Author: cindygrasso

Cindy Grasso is a writer, speaker, and the Discipleship Pastor at Cape Christian in Cape Coral, Florida. She has been married to her fun-loving​ husband, Bobby Grasso for 24 years and is the proud mom of two amazing teen boys who keep her updated on all things tech. She is down to earth, relatable and has a unique way of bringing the Word of God to life with simple illustrations and metaphors. She is the also the founder of Beloved, a women’s movement with a mission to inspire women of all ages to learn to live loved every day and to fully discover who God created them to be.

Heart Purified

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“But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.”
‭‭Job‬ ‭23:10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Your faith is more precious to God than the finest of gold.

Your faith in Jesus will last longer than your job, your goals and your body.  It is the faith born from the eternal life inside of you that sustains you through the trials of the temporary outside life.

When God tests your faith it is to purify it. To clarify it. To clean it from dross and impurities. He will use the smallest irritation or the greatest trial to do it. He does not send the trial but He will use it.

The same fire that destroys wood purifies gold.

God can use the very thing that you feel like is destroying you to purify you.

He will use the disappointment you are experiencing to make the dross of your heart rise to the surface so He can skim it off.

You have a promise here that God knows where you are, what you are going through and that He knows how to use it to do a powerful work in you.

You will come out of it shining.

Hold onto God during this season because He is most certainly holding onto you. 

Prayer Is

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“May God look you full in the face and make you prosper.”

Numbers 6:26 MSG

The word for “prosper” here in the original Hebrew is “shalom” and often translated as peace.  Shalom is the peace that comes after the conflict and the quietness that comes after the chaos.

At its core, “Shalom” means the type of wholeness that comes after being broken.

Prayer is a retreat from the world and the battles you fight in it.

The word “retreat” is a military term. It means to get off the battlefield, to quit fighting, back out and regroup.

Prayer is creating time with God to regroup, reassess, restrategize and recover.

Fighting a battle when you’re exhausted, wounded and discouraged never works.

Are you exhausted, wounded, or discouraged? 

Then it is time to pray.

A time to rest in God’s love for you.

A time to take a step back, find a quiet place with God so He can repair what is broken, remind you of His purpose and arm you with His vision.

Jesus has given you full access to God’s presence.

Enter in and rest.

He is waiting for you.

My prayer is that you would get off the battlefield for a while and allow God to love you to wholeness. 

Stay there as long as you need to.

Take the Journey

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A pilgrimage is defined as a journey to a sacred place.

It is a choice to take a journey to a place and invite God to transform you as you go.

When you are pursuing a thriving relationship with God, you are not just on a pilgrimage, you are living one every day.

“Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.”

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭84:5‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Every place you invite God into becomes a sacred place.

Your home.

Your job.

Your relationships.

The pilgrimage for a Christian is not to go somewhere that God has been but to allow God to be with you where you are right now. 

In your weakness.

In your frail humanity.

Into the reality of your life.

Jesus comes in and gives you what you do not deserve but cannot live without. He gives you His abundant love, cross-forged forgiveness, sustaining strength, perfect peace, deep joy, and unrelenting hope right where you are.

Where do you need to invite Jesus into today?

Set Free

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“You have been set free from sin” Romans 6:22 NIV

It is Jesus clothed in the white garments of resurrection, bearing the fresh scars of the crucifixion declaring to the universe that the power of sin is broken.

The good news is that all who come to Him are set free.

Free from sin.
Free from it’s power and control.
Free from its endless demands, requirements, small print and a false sense of control. 

The power of sin in your life can feel like a noose that the enemy gently lays upon your neck. Then slowly, surely, he begins to tighten it until you feel trapped, choked and bound. 

It is a lie. You do not have to live in bondage anymore.

Jesus took that noose upon His own neck for you. He took the penalty it demanded, death. Then He conquered death in a blaze of glory and hold freedom in His hands.

Wherever shame lurks and condemnation whispers, wherever fear and anxiety chokes, wherever lies and rejection linger – Jesus comes.

He comes with His love, His power, His mercy and His forgiveness.

He washes away the stains of the past and brings to you new hope for the future.  

He sets you free to live a new kind of life.

One saturated in His love and filled with His power.

The power of sin has been broken.

How will you live the truth of it today?

Do More Than Just Endure Today

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There are two things that will keep your thinking clear and your hearts filled with God’s divine love: giving God glory and giving God thanks.

