Good morning ya’ll ministry messages: Renew, Refresh, Recuperate, Regroup, and Rest

(Photo courtesy of Sherryl Seal)

Deuteronomy 20:4 “For the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.”
Good morning ya’ll
I pray that you have an exceptional day today.
Throughout this month of “Spiritual Spring Cleaning” we have visited the aspects of how important it is for us to regularly “Renew, Refresh, Recuperate, Regroup, and Rest”. We have considered how important it is for us to purposefully build time into our days to spend with God so we can have meaningful conversations with Him and so He can in turn speak to us, refresh us, renew us, and refill us with His awesome Holy Spirit. Throughout this journey even I have faced a few unexpected Spiritual battles which have taught me even more about how vital it is for us to limit our exposure to negative influences and how important it is for us to recognize when the enemy is attacking us and just how subtle and sneaky those attacks can be on us often using people around us as His “weapons” against us. Today, to wrap up our journey of this month’s messages I wanted to remind us all to hang in there. Our lives our a journey and the destination will, one day, be Heaven. This means that our lives will face up and down moments. Some seasons we will be standing on the mountain top while other seasons will find us trudging through the valley. Hang in there, God is with is through it all and through each experience  through each up and down He is shaping us more and more into the people He has created us to be. Wherever you are along your journey please hear me when I say that “You are so loved, so adored, so important, and so valued. More than you know. And the schemes and plans of the enemy will not win. God will win!” Let’s hang in there ya’ll. Our journey will not be flawless and along the way we will face the ups and downs, highs and lows, but through it all our Awesome Heavenly Father’s amazing plans for our lives will endure and will claim the victory, if we just trust, have faith, and believe.
Have a magnificent day today
I love you all
Love San 😀

Good morning ya’ll ministry messages: Renew, Refresh, Recuperate, Regroup, and Rest

(Photo courtesy of Miatta King Carr)

Ephesians 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
Good morning ya’ll
I pray that you have a wonderful day today
The enemy attacks us the most aggressively when the enemy knows we are getting closer to accomplishing our goals. Allowing the enemy to win in this battle accomplishes exactly what the enemy set out to do- keep us from reaching our goals. Side tracking us to ensure that we are never able to reach our greatest potential which God has already set aside for us. It can be difficult for us to discern when the enemy is attacking us and yanking us away from drawing closer to our goals because these attacks can be so subtle. When we find ourselves beginning to slide farther away from reaching our goals these are the times when it’s important for us to hit the pause button and get alone with God. Take time to regroup and re-evaluate the trajectory of your life’s path. Have you begun to veer off of the good path God has set your feet on? Have you started to lose focus of your dreams, ambitions, passions, and your drive to make a positive difference? Have other things or other people been vying more and more for your attention drawing your focus in more negative directions or simply in opposite directions of the dreams and goals God has put in your heart? Is this part of God’s plan- the distractions? Is this part of the enemy’s atrack- the veering from the path? These are excellent questions to consider and the best place to find the answers is by searching God’s wisdom and truth in His word. The best way to hear God’s answers is by slowing down and getting alone with God so He van speak. The voices, distractions, and choosing of this world will almost always scream louder at us than God’s voice. That’s because God is the author of peace, calm, and joy and His voice whispers, soothes, heals, and comforts. When you hear your answers in this way them you can be certain that God is speaking His truthful answers to you and He is carefully and peacefully setting your feet back on the right path and centering your hearts focus back on His perfect plan for you.
Have an extraordinary day today
I love you all
Love San 😀

Good morning ya’ll ministry messages: Renew, Refresh, Recuperate, Regroup, and Rest

(Photo found online)

