Forgiveness

               I love when God reveals things to me, even if He does it in the midst of my weakest times. So what have I learned recently? Christians need forgiveness too. I have accepted Jesus into my heart. I have been forgiven and strive to live life not for myself but for Jesus. I study God's word, fellowship with other believers  and spend time with God. So why do I still need forgiveness. I shouldn't right? I've already been forgiven. I'm a Christian now so I should no longer do anything that causes forgiveness to be needed. Wrong. Being a follower of Christ does NOT make you perfect or in any less need of forgiveness than someone who isn't a believer. Sometimes this can be hard to accept. When we are truly in love with Christ and are following Him in our lives, failing and messing up can take a pretty big hit on us. We can become mad at ourselves and think things like "I can't believe I just did that, I knew it was sinful and wrong." Accepting Jesus into our hearts and becoming a Christian does not mean we are perfect, we are still going to fail, give into temptation, hurt others and so on.That is why it is so important to understand the depths of forgiveness. Jesus didn't say, "I'll forgive you once and that's it." He has forgiven everything we've done and everything we will do. All we have to do is ask. We are sinners. Messy, broken, and dirty people who no matter how much we serve God, deserve to worship Him or come face to face with Him in heaven. The good news out of all of this? We get to experience how wonderful God's grace is. The fact that He continually offers forgiveness throughout our whole lives is amazing. Don't ever think that because you are strong in your faith you don't deserve forgiveness when you mess up. Because no one deserves it, but God gives it anyways. I learned this lesson today and it's really opened my heart and mind to the depths of God's love. You're never to strong or far in your faith to learn more. So if you're struggling with somethings and find yourself failing and falling into your desires, don't beat up on yourself. Repent, accept the grace that is freely yours, and pray for God's help to give you the strength you need in order to forgive yourself. And here is a great bible verse for all of us to remember when we fail, sin, or do something wrong.

            For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.  Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.  Hebrews 4:15-16

Hillsong Concert

Hey everyone! So last night I got to have  a extremely amazing experience, I saw Hillsong United and Young and Free in concert! When I say it was amazing I mean AMAZING. One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen is people by the thousands lifting up the name of Jesus and getting crazy for Him. I had a great time dancing and jumping around to all of my favorite songs (can I just say Christians know how to party), belting out lyrics to Jesus, and spending time with my youth group of course, but one thing that struck me during the show was a lyric from the song Aftermath."For You chose to take the sinner's crown as You placed Your crown on me." The image of Jesus taking away my sinful, dirty, shameful crown placing it on His head and in return giving me His sinless, glorious, and shameless crown flooded in my mind, and I became overwhelmed with His love. I mean who does that? Jesus does. He carried our shame so that we can have life and so that we can come to know the power of God's love. Isn't that amazing! Another thing I really loved about the show is that it would get quite for a few seconds right after a song and someone in the sea of people would randomly just shout out "Jesus!" and the whole arena flooded with shouts of praise. It's hard to explain in just words but I literally felt like Jesus reached down inside of me and said"Sofia I love you so much." The whole night I just felt peace and overwhelming mercy. I think I was at the humblest state I've ever been in my life. The last thing I would like to add is this. The world hates us, for loving God and following Christ. We will constantly run into people who will question us and try to defeat us with what they think is truth and knowledge but here is something interesting In the book of Acts when Peter and the other apostles were brought before the high priest who started yelling at them for teaching people about Jesus something really cool happened. A pharisee stood up and said 
            “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men.  Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing.  After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.  Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.  But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”  Acts 5:35-39

   "You will not be able to stop these men." The kingdom of God is unshakable. Being at the Hillsong concert put that in perspective for me. It's been over 2,000 years since Jesus rose from the dead and people's lives are still being changed, arenas are getting sold out and filled to the brim with people in love with Jesus and wanting to pour their hearts out to Him. This isn't something of human origin. What I experienced at that concert isn't something that us mere humans could just make up. It all comes from God, and because of that we can not be stopped, we can not be shaken. God is alive, the cross is real, and the grace that comes from Jesus is overflowing and abundant. 

This picture was taken by Hillsong Young and Free at the concert! I know, it looks like  a lot of fun. It was. Like I said Christians know how to party.

Picture from the concert! One of the funnest nights ever! This is revival.
(P.S. -If you haven't listened to Hillsong before go check out their new albums Zion and Young and Free they are amazing!)

The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see.- Hebrews 11:1
(shorts:Old Navy, top:Forever21, shoes:Target)

A Light in the darkness.

