When Passion Meets Purpose

So let's have an honesty hour...

With the growth of the project I started at the top of this year in January, The Prayer Project, my mind has been filled with new ideas to get it to grow, expand and flourish. I recently have been overwhelmed with my many ideas of turning this project into a business. Although having these thoughts are perfectly normal and fine, I really have to take a step back and remember why I started this project in the first place. So I'm taking a moment to check my heart and correct any selfish motives behind its growth.

I didn't start The Prayer Project for the purpose of turning it into a business. Not at all. Money was the furthest thing in my mind. I began this movement because I saw a need. I saw a heartbreaking need that I knew I wanted to help with. God opened my eyes and put a burning fire in my heart filled with intense compassion and desire to contribute to a change. I knew then that I couldn't be afraid anymore. I had to do it. I had to listen to and answer the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit impressing on my heart how He's prepared me for this.

When I think of why I started The Prayer Project, I'm reminded how sad I felt for those with broken hearts that had grown cold; for those who had never experienced the warmth of God's love through the people surrounding them. I remember believing that I had something worth sharing that could help. I remember feeling overcome with excitement that God had given me something to offer.

It saddens me that so many of us are lost. We don't know how to love. We are subconsciously relying on the poor examples of love that we see on TV and in our homes not knowing that these poor examples are singlehandedly destroying us and our relationships. Some of us don't even understand what it means to be selfless or even kind. 

These are things that break my heart. 

I see people "cutting people off" left and right, treating relationships and people as possessions and commodities that are interchangeable, as long as it benefits them. We don't know what it means to serve or to put others before ourselves. We have completely lost and overlooked what Jesus taught us was MOST important (John 15:12). Our hearts are a mess because if it. 

THIS is why I started The Prayer Project. 

My passion is to contribute to changing people's tainted perspective of love and helping reinstitute Jesus' example of what love is and how we are to love others.

My prayer for this project is to reach the unreachable. To build a community of intercessors to be the extension, the hands and feet, of Jesus' heart; sharing with the closed-hearted and cold-hearted His perfect and transforming love in efforts to break open their hearts to receive all that Jesus Christ has for them. As a result, I pray that this will create a ripple effect, where more people are reached by gentle acts of genuine Christly love, recognize God's immense love for them and do the same for others. 

My prayer is that hearts are changed and made whole, broken relationships are restored and that love, God's love, begins to rule in more hearts and more homes and will ultimately draw the unsaved to salvation.

By Christ's love, all of this is possible.

I recognize and am in constant awe of the power in God's love. It was God's love that saved me. Saved me from myself and saved me from living a life of ruins. It is God's love that continues to rescue me, over and over again. And for this reason alone, it my life's mission to share that with as many people as I can.

This is why this project is so near and dear to me. This is my personal reminder. I've written this here so that I will never forget, no matter how large or small The Prayer Project becomes, the reason I've started this project.

Love.

"Dear Children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions." 

- 1John 3:18 (NLT)

Growth Is Scary (Audio Blurb #1)

This year of 2013 is coming to an end and I have been doing a lot of reflecting. As I think about this year I can see more and more of God's purpose for the things I went through. I call it my "year of recovery". To be quite honest, God has worked on me this year more than He ever has. I have grieved losses, experienced trying of my faith, and have really been put in a position to trust God. I have learned SO much about myself and have grown more in love with God and can see how much He has taken care of me and restored a lot of my brokenness. I am amazed at my progress but I must admit that the adjustments are not as easy as I thought they would be.


To be 100% transparent, I find myself so blown away at my growth sometimes that it scares me. It scares me because I have evolved so much this year and can clearly see God putting the pieces in my life together so that I can start walking in the purpose that He designed for me. Knowing that I am getting closer to my purpose is exciting yet scary at the same time. I notice that I question my abilities a lot. Am I capable? That's the question I continuously ask myself. The thing is, I know that God wouldn't take me into any territory without preparing me first. I know that. But that doesn't make it any less frightening for me. It's like I'm being prepared for something and I don't even know what it is yet.

What's most interesting in this growth process is when I start seeing changes in myself that even I find it hard to believe. It's funny when you shock yourself. I am responding to situations differently, speaking up at times when I would normally be quiet and being quiet in situations when I would normally speak up. My discernment has been refined, and my compassion has multiplied. I'm changing. And the person I used to be is fighting the person that I am becoming.