Psalm 37:7 “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him…”
Good morning ya’ll
I pray that you have a terrific day today
The regular practice of meditation is a practice that has many health benefits for everyone. Regularly practicing meditation can help reduce anxiety and stress, can help improve sleep, can help lower your blood pressure, and can improve your memory and attention span. These are many benefits that all of us need in our lives especially with so much information being thrown at us every minute of every day. Whether this information is good information, bad information, or simply informative information our minds are constantly trying to take it all in and process it as efficiently, as quickly, and as best we can until we suddenly find ourselves in information overload then we find ourselves running in a constant state of anxiety and stress and truly this does none of us any good. Meditation has many health improving benefits and beginning this practice on a daily basis gives us a chance to purposefully slow down, calm our minds, refresh our spirits, and improve our outlook on life, especially when we take those quiet five or ten minutes to meditate on God’s word. Taking with us a favorite inspirational, encouraging, uplifting, wise, or helpful scripture to our quiet meditation time and repeating this scripture to ourselves can help center our focus back on God and on God’s goodness, grace, love, promises, and gifts He has given us and He still has in store for us. Once upon a time the expansive wealth of instant technology delivering us information was not so readily available to us so the levels of anxiety and stress in those times were nowhere near what they are now. Just because we can easily access the information doesn’t mean we should bombard ourselves with all of that information. Limiting our exposure to the constant barage of information in order to get alone with God, get alone with ourselves, and calm our overly informed minds is a healthy, spirit refreshing, soul renewing practice that can do all of us so much good. Start trying out the practice of meditation today and see how those few stolen, quiet moments can help you in so many amazing ways as you let God’s word help re-center you, embrace you, and sink into every part of you.
Have an outstanding day today
I love you all
Love San 😀

Good morning ya’ll ministry messages: Renew, Refresh, Recuperate, Regroup, and Rest

(Photo courtesy of Marcy Davis)

Psalm 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
Good morning ya’ll
I pray that you have a terrific day today.
Lately I have noticed my moods have brought me to some darker and not so happy places where I will often find myself feeling unworthy of love, incapable of doing anything for myself or anyone else, and criticizing myself into the ground because I allowed myself to feel this way. If you have ever felt this way you can most certainly understand where I am coming from. Lately, I have also been making a more conscious effort to pay close attention to what I am allowing into my life (more positive less negative) and I have been trying to purposefully spend more time in listening to sermons and reading scripture as opposed to listening to news or reading gut wrenching headlines. This is because I remembered hearing someone teach a sermon years ago about how we cannot pout from empty vessels. Meaning we are the vessels and what us within us is what we pour out onto others. Earlier in this month’s devotions we talked about when we allow negative things into our lives in various ways that the negativity then begins to take root and that negativity then begins spilling out to others. Today it’s more about when we dry up and we stop praying, we stop listening to sermons, reading the Bible, or even stop spending time with those who pour positive into us, then we too will begin to struggle to pour out good into others. Especially if you are like me and all you ever want to do is help others and so while you are routinely helping others no one is “helping” you and eventually you dry up. Once we start to dry up helping others can become much more difficult. If this sounds familiar to you in your life, try taking some small simple steps to start pouring back into yourself and to start allowing God to fill you up with His grace, peace, love, joy, and healing. Take more deep breaths, commit to reading at least one scripture a day, start your day with a short yoga routine or Tai Chi routine, spend time alone talking to God, smile more, remind yourself how great God loves you, forgive yourself for your flaws and imperfections (none of us is perfect- I wrestle lots with this myself), see yourself with the same adoration and joy your pets see you with, hug the people you love more, take a walk and take in God’s perfect beauty on display, release your worries and anxieties to God, and most important don’t be afraid to talk to the people who love you and ask them to pray with you and pray for you. When we face these kind of places in life we need all of the help, hope, support, and prayer we can get. Ask for help. I promise you the people who love you want to help you and be there for you more than you know.
Have an amazing day today
I love you all
Love San 😀

Good morning ya’ll ministry messages: Renew, Refresh, Recuperate, Regroup, and Rest

(Photo courtesy of Sherryl Seal)

Romans 8:26 “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”
Good morning ya’ll
I pray that you have a magnificent day today
Over the past few months I have been struggling with my own prayer practices as I found that I was praying repetitive prayers on a daily basis almost becoming fearful that if I did not pray these exact same words everyday then perhaps God might forget and something bad might happen. This is clearly not going to be the case and was definitely becoming a harmful way of thinking because this isn’t what God wanted from me at all. It’s not what He wants from any of us. When we come to God in prayer God wants us to talk to Him telling Him all about our days we have had and sharing with Him the exciting things that have happened as well as sharing with Him the upsetting, heartbreaking, frustrating, and difficult things we had to encounter. God wants us to talk to Him singing His praises as we tell Him how much we appreciate the awesome ways He has answered our prayers as well as asking Him for strength, guidance, wisdom, and help for the troubles we have been facing. Don’t get stuck in a prayer rut like I did. Find ways to talk to God that really mean so much to you and to God. Our words we speak to God don’t have to be perfectly strung together and they don’t have to be eloquently spoken, they just need to be the words of the things that are on your heart. Allow God to hear from you just as you are, right where you are. He knows what you are trying to tell Him and He knows exactly how best to answer you. Prayer is a heart to heart conversation with the Person who loves you THE most in all the universe. It may feel like there’s a lot of pressure to get it right when you talk to Him, but the absolute opposite is true. God just wants to hear from the genuine, honest, open, and one hundred percent real you. Just start talking, I promise you, God is listening.
Have an excellent day today
I love you all
Love San 😀

