John Piper once tweeted, “Boasting is the voice of pride in the heart of the strong, where as self-pity is the voice of pride in the heart of the weak.”

Negative thoughts are brought by the enemy to make you weak. It then makes you give up and cause more failure. Once the enemy knows you are giving into this weakness of your mind, he will then attack that area even further.

Here are few keys that will help you overcome the strongholds in the mind.

Stand up yourself. The battle of the mind is a battle we have to fight on our own with the Word of God. The more you depend on somebody else to help you the more you will become dependent on them, causing an unhealthy habit in your mind. Their absence will then cause more harm than good. Therefore the best person to then dependent on is Jesus who is the same, yesterday, today and forever.

Block it. So the moment we know that the mind is under attack, we need to stop pondering over those thoughts. Even if it comes in for a second, ask the Lord to give you grace and shut that thought the same moment. Then use the Word of God to raise an armor against those lies of the enemy.

Pray. Don’t stop with just that. Go to God and start seeking Him. He is your lover. Renew your mind in HIs presence.

Meditate. Remember what David, Meditate on the Word day and night. Wake up in the morning, read the Word of God, if required on the bed itself. Whole day then meditate on it. And use that Word as your anti-depressant.

Feeding your mind. What do you feed your mind? Movies, songs, novels, anything that will cause you to be negative should be avoided.

Friendships. Association is very important. Talk to people who will encourage you and not pull you down further with their negativity. Have spirit filled friends who walk with God.

Those who sympathize with your negative thoughts are certainly good friends but that will not help you overcome those thoughts.

Overcome your past. Don’t dwell on your past or childhood hurts. Ask the Lord to heal you completely from your past. Especially those who are rejected in the childhood go through more of this fight. Ask the Lord to completely heal you and deliver you from all your hurts.

Higher perspective. Ask God to help you to see yourself in the eyes of Jesus. We do ask God to help us see others through the eyes of God but it is important that we see ourselves too through the eyes of God.

I want to speak into your heart and mind, “You will get through this, nothing is impossible with the Lord’s help and if you won’t be in despair, you will make it!”

If you’ve noticed our blog has a new theme. I must admit that I hate to say bye to my old blog look, but we decided to do the change for many reasons.

The previous theme required more navigation to get to the post. And due to its beautiful look and its technicalities, it took longer to upload making it hard for some readers with slow internet connection.

I hope that this blog will help you navigate through in an easier fashion. Since it is a place where I write my personal experiences & the lessons I have learnt, we decided to use a pen’s nib as our logo. Although not very visible there is a dove carved on it & I think it looks cute

Your comments & interactions have always encouraged me to write more. You will find our popular posts &the names of my latests commenters on the right side bar.

My motivation:

Unlike my husband, I am not very passionate about a public ministry. But recently I was watching a program on GOD TV where a woman of God was encouraging people to blog & be active on social networks for the Lord.

She pointed out how a single post  or status is very important as it  can encourage 1 person, 5 people or even thousands that you may have never met.

It gives me a thrill that my otherwise quite life is being used by God to encourage somebody out there. It has been exciting & challenging to be faithful to God to share what He puts in my heart without hesitation.

I pray God gets the glory alone. I want to encourage all my friends to be bold & get out there & make use of everything possible for His glory. Do not think that anything you do is insignificant. The Lord will honor you for what you do for Him.

Do let me know your thoughts on the new blog look. God bless you all.

P.S – If you have not already, take a second to subscribe to this blog on the sidebar and I would love to send the posts right into your email inbox.

Recently, I received a frantic phone call from a friend. “Help! I am being tempted!” she exclaimed.

My friend was engaged to someone, but she ended up being drawn to another man’s charms. She couldn’t resist talking to him. Now this non-believer was being pricked by her conscience.

Her phone call caused me great alarm, and got me thinking about the attractive and deceptive nature of sin.

As the Bible says in James 1:15, sin mainly begins with a desire: “Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”

Eve desired what she saw and it was only a matter of time before the enemy convinced her that it was okay to eat that forbidden fruit.

I have heard young people say that they face more temptations because of the negative influence of their friends. But there truly is no age limit when it comes to temptation. We will face temptation as long as we are on this planet Earth.

Apostle Paul was constantly aware of the temptations of the flesh that he faced. We face the same kind of temptations too. Like Paul, we too are bombarded by the corrupted ways of flesh. (See my hubby’s post on temptations)

But the good news is that we have dominion over sin through Christ Jesus. The more time that we give ourselves to prayer and seeking the Lord, our desire to sin will fade. Prayer is a powerful tool that will help you to overcome the sinful desires of the flesh.

