You Are Not Alone at Christmas!

Christmas is a few days away and there are a lot of people who are excited. And how can they not be?

The Christmas tree is decorated

The gifts are ready

The family is coming over

The food is sorted

Friends will be there

and so on and so on…

But there is another reality to Christmas. The reality that there are a lot of people facing depression, people who are contemplating

suicide, people who are facing mental health issues and so many other negative things.

But there is an answer to all the pain and difficult things we go through not just at Christmas but throughout the year.

“He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom

men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

Isaiah 53:3 ASV

I love this scripture because it’s talking about JESUS. He was despised and rejected by men. He was acquainted with grief.

He was a man of sorrows! What a title.

If there is anyone who knows the pain you are going through it’s JESUS. He knows exactly what you are going through?

He knows the darkness you are in and the chains that are suffocating you.

He knows the hopelessness you are feeling at the moment and that is why you should call on Him immediately.

Whatever you are going through at the moment I want you to know that you are not alone. He is with you. He wants

to help you and bring you out of the darkness. He wants to break the chains that are suffocating you right now.

Whatever pain and heartache you are going through remember that Jesus went through it. He was the man of sorrows.

“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”

Isaiah 53:4 ASV

Give Him your grief. He will carry your sorrow.

So cry out to Him for help. He loves you and wants to be there for you.

He knows your every pain that you are going through right now.

There is hope for you this Christmas friend. And His name is JESUS!

Rolain

 

This Is How God Delights In Us!

“By this I know that you delight in me;

my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.”

Psalm 41:11

I love this verse. As I read it I got excited and I knew I had to share it with you.

Because God delights in us He will not let our enemies shout in triumph over us.

Whatever battle you are in at the moment, take heart that God will not let the enemy be victorious over you.

The enemy will not win over you. You may fall but you will get up and be victorious all because God loves you and delights

in you!

And don’t let the devil or anyone else for that matter tell you that God doesn’t care for you. Don’t let the negative voices

lie to you that you are unloved and alone because they are all lies. God cares for you and is for you. He thinks about you

all the time and loves you.

“How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than

the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.”

Psalm 139:17

God delights in you!

He loves you!

And because of that you will be victorious!

Your enemies will not triumph over you!

Bless you friends.

Rolain

The Victory We Are A Part Of – An Easter Story!

Happy Easter to you all.

I hope you are having a great time celebrating the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is a strong day for us as Christians, a day of power for sure. I am so excited about this weekend because of what it represents. This is what makes the Gospel the Gospel if you know what I mean. If Jesus never died and rose again we wouldn’t be here and Christianity would be nullified. The power of our faith is based on the death and resurrection of Jesus. Paul speaks about this in 1 Corinthians 15:13 so I encourage you to go and read that passage of scripture.

But I want to focus on another story in this post.

“Then Jesus uttered another loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.”

Mark 15:37

As we all know Jesus died on the cross. And for a brief moment the devil thought he had won. He thought he had victory over Jesus. And for a brief moment Jesus’ followers lost too. But that was not the end of the story…

“The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead!”

Luke 24:5, 6

Jesus rose from the dead! He conquered the devil. He won the war.

He was victorious and because of what he did we too have that same victory. And that’s why this weekend is so powerful, so important. There is a grace for us if we will only see. We need to ask the Lord for his help because he was victorious for us.

So if you are in a dark place today, and it seems like the enemy is too strong and the giants are too many I want you to know that there is victory available to you. The devil does not have the last say in your story. Jesus does! He has the last say and it is good and it is final. His Word cannot be overturned by the devil.

When the curtain in the temple tore into two, our access to God was now cleared of all obstacles, We could now go to him anytime. We now have a direct line of communication to the Creator of the Universe, to the Lord of Armies.

