Choosing The Best You

If you want your words to carry power, you have to stop speaking like a beggar and start praying like a BELIEVER.I think so often, we talk TO God and not WITH God. So often we forget that its a two way relationship. A two way conversation and that just as much as God desires to hear from us, He also desires that we hear from Him. Stop praying uncertain prayers about things God has already promised like healing, provision, and peace. Know His will and declare it. 1 John 5:14 says “this is the confidence we have in approaching God; that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.     2.We don't need to pray “God be with me..”  You don't need to ask God to be with you, He promised He already is. Instead thank him for his present and walk in it. Hebrews 13:5 says I will never leave you or forsake you.  Declare God is with you now and always. I walk with His presence,  not apart from it.

Is this God's plan for your life? A book you read over and over again? A book you study every single day?   A book He wrote for you.  A book that transcends time. A book that will speak to whatever you are going through at any given time that will give you wisdom and discerment on how to raise your kids, to take that job or not take that job. To buy a home or not buy a home. Should you forgive and how to forgive. So much more. Its all there!  Its revelevant. Its true and its for you and its for me.   Let's take a shallow dive into the waters of what it looks like and why we are to study the word of God!    YouVersion bible app Apple https://www.bible.com/app  Android https://www.bible.com/app  The Bible Recap https://www.thebiblerecap.com The Bible Project https://bibleproject.com   

When I think back on my deepest formed relationships in life and how they were developed it is abundantly clear that those relationships developed by investing time in one another.   We can spend time with people and then we can invest time with people.    When we invest in a deeply connected manner we yield a return on our investment.  When we spend time, I see it as the more superficial experiences where we exchange pleasant sterile formalities that lack the true depth of deep relationship building.   Today I want us to consider what it looks like to deepen our relationship with our creator, God. What does that look like?  

The purest form of courage is to rescue other people. We all need rescuing from time to time and its important that we see ourselves as usable by God for the benefit of his kingdom and for his glory.   What does the bible say about this topic?    Spiritual Gifts test https://spiritualgiftstest.com/spiritual-gifts-test   

So many of us go around in life in our day to day activities with surface level questions, answers and conversations. I have learned that we can validate each other in our humanity when we are honest with ourselves,  Honest with God (who knows it all anyway) and with others.   Most people have a narrative and that narrative says we are the only one. And that simply is not true. When we think and feel like we are the only one, we tend to isolate,  to think less of ourselves, we are inclined to shrink back in feeling small and insignificant.   So much of our lives are spent in comparison to others through a lens of social media outlets that leave us feeling less than. And this narrative simply is not true.   The truth is, we matter!   

There is a narrative we are told and sold about what our lives are supposed to look like and then there is what God's word says. I don't know about you, but I recommend actively pursuing more of what matters - specifically what it looks like to be making disciples. This is a topic that once you gain that clarity, you can and should operate your days with more peace and confidence.   Spiritual Gifts Test   https://spiritualgiftstest.com/spiritual-gifts-test  You & Me book https://a.co/d/buE6uTn 

God often gives us the dream first to help prepare us with hope for the future.  The dreams are what sustained Joseph during extremely difficult circumstances.    And your God-given dreams will sustain you too, no matter what your future holds. How do we stay devoted to our dreams, our family, and our faith when we are in the midst of our holding cell, like the one Joseph experienced?   First, when we doubt God, we must be honest about our feelings and questions. Being honest lets us move toward our relationship with God. Hiding our doubts and questions will keep us stuck and powerless. We will not reach our dreams by accident. We will not end up with a stronger faith after times of trial by default. This is an active stance—a battle.   Second, identify and deal with thoughts that are contrary to what we know to be true about God and His plan for our life. While Joseph was in prison for a crime he didn't commit, he continued to believe God was in control. When the cupbearer talked about his dream to Joseph, Joseph replied, “Do not interpretations belong to God?” (Gen. 40:8).  Abandoned by his family, alone in a foreign country, and wrongfully sentenced to prison, Joseph certainly had an excuse to wonder if God was present.   God has every right to remedy our situation or to let our worst fear come to be. Even if He doesn't answer the way we want, God is still good and on His throne. Our responsibility is with our faith and actions. 

Have you ever wondered if there is more to this life?    Have you ever considered that you were created for influence and to multiply?   Do you consider yourself a person of infuence?   What would it look like if you got abundantly clear on what you were put on this earth to do? Let's work through what this could look like for you!

