We all know the story of David and Goliath, how David bravely slew the huge man with a stone and a sling. But before the battle came the prep. King Saul, despite himself being one of the tallest men in Isreal, cowered in fear, but instructed David to wear his kingly armor into battle. The problem? Another man’s armor didn’t fit young David, didn’t suit him. It actually encumbered & hindered him!

Point? In our spiritual walks, no one is the same. Some our strong where others are weak. Some are skilled while others are just beginning. In our efforts to grow spiritually we should not assume that what works for others will work for us. Are you a night owl? Then do your prayers and study at night. Are you still struggling with a certain, pesky sin? Try fasting AND prayer. What works for one might not work for everyone, so feel free to tweak strategies to suit you. Afterall, the overall goal is to win over evil – whether you use a sword or a stone.

I was cleaning out my closet today and ran across my wig from my chemo days. It was my one silver linings at the time, as I loved the dirty blonde hair. I had to shave my hair, my glory, after the second treatment because my hair was falling out in clumps. My glory was gone, but after I got the wig I could have it back, in a way. It was my borrowed glory.

I was going to talk about how the wig is like our relationship to Christ – how we borrow his glory to stand before God, perfect and whole, but then I delved into the word. While it says we were created FOR His glory, it also says we ARE His glory! (Isaiah 43:7, John 17:22). We don’t have BORROWED glory anymore, we ARE part of His glory, through Christ! How amazing that God can take us, his rag-tag bunch, and make something holy out of us! Praise to God & Jesus for these miracles!

Notice what it says in this verse.

Stand

Notice what it does not say. It does not say “thrive.” There are going to be some trying times in our walk when all we can barely do is STAND.

And on those days? It. Is. Enough

Have a blessed week, friends!

We all know the favorite Bible stories of old: Daniel in the lions’ den, Jonah in the whale, Abraham and Isaac… we love how God protected them and kept them safe. But notice closer: God saved Daniel from the lions, but Daniel still had to remain in the pit alllllll night.

God was kind enough to send Jonah a whale, but he was there for 3 long days.

And Abraham had to walk up a mountain, start the kindling, place his son on the altar and raise the knife before the angel of the Lord finally stopped his hand.

Why?

There much be value in the journey of faith. It is not just enough to hear of God’s mighty and merciful deeds. No. God wants us to experience them. To sketch us & grow our small seeds of faith. In real time. Sometimes painfully slowly. But it is here, and only here, you learn who God is, experience His goodness and where your faith builds it’s own legs to stand on.

And it is here that you get to see the miracles. Not from far away in safety, but in the pit of the lions, on an Egyptian shore with an army at your back, and in a furnace of fire.

We might never fully understand why, but There is value in the journey.

Last year I cheated.  I had jumped back on the Eat Right bandwagon after Thanksgiving, but just two weeks in I just couldn’t take it anymore.  Despite the fact that I was eating “right”, my flesh still wanted sugar!  A few days later I was driving when I heard a preacher on the radio say, “Good things sometimes cross over into sin when we begin using them for purposes God never intended.”  The question rang in my head, “What is God’s purpose for food?”

The answer was instant: “To sustain and promote growth and good health.”  My next thought was convicting: “The things I WANT to eat do not promote good health!”  Having an occasional dessert is not a sin, but eating a diet of fatty foods definitely was not using food for God’s original purpose! I realized my lack of joy was not what was going into my mouth, but what my mind was thinking.  I needed a new mindset.

Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. THEN you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (NIV) Applicably speaking, I was being called to “put down the ho-hos and grab a salad” (April Estes version).  The way I was thinking had to change.  I had to renew the way I was looking at food…not through fleshly eyes, but through godly eyes.

So, before every meal, I thought, “This is a chance for me to get as many foods in my system that are going to make me strong, smarter, fight cancer, etc.” I started focusing on the BENEFITS of the healthy eating, instead of the NEGATIVES.  My new mindset made eating the healthy foods seem like a blessing.  It made me focus on the joys of healthy eating.  Over time, I was even able to not only not miss the bad foods, but also see that eating healthy was reaping good things in my life.

This year, I encourage all of us to look at everything in our lives and ask “Am I using (this) for the purposes God intended?” As our eyes are opened, may we – with renewed eyes – put aside the wrong uses and resolve to use things as God intended!

“The thing about warriors who’ve been through battle is they know what the storm holds when the rains start blowing in. They wait – still and watching – to see the direction the storm will take before leaping into action. They observe. They plan. They calculate. But they DO. NOT. FLINCH. Like an Indian breaking a wild stallion, they ride the storm until they are forced to act. The thing about warriors is they do not flinch in times of adversity, but face it head-on, knowing full well the struggle to come.” May you be brave in the face of battle this week, young warrior, and stand. Unflinching. -A. E.