So as you can see, a lot of important things happened that day when Jesus rose from the dead and that is why this is such a strong day for you and me. As I come to the end of this post I want to encourage you to reflect on what Jesus did on the cross and how that affects your life. I read a definition of what it means to be a Christian that challenged me recently that goes,

A Christian is someone who believes in the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ and lives in light of the implications of that event

I love that and I am so challenged.

With that I have come to the end of the post.

Have a great and blessed weekend friends.

Bless you!

There Is More To Your Story

“The chariots of God are twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands;

the Lord is among them; Sinai is now in the sanctuary.

You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train and receiving

gifts among men, even among the rebellious that the Lord God may dwell there.”

Psalm 68:17, 18

The first thing I want to say after reading that amazing verse is that you have victory.

The Lord went out and conquered. He was victorious over all His enemies and because

of that we have victory.

The word says he led out a host of captives.

Who were those captives? Sickness, poverty, anxiety, fear you name it.

He defeated them all and because we are His children victory is our portion.

But at times it seems like the enemy is so strong. It seems like he is winning from

every direction. Where ever we turn we seem to be losing BUT..

The same thing happened to Jesus.

The devil thought he had won over him when He was crucified.

End of the story he thought.

Victory he thought.

But he was so wrong. There was still more to the story, much more.

Jesus defeated death and rose again and saved us all!

So no matter how bleak it seems, remember there is more to your story.

It’s not over yet, no even close. The devil may seem to be winning at the moment but he doesn’t

have the final say.

Jesus does and He has defeated all your enemies!

Bless you friends

Rolain

Where You Start Is Not Where You End.

On one of my recent podcast writing episodes I talked about this.

If you didn’t know, I have a podcast where I talk to authors and aspiring authors.

I provide tips, advice and encouragement. The podcast is called,

The Writer’s Creative Space.

If you would like to listen to the episode here is the link.

Anyway, as I recorded the episode I realized this was not just a life principle but a

spiritual principle.

“Where you start is not where you end” is a spiritual principle too.

I am reminded of Rahab. She didn’t have the best start. She was a prostitute and people

saw her in one way. Her narrative for a time was negative. I don’t think anyone saw

greatness in her. But that all changed when some Hebrew spies came to her.

Her life changed forever. Her narrative changed for good.

“By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed

with those who were disobedient.”

Hebrews 11:31

Her end was so much better than her beginning. And if you search deeper into her

story you will find she was included in the lineage of Jesus Christ!

What an honor, what an ending.

So you see. where you start is not where you end.

Let me share one more example.

The disciples were ordinary men with no real purpose before Jesus. They were fishermen.

I wouldn’t say being a fisherman was bad but it wasn’t the greatest thing to be.

The disciples were probably overlooked. They probably overlooked themselves!

But look at what happened when Jesus came onto the scene.

Everything changed. Their lives were changed forever.

They became fisher of men and turned the world upside down!

And that’s the other thing I want you to see.

Only Jesus can change the narrative.

Only Jesus can change the ending.

You may be in a place today where you can’t make sense of how your life is going.

You may not understand how God can turn it around but He can and will.

No matter how you have started know that your end will be very different.

Look to Jesus for help.

Trust Him to change the narrative in your life.

Trust Him to change the ending.

Bless you friends

Rolain

What Do You Believe?

What you believe about yourself is stronger than the potential you have.

God has created you with incredible potential with the intention you use it all. But the beliefs you have about yourself is what matters the most. For example, you can have the potential to be an astronaut but if you believe you don’t have what it takes or you believe you can’t be an astronaut then that’s what will happen.

Our negative beliefs about ourselves stop us from using all the potential God has given us. But enough of theories. I have proof of this principle from the word of God so let’s get into it.

The Israelites were God’s chosen people. They had incredible potential indeed. God was with them. From the time He led them out of Egypt to the Promise land He was with them. They had never know defeat, their clothes and shoes never wore out, they had a cloud to lead them by day and fire by night. So talk about potential. They finally reached the promise land and something interesting happened. The spies that went and spied out the land had a report for the people:

“We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.”