  What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn't put it out.-John 1:3-5 (MSG)

    Sometimes in life we can feel so blind. Like we're trapped in a dark room and can't find our way around. It can be so frustrating to be stuck in this constant darkness of fear and doubt, to be held in chains that drain us and cause us to worry and stray from peace. The darkness that we can sometimes experience can be so draining that we feel lifeless. Well there is some great news for anyone experiencing this. Jesus is life. He is light. In the midst of our darkest nights we can experience the light that comes from Christ. When we are in darkness and experiencing tough times turning to Jesus makes the light come on. How? Well just like the verse above says "The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn't put it out." The darkness in your life is no match for the blazing light that Jesus holds! When you turn to Christ for comfort know that He is going to show up. Your situation might not change instantly but Jesus gives you light and life when you are in such a draining and dark place. Know this, Jesus has so much in-store for your life. So much grace, love, peace, and light! And it's all free! All we have to do is except it. Today I encourage you to seek the marvelous light that Jesus holds. Turn to the Life that is truly Life and watch in amazement as the grace of Jesus pours out over your life. 

                                                           Love,
                                                              Sofia

 Hey guys! Today's post is an outfit from the closet of my best friend Courtney!

First of all I love these shorts they were only $10 from Old Navy!

Three things I love about this shirt. The scooped neck line, the dove in the middle, and the inspiring message that it bears "Please Stay Alive." This shirt comes from the beautiful foundation To Write Love On Her Arms. It's all about bringing awareness, support, hope, and love to people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury, and suicide. I love when people combine a good cause with fashion! To check out more apparel from TWLOHA or to learn more about the foundation visit their website at http://twloha.com/home


 God takes the side of the helpless; when I was at the end of my rope, He saved me.- Psalm 116:6



Love,
Sofia

Pray Without Ceasing

             Hey everyone! I hope you guys have been having a good week and a great Sunday! Over the past few days God has really placed the meaning of prayer on my heart.The testing of  my faith and willingness to pray and let God take control has really come into play this week and I believe that I've really grown in my walk of prayer just over the past two days. Life is hard. That's something we all know. But Jesus never once told us that it would be easy. As a matter of fact in Matthew 16:24 He says "If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself [ disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself and his own interests] and take up his cross and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if needed be, in dying also]." Doing this is not easy. Denying yourself each day and taking up the cross is one of the hardest things there can be to do. But we have hope. Right before Jesus was arrested to be crucified He prayed. He went aside by himself and cried out to God. "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done." (Matthew 26:42) Before praying he said to His disciples "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death..."(Matthew 24:38). Doesn't this sound like us sometimes.? We can become so overwhelmed and burdened with sadness that we become hopeless.  Before taking up the cross Jesus himself prayed seeking peace and guidance in such a dark time. He was burdened and in anguish so He prayed. What does this tell us? We are supposed to imitate Christ and if Jesus the very person who wiped away all of our sin and shame got down on His knees and cried out to God for help then we to should do the same. Taking up the cross is a big deal and there will be times when it feels impossible to do. That is why we must pray.   Knowing that we have been asked to take up the cross, which is a task far to impossible for us to do on our own, we must pray asking God to help us throughout our day. So my challenge to you today is to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) know that your prayers are powerful and effective and that God is listening and will provide all that you need and ask for. My prayer for everyone that reads this post today is that "The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13  

Love,

Sofia

Bethany Hamilton speaking event!

Hey guys! So eight days ago I got to see Bethany Hamilton and her husband speak! I know I'm late blogging about it, but better late than never. Anyways last Sunday my youth group and I went down to Cocoa Beach to see Bethany speak at a church youth group service. It all started about four weeks ago when me and my mom were on our way to my brothers football game. As she was driving we passed a church and my mom said "Sofia, that church sign just said something about Britney Hamilton, Soul Surfer." I then corrected her saying it's "Bethany mom." and then slowly started to freak out. Bethany Hamilton! What? I made her turn the car around so I could make sure she wasn't just seeing things, and it turns out she wasn't. I couldn't believe it. Just a few days ago I had been on Bethany's website looking at a poster to buy and I just casually said " God it would be so awesome if I could meet her or see her speak somewhere." Now the opportunity was lying right before me! For those of you who don't know I'm a huge fan of Bethany. So this was a gift straight from God. I was in such awe at that moment. I never really actually thought that I was going to meet Bethany when I said those words to God but look what happened? Through this God has taught me a huge lesson, nothing at all is to big of a request or dream for Him to make happen or come true. Can I just first say it was one of the top coolest experiences of my life. She of course shared her famous story of loosing her arm, she talked about surfing and her love for God and the amazing things He has done for her life. She then went into other awesome things like saving yourself for marriage, true beauty, and finding hope in God even when life isn't so great. It was amazing, and then to top it all off, her husband Adam came up and spoke. That was awesome. He talked about his past and the struggles he went through. He also talked about how he met Bethany and the importance of having Jesus in the center of a relationship. It was such a nurturing message and so inspiring to see two young people who are so in love with each other but also so in love with Jesus. They break the worlds view of relationship and live out God's view of relationships. I was so extremely blessed to have experienced this. I give God all of the glory for blessing my life with such an incredible gift. My encouragement to you is never doubt! Know that God is listening even when you might not think so and that He is ready to make your wildest dreams come true! Nothing is impossible for Him. 

Bethany and her husband! (They were so cute)

       
     
 Jesus said, “If? There are no ‘ifs’ among believers. Anything can happen.” Mark 9:23(MSG)