Tag Archives: encouragement

What are you doing with your mouth

January 16, 2013

I am usually a really quiet person until I get going. And sometimes that can work to my detriment.

Why? Well 50% of the purpose of our mouth is speaking. There are those who speak too much, there are those who speak too little. Then there are those who don’t speak at all.

I think all of these are wrong.

Proverbs 18:21 says that

Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit.

We often focus on the death and life part of this scripture. But what we also need to realize is that death and life depends on the power of the tongue. i.e. it depends on how much power we exert by our tongue.

Saying nothing at all can be just as damaging as saying too much. Why? If you continually speak…the enemy can and will sieve out all of the negative things that you say and act on them to destroy you. If you don’t say anything, you give the enemy a tremendous advantage to continue to attack you.

On the same wise if you speak too much, angels who are sent forth as ministering spirits to act on your word (Heb 1:14), will sieve out those things that you are asking God for and those positives that you are declaring. If you don’t speak at all, they have no word to act on.

What’s coming out of your mouth?

Are you using it just to put stuff in? That’s only 50% of what it’s for.

I charge you to begin to use it for the other 50%.

Starting today…begin to use your mouth to change your situation. If you don’t speak, trust me! Someone else is speaking for you. So don’t stay quiet. And if you are a talkative person, make sure that in all of your talking you are declaring things that will change your situation.

Declaration Time (Say out Loud time):

Today is a good day for me. God is working all things together for my good because He loves me. God loves me. Good news is coming to me. In Jesus Name!

Posted by schadah in Hunger, Uncategorized Tags: Christ Tucker, Christian, declaration, encouragement, God, Life, Mouth, prophetic, speak, tongue, words

2 comments

Prepare your heart to love…again

October 24, 2012

When I woke up this morning and opened up to a devotion that I normally read, the headline was “get ready for love”.

I thought to myself-”why?” Lol. Yes I did think that.

I realize something… in my own personal life. Getting over a relationship/ or a past love, is one thing. But then there is a new battle once you do that (PS: there is always a new battle to fight in our walk with God. But we always win). The new battle is preparing your heart for the future.

This, I think is how you know you are truly healed from past hurts. Mind you, there is a time and season for everything, so please note that I am not telling anyone to jump into a new relationship if you still have issues with the memories of the past. But when you let go of the past, there’s this next step of getting ready to love again. You see, you could think that you are over someone, but you don’t really know until someone or the Holy Spirit asks you if you’re ready to love again.

I am sure, in many respects, the Holy Spirit was talking to me. But I also think it’s a good topic to share on.

The truth is we can’t (or shouldn’t) move on to love again, if we have not let go of the past.

When I say that, I imagine getting ready for a date. When I get ready for a date, the first thing I do is take a long bath…I soak myself in something from the Body Shop. That is really to remove all of the day’s dirt from my body. But also it’s to ready my mind and spirit for the event. Once I am done, I get my physical self ready. That could take a while. But I want to ensure that I look my best…not for the other person, but for me. I don’t want to look tired, I don’t want to look agitated. So I will spend time making sure that my skin is soft, that my hair is in place, that the dress is appropriate…and that I look like (in the word of my sister) ” A Diva”. If I am a late, then the poor guy will have to wait… because I want to make sure I am confidently ready for the date. When I am ready to go on a date, I always pray.

Getting ready for love to me is the same thing. There might be a lot of sand, dust, hardened clay on our hearts… That won’t work if you are getting ready to love again. You’re going to have to soak your heart in the Balm of Gilead, and make it as ready as possible. You’re going to have to dress it with a breastplate of righteousness, so that it’s not irritated easily by the other person’s shortcomings, so that it doesn’t compare the other person to your past, so that it doesn’t break down or whine on and on about your ex. You’re going to have to nurture and pamper your heart until it is ready. And more so until God deems it ready.

There’s no need to rush into anything. Yes, we were not created to be alone. And God does want us to find love. But God does want us whole before you enter into a relationship. So let’s prepare our hearts for love.

Let’s start with this:

Here is my heart. I give it Lord to you. Wash it, mold it, make it ready for the person that you have in store for me.

Posted by schadah in High, Healed, Delivered, Tidbits for Love, Hope and Joy, Tidbits for Relationships Tags: Christian, encouragement, love, peace, relationships

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Is your faith moving you?