“But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.”

“We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

Numbers 13: 26-33

Potential was not enough for the Israelites to obtain what God promised them. It boiled down to what they believed and what they believed stopped them from possessing the promise land save for Joshua and Caleb. They believed they couldn’t win. They believed they were grasshoppers. But remember, God had delivered them from the Egyptians, and looked after them in the desert.

That’s how powerful our beliefs are.

We need to take a long hard look at the beliefs we have. Where have we picked up the beliefs we currently hold? Are they from the word of God or from people around us? Our beliefs should be based on the word of God because the Word is truth. It doesn’t change and can’t be shaken. It is solid and is our foundation.

What you believe is important.

Let’s look at one more example. Gideon had so much potential in him. When the angel of the Lord appeared to him, he called him a mighty man of valor (Judges 6;1). That was the potential in him but for as long as Gideon could remember, he was made to believe something else. He was made to believe he was the least of the least which wasn’t true.

But the good news is that, God changed Gideon’s belief. The potential was always in him to be a mighty man of valor but work had to be done on his beliefs and when the belief changed he became what God created him to be! I love that.

I have had some crazy beliefs in the past about myself. Crazy, negative beliefs, but God has changed them. The outdated beliefs I held for so long have been changed and He continues to change them. Outdated, negative beliefs don’t change in a day. It takes time and it’s a process. God wants us to believe in Him. He wants us to believe in the promises and plans He has for us.

So as I come to the end of the post I want to encourage you to ask God to show you the beliefs that are holding you back and know that outdated, negative beliefs can be changed. God wants to help you.

God bless you friends.

The kingdom we are a part of…

“As you watched, a rock was cut from a mountain, but not by human hands. It struck the feet of iron and clay, smashing them to bits. The whole statue was crushed into small pieces of iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold. Then the wind blew them away without a trace, like chaff on a threshing floor. But the rock that knocked the statue down became a great mountain that covered the whole earth.”

‭‭Daniel‬ ‭2:34-35‬ ‭NLT‬‬

 

There are a lot of crazy things happening in the world today. Global pandemic, world powers vying for power and dominance and so many other things that seem so overwhelming when we try to think about it all. In the midst of that it’s hard to see the true power of God’s kingdom. On the surface it looks like nothing much is going on, that Christianity is powerless to make a difference in these end times but that’s not what the word tells us.

Daniel got a powerful word for king Nebuchadnezzar from God. A word about God’s kingdom!

 

“But the rock that knocked the statue down became a great mountain that covered the whole earth.”

“During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. It will crush all these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever.”

Daniel 2:44-45

 

The kingdom of God will not diminish in the end times, no. The kingdom will become more and more powerful. As other kingdoms and systems fail, God’s kingdom will not.

We are living in the end times and in these days the kingdom of God is getting stronger and stronger and we are a part of that kingdom.

Don’t lose hope friends. God’s plan is beginning to speed up in this time. It’s not slowing down. He has amazing things in store for us and for those who will listen in these end times. I don’t know about you but I am excited. I am excited because even though things are wild and crazy, God is working.

The enemy may seem to be getting stronger but his days are numbered. The kingdom of God is getting mightier and mightier, and brighter and brighter!

Don’t lose hope in these times.

God is faithful forever!

 

As I wrap up this post I want to let you know I have started a YouTube channel and today I started a series titled,

“Worth something”

It’s a three part series and the first episode is titled,

“The value of dirt”

I encourage you to watch the episode and then like and subscribe so you don’t miss the remaining episodes to come.

Click here to watch.

Bless you friends. 

Rolain

A huge announcement!

Hi friends.

I have some great news to share with you.

For the past few months I have been working on my first book and it’s finally finished!

This year has had its challenges for sure but God has been so faithful and has got me to this point.

The book is called, “Rise Above Fear” and is a 31-day devotional.

