Zoom Out

           You don’t have to be perfect you can be who you are. I love your heart. I created your heart give it to me.

God spoke this word to me dear readers and I believe it’s going to bless you. So often I try to be perfect. I look at the lives of others with a super hyper focused lens and I think I have to be like them, but I encourage you to zoom out on the lens of comparison. It’s like a camera when you are zoomed in you miss the other things surrounding your subject. So when you look at someone’s life and think man I wish my life was like that you’re actually zoomed in and don’t see the whole picture. You don’t see how that person has to get up at 6:30 every morning to go for a walk to ease the anxiety that will inevitably will come. You don’t see how that person prays every morning for others and reads her bible before she gets ready for work. You don’t see the courage it took for that person to get out of bed. You don’t see me and my daily struggles. What you may see is this joyful person that exudes the light of Christ. And you might think man I want that. If you want that you’ve got to go after it in your own way. There is no one like you dear reader. No not one. So no one can have your relationship with Christ. Only you can have that relationship with Christ. So I encourage you and I encourage myself to zoom out when the temptation to compare comes.

So often I compare myself to other people. I should pray how they pray. I should worship how they worship. I should have a deep relationship with God like their deep relationship with God. I should give how they give. I should love on people the way they love on people. God never meant for us to compare ourselves to others. There is no one on this earth like me. There is no one on this earth like you. Therefore, God created you to be unique and who you are. God wants a relationship with you, yes you, exactly how you are. You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to pray like someone else prays because no one can pray like you with your heart and your mind and your relationship with Christ. We are not meant to compare ourselves with others because we don’t have their heart or their unique experience with the Lord. We have our very own experiences and our very own heart. Your heart is beautiful. Share it with others. There’s no kind of beautiful like your kind of beautiful.

So often I fall into legalism believing I have to pray a certain way or read my bible a certain way for God to see me. God sees me all the time. He’s constantly there for my good. I don’t have to be perfect and follow the letter of the law. I can just seek God with all my heart, with my own heart, and he will bring his word to pass in my life. So too can you seek God with all your heart with your own heart. So too will he bring his word to pass in your lives dear readers. So I encourage you to zoom out this week and see others as the unique individual that God created to love God in their own way. Just like you.

What do you need to zoom out on?

I’m here.

I’m listening.

Genuinely Yours,

Amy Z

Sharp as a Sword

            Dear readers as I read the scripture below it got me thinking about the truth in me being as sharp as a sword. So too is the truth in you.

Listen to me, all you in distant lands! Pay attention, you who are far away!
The Lord called me before my birth; from within the womb he called me by name.
He made my words of judgment as sharp as a sword.  He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand. I am like a sharp arrow in his quiver. Isaiah 49:1-2

I don’t know about words of judgment but I know He’s given me the authority to pierce through the darkness with my words. He will use my specific personality to reach the lost and hurting. This piercing will set people free from bondage. It will set lands free because it is the word of God and it does not come back void. The truth is sharp as a sword and lies cannot hide from it. The darkness is pierced by the light. We pierce through that darkness by being the light in the darkness.

Because of God’s tender mercy,  the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace. Luke 1:78-79

The light that the verse above is talking about is Jesus. And as disciples of Christ we too have the authority to bring light to the darkness.

How do we become sharp as a sword? By reading his word, by prayer, by meditation, through fellowship and by assembling together hearing God’s word from a learned person. Fellowship is so important for the word says, as iron sharpens iron so a friend sharpens a friend. Proverbs 27:17 We also become sharp as a sword through surrendering to the will of God. All these things prepare us so that we can be that sharp sword that does what the following scripture says.

For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Hebrews 4:12

What does that sharp sword do?

It sheds light in the darkness.

It sets the captives free.

It cuts through the chains of bondage.

It carries the truth on it’s very tip.

Lies, darkness and chains fall at the swift movement of its blade.

You dear reader are the sword in God’s hand. Will you let the Lord lead you to his target, the lost and the hurting? Will you cut through the lies and set people free?

I’m here.

I’m listening.

