Tag: discouraged

Drowning in Discouragement

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Jesus stood on the shore alone.

He didn’t look for a boat or wait until He found one.

He just walked right into the storm and walked on the water.

Today, you may feel like you are facing a storm and looking at an impossible situation.

Good news: your Savior knows how to handle it. He knows how to do impossible things.

 “Shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.”

Matthew 14:25

When you are drowning in discouragement, get alone with God.  

Get to a quiet place so you can hear His words to you:

Before you face the day, get face to face with Me. I will bring you through it. I know the way.

The Overcoming Life

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Are you discouraged today?

When Jesus was preparing his disciples for the difficult times they were about to face, he said this:

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 NIV

Life with Jesus is a journey of overcoming and conquering, first steps and new beginnings.

It is an adventure of discovery and healing, of bold moves and humble hearts.

It is about facing difficulty with courage and having peace in the midst of uncertainty.

It is possible because Jesus promises to be with you every step of the way.

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-30 ESV

In Season or Out.

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Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.

2 Timothy‬ ‭4‬:‭2‬ NIV

There are seasons of life that you are where you are supposed to be and doing what you are supposed to be doing. You are “in” season. You are inspired, motivated and moving forward.

Then there are seasons when you feel downright out of it. You are not where you want to be and not doing what you think you should be doing. You are in an “out” season. You are discouraged, unmotivated and stuck.

The thing is, Jesus will use you in both seasons to reach out to people who need his love.

In fact, it is often the seasons that knock you to your knees that impact other people the most:

  • When the diagnosis doesn’t shake your faith. 
  • When you face a hard time but it doesn’t harden your heart.
  • When you are brave in the face of uncertainty and transparent as you lean on God for strength. 

Be prepared to walk with God in the good times and bad, easy seasons and hard ones because God is prepared to walk with you through it all.

If you are available, He will use you to minister to those around you.

God’s love is always in season, may you be filled with it today.

Not Shaken

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“I will bless the LORD who guides me; even at night my heart instructs me. I know the LORD is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.”
‭‭Psalm ‭16:7-8‬ ‭NLT‬‬

There may be a lot of reasons that you feel shaken up right now. You may not even be sure how you are going to navigate the day before you.

I want you to know that Jesus will give you everything you need to do His will today.

He will not leave you and will not forsake you. He will walk with you through every moment and provide for you through resources you can not see.

“Since God assured us, ‘I’ll never let you down, never walk off and leave you,’ we can boldly quote, God is there, ready to help; I’m fearless no matter what. Who or what can get to me?”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭13:5-6‬ ‭MSG‬‬

I am praying that today you will have the courage to face the hard facts and do the hard thing, my friend. That you will saturate yourself in the Word of God and walk boldly into an unknown future knowing that Jesus walks beside you every step of the way.

I am praying for a peace that passes all understanding and a hope that will carry you to the other side. I am praying for bold faith and fearless obedience as you look to God to provide what you need.

Take some to time to bless the Lord, worship Him and remind yourself of His faithfulness.

Then lay all your fears at His feet and face the day with courage.

Infused

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When you are ready to be obedient, get ready to feel discouraged.

Whenever you get ready to grow, get ready for the opposition.

God doesn’t numb our emotions or take away our humanity- he allows us to feel discouraged, feel defeated, feel downcast. He doesn’t take away our humanity but what He does is give us His power.

He challenges us to not make our obedience contingent on our emotions.

He asks us to “do it afraid”. To walk forward in faith.

To fight through the battle that rises up and learn how to fight all the way through to victory.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.”
Ephesians 6:10 NIV

I love that there is a “finally” here. After all the instructions on relationship wisdom that comes before this verse, Paul has the final word you need: be strong in The Lord and in His mighty power. This means to receive strength from Him, to be endowed with it, to allow God’s mighty power to infuse your soul with strength.

You are in a battle. It is a battle you cannot win but one that has been won for you. It is a battle waged against you and the Word of God reigning in your world. God does not remove you from the battle or remove the battle from you: He fits you His own weapons and says “FIGHT!”

Finally– when you are at the end of yourself, you are ready to really begin. BE INFUSED with His mighty power. If you are feeling weak and discouraged- you are in just the right place to receive His strength.

Be Strong!

Hold Onto Hope

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I want to encourage you today that no matter how dark the situation may seem to be believe that God can do something in it anyway. 

I want to challenge you to dare to trust Him in the desert – there is a promised land and you are on your way to it. 

My prayer for you is that like Abraham you will decide to live today not based on what you can’t do but on what God can do through you. His power sustaining you to walk, to love, to care and to be fully alive even though you may feel mostly dead inside. 

