The Patience Project: Part One!

I truly believe the enemy wants to keep us quiet when we are struggling with things. He desires for us to feel shame and guilt. He wants us to be too proud to ask for help so that we suffer in silence. But why? Because he knows if we start talking, and being transparent, and praying together then his plan to have us suffering in silence will be destroyed. We will become stronger, and more united, and our faith will be renewed. And this will be a problem for the enemy, but it will be a victory for you and I. 

To be honest with you all I have always had a problem with patience! And God will often times put me in situations where I have no choice but to be patient to help me grow in that area. Because as a believers patience is a virtue we all must carry. As Christ is so patient and understanding of us so we are also required to have patience with others. It's important that our perspective of who God is remains correct. We live in such a fast paced and instant result driven society that we may start to believe the false notation that if we pray for something on Monday we should receive on Tuesday. God is not like Amazon prime He has not promised us free two day shipping on our blessings! God knows that in this life we will encounter many situations where we will need to be patient and trust him to come through for us as he has promised.  

These last few months have been difficult as my husband and I started off our marriage in two different parts of the world. We have faced many obstacles from the time differences causing a lack of communication to our hectic schedules, and us not knowing when we would see each other again. His frequent deployment schedule has been challenging to come to terms with. I'm going to be real with you all! My husband and I being separated our first six months of marriage is not at all what I expected. I always am wishing he was here with me. I have learned quickly it takes a unique type of women to be a military wife.But I know the Lord  has a plan for us.  Deuteronomy 31:6 says, God will never leave us nor forsake us." I take comfort in knowing that God is with us.  

There are so many stories of believers who were required to have patience in order to receive their blessing. Why not start with the story of Israelites? They were enslaved for 400 years in Egypt! But God had a plan in place to redeem and restore the Israelites! When we are going through trials many of us focus on the trial instead of the fact that God always has a plan in place even if we cannot see it our faith must be strong enough to believe it. God was setting up such a extraordinary plan that there would be no way they could deny his power! Patience is often not a choice it's a requirement. You can't get around it. In psalms 46:10 God urges us to be still and to know that he is God! He's got it all  covered remain calm and have patience. God has already equipped you with all that you need to get through the trials you face. You've got this because God's got you.  

Blessings, Ashley Dillard  

 I hope your were blessed by part one of the series Project Patience! If you'd like to show your support please pray for this blog that God would use it to touch the hearts of His people by calling those who are lost back to Him! Also please share our post with your friends and family

Attack Back

When things start going wrong in our lives, and trials and tribulations arise that is usually when our relationship with God starts to struggle as well. We begin to pray less and worry more. Difficult circumstances can bring out the ugly in us that we usually try to hide. We get caught up in our emotions. and feelings, and loose sight of what is important. The enemy wants us to be depressed, tired, worried, angry, disappointed, and stressed out. He only has one goal in mind when it comes to our lives and that is to destroy it (John 10:10). He wants us to fight against each other instead of against him. God has made us so many promises in the bible that we must lean on when times get hard. God promises to never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6). He instructs us not to worry because He will take care of us (Matthew 6:25-34). He says that He will provide all of our needs (Philippians 4:19). He says that He will forgive us, and help us in our time of need (1John 1:9 & Isaiah 41:14) But even with all these promises of forgiveness, love, and protection we still fall into the enemy’s traps. The enemy will plant seeds of doubt and fear in our hearts. He can cause us question our relationship with God and he wants us to focus on the wrong things such as money, fame, and power. The enemy knows as long as we are chasing after possessions we will never fully chase after God, and we won’t answer the call God has on our lives. Here are some ways to fight back when the enemy attacks your mind, your family, your health, or anything else you truly care about.

1. CREATE A PRAYER STRATEGY!

Pick a daily time to devote to praying and communicating with Christ. Use scriptures in your prayer and allow God to penetrate your heart and heal some wounded areas. Time with God is healing, refilling, and refreshing. Go with God and you won’t go wrong.

