Monday, March 31, 2014

Jeremiah 1

Day 1: Jeremiah 1: 1-19
 
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations (Jeremiah 1:5).

It’s funny how we can desire for God to show us our purpose but just as soon as He does we hit the brakes and go wait what? God, I think You meant that for someone else because there is no way that I am capable of doing this! You can only imagine what Jeremiah’s thoughts were as God not only tells him that He created him to be a prophet but also that he is to go and share the message of God’s wrath to the people of Judah. Jeremiah immediately looks to his own limitations (v.6) and begins to tell God why he can’t do it. We so often give God this laundry list of why we can’t walk in the calling He has for our life because we don’t think we’re capable of doing it. The truth is a lot of us have convinced ourselves that we can’t do certain things because other people, not God remind you, told you that you wouldn’t be able to or that you weren’t good enough. They told you you’re too young, you’re too old, you’re too uneducated, you don’t look the part, you can’t because your momma or your daddy didn’t, you don’t have the money to do it, you don’t have the skill….and the list goes on and on and on. Look, at some point you have to tell people to take their mouth off of you! They can think and say whatever they want to but what did God say? Stop allowing unqualified people to speak into your life and simply allow the word of God to be your point of reference for what you are capable of doing!

As the Lord reveals to Jeremiah the different things that are going to happen to Judah due to their disobedient (v. 11-16) He also reminds him of something very important. He reminds Jeremiah that as he prophesies the Lord’s wrath on these people that they will fight against him. He didn’t say they might fight against you, they may or may not like you, they may receive you, I don’t really know just go in and see. No, God gave Jeremiah a sure word that they will fight against Him but the follow up was also a sure word and that is “but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee” (v.19). Don’t be afraid to face opposition in doing what God has called you to do or to say. People may fight against you, but they won’t take you out. They may talk about you, but their words won’t prevail. They may hate you and the God that you serve, but they will not overtake you. Stand firm in the midst of opposition and keep doing what God has called you to do. Stop waiting for everyone to be okay with what God has called you to do! Everybody won’t get it, like it, or believe in it; that’s their problem not yours.  

What verse spoke to you the most from this chapter? Be sure to share it to encourage someone else! Tag me so that I can share it as well (IG: @angel_cheron. Twitter: @angelcheron. Facebook: Angel Cheron and add #ChangedHearts #Jeremiah)

**Please note Changed Hearts: Matters of the Heart date has changed from April 5, 2014! I will be sharing the new date and time later this week.** Changed Hearts: I AM Woman: Woman 2 Woman will still be April 12, 2014 @ 10:00 a.m.!


Thursday, March 27, 2014

But Did You Take It To God First?



There’s a purpose in this long story so just bear with me. I get home from work yesterday and get on my laptop and I watch a video from Heather Lindsey on YouTube about this year’s pinky promise conference (last year’s was amazing, you don’t want to miss it this year if you can go). I close out of it and my computer screen starts showing yellow blotches…hmh that’s weird. So I figured I just needed to restart it and it would be fine. Yeah no…it now proceeds to turn green! So I say hmh well let me shut it down, take the battery out, and let it sit for a minute. Go back to it later, not only is it now pink and green the screen has doubled so now it is two of my desktop and everything that I open. I immediately think oh gosh this isn’t good! I have homework to do on Thursday and a paper that I have to work on that’s due Sunday but I have to work on it prior to Sunday because I have plans for the weekend, I have to get these videos together for the conferences, I have to do this, that, and the forth. Now read that as fast as you can without taking a breath and that is how it was running through my mind. So needless to say I’m stressing just a tad!

