God Promises Safety

Dear Beloved,

I don't know where your mind is right now, but God keeps placing this Bible chapter on my heart, Isaiah 11. In the midst of any mental, emotional, or spiritual turmoil you may be experiencing, God uses this chapter to paint one of the most beautiful pictures of safety I've ever read. For me in this hour, there is a great well of hope I can draw from God's promise of safety. Life can be hard with the enemy consistently threatening our safety. Whether it be the safety of our health, our hearts, our minds, or our lives all together. As long as there is God's light pursuing to love us, there is the darkness of the enemy seeking to drain us of hope and keep us blind. 

It's only by God's GRACE does He allow us to experience His light and opens our eyes to His great hope. Maybe you've had a heavy week with recent events in the news, dealing with your health, balancing life situations, wherever your heart is reading this letter, I pray God's grace over you. I pray the Lord will grace you to open your heart to His light and open your eyes to the hope in His word. Proverbs 18:10 says The name of the Lord is a strong tower and the righteous run into it and are safe. I pray through the grace of God, that His very name and His word which is greater than His name will be a place of refuge for you as you read and safety will be your portion. 

In Isaiah 11 God explains what it will be like when Jesus returns to the earth: 

In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard and the goat 

will be at peace. Calves and sheep will be safe among lions, and a little child 

will lead them all...Babies will crawl safely among poisonous snakes.

Yeas, a little child will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes

an pull it out unharmed. Nothing will hurt or destroy

in all my holy mountain. And as the waters fill the sea, 

so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord.

(Isaiah 11:6-9)

When God says NOTHING will hurt or destroy, He means NOTHING. No disease, no wickedness of me, nor devil in hell can cause hurt or destruction to those who will be in Christ Jesus. This is the future that God promises His people. Pain will be eradicated from the earth when Christ returns and ALL things will be healed. Nothing can bring harm, not even animals. God promises an eternal peace and an eternal hope in the safety of His power and His plan. Turmoil may be all around you now beloved, but remember this life is temporary. Hold true to what is eternal. Enter the safety of God's presence TODAY by filling your mind with worship music and thanking God for the eternal peace to come. God is not a man that He should lie. Thank you Lord for your truth and thank you for your safety. We place our hearts, minds, and bodies in your hands, in Jesus name, amen. 

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka

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Hanging On By A Thread

Dear Beloved,

Are you hanging on by a thread? This year has been a roller coaster to say the least. There's people passing away, illness, relationships being challenged, stress on all sides, and the list goes on. Maybe you had high hopes for this year and then BAM, 2020 had other plans. I'm honestly at the point where I'm tired of hearing news. Whether it's the world news about covid or news in my personal life that's bringing shock. I just need a 6 month break from hearing any new information about anything! Well, except good things (naturally, lol). Am I the only one?

Well, taking a few steps back from my temper tantrum, today I thought about joy. I thought about how similar joy is to the sun. When you have it, it's always there. With the sun, as long as the earth is in rotation, it will always be there. However, some days we can't see the sun and may not even feel it because the clouds are covering it up. I feel that's how joy is. When God gives us this precious gift, sometimes it's shining bright to the point that others can see and feel it, but other times it's more behind the scenes and we can't really detect it's presence. The latter can happen when unexpected circumstances and life twists overtake the forecast of our lives. It feels cold and rainy, and may even look darker, but similar to the sun, God's joy is STILL there. The sun never goes away and neither does His joy. Once you have it, it keeps you anchored through the clouds and when (not if) the sky clears, your joy will shine again. 

There was a time I was helping a friend of mine move. It was a warm, sunny day. We packed everything up from her first apartment into our cars, it was a lot of boxes and clothes on hangers. On the 30 minute drive to her new place, the clouds came out of no where. It started to rain lightly, then it started to DOWN POUR! As I drove, all I thought was: how is this going to work?! Today is her last day in the old apartment. It's thundering and pouring. And we're going to be soaked, not to mention all of her things if we attempt to unload these cars. I had no idea what the outcome was going to be, but I continued to drive behind her to the new place. I KID YOU NOT. When we were five minutes away, the rain literally cleared and stopped! Not only that, but the sun came out shining like nothing even happened! That was a huge spiritual lesson for me. When we saw the weather take an unexpected turn with no hope in sight, we would've had every reason to turn around and quit the mission. However, my friend kept driving and I followed. If we had quit or gave up, we would've never seen how God was going to clear sky for us on the other side and meet us with the sun. Through the rain, the sun was behind the clouds the ENTIRE TIME. 

I pray through all of the clouds of 2020, you're encouraged to not give up, but to KEEP DRIVING. Rest in the fact that God's joy is your anchor behind the clouds and you WILL see and feel it shine again. If you don't have God's joy, you can receive it through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Your relationship starts when you ask Jesus to forgive you of your sin, then he will send you the Holy Spirit to dwell in your heart. The Holy Spirit will bring a number of gifts and one of them will be joy. I pray today that the joy of Christ which is ever present, even behind the clouds, will increase your hope. 

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka

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Feeling Like "Damaged Goods"?

