at the end of the day, we won’t even have the stuff we accumulated. So why, myself included, do we have so much materialism in this world?

Somewhere along the line, I’ve noticed that my posts have become more text than hip tumblr is accustomed to.

And thus,

I ventured to be bold.

I didn’t want to bore y’all with my LOOOONG posts, but if you care — you can venture to my new blog and tell me what you think! :)

I came upon this revelation about “seasoned” believers while listening to Mike Bickle one day: Many sincere believers seek God with a guard and closed heart. More specifically, we pursue the Lord with a guarded heart and a closed spirit of condemnation upon ourselves. We often ask God, God if you could just forgive me one more time, then..[insert promise guided by conviction]. But the truth is, that only when we open our hearts are we able to run after him.  By being able to run after him, he sees that and he opens His heart to us. You see? There’s the “secret”. There’s the answer! This opens the door for the 2-way relationship that we’ve all been pondering on.

The sermon also led me to another revelation.  I always wondered the significance of that song “You Won’t Relent” which brought me to a stream of tears during my first time at church. I just couldn’t understand it. The Holy Spirit just took over me! But now that I think of it, the words of that song moved me in such a way that it changed my life.  They are words straight from the Songs of Songs, God’s most romantic love story to us.  If we put him as a seal upon our hearts, even the waters of persecution/rejection, condemnation, temptation wont be able to quench this fire that’s burning within us. We have an innate longing to be cut the gap that has separated us from God because of our sin. News flash, Jesus died for our sins so that we wouldn’t be separated from God any longer. Let’s do our part to bridge the gap!.  

Therefore, we must live without allowing the fiery love to be quenched/drowned out of our hearts.

According to Psalm 89, David, a man that was so famously known as “a man after God’s heart”, becomes anointed. God calls David HIS servant, and because God knows David’s heart and his dedication and authentic devotion in his pursuit after His heart, God anoints him with his sacred oil. WOW! Wait, can we pause for a second?!

Can you imagine being anointed with God’s sacred oil? What is that even like? Just think about this for a second longer. David, God’s servant, being anointed with the creator of the universe, you know, the one that knew us before we were even born, the one that knew every one of our actions, thoughts, words before they are even uttered, and whole life span before we were ever even formed!? (Psalm 139) To be anointed with that kind of oil? What is that even like!? That is so different from the regular household anointing oil, hey, I’ve even used olive oil to bless a house once! Wow! 

Okay, back to the main thought…So God anoints David with his sacred oil and the chapter speaks further about how God’s hand will sustain him through all that he goes through. Interesting, because this is very much like the theme I seem to continue speaking of this year. Likewise, we must have faith that God will do the same for us. We need only to search with deepset devotion in our pursuit after God’s heart.The bible tells us that He will crush his foes before him and strike down his adversaries. God’s faithful love will be with David and through God’s name his horn (strength) will be exalted.

That’s the best guarantee that you can get in a battlefield! With that promise, does boldness come. The boldness to do whatever it takes for us to fight in this world and praise and fulfill God’s promises for us. 

Psalm 89 is full of God’s promises for David. However, from v. 39 and onward, it talks about how it seemed like God rejected His anointed one, but even though, His faithfulness endures forever and despite all that, His promises will be and have been fulfilled. This is the attitude we should foster—to praise God, despite it all.

Last night, before I finally hit the hay, I was spending some time with Jesus and just really petitioning for a friend of mine who has been going through a hard time. I got the following verse,

“Arise my darling, my beautiful one, come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves isheard in our land….Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.” Song of Solomon 2:10-13

After reading through that, I was optimistic that the storms would pass soon for my friend. =) ! However, this afternoon, I got a disappointing text about that friend. Seems like there’s something deeper than just a storm. After the text, my mind stumbled before a fork in the road:

Do I let myself fall into a deep emotional disappointment based on what I saw or do I remain hopeful with the things that I feel the Lord has told me? In the quest to live out Christ, what is the practical thing to do?

Well, to be honest, it sounds more simple than it actually is, because emotions naturally come much faster than reason. But I believe the answer is to, turn to Jesus. Pray.

