Precious Princess Warriors, it feels so good to be sharing my heart again, at last. For someone who spends a majority of of her life encouraging others, I have allowed myself to be overcome by discouragment, fear, and my faith has been lackluster (to say the least). Granted, I've experienced physical illness, injury, pain, loss, hard stuff -- difficult life stuff. But Paul reminds us we can find contentment in any situation with Christ as our King.I have spent the last year, it seems, maybe longer, going up and down, allowing the waves of life to pull me under when I know there is a strong hand always open for me to reach for, a hand more than able to pull me from the depths. Sure, there were times I felt on top of the world, but those times were short lived, and I continued to allow my fickle feelings to toss me to and fro in the waves, becoming like the person the Bible calls -- double minded.
Thankfully, my foundation is stronger than I thought. God is bigger than I remembered. And His Word never fails to revive the heart. He has called me to encourage others through both the written and spoken word. He has given me a purpose to challenge other princess warriors to be all they can be in Christ ... one step (and a prayer) at a time. I haven't been doing a very good job of that. And I was again reminded ...
When we fail to move in the purpose he has given us, as I have, lately, things become pretty bleak. We can go through our days, "doing" our daily lives, not doing anything horribly wrong, but not really pressing to do what's right. But, as you may know, God isn't a big fan of fence straddling or middle of the road living. He wants every part of us -- body, mind, spirit. Luke warm love and living isn't enough for Him, nor is it enough for His Princess Warriors. It certainly wasn't enough for me.
Far too often, we believe that in order to stray from God's best we have to do the absolute worst. Some atrocious sin that causes hell to cheer. It's easy to forget that losing our faith on some level and living a life of mediocracy can reap as much havoc as one blatant act of sin. Both keep us from our princess purposes. The enemy wants us to feel separate from God. He doesn't care if we drown in our own self pity or if we go out with a big bang. All he cares is that we fail to fulfill our calling. One less warrior fighting the good fight gives him reason to gloat. Because he knows when we are broken, it breaks God's heart.
Aren't you glad that failure is an event or series of events and not a person? That's right. Failure is an event, not a person. You. Me. Our Christian brothers and sisters. We are not failures in Christ. We may fail to do something or not do something, but we are still loved and forgiven. If we're still breathing, we can move forward and upward, choosing again to embrace God's best and trust in Him for everything. We can stop straddling the fence and leap into the arms of the One who promises to catch us.
Maybe you too have experienced lukewarm faith and have drifted from your princess purpose. Maybe you don't "feel" good enough. Or maybe you've wasted precious days, weeks, months, even years, letting the waves of doubt and fear rock your life, keeping you from reaching solid shore.
Are you still breathing?
Then you can reach for God and let Him lift you from the swirling surf.
After all, Princess Warriors, we have work to do! Good work for our King. Please, don't waste time looking back, bemoaning your mistakes. Move forward. Push on. As Stormie Omartian says: He provides just enough light for the step you're on. We just need to get steppin. Ready, set, step!
More messages, stories, and scriptures about faith and hope coming soon.
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