Genuinely Yours,

Amy Z

The Arrow in the Quiver

             Dear readers I got to thinking about how the Lord can use us as an arrow in his bow string. The arrows are put in a quiver waiting for the archer to pull one out and strike his target. An arrow in the bow is different than an arrow in the quiver. An arrow in the bow is ready to strike whereas an arrow in the quiver awaits the moment it will be used by God. Where do you find yourself today? Are you an arrow in the bow or an arrow in the quiver? I feel I am in between, being taken out of the quiver about to be loaded onto the bow. I feel the Lord is stretching me, maturing me, readying me for a big assignment.

There are times in our lives that we are on the bow ready to be released and there are times that we are in the quiver. An arrow in God’s bow will always hit its target. We are arrows at rest waiting for the Lord to use us. While we rest we lean into the Lord with prayers, fasting, songs, worship and meditation.

The moment you start pulling back on a bow string potential energy is stored in the flexing limbs of the bow. The instant you let go of the string all of the stored energy is transferred to the arrow, sending it flying down the range. Physicsbuzz.physicscentral.com

God is the archer and when it is our time he takes us out of the quiver loads us upon the bow string and fires us at his intended target. When he releases the bow it is his energy we go with.

Much like Jesus sent his disciples with his authority so too does God send us with the authority of his Son’s name.

After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Luke 10:1

And the seventy returned again with joy saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. Luke 10:17

Ready yourself. Prepare yourself to be an arrow used by God. This pandemic is teaching us that time is short. People are dying at an increasing rate. We don’t know when our time is up. While we are in the waiting why not go in the will of God and reach out to the lost? The bow is the will of God, God is the archer and he transfers his will into the string and that will is then transferred to us when the Lord releases us and aims us at his intended target.

Will you let the Lord load you into his string and use you to reach out to those that are hurting and lost?

What steps can you take while you’re waiting for God to use you?

I’m here.

I’m listening.

Genuinely Yours,

Amy Z

God My Creator

               In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and in that beginning God thought of me, and in that thought he didn’t just think about how he was going to form me he thought about how I would conform to the image of his son and be a part of his kingdom and be a disciple.

                Who am I that God would think of me? I am his daughter. A child of God. Beloved and loved and chosen and cherished. Have you ever wondered how you came to be? It was a thought that God had of you. When God created Adam he did not just create a man he poured his breath in and created a living soul. And that is what you and I are. A living soul. God has a purpose for us in his kingdom and that is to glorify him. He’s using everything in our lives to point it all back to him and what he has done for us. The word says that we will overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. There is nothing more powerful that we can do than to speak of Christ and what he has done for us.

God created my soul, the very essence of my being. He created my personality and my essence. Everything about me was formed before breath was put in my lungs. He fashioned me together in my mother’s womb. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. He created me because he knew one day he would delight in me and that I would make his heart smile when I gave my heart to Christ. I do believe that God delights in me. I know without a doubt that he loves me and I am so embraced by his love. He speaks to me even now in this blog to give me encouragement so that I can in turn encourage you. I am so grateful for you dear reader. It encourages my heart to see that you have visited this blog. To know that somehow God is using me for his kingdom and his glory. Thank you for reading my blog week after week.

Do you know that I was destined to be writing this blog before I was ever born? God knew me and formed me in my mother’s womb. He knew and knows my destiny and he’s using me every day to bring the light of Christ to others. Oh to be known by God. To be cherished and loved and held dear. You too are known by God. You too were formed by his hands before you were ever born. He thought of you and he delights in you. Every moment that we have breath is a miracle given by God. It blows my mind to think that the one who created the heavens, the earth, the stars, the animals, the insects, this creator also created me. He paid attention to every detail in forming my body and my cells and my soul and then brought them together to all function perfectly. God did that.

So what can you do to thank God for his wonderful creation, you? How can you treat yourself better this week to reflect the miracle that you are? How can you treat others better, with kindness, because of the miracle that they are?

Share it with me.

I’m here.

I’m listening.

Genuinely Yours,

Amy Z