2. CHANGE YOUR THINKING!

Every time you catch yourself thinking negative thoughts immediately ask God to revers that negative into a positive. Then begin thinking of all the promises He made you and all the reasons you have to worship Him in spirit and in truth.

3. WATCH WHAT YOU SAY!

Don’t speak negativity into existence. Process what your saying before you say it. If what you are about to say is hurtful towards you or those around you then don’t say it.

4 KNOW WHO YOU BELONG TO!

You are a child of God. You are called out and appointed by name to be a light and representative of Christ. People who have yet to know and experience Christ are watching you. Remember when you go out that how you carry yourself and act around nonbelievers is crucial. You cannot claim to be a light if you blend in with darkness.

3 Ways to Defeat Depression

It is estimated that 19 million people are living with major depression. Depression is defined as a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. Most people have experienced being in a state of depression at some point in their life whether it was brought on by grief or discontentment. The bible addresses that we must take every thought captive that goes against the word of God (2 Corinthians 10:5). We must realize that one of the biggest battles we will every fight is a battle against our own thoughts. The negative thoughts we have about ourselves must stop if we hope to defeat or prevent depression from entering our lives.

1. View yourself as God views you. God loves you unconditionally despite of all your flaws and mistakes. He has promised to love you and never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). He has blessed you with grace. He says that He will give you peace that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7).  He say’s don’t be dismayed or discouraged for I am the Lord your God and I will strengthen you and help you (Isaiah 41:10). Know that your heavenly father who looks at you knows He made no mistakes. God sees you and He says my child you are beautiful, you are smart, you are precious, and you are chosen.

2. Focus on the good and not the bad. Don’t allow what is going wrong in your life to overpower all that is going right. Some may say but Ashley nothing is going right in my life! My response to that is do not allow the devil to blind you with your current troubles. God is working everything out. Just because you cannot see God’s plan does not mean He doesn’t have one in play. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrew 11:1). Keep your mind on things above and not on earthly things (Colossians 3:2). You have a purpose for your existence. You may not know the details to your assignment, but know that you were not placed here by accident. God has blessed you with all the abilities necessary to accomplish all that He has for you to do. You can get through all the troubles blocking you from your blessings if you keep your focus on God.

3. Pray without ceasing. Pray consistently and spend time with God consistently so you can be constantly renewed. Uses scriptures in your prayers. Keep in mind that prayer is a powerful tool of communication between God and us. We should pray as well as listen for a response. If you do not know which prayers to pray over your circumstance reach out to someone who can help (like your pastor, a close friend, or a relative). Don’t hide what you are going through because hidden things don’t get healed.

Bonus: Do not compare yourself to anyone else. What God has for you is for you. Comparison brings out the ugly in everyone. Wishing you were like someone else only sets you farther back by causing jealousy and discontentment. In every situation we go through there is knowledge to be gained.

Thank you for reading! I am asking for you help in sharing this with your friends and family because someone you know could be fighting against depression all by themselves and they need to know that God will fight with them.

The Runaway

I grew up in a Christian home. My parents were strong believers and we were at church constantly. Sundays we had Sunday school, morning service and evening service. Tuesdays we had bible study. Friday we had youth services and if there were any special convocations going on we would have church on Saturdays too. My parents were and still are very active members in the church. I had faith growing up but it wasn’t very strong. They raised me right and I am forever grateful for the sacrifices they made to do so. I didn’t encounter many challenges in my life until I got to high school. I wanted to be “popular” and to be accepted by my peers. I started hanging out with a variety of different crowds and started pulling away and rebelling against my parents day by day. Everyone got to go party on weekends and enjoy each other’s company while most of the time I was at church. I felt like I was missing out on something, but little did I know that they were trying to protect me from all the bad things in the world that I’d soon encounter. When I was a freshmen high school I became romantically involved with another girl. The relationship didn’t last long and I never told a soul because I knew it was a sin, and my parents would not accept such behavior. I thought that after that relationship I’d never do such a thing again.

