Tag: inspiration

Jesus, Heal Our Land

Our broken world needs healing more than ever, but how can we obtain that?

I came across a verse this evening that really resonated with me.

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14

Now, for a bit of context before we dive into this passage, God is speaking to Solomon right after Solomon dedicated his newly constructed temple to the Lord. Clearly, the Israelites already have a track record of not listening to God after asking for a worldly, human ruler in place of God and constantly looking to other ungodly people groups to gain “inspiration” for how to live. However, even after everything, out of the endless love in His heart, God promises His people that He will listen when they call out to Him.

As you can see, our world is no better than the world during 2 Chronicles. There is so much man-made destruction of relationships, identity, nature, and internal wellbeing. People are dying every day at the hands of others’ selfishness. Others are suffering for the sake of wealth or status or even tradition. None of these things would be happening if God were recognized as our leader because God is just, merciful, and loving. We need deep healing in our land.

You might think that we are too far gone. And truthfully, I often feel that way as well. But God is always willing to give us a second (or millionth) chance. When we cry out, He listens. But we need to be in the right “heart space” in order to have this intimate relationship with God.

And where better to learn than through God’s own instruction?

Humble Yourselves

The first command God gives Solomon for the Israelites relates to humility. Pride (the opposite of humility) is one of our biggest separators from God. When we recognize that our worth comes from God alone, we accept that we need His grace and forgiveness in order to live fully. We cannot do anything by our own strength. The glory must truly go to God.

Pray

Prayer comes in many forms. The traditional list of prayer requests often feels lengthy and unnecessary. But prayers are really just a conversation with God. We need to build in time for listening and accepting the convictions He gives us. That often requires discomfort, but it’s worth it for the sake of growth. And if we have followed the first step, humbling ourselves, then we are more likely to be able to take the changes God wants for us. We are also given the opportunity to experience joy through gratitude during these times of prayer.

Unique ways to pray:

Prayer journaling

Writing letters to God

Singing

Taking a walk through nature and listening for God

Popcorn prayers (going back and forth with another person to list off what needs prayer)

Reading scripture

Seek My Face

We can’t just expect God to be waiting to serve us at our hands and feet. We need to make intentional effort to have a relationship with God too. By reading the Bible, listening for God, and truly having the desire to know Him, we will be able to seek His face. God loves a willing, inquisitive heart and will reward the efforts you make to find Him.

Turn from Your Wicked Ways

Something our culture doesn’t like to hear is that we do actually do things that aren’t right. Shocking, I know.

But seriously, while God loves us no matter what, He doesn’t want us to stay buried in our lives of sin. He wants to free us from the chains sin places on us. Knowing what is a sin and being willing to accept that we aren’t perfect requires all the previous steps (humility and knowing God’s character).

The awesome thing is that when we do things that are wrong, God doesn’t inflict shame upon us the way the world does. Rather, we are given hope that things can get better and that we are designed for greater things.

I hope you will join me in praying for our broken world. My heart goes out to all of you who have truly felt the weight of the world on your shoulders. You are loved. Don’t give up showing God’s light, we need it more than ever.

My “Origin” Story

Thank you for being a vital part of the Will to Wake Up community! Here is the story behind my blog!

As you might have noticed, The Will to Wake Up went through a few renovations this weekend! I’m hoping this new format makes it more user-friendly and inviting! Though this blog is reaching its two-year anniversary, I know many of you may be new! That’s why I’ve decided to share the origin story behind The Will to Wake Up.

As you can tell from the website link, I’m slightly obsessed with the Enneagram 🙂 I originally wanted to have a blog dedicated to writing about the Enneagram, but after about two posts, I ran out of things to talk about! That’s when I decided a faith/encouragement blog would be more inspirational.

Sure enough, it has been, after 143 posts, I still have more to say and learn with all of you!

The truth is, I was in a really bad place at the time of when I created this blog. I was in a season of loss, trials, and instability. I knew that I should draw closer to God through the hardships, yet I didn’t want to be alone anymore. I wanted to do more with my life than sit around and hope for things to get better. I wanted to make a difference–I still want to!–but I didn’t know how.

I prayed and listened to what people around me were saying: “You should make a blog!”, “You should do more with your writing!” ,”Share your writing with a bigger audience!”.

So, the morning after one of the hardest days of my life, I flipped open my laptop and decided to just do it. No more waiting around, no more feeling sorry for myself, no more wishing for a close relationship with God without doing anything about it.

I’ve gotten a lot of questions surrounding the name of this blog. To be honest, it just sort of came to me, as most inspiration does. I needed a wake-up call in my life, something or someone to motivate me. Then it hit me–God’s my will to wake up. He’s the reason I am given a second chance every morning. He’s the One who gives my life a purpose.