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”    

Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭21‬ NIV

You can know God and still get stuck in a mental habit of worry and fear.

Jesus died and rose again so that you can break the power of old mental habits and create new ones with His power.

When you make gratitude and worship your daily bread you are fortifying your spiritual life and strengthening your mental one.

It is the difference between enduring and embracing your life with Jesus in it.

God knows where you are and what your world looks like.

Replace your worry with worship and fear with gratitude.

Gratitude for what you have instead of dwelling on what you are afraid of losing.

What are you grateful for today?

How will you worship Jesus today?

Because of Jesus

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Because of Jesus nothing can separate you from the love of your Heavenly Father.

And God loves you beyond measure.

You are loved today, tomorrow and will be loved every day until your death and then beyond into eternity.

God demonstrated this love for you through Jesus and His sacrifice for you on the cross.

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭5:8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

You Are Loved.

Nothing can separate you from it.

Not fear.

Not shame.

Not worry.

Not circumstances.

Not finances.

Not the rules of men.

Because of Jesus you can live in the glorious freedom of being a cherished child of God.

Nothing to fear and nothing to prove.

Because of Jesus you can experience your life like a child who feels safe and secure: explore, enjoy and play.

So explore.

Enjoy.

Play.

Because of Jesus, you can live loved today.

Lean on God

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“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;” 
Proverbs 3:5 NIV

It is hard to not lean on your own understanding.

Your understanding is made of what you know, what you have learned, what you have been taught and tucked into your back pocket as experience. In the other pocket, you have stuffed the disappointments, the failures, the mistakes that you don’t want to make again. Either way, you are leaning on what you know. You make decisions based on past experiences and knee-jerk reactions from what you fear happening again.

How do you learn to trust God and lean on His understanding, His truth, His knowledge, and His power?

Lean on Him.

Lean on His love, His faithfulness, His wisdom and His mercy today.

Do the next right thing and leave the rest to Him.

He will guide you and show you how to walk forward according to His truth.

Instead of your go-to, knee-jerk reaction, go to your knees and ask God what the next right thing is.

You Get to Choose

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Don’t let your situation dictate your reaction.

You choose how to respond.

You decide what words you speak.

You choose how you do your work.

You can’t always choose what must be done but you can always choose how you act doing it.

“Well-spoken words bring satisfaction; well-done work has its own reward.”
‭Proverbs‬ ‭12‬:‭14‬ MSG

Before your day even begins, get with God and choose together how you will respond to your current situation.

Getting Back to Basics

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Whenever you feel lost and unsure of how to start up again, go back to the basics.
 
So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others.
 
2 Peter 1:5-9 MSG
 
Basic Faith – the first step, the abandoned sin, throwing of oneself upon the mercy of God and walking forward into the unseen with the belief that you are not alone to develop.
 
Good Character – staying true to what you believe in the little things and letting those small choices of integrity overflow into the big things as you grow.
 
Spiritual Understanding – the moments you can’t explain, but know are true.
 
Alert Discipline – not allowing time, tiredness, busyness, past baggage, old excuses erode right habits, receiving grace and energy from God.
 
Passionate Patience – being able to expectantly wait for one thing while wholehearted working for another. Choosing to focus on being obedient, not on the results of being obedient.
 
Reverent Wonder – the awe of seeing God with the wide eyes of a childlike heart.
 
Warm Friendliness – the smile, the hug, the gentle knowing atmosphere of those who are confidently walking in their purpose.
 
Generous Love – being able to love those closest to us without fear or conditional embraces and the ability to love those we barely know with an authenticity that only comes from intimately knowing God.
 
These are my own definitions of the list in 2 Peter 1:5. 
 
These are not a to-do list, this is a Jesus-help-me-be list.
 
May you find your way back to the basics and thrive by the grace of God in each one today.

Sustained and Trained

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“He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You make your saving help my shield, and your right hand sustains me; your help has made me great.”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭18:34-35‬ ‭NIV‬‬

My prayer for you today is that you would know His love as He pours His strength into you. That you would know His peace as you lean on Him. That you would rest in God’s grace as you walk by His guidance. That you would trust Him with the future and focus simply on the task before you. That you would be released from the restlessness within you as you receive a new determination to go forward in faith.

God will give you what you need right now to fight the battle before you.

You are stronger than you know because your strength comes from Jesus and His right hand sustains you.

Don’t give up, you are sustained and trained through the power of His love.