Fighting with the Belt of Truth

God gives us spiritual armor that is described in Ephesians 6:10-18. These scriptures tell us that we are to put on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit. God gives us the belt of truth, which is His Word. When the Roman Empire was in existence, each Roman soldier had a loin belt. That loin belt was the main piece of armor that held the soldier’s whole outfit together. If a soldier didn’t have that piece, he wouldn’t be able to wear his armor and go into war without being killed.

God equips us with the armor that we need to walk in His power. Just as the loin belt on a Roman soldier was the key piece of their armor, God’s Word is our greatest defense in this world. We NEED to apply His Word daily. If we don’t read the Word of God daily and apply it to our life but instead choose to ignore it, we have made the decision to give the enemy a foothold.

When we don’t meditate on God’s Word, we will start to lose our sense of righteousness, sense of peace, the joy of our salvation, and then our ability to believe in faith in Him. We will not be able to use all the other armor that God has given us. The enemy will recognize that we don’t have the protective barrier of God’s Word in our life and will attack. This clearly isn’t God’s plan for our lives. That’s why He gave us our spiritual armor, but we have to do our part in using this weaponry.

God intends for every one of us to win the battle, because we can! If we have God in our lives, we are more than conquerors and can do anything in Christ Jesus! It’s never too late to pick up His Word, start reading, and be victorious!

-Arianne

Heart-Attachments

The greatest word that God has ever given me regarding this new season of life that I am in is that I cannot enter into a new season with the same bondages and disappointments of the last season. It’s just like in Matthew 9:17 where Jesus tells us that we cannot pour new wine into old wineskins. If we do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out, and the wineskins will be ruined. When the new wine is poured into the new wineskins, both are preserved.

When God begins a new season in your life, leave behind the old and embrace the new! In doing that, both the promises before you and your testimony will be preserved! This is a witness of God's mercy and miracles!

What is your heart attached to? Is it attached to a relationship, a job, money, or an addiction? The best place to have your heart attached is to the Kingdom of God! In a mother's womb, the baby is attached to her through the cord. The cord is what is giving the baby energy and life. Jesus says, "I am the vine, and you are the branches." What are you connected to that is giving you energy? What is keeping you going each day? Anything you draw energy from or life from (whether negative or positive) is an idol before God. God honors a heart that is earnestly seeking and drawing near to Him. Even the waiting period is worth it! The joy found in following His perfect plan is unexplainable! Pray, pray, pray and never give up! Even when you arrive into your Promise Land, don’t quit praising Him!! Thank God in advance for all His mercy, His grace, for your relationship with Him, for the things He has done, and for the things to come! Whatever season of life you are walking through, seek God and know He will provide.

-Kristen

Because I love you

A while ago, I went to see Brock Gill, a Christian illusionist, at the campus of Indiana University. It was a good show, but the one thing that really struck me was when he shared his testimony. He said, “You must really dislike your friends if you don’t tell them about Jesus.” Ever since he said that, I have really thought about the fact that I don't take enough time in my day to share this love I have found with everyone I love.

Since I don't dislike you and actually love you more than you will ever know, I want to share with you this love I have found in Christ. I found a love that is never ending. He is always there when I need Him most and He is always there, even when I don't think I need Him. He never fails me. He brings me hope when I feel like I have no hope at all. He gives me faith to press through any situation because I know He will be my strength. His love keeps me from giving up. He keeps pushing me forward and encouraging me to stay on the right path. He protects me from the things I can't handle and can't face on my own. He brings light to my path and directs me in everything. He is there when the world turns its back on me and His love fulfills like nothing on this earth can. I depend on His love for everything I need!

Through the love of Christ, I know who I am and who I will always be. Because of this love, I know that no matter what other people think of me, I am valuable and secure. So, because I don’t dislike you, and in fact, love you so much, I want you to know about this love I have found so you can experience it for yourself.

-Tabitha

When the rubber meets the road

I believe in grace. I believe that Christ paid the ultimate sacrifice for my cleansing and for my freedom. I know in my head that it's true, but so often I am desperately echoing the cry, "Lord help my unbelief!"

When I wipe out and I have a mouthful of asphalt, and all I see is my failure - that is when my trust is shaken and tested. That is when God reveals that I was not truly trusting in Him in the first place. Is He my righteousness? Does my salvation depend on His merit completely? Am I nothing without Christ in me - my only hope of glory? If that is all true, and it is, then why give failure such power? Failure will happen as long as we inhabit bodies of sin and death, but in the aftermath, that's when the rubber meets the road. These are the opportunities to cling to the Truth, to appropriate it, and to trust that His sacrifice is more than enough. These are the opportunities to truly live out Christianity - to walk forward with our heads held high because we boast of nothing in and of ourselves. Sin has a way of crippling us and stopping all forward motion. The accuser uses it as ammunition. The accusations are all smoke and mirrors. They are an illusion to hide the truth that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Sin's power has been forever broken. We sin. He paid for it. We are free to repent!

