Ruby Red

We live in an extremely anxiety filled world. I feel anxious more often that I’d like to admit. Watching the news makes my heart feel heavy and full of worry. I feel lies from the enemy creep into my mind and I want to crawl into a little hole. I get overwhelmed with stress and want to shut down. I am scared to step into the calling placed on my life. I begin to let fear sit on the throne of my heart instead of the Father. I share these very real, very honest thoughts with you to show you that you are not alone. The enemy tries to make us feel isolated in our anxiousness. The Truth reminds us, that we are not meant to carry our burdens on our own.

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being ruled by fear. I want to step out of moments of panic and instead run into His presence. The Father’s grace is sufficient for our biggest regrets. His power is sufficient for our deepest fears.

What will worrying add to my life? Absolutely nothing.  Matthew 6:27 says, “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” Exactly. Sitting in my anxious thoughts and feeling frozen in fear will change absolutely nothing. But I know someone who changes everything. Jesus. Psalm 32:7 tells us this of Jesus, “You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” Our hiding place. Our place of retreat. Our fierce protector. What a soul- comforting statement.

Not only is He our hiding place, He takes action and silences our fear. He is not passive. He creates a way for us to move forward. He will surround us with songs of deliverance. I love how this song proclaims the power Jesus has over anxiety in our lives- “Through trails and troubles Your love will go on. For even my weakness is strong. Not death, nor disaster will keep me from You. No I’m not afraid anymore.” (Mosaic MSC- Not Afraid) Jesus will not be overcome. I can lay my head down on my pillow tonight and not let my mind run wild because I rest secure in the fact that Jesus has overcome EVERY fear, EVERY worry. Hillsong’s song, “Prince of Peace” says, “You love surrounds me when my thoughts wage war.”

I’m not afraid anymore. I’m not saying I never feel anxious anymore. Believe me, I do. But now I know what to do when I feel that way. Run to Him. When we remember whose we are, it changes everything.

We were not meant to be ruled by fear, or tip toe around hard things. We are called to do hard and holy things. We are called to boldly step into our calling and walk in freedom and victory that is promised to us.

Have you ever attached to God the hurts or disappoints other people have caused you? I have. If I’m not careful, I can begin to think that is how God is. I can begin to not open myself up to God because I don’t want to get hurt again. I begin to let my thoughts wage war and fill my mind with lies.

That is not truth though. That is 100% false. Let us not go down this slippery slope. God is the exact opposite of hurt or disappointment. The love of the Lord is so much better than settling for a “human-like” image of love in 2017. He is proud to stand next to us. His love is breath to our lungs. His grace makes us stand with our shoulders held high. God has been re-shaping my image of true love. True love bears all. True love is pure. True love is not anxious.

Yes, that person or situation hurt me. But that’s not God. He has a perfect track record of faithfulness and He won’t blow it on you. With God, we can take a deep breath and let down our walls that we’ve built up to “protect ourselves” from pain. Our human minds can’t even comprehend the holy, pure love God has for us. Unlike any type of love we will ever experience on Earth. He doesn’t give His love in pieces. He offers himself completely to us. Other people will never be able to offer us the same kind of intimate, captivating love that God does. If we give other people the expectation to love us like this, we will be let down every time. Only the divine romance of God will satisfy.

Until Jesus is enough for you, no person or thing ever will be.

My prayer recently has been, “God, please re-shape, re-mold how I think about You. I know in my core that you are loving and full of grace, so help me to actually live like I believe that. People that have left me, made me feel less than, and hurt my soul are not You. You restore my soul, you are proud to stand next to me. Help me remember that daily.”
The song by Bethel Music, Pieces has been on repeat in my car the past few weeks. You know when you have those mini worship jam sessions in the car? Well, I highly suggest this song to jam out to ya’ll. This song beautifully defines the love of God. It takes a unique approach to the popular 1 Corinthians 13 chapter about love.

Don’t let your past hurts define how you view the love of God. Let it enhance how you view the love of God. I encourage you to listen to this song and take a minute to invite God in to re-shape your idea of true love.