I kept telling myself it was just a small fling and is widely accepted by the world, so there was no need for me to repent or tell anyone in my family or church. So it was my little secret, but the thing about secrets is they eat you up in the inside they make you hurt in ways you didn’t think you could ever hurt. I thought that phase in my life was over until I got to the 11^th grade and became romantically involved again with another girl, but this one I could not hide. The relationship lasted longer and I was so ashamed and filled with guilt for sinning against God and lying to my parents I ran away. I was gone for a little of a week and that was by far the worst week of my life. I felt lost, confused, hurt, and angry. I was sleeping here and there and going to school as if nothing was wrong, but looking back I am sure everyone could tell.  I remember my parent’s coming to find me at school and the tears in their eyes when they asked me why I left in the middle of the night and I could not bring myself to tell the truth, so I lied more and more. Guilt and shame will cause you to do some terrible things. I believe they knew all along they confronted me about my what I had been up to, but often times I lied.

About a week after I had left I went home and confessed everything. An up until this point we have pretty much kept it concealed. I was so afraid of what people might think of me or say of me I just completely tried to shut that section of my life out. Only telling very few what I did and what I went through.  My parents knew one day I’d talk about it openly they never forced me to say anything to anyone and for that I am grateful. I am stronger believer now then I have ever been. And I have to be honest on my views. I don’t believe as believers we can pick and choose what we want to believe out of the bible. You either believe in everything it say or you don’t and it says homosexuality is a sin (Leviticus 18:22 & 1 Cor. 6:9-10). I am just stating the biblical facts. I also know the bible says the most important commandment is to love God and to love others (Mark12:30-31).  Love everyone no matter what there life style choice is and let God be God and do the convicting and the cleansing.  I wanted to share this because I’m just not into secrets anymore. I feel like God wants to take me to levels in our relationship and He wouldn’t do this unless I was honest with others and myself. No one said living for God would be easy, but I know it will be worth it.

2 Corinthians 5:7

“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

2 Corinthians 5:15

“And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”

I cheated on God. Have you been cheating on God too?

We truly serve an incredible God. There is so much to learn from the bible and most of us have easy access to a bible each day. What can’t our smart phones do today? We basically have unlimited resources at our fingertips. There are blogs, sermons, and inspirational articles all over the web, but most of us choose to focus on what’s trending instead of what’s life changing and fulfilling. I am no expert on this subject. To often have I gotten caught up in the drama, or the trendy topics that I ignore my bible and quiet time to spend extra time with some sort of social media. The drama becomes addicting and I start cheating on God with my phone. But my soul desperately needs God each and everyday. I need Him to restore me, to heal me, to help me, and to fill me. Without God I can notice negative behaviors in myself that result in me not spending enough time with Him. Can you cut off whatever it is that has been separating you from God? Whether it is your phone, or a bad relationship, or some other addiction.

I think a big problem amongst all generations is that we all think we have time. I hear people saying, “I don’t have to get saved right now I am still young.” Or I hear,” I am still living for me it is all about having fun now I will worry about that God stuff later”. This is a common misconception. The bible says in Matthew 24; 35-36, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. However no one knows the day or the hour when these things will take place, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself, but only the Father.” I can’t stop your from putting your relationship with God on hold? But if you are waiting for tomorrow let me ask you this: what will you do if tomorrow never comes?

We must train our spirit like we train our body. When we want to loose weight we discipline our bodies by exercising and eating healthy. We must also discipline our spirit to say no to things that cause us to stray away from God.  Because we can't see God many of us struggle to develop an active relationship with Him. But like any other relationship it takes commitment and time. When my husband and I started our relationship we communicated a lot. We shared our dreams, our ambitions, and our past failures. We discussed family history, hurtful memories, and so much more. Our relationship with God should start off with constant communication with Him. Talking to God daily about our dreams, our past, and what bothered us throughout the day will help. The difference between talking to my husband and talking to God is that God can heal the wounds of my past and even though I love my husband dearly that’s something he just can’t do. 

If you have been cheating on God?

I encourage you to ask for forgiveness and reenter into a life changing relationship with the only one who can truly heal you, fill you , help you,  and restore you!