September 20, 2012

I always find it amazing when people ask me to pray with them about stuff and then they make statements such as “I need all the prayers I can get” or “that’s all we can do”.

To me, it’s as if we place limits on the power of prayer. I will be blunt here…why bother pray if our faith doesn’t believe in what we are praying for?

I heard someone say over the weekend that if your faith isn’t moving you, don’t expect it to move anyone or anything else.

As believers in Christ, I think it’s important for us to have faith that can move things. Maybe not mountains, but we should be able to move things… a pin even.

Before we can even begin to move things we have to have confidence in our God that He can. We have to be moved by our faith, that when we ask, we do receive. When others see us holding fast to our faith and the word of God, they too will be moved by it. But if we operate in disbelief, our faith won’t work. It won’t move us to do anything, let alone, move others.

So I ask you today…although this was supposed to be asked yesterday (smh), Is your faith moving you?

What is it that you are believing God for? Have you gone cold, lethargic? I encourage you to change that!

Posted by schadah in Uncategorized Tags: confidence, encouragement, God, gratitude

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400 ways to smile

September 18, 2012

Over the past few weeks, there has been a few words that have been repeated to me. When I was in Guyana with my team, we met a little boy, who had lost both of his parents. One of the things that stood out at both of us was that this boy had the most genuine smile ever! Only recently, Giavana Jones and I were talking about this little handsome; he was just too adorable. I have never seen someone so content despite his circumstances. No matter what the grief was that he was sharing, he was smiling…

Then in church on Sunday, I heard the minister talk about smiling. It was in a different sense, but he basically said that when he shares hard truths with his congregation, he usually smiles after, in order to soften the blow. I would like to change that up a bit.- When there are hardships coming your way, just smile.

You know… God gave us 400 muscles in our faces. While I was studying Medicine, I always found that amazing. But do you know almost all 400 of those muscles aid in the function of smiling?

Why would God give us 400 muscles…for that purpose? Perhaps it’s because He knew that the enemy would send all sorts of things…and people… to make you frown. So in every attempt to frown, God gave you an extra muscle to fight the frown.

Lol. It’s funny, because I am thinking of the same scripture that I gave yesterday:

James 1: 2-4 Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides.

The KJV says “Count it all joy…”

God really wants us to smile. Smiling is a weapon against the enemy. What sense would it make if you were given a weapon to defend yourself and you just let the enemy beat you up?

So although I know that things may be difficult right now. Stressful even…. Smile. You’re not smiling at your pain. But smile at the fact that, no matter what, God’s got things in control.

Count it all joy!

Posted by schadah in Tidbits for the weary, Uncategorized Tags: content, depression, discouraged, encouragement, God, hope

Growing Pains

September 17, 2012

Hello everyone! It’s Monday….and this is my fourth time trying to post this thing.

I hope everyone had a good weekend and that you all went to a church that refuelled you.

I was finally able to return to church… which is now 45 minutes away because of the ‘move’.

Last Sunday we had a guest speaker…Tony Miller, who delivered a fantastic Word from God. One of the things he said really struck me. He said: “Are you growing? Or are you at a place of plateau in your life?”

It’s on that note that I want to share with you today.

I want to ask you the same question: Are you growing? Or has your life come to a place of ‘plateau’?

We often crave a sense of normalcy in our lives. When we crave a sense of normalcy, we will try very hard to stay away from awkward situations. You know… we try to not rock the boat. We try to maintain a sense of balance in our everyday lives. We don’t want anything to go out of the ordinary. Because then, we’ll have to think. We’ll have to stress out. …God forbid we have to fight!

Last weekend, I was trying desperately to finish my thesis. It’s time. On Saturday, I was at my last sentence of the edited draft, and then I realized that the program I was using for my citations made a huge blunder. It did not obey the commands I had set in place for the program to work. SO instead of creating complete footnotes, page numbers and all, it created just the name of the book and author information. For those of you who do study, you know what it’s like to have a footnote without a page number. It’s as good as plagiarism. I wanted to cry, I tell you. I had spent the whole Saturday doing work on the paper (I’ve been at this for 7 months), and I wanted to just end this journey in time for my October convocation. I found myself just saying “Lord, why me? Why can’t things just be normal!”. But as soon as I did, He responded, “these are growing pains. Don’t see it as defeat, charge through!”

