I do hope you have been blessed, challenged and motivated to pursue God’s best, to improve yourself daily, to emerge at the end of 2018 as a victorious over-comer and God-glorifying achiever.
Like Paul, I do not claim to have arrived. When I write my posts, I speak firstly to myself. I write to encourage myself and anyone else whom God draws to my blogs. If He chooses to use my words to minister to an individual, or if visitors enjoy reading my posts along the way then I am grateful for the opportunity to speak into their lives and perhaps influence their thoughts.
As we move towards the close of this month, may I encourage you to keep looking towards Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith? May I remind you that God’s thoughts towards you are good thoughts and his plans for your life are good plans? May I therefore counsel you to cast down ALL contrary negative thoughts and meditate daily upon God’s life-enhancing thoughts? Finally, may I suggest that you embrace the attitudes and emulate the behaviour of the blessed, successful individual depicted in Psalm 1:1-3?
Success will look different to everyone. What it looks like to me will not be the same for you. However, I truly believe that the one definition we can all embrace regardless of our different dreams or goals is that success is becoming the best version of ourselves, whether as a Child of God, spouse, parent, student, colleague, employee or entrepreneur.
And so dear reader, let me take this opportunity to further encourage you on your journey with the following video. I trust you will take on board Washington’s advice.
I pray you will thrive, flourish and prosper. And I pray your journey through life this year will be one of personal growth, godly success and spiritual triumph.
Women of Warfare friends and followers – have a blessed week!
It is now the second month of 2018. So, how are you doing?
When the clock struck midnight and a New Year was ushered in, every living soul who has God’s breath in their body was given a fresh opportunity to write their own story. A new story. A story of success. A story of accomplishment. A story of personal growth and development. A story of a victorious lifestyle, of spiritual increase and supernatural blessings.
But that story will only get written with the quill of zeal and determination, with the ink of wisdom, faith and hope.
So, how will the next 10-11 months shape up for you?
With the opportunities that 12 chapters and 365 pages each New Year grants, what type of story do you want to see emerge? What story are you planning, shaping, expecting? Will it be a tale of woe and regret, or an exciting saga with twists and intrigue?
In every good story there has to be a beginning and an ending. In every realistic tale there has to be a conflict, or problem which needs to be resolved. There is a protagonist and an antagonist. And just as the author is in control of the story she or he writes, so you are in control of your story, so I am in control of mine.
Perhaps you’re thinking: No Lady Cee, I am not in control. What about those who oppose me? What about the unexpected events that throw me off track? What about God’s will for my life? What about my responsibilities? What about Satan and his evil cohorts?
What about him? What about your accusers, your back-stabbers, your mockers, naysayers and saboteurs? Are you forgetting something?
What about God Almighty? What about Jesus your Saviour and the author and finisher of your faith? What about the Holy Spirit—your advocate, counsellor, helper and intercessor?
And what about you? None of the negative aspects of our lives, mean that you and I can abdicate responsibility for our failings and short-comings.
Dear friend, you can choose to feel despondent about your traumas, trials and tribulations and you can choose to stay in a slough of depression, or else you can arise. Arise in strength. Arise in faith.
And, you can say, as Habukkuk did:
Though the fig tree does not blossom […] and the fields yield no food, […] yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the [victorious] God of my salvation.
The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds’ feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places of trouble, suffering, or responsibility.
Habakkuk 3:17-19
You can look at the shenanigans of those who oppose you, marginalise you, hate or despise you, and you can believe they have the upper hand and that you are their victim.
Or, you can look at those same situations and see an opportunity for God to amaze you, strengthen you, hone your character, transform you. And you can be confident that Father-God will fight for you (vanquishing those enemies as he sees fit). You can be assured that he will remove you from the reach of harm, even forge a path of favour along your route to success.
Dear reader, can you see how whatever happens in your life, you can gain the upper hand, you can be in control, you can be the head and not the tail, above only (in your estimationand according to God’s reckoning) and not beneath (because of the warped estimation of others)?
You can take control of your story in 2018! It’s a matter of your mind-set. It’s a matter of your free-will. It’s a matter of choice.
Over the remaining months of this year, we can choose to follow our dreams, pursue our destiny, trust God, believe His Word and draw closer to him. Or we can choose to walk on the path of mediocrity, swim in the pool of stagnancy, or reside in a cul-de-sac of confusion and despair.
Dear reader, you and I are God’s creative masterpiece! So let’s remember that. Let’s you and I over the remaining months of this year, write a humdinger of a tale, one that the Lord would be proud to read.
Have a blessed and victorious week!
Love,
Carol ♥♥
CREDIT: The above CC0 Images come courtesy of Pixabay.com
For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which he pre-arranged and made ready for us to live].
But that story will only get written with the quill of 
Women of Warfare! (WOW!) 