Category: General

“Don’t stop Beliving……” Any time I hear the word Journey, this song always pops into my head – not the whole song – just the hook.  It’s so catchy! 

When I think about all the various journeys in the Bible, I feel like the people would have been humming the same tune. Take Abraham for example:  God told him to leave all his possessions behind and GO, only to go to the place He would show him. Abraham was not given the exact destination.   He and his family just had to believe God would provide. Along this journey, he and Sarah were also on another journey to parenthood. Sarah longed for a baby until she reached such an elderly age, and at one point even lost all hope. But God told her, “Don’t stop believing!” This would ultimately give them Isaac. Abraham would then set out on a journey up Mount Moriah to sacrifice that one son who was promised to him, totally distraught and uncertain of what might lie ahead. Again, God told him “Don’t stop believing!” 

A New Testament example would be Peter. He’s a journey all his own! At one point he is fishing with his brother, a journey to provide for his family. They were disappointed in their gatherings and were ready to give up, but Jesus appeared, again saying “Don’t stop believing!  Cast your nets to the other side and be filled!”

On The Road to Emmaus, Jesus was there, in the midst of two men who loved him dearly. They had given up, they had “stopped believing.”  Jesus didn’t reveal Himself at first. He so tenderly let them talk. He allowed them to share what was on their hearts and minds, to expose their disappointments in what they had believed all along to be true. Once they reached their destination, sitting down for a meal, Jesus blessed the meal and disappeared. This was a physical manifestation to encourage us to never stop believing. It is true! 

There are so many different types of Journeys, Physical Journeys. Location related Journeys, Psychological Journey, Emotional Journey, Spiritual Journey, Journey towards Maturity…….the list could go on and on. 

My personal family has had many journeys of parenthood, financial freedom, sabbatical, and transitional in regards to career, none of which we could have gotten through if we ever stopped believing. God had to be the center. He had to be the first! Today, I was helping my kids with a devotional and at the bottom it said “and lastly, go to the Lord in prayer.” While I understood the concept of what this particular book was trying to address, it was a teachable moment to show our boys, we go to God First! If He is the leader of our Journey and we never stop believing and following his direction, we will finish each journey with the ability to look behind us and see His guiding hands of love and protection through it all.

We want to thank Ashton Riddle for sharing this post.

Journey – An Act of Traveling From One Place to Another…..

Throughout our lives people and relationships come and go. Some relationships last a lifetime, others, only a season or two.

With each season, as relationships change, we too are changed. Our hearts, minds and emotions are affected. We can either be positively affected and our hearts rejoice or negatively affected and our hearts become hard and closed off.

How we deal with these changes will be a witness to others of where we are in our relationship with Jesus.

On our journey we have one constant. If Jesus is Savior and Lord of your life, then that relationship never ends! It will always be changing, but it will be because we’re growing and maturing as we move into a deeper more intimate relationship with Him.

So in this journey, as we travel from one relationship to another, as people move in and out of our lives, do they see Jesus?

I know for myself it’s been a real challenge! The way God wired me, once I open my heart to someone, I am all in. I’m completely committed and will fight with everything I have in me to protect and nurture that relationship. I love and care deeply. So when a season comes to an end, a part of me dies with the changes that take place.

I’m still learning that in my walk with Jesus and others, I must love and care with a surrendered heart and open hands! I’m called by Jesus to love no matter what, for as long as He asks me to do so.

We must come to a place in our relationships that we get used to different. God is very creative and He needs our obedience to Him so He can move through us and draw others to Himself.

So as you travel from one place in your life journey to another, remember, time spent with Jesus and nurturing that relationship will spill over into the lives of the people He brings into our lives, whether it’s for a lifetime or simply a season. Be moldable, teachable, surrendered, soft hearted and obedient and abide in His love.

“Love one another as I have loved you…” John 13:34

“I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. “  John 17:9

Jesus’ whole ministry was immersed in the relationships He had. Some were only for a season, others for a lifetime. First with His Father in Heaven, then with His parents, Joseph and Mary. Next were all of the disciples and the others who followed Him. However, the example I treasure in my heart, comes from His prayer in the garden just before He was arrested. He saw me and He saw us from the beginning. He prayed for us to have a relationship with Him. Though only for a season, while He walked the Earth, they will last a lifetime in Heaven.