But what would life be like if things were normal? I mean we all cry out for a normal day once in a while. But do we really give thought to what normal would look like. A scene from Avengers comes to mind….

You see, when things are normal, we miss the opportunity to grow. No I am not saying that we should welcome challenges. But when they come, we shouldn’t shy away from them. Every thing that happens in our lives is meant for us to grow. Every awkward conversation, every health issue, every thing…it’s meant for us to grow…I’d like to call them growing pains. When they happen, we are expected to respond. We are expected to fight back. If we don’t, if we try to just avoid them, we won’t ever grow.

So I want to ask you this: Are you growing? You will know…Those challenges in your life, those pressures that come, are supposed to make you stronger, they are supposed to stretch you, so that sometime down the road, you will have mastered them. Are they stretching you? Are they making you stronger? That’s when you know that you are growing.

You can’t master something you’ve never conquered. So my encouragement for today is this:

James 1: 2-4 Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

Posted by schadah in Tidbits for the weary Tags: can't give up, Christianity, encouragement, God, hope, Life

You can run…but you can’t hide!

September 14, 2012

While I was in Guyana, things were so really busy, that I often went to bed really late, and I would get up really ridiculously early. As much as I wanted to do my devotions in the morning as I normally would, I couldn’t. There just wasn’t enough time in the day.

There were moments that I began to feel guilty. As if God had stopped talking to me…

Does anyone ever get that? Or maybe it’s just me….

But every time I felt forsaken, the Holy Spirit reminded me of a scripture:

Where could I go from Your Spirit? Or where could I flee from Your presence? If I ascend up into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol (the place of the dead), behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning or dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Your hand lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.
—Psalm 139:7-10

It is really one of my favourite piece of scriptures. Because it lets me know that God does not ever just leave me on my own.

You know, there are moments in life when we can feel as if God is not there. It could be a hectic time in our lives, or just a really painful time. The enemy makes us feel as if God is ‘mad at us’. But…just because we don’t always connect with God the way we should….it doesn’t mean that He’s stopped connecting with us.

As I was in Guyana, the Holy Spirit said to me, as much as you’re busy, I am still here…I can keep up with you…

When I heard that I thought of the fact that no matter how busy life gets, I could never really be so hidden that God can’t find me. I can run….but I can’t hide.

That’s what David was trying to get across…where could I go, that God would not be with me…Even Paul said it in Romans 8: – What can separate us from God’s love?

As we go through our day to day activities, let’s remember that…God is always present in our lives….

PS: That doesn’t mean we should not make an effort to connect with Him. Rather, it lets us know that He is always there…, ready and waiting for us to bond with Him.

Posted by schadah in How He Loves Me, Tidbits for Love, Hope and Joy, Tidbits for Relationships, Tidbits for the weary Tags: discouraged, encouragement, God, hope, jesus, praying, relationships

Dealing with Stress

September 13, 2012

He leads me beside the still waters… Psalm 23:2

When we are faced with stressful situations, we usually deal with it in a few ways. The first response is usually to take it out on those around us So it’s likely that there will be some snapping, yelling, etc. Other than that, we sleep it off, cry it out, punch walls… How do you deal with stress the Christian way? Is there such a thing, or is that too ‘spiritual’?

I am still getting into the groove of things here… but as I was getting ready for work this morning, I kind of had a flashback of all the crazy things that took place in the last few weeks. I had a “whoa!” moment.

If anyone asked me how I managed to get through all of the hectic stuff that took place over the last few weeks, I would have to say that it was totally God. I knew exactly when things would spin out of control, and I knew why they would. But before everything happened, I remember praying…asking God to just take full control of my life.

That’s not to say that I took the reins from Him before. But this time I had to thrust everything into His care. I knew it was going to be stressful for me. I had so much to do, moving, packing, getting ready for launching the project, starting a new job, and so much more…and on top of that I was also not well physically. I was financially stressed in all of this…and all of my friends had been out of town or out of the country. But God…

For the first time…. I didn’t lose my cool. Every time I thought of an obstacle, I said to myself, “it’s going to be okay”. And every time I felt like I was going to lose it, I told my inner man to calm down… because God was going to bring me through. And he did. Everytime I needed help, He provided it. Every single time. I realized through this process, that I need not stress.

