Stretching My Faith

The Awakening

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:53:00 +0000

The Awakening
by Sonny Carroll

A time comes in your life when you finally get it... when in the midst of all your fears and insanity you stop dead in your tracks and somewhere, the voice inside your head cries out - ENOUGH!

Enough fighting and crying, or struggling to hold on. And, like a child quieting down after a blind tantrum, your sobs begin to subside, you shudder once or twice, you blink back your tears and through a mantle of wet lashes, you begin to look at the world through new eyes.

This is your awakening...

You realize that it's time to stop hoping and waiting for something to change, or for happiness, safety and security to come galloping over the next horizon. You come to terms with the fact that he is not Prince Charming and you are not Cinderella and that in the real world, there aren't always fairy tale endings (or beginnings for that matter) and that any guarantee of "happily ever after" must begin with you and, in the process, a sense of serenity is born of acceptance.

You awaken to the fact that you are not perfect and that not everyone will always love, appreciate or approve of who or what you are...and that's OK. (They are entitled to their own views and opinions.) And you learn the importance of loving and championing yourself and, in the process, a sense of new found confidence is born of self-approval.

You stop complaining and blaming other people for the things they did to you (or didn't do for you) and you learn that the only thing you can really count on is the unexpected. You learn that people don't always say what they mean or mean what they say and that not everyone will always be there for you and that it's not always about you. So, you learn to stand on your own and to take care of yourself and, in the process, a sense of safety & security is born of self-reliance.

You stop judging and pointing fingers and you begin to accept people as they are and to overlook their shortcomings and human frailties and, in the process, a sense of peace & contentment is born of forgiveness.

You realize that much of the way you view yourself and the world around you, is a result of all the messages and opinions that have been ingrained into your psyche. You begin to sift through all the junk you've been fed about how you should behave, how you should look and how much you should weigh, what you should wear and where you should shop and what you should drive, how and where you should live and what you should do for a living, who you should marry and what you should expect of a marriage, the importance of having and raising children or what you owe your parents. You learn to open up to new worlds and different points of view. You begin reassessing and redefining who you are and what you really stand for.

You learn the difference between wanting and needing and you begin to discard the doctrines and values you've outgrown, or should never have bought into it to begin with and, in the process, you learn to go with your instincts.

You learn that it is truly in giving that we receive and that there is power and glory in creating and contributing and you stop maneuvering through life merely as a "consumer" looking for your next fix.

You learn that principles such as honesty and integrity are not the outdated ideals of a bygone era, but the mortar that holds together the foundation upon which you must build a life.

You learn that you don't know everything; it's not your job to save the world and that you can't teach a pig to sing. You learn to distinguish between guilt and responsibility and the importance of setting boundaries and learning to say "NO". You learn that the only cross to bear is the one you choose to carry and that martyrs get burned at the stake.

Then you learn about love. Romantic love and familial love. How to love, how much to give in love, when to stop giving and when to walk away. You learn not to project your needs or your feelings onto a relationship. You learn that you will not be more beautiful, more intelligent, more lovable or important because of the man on your arm or the child that bears your name.

You learn to look at relationships as they really are and not as you would have them be. You stop trying to control people, situations and outcomes.

You learn that just as people grow and change, so it is with love; and you learn that you don't have the right to demand love on your terms, just to make you happy.

You learn that alone does not mean lonely. You look in the mirror and come to terms with the fact that you will never be a size 5 or a perfect 10 and you stop trying to compete with the image inside your head and agonizing over how you "stack up."

You also stop working so hard at putting your feelings aside, smoothing things over and ignoring your needs. You learn that feelings of entitlement are perfectly OK and that it is your right, to want things and to ask for the things that you want and that sometimes it is necessary to make demands.

You come to the realization that you deserve to be treated with love, kindness, sensitivity and respect and you won't settle for less. You allow only the hands of a lover who cherishes you, to glorify you with his touch and, in the process, you internalize the meaning of self-respect.