Today I choose to believe that although I have failed at times, God is enough. He is more than able to pick me up when I fall. Pride would keep me licking my wounds in the asphalt, but humility accepts His steadfast love. Humility allows me to accept His mercy with an open hand and a thankful heart.

-Emily

My Heart Is His

God is searching for a heart that is completely His. How am I to know if my heart fully belongs to Him? What does that look like? I want to say my heart is His, but can I say it is completely His? No, I can’t. I have given my heart to my school, my work, my job, and my friends. I’ve only given a part of my heart to God. God should come first and my heart should be His.

How can we expect God to fill our hearts completely if we don’t first give it to Him? God has been challenging me in this area. He wants to be first in my life. He wants everything to start and to end with Him. Daily I want to wake up with songs of praise in my heart. Daily I want to breathe in His mercy and love. Daily I want to bring Glory to His Name! I can’t do these things if my heart is not completely His. You see, we can’t be Christ’s hands and feet if we are not willing to first open our hearts up to Him. Everyday I have to say, “God I am yours and my heart is only yours.”

I want my heart to break for what breaks His heart. He loves all His children the same and He hurts when they hurt. I want to hurt for the broken and be filled with joy for those that have walked into the light. I want to be the hands that feed the hungry and give water to the thirsty. I want to shed tears when my brother or sister in Christ is hurting.

He is the only one gentle enough to hold my heart and strong enough to mold it in to what He wants it to be. When I wake up, He is with me and when I go to school, He is with me. God is with me no matter where I am. He loves me no matter what I do. He loves me because He is love and I am His child

-Brittany

Forgetting what is behind…I press on…

This week has been crazy, but awesome! I've done everything from hiking the Ozarks to moving into my new apartment in Missouri. The more I’ve been thinking about it, the more I have realized how much and how quickly the Lord has drastically changed my life. Everything I’ve ever known has been turned upside down, from living conditions to friends… to everything!

I was in the prayer room last night worshipping, and I felt a nudge from the Holy Spirit. As I waited on the Lord, He showed me that although He has completely changed everything about my life, I am still trying so hard to hold onto past things, like past memories and past comforts. I feel like I replay so many memories from my past in my mind. I go over times in my life when I was around certain people or at certain places or dating someone. I realized I have been trying to cling to these things, fighting to keep these memories close to my heart because, to be honest, I am scared to let go of them. I'm scared to let go of a life I once knew. It scares me to think that the Lord is leading me on a new journey full of new people and circumstances, especially when I still want to hold onto the old because it's familiar. I realized I can't step into the future He has for me until I surrender my past fully to Him. I thought I had, but I feel He is calling me to do it at a deeper level. I am learning to trust in His leadership and let go of my past so that He can take me to new places. It's funny when you really think about it! We try so hard to cling to past friendships and relationships. We try to stay in contact with people even when we don't necessarily feel like it, but we do it because it's familiar. We feel we are supposed to, but maybe the Lord has some people in our lives for a VERY short amount of time. He leads us to let go, but we still cling to it when He's saying, “Let go, LET GO so I can move you forward into the things I have for you!”

-Caitlin

A Letter from a Stranger. A Blessing from the Lord.

I absolutely love how God uses a complete stranger to encourage us when we least expect it. I just thought I would share one example of how He blessed me today. :)

I was at work (a gently used clothing store), going through the jeans one by one in the men's section, buttoning, zipping, and hanging them correctly in the right spot, when I came across this one pair of jeans that had a folded piece of paper in the pocket. As I unfolded it and began reading, I couldn't help but smile at how awesome God is. This is what it said:

"Dear Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit!

I love you, dear Lord, and I worship Your most holy name. I just can't believe, comprehend, understand, how You, the one and only God of the universe, would allow a me to pray to You and communicate with You. I am just a common human being and yet you sent Your Son into this world to be crucified for my sins. You lift me up out of my sins and make me whiter than snow and call me Your child and make me feel so special- a child of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!!!

Your love is so comforting, awesome, and encompassing! Your love is so real and unchanging. You are love! Your name is synonymous with love!

I love You, Abba Father, always and forever."

Wow, I definitely was encouraged. I don't know who wrote it, or when they wrote it, or how it even managed to remain in the pocket of the jeans after they were sold to us (we check all the pockets before we buy them and hang them up on the floor to sell), but God is in control of all things- even the things that seem insignificant. He truly does use anything and everything to bring Himself glory and give us the opportunity to worship Him. What a good God!!!

-Hannah