~ Stretch Your Faith ~

All hell is breaking loose. You have no money, no job, your spouse cheated and you are just at it, people are talking bad about you, you lost your job, your car broke down, bill are stacked – in fact collectors are calling and your lights are about to shut off as we speak and to top it off you just found out a family member is sick. You just have no hope. What happens now? What do you do? Do you keep speaking about all that is wrong? Do you just give up?

May I suggest some things? How about you sit in the dark with no lights and find a candle, light it so you can read your dusty Bible? How about you ignore all the people speaking bad about you? Go on and work out payment plans for your bills and trust money will come? Have you applied with every temp agency known to man or worked on your resume? What about praying a “healing prayer” over your family member?

Ladies, God is a purposeful Father. (Jeremiah 29:11) The struggle you are in right this very minute is because HE wants it that way. How can He allow all this Monique? Does He not love me? Of course He does, don’t be ridiculous now (Jeremiah 31:3). He is trying to show you some things. He wants you to stretch your faith (Isaiah 54:2). He wants you to stop trusting in every earthly thing or person and truly rely on Him (Proverbs 3:5). You can let go of your grips and allow Him to work you know? God gave you power and authority remember? Your "grips" on your adversity is when you continue to worrying, keep talking about the issues, and when you get frustrated in it all. You won’t let God work because you keep picking scabs or speaking negatively. My sisters, you have given God nothing to work with. 

I get it. You need much right now. Sis, you cannot keep underestimating our Savior. Life will be hard. You will struggle. No one ever said that you would not but in that struggle where is your faith? Have you stop in all the madness and talked about all that the Lord WILL do? Have you fasted, volunteered somewhere, prayed, read, studied, walked, sang, or praised? 

What makes you think that all the adversity you face is not for a purpose? Do you not serve a powerful purposeful Father? He does NOTHING in vain. It is all so that you can know how big He is. He wants you to watch Him work. Will you trust Him with it all today? Will you stop dwelling on your troubles and give Him praise for ALL that He is already doing/done? Just because you can't see it doesn't mean He has not done it. You can't see it because you don't believe fully.

I say all this in love. I have been through it, trust me. I have struggled just as you have. Until I made the decision to give it ALL, I mean all to the Lord, nothing in my life changed. In fact, it all got worse. There were many times I had no job, no money, bills were due, no car to get me anywhere, ALL my family turned their back on me and I had a crying baby at my hip at 19. I believe God let me struggle because I refused to let Him be “my everything” in life.

I encourage you to look up every verse you can on God’s character today and stop right now speaking to your mountains and let the God of Grace handle it all. Easier said than done you say. Well, thinking about all your problems gets you nowhere why not try something different?  Why not enjoy today and just rest. Let God take care of it all. Why do you need to do something right now? It all starts in your mind. Renew those thoughts in Him ladies.

In Christ,

Monique Smith

Prayer Starter

Heavenly Father, all hell is breaking loose. So much is happening that I cannot focus. What I will do right now is start mediating on what your word says. You told me that you will NEVER forsake nor leave me so I will stand on that promise today. I do not know how you will work it all out for my good BUT you say you will so I will trust in that. I surrender. I give it ALL to you. Everything. I don’t want it no more. You take it Father. You will hear my cries. You will give me the desires of my heart when I start to believe you will. Forgive me for my complaining and remaining in the same place. Teach me how to stretch my faith. Here is my Bible. I am everything you say I am. I can do everything you say I can do. I will rest in you right now in the name of Jesus’. Amen

~ He Turned It ~

I was pregnant at 13 and had my first son at 14. I married his father at 18 and we were separated at 21.  Looking back I never thought I would be following Christ so fervently today. I thought I would never find true joy or peace. What an awesome God we serve.  

God used everything I went through for HIS glory. Never did I think I would graduate high school early and be almost done with my Masters in counseling. Never did I think I would remarry after divorcing my ex-husband. Never did I think I could love or forgive again. Never did I think I could live a life free of bondage and ugly thinking. I sure never use to think I could live a happy peaceful life after so much pain I endured. When I was young, I believed many lies the enemy whispered in my head, lies that were meant to harm me. I tell you sisters, there is something so powerful when you deliberately choose to renew your mind in Christ. I would be so lost if I did not have my Savior today.

I remember pleading with God that day I found out I was pregnant. I was so scared that I would not be a good mother. I went to church with my parents and was saved at 14. Did my life produce much fruit immediately after I made that decision? Nope, not at all. I did not let it. I blocked my own blessings with the way I lived and how I thought. No one explained that I would have to choose to renew my mind after being saved. That I had some work to do and that the Lord would not just instantly make me act like a new Monique. When I did confess with my mouth that I believed in Christ Jesus as my Lord and Savior that did change my life that day (little did I know). But I did not let the Lord into my heart allowing for a relationship with him. Without a relationship how can Christ work? Life did not start to make sense for me and with my walk with the Lord until about 5 years ago, I mean really make sense. I was baptized in water in 2009 and 2010 life slowly started to change only because I started working with the Lord to renew the way I thought. I was tired of going around the same mountains. My life changed when I gave up doing things my way and purposely sought God every day.