Stressful times will come, but as Christians, we need not respond to them as the rest of the world do. Instead, I think we just need to mutter something to ourselves that reminds us that God’s got it. And as often as we feel ourselves going into stress mode, we need to remind ourselves: God’s got it. It’s going to be okay.

Posted by schadah in Uncategorized Tags: believe, encouragement, hope, peace, trusting god

God’s business

August 22, 2012

Today I want to talk about something totally out of left field. …sort of…It has nothing to do with you.

When I say that, I mean it has to do with you, just that it’s not about you.

As I continue to read the book of Nehemiah, I am at the part where Sanballat and Tobias are continuing to harass Nehemiah so that they could beat him up (I am not sure…they might be trying to kill him too). If you don’t know the story, Sanballat and Co were not too happy that Nehemiah was rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. But Nehemiah had heard from God about what he was supposed to do and he was determined to do just that.

When Sanballat and Co called for him to come away from the work, Nehemiah said

“I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?”- Nehemiah 6.

I found this interesting. Nehemiah could have gone down and allow himself to caught up in Sanballat’s nonsense. But he didn’t.

I tried to relate this to our everyday lives. You know, there are so many issues that get us down on a regular basis. But I wonder if we were to get caught up in doing ‘a great work’ for God if those problems would have the same effect on us?

I found that when I busy myself with the things of God, a lot of things don’t bother me. It doesn’t mean that the problems aren’t there. Just that I am too busy to notice them. By busying myself I don’t mean going to church or reading the bible. Of course I do that. While those are important, I mean doing something that takes the focus off of us and putting it on something other than us. Like trying to make someone else smile. Making dinner for some people who are not as well off as we are. Something like that. Last Saturday, I had someone offer to buy 25 pairs of flip flops for the kids that we’re going to support in Guyana. It was such a great opportunity to not think about all the other things going on in her life. Have you encouraged anyone lately, or are you always looking for someone to encourage you? Have you prayed for anyone lately, or are you always looking for someone to pray for you?

I think that’s what Jesus meant when He told us to “seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these other things shall be added to you“. He probably meant “stop thinking about you. Think about me and what my Kingdom needs and I will take care of your needs”.

I encourage you to just busy yourself with the things of God for a while. You’ll realize that the things of God are so much bigger than the small problems that are going on. That’s not to ‘downsize’ anyone’s problems. But I can guarantee you that there’s someone else hurting just as much or more than you. So what can you do to help them? You don’t have to go preach to someone. You can just invite a few people over to share your testimonies together. You could take some one that is feeling down, out for coffee. You could go through your ridiculously filled closet and prepare a clothes hamper for someone. The whole world is not about you or me or us. Our problems are there, and yes they do affect us, but talking about them all the time won’t change them. God knows what we need and He will provide those things at the right time. If we busy ourselves with His great work, our breakthroughs will happen so suddenly, that we won’t even know when they do.

Have a good day!

Posted by schadah in Uncategorized Tags: depression, encouragement, hope, peace, prayer, relationships

Packing up yesterday

August 17, 2012

I am in the process of packing to move out of my apartment… Yay. As I am packing. I realize there’s a lot of stuff… let’s call it what it is…JUNK, that is in my possession that should have been dumped a long time ago.

I mean.. . I have jeans that don’t fit anymore, papers from grade 11, textbooks from first year undergrad, pots that I don’t even use!!! I am getting frustrated… because as I think about it, all this clutter is going to make me have to rent a bigger UHaul!!!

But really, why is it that we hoard so much stuff…???!!

And while we’re at that, why do we hoard so much stuff…in our minds?

You know, when God created the heaven and earth…this was not the first time… (really, it wasn’t. If you want to talk theology about that, meet me after class). But I find it interesting that when God wants to do a new work in his children, He wipes the slate clean. For instance, when He created the heavens and the earth, he started from scratch. He started with nothingness. And with Sodom and Gomorrah, He wiped out the whole place and told Lot and his wife, to not look back.

God loves yesterday, today and tomorrow. But he often tells us to not focus on yesterday. Why is that? I think it’s because He wants us to know that He is well able to make a better ‘today’ and ‘tomorrow’.