God filled me with an overwhelming amount of peace and joy as I learned to spend more time with Him when life gets difficult. I knew I had to share that with others.

Though I may not have hundreds of readers, I know that God is using this blog for amazing things. Every single comment reminds me that God works through everything. Every person is important and even if this blog only touches one life, that will make it all worth it.

I hope that you have and will find encouragement and love here. I am so, so grateful for you. ❤

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

John 4:7

After the Prayer

Prayer is a good first step, but when is it time to take action?

Prayer is the most important spiritual practice you can take part in. However, it can be misused in a way that actually harms you. Often, we say we’ll pray about something, and that’s wonderful. But then we can use it as an excuse to not take action. If things don’t happen related to the issue, we blame God instead of ourselves.

I know that I’ve done this before. If I’m afraid, I’ll just tell myself that God will handle it for me once I pray. Of course God should be a source of comfort and peace. Yet, He does not want us to sit idly by and not do the work to make progress.

I know this might be a tough love moment, but in the end, your relationship with God will strengthen if you are willing to do more than pray.

Instead of praying something specific, pray that God’s will can be done and that God will give you the strength to do the hard thing. We should ultimately want God’s will to be done because, as I talked about in my most recent post, we can either choose to accept what’s happening and trust God or begrudging stomp our feet and refuse to move forward in life. Then we miss out on the many blessings God has in store for us.

Today, reflect on areas of your life where you may not be putting in the work. Perhaps the conflict could be resolved through you talking to someone. Perhaps you are actually being called to give up something in order to help someone else. Perhaps you are meant to take that risk you’ve been worrying about.

There are certainly situations in which we simply can’t do anything but pray. And that’s okay. But just take the time to figure out whether God is calling you to take action.

Ultimately, it is crucial to pray in order to strengthen our relationship with God and to have peace about situations. But nothing can be done if we aren’t willing to follow God’s call on our lives.

You can certainly pray for strength, perseverance, and clarity. That’s a wonderful thing to do. But after that, just go for it! You can do this, I believe in you. And most of all, God is with you, so you have nothing to be afraid of ❤

If God is for us, who can be against us?

Romans 8:31

The Message We Ignore

If you need a sign of confirmation that you are exactly where you need to be, this is it. God loves you so much. I encourage you to read this and realize you are not alone in your struggles.

I’m going to say something now that you may not want to hear. But believe it or not, it could also be a message that encourages you.

Our faith was never supposed to be easy. Following Jesus does not mean happiness on Earth or that every prayer is automatically going to be answered the way we want it to be.

A couple days ago, my pastor preached about Jesus calming the storm. She said something that really stuck with me, and I thought I’d share with you.

A common misconception is that when things go wrong for people, it’s because they are not following God’s call. That is completely a lie that the enemy wants you to believe in order to give up on your faith.

“The disciples weren’t going against God’s call. Rather, they were doing exactly what they were supposed to do. That storm was a part of their path, despite how difficult and frightening it was.” (paraphrased)

You may be struggling right now about how to make sense of your current situation. You may feel like God has turned His back on you because things are spiraling out of control.

First of all, I’m so sorry for whatever you are going through. But God has not abandoned you no matter how alone you feel. God loves you and He is bringing you through this in order to make you stronger.

It’s okay to be upset. It’s okay to be disappointed with how things turned out. But you don’t have to just sit in those sorrows and isolate yourself from others or more importantly God. He is the one that can bring you back. He is the one that can heal you, restore you, sustain you. Even if you don’t receive immediate physical healing, turning to God will bring you peace.

God uses other people to speak into your life and encourage you, too. Listen to the ones who love you. Listen to the ones who want to encourage you. Let them support you when you can’t support yourself.

Because you are loved. You are needed. And you are cared about.

Every time I hit my personal rock bottom (it looks different for everyone and that’s okay), I realize that I have experienced this loneliness because God wanted to refocus my attention on what really matters.

I have been in one-sided relationships and it hurts so much. But we have to realize that when we ignore God, when we don’t allow His grace and love to be enough, we are that person in the relationship that isn’t doing their fair share. Who isn’t reciprocating the love. Who isn’t accepting the fact that they are unconditionally loved.

And obviously God has the most perfect love in the world that is so much greater than we can reciprocate. Than we have experienced. If you are reading this then you haven’t died for someone else. That is the ultimate sacrifice that God was willing to make for you because He loves you that much. You are worth saving. Repeat it after me: you. are. worth. saving.

Imagine that pain that I mentioned before about those one-sided relationships. You probably sacrificed a lot for that other person. You may have even given your heart to them, knowing that you wouldn’t get even an ounce of that love back.

But just realize that despite how much you cared about them, God cares about you a billion times more.

