Expect to Be Empowered

Wherever you are in life, you have a purpose. It's inevitable that we will run into some difficult obstacles the second we choose to do something good with our lives, but we can overcome these obstacles. Amy Groeschel from Life Church teaches us how to unlock the power we need to overcome each obstacle we will be faced with in this lifetime. Let's live this life empowered!

How can I love him back?

The ironic thing about life with God is that as new believers we are passionate about figuring out what the purpose is for our life. We boldly ask God questions like: “What’s my purpose?” and “What’s my calling in life? Please reveal it to me!” What happens when God answers our questions? We freak out. The response often sounds something like this: “Aaaaaah! Nooo, I don’t want to do that! That’s too scary and too big for me to accomplish! Don’t get me wrong God, it’s a beautiful plan, but are you sure you have the right woman for the job? I’m not strong enough for that calling. I don’t have enough courage to accomplish what you are calling me to do!”

God’s response to our fears is usually something like this: “I know, and that’s exactly why I chose you. You do not have what it takes, so the only way you are going to be able to accomplish this great task is by letting me do it through you.” God is a great God, and it should come as no surprise that He will call us to great things. Plans so beautiful and big that we get both excited and terrified at the same time when He reveals them to us. We are not the first people in history to have that response to God’s big and beautiful plans for our lives. When God chose Moses to lead the people of Israel Moses was convinced that God had chosen the wrong guy for the job, because Moses had a stuttering problem. But God knew exactly what he was doing, our limitations will not hinder God’s great plans for our lives, but our disobedience can.

The Bible calls us to love God and love other people. We know what we need to do to love other people; prioritize spending time with them and help them out. But how do we love God? It’s simple; we spend time with God through prayer and reading the Bible and we help him out. How can we help God? We help God out when we do what He is calling us to do. There’s something we were created for and when we do what God calls us to do we express our love for Him.

“Do we love God? Do we keep his commands? The proof that we love God comes when we keep his commandments and they are not at all troublesome.” (1 John 5:1-3 MSG)

It’s a joy, not a burden, to get to live this life serving God and follow his purpose for our lives but it’s also scary. Following God will often include the need to face some fears. If I’m only willing to obey God when I’m not afraid, then I won’t do much good in this life will I? There are a couple of different journeys that God is clearly calling me on during this season of my life and I haven’t started neither of them yet. Why? Because I’m terrified! Obeying God would require me to face a couple of my biggest fears. It’s tempting to listen more to my fear than I do to God. But what does that say about my love for God? If I know what God wants me to do during this season of life but I choose to disobey him because I’m afraid, then I don’t love Him very much do I? I’m not surprised that God is calling me on these two different journeys this year. Fear has too much power over my life and God clearly wants to change that. My problem is that I’m too content with life the way it is right now. I’d rather stay stuck and be comfortable than get up and face my biggest fears.

God loves me so much. He has given me so many beautiful gifts in this life since the day I was born. God gave me a loving and warm mother, a loving and protective father, a loving and kind brother and many wonderful friends growing up. God gave me a healthy body with arms and legs that work. I can walk, talk, sing and dance, my body is a beautiful gift from God. I was also gifted with the great honor, responsibility and blessing of being born in a country where I never had to worry about having enough food, clothing or a roof over my head growing up. God has given me so many beautiful gifts throughout my childhood and he continues to bless me every year in powerful and beautiful ways. How can I not love Him back?

I can choose to follow my fear, or I can choose to face my fears and obey God’s call on my life. It’s time to make that jump. I want to love God back! No more excuses. I know God will give me the courage I need for each step of the journey after I take that first step of obedience, so here we go! Step 1, check!

to be continued...

Let Go and Enjoy Today

Early mornings and Quiet Time has become one of my favorite parts of the day. I like to get up a little earlier than usual, light a candle in the darkness and read my Bible and pray for half an hour each morning. It's easy to underestimate the power of having a daily Quiet Time each morning. My friend told me she never used to do it regularly before she had three kids and she became desperate for God's peace and strength in her life.