And you learn that your body really is your temple. And you begin to care for it and treat it with respect. You begin eating a balanced diet, drinking more water and taking more time to exercise. You learn that fatigue diminishes the spirit and can create doubt and fear. So you take more time to rest. Just as food fuels the body, laughter fuels our soul; so you take more time to laugh and to play.

You learn that for the most part in life, you get what you believe you deserve and that much of life truly is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You learn that anything worth achieving is worth working for and that wishing for something to happen is different from working toward making it happen.

More importantly, you learn that in order to achieve success you need direction, discipline and perseverance. You also learn that no one can do it all alone and that it's OK to risk asking for help.

You learn that the only thing you must truly fear is the great robber baron of all time; FEAR itself. You learn to step right into and through your fears, because you know that whatever happens you can handle it and to give in to fear, is to give away the right to live life on your terms.

You learn to fight for your life and not to squander it living under a cloud of impending doom. You learn that life isn't always fair, you don't always get what you think you deserve and that sometimes bad things happen to unsuspecting, good people. On these occasions, you learn not to personalize things. You learn that God isn't punishing you or failing to answer your prayers; it's just life happening.

You learn to deal with evil in its most primal state; the ego. You learn that negative feelings such as anger, envy and resentment must be understood and redirected or they will suffocate the life out of you and poison the universe that surrounds you. You learn to admit when you are wrong and to build bridges instead of walls.

You learn to be thankful and to take comfort in many of the simple things we take for granted; things that millions of people upon the earth can only dream about; a full refrigerator, clean running water, a soft warm bed, a long hot shower. Slowly, you begin to take responsibility for yourself, by yourself and you make yourself a promise to never betray yourself and to never ever settle for less than your heart's desire. You hang a wind chime outside your window so you can listen to the wind, and you make it a point to keep smiling, to keep trusting and to stay open to every wonderful possibility.

Finally, with courage in your heart and with God by your side you take a stand, you take a deep breath and you begin to design the life you want to live as best as you can.

Grace, God's Power Freely Given

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

If you've been in the world very long, you've learned that there are very few days that go exactly the way we'd like them to go. Thankfully, God is never going to put us in a situation without giving us the ability to be in it with joy.

I believe God gives us His special grace for every situation. Here's how I like to define grace: God's power to help us do whatever it is we need to do. You can have that power today, but you have to receive it, and the only way to receive it is by faith. Romans 12:3 says that "God has allotted to each a measure of faith."

Ask yourself today, "What am I doing with my faith?" Are you putting your faith in yourself, or in others, or in your circumstances? That's not living in grace, that's just living by your own strength and works. And it won't get the job done!

But when you release your faith and trust God to do what you can't do, you're putting your faith in Him. Then grace, God's power, will come through the channel of faith and will enable you to do things that will amaze you and others.

Here's my longer definition of grace: It's God's power coming to us freely, meaning it doesn't cost us anything other than just putting our faith in God, enabling us to do with ease what we could never do on our own with any amount of struggle or effort.

Put your faith in God. He wants to give you His grace today.

Prayer Starter: God, I know that life won't always go the way I want it to, but I trust in You. By faith, I receive Your grace, the power You have freely given to help me walk through any situation I face today.

♥♥♥♥♥

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 19:31:00 +0000

Where's the line to see Jesus?

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:18:00 +0000

Hold Me

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 04:19:00 +0000

I'm With You

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 21:37:00 +0000

What do Atheists really know?

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:54:00 +0000

An atheist was seated next to a little girl on an airplane and he turned to her and said, "Do you want to talk? Flights go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger." The little girl, who had just started to read her book, replied to the total stranger, "what would you want to talk about?" "Oh, I don't know," said the atheist. "How about why there is no god, or no heaven or hell, or no life after death?" as he smiled smugly. "OK," she said. "Those could be interesting topics but let me ask you a question first. A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff - grass. Yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a cow turns out a flat patty, but a horse produces clumps. Why do you suppose that is?" The atheist, visibly surprised by the little girl's intelligence, thinks about it and says, "Hmm, I have no idea." To which the little girl replies, "do you really feel qualified to discuss why there is no god, or no heaven or hell, or no life after death, when you don't know crap?