My top 5 list of MUST do's for faith based business decision making, strategies and for ideal success!    You make decisions with your business and they should absolutely be in full alignment with your Christian walk. 

We are created to be fruit bearers. We are created for influence. We are created to multiply our efforts. So what does the activity look like with those outcomes?   Let me also tell you that in this process, never trust your feelings. They are not worthy of your trust.   You need to trust the ONE who guided you to this path and stay on the path with the steps that it takes to remain on the path.   I promise you, that you will gain traction and you will encounter people who will find you and what you are offering that lines up with where they are at and they will value the connection. You most likely will need to continue to broaden your influence and what I mean by that is you have to grow your connections with people.   

You are good. But can you be great?!    I am not referring to a life of being content with what you have. Contentment is a mindset.   I believe, as people whose lives are rooted in faith, we walk a fine line between desiring more for this life and having a spirit of contentment. What I will be sharing with you is a perspective around what God is capable of doing through you. When we look at our lives as holy and belonging to HIM, we have a higher understanding that we are His vessels and we need to always be in communication with Him for what He desires we do with our lives for more impact.   We are also called to be living sacrifices. We should be willing to do hard things. Our job is not to arrive safely at the end. Our job is to run this race like it's the one chance we get to run and in the end, God is at the finish line. My desire for you is that you see yourself as a person on-mission to consider yourself LESS and to consider more how God can be glorified in your workplace and with the monetary resources He can generate through you for His kingdom.   Over 20 years ago God opened up space for one of my life's challenges - a 10 year battle with autoimmunity to be a place that stung, a place that hurt, a place that would render me not present physically, emotionally and sometimes spiritually. I prayed for healing for what seemed like a selfish prayer. And God heard me. But he didn't just hear me, he prepared me to walk in new freedom both physically, emotionally and spiritually but also to lead others.   

Other people's opinions: None of your business If those opinions prevent you from doing what you are called to do, they become an idol for you   When you are on mission for meaningful things, you should have one person who you are looking to for validation or approval, and that is YOUR creator.   So unless those people loved you enough to die for you, they should NOT be who you are considering as part of the equation for your ability to impact people in this world.  

In case you struggle with having value with your life.   In case you frequently wonder what this life is about anyway.   You are not alone. Most people undervalue who they are. Once we realize WHOSE we are, we can better understand Who we are. Then have the audacity to actually believe it!  You are made for more. 

Get clear on who God is. Get clear on who you are as a result of who God is and then have the audacity to believe that He desires to do meaningful work through you - the kind of impact that is MORE THAN you can think, ask or imagine.  I actually have the audacity to believe that God desires to do BIG things through me. Buuuuut, I also have these very conflicting thoughts that accompany that same belief. Its a very confusing mixed message I navigate. How can you move from doubt to belief in any area of your life? 

Maybe you are like me? Maybe you put attention and priority towards things that have no earthly value? Maybe you struggle with the desire to see and do things that matter most for all of eternity? God is growing my thought process around doing everything I do as if for the Lord. He is teaching me that when my heart aligns more with His, that doors open to more of the things that matter most, including the least of these.

Our behaviors leave us clues. Sometimes our behaviors are not just about the behavior. Many times there is a root cause to our behaviors that we can connect the dots to point to a direction that indicate where our faith, hope and love reside. Its important to realize and know that there are behaviors that happen as a result of those root fears and lack of trust that can lead us down paths that render us feeling powerless and out of control. We grab the steering wheel and course correct ourselves into a fetal, helpless inadequate space where we are lacking the fruit we are designed to have. We have a loving creator that taps into our GPS and says, is this thing on? When we let his love in, love wins all day.  

When you're in the depths of pain, whether it's separation from loved ones, financial crisis, marital discord, and the challenges of raising a family, God is not the one who moves. We are the ones who move. We are the ones who remain less faithful. We lose our focus and we become self reliant on how to move through.    Our position is not faithful    God is always faithful to us so why can't we be faithful to him?  Why do we lose our focus?  Why do we lose our fervency    Since the beginning of time, humanity has always encountered pain, chaos and discord.    When sin entered our world and opened up space for us to always navigate challenge    In the Bible. God‘s word says that we are to consider it joy to have a trial and challenge. And we are in fact, promised to have trial,    I think deep down ultimately no one wants to acknowledge the fact the common denominator we all face is to be in a world that is filled with sinful people.  We are those sinful people.    We have thoughts we have feelings we have emotions that all open up the capacity for us to succumb to arson for nature, but as we grow spiritually, pray and talk to our creator, read God's word we can strengthen our position to how we navigate these challenges.   

