You!

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus,

so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

Ephesians 2:10 NLT

You are God’s masterpiece, period! He made you unique, one of a kind.

But there is so much pressure to try to conform to the world’s standard. You need to have this, or own that, or hang out

with a certain crowd and so on and on if you are to be valued in the world but that is not so in God’s kingdom.

You are His son or daughter. And because you are His, you are valuable.

You don’t need to prove your worth to Him because your worth and value come from Him. It’s because of His grace!

There will always be someone out there who is better than you in some way but that’s not where your value comes from.

So stop trying to compete with the next person. You are an original so why try to be like someone else?

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous-how well I know it.”

Psalm 139:13, 14 NLT

You are so amazing friend!

You are a masterpiece no matter what anyone says.

What God says about you is final!

Bless you friends

Rolain

How to Overcome Insecurities As You Walk In God’s Calling.

I don’t know about you but I feel inadequate often when it comes to God’s purposes for my life. I look at the things He is leading me into and I am like, how am I going to do this Lord? And with that comes the insecurities. Thoughts like,

I am not worthy

I am not qualified

Who am I to do this?

Where do I even start?

And so many more like thoughts ravage my mind.

Recently I was feeling very insecure but God reminded me of a few things that I want to encourage you with if you are facing the same feelings of insecurity.

• God’s purpose for your life will always be infinitely greater than your current abilities and strengths
• He knows very well that you are not able to accomplish His purpose in your own strength.
• He is very in tune with your weaknesses and failings but in His grace and mercy He has still chosen you!
• He wants you to trust Him wholeheartedly every step of the way because that’s the only way you can accomplish what He has called you to.

Another thing I realized is that the devil wants you to focus on your weaknesses, and sins so that you can disqualify yourself from God’s calling. Remember Moses.

When God called him, what did he do? Instead of saying yes Lord, he started giving excuses why he wasn’t the right candidate. Excuse after excuse he gave until he pleaded,

“But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else”

Exodus 4:13

The answer to feeling overwhelmed and out of your depth is not digging in and going at it alone in your own strength but it’s diving deeper into God and seeking His strength and wisdom.

Don’t listen to the lies of the enemy. You are enough because God calls you His son and daughter. He chose you not because you were strong enough, clever enough, rich enough, born in the right neighborhood, or because you went to the right school. It’s because He loved you and extended grace to you.

Whatever you do, don’t talk yourself out of his purpose. Take your insecurities to Him and drop them at His feet. Unpack every burden you feel and don’t hold anything back.

The Lord has amazing things planned for you so trust Him every step of the way.

Bless you friends

Rolain

Silence The Negative Voices At All Costs

“But they laughed at him.

After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were

with him, and went in where the child was.”

Mark 5:14

Negativity is all around us. That’s a given.

But we don’t need to live it out in our lives. The enemy is trying to use it to bring us

down but we must not let him succeed. We need to fight against the negativity

that comes our way, the voices that say we are ugly and the voices that say we will

never amount to anything, that nobody will love us and so many more words that

we are told.

In the scripture above we see that Jesus had to do the same thing. He had arrived

at Jairus house to heal his daughter but the people in the room laughed and made

fun of him.

And what did Jesus do?

He chased them out of the room. He didn’t give negativity a chance.

We can’t give negativity a chance.

What is your environment like?

What are you watching, listening to and reading on a daily basis?

What king of thoughts do you have of yourself and your situation? Are they

positive or negative?

What kind of words do you speak everyday?

All these things need to be looked at if you want to change your environment, if you want to

change the negativity that comes your way.

Encourage yourself with the word of God.

Surround yourself with the right friends.

Change what you read and listen to, replace negative words with positive ones.

But do something. Don’t just let negativity infiltrate your life without fighting it.

Take the necessary steps to change your environment.

God has amazing things in store for you and He is with you every moment of your life.

Bless you friends

Rolain

Let Go Of Negative Labels

Throughout our lives we have been picking up labels from family, friends, teachers, coaches, you name it.

But this is the thing, the majority of the labels we picked up are not accurate and

at times downright destructive. We need to be careful what labels we have adopted

and from where.

Take Moses for example.

God called him to lead His people out of Egypt. So as He called him,

He gave assurances that He would be with him but there was one thing

that was giving Moses second doubts about his ability to carry out what

God had called him to do. And that thing was the label or labels he was holding

on to.