I go to Walmart’s website on my phone to see what they had that I could pick up right then because I couldn’t wait the 3-6 business days for it to ship, I needed it now. I find one that I’m going to order simply because it’s the cheapest and let’s be real I’m not balling out the park so it’s not like I have a couple hundred dollars laying around to buy a new laptop spur of the moment. I screenshot it and send it to my sister because she’s a computer person and she tells me not to get it because the operating system was something weird. As I’m scrolling through the laptops that are in stock and what she advised me to go with, all I see are the prices going up…and up…and up and my stress is going up…and up…and up. I finally order one and it’s in stock at my local Walmart but it’s late at this point so I said I’ll just pick it up today on my lunch break. Not even a ½ hour later, I get an email saying I’m sorry that laptop is actually out of stock and your order has been cancelled. Really though…

I say to myself okay God, I’m going to take my hands off of it and let you take care of it. Not even an hour later I’m back on my phone searching for another laptop aka not taking my hands off of it and not letting God handle it. I order a second laptop and once again it says it’s in stock and can be picked up the next day at my local Walmart. I wake up this morning to a second email that once again says j/k we lied to you, this one ain’t in stock either. So now I’m a little irritated, okay a lot irritated, one at the fact that my laptop has given up the ghost and is donezo and two that Walmart keeps telling me that they have these laptops in stock that they actually don’t! Nonetheless, I order a third laptop because I need it and I can’t wait for it to ship 3-6 business days. You got it, not in stock sorry your order has been cancelled. At this point I’m thinking Walmart are you trying to make me lose my Jesus today??? Are you really trying to make me lose all of my salvation because this has just crossed the point of ridiculousness!

I’m getting ready for work and I just have an attitude; I’m in my feelings. As I’m driving to work God puts in my heart Israel Houghton’s song Jesus at the center of it all. You cannot have an attitude with that song playing in your spirit. You cannot be stressed out with “from my heart to the heavens Jesus be the center, it’s all about You” playing in your heart on repeat. I texted my best friend and tell her about all the shenanigans and I thought okay God what do you want me to do? The real question that was proposed however is why didn’t you come to Me first? Insert big eyed emoji!!!! God showed me that I went all around Him trying to find the solution on my own but never turned to Him initially to give me the answer. So now I’m left frustrated and irritable when all along all I had to do was to turn to the One who always had the solution. God showed me that while Jesus at the center was playing in my heart I was at peace and I wasn’t stressed out about it. He reminded me that we don’t have to wait for the solution to be found in order for the stress to leave or for us to have peace. It’s when we go to Him first, He can provide us with the peace even when we don’t have the solution yet. But we spend all this time trying to figure it out ourselves and we get frustrated when we fail…miserably. 

I order a fourth laptop now…I place my order and I don’t get a confirmation receipt like I did for the others. I think okay that’s weird but we’re not going to stress about it. An hour goes by and I’m waiting to receive an email, still no email. So now I’m just expecting to receive another email saying gotcha again fool out of stock! A couple of hours go by, nothing. I thought you know what if it’s not in stock I’m not going to worry about it, I’ll just wait the 3-6 business days for it to ship and it will work itself out. I go on my lunch break and ten minutes later I get a confirmation email that my order is ready for pick up. I share this really long story to say that we can’t say that we’re giving our problems and situations to God but also keeping our hands all up and in it. This reminded me of when I first started driving and my mom would hold the steering wheel from the passenger seat! We say we’re letting Jesus take the wheel but it’s really like we just want Him to be in control of the gas and the breaks but we still want to take control of the direction that we’re going by holding on, tightly might I add, to the steering wheel. At some point we have to let go of trying to figure out on our own and learn how to take it to God first. No matter how big or small it may seem, take it to God first. When we try to figure it out ourselves it’s like saying to God that we have more faith in ourselves than we do Him. We trust ourselves more than we trust Him to take care of us and to fix it. That’s a tough pill to swallow. Proverbs 3:5-6 says trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. Go to Him first and allow Him to be the director of your life as you take the backseat.

