Tag: God

Choose To Show Mercy

Author, Nicole L. RossLeave a comment

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Choose To Show Mercy

Compassionate treatment toward someone who you really could be mean and nasty to is what it means to show mercy.  Often times, we get so angry with people and fly off the deep end.  They made me mad, so I am going to give them a piece of my mind.  I’m not going to do this for them or I’m not going to do that.  Bottom line is this, we all make mistakes.  You make mistakes, I make mistakes, we all do.  That’s just a part of life and we expect people to have mercy on us.  We expect people to forgive us when we wrong them, sometimes whether we ask for that forgiveness or not.  Yet, find it virtually impossible to show that same mercy towards someone else.  Why is that?  To me, this goes back to the simple principle of the golden rule.  Aren’t we suppose to treat people the same way we want to be treated?

Taking this a little bit deeper, God shows us mercy each and every day.  Nobody is perfect and He knows that we have all fallen short of His Glory.  He continues to love on us, bless us, protect us, provide for us in spite of our shortcomings because He is just that kind of God.  When I think about mercy, I’m always reminded of John 8, where the lady is caught in adultery and the people are ready to stone her to death.  Jesus steps in and tells them, “he without sin, let him throw the first stone”.  I love that story because as I said earlier is just seems like everyone is quick to point the finger at others and throw stones, when truth be told you should have a few bricks thrown right back at you.  We hand folks over to God’s mercy, yet show none ourselves and that is just not right.

Think about that the next time you are ready to call somebody out and start pointing fingers.  We all have our faults.  Your fault may be different from mine, but it does not make one any worse than the other.  A sin is a sin, but God’s love supersedes all.  Do not beat yourself up over your mistakes and do not beat anyone else up over theirs.  Instead choose to show mercy.  This day and every day I want you to remember that you are clothed with God’s tenderhearted mercy.  How greatly God has blessed you!  How greatly God truly loves you! #iDeclare #ChooseToShowMercy

Scripture Reference:

Psalms 86:5 KJV “For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.”

Ephesians 2:4 ESV “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us”

Titus 3:5 NLT “He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.”

It’s Time To Empower Your Self

Author, Nicole L. RossLeave a comment

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It’s time for us to start empowering our self.  Stop sitting around looking for other people do stuff for you.  As the song says, get up, get out, and get something.  There was a time in my life where I wanted to take the easy way out.  If there was a shortcut or alternative way to accomplishing something that was easier for me, I took it.  Why? Because truth be told I was just trying to get what I wanted quickly and not really put in the work.  If I could let someone else do the work for me and I still get what I want, then so be it.  This may still be the work ethic of some, but by doing this you will never fully learn how to appreciate what you have when you get it.

What does it mean to empower your self?  It means putting in the work.  Work could mean studying, doing research or it could mean simply coming up with a strategy to accomplish a goal and doing it.  To put in the work however, you must have goals.  There has to be an objective that you are trying to reach.  So the first step to becoming empowered is figuring out what your objective is.  What are your goals? Long term? Short term? Immediate?  A lot of times we get so caught up in the day-to-day activities of life that we don’t really think about goals.  We should have family goals, financial goals, career goals, personal goals and the list could go on and on depending on your individual activities.  Set goals for every area of your life.  Anything that you commit your time to should have a goal.  For instance, if you work out three times a week, set a goal that you are trying to achieve while working out.

When you set goals, you empower yourself because now you are looking to no one other than yourself to accomplish these goals.  When you have a goal, it should help you stay focused.  When life happens, as it so often does, you can so easily be distracted.  When you have goals, it helps brings things back into perspective for you and helps you get your mind right.  When you get your mind right, you are then able to operate in the power that God has placed on the inside of you, which will push you to work hard to accomplish your goal, even when you don’t feel like it.

As Christians, we can apply the principle of being empowered spiritually by knowing your word.  The word of God is what gives us the focus and discipline we need to live a life that is pleasing and acceptable in the sight of God.  A life that is righteous and holy.  The word is what gives us not only power, but strength to overcome the enemy.  Having the word of God inside of you gives you confidence; it is the blueprint for life.  It will revolutionize your entire perspective on life.

Empower yourself.  Use the tools given to you and do something with them.  As children of the Most High God, defeat is not an option.  Get up, get out, and get something.  Go get what God has for you! #iDeclare #EmpowerYourSelf

 

 

Scripture Reference:

2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

Deuteronomy 31:6 NLT “So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the LORD your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”

Decisions = Consequences

Author, Nicole L. RossLeave a comment

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Decisions = Consequences

As I reflect upon where I am today in life, I can honestly see the reality of consequences.  Yes, I’ve made a lot of mistakes and done some stupid stuff, but there are also some things that I got right.  Looking into the big beautiful eyes of my two little girls reminds me of that each and every day.  Typically, when we think of consequences, we think of negative results based on decisions that are made.  In fact, when I looked up words that are synonymous with ‘consequences’ there are words like penalty or cost included in the list.  The result or effect of an action is how we define consequence, and nowhere does it say that result or effect has to be negative.

So what, you’ve made some bad decisions, but don’t beat yourself up over it.  What about those decisions you made that were right?  So seldom we fail to give our self credit for the things we actually did right.  These right decisions have consequences as well.  Say you decide to stop and give a homeless man on the street a meal to eat, you better believe there is no penalty in that.  This is where the law of reciprocity comes into play.  Simply put, you are blessed to be a blessing, so in order to stay blessed you have to keep blessing others.

The place we need to avoid is being in the valley of indecision.  Yes, we make bad decisions and we make good ones both of which, in my opinion, are required to move forward in life.  However, when we are stuck in a valley of indecision there are consequences for that also.  There is such an unsettling that comes behind not making a decision or even worse, letting someone else make the decision for you.  Decide what you are going to do and never let anyone else make life-changing decisions for you.

I truly believe that decisions have a tremendous impact on our life and maintaining the ability to reach our destiny.  We can face some tough situations in life, making it very difficult to make decisions on our own.  Which is why it is also important that we stand on the word of God.  The word says that in all of our ways we are to acknowledge God, so in essence whether they are difficult or easy so to speak, we should be seeking Him about these decisions anyway.

The next time you are placed in a position where you have to make a decision take a minute to think about what the consequences may be, because you know there will be some.  The end result of decisions is consequences. Just remember that those consequences are not always bad.  When you do good, good things come to you.  Either way, take a moment to reflect and hear from God before you move forward. #iDeclare #DecisionsEqualConsequences

 

Scripture Reference:

Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”