Matthew 6:9-13 (NIV)

“This then, is how you should pray: 

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

We would like to thank Janie Keller for sharing this post.

Psalm 145 is a song of God’s majesty and love…

The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, and tender mercies are over all His works. All Your works shall praise You O Lord, and Your saints shall bless you. They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and talk of your power. Psalms 145:8-11

Inspired by God’s love, people have done the most unimaginable things like forgive the unforgivable, love the unlovable, embrace the rejected, and even lay their own life down for another. His ways are not our ways and love is always at the center of why we can show compassion instead of anger. 

God’s love was spoken over our family through a man who we believe prophesied over us. He told me to write down a vision for our family. He gave us this scripture…

Write a vision, and make it plain, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time, Though it takes time, wait for it, because it will surely come. It won’t delay. Habakkuk 2:2-3

My husband Robert and I wrote down on a canvas that we desired to have a home large enough to care for foster children. During my college years I learned that many children did not have a place to stay where they felt safe. Sometimes their parents were suffering hardships that led to substance abuse, neglect and verbal, physical, and sexual abuse. 

I have learned over time that I have a gift to serve, and I have compassion and mercy for this population. However, it has not always been easy to love the parents who had let their own children down. It was hard to forgive someone who repeatedly disappointed their child by not working their plan from the state to get them back.  Often, they would choose substances and partners over their children due to such strong addictions. 

When reading the scriptures we hear time after time, love your enemy, forgive, and show them mercy. This became a reality for me when I started to see biological parents as people who are good and deserving of love and outreach. I started fighting for not just the child but for their biological family to break the strongholds and be released into complete healing. 

I was able to speak of the glory and kingdom and God’s unconditional love for them and show the power of what he had done in my own life. 

Biological parents changed their perceptions of me and my family when they saw that we were for them. We loved them and genuinely wanted them to have their children back. We were able to show happiness and joy when the day came to reunite their family. Our foster children were able to see a good example of what it looked like when everyone was working as a team towards the same goal to reunify them back with their family. 

Fostering children allowed us to see and love people the way our heavenly father does. He never promised us it would be easy, and we certainly have had many days where we were mentally and emotionally exhausted, however, the end result was always a sense of reward and accomplishment. Our children were able to see what it looked like to love a stranger and show them grace the way God does. Our children became a light when they would share their parents and their rooms with kids who were scared and confused.

I cannot think of a better way to experience the love of God than being with hurting people in their hardest times. I am very humbled in the way we have been able to change a family and even contribute to changes within our own communities. I feel change is rooted in love…not just in the emotion, but in the doing. 

“Most people need Love and acceptance a lot more than they need advice”. 

“I used to want to fix people but now I just want to be with them.” – Bob Goff

We want to thank Katie Ssejjemba for sharing this post.

I cannot remember a time I did not know Jesus’ love for me. I knew when I left this earth I would go to heaven. But somehow, I missed the” For God so loved the world that He Gave” in John 3:16. I had separated Jesus, Who loved and saved me, from God the Father, Who I thought judged me and sometimes didn’t even like me. With this flawed thinking, I grew up very insecure and with low self-esteem. I was a people pleaser, wanting everyone to like me, and if they didn’t, I thought something must be wrong with me. I needed others to validate me and give me worth. This was a very dangerous position to be in. If someone spoke negative and condemning words and even curses over me, I took that in as truth, and it became self-destructive. 

One Sunday I heard our pastor say, “If you had been the only person here on earth, our Heavenly Father would still have sent His beloved son Jesus to suffer and die just for you. That’s how much he loves you!” (1 John 4:9, John 16:27) I heard this truth and hope sprang up in me! I wanted to know more about my Father’s love. I wanted a relationship with Him. I started reading the Bible and meditating on His love and what it was saying to me about who God said I was. The more our relationship grew, the more He revealed His love for me. This verse became my favorite verse…

“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

In the Bible you will find love to be the supreme and dominant attribute of God. I began to pray to see myself and others through my Fathers eyes. As the door to my heart opened to receive His amazing love, it began to overflow onto everyone who came into my life. I learned that you cannot give to others what you do not have yourself.

