A Heart Worth Sharing

I am currently reading the book "Captivating" by John & Stasi Eldredge-which I was gifted about six years back and hadn't touched until now- and to say the least it is powerful! 

I am getting so much out of it; it is truly amazing! 

I will be sharing fully on the revelations I have been receiving, but right now I just want to share a little something that I read from it today:

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it careful round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket-safe, dark, motionless, airless-it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. . . The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers. . . of love is Hell." -C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

I know it's a bit of a quoteception.

I had, at one point, locked my heart away completely in fear of loss and rejection and as I became closer with God he would reveal a key to me.

Each key was a better fit to the lock than the last; a new element in my healing.

Reading this though, has given me the courage to search for that key on my own, lead by God, and I have finally found it!

Now, I'm not going to go spill my heart to everyone-that would be unwise- but it is so liberating to know that I now have the strength to chose.

To be able to fully share my heart with the friends that want to know it and those that God leads me to reveal it to.

"God invites us to risk trusting Him and enter into redemptive friendships with others- to open ourselves up to the possibility of being hurt as well as the possibility of tasting the sweet fruit of companionship." -Captivating

Why fear?

His plans for you and I are good.

Your heart is beautiful, share it.

WORDS.

Letters alone are weak, a single word is strong, but when a word is strung together with others the result is powerful.

In fact, words are the most powerful force on this Earth.

They can either bring up or tear down

Inspire or depress

Give life or give death

I want to share with you some cherished words that have spoke life into me over the years.

Psalms 37:4

"Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, when one only remembers to turn on the light." - Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

"Our fingerprints never fade from the lives we've touched"- Remember Me

"I am not what I have done, I am what I've overcome."-What I've Overcome, Fireflight

"If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten"-Tony Robbins

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forgot how you made them feel." -Maya Angelou

"God always gives His best to those who leave the choice with Him" - Jim Elliot

"If you hear a voice within you say "you cannot paint", then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced"- Vincent Van Gogh

"Just be you, because life is too short to be anyone else."- Step up 2: The Streets

"We become what we think about"-Earl Nightingale

"Life is 10% what happens to me, and 90% of how I react to it."-John Maxwell

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined." -Henry David Thoreau

"When hope seems lost, down and lowly, I am here, with you always."- Always, Killswitch Engage

"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 a hope and a future."-Jeremiah 29:11

"Believe you can and your halfway there"-Theodore Roosevelt

"Once you chose hope, anything is possible."- Christopher Reeve

"The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible." -Arthur C. Clarke

Robert Frost

"I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough, we must do."- Leonard de Vinci

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."- Martin Luther King Jr.

"Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent."- Eleanor Roosevelt

"And we know that in all things God works together for those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." -Romans 8:28

"We are the light of the world, we are the city on a hill."- We are, Kari Jobe

"God will never remove something from your life if he didn't have something better to put in it."

"We must be our own before we can be another's."- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." - Psalms 73:26

"If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely." - Roald Dahl

"Change your thoughts and you change your world."- Norman Vincent Peale

"If you can dream it you can achieve it."- Zig Ziglar

Do your words have a positive or negative effect on your life?

What about on those around you?

Do they speak the truth?

Chose them wisely.

Addicted to...

Yes, joy is what I am addicted to. 

These last couple week/ends have been filled with so much God, love, laughter and fun that I am now hooked! 

It's an amazing feeling; a high if you will. 

A feeling that I have been searching for.

Joy addiction=No withdrawal 

Jesus said, "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full."(John 15:11)

So as long as we have Jesus we have joy. 

"And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."(Matthew 28:20)

Jesus never forsakes us, so why should our joy?

According to John 10:10, "The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy."

That includes joy!

"So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you." (John 16:22)

The enemy can only steal what is unguarded, so if we take hold of and protect the promise of joy that jesus has given us we will never be without!

I know trials occur and the world can appear to be closing in, suffocating you with black.

I spent ages 14-16 in that darkness, never really feeling happiness. 

I faked it, while I let people and circumstances crush me.

Years 16-19 I've been learning how to feel; 

to believe in joy again

even when things don't seem to be going my way.

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds."(James 1:2)

Sometimes I think, "If you only knew, Liah"

If I only knew that joy is mine through Jesus that no one, no thing is allowed to take it, then I could've spared myself so much heartbreak, 

so much numbness. 

But then I wouldn't be me

and I wouldn't know that light is never really gone, that although cloudy days occur and the sun seems to have disappeared, it's always right behind the clouds.

The value of this God-given joy is remarkable and should be taken for all that it is worth.

"But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness." (Galatians 5:22)

Chose today to walk in joy! 

No matter the circumstances 

"For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name." (Pslams 33:21)

Why spend another day in darkness? Depression? Sadness?

 Be joyful and trust Him in the dark and the light will soon reveal itself.

LIVE for Him, with Him; time is short.

Can you feel the urgency now?

Things are happening. 

 In Minnesota right now + the last couple years.

 Teenagers & young adults are dying by disease, by cars and by suicide.

Here one moment gone the next. 

It's sad to say that we, as humans, don't realize how important life really is until someone else loses theirs. 

We live our lives day to day thinking we'll always have a tomorrow, but life itself has no guarantees.

Jesus did, however, guarantee us life beyond the grave, when we live for him. 

One day I will have a headstone and it will read, "1993-_ _ _ _"

The numbers will mean nothing, but the dash will mean everything.

I find myself asking, "what am I doing with my life?"

"What is my dash going to be worth."

I wake up everyday and have somewhat of a routine. Same thing day to day and week week. Soon a year is gone and what have I done?

Sure I've grown in my relationship with God and I've made significant steps toward my own dreams, but have I lead someone else to find theirs?

Have I shared the love of God, the truth to anyone?

These people I see everyday have become so expected that I forget they may not be here tomorrow.

And people that I've encountered only once, I may never see them again, so words cannot be left unspoken.

I think to myself, "Could I be more selfish?"

This love that gets me through the day and promises me life in heaven is meant for everyone.

No one is supposed to spend eternity in fire.

If I truly love people, what on earth am I doing?

So today, I am choosing to never let a day slip through the cracks. 

To make my dash something Jesus would be proud of.

"Dear children, let us not love with words and speech, but with actions and in truth." 1 John 3:18

Love 100%

Comfort Zone 0%

Life is so fragile.

Time is precious.

We are never guaranteed another moment.

Can you feel the urgency now?

Tick Tock

"When we wait for God's best it may be difficult at times, but when they-or that opportunity-come around we will say, 'you were well worth the wait'."

I lost hope for awhile in my dreams, and now I feel as though I am back on track. 

God is teaching me to keep my hope and trust in the waiting and I love that.