 

  • Don’t forget to check out the Changed Hearts website: www.changedheartsunited.com
  •  Changed Hearts and Changed Hearts: I AM Woman are having a free online event! Be sure to register so that you can be entered for the giveaways!
  •  Register for Changed Hearts Matters of the Heart here!
  • Register for Changed Hearts: I AM Woman Woman 2 Woman here!
  • You can find all of the monthly teachings, vlogs, Changed Hearts: Real Talk, and Q&A’s on my YouTube channel:  www.youtube.com/user/AngelWalston


Tuesday, March 25, 2014

PSA to Singles




One of the topics that consume Christians is the season of singleness and wondering God when is it going to be my turn? Personally, I can appreciate people who are married giving their two cents on the single season because at some point they were there….here comes the big ole but….BUT sometimes you don’t want to hear it from someone who is happily married. Will I be one of those married women giving advice to singles and telling them to enjoy their single season? I can almost guarantee that I will be that annoying married woman that you love but also kinda want to tell to shhhh when they start going off on a tangent on how you need to embrace your singleness when they are happily married.   Don’t get me wrong, you don’t want to discard the wisdom that you can receive there but sometimes you just want to hear it from someone who is in the same position as you…single. So let’s chat Let’s have a heart to heart right quick about singleness.

There are a couple of things that people have to get regarding singleness: 


1.      A spouse is NOT a reward for living for God. Salvation through Jesus Christ is. Your soul not burning in eternal damnation is your reward for serving God and quite frankly that is more than enough if God does absolutely nothing else! I get it, we see all these lovely couples that did marriage God’s way and you think gosh I can’t wait to do life with my husband/wife and share Christ together. So now you think that if you get serious about following Christ then that will speed up the process of you meeting your spouse so you two can be a beautiful example of a God ordained marriage, right? Isn’t it funny how we can twist our selfish desires so that we can justify them? What if God tells you that He created you to be single forever and wants you to be like the Apostle Paul, then what? Are you done following Christ because God didn’t give you what you wanted? If so, you never had a real relationship with Him. We don’t serve God to trick Him into blessing us or so that we can bargain with him to get a mate! We serve God because of who He is and because it is our reasonable service and the least that we can do to thank Him for giving us Jesus to die in our place.



2.      Single DOES NOT mean available or lonely. Just because you are single that does not mean you are sitting around looking to be pursued or that you are lonely! I can never shout this from the rooftops enough!!!! There will be so many randoms (both men and women) that see that you’re single and they will boldly come after you trying to take you off the market when you are perfectly fine being single. They come out of the woodwork and all you can think is God will you please hide me in your secret place?!?! What people miss is that just because you have a desire to be married that does not mean that your time to be married is right now! There are a lot of singles who have no desire in being pursued/pursuing right now but that also want to be married at some point. A lot of people are focused on Christ, they want to finish allowing God to work on them as an individual, and they’re working on becoming a better man or woman not just specifically to be someone’s spouse but to be used by God. They will be single until God shows them it’s time to acknowledge their spouse and they’re completely okay with that. 

          Don’t ruin it for these people! Do not be a stumbling block in their life or assume that because they’re single that they’re unhappy or are waiting to be pursued or that they are too passive to pursue. The thing about God ordained relationships is that they just work and they’re not forced! Stop telling that fine good Christian man that you think he is your husband because he is the only Christian man that you have met who is saved and actually attractive. That man is trying to pursue Christ not you so calm down ladies! Just an FYI, it is typically a huge red flag for a Christian man when a woman tries to pursue him; people can agree to disagree on this but it’s true. Stop focusing on your limited thinking that there is a shortage of good Christian men and so you have to jump on it when you finally meet one. No ma’am! Jesus could care less about the uneven ratio of men to women in your church, school, or job because limitations have no power over Him. He fed the 5,000 with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread….Need I say more? 

