Grace and Redemption

Pressing On

This week in class one of my professors shared that she is going to visit family for Thanksgiving and praying for the Lord to help her and giver her strength because her sister has Alzheimer's and will not remember her. Another one of my professors with tears in her eyes asked us to pray for her family because her sister-in-law has been diagnosed with cancer and has lost all of her hair and her son is angry and won't talk to anyone. This has been one of the hardest weeks all semester. I am in such a sweet season of life but one that is full of hardships, and testing. This week I cried out to God and said "Lord this is to much." What's to much? Everything. School, finances, family stress, relationships, loosing friends from home, watching my professors suffer from cancer, death, sickness, and pain, staying up until 3 a.m. to finish assignments, and feeling crushed by the weight of the tragedy happening in our world. I have felt so heavy and so numb. As I was praying "Jesus I need you." The Holy Spirit said to me, "Do you need Jesus so He can fix everything so you will feel better, or do you need Him because He is Jesus?" I sat in silence as I was sharply convicted. "Jesus doesn't just want to fix your situations Sofia, He wants to be the essence of your life and breath." Ugh. Why Holy Spirit? Why say this now while I am hurting and so overwhelmed by the things around me that I feel like I have lost control and am drowning in a sea of pain. When everything is going great it is so easy for me to say Jesus I need you, not just to fix my problems but simply because I love you. But when I feel as if I'm in the midst of a raging storm it is harder to say Jesus I need you because you are my life and easier to say Jesus I need you to come and fix all of this pain and mess I am in. I was listening to In Over My Head by Bethel and these lyrics stood out to me "Whether I sink, whether I swim, It makes no difference when I'm beautifully in over my head." I am no longer on the shores I have been plunged into the deep waters and Jesus says "Stop fighting it, you are in over your head just where I want you to be." No this doesn't mean we are defeated. It means that now we have surrendered control and given it to Jesus that His victory would sweep in, crush Satan, and set us free. But our freedom is found in surrender. The more trials that I go through, the more that I realize this. Life is too hard. Pain can be unbearable. Fear can kill you. College can be one of the hardest processes. But Jesus is greater. We are going to go through so much in this life. We are going to get beaten up on, hurt, pushed down, talked about, and left behind. But Jesus is greater. And at the end of our fight we will come face to face with the victor Himself. Today I was encouraged to stop sitting on my God given dreams because of the fear of pain and the unknown. But to rise up and fight against the kingdom of darkness and proclaim the truth that Jesus Christ has won. If you're going through it know that you're not alone and that this battle you are in right now may be banging you up and wearing you out but it is producing within you an anointing that is sending the devil on the run and unleashing victory, Don't give up God is not finished with you yet.
-Sofia

Stop Playing Games With The Enemy

Do Not Let Your Hands Hang Limp.

Laughing At His Promises

Happy Thursday! I feel like it has been so long since I last posted. College is no joke. Seriously I never have a day where I have no homework, projects, assignments, etc. I'm thankful for all of it though. I'm getting a world class education and once in a lifetime opportunities so I fight to be grateful. God is faithful guys. I can never say it enough. As I see His promises unfold I get filled with wonder but also look back at myself a  few months ago and say "Man, why didn't I just trust Him." Has God ever said something to you and you just laugh because of how crazy it sounds. Reading Genesis 18:10-14 strikes familiarity in my heart "Then the Lord said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son." Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, "After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?" Then the Lord said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say "Will I really have a child, now that I am old?" Is anything to hard for the Lord?" Sarah laughed at God's promise and I have done the same thing countless amounts of time. When God speaks the impossible into our lives and does not operate according to our timing or plans we can shrink back in disbelief. That's what Sarah did. She laughed at the thought of having a child because of her old age. Personally when this happens to me my disbelief turns into fear, my fear turns into doubt, and walls are built around my heart. It's a deadly cycle. I look back over these past few months and see how God has been so faithful to carry me through and provide in ways I didn't even think of. I was terrified of coming into this new semester of school. I was fearful of the unknown, uncertain of the promises of God, and elevating the lies of the enemy and opinion of man. Nothing was going the way I planned yet God's plan remained perfect and in place. God never once says to Himself, "Oh no I have to change this now because this didn't work out, what am I going to do!?" Instead He says "I have known all along, I go before you and behind you, before you are even in the next season of your life I am already there preparing the people, the place, and everything in between." It is a fight to trust. The enemy will always whisper the lie of "You can't trust God." But I hear the Lord say to me, "I am silencing the lies with My love." What lie have you believed? What promise has God spoken to you that you have laughed at? Be honest with yourself. I've believed the lie that I can't trust God, so therefore I must take things into my own hands. I've laughed at the fact that God has told me He will provide me with EVERYTHING I need, even when my circumstances say otherwise.I have so many times been Sarah. I have laughed at what God has told me because it is to big, to radical, to miraculous.  But that is the God we serve. We serve a God who takes or mundane broken lives and does the miraculous with them. We serve a God who cares about us so much and has no limit to how much He cares for He is love itself. God is a promise keeper. If God has promised you something and you still haven't received it, do not stop waiting. He is faithful. The enemy will tell you in the waiting that God won't come through, but that is a lie, God ALWAYS comes through. Jesus adores you. Your name is on the palms of His hands. You have not been put on standby you are always before Him. So when God gives you a promise laugh not with doubt but with expectation, because as crazy as that promise sounds "He who promised is faithful."(Hebrews 10:23).
-Sofia