Job 1: 21

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 20:06:00 +0000

The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.

Recent Keyword Activity for Stretching My Faith

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:52:00 +0000

sermon on exodus 14:13-14
psalm 68:11
psalm+119+49-50
John 9:39
sermon at william and kate's wedding
the faithful people
psalm about faith
Jesus with little child
trust in god
dove
sermon at will and kate's wedding
psalm 65
angel of the lord
psalms 68:11
proverbs 4
Commentary on Proverbs 31:1-7
John 3:16
when god stretches our faith
kate and william wedding sermon

Blessed are those who mourn

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 15:18:00 +0000

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

~Matthew 5:4

No More Death

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 19:02:00 +0000

I lift up my eyes to the hills - where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

~Psalm 121:1-2

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

~Revelation 21:4

God Made You Different

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 18:00:00 +0000

God made you different from everyone else.

"Lord, even before I speak a word, you know all about it. You are all around me. You are behind me and in front of me. You hold me in your power." ~Psalm 139:4-5

C I R C L E

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 20:57:00 +0000

My Savior. ♥

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 17:58:00 +0000

When I fall.......HE CATCHES ME.
When I am sad.......HE HOLDS ME.
When I cry.......HE WIPES MY TEARS.
When I am broken.......HE PUTS ME BACK TOGETHER. My Savior. ♥

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 107:1

I know who I am to HIM. HE loves me. I belong to HIM. End of story.

The last few months my prayers to God have been that he would show me what I need to see whether it be good or bad. God is faithful and He sees everything.

Memorial Day 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Mon, 30 May 2011 15:55:00 +0000

Today we honor our fallen soldiers known and unknown. We thank all our troops and their families serving at home and abroad.

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13

I Have a Prayer Request

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Mon, 23 May 2011 16:23:00 +0000

I’m thinking PINK for my friend Jeanne-Marie who’s having some outpatient surgery on Wednesday. I want to ask you to please pray for my friend. She’s about to embark on a battle with breast cancer. We’re feeling good about it so far because everything they have found was caught early. We’ll know more on Wednesday after her outpatient surgery. If you’re a prayer warrior please add her name to your prayer list. Thank You!!!

I Am Not A Color

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Wed, 11 May 2011 16:44:00 +0000

My name is not Angela ‘White’ Stevens or Angela ‘Caucasian’ Stevens. My name is Angela Llewellyn Stevens. I am not a color. I’m a person. I’m not a color. I’m a human being. If people want to see me as a color then they have a problem. What Dr. Martin Luther King said in his ‘I have a dream’ speech was not meant to become a double standard. I AM NOT A COLOR. I am a person. I should not have to photo-shop my skin color in order to be taken seriously. Racism is found e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e and not just the things that you don’t like. Bad behavior is just that…BAD BEHAVIOR…doesn’t matter when you were born…It’s not a color. Evil is not a color. Good is not a color. I’m pretty sick and tired of e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g being about race. The human race is the only race I know. Skin color is not the total sum of what makes us who we are. Every creed and every nation has had stress, trials and tribulations. FAITH, HOPE and LOVE transcend ethnicity.

William and Kate's Wedding Sermon

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 20:39:00 +0000

“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” So said St Catherine of Siena whose festival day it is today. Marriage is intended to be a way in which man and woman help each other to become what God meant each one to be, their deepest and truest selves.

Many are full of fear for the future of the prospects of our world but the message of the celebrations in this country and far beyond its shores is the right one – this is a joyful day! It is good that people in every continent are able to share in these celebrations because this is, as every wedding day should be, a day of hope.

In a sense every wedding is a royal wedding with the bride and the groom as king and queen of creation, making a new life together so that life can flow through them into the future.

William and Catherine, you have chosen to be married in the sight of a generous God who so loved the world that he gave himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

And in the Spirit of this generous God, husband and wife are to give themselves to each another.