A lot of the advice we receive tells us to turn away from those relationships where the other person doesn’t reciprocate. But God will never turn away from our relationship with Him because He is unfailing and completely faithful.

You may have never experienced such loyalty before. That’s probably because as humans we have been taught to always put ourself first. But that’s not the way God works.

God puts His love for you above everything else. And I hope today that you can begin to put your relationship with God above everything else too.

Faith is scary. Faith is hard. But faith is the the thing that completes and establishes our relationship with God. There is no relationship on our end if there is no faith.

So today, even through all your painful struggles, remember that this is not the end. This is not a sign that you are doing the wrong thing.

Listen up. If you feel like God called you to be where you are right now, then you are doing the right thing. If you were looking for a sign saying that you are supposed to continue what you are doing, this is it.

You are beloved. You are treasured. You are loved.

Go out now and spread that message to the world.

You are never going to encounter a greater love than this.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, for whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

John 3:16

Just a Little Thing

I was inspired by the newest member of my family for this post– Rocky. He’s a two month old puppy who is anything but obedient. He is incredibly dramatic, playful, energetic, smart, and strong-willed. We love him, but it’s very frustrating when he doesn’t understand why we want him to do certain things, like oh I don’t know, maybe use the bathroom outside or not chew up things that don’t belong to him…!?

Sometimes we have to put Rocky in the crate in order to give him alone time to think about what he did wrong and why he needs us to train him. He hates it, but generally he feels better when he calms down and rests.

God gives us seasons where we are stuck (hello quarantine) or unable to fully function the way we want to. Other times, He might cause us to take the time to realize we need to turn to God alone, and not other sources of distraction. It’s up to us, though, whether we will grow and be able to move on from those seasons, or if we will scream and fight our way out.

Rocky is only four pounds and it’s pretty funny (although it gets old really fast) when he tries bossing us around, especially during mealtime. He thinks he deserves things that may hurt him or he isn’t ready for yet. He doesn’t always realize the power we actually have over him and how tiny he truly is in the grand scheme of things.

I think I struggle with this a lot, and you might too. My feelings are so strong, my desires seeming to be so valid, that I forget how minuscule I am in comparison to this entire universe. I forget that I barely know anything next to the Creator of the world. I need to step back and appreciate what God is telling me to do, because He, just like with us for our puppy, wants the best for us. He doesn’t want us to get hurt, but He may allow us to have difficulties in order to learn from them.

Today I challenge you to step back from a world centered around yourself. Instead, think about what God might have for you and what He is calling you to do. We all have a greater purpose that allows us to have a bigger impact.

Whether one door closes or another is opening, God has a plan for everything. We may not understand why things are happening the way they are right now, but eventually I hope you can see that God has been with you and will be with you every step of the way. You can have hope and comfort in the fact that God is in control of your life, no one else.

You will be taken care of.

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

What to Do with Regrets

It’s okay to have regrets. Wait–what?? Read on to find out why.

I’m going to say something that people who know me are going to be shocked by.

It’s ok to have regrets.

You’re probably like, uh…then why do you talk about taking risks? Stepping out of your comfort zone? Emphasizing a life WITHOUT regrets?

Well, regrets are a part of life, and pretty much unavoidable. Of course I don’t like regrets. You shouldn’t just get comfortable with constantly having them. But they are not something that we should necessarily dwell on if we can’t do anything more about the situation.

That’s not to say that we shouldn’t learn from our past mistakes– of course we should reflect on them enough to not repeat them.

But everything that happens is part of God’s greater plan for our lives.

That job you turned down. That date that didn’t happen. That class you decided not to take. That conversation that wasn’t had. That missed opportunity.

Those didn’t happen because something better was in store for you.

Back when I started this blog, I was dealing a lot with my own past regrets. I even have a blog post in my drafts that is titled “How to Live a Life Without Regrets”. I wanted a second chance. I thought it was too late. But it wasn’t.

God gave me a second chance to do what I had longed to have done before.

It didn’t go the way I had imagined before. I wasn’t actually missing out on such a big opportunity after all.

Yet, I’m very grateful for that second chance. It gave me confidence, helped a relationship, and brought some truth to the surface. God loves giving us another try.

But whether or not you find out from experience that perhaps what you regretted was not as great as originally thought or you never know what it could’ve been, just remember that your past doesn’t define you. What your life looks like now is what it’s meant to be. You can work hard to prevent having regrets, like taking risks and going for new opportunities, but if you don’t have to beat yourself up over what’s been said and done already.

You are here for an incredible purpose and nothing you can do will change God’s plan for your life. God is here in the seasons of waiting. The seasons of lonliness. The seasons of questioning. Be willing to listen to His still, small voice. Even in the dark, when you’re alone with your thoughts. God is there, working in your life.

The plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations.

Pslam 33: 11