There are some things in our possession that we keep holding on to because we keep thinking that they will have meaning in the future. And no i am not talking about the photo frame that you’re keeping for your unborn child. I am talking about the sweater from your ex, the photo of the two of you in the Twin towers…

Maybe God will miraculously bring you guys back together. But maybe He has something new and better for you. Either way, you will never know unless you release what was in the past.

Do you realize how different you are now? I mean you and ? are two different people. Your likes and dislikes are not the same. And if God did something for you… you will never go back to the good old times. It will be the good new futures.

Even in our minds…sometimes we are so afraid to let go of memories, because we’re afraid that we’d forget the person… So we hold on to memories of them…

Please don’t get me wrong… But we can’t move on to tomorrow if we’re still holding on to yesterday. It doesn’t matter who tomorrow is going to be with… there will be newness. It’s so easy to hold on to yesterday. But you know what? God’s got tomorrow in store. Each day after today is a NEW day. A NEW DAY!!! With NEW things!!! Oooo I am so excited for the new things that are coming!

There is a bright and beautiful future in store for you. Don’t pack your baggage of yesterday with the intention of taking it into your tomorrow. Make a decision to not hoard your past! Make new memories in Jesus’ name.

Amen.

Posted by schadah in High, Healed, Delivered, How He Loves Me, Tidbits for Love, Hope and Joy, Tidbits for Trusting God Tags: Christian, Christianity, encouragement, hope, hurt, relationships, trusting god

Feeling lonely…

August 15, 2012

I am back to my 6 am devotion schedule now. It’s funny, because I think I always hear the voice of the Holy Spirit a lot clearer when I awake at these times.

As I was worshipping, I heard him say this morning “Being alone does not mean being lonely”. I laughed out loud, because I couldn’t remember the last time I actually felt alone…or lonely.

We are all built to want companionship. God never created us to be alone, either spiritually or naturally. But somehow the enemy likes to throw it in your face that you’re alone. He plants a lie in your heart, that because there’s no special one in your life, you’re alone. I guess I am talking to all the single women out there (maybe some guys too), who feel the heaviness because everyone else around them has someone and they don’t. But the Word of God says that you’re NEVER alone. Even as you sit here right now, there are angels round about you, and the Holy Spirit Himself is WITH you. So you’re never alone. And yet, you feel lonely…

Maybe I should use an example. Not too long ago, I struggled with loneliness. I constantly felt depressed, and I compared myself to all my married friends. I kept asking God when it would happen for me. When would i find the right person? Or he find me. That went on for most of the winter. But then one day at one of my empowerment classes, my mentor prayed for me at random and she said “I break the spirit of loneliness”. I began to think about that afterwards. A new thing began to happen in me. At the Encounter weekend during the deliverance service, the spirit of loneliness was addressed, and believe it or not, I have never felt lonely since. Of course I am single. That’s a fact. But I am not alone, no matter how it looks in the physical. And I refuse to feel lonely because of what the circumstances look like.

I could be wrong, but I don’t think the spirit of loneliness is of God. And it’s not the same as being alone, though the enemy will tell us that it is. God’s word already promised that He will never leave us nor forsake us. So we’re never alone. Loneliness on the other hand, is what happens when you look around in the natural and realize that there’s no one there to hold you or kiss you in the morning. It’s what you feel because you think you’re alone. Loneliness leads to depression, drinking, sexual immorality. It’s the feeling of unhappiness that lets us do stupid things.

Now, if God’s will for his people is joy, why would He want you feeling lonely and miserable?

I can boldly say that I have been delivered from the spirit of loneliness. I wake up every morning fully charged and not worried about when I will get married, when the guy will come, if I am cursed. No. God is with me. And realizing that fact, I could never feel lonely. I laugh and smile now more than ever, knowing this fact.

So this morning I want to encourage all the single people out there who are struggling with feeling lonely. Know that you are never alone. No matter how it looks in the natural, you’re not alone. Don’t let the enemy put the spirit of loneliness on you.

I will finish this up tomorrow. Have a good one.

Posted by schadah in Tidbits for Love, Hope and Joy, Tidbits for Relationships Tags: encouragement, God, happiness, Heart, loneliness, love, prayer, relationships

1 comment

Tag Archives: encouragement

What are you doing with your mouth

Prepare your heart to love…again

Is your faith moving you?

400 ways to smile

Growing Pains

You can run…but you can’t hide!

Dealing with Stress

God’s business

Packing up yesterday

Feeling lonely…

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