God taught me more about loving others through my relationship with my mother. My mother was a kind and godly woman who loved well. But in our relationship, there was something missing. It was almost as if there was a wall between us that kept her love from reaching me. Romans 8:28 says “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose.”  I was given the blessing of being the caregiver for my mom when dementia robbed her of being able to care for herself. As the dementia progressed so did our relationship and our love grew for each other. Mother was slowly leaving us and needing more care. She would have accidents with her bowels and become so angry and embarrassed that she wouldn’t let anyone near her, except me. As I was driving to the home where she lived to help her, a song came on the radio,’ Worshiping with the Angels’. I wondered what that would be like and how wonderful it would be to be able to do that! After arriving and cleaning Mother up, I was clipping her toenails and that song popped into my mind. Tears began to flow when I heard the Holy Spirit say, “THIS IS WORSHIPING WITH THE ANGELS!” And then Mother began to sing “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

When we love and serve others, we are worshiping the Lord with the Angels!  

“And the king will answer them. Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” Matthew 25:40

We cannot learn or make ourselves have Agape love. It only comes from our Heavenly Father, through His Son Jesus, to us and flows from us to others! 

“Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” John 7:38

Amen! Let it be so!!! 

We want to thank Elaine Norrell for sharing this post.

Editor’s note: For the month of January we will be sharing our top blogs from the year of 2022! We hope you enjoy the recap as we begin the year of 2023.

Upon being asked to write a blog about godliness, my first response was, “Me? Write a blog about how to be godly?” So then, I decided to look up the definition of godliness. 

A quick google search said, “the quality of being devoutly religious.”

Well. I didn’t like that one. So I kept searching. 

I stumbled upon the biblical definition of godliness, which says, “the quality or practice of conforming to the laws and wishes of God; devoutness and moral uprightness: to be wise is to live in godliness, reflecting the nature of the kingdom of God in the course of everyday life.” 

That sounded more like it. And to me, this sounds like the act of godliness is a choice. That I am to choose to conform (obey or agree) to live a life that reflects (mirrors) the nature (characteristics) of God every single day of my life. 

So…what are the characteristics of God? He’s merciful, tender, compassionate, love. He never changes, is all powerful, wise, and faithful. He is good and just, gracious, and holy. 

Can I be honest and say that my next thought was… I wonder if my children or my husband would describe me as godly? 

EEEEEK! Time for some repentance, huh? 

The beautiful thing about our God is that He allows us to choose to walk the other way. So, even if looking deeper into godliness was convicting to me, that doesn’t mean I have to live in shame. I get to choose to turn and walk the other way. 

So what does that look like? 

I will start responding to my children in a more tender, compassionate voice. I won’t snap at my husband because his question he asks seems inconvenient to me. I will ask the Lord to help me show love to every person I come in contact with. I will believe that I am filled with the power of the Holy Spirit like the Word says. I will seek wisdom through spending time in God’s Word and with those that I choose to surround myself with. I will let my yes be yes, and my no be no. 

Friends, the choice to live a godly life is a gift. In fact, 2 Peter 1:3 says, “By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.” Y’all, that says God’s given us everything we need to live that out. What a relief that is! 

So rest in this: 2 Peter 1:4 says, “Because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.” 

God’s got you, sis. Rest in his promises and seek his face. 

We would like to thank Paige Keller for writing this blog post.

As I look back into my childhood, I have many wonderful memories. My grandmother, Agnes Obenhaus, was an amazing cook. And she shared her wisdom and experience of cooking with my mom.

One of our favorite things that she made was homemade German noodles. She made them every year for the holidays as far back as I can remember. She has been gone for many years now, but her noodles live on. My parents have carried on this tradition ever since. All of the family loves them and would be very disappointed if they were to not be present for our holiday meal!

This year my daughter wanted to learn to make them, so we spent the afternoon making the dough, rolling it out, cutting the noodles and hanging them to dry. We had four generations together making homemade German noodles to share with the family on Thanksgiving.

2/3 cup flour 
1 egg
1 T water 
1/2 t salt 
1 t oil

Make a well of flour. Barely mix egg, water, salt and oil. Add to flour and mix with hands until it forms a ball. Knead for 10 min. Let stand covered 1 hour. Pinch off and run thru 2 or 3 times to make thin. Then use slice attachment and hang to dry. 

We want to thank Rhonda Bain for sharing this post.