Good morning ya’ll ministry messages: Renew, Refresh, Recuperate, Regroup, and Rest

Romans 13:10 “Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore Love is the fulfillment of the law.”
Good morning ya’ll
I pray that you have a fantastic day today
It’s important for us to remember that the vibe we choose to give off to others in the world is likely going to be the very same vibes we will receive in return. Therefore if you want to receive positive, embracing, and kind vibes then you should also be putting out those same kind of vibes. On the flip side of that, if you insist on putting off negative, unkind, and hateful vibes you will more often than not receive those same negative vibes in return. This is such a big part of what is wrong in our world today. The world is filled with so many hateful, selfish, unkind, and negative people just sending out those kind of vibes alongside of others who are giving off the same negative vibes and then it just continues to perpetuate the negativity until it becomes difficult to see anyone who is positive anymore. God created us to love. Today’s scripture literally teaches us that ” love is the fulfillment of the law.” Love shows kindness, generosity thoughtfulness, consideration, compassion, and support. Love checks on one another, supports and encourages each other, celebrates each other, spends time with each other, and shares with one another. There is a well-known known song performed by Jackie DeShannon and Dionne Warwick that says “what the world needs now is love sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.” This is exactly what God has been trying to tell us for so long. May the vibes we give off to others be long lasting and treasured vibes that have ensured that others all around us have felt loved, celebrated, embraced, supported, and encouraged. Let’s grow and cultivate love and kindness rather than spread the disease of hatred, negativity, and discontent.
Have an excellent day today
I love you all
Love San 😀

Good morning ya’ll ministry messages: Renew, Refresh, Recuperate, Regroup, and Rest

(Photo courtesy of Marcy Davis)

1 Peter 3:3-4 “Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.”
Good morning ya’ll
I pray that you have a stupendous day today.
Who are we trying to sell our personas to? Who are we trying to win over? Are we trying to uphold a reputation or an appearance for the sake of pleasing others or are we choosing to be genuine, raw, and real? You might think you’ve got this act down so well that your flaws could never be seen or you think no one will ever see the real you, but the real you- the flawed and genuine real you- that’s the person most everyone that matters in your life will appreciate showing up everyday. That’s the person who the people that love you want to see and know, especially God. They don’t want a made up version of who you are trying to be because then they are left wondering who and what you really are when you aren’t around them. We are your family and your friends and we want to help you, we want to give you good advice, we want to pray for you and see God help you with the obstacles and trials you are facing and when you aren’t being the genuine and real version of yourself around us then we can’t and we won’t know that anything is wrong and that’s not the best way to handle things. If you can’t be your true self, open and honest around those who love you most and especially in the presence of God then truly who can you be yourself around? If this message hits you right in the gut giving you immediate conviction, talk to God. Ask Him to help reveal to you the best people in your life you can begin truly opening up to and then go open up to those people. Ripping the carefully placed and pristinely nurtured band-aid off to uncover your truths will not be easy, but the relief, the peace, the renewal, and the hope it will bring your way will so very much be worth the journey. I promise you it will be. Thanks be to God.
Have an incredible day today
I love you all
Love San 😀

Good morning ya’ll ministry messages: Renew, Refresh, Recuperate, Regroup, and Rest