Pride keeps us from doing what we can still do.  Shame keeps us in regret.     Pride closes the door to spiritual growth, but humility opens the door of your life to more of God's grace.  In the end,it is because of Jesus's humility that we can be forgiven of our pride. This life is not about us and we only deserve the wrath of God for our sin. Jesus took the punishment of our pride upon himself at the cross so we are renewed amd made humble like our savior.   Being humbled is not smooth or painless, but it's our rescue.  Jesus is our rescue from Pride 

I want to encourage you to advocate today. Advocate for your best self. Advocate for your belief that you are worthy of being set free. Advocate that your life matters and that there is more to your life than just existing. That you are made to thrive. You are made for purpose and your body is designed to carry you to that life purpose.   You can take all the dream vacations and live in the dream home and have the dream this and dream that, but if you are not walking out the plans that God has intended for you to live because you don't sleep great, you don't have the energy your body is weighed down it's not your calling that is weighing you down, it's your resistance to it.   You have a calling. You should be on mission. You should be making a difference in the lives of others and if there is anything about your body and the state that its in that is not conducive to you getting up each and every day asking yourself whose life can you make better today because you were in it, than I urge you to consider a conversation with me or someone you trust what that looks like for you.        

All these areas of our lives are all avenues that God desires to use you, to deliver you from, to give you healing from, to give you hope for the future from and as you allow him to use these things for his Glory, you become more set free. And the more set free you become, the more your life looks and feels like it is made to. Its made to matter.    The narrative in our heads can be flipped like a switch. Remember to acknowledge and ask yourself when you have those limiting thoughts of you, where they are rooted in. Are they true? Are they from God?    A good barometer to ask yourself is whether or not your thought will produce fruit or whether it will produce death and decline.  

There are a lot of things that we can delineate for our time in life   I like to think of it in 2 categories We either invest our time or we spend it   When I think about investing my time in things like my health and fitness or my walk with God, those yield a return. A high rate of return.   And my investment in my body - that is Gods vessel, allows me to yield a higher return on my desires to seek Him, to seek first His kingdom, to do more of the things that matter in this life and to have a conversation one day that yields a return   When I hear those words I long to hear, well done good and faithful servant   We all have things before us we can say yes and no to.   Some will yield a return and others will not.  

When you tell other people what you have a decided heart for, you are less likely to have failure find you in that area of life.    You will seek to find solutions in the challenge and you can give permission to those people who you told to help keep you accountable.    With any successful outcome, it will always be preceded by a decision first.   When we decide…   When we have a decided heart vs a divided heart, success will follow.   Why?   Because once the decision is made, the consistent action will follow.   

In our humanity  In our very existence  We crave validation - we want to be known and loved When we move in our calling to impact the lives around us, we will use a source of energy to continue to fuel our desire and that's based on the energy and validation we get back. I don't know a single soul who wouldn't desire this. The challenge then becomes how do we continue to choose to be a person, an agent of change, a source of love and light when there is no validation back? Emotional maturity is when we choose to plug in to the ONE power source that never fails, never leaves & never forsakes us. And that is our creator, God. You cannot let your feelings be your TRUTH  

So my question for you today is  Can you dream bigger?  Should you dream bigger? Where are you dreaming small?What lies are you believing and can you make them obedient to what God says of you instead of what you believe of you or what you believe the world believes of you. Don't just pray for the fruit.  Pray for the capacity to hold what you receive.  Pray for the courage and boldness to make big moves.  Pray for a committed heart and conviction when you're operating out of integrity. Pray for the forgiveness of your past mistakes and when you operate from your flesh.  Pray for the strength in the surrender.  Pray for each investment to become a seed.  Pray for each challenge to stretch you, grow you and heal you.  Pray for those who weren't meant to be in your space to quietly let themselves out.  Pray for the humility and a servant heart.  Don't just pray for the fruit...pray for who you're becoming in the process.