My Quiet Time always gives me joy, peace and strength for what lays a head that day. Spending time in God's presence each morning changes my approach and attitude toward everything I will face that day. I go through each day with a different type of awareness, it becomes easier to see the lesson God is teaching me in every blessing and every struggle that I face. Once you know God you quickly realize that there is no such thing as random events, every situation that comes my way can teach me something. Every blessing and every difficulty is an opportunity for me to grow in character and holiness. I'm fully aware that there are a lot of areas in my soul where I still need to grow. That's what life is for, growth.

This morning I was reading Numbers 32 during my Quiet Time. What stood out to me in this passage was how important courage is in life. I could use some more courage in my life. I have a highly sensitive personality which is a gift in many ways. The downside is that my personality also causes me to get easily overwhelmed. When I get overwhelmed and fearful in life all I want to do is flee. It takes courage to stay and fight when all I want to do is run away.

Numbers 32 talks about how when God called the Israelites to finally enter their promised land they got fearful and didn’t want to do what God was calling them to do. They were fearful and started to discourage each other which led to everyone choosing to disobey God. Among all the fearful Israelites were two young men who had courage; Caleb and Joshua. Caleb and Joshua were ready to follow God’s plan for their lives wholeheartedly. Fear and discouragement can keep us from so many good things in our lives.

The only way I can do what God calls me to do is if I choose to encourage myself. My courage will quickly run out if I start to discourage myself. The Israelites discouraged each other and quickly everyone became afraid. Courage doesn’t always appear by itself, I must stir it up inside my soul through encouragement. When I end up discouraging myself I usually tell myself lines like these: “This will never work, I know I’m going to fail, I might as well not even try. It’s safer that way. I don’t want to take any risks.” 

Everything changes when I start to fight my fear rather than follow my fear. When I choose to fight against my fear I encourage myself with lines like these: “It makes sense that you are afraid, but don’t let the enemy keep you from your calling in life. You might fail, but God never fails. God will redeem all the mistakes you will end up making during the process. Follow God and He will take care of the rest, His plans for you are good. This won’t work without God, you’re right about that, but with God anything is possible.”

Another fact that encourages me to follow God’s call on my life is knowing that there is no other way. The Israelites choice wasn’t between doing life their own way or doing life God’s way. God was the one in charge, and sooner or later they would have to bow to His leadership. The choice that the Israelites had was between obeying God or disobeying and walking in the wilderness for the rest of their lives. That might sound like very few choices, but it’s often what’s needed for us to finally make the right decision in life.

When there’s something in my life that I don’t want to do I usually try all other options first, before I finally decide to do the right thing. Obedience isn’t comfortable, which is why it makes sense that we often avoid it. When I was 17-years old my parents told me I needed to go to driving school. I didn’t want to do it and told them I didn’t really need a driver’s license that much. My parents told me I didn’t have that choice, I was going to driving school whether I liked the idea or not. Driving school was very uncomfortable, scary and at times overwhelming for me but I did it! Today I have my driver’s license and I know that unless my Mom&Dad had done their job as parents I would not have my license today. We don’t always like what our parents tell us to do but loving parents have the child’s best interest at heart. I’m so grateful for everything my wonderful parents have taught me about life, their love is what made me who I am today.

I will not always like what God calls me to do in life, but I can trust that he has my best interest at heart. Young kids can never understand why their parents want them to do certain things, but there is always a reason. Sometimes we have to wait until we are older to understand why our loving parents did what they did. I find that it’s the same way with God. I won’t always understand why God says “No” to certain things I want and “Yes” to other things that I don’t want, but there is always a reason. 

Seven years ago I was passionate about finding a job in Vancouver but God kept saying “No”. I was very frustrated with all the doors that God kept closing in front of me. God gave me a job in Toronto instead and one month after I arrived in Toronto I met the love of my life. I won’t always understand what God is up to in my life, but I can trust that He is working in all things for my good. God’s plan is always better than my plans. It’s freeing to let go and trust God. The more I get to know God, the easier it becomes to trust Him. The more I trust Him, the less I worry. I can let go and enjoy today, because I know that God holds my tomorrow.