Christmas in the Dietrich home was and is still a time when family comes together, to cook or bake, put up Christmas decor and make memories. 

Starting right after Thanksgiving, Christmas decor would always go up in our home. My mom, sister and I enjoyed and putting out all the the Christmas Nativities. At night we would turn on Rudolph and all 5 of us would put up the Christmas tree together. Everyone had their special ornaments that only they could put on the tree. 

The advent book would be set out and ready for December 1st when we would start reading the Christmas story. The memory of reading the Christmas story throughout December is a tradition that I now do in our home. The memories spent reading about the birth of Christ are some I will never forget. 

And then there was the baking.  My grandmother would always bring Jello Christmas cookie dough(recipe below) to the house where she would let us cut them out with her metal cookie cutters and decorate them how we wanted. Martha Washington were/are our staple Christmas candy(recipe below.) Martha Washingtons are definitely a recipe that are fun to do with the family. Dipping tons of chocolate balls leads tons of laughter and messes, which lead to great memories. We would always make enough Martha Washington to share with our little grandpa, he was little in stature but big in heart. 

One of the earliest traditions I remember as a child was the matching Christmas dresses. These weren’t just any Christmas dresses, mom handmade them. One year she even made one for herself. This tradition has continued though my daughters and nieces. Last year my mom worked so hard and made 4 matching Christmas dresses for our little girls. They were so excited to all be matching and were even calling each other sisters instead of cousins. 

Christmas Eve was busy with preparations of getting ready for the Nativity at church. My favorite part of Christmas Eve at church was the candle lighting and singing of Silent Night. Today, Cole and I still find so much joy and peace at going to church on Christmas Eve. 

Christmas morning started early at our home with the smell of sausage balls(recipe below) baking and hot coco in a Christmas mug. Our stockings would always be filled with nuts, candy and some odd piece of fruit. Family would come over for a delicious lunch followed by great fellowship. 

I have so many great memories from Christmas growing up. I am now a mom of 4 precious kiddos and enjoy making our own family memories and traditions. Some are the same as when I was young and some are different but the focus is till the same. Christmas time is when we remember that our Father sent the savior down to earth as a baby who would live a perfect life and then sacrifice it for all of us. A sacrifice made so humbly so we could all live eternally with our Father.

Jello Cut out cookies 

1/2 cup of margarine 

1/2 crisco 

1 cup of sugar

1 3oz. pkg of jello any flavor 

3 eggs

3 cups of flour

1 tsp. of baking powder

1/2 tsp. Salt 

Cream shortening and margarine with sugar and jello until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time and beat throughly. Add sifted dry ingredients and mix well. Chill for several hours. Roll about 1/3 of the dough at a time on flour surface about 1/4 inch thick. Cut with cookie cutters. Bake on un-greased cookie sheet at 375 degrees for about 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. 

Martha Washingtons

2 lbs of powered sugar

1 can of eagle brand

1 stick of margarine 

1 cup of coconut(Optional) 

Mix together and add 2 cups of pecans

Make into balls and refrigerate for 30 minutes. While they are refrigerating heat up candy chocolates. Dip the balls and put back into the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Store in air tight container.   

Sausage Balls 

1lb of breakfast sausage

1lb of cheese 

2 cups of bisquick

Mix well together. Roll into small balls. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

We want to thank JoBeth Dietrich and Bethany Williams for sharing this post.  

In our busy everyday schedules and in our effort to make Christmas special, we can sometimes forget what Christmas is truly all about. “Keeping Jesus” as the main focus of Christmas was what moved me to start some Christmas traditions for my young family. Some of the traditions were passed on from my parents and grandparents. Like observing Advent…this is the expectant waiting and preparation for both the celebration of the birth of Christ and the return of Christ. It begins four Sundays before Christmas. You light a candle at the beginning of each week, there is a devotion every day centered around the coming of Jesus. One year we made a tree skirt that told the story of Jesus birth, we also baked a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas day.

The Christmas cookie making started when our children were very young and still at home. Of course we had to use my grandmother and Tante’s (aunt in German) Christmas cookie recipe. It wasn’t just the wonderful taste of the cookies but the anticipation of going to my grandparents and playing with my cousins, the feeling of love and family. We have carried this tradition on with our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.  We still try to pick a day around Thanksgiving when most of our family is here to make our cookies. Some come home Thanksgiving just for the cookie making. Those who can’t be here have started their own tradition in their homes or wherever they may be, sometimes carting homemade cookie dough all over the state of Texas just to continue the tradition.  