           Men ya’ll next; stop assuming that every single woman wants to be pursued!!! Stop trying to holla at every single, saved, attractive Christian woman! Yes it is your role to pursue but if you’re pursuing any and everything that calls itself a Christian it shows that you are not God led and it also makes you look mad shady and suspect as you jump from woman to woman. It can be frustrating at times as a single Christian to be pursued by people when you are just trying to be focused on Christ and not be distracted. Be God led and influenced by purpose in all of your dealings with people! You never know how people have struggled with getting to that place of being content in Christ alone so do not be a distraction to them. If God does not show you that they are anything more than your brother or sister in Christ treat them as such and leave them alone!


3.      God knows when you’re ready/“in need” of a spouse. The problem with singles is that we can have a tendency to feel like we need a helpmeet way before our time because we try to fill a void with a love that only God can fill. So we go out to find our suitable helper instead of allowing God to create/develop them for us and we end up with a suitable hinderer instead. This person hinders you from growing in Christ instead of helping you because they were never God’s best for your life but you just had to have you a man or woman so bad. Singles, REST!!!!!! I can never say this enough! Seriously, rest…please…go take a nap…no seriously! God knows when you need it and who you need. Stop trying to make it happen in your timing. God has not only chosen your wedding date but he’s also chosen your spouse already so calm your nerves! He will provide you with all of this when He knows you’re ready for it.



When we look at the creation of man and woman in Genesis it clearly states that it was God who acknowledged that Adam was in need of a suitable helper. I don’t know what Adam had going on in that garden but God saw that he needed a suitable helpmeet which He provided when He saw the need. Once again, it was God, not Adam. Adam was not sulking, coveting, or begging God for a wife and it’s safe to say that he had not acknowledged himself that he was lacking anything by not having a spouse. I know what you’re thinking, go ahead and say it. Well Angel, how could Adam feel like he was lacking something that didn’t yet exist? Besides the animals, he was the only human being in the garden, however, for us there are tons of other human beings that make it evident to us that we’re “missing something” by not having a significant other. Here’s the thing, even before Eve was created, Adam was not in the garden by himself; it was him and God. During this time Adam did not feel like he was missing out on anything because God was enough. You see Adam’s thoughts were not consumed about wanting a wife or even wanting help because he had God and that was enough for him.

The point of this is that until you realize that God is enough, you will continue to be consumed in your singleness of feeling like you’re lacking something and you’ll completely miss the beautiful moment of fellowshipping with God when it’s just you and Him. You have to stay focused and learn how to enjoy being in the presence of God and learn how to enjoy Him without having anyone to distract you. Let’s be real, when Eve came into the picture Adam got distracted and it led to him disobeying God. Yes your spouse will be a blessing and should not distract you from God (when you allow Him to pick your spouse) but marriage does change your relationship with God as you now have to balance your time tending to your family and working on your relationship with Him. Apostle Paul even said that it's better for people to remain single because when you're married your focus is divided and you no longer have as much time to devote to The Lord (1 Corinthians 7: 32-35).The real truth is that no matter how great of a man or woman of God you marry they’re still human and even with best intentions can still make mistakes and get you distracted sometimes. 



With all of this being said, God placed it on my heart to do a short series on singleness for the month of April. Each week I will either do a blog or a video on the following four areas (not necessarily in this order):


I.                 The Content Single- Dealing with learning to be genuinely content during the single season.

II.               The Guarded Single- Dealing with the “I don’t need anybody” attitude and not allowing people in.

III.              The Attention Seeking Single- Dealing with the desire of wanting to be pursued or wanting attention of a man or a woman.

IV.              The Interested Single- Dealing with when you meet someone that you’re actually interested in and you want to pursue them or want to be pursued by them. (This will be similar to the video that I did called “the pursuit” that can be found on my youtube page)


  • Don’t forget to check out the Changed Hearts website: www.changedheartsunited.com
  •  Changed Hearts and Changed Hearts: I AM Woman are having a free online event! Be sure to register so that you can be entered for the giveaways!
  •  Register for Changed Hearts Matters of the Heart here!
  • Register for Changed Hearts: I AM Woman Woman 2 Woman here!
  • You can find all of the monthly teachings, vlogs, Changed Hearts: Real Talk, and Q&A’s on my YouTube channel:  www.youtube.com/user/AngelWalston


Tuesday, March 18, 2014

I Will Bless The Lord At All Times



I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth” (Psalm 34:1, KJV).


