Watch Your Life Bloom

Welcome to the Official Blog of Author Dr. Lily L. Ratliff Jenkins, of the inspirational Memoir, The Life of a Lily: Growing in His Strength, Blooming in His Love, and many other writings.

Thanks for coming by to sit awhile and reflecting along with me on everything biblical. On this blog, feel free to share your thoughts and feelings about the various topics I present. They all do come from the heart and are meant for us to ponder, be enlightened, laugh, cry, and ultimately give God all of the praise.

You will hopefully find resources on everything from writing tips to creating your own memoir, how to journal, becoming better Christians and how to walk in your callings, destinies, and witty inventions that we have deep inside of us but sometimes don't quite know how to tap into and walk in. But GOD! It is in his wisdom along with an open mind that we will get through this together. Amen! So I welcome you my brothers and sisters!
Showing posts with label confidence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label confidence. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

I Will Trust You Lord-Part 1




For parts 2-4, be sure to check out my You Tube Channel!
Be blessed!

Friday, November 5, 2010

Begin Today and Everyday~~ This WAY!

Blessings everyone!

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Where is your confidence?




Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. (Hebrews 10:35 KJV)

Do not, therefore, fling away your fearless confidence, for it carries a great and glorious compensation of reward. (Hebrews 10:35 AMP)


How many times have you worked diligently with your hands to help someone, maybe even stuck your neck out and covered for someone, gave generously from the little that you had, all to be ostracized and ridiculed by the very people that you thought had your back?

Or what about this--you consistently pay your tithes and offerings, give to local charities, sacrifice time out of your day to lend a listening ear, serve in various capacities--yet the goals, dream, and desires that you have so deep in your heart, still has not come to pass?

Many of your reading may be, right now, in one of these situations.

But while you may be down and out, wondering when your prayer will be answered, the devil is also telling you things that contradict God's promises for your life. See, it's when we take that second thought of doubt, that we stop or delay the harvest that is meant just for us.

I believe many of us have been on the verge of promotion on our jobs--have been given the tasks of training others that come after us, to then be sideswiped by seeing that very same person be elevated to the position we felt we were supposed to get. Why? Because we took the second thought--or we murmured and complained to our friends and co-workers about the problems of the company instead of being the one to see change take place, by being the change (setting the atmosphere for promotion to take place). Also if you are doing your job as unto the Lord, your gifts will make room for you. We as Christians should never be the ones up in a conversation of gossip and slander. We should run away from that, lest we also be seen as fools. The woman Folly is loud; she is undisciplined and without knowledge. (Proverbs 9:13 NIV) And in Proverbs 12:23 NIV, it says, "A prudent man keeps his knowledge to himself, but the heart of fools blurts out folly."

Another thing that is important to point out is just where we should put our confidence. Our confidence should not be just enough to make the status quo in this world--obsessed on the cars, the house, the fine designer clothes and shoes, our outward appearance-what to get to be seen by people or to fit the world's or society's way of doing things. Yes, many of those things are nice, and God does want us to prosper in every area of our lives, and will give us those things when and if He sees fit to bring it to us. However, your confidence should be more on what we should be storing up in heaven--our Heavenly treasures. How do we do that, by sowing consistently into the Kingdom of God. Not just with our monies, but our time, our talents, whatever we can out our hands to work to do.

Our confidence should be built in patience for what God has for us. Remember what God has for you will be just for you. No one will be able to take it away or boast about having any part in it. God will be the one to get all the glory and you can tell everyone how you made it over! Thanks be to God!

Keep putting your hands to the plow, do more than what's expected of you, keep a smile on your face, and display longsuffering towards ones that have despitefully used you--target them and be steady in order to win them to Christ!

When we have that fearless confidence, as the word suggests, we can hold our heads up high, because we already have the victory, even though in the natural, it may look like we are falling apart. We will still be confident-never wavering from our faith that God will continue to provide and that what you sow into the Kingdom, God never forgets and he counts it all toward your ultimate reward. And shouldn't we only want to do what is pleasing to God anyway? Only what we do for Him will last! So be confident, my brothers and sisters. Stand strong and in the power of His might! We will always be victorious, in Jesus Name!