Can we get honest about our weaknesses

One reason we don’t want to get honest with each other about our weaknesses is because we think that our mistakes and failures define us. There are two different ways to look at our weaknesses, mistakes and failures. The world tells us that our weaknesses, failures and mistakes make us “less than” and affect our worth as a human-being. The world will always measure a person’s worth and success based on their performance. If you excel we will celebrate you in this world, but if you fail you will be defined based on your performance as “a failure”. 


God’s view of our weaknesses, failures and mistakes is very different. God made us and he could have chosen to make us perfect, but instead he chose to make us with weaknesses. My own weaknesses and failures are not a sign that I am “less than”, they are a sign that I was created to exist in a relationship with God. The Bible teaches me that where I am weak, He is strong, but this requires me to let God in. God will never force himself into our lives, we must ask him for help. When I admit my need to God he will give me strength when I am weak, provide where I have a need and redeem what is broken in my life. 

We all have different strengths and weaknesses but each person is weak in some area. The person who tells you that she doesn’t have any weaknesses at all is only working hard at covering them up. Our deficiencies in life are not a sign that we are not “good enough”, it’s a space that God has created for himself in our lives. God is not expecting us to be strong and independent all the time. God wants me to need him, because he wants a relationship with me. If I was a perfect human there would be absolutely no need for God in my life, but God has made sure that I’m far from perfect. I can’t flourish apart from God, I need him, whether I like it or not. This life was meant to be like a dance between God and man, but man decided to leave God out. “I can do this myself” the human said, and here we are. Look how well we are doing by ourselves.

When I try to do life out of my own strength I will fail, mess up and end up exhausted. I wasn’t created to live this life apart from God so when I choose to not let God into my life it’s natural for me to end up worried, anxious, insecure and overwhelmed. I find freedom when I learn to surrender. The moments in your life when you will see God move in powerful ways is often the moments when you are the weakest. The moment I realize that trying harder is not going to work I will finally surrender. When I stop trying to be perfect and say: “God I’m ready to admit that I can’t do this without you, please help me, I need you” that’s when everything shifts. It’s in times like these that we get to see God move in our lives in ways that we could never have imagined. It starts with surrender. One of the greatest obstacles that keep us from knowing God intimately is our own pride. Pride says: “I can do this myself, I don’t need God.” God has left many signs that point to His existence in the universe, like his beautiful artwork; sunsets, mountains, sandy beaches and newborn babies. But another way that God shows himself is by showing up for us where we are weak, if we let him.

God loves every human-being on planet Earth but each human has been given free choice by God. We get around 100 years to decide if we will choose to love God back or not. We can choose to love God back or we can choose to reject him. From the beginning humans have been tempted to build their lives apart from God and do things their own way. The sad thing about this story is that apart from God humans can not flourish. God has created us to exist in relationship with him and apart from him our souls become sick and we end up breaking each other. Saint Augustine stated it well when he said: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” I can choose to struggle through this life alone, or I can learn to “dance with God”.

My heart is at peace

From the day we are born our spiritual enemy, the devil, will work hard at trying to ruin our lives. He will send diseases, challenges and heart aches our way, whatever he can use to break us. He knows that if he can destroy us then through our broken lives he can break the whole world, piece by piece. Anyone who has tried to take on the enemy on their own knows that he is much stronger than we will ever be. The enemy will win if we fight him alone, but if we go into our battles in life with God by our side there is nothing that will be able to come against us and succeed at taking us down. There are many examples in the Bible of kings who went into war without asking God for his opinion first, let's just say it didn't end very well for them. Other times Israel would have a king that would always inquire of the Lord before making any big decisions and in times like these there would be peace and joy in the land.

One thing I have noticed through the years of being a Christian is that as long as you live a complacent life, thinking mostly about yourself, the enemy will leave you alone. You will even doubt that he exists because you have no big problems in life, but the day you decide to align your life with God's purpose he will come after you. When you take on changing the world make sure you are not doing it out of your own strength. You will need God's strength, his provision and his protection. The enemy works hard to kill, steal and destroy everything that is good in our lives and in the world, but our God has the power over all the darkness. When we are saved and become filled with the Holy Spirit the spirit that lives in us is so much greater than our spiritual enemy who is in this world.

