filtering things through a sound mind.

There are plenty of things in life that very easily could terrify the snot out of me, but ever since I conquered my fear of being raped I have realized how much power I really do have over my thoughts and especially over my fear. Sure, it isn’t easy to keep fear at a far off distance, but it is what I want to do. So I take hold of the strength God gives me and I work hard to keep my mind sound.

What are your fears? If you don’t want them to have control over you then seize those fears and cast them away! Proverbs 29:25 The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe.

There is so much freedom and joy in life when we conquer our fears and embrace the light that God pours out. Whatever you’re afraid of, please know that you have the power in Christ to triumph! It’s time to jump off the wild ride of fear and enjoy the peaceful, enlightening journey with God holding us up!

Let the journey continue,

Kasey Shultz

Verse of the Day 3/9/2015

Psalm 57:7, NLT
My heart is confident in you, O God; my heart is confident.
No wonder I can sing your praises!

Keeping my the confidence of my heart in the right place is not always as easy as I would expect. There are so many things crying out for my attention that I can very easily slip, and as a result place my confidence in “that” instead of in my Lord. I wanted to tell you that because sometimes when I read the Bible, and what people in the Bible say about their relationship with God, I feel guilty and inadequate because what they say isn’t always true from my lips. It is in these moments when I start to feel low that I have to remember, they weren’t perfect, they slipped and would move their confidence to the wrong things too. I’m not saying all of this to justify having my heart focus on the wrong things, I’m saying it so that we can hopefully drop the pressure we place ourselves and remember that we NEED God’s strength to keep our hearts where they should be, because none of us are perfect and that’s why we need the confidence of our hearts to be in God.

Love to you all!
Have a splendid evening!