  Our thoughts of worry can become feelings that leave us unsettled and uncertain. So how do we merge thoughts of hope with thoughts of worry? First we have to ask ourselves: What can we be certain of?  The bible says that God will never leave us or forsake us.  So no matter how bleak it may seem, the truth is we belong to Him and he has us in the palm of his hands. And while circumstances may not be ideal, or within our desires and hopes, we still belong to God and we are cared for by Him. Ultimately I believe at the root of these worrisome thoughts we have that can become feelings of anxiousness, is our pride. www.choosingthebestyou.com    Good gut microbes and their impact on our mood https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36536630/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33136173/  What probioitic I use and recommend shop.plexusworldwide.com/sprat/product/plexus-vitalbiome    

Take a moment to consider the trught that God will exceed anything we can ask or imagine.    I often repeat this back to myself and it lights up my heart every single time. Paul's words in Ephesians encourage me to come to prayer with a bigger outlook about what is possible. I dare you to consider bigger. I dare you to consider bolder in pursuing what is possible with God. 

I want to encourage you. Your life goal should not be to arrive at the end safe. We were never called to live safe lives. We are called to hard… good… earth shattering.. hard things and we are promised to be held in every aspect.    The end result of our willingness to do uncomfortable awkward unsuspecting things is a satisfaction that our heavenly father desires to give us. Our character grows the harder things we face. We become stronger and better people. We become fruitful and walking out more and more meaningful things.  

I have heard so many stories about people who experience peace when they say no to hard things in life.  Let me tell you, it is ABSOLUTELY peaceful to not be doing meaningful things - especially the things that God has laid in front of us to do. Its not your calling that burdens you, its your resistance to it that is causing you the pain.  Your calling will crush you, press you down and you will become refined and new in this process. Even when we can't feel it, God is working.

One last thought on the idea of grand gestures. Sometimes we are on the giving end and sometimes we are on the receiving end. And we base how we receive on the level of our worthiness.  When someone acts grand in our lives, we will internalize that gesture and see ourselves as worthy to receive or not worthy.   Our lives are not on our merit. They are on the merit of God. We would not be here if it were not for Him and his hand over our lives.   I could tell that the first homeowner we were working with, Vivian, was struggling with the idea that we were demonstrating this grand gesture for her and she was grateful we were all that but struggled with the idea of being worthy to receive it.  Her and I talked about it and she shared with me that she has struggles in her life. She struggles to always have pure thoughts, pure words and pure actions. So I shared with her that I do too. And that God doesn't work that way. He isn't waiting to lavish his love upon us when we get all of our stuff together. He lavishes it on us, even though we dont' deserve it. I also thanked her for her willingness to allow this tragedy in her life because her tragedy gave my life more purpose.  Life can happen to us or it can happen through us. If you wish to donate towards one of the amazing homeowners we got to work with in FL is Vivian. Vivian is a single mom, a disabled US Veteran (Navy) She is a 2 x breast cancer survivor.  She is an addiction counselor but hasn't worked since February due to her cancer surgery.    She had 2 ft of standing water in her uninsured home from hurricane Ian.    She has lost mostly everything.  Specifically we would like to start meeting some of her needs by getting her and her daughter a queen bed, bedding, towels, etc.    They will be needing a new washer, dryer, referrer (all major appliances had to be discarded)    They both lost their cars as well   We have both big & small needs to be met here. I believe we can all make a difference together.  https://gofund.me/70c01bdc  

So how do we navigate the stormy seas that happen 50% of the time?1. Acknowledge that storms are a given and will happen - be prepared for that    It doesn't mean we won't take on waves or water, it means that how we respond to the wind and waves does.   What we expose ourselves to can hinder or help our ability to keep our ship headed in the most healthy direction possible.   When the sun is shining, soak it all in. Absorb that Vitamin D we all need and allow it to penetrate your soul with gratitude for those sunny days.    When the wind and waves come, know that the author of this life - our creator desires to give us peace despite the storms. He knows every detail of the wind and waves and desires to give us that comfort we all desire to feel even when it feels like the winds will never calm down. He is there for us. We have to simply invite him on board the boat.

What if these were to simply think about making a choice to not let what doesn't weigh in the balance for all of eternity to not bother them.   Its statistically and humanly possible to always be in agreement with everyone about every thing in life.   Even more so, those statistics get really small in the confines of our very close relationships.   Typically when we are in conflict its because we see things going differently than they are.   Ive always perceived expectations as a  thief of our ability to be content.