“But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past

or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.”

Exodus 3:10

Instead of saying “yes Lord”.

He almost let the labels he had stop him from walking into what God had for him.

And also note, God knew the potential Moses had. He knew the great things He would

do through him but Moses didn’t see any of that because of the labels he held on to.

And that’s the danger of holding on to the wrong labels. They limit what we think

God can do and blind us to the opportunities available to us.

We need to measure up every label we have, to what God says about us. We measure

them up to His word. If words spoken to us are not in line with what God says in His Word

then it needs to go.

And we also need to be careful about what we say to ourselves. That’s what happened to

Moses. He may have told himself and believed he was slow of speech and not eloquent

and in his mind those labels disqualified him from doing what God told him to do.

You probably know yourself better than anyone on this planet but at the end of the day

you need to remember that you did not create you, God created you!

And because He created you He knows every little thing about you. There is nothing He

doesn’t know about you but you on the other hand you don’t have the full picture. You don’t have all

the information. There is stuff missing.

So stop with the “this is the way I am” statements.

Stop with the “I am clumsy, I am forgetful,

I can’t do this, I can’t do that” statements.

You don’t have all the pieces to the puzzle so why label yourself and make “absolute” statements

about yourself?

God is the only one who can do that so go to Him to tell who you are, what you can do and the

amazing opportunities waiting for you.

Ask Him for help as you do this. There is no way you are going to get rid of the negative labels

in your life by yourself. Ask Him to show you what negative words you are holding on to.

And ask Him to replace those words/labels with His truth, with His Word.

And as I close I want to end with a quote I read that I love. It says,

“Let no label stick unless it was put there by God.”

Have a great weekend friends!

Rolain

What Truth Are You Living By?

Some years back I took a course on Cognitive Psychology. It was a God-send for me because

prior to taking the course my mind was a mess. My thoughts were destructive, I had no self-esteem,

I didn’t think I could amount to anything and so many other destructive mental issues.

The core principle of the course is,

“We behave and act, not in accordance with the truth as the truth might be.

We behave and act in accordance with the truth as we believe it or perceive it to be.”

There were a lot of “truths” I had to unlearn that I had picked up growing up. And the course

helped me change those “truths”. Being a Christian doing the course was a huge benefit to

me because I had met the TRUTH so I was replacing the old “truths” with His Truth.

I share this because there are so many “truths” out there and not all truth is truth.

Where did you get the “truths” you are currently holding on to?

Are they based on the Word of God or are they based on something you read on the news,

on social media or something you watched on TV and the many other sources out there?

We need to be careful where we get our “truths”

Looking at the Word I think of Gideon.

His truth was,

“So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel?

Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my Father’s house.”

Judges 6:15

He grew up being told his clan was the weakest and was probably reminded that he was

the least. That’s the “truth” he adopted but it wasn’t true. God had another truth for

Gideon. And not just any truth but THE truth.

God’s truth for Gideon was that he was a mighty man of valor.

Man’s truth for Gideon was not God’s truth for him and that’s important to note.

God has a TRUTH for you that’s totally different to the truths out there. You don’t have to

live by the “truths” you have been given by people that tear you down, that tell you can’t

make it, that you will amount to nothing, that you have no future to look forward to and so

many other negative things. God has a better and greater truth for you.

It was a similar story for the woman with the issue of blood. (Luke 8: 43-48)

For twelve years she tried to find a cure to her ailment. But the answer was the same for

every doctor she went to. There was no cure for her no matter how much money she spent.

That was the “truth” she was given.

But one day she heard about Jesus and in faith decided to lay aside the “truth” she was

told for twelve years and got a hold of the real TRUTH. And once she did that she received

her healing.

The “truth” she had been told for twelve years was no match for Jesus. I don’t know how many

seconds it took to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment but that was enough to nullify the “truth”

she previously held. And that’s why it’s important to go the right source for truth.

The truth we find in Jesus is more powerful than every other “truth” out there.

His truth liberates and frees.

The wrong “truth” binds, instills fear, and limits God’s power in our lives.

So as I close I want to encourage you to take a look at the truths you are holding onto.

If it’s not helping you then it needs to go.

Look to Jesus who is TRUTH.

In Him we find real truth for every area of our lives.

Bless you

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.

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