The more you seek God, read His Word, and follow His teachings, the more sensitive you will become to the Holy Spirit. As you become more sensitive to the Holy Spirit, you can exercise greater authority as a child of Jesus.

When Jesus found that the disciples were fast asleep, He told them: “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak” (Matthew 26:41).

There is a great example of how God honors those who desire to live a holy life in Genesis 20:3-6: But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, “Indeed you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” But Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, “Lord, will You slay a righteous nation also? Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister?’ And she, even she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands I have done this.” And God said to him in a dream, “Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart. For I also withheld you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her.”

Notice in this passage that God was aware of Abimelech’s desire to stay pure and He was merciful towards this gentile king to help him withstand the pressures of temptation.

We may fall a thousand times, but never give up on pursuing God. It is only with His strength that we can live a holy and acceptable life unto God.

Maybe you are struggling with unforgiveness, bitterness, lust, unfaithfulness, prayerlessness, pride or whatever it maybe. It does not matter what it is. The Lord is able to give you complete victory.

Allow the Holy Spirit to work in you on a daily basis. His love for you is everlasting. He has not cast you aside. He knows all your struggles. Just call on the name of the Lord. He will give you victory.

We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us!

Even though it’s just been over a year since I have been in the ministry, I have seen, learnt many surprising things. And sadly, they are not just good things. I have even seen some real ugly happenings among us Christians.

How important it is for the children of God to guard their hearts from all sorts of deception! The Bible tells us to be self-controlled and alert. “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

Anointing is important, but character is even more important. Our only aim should not be to simply become something in life or have a big ministry, but to become more like Christ.

As human beings, we find negativity in us because we have the carnal nature of the sinful man. But because we love Jesus, we need to put this carnal self to death on a daily basis.

It all starts in your heart. If those sinful thoughts are not dealt with, it can later on lead to deeper sin. Like in the life of Cain who allowed jealousy, which led to anger and bitterness. Again because he did not deal with the initial thoughts it resulted in murder.

Every time the enemy sows a sinful thought of any kind, immediately ask the Holy Spirit for forgiveness and ask Him to change you. Even if you have to do it daily, that is alright, do it till you overcome that weakness.

One of the greatest reasons for sin among us believers is the lack of fear of God. Sin may give us temporary joy. But let us not forget the consequences and not realise the after-effects of sin.

Strive for holiness and His character in us. The Bible, in the gospel of John, tells us that when you love God you will obey His commandments.

Character is more important than the anointing or gifts.

Whether we like it or not, do it for Jesus because every time you obey His commandments, He will honor you and lift you up in due time.
“Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.” -2 Corinthians 7:1

I pray, my dear friends, that daily we will become more like Jesus by pursuing Him.

When I came to the Lord, I thought giving my life to Jesus was all. But only later did I realize that there were so much more that I had to give up. Somethings were hard, some others were painful, yet I knew it was God’s perfect will that I give them all up.

A friend once told me, “The Lord God will shake you off your comfort zone till you fall in line with God’s perfect will.” Simply because God loves His children too much.

I desire to do what God wants me to do, but like Paul says in Romans 7:15, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” As much as it hurts to think its true, I still believe, we go against God’s will because we are yet to die to our passions.

May be, God is calling some of you into full time ministry but you do not want to let go off your job or dreams. Or may be God is asking you to let go off a relationship that is not in His will. Or may be there is a character problem that you are struggling with.

To start with, you must take a step of faith and give it “all” to God. We cannot do it on our own strength but Jesus will honor your decision and give you the grace.

We have just one life and let us not live that according to our ways, dreams and desires. God will help each one of us if we render all to Him.

I am reminded of Kathryn Kuhlman whom God greatly used some decades ago. There was one point she had to take a crucial decision of letting go off a relationship that was outside the will of God. Remembering that day she said, “I still remember the day and the place where Kathryn Kulhman died.” The day she decided to die to her desires, the Lord honored her and began to use her mightily for His glory.

I pray my friend that as you read this post, you would let go off your desires, for the desires of God. Let go off your dreams, for His dreams. Let God have His way in your life and that is the ultimate place to be.

One of my favorite scriptures, which is my prayer is found in Romans 12:1, “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life- your sleeping, eating, going -to-work, and walking-around-life and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him.” (MSG)

It might cost you everything. Yet He is teaching us something through this & molding us through this process for His glory & to make us more like Him!

Is there anything that the Lord wants you to let go off?