#noloser

[priscilamendesblog-blog]

Você vai ser feliz, mas antes a vida vai te ensinar a ser forte.

[virtual-genius-bar]

Are you a Loser😖? Loser is classified as soon as you give up on trying to be the best you can be. . Winner🤔 is the result of facing a lot of failures🥶. Find out your inner strength🧐 and continue to fight for your best🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️. . Winner takes it all🥇. . #noloser #winnertakesitall #innerstrength #fightforthebest (at Ellicott City, Maryland) https://www.instagram.com/p/CDISyYLBXe2/?igshid=j3k9of5cqqtv

[livingwaterconfessions-blog]

For One Weak Only

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11)

I thought I was so over this. By this I mean feeling so discouraged that even God's encouragement seems to lack the muster to build me up. Think about it. The King of kings and Lord of lords is leading you by the Holy Spirit and all you can do is say "I'm just not cut out for this". And by this, I mean life. Going from one terrible job to another. Avoiding very real family issues and challenges. Overseeing God's work while feeling inadequately prepared.  

And, then I spiral into even more discouragement simply thinking "in all that I've done, seen, and heard, how can I possibly question God's calling over my life?" And, then the shame is magnified to create a sense of being more overwhelmed. I know I'm not the only one who goes through this, but I feel like no one more spiritually-minded than me goes through this. I have a word for people like this: marshmallow Christians. What exactly is a marshmallow Christian? Well, this is a person who seems a bit fluffy, yet mildly rough on the exterior, but inside they are soft, airy, and malleable. Did I just say about myself what I think I said? Snap. And, yet in many regards it's true. I find myself one moment being spiritually a force of nature, and the next moment being spiritually ragged. And, in these moments it seems as if the harder I push the more spongy I become. Moreover at these moments I don't want to pray, fast, or read the Word of God. I just want to wallow in a dank corner accompanied only by my own sense of reduced self worth manifesting in self-pity.  And, this place of self-pity is only a great place to hang out until it's not. But, that is the devious thing about pity parties. When you finally desire to get out of them, you are so deep in the the pit of the party that escape seems futile. But, thanks be to God that we do not serve a God of futility. As a matter of fact, we serve a God whose only desire is our prosperity. One of my favor passages in Christian scripture says "Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers." (3 John 1:2). Over the past two years God's taken me higher, deeper, wider, and farther than the previous eight years combined. Many of those tales I've neglected to add to the annals of this blog. But, thanks be to God that through His power of redemption we are able to overcome all fears, frustration, anxiety, bitterness, and insecurity. We can not lose. Not for a day. Not for a week. Not for an hour, minute, or second. We are first. We will not lose. 

[a-day-on-paradise]