The Storm Inside

We all face storms in life. These storms many times devastate us and leave us torn apart and beyond recognition. Heartbreak. Fear. Regret. Insecurity. Shame. When these emotions well up inside you, it's difficult to believe you will make it through. We have an enemy who says you will not survive this one.

But God offers us a way through the storm. In The Storm Inside, we'll look at the stories of eight women of the Bible who traveled the path from shame to love, from disappointment to hope, from insecurity to courage, from despair to faith, and more. We'll get to know them as real people and see how God came through for each of them. We'll see the crucial choices they made, and we'll lay hold of the grace that forgives what is past, gives strength for the present moment, and offers hope for the future.

Join Sheila in this eight-session video-based Bible study of eight women of the Bible, whose stories still speak today, encouraging you that God is faithful enough to get you through the worst storms in life.

Sessions include:
1. From Shame to Love
2. From Disappointment to Hope
3. From Fear to Joy
4. From Heartbreak to Strength
5. From Regret to Rest
6. From Insecurity to Confidence
7. From Insignificance to Courage
8. From Despair to Faith


You can buy "The Storm Inside" by Sheila Walsh as a book, audiobook or DVD Study at www.chapters.indigo.ca

Why and how do I Pray?

Prayer is a central part of being a Christian, it's how we talk to God. God wants each one of us to be in a close relationship with him because he loves us. I personally find it hard to take the time to pray sometimes. If I get really busy it's easy to forget about prayer. Other times I feel bad for asking God to give me something, sometimes I feel like I should be strong enough to not need his help, but God will never be disappointed in us for asking something from him, whether it's something big or small.


This week there is a lot to pray for, we pray for God to comfort those who are mourning the loss of loved ones in Paris. I also have a friend who is very sick that I will be praying for this week. Except for praying for our personal stuff it's also good to pray for God to intervene in places where there is suffering in the world. We can pray for the protection of staff and children in the orphanage that we support or for a non-profit in our city. It's good to have different categories to pray for on different days so that we can cover a lot of things.

Under pressure

What should we do when we are under pressure in life? What should we do when things don´t go as we planned in life? It´s easy to become fearful and loose hope when the pressure of life hits us. Life is full of different kinds of pressure; relationships, career, finances or when things don´t go as we planned. This week I´m still in Scandinavia so I decided to listen to a Swedish sermon online. Pastor Josef Barkenbom gives us a few tips on what to do when we are under pressure in life.

1) Don´t be surprised when the pressures come in life.

The more you live life right the more people will come against you. In fact, if nobody is against you or you are experiencing no pressure at all in life you might not be doing very much with your life. Take the pressure against you as a sign that you are doing something right because following your passion or fighting for what is right never comes easy. When you are working towards something that is good and right there will always be people trying to hold you back.

2) Stay comitted to the right things in life and learn to be flexible with the right things in life.

Although it´s sometimes really difficult to accept changes in life it will become harder if we hang on to soemthing that we can´t control, something that we know deep inside that has to change. Many things in life change and if we can learn to be a little more flexible when things don´t go as we planned we will also find the strength we need to go on.

God on the other hand, will never change, and if we continue to hold on to his promises we can find new strength from him. When we remeber all the good things God has already done for us in life we will be able to trust that he will take care of us also this time.

3) Lift your eyes

When life is hard it´s very easy to fix our eyes on the now and forget the joy that God has promised us in the future. If we lift our eyes from our circumstances and focus more on the big picture and on God we can find the strength to get through a difficult season in life. Jesus himself was able to endure all the pain of the cross because his eyes were fixed on the future joy that would come, he knew that although the pain was very difficult is was temporary. Learning to forgive others that has come against us is also an important part of being able to move on towards a brighter future.

Don't settle and you WILL find true love!

It's amazing what we can get to experience in life once we decide to stay true to ourselves and choose not to settle. Moriah found her true love Joel and got her first kiss at the altar! :) Courage and strength in your faith will always be rewarded by God. Let's be brave so we won't miss out on the best things in life just because we didn't believe they would ever happen.