Our waiting  Our financial challenges  Our health Our conflict at work Difficult seasons in life   They happen  They are for a purpose    Sometimes these less than ideal things happen as a result of a poor choice on our part   Sometimes its a poor choice on someone else's part   Ultimately its not lost on God what's happening     

The bible says that we are not to plan on what we will do on this day or that.  I pray and ask God for things according to His will and his plan for my life. I will never be attached to any outcome that he may allow whether I ask big for something and it happens or whether I don't.   I could do nothing or I could do something. Something opens up space for BIG somethings and BIG somethings are opportunities for the world to see what our amazing God is capable of doing in and through his people who dream and ask big.    Any opportunity I can get to be around people who talk big, dream big and ask big I am there. These are my people. Like why not? Why not tell God that you are willing to be used by him for him with a purpose, for a purpose and on purpose!   

Assume success because God is absolutely for you.  He is for your in your marriage He is for you in your career He is for you in your family He is for you in your ministry He is for you with your health   Your ability to do - solely rests upon lining up your heart belief with your mind belief and making your thoughts obedient to what Gods word says of you. He is for you. 

We - you and I - have the opportunity for God to use us in ways we may not even ask for or imagine, but he does desire to use us.   When we surrender to Him and acknowledge who He is and that no matter what we have or we don't, that we desire to be His hands and feet so that others can KNOW who He is. He is caring for others and many times he is doing that through us We don't have to worry and others don't have to worry because God is the orchestrator and we are the instruments of His peace to offer up our lives and the things that are in front of us, time, talent and resources that all belong to him to be used according to his perfect will.

Jesus PURSUED people who were awkward Jesus pursued people who most people would not pursue   If our lives are looking more and more like His, our life will have conflict and we have a choice of how we see that conflict   Its who we CHOOSE to see Its who we choose to be   So be offended and see if that moves you in a path of more purpose, more peace and more confidence for the days ahead    Or choose to let God in. Give him a room in your house of life Allow him to be easily accessible to move in you for peace despite the conflict, despite the chaos and despite the people that say and do hurtful things to us on the regular   And newsflash, sometimes we are those people for other people 

Check on your friends, they may not be ok How are you? Are you ok? Ask questions. And be honest with others if you are not ok.   We are living in different times This current state of affairs in our world  we are in has opened up space for a lot of confusion, a lot of fear a lot of lack of clarity for what is true and what is false   We are sifting and sorting sifting and sorting through all this uncertainty and all of this “what in the actual” is going on here?   I get it I am with you   When we lack confidence, we lack hope and when we lack hope - we spiral to darker and darker places   I want you to know that I do have confidence I do have hope 800-273-8255 please call if you are struggling with mental health. You matter

Our brains are wired to keep us safe Our brains are also wired to keep us so that we are right about our thoughts. So if our thought is, we aren't a good parent our brain will look for answers that make that a true thought.   If our thought is we could never get that promotion - our brain will look for ways for that to be right   If our thought is, we couldn't ever achieve a healthier weight, our brain will look for ways for us to be right about that and then subconsciously we put things into place for that to be true In How we grocery shop In How we plan our meals In How we order food from a menu at a restaurant In how we take daily vitamins and minerals through supplements to help improve our bodies vitality 

Most of us go along in life and as we travel we pick up things that we end up not always fully dealing with. We pack them in a backpack on our lives. We hang onto them and overtime those things we pack in and don't deal with, get heavy.    Encountering God in this way - allows you to empty the back pack and gives you tools about how not to repack

How is it that the list of good that we do in this world still can leave us feeling sad? Could I or should I choose something else to do?  Perhaps something less meaningful and less selfless?  But I always talk myself back to watering the grass I am on and being content with where God has me. I pick up my boot straps and I get back at it.   I've always known that this life is not about me. I have always known that we will face challenges and trials of many kind - it says so in the bible.   So how is it that we can do really good work and still be sad?   The truth is, we have expectations and desires that aren't always met.