Somewhere in my subconscious, I have not fully given myself permission to grow up. There are thoughts like, "What will people think of me?" And because I occasionally have those thoughts I at times allow fear from allowing me to be 100% great. It's like I have given myself permission to be 75% great, but if I go that full 100%, I fear that I will get a lot of side-eyes from people around me who won't understand.

I hope I'm making some kind of sense here lol, but these are things that I have been thinking about lately. My recent prayer is that God would take my fear away. The fear of the unknown, the fear of what people will think, and any other fear that may be a hindrance to me receiving everything that the Lord has for me. It definitely is a process. But I'm glad to say that I am slowly getting there.

I write often. Not just here on my blog in my own personal time. I find great relief in writing, so I journal about pretty much everything. I write about my thoughts, I frequently write poetry and sometimes when I can't articulate my thoughts into written words or if I am just too lazy to write, I release my thoughts and record them in my phone. Yesterday morning, this same topic was on my mind and I recorded my random, free, scattered thoughts. I decided to share them. Now I must warn you that I did not plan this or edit this in any way lol, these are my raw, random feelings on the topic of growth.

Are you experiencing the same? Have you freed yourself from fear and given yourself permission to grow? Click below to take a listen.

Love.

Change: It's Not You, It's God

Not everyone will accept and understand the change that God allows to take place in you. Not even those who know you best. Understand that it is not their responsibility to change along with you. God transforms those who willingly and wholly accept His open invitation. He transforms us at different times, different seasons and in different ways. So the next time you sense those around you questioning your "new" ways and lifestyle, smile and know that your light is beaming bright enough for them to notice. God is not only changing you but He's changing your environment for you.

Love.

Purpose, Passion, Success

Lately I have been thinking a lot about the purpose for the many gifts and talents God has blessed me with. To be a bit transparent, one of my greatest fears in life is that I will pass away without using everything God has put inside of me. As I am evolving, I am noticing new abilities and gifts surface and am noticing new things about myself that I didn't know before. And to be honest, every time God shows me something new about myself, I develop a burning passion and desire to make use of it right away. Is that normal? I don't know, but that is my truth. I think it has to do with me being extremely passionate.

Being passionate can be a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing because it fuels me by putting fire under my butt. My strong desires and intense passions motivate me and gets me moving. I say it can be a curse because, sometimes the same intensity that I experience when I am extremely passionate about something, is the same intensity I feel when I am sad about something; or if the passion I feel doesn't catch on to the people I share it with. For example, it's like going to see a movie and enjoying it so much that you have to tell someone about it. They go see that same movie and tell you it was just okay. Stings a bit right?

Well, with this understanding that I have about myself, and in knowing that I am multi-passionate, I find that I struggle with trying to figure out, which one thing(s) that God put inside of me will lead me down the path of "success"? I put success in quotation marks because really, success is subjective. In our minds, we all have different ideas what the definition of success is. To some it may mean money and recognition. To others it may mean having a well fed and taken care of family. Then you have society. Society screams at us, telling us that success is being well educated (more than one degree), being fit/thin, having a big house, cars, great job, yadda yadda yadda.

In the article, "Why the Definition of Success Needs a Serious Face Lift" by the Huffington Post, the writer explains the harm that this illusion of success can have on us. She says,

"What happens when we unconsciously buy into our society's success model is that our thoughts stay in lack, making us feel that we are not enough, and we need this or that to feel whole again. The illusion has survived because we have kept the fallacy alive in our minds and continue to take action as though this was the true model for success...If you're hanging on the whim of society's definition of success -- you're always going to be chasing something that does not exist."

With that nugget of valuable information, and my curiosity, I wanted to know what God had to say about '"success". I mean after all He created all things right? Surely He would set a standard for us. In Joshua 1:8, God says,

"Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do." Joshua 1:8

If that isn't the most clear and concise set of instructions! Success is God's idea. He wants us to prosper and succeed HIS way. His way includes us being obedient to Him by reading and studying His Word and actually obeying them. If we do this we will always be in God's will. I don't know about you but I would rather succeed by God's standards than any other made-up standard. Knowing this comforts me. Success is knowing God, accepting what He wants for our lives and following that. In God's eyes, success is mostly about our journey. He wants our focus to be on cultivating who we are internally and becoming more like Him. It's not all about the results. He want's us to leave that in His hands. He already promised that we would "succeed in all we do" if we follow those instructions. If we can focus on that, we give God the space to produce the success He promises in our lives.

xo

Reference Scripture:
Joshua 1:8

Blurb: Check out the Huffington Post article by clicking on the link sourced. It really does put things into perspective for those who may be struggling with living in a "success" driven society.