A story like no other….!

 

Did you know your story is unique? The story God has written

for you is like no other. No one else has your story. That is how

great God is. He has given every man and woman a story and

that story is not the same.  Our stories are all unique. That

blows my mind.

I posted these thoughts on my Facebook page but I want to go

deeper. It’s important to know your story is unique.

Without that understanding you will live your life comparing

yourself to others. God never meant us to live someone

else’s life. I will say that again,

 

God never meant us to live someone else’s life!

 

No one else has your story. Your story is unique.

God is not lazy. He never copies and pastes stories.

And that’s why you have to very careful when judging others.

Everyone is on a journey.

 

Let’s look at the story of Hannah and Peninnah.

 

^” When the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he would give to

Peninnah his wife and all her sons and daughters portions [of the

sacrificial meat].

But to Hannah he gave a double portion, for he loved Hannah,

but the Lord had given her no children.

[This embarrassed and grieved Hannah] and her rival provoked

her greatly to vex her, because the Lord had left her childless.”

1 Samuel 1:4-6

Hannah was on a journey. At this point her story had

only just begun but Peninnah didn’t understand that. She didn’t

understand God had a different story for everyone. As hard

as it was to understand and accept God had written a unique

story for Hannah.

Peninnah came in at a critical part of Hannah’s story thinking it

was the WHOLE story. How wrong she was.

God had something amazing in store for Hannah.

Don’t despise where you are at this moment in time. God is

the One who has written your story and He is so faithful!!

Please remember that your story is original. No one else

has a story like yours. There is no need to compare your story.

Run YOUR race and not the next person’s.

Let’s encourage each other in this friends.

God bless you

Rolain

The Craziness of Fear!!!

Fear grips us all at some time. It’s OK to have fear but where the problem lies is in how you respond in your fear. Fear is healthy but it is also destructive. A good example of this is seen in the story of King Saul. He had such promise but because of fear he made some really bad decisions. Let us take a deeper look.

– Because of fear, Saul didn’t wait for Samuel to make the offerings. His soldiers were leaving and because of that he made the offerings. He had no authority even as king to make those offerings.
( 1 Samuel 13:8-10 )

Let us take a look at that for a moment. Saul was in fear and fear if not dealt with will get you focusing on what’s happening on the outside (your circumstances). He saw the soldiers leaving an began to fear. He didn’t look to God and because of that he lost what God had given him! Fear will do that. It will get you focusing on your circumstances instead of trusting in God.

We tend to do that a lot. If things don’t go the way we think they should we take matters into our own hands. But it’s sin. I constantly battle with this. I need to constantly remind myself that God is in control, I need to constantly remind myself to not fear and then there are days when I fail!!!

The kind of faith we should have is like Jonathan. He trusted God no matter how impossible the situation seemed! He might of feared, I don’t know for sure but he still stepped out! And because he stepped out God used him mightily! That is the kind of faith I want.

As I end off I would like you to think about fear.
– What have you put off because you were or are fearful??
– Does fear influence a lot of your decision making?
– Are you constantly being moved by what happens around you?
– Could you say you act more like Saul or do you act like Jonathan?

These are questions to help you reflect. If we are to do great things for God then we need to move past our fears and step out in faith. Yes, Gods plans for us scare us at times but let us not stop there, let’s step out in faith!!!!

Rolain

 

The Promise land in Danger!!!

I have been loving the book of Joshua these past couple of weeks. It has been a book in season for me.
I am going to talk about God’s plan for us. We all know (at least I hope) that God has an amazing destiny for us. God wants use us to touch the world. He wants us to be light in this darkness.
I was reading the book of Joshua and I saw something. It seemed insignificant at first but as I meditated on it more and more, the more serious it became.
In the book of Joshua we read about how the Israelite s got into the promise land and began taking what God promised them but when Joshua dies everything changes. The tribe of Judah is the first tribe were we see something strange happening. They have been taking their allotted land but then we read they couldn’t take a certain piece of land because the people in that place had iron chariots!!! (Joshua 1:18,19)
From there we read how one by one the other tribes fail to take the land God has given them and they resort for something way below what God planned for them! They lived with the people they were supposed to destroy and put them to forced labor!! Was that really God’s plan for them? This is what I am trying to get to in this post.
Israel for some reason didn’t take all God had for them. They settled for mediocrity. Were they tired of fighting, maybe? Were they in fear, maybe?
Did they lose heart because the people they were facing were just too strong, maybe? Was God ok with them not destroying the people they were supposed to destroy? No!!!  Look at what He says in Judges 2:1-2,