You don’t give Your heart in pieces
You don’t hide Yourself to tease us
Your love’s not fractured
It’s not a troubled mind
It isn’t anxious
It’s not the restless kind
Your love’s not passive
It’s never disengaged
It’s always present
It hangs on every word we say
Love keeps its promises
It keeps its word
It honors what’s sacred
‘Cause its vows are good
Your love’s not broken
It’s not insecure
Your love’s not selfish
Your love is pure

One of my best friends encouraged me recently to get messy in my quiet time with The Lord. To lay it all out on the table. Cry before Him. Pour out my fears, concerns, anger, thoughts, disappointments, hopes, dreams, and everything in between.
God can handle our mess. He can handle us getting a little messy with Him.

I don’t know about you, but I appreciate authenticity in other people. It is encouraging when some one is vulnerable about their life, their struggles. So, why are we hesitant to be raw, and real before God? There’s so much pressure to have it all together in our culture. The beautiful thing about quiet time with the Lord is that we don’t have to feel that pressure AT ALL. Why are we trying to cover up what He already sees? When we are real with God, it will help us be more real with people.

He eagerly waits for us to vent to him late at night when we can’t fall asleep. He wants us in our unshowered, messy bun, sweat pants moments. Authenticity with the Lord is not found in the “instagrammable” or “tweetable” moments. It’s found in the raw moments of stillness before our Creator.

Jesus was vulnerable before His heavenly Father. In Luke 22, we find Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane before he is to be crucified. He prays, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” Verse 44 says, “And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.”

Jesus is so raw in this moment. He is sweating and crying tears of blood. He is crying out to the Lord in this time of unimaginable distress. He’s not worrying about what anyone around him thinks of him. He is simply alone with His Father and laying it all on the table.

Verse 43 says, “An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.” Ya’ll, this same power lives within us. We have the Holy Spirit in our hearts. When we call on the name of the Lord…

He will strengthen us.

He will equip us.

He will comfort us.

He will heal us.

He will invade the cracks of our broken hearts.

Zephaniah 3:17 “…he will quiet you by his love.”

God can handle your mess. Go enjoy some messy quiet time with the Lord.

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Have you ever been slapped in the face by God? Have you ever read a scripture or heard a message and it literally felt like a slap in the face? God even likes to speak to me through social media feeds. Probably because He knows I spend an excessive amount of time scrolling through them. This past week, God really spoke to me with a passage I read out of Romans. Honestly, I just tried to ignore it and move on with my day. But then I opened up Instagram in an attempt to distract myself, and Judah Smith (one of my fav pastors) had just posted a short clip about the SAME EXACT THING GOD HAD SHOWN ME IN ROMANS EARLIER. Every tweet I saw, every text I received that day, every cute quote I saw on Pinterest was God gently speaking to me.

I want to be a woman who does hard and holy things for the Kingdom. I want to hustle harder. But the reality is, I will never be able to achieve that if I continue pushing to the side what God is showing me.

We must be obedient to the Lord. Our obedience to the Lord not only benefits our own lives, but it benefits everyone around us. Obedience in essence shows humility. Letting God wreck our plans, before our plans wreck us. Humbly falling at the feet of our Savior and saying, “Here’s my shame, here’s my guilt, here’s my pride, here’s my thoughts, here’s my worries- I want to lay it all down and let you refine and grow me.”

“Obedience is less painful than regret.” -Christine Caine

Often times what WE WANT and what GOD WANTS, do not line up. To be perfectly honest with you, there are times when I want what I want way more than I want what God wants. We must learn to be cautious to this feeling of “wanting” or desiring something. We should never allow our feelings to control us. Our feelings will deceive us every single time.  // 1 John 3:20 “For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.”

So, how do we hustle harder? We recklessly follow Jesus. Obedience brings fruit, peace, and genuine joy in our lives. Do not grow weary of doing hard and holy things. The Lord knows your story, all the way to the last page. But we tend to get stuck, because we can only see the page we are on. Be bold, surrender to Him, and allow Him to write your story. Trust me, it will be 1000 times better than any story we could attempt to write on our own.