Have you ever found yourself lacking confidence? Have you ever found yourself deflecting compliments? Have you ever found yourself with low expectations in life? 7 scriptures to boost your belief and confidence https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QFTGVwUvf3bMMwfLyFhpiz9NF_ovpKB31wmz-dG1YsY/edit

We were never designed to compare It was never intended for us to have a spirit of competition or to feel less than  Sometimes we struggle to see the opportunity and the beauty in the present because we are too busy looking left and right, and allowing the enemy to steal our joy and even worse, we look back far too often in comparison to better days or days that we regret.   I want you to give yourself the best gift of all. I want you to look UP.   I want you to see that God is for YOU   That he has plans for you. To prosper and not harm. To give you a hope and a future.   The only time you should be looking back is to see in gratitude for how far you have come! www.choosingthebestyou.com 

Who wins when we choose to go it solo?  We are up against an enemy. God's adversary. The father of lies who opposes our prince of peace.   Being in community is something God desires  and we GET to do it   Choosing to admit we need each other opens up space Space is freedom   We have choices in this process We get to choose to trust the One who made us this way We  get to allow others to bridge the gaps in our lives by being on both the giving and the receiving end of honesty, vulnerability and transparency. 

Don't be a part of the broken system  BE the solution....  My social media is something I choose. I choose my friends. I choose when and what I choose to say. But never will you catch me making fun of a profession that puts food on the table for a family.  There are a lot of things out there that we can choose to share and participate in whether its social media or even in our belly to belly relationships that simply either hurt or it helps.

When we are without hope, we are without future.Does that sound like God's plan for your life? The number one argument in marriage/relationship is about money. Does this resonate with you? The Bible talks about money in regards to the love of it and how we are to steward it. But what I think ends up being the demise of so many families is there is no plan or agreement about how it is to be spent. Money, how it's spent and not spent shouldn't be ambiguous. It should be clear and there should be a plan.  When we Dream BIG, we open up space for God to be glorified. Are you limiting what God can do?    https://terri.com/askbigebook

The truth is, The stronger our understanding of our identity in Christ becomes, the more our self-worth grows”. We have times where we can be insecure, we can feel as though we aren't good enough or we're not able to take on big challenges. We feel like maybe we are just a wife or just a mom or just a dad or husband.  You may have asked yourself hard questions like, “God can I really do this? I mean, I know you called me to it, but am I good enough? Why bring me into this when there are people all around who are so much better?” To which the Holy Spirit gently answers and says: “Just. Stop. Who are you?” You are a child of God. That can never be threatened or taken from you.

We live in a fallen and broken world. There is no doubt that people disappoint us and we become discouraged. Perhaps we didn't get a job we wanted or the promotion we thought we deserved. What about a failed relationship or even financial challenges that seem insurmountable.  When you have a challenge before you, there is purpose in front of you!

I am pretty sure we aren't here on this side of eternity to always be seeking and striving for something different than what we have been given, but rather to trust that if God made us, he doesn't make junk and we should be happy, content and loving self because its who he made us to be! I do however believe that what happens on the insides of our bodies overflows to our ability to love ourselves and better yet love others and see ourselves as someone who God can use to leave our mark on this world.

Our health deteriorates when these things happen. When we eat sugar, carbohydrates, and sugary alcohol and beverage - that feeds the yeast in our bodies and when yeast grows, it becomes a beast of brain fog, sugar cravings, mood swings, increased belly fat, indigestion, acid reflux, bloating, gas, IBS, thyroid dysfunction, constipation, diarrhea, headaches, insomnia, lack of concentration, anxiety, sadness, fatigue, allergies, acne, eczema, low sex drive and join pain.

How do you do with recall of that year? So many of us have people we know who are no longer with us. How do you recall or even honor a time of life that hurt so many people.  Some people find their voice in tragedy and some people lose it. Sometimes we even lose our voice because we can't articulate our truest thoughts. I will not lie and tell you there were times (not extended) but brief times where I felt speechless. Would what I would want to say be received well? Would it seem inconsiderate to the people around me? Was it something that would resonate with others? Would it validate me to hear other people are feeling the same thing?   

This is the narrative I tell myself every day.  There is not a day that goes by where I don't have doubt or fear creep in. They usually go hand in hand. Not a day that goes by where the enemy tries to ask me just like he asked Eve, “is this really what God said?” Is this really what God has called you to? Because THIS right here is hard. This is uncomfortable. Would God  really want YOU to be uncomfortable? Would he ask you to do something or some things that you dont desire to do?    You see the enemy doesn't have to hurt us to take us down to become ineffective. He only has to create doubt. He only has to remind us to be comfortable and operating in what we deserve….   Is this really what God said?