Christmas is the season of love, joy, giving, and family. Traditions are a way of combining all of those into one beautiful package.  I can’t explain the feelings of blessing and joy watching my family laughing, sometimes throwing flour and smearing icing on each other or just enjoying being together. Seeing the children’s eyes wide with wonder and imagination. Decorating their cookies, licking their icing sticks (we do send their own cookies home with them – ha ha) and getting icing all over their faces. Those special times of being gathered together for one tradition also may lead to other traditions. The grandkids (Stewart & Elaine’s) after making Christmas cookies would put on a play for the adults to end a wonderful day of fun, food, and family. 

These are some of our most treasured memories. If we’re having a bad day all we have to do is look at some pictures of our cookie baking days and the children’s plays, then remember how blessed we are. 

We want to thank Elaine Norrell and Torrie Gilleland for sharing this post.

My husband Heath and I have been married for 10 years now, and when we were just dating back in 2011 I was the full time assistant manager at maurices. I worked there for 4 years, and during that time one of the requirements was to offer the option of signing up for the credit card to every single one of our customers. And if you know me very well, you know I love to SHOP, and being immersed in an environment of new clothes all the time did not help my self-control in regards to my card swiping abilities. We were encouraged to wear current clothes there to be a walking mannequin to the customers (makes sense, right?) My manager at the time talked me into getting the credit card (my first one ever) and from an innocent place, I truly thought I could use it and pay it off on paydays. Full disclosure – did I ask my husband if he thought that credit card was a good idea? NOPE. I want to encourage you here: our husbands often provide wisdom when our brains want to act impulsively (the opposite of self-control, I might add). More on that later though. 

We have been learning this year in 2 Peter chapter 1 that God has given us the ability to share in his divine nature (verse 4) but keep reading! The rest of the passage says we are able to escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires through these precious promises. 

Don’t you think human (aka fleshly) desires are the biggest cause for us to deliberately choose to not have self-control and just live on impulse? Human desires like keeping up with the Jones’, upholding an image we really don’t have or that we think we need, thinking we constantly need to have all the brand new stuff, when in reality we need to be content with what we have. 

I mean think about it; when we actually slow down, take a deep breath, and give ourselves time to truly assess something, we typically end up making a better choice simply because we are allowing not only our own minds to process, but we are allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to us regarding the situation. And like verse 6 says in our scripture, we are to supplement our knowledge with self-control and our self-control with patient endurance (aka perseverance). I don’t think that was said in that order on accident. 

So more on my story; I got a credit card without talking with my husband first. Before getting it, I honestly already shopped way too much and I thought a credit card would somehow help our paycheck to paycheck finances we were living with (and boy was I wrong.) 

Growing up, I shopped until I dropped with family members and friends, and often. It was all I had ever known, and I never really knew it was supposed to be or could be different. And I’ve learned now that there’s a better way. 

As a woman, shopping is one of those things that I *think* will make me feel better, and it might for a moment, but in the end I usually just get mad that I impulsively bought something that I may or may not have needed, spent money we could have used somewhere else or saved, and then end up frustrated that I feel like I have to hide it from my husband because of that, instead of remembering that my joy comes from Christ alone. Doesn’t that sound exhausting?

Most times when it feels like we are lacking self-control, we are simply not dwelling in God’s precious promises and his divine nature. We’ve allowed those human desires to take root and let the enemy convince us that our ways are better. 

Often times, having self-control can seem impossible, whether you’re a woman who struggles with impulse buying and shopping behind your husband’s back, or if you struggle with over eating or turning to other things for comfort in moments of distress or overwhelm. 

In whatever area you struggle with self-control in, God is asking you to let Christ rule as King in your heart. We can have self-control because God is in control.

If I can tell you anything about my past experience today, it’s that I wish I had been more vulnerable to share my struggles with other women in our church. I was ashamed and I allowed the enemy to convince me that no other Godly woman I knew could possibly be struggling in this area like I was. I just needed to suck it up and deal with it on my own. That is a big fat lie my friends, and no matter what your struggle is regarding self-control, there is someone out there who can help you, pray for you, and provide practical resources to allow you to work through whatever it is. 