So many times the battle comes not as flaming temptation with a neon sign, but as gentle whispers and doubts. As with Eve, the devil loves to instill doubt.

“Did God REALLY SAY…?”

Satan doesn’t need to go into full battle. He can usually get a foothold and then we do the rest of his work for him, sadly.

It’s important to know what to do during those moments. Interestingly, the victory lies in the surrender. We take captive the doubts that are being hurled our way and we hit a knee and admit, “Lord, this is too much for me. Can you fight this battle for me?” I truly believe that’s when all heaven happily and gleefully springs into action: the frontlines are battling demons we can’t even see.

But we have to ask. Ever the gentleman, God will let us handle our own problems until we do say “I need you Lord!”

Need a victory? Just surrender.

I have a confession. I am not who people think I am. I recently did a Personality test and it came out looking like the capital letter L and my husband was shocked.

“Holy cow babe!” He exclaimed. “Do you know what this means?”

“Noooo,” I hesitantly answered, fearing he was going to say I had a serial killer’s profile.

“This means every thing that you do in life is opposite of what you really are,” he said.

“How so?” I asked.

“Well, you know how you perform on stage and are extroverted in public?”

“Yeah?”

“That’s not really you.”

The moment he said that everything clicked. He was exactly right. No one would ever believe that I am really an introverted, shy person but I always have been. When my dad one time heard about a little girl who waited by the door or five hours until her mom used to come pick her up at daycare he was shocked to hear that was me! That actually explains a lot of the exhaustion I feel after teaching children, playing on stage, and just simply going to church. As a matter of fact even though my husband Cuts multi million dollar deals at work every day, it is I who he chooses to haggle when buying cars. It is not my comfort zone. It is not not what I want to do, yet we always walk away with at least $1000 off asking price and usually a new set of tires LOL. Why? Because walking in this world best requires denying my (true, shy, introverted) self.

This seems counter culture in a world that always tells us to be authentic and be ourselves but it’s actually biblical. In Luke 9:23, Jesus tells us to deny ourselves and follow him. Jesus, ever the preacher of love and truth, admits that following him is not easy. Denying our flesh and selfish ambitions is not natural. But neither was dying on a cross.

Today, if you’re struggling to “be totally authentic” that’s ok. Instead, try being BETTER than you. Deny yourself and live the way HE leads.

I remember my first writer’s conference. It was actually songwriter’s conference and I was scared to death. They had times where we could present our songs to Nashville VIP’s & I knew I was over my head. I’d only been writing songs about a year and was “low man on the totem pole” after listening to the other “novices” around me. Most were musicians and singers, as well as writers, and had performed and written all their lives. There were only 3 spots that would be selected to meet one-on-one with the music producers and there were 8 of us in the room. Sometime During the tryouts, I went to the restroom and had a good cry. What was I doing?? Me, a middle aged mom of 4 – trying to run with the big dogs? I was filled with self doubt and resolved to go home and save myself the shame.

But, just as I was waiting for the elevator to arrive, I heard a voice whisper from deep within, “If you’re not gonna make it, you’re not gonna make it. But don’t make it be at your own hand.” I turned back to head for the critique room, to be told by an attendee, “Hey, they’ve been looking for you. One girl (the talented one) stormed out angry & the two other guys got a scheduling conflict so they wanna see me and you and Fish tomorrow.” Who’ve thought?! All the wise lessons my dad and grandpa taught me about doing your best no matter what came flooding back. You might not be the best, or even most worthy, but JUST SHOW UP. You never know! (Oh, and I got 2 second places, one 3rd & an Honorable Mention that year. Whoop!)

I write songs occasionally, and I have been amazed at the number of times I have written a song & then, in the future, it fits someone’s life perfectly, mirroring what they are going through. Every time, they will tearfully share how the song helped them. Strangely, in almost every case, those songs were the ones I didn’t “get”…didn’t really like where the song was going because it was “too heavy” or “too sad” or “not radio friendly”. There’s a term with artists called The Muse. All artists have a love/hate relationship with The Muse because it has them create something beautiful, but usually sends them off the path they had in mind. We are taught to respect the Muse, however, and follow where it leads.

The same can be said of the Holy Spirit. Many times his urges and hints and whispers can seem odd, make us uncomfortable – because we cannot see what is ahead. Following Him is like walking in the dark – on blind faith. But the outcomes are always beautiful!

I had a song inspiration once about a boy with cancer, the chorus being “You can’t fix everything”. Very heart tugging but I recorded it anyway. THREE YEARS LATER it perfectly mirrored the life of a friend whose boy had cancer. The song ministered to her tremendously! But God is funny like that: He is not constrained by time. Let us all resolve to listen to that still, small voice that doesn’t make sense or seems inconvenient…it just might be exactly what someone needs – now, or in the future.