Abraham was first named “father” and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. 

When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do. 

‭‭Romans‬ ‭4:17-18‬ ‭MSG‬‬

Long before Abraham saw the fruit on of the promise, he believed God anyway. Though everything in his life seemed to indicate otherwise, he lived his life, everyday, not looking at the impossibility of the promise but in the possibility of God. 

I am sure that there were times that Abraham barely believed. I know that there were days that he was only holding on to a bare thread of hope…but he held on. 

Hold on, my friend, you may have only have a thread of hope but in Christ that thread is stronger than what you face and will hold against that which your fear.

I know you don’t see how it will happen but God does.

Hold on. 

Hold on to Jesus…He is holding onto you.

Your Faith

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Your faith, your relationship with Jesus,  is more precious than the finest gold. It will last longer than your job, your goals and your body. It is the inside eternal life that sustains you through the trials of the outside temporary life. 

The same fire that destroys the wood purifies the gold. 

God will use the very thing that is discourging you to purify you.  

He will use the disappointment you are experiencing to make wrong motives and false beliefs rise to the surface so He can skim them off. 

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

You have a promise here that God knows where you are, knows how to use it do an important work in you and that you will come out of it shinning.

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

Past Tense 

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The challenge you are facing is present tense. 

The change, the transformation, that needs to happen is future tense. 

But God’s promises are past tense. 

For a timeless God who is the same, yesterday, today and forever, the use of past tense is on purpose. 

To God, the fight is over.

To God, your battle is won.

To God, you are walking in victory.

What began in the garden was finished at the cross and is brought to triumph through your surrendered life today.

You may feel like the enemy is too powerful for you. It is. You are not meant to fight them, you are created to worship the God who already has. Past tense. 

You may feel like the foes that are rising up to defeat you are too strong. They are. You are not meant to overpower them but to surrender to Jesus Christ who already has defeated them. Past tense.

“He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me.”

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭18:17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

If you can get just a glimpse of how God sees you today you would rest securely in the shadow of His saving arm and recharge your spirit in the shade of His vision for your life. 

God wins.
And because of the Cross, so do you.

You have been rescued.

May your present tense reflect the truth of God’s past tense. 

Stand Strong

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Good morning, my friend. I should be putting my make up on but I am not…yet. What I am doing is putting on my strength (or receiving it, is a better way of saying it). I have not been feeling very strong lately. I have been feeling downright weak.

I totally get why. I am moving forward and going after all the God has for me. That is dangerous stuff, there. I am believing that I am an unfinished masterpiece and that God has good things planned for me to do. I want to tell anyone who will listen that they are an Unfinished Masterpiece and God has good things planned for them.

I want to remind you that you are an Unfinished Masterpiece.
Not a forgotten life.
Not a charity case.
Not a lost cause.
A MASTERPIECE.
Recreated to be a masterpiece in Christ.

I am being obedient when I feel the nudge of the Lord to do something like change this blog from Cindy’s Blog to Cindy Grasso Ministries. It is time, I can feel it, it is time to grow. It is time to go to the next level. To get out there and be who God has recreated me to be in Him.

Whenever you get ready to be obedient, get ready to feel discouraged.
Whenever you get ready to grow, get ready for the opposition.

And you know what? God doesn’t numb our emotions or take away our humanity- he allows us to feel discouraged, feel defeated, feel downcast. He doesn’t take away our humanity but what He does is give us His power.

He challenges us to not make our obedience contingent on our emotions. He asks us to “do it afraid”. To walk forward in faith. To fight through the battle that rises up to stop you and learn how to fight all the way through to victory.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.”
(Ephesians 6:10 NIV)

I love that there is a “finally” here. After all the instructions on relationship wisdom that comes before this verse, Paul has the final word needed: be strong in The Lord and in his mighty power. This means to receive strength from Him, to be endowed with it, to allow God’s mighty power to infuse your soul with strength.

What comes next in the chapter is the Armor of The Lord because you are in a battle whether you realize it or not. It is a battle you cannot win but one that has been won for you. It is a battle waged against you and the Word of God reigning in your world. But God does not remove you from the battle or remove the battle from you: he gives you his weapons and says “FIGHT!”

Finally– when you are at the end of yourself and the beginning of it all- BE INFUSED with His mighty power. If you are feeling weak and discouraged- you are in just the right place to receive His strength.

I put worship music on as I put my make-up on. There is nothing better than reminding my tired flesh how awesome my God is. For me, this is how I “fill up”.

Where are you at?

Have you been super discouraged lately?

Do you feel like you are fighting a battle alone?

What do you do to “fill up”?