Dear Beloved,

I remember feeling like "damaged goods" when the doctor told me I had herpes in February 2011. Immediately, I began feeling like I was good for nothing and no one would ever want me. The thoughts of feeling unwanted and unusable flooded my mind. Even when I got saved and learned God could heal me, I still had this feeling of I'm "dirty". The first time I really experienced breakthrough in this was when I was in church. We guest preacher speaking to us and she started ministering to us as God led her. In the midst of her talking, I heard her say YOU ARE NOT DAMAGED GOODS, GOD HAS NOT THROWN YOU AWAY! This lady didn't know me from a hole in the wall, nor did anyone in the church know my situation. I KNEW it was God speaking to me. The very words that I had been believing concerning my life, God said that's not true! I was standing in the aisle in the back of the church when she said it and I literally dropped to the ground and started crying. 

I was reminded of this when I read Isaiah 6 this week. Isaiah was a prophet of God in the Old Testament. To be prophet back then meant you had a VERY close relationship with God. You couldn't live a completely outrageous, rebellious life and hear God speak great words of instruction to the nations. So Isaiah had to be surrendered to God. Yet, even when a person is surrendered, that's not equal to perfect like God. There's still shortcomings and sin nature that's being fought everyday. When Isaiah got in the presence of God, all the ways he's fallen short became so apparent:

Woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst

of people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.

(Isaiah 6:5)

Isaiah, the prophet says out of his own mouth he's an unclean, sinful man. In the presence of God, he felt unworthy. I feel like he related to how I felt of being "damaged goods" and how you may feel as well. He said "Woe is him", which essentially means, he's damned. What hope is there for him? However, this was God's response:

Then on of the seraphims (angels) flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had

taken with tongs off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth and said, this has

touched your lips and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is purged. 

(Isaiah 6:6-7)

God used His angel to cleanse Isaiah. Isaiah thought he was done for and there was no hope, yet God said you're worthy to me, your usable to me and I WILL MAKE YOU WHOLE. This is exactly what God did for me! When the world said I was damaged goods, God said not so! God doesn't make damaged goods. Just God saw that Isaiah was still worthy to him and He used His angel to cleanse him and take away his sin, God sent Jesus Christ on the cross and by his blood he cleanses our sin and shame today. The thought of being "damaged goods is a lie of the enemy. It's another mindset he uses to further breed hopelessness. But Jesus came that every soul that would call on him would be set FREE!. YOU ARE NOT DAMAGED GOODS! YOU ARE NOT UNUSABLE! You are God's precious creation and if you allow Him, like Isaiah did, He will meet you and cleanse you from every shame the devil has placed over you. I encourage you today beloved to pray God burns that lie out of your mind with His coal of fire and know that when the world may not choose you, God DOES. 

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka

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God Hasn't Left You

 When the shock of life hits and it seems like darkness is flooding in all around, it can seem like God is no where in sight. Some people feel as if God doesn't care or that what they've done is so horrible that God has left them. I believed the latter when I was diagnosed with herpes in 2011. I had no truth to teach me or tell me otherwise. I believed God's love and attention came from being "good" and when I really, REALLY messed up then that was it, His presence in my life was cut off. That's kind of how people are. Everyone has a tolerance threshold and once that mark is passed, they say enough is enough and you're not worth my love any more. I took human behavior and applied it to God. That was my first wrong move. The Bible says in Numbers 23:19 God IS NOT A MAN, that should lie; he is NOT A HUMAN, that he should change his mind. I placed God into the box of how others have treated me and how I treated others. God makes it clear, He is not us or like us. He is God, higher and greater than any being we've encountered on this earth. His is ACTUAL goodness and because we know so much hurt, it's hard to believe actual goodness when we see it. Believe it or not, God hasn't left you.

Before contracting herpes I didn't live for God, but even though my life wasn't surrendered I still believed I could at least pray to Him when I needed Him most and believed He would hear me. There was some level of hope in believing I could at least talk to Him because He was there. However, after contracting herpes for the first time in my life I thought God left me. There was no way He wanted to be around me. That lie the enemy planted in my mind, left me in so much gloom. 

If this is where you are and what you're experiencing, I want to interrupt that lie right now! Long before you were born, God wrote words and promises to you in the Bible. As mentioned earlier, God is not like people, HE DOESN'T LIE, so we can trust that His words below are TRUE:

Isaiah 41:10 Fear not for I AM WITH YOU, be not dismayed, for I am you God

Joshua 1:5 ...As I was with Moses, I WILL BE WITH YOU: I will not fail you, nor forsake you

John 14:18 I will NOT LEAVE you comfortless: I will come to you

Hebrews 13:5 ..For He (God) says I will NEVER LEAVE you, no forsake you

These are just a FEW scriptures that highlight God's promise to not leave us. His presence is not measured by what He does (or doesn't do), but rather by WHO HE IS. And John 1:1 says that God IS HIS WORD. So if His word says He's with you and won't leave you, then that's who He is. I encourage you to stop comparing God to humans and how quickly they are to desert you. God IS NOT human, He KEEPS HIS WORD. Cling to this truth. Anytime you feel overwhelmed with thoughts of God leaving you, reference the scriptures above. Speak God's truth! Remember God is not a feeling or bound to our circumstances, His character is His word. Life might be going left, but I WILL NOT LEAVE YOU says the Lord. You might not feel Him, but I AM WITH YOU says the Lord. Rest in God's truth beloved. Rest in God's truth.

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka

TELL ME IN THE COMMENTS BELOW: Have you ever felt like God has left you? Which one of these scriptures resonate with you the most?

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