God’s angel went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, “I brought you out of Egypt; I led you to the land that I promised to your fathers; and I said, I’ll never break my covenant with you – never! And you’re never to make a covenant with the people who live in this land. Tear down their altars! But you haven’t obeyed me! What’s this that you’re doing? 

They were supposed to destroy the nations. God knew they had iron chariots, He knew they were strong but He also knew He would help His people. My question and challenge to you is this, are you living out everything God called you to do or have you settled for second best because you are in fear. You saw what God wanted you to do but you thought you were not the right person. You thought He made a mistake or you got tired of fighting that you just settled for second best??

Personally I know there is so much God has called me to do but I am not pursuing all that God has for me. It doesn’t matter if the land God has for me has giants and iron chariots, God is with me. It’s the same for you. He is with you to destroy the giants and the iron chariots. The enemy will not give up without a fight!
Let us not settle for a mediocre life. Let us aim for the best God has for us. Don’t settle for second best. Stand up and trust God. I know  God will destroy all your enemies. Refuse second best, refuse, mediocrity! God’s plan for you is worth the fight. The story of the Israelite’s is not our story. Our story is one of victories and enemies being destroyed. Our story has a God end!!! Our story will tell of how we went conquering the enemy and how we lived a life of trust in God and how we accomplished all that God had for us!!!!!!   Amen.

Rolain

Faith Under A Microscope.

In this post I would like to take a deeper look at faith. As Christians we know without faith it is impossible to please God. What does it mean to have faith and to walk by faith? I am going to look at Abraham who was the father of faith. We can learn a lot from the way he lived.

The first act of faith he did that I would like to look at is recorded in Gen 12:1 – God told Abram: Leave your country, your family, and your father’s home for a land that I will show you.
I’ll make you a great nation and bless you. I’ll make you famous; you’ll be a blessing. I’ll bless those who bless you; those who curse you I’ll curse. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”

What an act of faith but how does that apply to us now? Abraham was obedient and he trusted God to such an extent that he left what he knew to venture into the unknown. He left the familiar. He left friends, family, familiar surroundings and who knows what else all for a land God promised him!
This year, if you want God’s best you need to leave the familiar behind, WE need to leave the familiar behind. Only you know what is familiar to you. It could be how you pray, the friends you hang out with, the amount of money you give and so on. I am sure Abraham’s decision was a huge sacrifice. I don’t think it was an easy decision to get up and leave everything he ever knew! Sacrifice always precedes destiny! In the natural, you cannot be great if you don’t sacrifice and so it is in the spiritual. To accomplish what God has for you will require sacrifice and that is what faith is about. We sacrifice in faith knowing that God can be trusted, knowing God is true to His word!

Gen 13:8,9 is the next thing we will look at.
Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have fighting between us, between your shepherds and my shepherds. After all, we’re family. Look around. Isn’t there plenty of land out there? Let’s separate. If you go left, I ‘ll go right; if you go right I’ll go left.

Abraham trusted God and that showed in his decisions. Abraham as the oldest could of chosen first but he knew God was his Provider. He knew God was his source. He knew which ever way we went God would be there for him. When Lot chose and went his way God spoke to Abraham and said,

After Lot separated from him, God said to Abram, “Open your eyes, look around. Look north, south, east west. Everything you see, the whole land spread out before you, I will give to you and your children forever. Gen 13:14,15

God gave Abraham everything including the land Lot had chosen! Lot did not rely on God, instead he depended on what he saw! He depended on himself and we read later how he lost his wife and had to flee for his life!

Do you see God as your source or do you rely on yourself? God wants us to trust in Him completely. Abraham had faith in God and it showed in the way he did things and in the decisions he made. Another example of this is in Gen 14:21, 22 which you can read in your own time for further study.

Without faith it is impossible to please God. Let us walk in faith this year. God bless.

Rolain