He Moves Mountains

When I read Hebrews, I realized something about chapter 11 that really resonated with me: The people mentioned in this chapter were leaps and bounds out of their comfort zones. That's how they made it onto this list; by leaving their comfort zones and venturing off into territory that was scary and unknown. Noah - he made the ark like God told him to, even when no one believed the flood would come. He was likely regarded as crazy and his whole family would have been treated badly. Abraham - he waited for years for his promised son, but God told him to take the boy and sacrifice him. Abraham didn't hesitate to do the Lord's will, even when it meant losing a loved one. Moses - denied his royal upraising to instead suffer with the people of God. He was raised by the Pharaoh's daughter and would likely have had power in that position, but he denied that family for a better one, even though it meant a hard life. Rahab - she hid the Israelite spies in her house even though it...

God promised Sarah that she would have a son, all she had to do was wait. Instead, she took matters into her own hands and had her husband, Abraham, sleep with her servant, Hagar. When Hagar conceived, she was at odds with Sarah and they felt like they were in competition with each other. Hagar had a son, Ishmael. Everyone thought that the boy was the result of God's promise, but then Sarah, at 90 years old, became pregnant. In the end, Hagar and Ishmael were sent away and Sarah's son, Isaac became Abraham's heir. (Genesis 16 - 21:21) If Sarah had been patient, she wouldn't have had to deal with Hagar's pride in her pregnancy and the slave and her son would not have been sent away. People got hurt because Sarah refused to wait. A better example of patience is the story of Jacob in Genesis 29:15-30. Jacob was working for his relative, Laban, and fell in love with his daughter, Rachel. Jacob worked for seven years to marry her, but all those years " seemed like o...

  It's alright to think about it, right? I mean, I'm not actually going to do it, so it's no big deal. Right?   No. What we think influences what we do. It's like my Instagram feed. All these amazing Bible pages make me feel so motivated to study and illustrate my faith, but my own Bible doesn't have space to make so many notes and drawings. The more I looked at other people's journaling Bibles, the more I wanted one, the more I thought about it and started to stress over how to get the money for one.   This same thing happened last year when I was filling my mind with things that would make Jesus cringe big time. We're talking gross things; things that encouraged being gay, hated on Christianity and made death look kind of appealing (I'm talking mostly about sin because it leads to death, but yeah, I was suicidal for a spell).   And the same thing happened in grade one when everyone else had a zhu-zhu pet and I didn't (I got a zhu-zhu, don't wor...

  Jesus is my example for this. And not just Him, but Paul and all the other believers who have been killed for their faith. Paul was an incredibly strong Christian and faced opposition more than once during the time that he served on earth; ultimately, he died. I've been reading Philippians and he writes in chapter 1, verse 27-30.      "Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved - and that by God. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have." Philippians 1:27-30 ...

 "I can't start a blog! I'm not old enough, I'm not perfect enough, I'm not good enough to teach people."     That's how I felt when I first started to think about writing a blog. This is how I felt a week ago. I'm 16. I have social anxiety and can hardly talk to people. Who's going to listen to what I have to say?   Thankfully, there are tons of amazing young women on Instagram who are younger than me and have blogs or YouTube channels and they are so inspiring to me. There will always be people older than me to look up to, but that doesn't mean I have to wait until I'm as old or experienced as they are. I can write and I love to write. I want to encourage girls and maybe try to get some of you out of the dark place I had to go through a year ago, because that was not fun.   1 Timothy 4:12 says "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in f...

  God created you and He has filled you with His eternal, unconditional, undeserved love. Before you were born, He knew everything about you. His love is so incredible that we will never understand the depths of it.   Now imagine His heartbreak when you choose sin - and ultimately, the devil - over Him. That is the greatest betrayal. And that sin drives a wedge between you and your Father. You cannot survive anywhere but with God.   We have to be strong and resist sin. The creator of the entire universe  is always here for you, listening to your prayers. He will give you strength to surpass this. So we have to break these chains and we have to run.   You may be running for a long time and you may find yourself in a foreign place that's scary but I promise you that God's not done with you. He didn't wake you up this morning so you could keep repeating your old sins! You have to break these chains.   Write down what's holding you back on a piece of paper and ...

  Jesus is enough for you; he is more than enough. You're nodding your head but let me add something to that. Jesus is enough; not your worldly possessions or achievements. Because you're expensive new clothes will fade and tear but Jesus doesn't care. He doesn't care about how you look or whether the people on this earth accept you. You could have nothing  on earth, but you still have Jesus and he is enough.   All these worldy things are not what's important.   " Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal." (Matthew 6:19)   You cannot say "Jesus is enough for me" and then go on obsessing over worldy possessions the moment you close your Bible. No! That's not how this works. If Jesus truly is enough, you will be content with however little you have. I'm not saying it's wrong to want new clothes or more friends, there's nothing bad about that. But wh...