And so, I prayed. It was really encouraging because this is the verse I got:

“Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life. You stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes; with your right hand you save me. The LORD will vindicate me; your love, LORD, endures forever—do not abandon the works of your hands.” - PSALM 138:7-8

I still remain hopeful in what I heard.

I encourage you, if you are weathering a storm yourself, to hold onto what you’ve heard from God rather than what you see around. =) 

spiritualinspiration:

“Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10, NIV).

In this day and age, our culture has gotten used to having constant activity going on: computers, cell phones, television, email, video games. There’s nothing wrong with any of that stuff, but the Bible tells us that we need to stop and be still so we can focus on knowing God. I’ve found this to be true especially during the difficult times. When you are facing a challenge, it’s easy to want to run to a friend or talk about it with a co-worker, but at some point, you have to stop and say, “God, I rest in You. I know You have me in the palm of Your hand.”

Remember, our battles are spiritual battles. The people in your life aren’t the source of your problems, the forces of darkness are. When you choose to be still and know that the Greater One lives on the inside of you, you are putting yourself in a position of strength. So today, take time to be still before Him. Let His peace cover you. Let Him refresh you by His Spirit. Remember, the battles you face belong to the Lord. Be still before Him so you can see His hand of victory in every area of your life!

A great devotional for today, and better yet, for life.

I don’t know what it is about the new year, but these days have been especially difficult for me, and it seems to be the same way for the rest of the world. Not to reveal too much about my personal life, but it seems like all the confrontations i’ve ever had this year regarding my true character have been recurring these past few weeks. Thankfully for this much needed and restful break, it was the perfect opportunity where I could evaluate these confrontations about myself. After a lot of time being spent alone in the beautiful presence of God regarding my character, God has supplanted a great epiphany in my heart time and time again about his faithfulness, unrelenting passion for my devotion and heart and just his love as told by the transfiguration of the cross. After reflecting on such things, all else seems less insurmountable.

Further, there’s just something so divine about His planning for all of this. Upon thinking about the time and current season of my life, it has been especially hard, but has also been really good to see something about yourself that you can change for the better. Though my heart may be a bit weak from all this emotional toil, I am still faithful in resting on the great cornerstone, that is Christ, and that’s really all that I need. When the enemy designs affliction in your life in order to steer you away and convince you that living selfishly is “okay”, you have just got to hold on to what you heard from God and stay true to who you are and your identity. If you let criticism bring you down, no one will ever want to tell you the truth and your life will just be the same with no improvements and completely empty with trying to fill yourself up with fake measures of fulfillment.  Praise God for shedding light on ugly bondages that I have still been attached too. Praise God for loving me enough to show me these things. And praise God for his continual love throughout this process. He is my rock and my salvation throughout these winds. Come the winds of testing, blow over me so I can be refined like silver.

So I encourage you, if you’re in that place of difficulty right now, to seek after Him and you will find Him. Seek truth in who you are, rooted in Him, your identity as a bride of Christ and know that you are loved. So deeply, and utterly loved.

Blessings,

Es

(Source: spiritualinspiration)

I’m considering undergoing a sociological experiment in the next coming weeks. Today was the first time in a long stretch that I actually applied my makeup a little heavier than usual. And by this, I mean, add eyeshadow and more mascara.

At the checkout at Ralphs, the cashier and I were making conversation, mind you he looks like he’s barely finished college, and all of a sudden, in the middle of our dialogue he stops short and finally says,

“I don’t know what to say anymore.”

I answer, “why?”

He replied back, “I guess I’m tongue tied. I like your hat.”

He then proceeds to give me the world’s goofiest smile. Now at this point, i’m starting to feel a bit self conscious…and REALLY awkward. He proceeds to compliment me more, while I remain silent, not knowing how to take all this…so i grab my things, and jet out.

Now, i’m really wondering—had I not worn eyeshadow today, would something like this have happened anyway? If I wore sweats, would this kind of attention have happened? Or does this just mean I need to dress older? Ha, ha.

Either way, I want to give this a shot. I don’t think it’s too hard to assume what will happen. When I find out the results, will I be enraged? I think I will be a little upset about the cold hard truth but I wouldn’t be too shaken or bitter. Still, it’d be interesting to know.