(Photo courtesy of Brayden McVey)
1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
Good morning ya’ll
I pray that you have a magnificent day today
Is your anger being directed in the right direction? There are people or situations in our lives that do make us angry, sometimes only now and then, sometimes on a regular basis, but these people and/or situations are more than what we see. Much like an iceberg, we see only the tip of while beneath the suface there is so much more to it than what we are seeing, so too is there more to these people and situations that are making us angry, trying our patience, or frustrating us beyond belief, than what we are seeing. The bigger picture we aren’t seeing is the puppets that these people and situations are to the delight of the enemy. The enemy is using these people and situations to lead us to our angry outbursts, which only makes us feel worse. The enemy is orchestrating the situations and people in such a cunning, sly, and deceptive way that without realizing it our anger and frustration becomes misdirected leading to our outbursts and choices that can cause long lasting hurt or harm to others. The best thing we can do when we feel ourselves losing our patience and getting angry is to begin praying. Talking to God and asking Him to reveal to us what is really happening in these situations that are causing us to lose our temper, and asking God to help us see beyond the situations and people which are making us feel the way we are can help reveal what is truly going on. Start today asking God to reveal to you just how and where the enemy is working beneath the cloak and behind the scenes causing the irritation of those people and situations that are so easily rubbing us the wrong way and trying our patience. Also, let us not forget the unmatchable power of prayer to defeat the attacks of the enemy in the spiritual realm. This is, after all, the place where the enemy is battling against us, which we do not see. When the attacks begin to come again remain calm and remember to pray asking God for His wisdom in revealing where the enemy is lurking and asking God to take over, keep your spirit at peace, and asking God to fight your battles for you. This is what He wants to do. This is how He truly wants to see us win, with His hands claiming the victory and our lives seeing the joy, peace, and confidence restored to our lives. Thanks be to God.
Have an excellent day today
I love you all
Love San 😀

Good morning ya’ll ministry messages: Renew, Refresh, Recuperate, Regroup, and Rest

(Photo courtesy of Dani Jackson)

“He’s got the whole world in His hands. He’s got the whole world in His hands!”
Good morning ya’ll
I pray that you have a wonderful day today.
How many of us read these two lines above and immediately started singing the well-known Sunday school song we know from childhood? How often have we payed closer attention to what this song has been trying to teach us for really all of our lives? “He’s got the WHOLE WORLD in His hands” so why in the world do we think we feel that we can do a better job than He has been doing for all of this time? I get it. When things are so often taking place in this world which are definitely unfair and which are often happening to good and kind people we can find ourselves wondering if God has simply gotten so frustrated with us and with humanity that He simply decided to put the world down and walk away so we then find ourselves putting the pressure on ourselves to be the greatest light, help, and hero we think this world most needs, but God hasn’t put us down and He hasn’t turned His back on us. God has the whole world in His hands and what’s more amazing is that while simultaneously overseeing every detail of running the whole world, God also has the time to spend with each and everyone of us individually helping us with our needs and guiding us through our trials and obstacles. Next time we start to get anxious, weary, overwhelmed, or frustrated trying to figure it all out let’s start singing this song to ourselves to quickly remind ourselves that God still holds the whole world in His hands and He still has us and every little detail of our lives in His perfect control. What better hands could our lives ever be in?
Have an outstanding day today
I love you all
Love San 😀

Good morning ya’ll ministry messages: Renew, Refresh, Recuperate, Regroup, and Rest

(Photo courtesy of Natalie Kroll)

Philippians 4:8 “Finally, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
Good morning ya’ll
I pray that you have a terrific day today.
Over the weekend I had an ugly emotional breakdown over the silliest of reasons, and from that breakdown I had to do a lot of reflecting on what could have put me into such an ugly place both mentally and emotionally. In my reflecting I had to uncover the very real truth about paying closer attention to the things I allow into my life everyday that might be setting up camp in my heart stealing the light that God has given me. It’s the well-known equation of garbage in=garbage out concept. When we allow things and people that give off negative vibes to be played into our ears, eyes, and spirits on a regular basis we will often find that these constant negative influences are beginning to soak into our own personalities kind of like osmosis. Many times this quite simple process can take place so subtly that we hardly even notice its taking place until we suddenly face a moment or two like I faced yesterday. Just as my moment yesterday was a lesson for me to pay closer attention to what I am allowing to come into my spirit by really analyzing what negative things are being played into my daily life which I either need to eliminate or limit my exposure to, I pray that this message may serve as a reminder to all of us that taking the time to analyze our daily habits and surroundings as well as praying for Jesus to come into our hearts and cleanse us of the dark and ugly effects those negative influences have had in our lives so that we won’t have to face the bashing and brutal side effects those negative influences can wreak on our spirits leaving us mentally and emotionally broken. From the music we choose to listen to, the shows we choose to watch, the people we routinely spend time with, and even the foods we choose to put into our bodies every day, ask God to show you what is affecting you in negative ways and once He reveals those things to you ask Him to help you find the strength and determination to walk away from those negative things and to help you find more positive, life giving, and joyful things, people, and routines to surround yourself with to see your mental, emotional and all around spiritual well-being improve in gigantic ways.
Have an extraordinary day today
I love you all
Love San 😀