How did the Lord take a bruised young teen mom and start molding her into His servant? By His gracious love and mercy. By showing her who she was in Christ. I could not see who I was in Christ until I picked up His word and met him there every day. Today, am I the perfect wife, mom and friend? Uh, no. There is only one spotless lamb. But I will tell you that I am much better than I use to be and I know that the Lord is not through with me yet. He is molding and shaping me to become all He needs me to be for His glory. I am too excited……

Great news is that he has a plan for you too. He can take all that was meant to destroy you and change all that mourning into dancing. Will you trust Him? Will you let Him help you renew your mind? Will you allow Jesus into your heart and let Him be the center of your life totally? Ladies, God desires relationship with you. He wants to walk along side you and just be with you. All he wants is good for you. Jeremiah 29:11 says so: “For I know the plans I have for you. “declares the Lord. “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”. How can you not find peace in that?

I encourage you today to let go and let God. Let God turn your pain into a beautiful dance. I pray that you may you use your personal pain as a testimony for His glory one day. Because if he can turn it for me, he certainly can do it for you.

Let’s go sisters! Together we shall grow……

In Christ,

Monique Smith

Prayer Starter:

Father, I thank you for loving me back to life. I thank you that you are the author and finisher of my life and that I can completely trust in you. You are my solid rock. You are the only one that can change me from the inside out. I life my hands to you and worship all that you are. Please come into my heart and change me and help me cut myself some slack because you will do a good work in me when I believe you will. Help me to renew my mind in you and not of this world. Help me to be still and focus on nothing and no one but you. I believe that you can turn my life around. I will choose you. Amen

It is TIME.................

How you feeling today? Are you on edge? Are you upset it is Monday and you have to go back to work or are you just “not feeling it” today. Well sisters, today is the day for change. Today is the day that you change your attitude, adjust your thinking, and start to take the spotlight off yourself. Until you make the decision to get your thinking back on track for the Lord life will seem just plain irritating. You will start to see yourself complain more, nag more, yell more and just focus on negative more. It is Satan’s plan for you to live outside of God’s will and you cannot go down like that. You are a daughter of the King.

I was just telling my husband the other day how I crave peace now and in fact purposely search for it. I started thinking about the times I did not and how I made life for myself and probably him real irritating. I use to pop out of bed irritated because I had to wake up and get started with life. I just wanted to lie there and do nothing all day. So I carried that mindset with me to the shower, to the kitchen, to the car, to work and relationships were affected. I lived on the edge sisters. I had no peace. I needed change.

You see God needs to use you and me and he cannot use us when we are always on edge. When we are on edge we spiral downward real fast to a place that is not pretty. When we get to that place we try and invite others and when they don’t want to come we get mad. We are something else huh? It is time for change. Time for a different way to live, it is time to clean our hearts and minds before our Father. Time to let go and ask God for help.

Sisters, you have all the resources and thee most powerful God to help make change happen right now in your life. You have prayer, all the truth and encouragement you can find in scripture and not to mention the ultimate guide, the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 5:22-23 says: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and SELF-CONTROL. You can control yourselves. You don’t have to let your feelings control you. You can renew your mind. Go grab your Bible and purposely pursue God’s peace. I want to remind you that you are a child of the most high God and he has a plan for you. He wants you to flourish and live with purpose and peace.

Ask God to tender your heart right now. Lift your hands and ask God to forgive your complaining spirit and to please help you to renew your mind.It is time to grow and you cannot grow with that same ol attitude you had yesterday. Today is a new day filled with new grace for you to enrich the lives of others. You were made to shine bright for God’s kingdom. 

In Christ,

Monique Smith

Prayer Starter:

God, I do not want my frustration to become who I am because I know I am more than that. I am ready to surrender my heart, my ways and my thinking over to you. You are the only one that can make true change come about in my life. I long to have the abundance of the fruit of the Spirit but I cannot do this alone please Help me Father, I need you. Thank you for hearing my prayers and thank you for your word as it soothes my soul. I love you. Amen

~ God Is On Your Side ~

Life has been crazy for the Smith’s. We have been busy trying to close out shop in one city only to move to another and that can be a bit of a headache. But we are excited to see what God has in store for us in this season of our life. Things were not always this way for me though.  

We have so many plans sometimes don’t we? And when they do not pan out the way we want we can tend to be a little sour. A couple years ago my family moved out of a big city to a smaller city as I mentioned in previous posts. I was sour point blank. I was upset that God moved us out from our comfort zone. I did not trust His plans right off the bat. I doubted and questioned what he was doing.

Now, I am so grateful He did what He did. I can see His hand in all that He was doing. He brought us to a place where we knew nobody only to strengthen me, my marriage and my walk with Him. Today, life is different for me and I would not change the way it all went down for nothing.

Sisters, God’s plans are perfect. We may not see light when change is happening in our life and when we are faced with the unknown but He truly works things all together for our good even in discomfort. I know this first hand.

Today, I encourage you to mediate on His truth. I was doing my devotional this morning and reading with the lovely community of www.shereadstruth.com ladies and read Matthew 5:2-12, The Beatitude’s. The one that really stood out for me was verse 8: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 

In the midst of change or chaos in your life it is my prayer for you that you see God. That your heart is pure before Him and you will trust His plans for you and not what you see for yourself.

Be blessed my sisters God is on your side!

In Christ,

Monique Smith

Prayer Starter:

Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you that in the midst of uncertainty you always encourage my heart. Father, I ask for nothing today. I choose to sit and worship you because you are my stronghold and I want to honor your name. I love you Lord. Amen