It’s going to be hard to top last year’s birthday for me. Sitting by the ocean in Nicaragua with the sweet Godinez family, fishing for hours, worshipping the Lord in their church, and seeing their home be completed.

It was the adventure of a lifetime.

This year I was sitting at the beach in Cali on my 17^th birthday. I thought back on what God has done this past year and I could not be more in awe. Partnering with 1MISSION and CIY has blessed me so much throughout this past year and has given me such amazing opportunities to reach out into our world.

If you want check out this crazy adventure watch the video above!

Here a few of my goals for this year (because I plan on making 17 the best year evvveerrrr).

1. Be selfless
2. Speak life into others
3. Go on more weekend adventures
4. Be more spontaneous
5. Don’t worry so much about what people think about me

Sometimes in life you’re going to have to stand alone. It’s okay.

It takes nothing to join a crowd. It takes everything to stand alone.

It takes courage to stand alone and fight for what you believe in, even when no one else will join you. People will not always agree with you. When you stand up for what is right, you will face opposition.

“And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake.
But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”
Mark 13:13

When you’re standing alone and speaking truth and you get glares when you walk in a room, or don’t get invited to a party you are suffering for Christ. But The Lord is fighting for you. Always.

When other people back down and leave you alone, The Lord is right by your side, cheering you on when other people turn their back. He’s got your back when you feel weak.

“My Grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”
2 Cor. 12:9

I’ve found that on days when I feel weak, I’m able to experience His power and love even more clearly.

Be in this world and radically love and unleash compassion, but don’t be of this world.

There is a huge difference. Don’t pollute your mind with lies, fill you heart with truth so that when the time comes to stand for what is right, God’s word will overflow from your heart.

I’m continually learning more and more about this, and what God is showing me is that He will never leave me or forsake me. By renewing myself in His Word each morning I can remind myself of what is true. The Lord is always by my side when I’m having an amazing day or when I’m in tears when life gets tough.

He is constant when the world is inconsistent.

So this year, in 2015, I encourage you to remind yourself that God will never leave you in your moments when you feel alone. If He has prompted you to stand up for something or someone then you can trust that He will give you confidence and help you succeed.

He’s got your back.

Be bold this year.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this concept lately. I grew up being told that Jesus is enough countless times, and I believed it. But it hasn’t been until recently that I’ve been really starting to unpack it and see it in action in my life.

I was watching a video of a worship leader, Tim Timmons, on youtube with my family one evening.  I encourage you to watch his video, it’s incredibly inspiring and convicting.

He finished his song, Great Reward, and then began to talk about Jesus being enough to walk him and his family through the trials of life. Tim has been diagnosed with cancer for 12 years, and he was talking about Jesus walking his family through life when he’s gone one day. Then he said something that struck me, “What if Jesus was enough?” That question rang in my head throughout the next week. I asked myself this question daily, what if Jesus was enough to fill my soul?

As I looked at life with this outlook, I started to realize that He is enough.

He’s enough to calm my heart and cast out all the worries piling up in my mind after a rough day.
He’s enough when a boy breaks my heart and leaves me feeling confused.
He’s enough when friendships crumble.
He’s enough when patience fails.
He’s our hope when hope is gone.
He’s enough to help us choose joy on the days when it’s hardest to do so.

When other people around us let us down, He never will. He is constant, never changing. This is encouraging to me when I feel like my world is spinning around me and shaking me up.

That hole, that void we try to fill with worldly things will never be satisfied unless we fill it with Jesus. We tend to turn to Jesus on our not so great days, but He’s also enough on the good days – the days where patience and joy prevail. His unfailing love is enough. He has always been enough and will continue to be. We just need to remind ourselves that He is. I let that question echo in my mind; I wrote it on my mirror, and it began to revolutionize my outlook on life.

We can come crawling to Him in tears, and He will refresh our hearts and give us hope. His name holds power. The only name that will ever be enough for us.

I’m still learning more and more about this daily

Ask yourself this week, “What if Jesus was enough?” He’ll begin to reveal moments of indescribable peace if you allow Him to take control and be ALL you need.