In His Love,

Friday, November 28, 2008

Life Without Fear

This is truly an on time word. If this doesn’t minister to anyone else, that’s ok. Sometimes in life, you go through things and in the going through, you ask God to help you. How many times, though, you petition for God to help you but in the asking, you fear the worst, or doubt that it will happen for you? You know deep inside you trust God to supply all of your needs. But sometimes in the natural, you see that you have more bills than money, or you are days away from eviction, or being reported to the credit bureau for back payments of medical bills. The list can go on and on. So you think to yourself, “How I’m I going to get through this?” This has happened to me more than once. Amen? See some people don’t want to admit their weaknesses. I do and will say them in a heartbeat. Because it’s in the sharing of your weaknesses that God will honor and make those weaknesses, strengths that he can and will use for his glory! Thank you Lord. So anyway, in the process of feeling this way, as years have gone by, God has finally brought me to a place of accepting my weaknesses and giving me more of a peace and increasing faith and trust in God that truly moves mountains. Changes has definitely taken place in my life in a very short amount of time. I am grateful to God for that! So below you will find a devotional from a favorite website of mine that I’m sure you will enjoy.

When you feel that your back is up against the wall, and you feel there’s no hope of ever getting to a place of more than enough, know that when you are in God’s hands, and on His side, you always have more than enough, because if you just ask God what you need, believing, he will do or give it to you! Live Without Fear!

Lily

Life Without Fear

“Yet you have forgotten the LORD, your Creator,
the one who stretched out the sky like a canopy
and laid the foundations of the earth.
Will you remain in constant dread of human oppressors?
Will you continue to fear the anger of your enemies?
Where is their fury and anger now?
It is gone!”

Israel was a small nation, one that had been an easy target for larger empires seeking expansion. The Persians overthrew the northern kingdom in the eighth century BC. The Babylonians invaded the southern kingdom and decimated Jerusalem in the sixth century. Egyptian power continued to threaten Israel’s well-being. No wonder she “remained in constant dread of human oppressors.”

Yet the antidote to fear was on Israel’s doorstep, if she would but open the door. However big and powerful her human enemies might have been, God is bigger and more powerful. He is the Creator, “the one who stretched out the sky like a canopy and laid the foundations of the earth.” Confidence in the face of human threats was available to Israel . . . if she would not forget the Lord. Oh, I suppose that, in principle, Israel remembered the God who had so often saved her. But when it came to daily living, when it came to how Israel felt in real time, she forgot the Lord.

And so do we, much of the time. When we read stories of economic collapse, when our loved ones struggle with seemingly insurmountable burdens, when we hear stories of terror plots, and when we face our own mortality, we can forget the Lord. We forget his faithfulness, his majesty, his power, his mercy. We forget that God is always with us and that nothing can separate us from his love.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: When do you forget the Lord? And when you do, what happens? What helps you to remember God in times of distress?

PRAYER: O Lord, how many times have I forgotten you? A hundred? A thousand? Ten thousand? I shudder to think of the number. It’s not that I stop believing in you or that my theology disappears. But, practically, and especially in my emotions, I forget your presence in my life. Your faithfulness disappears from my consciousness for a while. And I feel afraid . . . afraid of where my life is heading, afraid of how my children will turn out, afraid of missing your blessing . . . you name it. (Indeed, Lord, you can name it!)

Forgive me, Lord, for living as if you weren’t there. Forgive me for the times when I forget you. Help me to live each moment of each day with the sense of your presence. May I claim your promises and stake my life upon them. Even as you never forget me, dear Lord, may I never forget you. Amen.

Mark D. Roberts, as Senior Director and Scholar-in-Residence for Laity Lodge, is an advisor and frequent contributor to TheHighCalling.org. A Presbyterian pastor, Mark earned his Ph.D. in New Testament from Harvard University. He has written six books, including No Holds Barred: Wrestling with God in Prayer (WaterBrook, 2005).

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