At its core is a call to rise above the fears that plague us on a daily basis to take a step of faith into what God has for us.

The book will be released on the 19th of September but is available for pre-order.

I will make sure to post any updates here on the blog and my social media platforms so watch this space! 

I am really excited about this new season and the things the Lord has in store.

I will leave a picture of the cover so you know what it looks like and the link if you would like to know more about the book and if you want to pre-order your copy.

Click here.

Bless you friends

Rolain

The same favor.

“Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai, “All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that they be put to death unless the king extends the gold scepter to them and spares their lives. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king.””

‭‭Esther‬ ‭4:10-11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

 

Because we are sons and daughters of God we have favor but what does that mean?

Haman, the king’s top man set a plan in motion to destroy all the Jews so Mordecai challenged Esther to step up and do something to save them but there was one problem, she had to be summoned by the king. She couldn’t just approach him when she felt like. The penalty was death but after fasting and praying she went before the king and this is where we see the favor of God in action;

 

“When he saw Queen Esther standing in the court, he was pleased with her and held out to her the gold scepter that was in his hand. So Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter.”

‭‭Esther‬ ‭5:2‬ ‭NIV‬‬

 

Because of God’s favor, Esther’s life was spared and the Jews were saved even though king Xerxes was one of the most wicked kings living at that time.

We have that same favor. There are so many other stories in the word that support that truth.

Nehemiah experienced God’s favor before his king as well as Ezra.

Mephilboseth experienced favor like never before.

And why is this important to know?

So we can trust God for breakthrough and deliverance in the most difficult of situations. No matter how tightly shut a door is, if God wants it opened, it will open.

No matter how many giants are standing in the way opposing you, God’s favor will make a way for you.

Favor will take on different shapes and sizes for each person but the fact is,

God’s favor is on you in this season.

It doesn’t stop just because the world has got darker. It just keeps getting brighter and brighter and that’s great news!

Bless you friends

 

Rolain

What’s the big idea?

During this Covid-19 period the amount of books I read has increased drastically. I love reading so in this season I have had a  chance to read, read and read. Anyway, this year I was introduced to Myles Munroe. Before 2020 I had never read any of his books but am I glad I found him. In the book I am currently reading there is a chapter he talked about ideas. The way he explained what ideas are, made me realize some very important and critical things that I would like to share with you. Here are a few points he made about them:

• Ideas are more powerful than death and ideas produce everything.
• Everything began as an idea and is the result of the conception of an idea.
• The most difficult thing to fight against is an idea.
• Ideas can be transferred and live on for generations.

There are two more points that are the reason for me writing this post,

• The only way to defeat a bad idea is with a better idea.
• Ideas are destroyed by ideas.    

(This reminds me of one of my favorite movies, Inception! 🙂)

We all have an idea of who we are, about life, about what we are going to do, where we going to live and so on but I realized I was still living with some outdated ideas about myself and what I can do. The source of those ideas predated my days as a Christian.

But I was so encouraged to read that those ideas can be replaced by better ones. The only way to destroy a bad idea that I have been living with for years is by replacing it with a better idea and when I say better I mean with God’s word.

That was so liberating. There is hope. We all have a chance to change. We don’t have to accept the negative ideas we were given about ourselves.

We need to be habitually giving ourselves better ideas. It can’t be a once off thing but a lifestyle. And as sons and daughters of the King we have a true source of ideas in abundance.

I want to live out the ideas the Lord has for me because they are amazing, graceful, and they are truth. He created me so He knows better than I know myself.

What ideas are you living with today that are limiting you, that are keeping you from living to the full potential God designed you to live?

Prayer

Lord, reveal areas where bad ideas are reigning supreme and help us to replace them with better ideas, with Your ideas.

Break the power of fearful and limiting ideas in our lives.

Give us Your amazing ideas from this day on.

Amen!

Blessings to you friends

Rolain