God reminded me of a sermon that one of the Missionaries at my church gave a year or two ago on this particular verse and she shared how God showed her this verse and asked will you bless Me even when things aren’t going good. Even when people leave you, when things fall apart, will you continue to bless Me? We have a tendency to quote a ton of lovely bible verses yet never really take the time to think about what they really mean and how the words are truly applicable to our own lives. At all times is not referring to just the beautiful days when all the roses are blooming and everything and everyone is perfect; no, at all times refers to at all times. That includes the times when you are broken, the times when you are hurting, the times when everyone and everything is against you, all of that is included in at all times. But let’s take it a step further, at all times also includes those times where you don’t understand why God is allowing certain things to happen. It also includes those times where you are taking a complete faith walk and you feel like God is really silent during the tests that you are facing and you honestly wonder if He’s abandoned you. It includes those times where you’re having a Job moment where everyone is talking about how if the God you serve is so good then why is He stripping you of everything and allowing all these bad things to happen? It includes the times where you don’t feel like blessing the Lord. Yes, all that is included in at all times


Something that I really need to work on is being a sloucher. I have horrible posture and it comes from it being more comfortable to slouch then to sit up straight (yes I know that’s a horrible excuse but just follow me). When I do sit up straight it’s really uncomfortable because I’m not used to standing that way but it feels normal to slouch because my body has gotten used to that position. However, I know if I spent more time working on standing up straight my body would eventually adjust and it wouldn’t feel as uncomfortable anymore. As I was thinking about this, God showed me the question, “what is your posture of praise?” You see the thing about your posture is that when you stand up straight you appear to be more confident and it’s the same thing with our posture of praise. For some people it can be difficult to praise and bless God when we are in difficult situations yet when things are going well we can praise and worship God freely with a joy and happiness because everything is working out. The thing is however it’s only short lived because when we hit a road block that makes us uncomfortable we go right back to what we were used to and that can be the woe is me attitude. We go back to the slouching posture where we don’t want to praise God because we don’t like where He has us in the moment and we’re all in our feelings. God showed me that makes you a wishy washy believer. You can praise Him when everything is all good but not when it’s bad. A real praiser and a real worshipper does not just do so only when things are right. When you’ve really learned to praise and worship God you realize that at all times includes the bad times but even more so you realize that the bad times do not change who God is because the fact remains that God is good at all times even when we fail to see it. When we fail to praise Him, God is still good at all times. When we fail to realize what He brought us from last time, God is still good at all times. When we aren’t good at all times, God is still good at all times. When you get to a place that you will praise God at all times your posture of praise will adjust regardless of whether you’re uncomfortable or not because your praise and your worship becomes dependent on who God is and how good He is and not what you may be going through. 


So what has your praise been dependent on lately? When you say I will bless the Lord at all times and His praise shall continually be in my mouth, is that conditional? God wants to know will you still praise Him if the job doesn’t work out? Will you still praise Him if you lose the boyfriend or girlfriend? Will you still praise Him if He takes your loved one? Will you still praise Him if you don’t know how you’re going to make ends meet? Will you bless the Lord at all times regardless of what at all times looks like? 

  • Don’t forget to check out the Changed Hearts website: www.changedheartsunited.com
  •  Changed Hearts and Changed Hearts: I AM Woman are having a free online event! Be sure to register so that you can be entered for the giveaways!
  •  Register for Changed Hearts Matters of the Heart here!
  • Register for Changed Hearts: I AM Woman Woman 2 Woman here!
  • You can find all of the monthly teachings, vlogs, Changed Hearts: Real Talk, and Q&A’s on my YouTube channel:  www.youtube.com/user/AngelWalston