A spiritual life grows as love finds its centre beyond ourselves. Faithful and committed relationships offer a door into the mystery of spiritual life in which we discover this; the more we give of self, the richer we become in soul; the more we go beyond ourselves in love, the more we become our true selves and our spiritual beauty is more fully revealed. In marriage we are seeking to bring one another into fuller life.

It is of course very hard to wean ourselves away from self-centredness. And people can dream of doing such a thing but the hope should be fulfilled it is necessary a solemn decision that, whatever the difficulties, we are committed to the way of generous love.

You have both made your decision today – “I will” – and by making this new relationship, you have aligned yourselves with what we believe is the way in which life is spiritually evolving, and which will lead to a creative future for the human race.

We stand looking forward to a century which is full of promise and full of peril. Human beings are confronting the question of how to use wisely a power that has been given to us through the discoveries of the last century. We shall not be converted to the promise of the future by more knowledge, but rather by an increase of loving wisdom and reverence, for life, for the earth and for one another.

Marriage should transform, as husband and wife make one another their work of art. It is possible to transform as long as we do not harbour ambitions to reform our partner. There must be no coercion if the Spirit is to flow; each must give the other space and freedom. Chaucer, the London poet, sums it up in a pithy phrase:

“Whan maistrie [mastery] comth, the God of Love anon,

Beteth his wynges, and farewell, he is gon.”

As the reality of God has faded from so many lives in the West, there has been a corresponding inflation of expectations that personal relations alone will supply meaning and happiness in life. This is to load our partner with too great a burden. We are all incomplete: we all need the love which is secure, rather than oppressive, we need mutual forgiveness, to thrive.

As we move towards our partner in love, following the example of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is quickened within us and can increasingly fill our lives with light. This leads to a family life which offers the best conditions in which the next generation can practise and exchange those gifts which can overcome fear and division and incubate the coming world of the Spirit, whose fruits are love and joy and peace.

I pray that all of us present and the many millions watching this ceremony and sharing in your joy today, will do everything in our power to support and uphold you in your new life. And I pray that God will bless you in the way of life that you have chosen, that way which is expressed in the prayer that you have composed together in preparation for this day:

God our Father, we thank you for our families; for the love that we share and for the joy of our marriage.

In the busyness of each day keep our eyes fixed on what is real and important in life and help us to be generous with our time and love and energy.

Strengthened by our union help us to serve and comfort those who suffer. We ask this in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Hat Tip: The Bishop of London's Sermon

William and Kate's Wedding Prayer

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 20:28:00 +0000

Prince William and Catherine Middleton have written their own prayer:

God our Father, we thank you for our families; for the love that we share and for the joy of our marriage.

In the busyness of each day keep our eyes fixed on what is real and important in life and help us to be generous with our time and love and energy.

Strengthened by our union help us to serve and comfort those who suffer. We ask this in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Hat Tip: Prince William and Catherine Middleton's Prayer

Atheism

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 16:15:00 +0000

As Jesus Daily passes 5,000,000 tonight, let's pray for all Atheists to realize it takes INCREDIBLE FAITH to believe in NO God. Let's pray that they see it is impossible for Nature to blindly and randomly create humans out of dust that then type on Facebook. They criticize our LOGICAL belief in a Creator while they attack Jesus Daily! Let's love them and pray them into our fold.

Hat Tip: Jesus Daily

Psalm 68: 11

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 16:02:00 +0000

The Lord gives the word, and a great army brings the good news.

Psalm 68: 6

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 16:01:00 +0000

God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy. But he makes the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

Psalm 68: 3

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 16:00:00 +0000

But let the godly rejoice. Let them be glad in God’s presence. Let them be filled with joy.

Luke 7: 9

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 15:59:00 +0000

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to the crowd that was following him, he said, “I tell you, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel!”

Luke 6: 41-42

noreply@blogger.com (Divapalooza) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 15:55:00 +0000

“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying, ‘Friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.