Upon my confession to my husband about the debt I had developed with my credit card, I realized I needed to truly surrender to what the Bible says about wives being submissive to their husbands. I learned that true self-control comes from a surrendered heart, and that I honestly needed to surrender to the obedience of Christ so that I could experience the fullness of God’s promises (which, like our scripture says, is our own ability to live in God’s divine nature because it’s our own). 

I want to encourage you today to be honest with yourself. Maybe you need to admit there’s an area of your life where you need God’s help in applying and practicing self-control. My advice to you is to share that with someone you trust and then surrender it to the Lord in prayer together. We have the King of Kings on our side and the opportunity to allow Him to rule in our hearts. Remember, self-control comes from a surrendered heart, and we can have self-control because God is in control. 

We would like to thank Paige Keller for sharing this post.

The definition of control in the dictionary is “to exercise restraint or direction over.”  Some synonyms are “dominate” and “command”.  That seems to mean that self-control would be how we exercise restraint over ourselves.  

At first glance, it looks like self-control is me taking the bull by the horns and using my willpower to do the right things and stop doing the wrong things.  I found out I can do that – with some things. 

Outward signs of self-control are the easiest to achieve.  However, self-control is more than just “being good”.  Even when I was lost, I could “be good” in front of people like my mom or my grandmother, or people at church.     

How many of you know that we can hold it together on the outside, at church or in public, when there is still a lot of out-of-control stuff happening behind closed doors or in our hearts and minds?  Trying to present a nice front for other people is not going to work for long.  

Self-control is my will yielding to His will by His power.

After Kelly and I were married, I really struggled with controlling my tongue.  If we had an argument, I would say we should get a divorce.  I never meant it, and I KNEW this was not God’s will, but words seemingly just rolled out of my mouth.  I know that I hurt him many times when all that was going on.  Here I was, a pastor’s wife, and I was yielding to my hormones and my sharp tongue!  I felt miserable and guilty almost all the time, and I stayed under condemnation because I didn’t seem to know how to stop this cycle. It was all about yielding – to the evil words, to bad temper, to feelings. 

God has the answer for us.

Self-control is my will, my hormones, my feelings, and my temper yielding to His will by His power.  

The book of Romans has so much to say about the issue of control.   

Romans 6:12-13 says, “Do not let sin control the way you live.  Do not give in to sinful desires.  Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin.”   

That’s good!  That’s what I want to do!  How?   

13b goes on, “Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have a new life.  So, use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.” 

Instead of giving in, or yielding, to my smart mouth, I must give my mouth completely to God!  And that’s going to take some discipline on my part. 

It takes practice to be able to continually yield any part of our bodies to the Holy Spirit instead of yielding to our old nature.  And that practice is called discipline.  When discipline is required for something, I’ve learned that the enemy comes in with his lies to tell us things like: 

• This is just the way you are. 
• You’ve already made too many mistakes. 
• You will never be able to stop this. 

The enemy says these same lies, whatever it is that you are trying to overcome.  

Condemnation is another tool of the enemy to keep us from turning to God and from yielding to the Holy Spirit.  Even a person who is saved can be living under condemnation when they have not received the truth about the gift of grace.  Each time I failed, I developed a worse and worse opinion of myself.  I thought that I would eventually drive my husband away, and I didn’t know what to do about it.  He always forgave me, but I feared that I had done irreparable damage to our marriage.  Something had to stop the cycle! 

I had been so focused on what I was doing wrong that I could not overcome it!  When we spend so much of our time thinking about the sins we have committed and worrying about how to make ourselves stop doing them, we are dominated by our sinful nature.  We are not living in the freedom from sin that we have in Christ. 

Letting go of condemnation and receiving forgiveness is a big part of yielding to the Holy Spirit.  It removes our focus from our sins and places our focus on who we are in Christ.  Then we can yield to the Spirit and not to our fears or condemnation. 

The key to self-control is yielding everything I understand about my mind, my will, my emotions, and every part of me to everything I understand about God by power of the Holy Spirit.  Self-control is living in the freedom of Christ!

We want to thank Sheri Warren for sharing this post.