There are so many benefits to living a life of gratitude! It is good for you mentally as it keeps you focused on the good instead of the bad and, therefore, produces a more positive faith-filled mentality. It is good for your self-esteem-- celebrating what you are thankful for helps you to be happy with yourself! Gratitude even eliminates stress. When you are thankful, you realize the things you thought were so bad aren’t. Socially, gratitude helps you celebrate others and makes others want to be around you more!

Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices when the work begins. Zachariah 4:10

When do you know you’re ready to do something, to start something? When do you know that it won’t be hard or that it won’t end in failure? The answer is that in the natural, you don’t. If you spend your entire life trying to avoid failure, you will never do anything great for God. The cure for failure isn’t success but failing in small enough doses that you become immune to it. A good lesson in sales training is to make 100 cold calls in one day. Will everyone buy what you’re selling? No. But you are learning to fail in small doses until you’re not afraid to fail anymore. In fact, if God calls you to do something, chances are it will be bigger than you feel comfortable with. The temptation will be to sit back and wait… Wait for all your funding, wait until you are a great public speaker, and wait to start getting in shape. (The list goes on) I remember I wanted to get back into shape after I had my fourth baby (Who was 10.5lbs at birth, by the way). I went to the gym a few times, but guess what? It was hard, and I didn’t see immediate results, and I hated seeing my baby weight in the mirror staring back at me.

Do you ever feel insecure? Let me share a secret with you... everyone feels insecure at some point in their life. The question isn’t if you ever feel insecure, but rather what do you do when those feelings come? Thoughts of insecurity can take you down a bad path quickly. These thoughts can ruin your day, cause complaining, and ultimately hold you back from being whom God has created you to be!

Before we even dive into combatting insecurity, let me remind you of one of my favorite verses. 2 Corinthians 10:5 says, “ take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” Now that I reminded you that you could and should measure every thought against God’s word, let’s look at some truths to combat insecurity!

How do I know I'm hearing from God? Have you ever asked yourself this question? I know I have! The Bible tells us that faith requires full confidence in God, knowing that the enemy loves to take our prayers from a place of confidence to a place of wonder. I wonder if this desire is mine or God’s? I wonder if God is offended that I'm asking for this? I wonder if it’s God’s will to do this in my life. Your faith goes to a whole new level when you transition from wondering to knowing! So, how can you move your faith from wondering to knowing?

Recently, I took a good look at the life of Joseph. Joseph, in the book of Genesis 37, has a dream. This dream seems to cause him nothing but hardship in his life. Joseph experiences betrayal and abandonment by his brothers; he is sold into slavery, and then as he serves with integrity and hard work, he is lied about and imprisoned. Then, things get worse. While in prison, Joseph uses his gift to interpret dreams and hopes to catch a break maybe and get out of prison- but instead is forgotten about for four more years! Betrayed, abandoned, lied about, forgotten… all while doing nothing wrong.

Have you ever told yourself to get it together? What does that even mean? It refers to life in general, areas of frustration that seem to nag at your consciousness. The things that you think about lying in bed or first thing in the morning. Maybe it’s a messy house, the kids are out of order, or you just can’t find time for your devotional life. Whatever “it” is for you, God wants to help you bring order when life may feel chaotic.

There have been times in my life when I have had to choose and fight to position my heart in the place of faith that is available for every believer to abide in. Take note; I said available. To STAY in faith, there are some decisions and choices that you are going to have to make. Faith isn’t a prayer we walk in and out of, a feeling we have, and then it goes away; faith is an abiding. Yes, we pray, and God gives us supernatural peace and joy, but let’s talk about the word stay. Stay requires patience and endurance. Staying requires enduring faith when our situations seem adverse or when our flesh wants to give up. Hebrews 6:12 reads, “so that you will not be (spiritually) sluggish, but (will instead be) imitators of those who through faith (lean on God with absolute trust and confidence in Him and His power) and by patient endurance even when suffering are (now) inheriting the promises.” (AMP) Biblical patience and endurance isn’t just hunkering down until the storm passes. Biblical patience and endurance is continuing to do the right things to stay in faith! So, what are some things that will help you stay in faith? I’ve put together a few things that help me….

What do you do when you know what the Bible says but you don’t feel it? The moment when you know you are supposed to be full of joy, but you feel sad. You are supposed to be full of faith, but you feel anxious. Do these feelings make you a bad person? Do these feelings mean the Bible isn’t true? I want to assure you that the Bible is true, and you are not a bad person when these feelings rise up. I do want to encourage you and equip you though for how to respond when these feelings come up.

What’s your limit? Did you know that limits are learned? Have you ever had to tell a child not to touch a hot stove or not to run in the street? How about the confidence of a five-year-old? Maybe you’re like me and proclaimed in kindergarten orientation that you would be the president of the United States one day. Unknowingly, we pick up limits. Life, people, and our own voice slowly and quietly establish limits of what we believe God can and cannot do in our lives.

Have you ever had a really embarrassing moment? I remember one (of my many) from when I was around 13 years old. I was hanging out with some friends at a gym, and I thought I would be cool and run on a treadmill.... backward. I hit the bottom of the treadmill hard! I continued to bounce up and down as the treadmill continued to move forward. This moment is one that I will never forget. As an embarrassed and humiliated 13-year-old girl, the lesson learned was that you can’t move forward while facing backward!

But God. Two words that change everything. Have you been in a situation where you feel like your back is up against the wall? In the natural, it doesn’t appear that there is a solution or a way out. It is in those moments that the enemy tells you that your situation is hopeless, or even final. You have a decision to make. You can either give up or choose faith.

How many times have you heard someone say, “just give it to God?” What exactly does it mean to give something to God? In order to give something away, you have to be in possession of it. Many times, the things we need to hand over to God are the things we were never meant to carry in the first place, things that are out of our control, and things that make us worried or anxious. God himself knew that as long as man was on earth, we would try to hold onto things that we aren’t supposed to. Jesus Himself said, as long as we are on this earth, we would have troubles of many kinds…. But the verse doesn’t end there. He continues to say be of good cheer …good cheer because we will face trouble and adversity? No! Good cheer because He goes on to say, “for I have overcome the world.” John 16:33