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On Being and Doing//Some Thoughts For 2020

CourtneyLeave a comment

“He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”” – Psalm 46:10 (NIV).

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As I write this post, we are officially coming to the end of a decade. A decade that has seen me go from a somewhat awkward middle schooler to a somewhat less awkward college student. One that has seen me get my license, vote for the first time, and accomplish some of the goals on my very long bucket list. Most importantly, it has been a decade that has helped me grow deeper in my faith—and sink deeper into God. And that’s what I want to talk about in this end-of-the-year post.

We live in a culture that is consumed with doing. That is all about doing more, achieving more, and making more. That is consumed by doing all the things. And if I’m bluntly honest, I’m just as guilty as the next person—I enjoy setting goals and achieving them. There’s something satisfying about working hard to achieve your dreams. And there’s nothing wrong with this when it is done in a healthy way. However, as Christians, we are called to something far greater. Something countercultural that our soul truly longs for. 

You see, in this world, the emphasis is on doing. But in the Bible, God tells us that our focus should be on being.

Just take a look at John 15:1-8 (MSG) to see what I’m talking about.

“I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn’t bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken.

4 “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me.

5-8 “I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.

As Christians before we do anything for God, we must first remain in God. We cannot be effective ministers of the Gospel and chase after the dreams God has placed in our heart without first chasing after God. The more I reflect on the meaning of ministry and how to be an effective witness for Christ, the more I come back to this simple truth. We must be deeply, and passionately rooted in God before we can reach the nations for God.

We must remain in His love, growing deeper in it with each passing year. (John 15:9).

We must remember who He says we are—that He has called us sons and daughters of the King. (2 Corinthians 6:18).

We must know God’s heart and understand on a personal level His love for humanity (John 3:16). 

This is not to say that doing will never happen, but being must always come first. Because as Christians, the good works that we do should flow organically from a heart that is fully connected to Jesus. When we recognize God’s heart for His people, we cannot help but respond. I saw a video recently by Lindy Cofer through a Brave Love study online where she was talking about how as Christians, our hands are to be connected to the heart of Jesus.* There is something powerful about this very vivid visual. Because as Christians, we can do nothing without Christ. And unless we are fully connected to His love for us, and for this world, our words will simply be empty noise—void of any true influence. 

Just take a look at 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NIV) for further proof of this.

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

Even spiritual gifts, generosity, and giving our very life for the sake of the Gospel are nothing if we are not motivated by a love that comes directly from remaining in Christ’s love. Because in the end, when it’s all said and done, all God really wants from us—all He truly desires from us, is our whole heart. To know us intimately. To have a relationship with us. To love us with an everlasting, otherworldly kind of love.

This New Year, let our top resolution be not one of ‘doing’ but of ‘being’. Let us continue to sink deeper into Jesus. Let us have hearts fully open and surrounded to God. And let us let that love change us, so that we can change the world.

And if you don’t know this love, there’s no better time to get to know it than the present. 

Dear Lord, we thank you for this year. We thank you for the challenges, which have grown us, and we thank you for the blessings, which you have given us. We pray that you would work in and through our hearts and use us as vessels for your love, your grace, and your mercy. We pray that we would remember that ‘it is finished’ and that there is nothing we can do to make you love us more or less. Help us to rest in that grace, that love, and that freedom. And let us be voices declaring that freedom to all those who still have yet to hear it and accept it. We pray all of those things in your mighty, powerful, incredible name, amen!

*In case you’re interested, I’m posting the link to this course here. It’s 100% free and it’s really good! 

 

 

Jesus Changes Everything

Courtney3 Comments

“Choir of angels sing glory to the newborn King a baby changes everything..my whole life has turned around I was lost but now I’m found a baby changes everything.” – A Baby Changes Everything, Faith Hill.

Time after time, almost every Christmas, I try to imagine what the first Christmas was like for the cast of characters living during the time of Jesus’ birth. How they felt. What they went through. What they were thinking. A couple of years ago, I even did a short blogging series on Mary’s Point of View and Joseph’s Point of View speculating what it would be like to walk in their shoes. And it seems that with each passing year—though it’s an account that I’ve read thousands of times before, I’m able to pull something different from the story of how it all began. The story of our Savior.

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A Savior who enters into the normal paradigms of our life—and changes everything about it. 

Mary was just an ordinary girl—probably not much older than fifteen.Joseph was an carpenter from a humble background. Shepherds, who were among society’s poorest and plainest were some of the first to see our Savior. But Jesus invaded each one of their lives—and when Jesus stepped into the picture, their lives were forever changed. 

The crazy thing? The same could be said of the world today. When Jesus steps into the picture, nothing is ever the same. Former drug addicts become powerful preachers. The greedy transform to the generous. Career criminals change their ways. Families are healed. Marriages are restored. Lives are lived with purpose. Because when you encounter Jesus, it is impossible to remain the same. 

I saw this happen in my own family growing up. When my family came to Christ during my preteen years, it forever changed the way that we interacted with each other. How we lived. What was important. And though I came to Christ when I was still too young to have done anything too crazy, following Jesus has shaped and continues to shape my perspective on this world—allowing me to have joy in the midst of hardships and a peace that can only be found in Him. 

Galatians 4:1-7 says this;

*”What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces[a] of the world. 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.[b] 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,[c] Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.” 

Because of Jesus, we can know a love that is unlike anything this world could ever give us. We can know a hope greater than anything we have ever known before. And we can have full access to God the Father because through Jesus we have been made sons and daughters of the King. All because Jesus left the perfection of Heaven to come down to this earth as a baby to die on a cross and save us from our sins. The story of our Savior is the greatest story ever told. And living our lives completely sold out to our Savior is the greatest decision we could ever make!

This Christmas, I want to challenge you to remember the One found in the first five letters of the word. To remember that Jesus still invades the lives of every person who has said yes to Jesus today. And that no one—no matter how hardened they may seem, is beyond hope. This Christmas, I want to challenge you to remember that Jesus changes everything.“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” – Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV).

*Verse taken from The Passion Translation (TPT).

Thankful List 2019

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Hey guys! It’s that time of year again. The time for turkeys, stuffing, and family-get-togethers. It is also the time of year when I typically blog about how God has blessed me and worked in my life this year. So without further ado, here is my 2019 Thankful List!

Jesus – I have been a Christian since I was about nine years old but every year, I continue to get more wrecked by His love. This year, I have experienced Him in so many incredible ways and I have had more and more opportunities to share His love with others, which has been absolutely amazing! I have grown a lot in my faith in 2019 and I can’t wait to see how God works in 2020!

Friends – God has truly blessed me beyond measure with the people he has placed in my life. Two years ago, I was in such a different place and struggling to make friends. But today, I can honestly say that I am surrounded by an incredible group of friends who have encouraged me and helped me grow in my faith. I am thankful for the people who have stood by my side and been there for me through the good times and bad.

Family – I am thankful for my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, as well as my spiritual family. These are the people who have seen me grow and these are the people who have shaped me as a person. There’s no way I would be the person I am today without their influence on my life.

Memories – I am thankful for all of the cool memories found within the moments of this year. I am thankful for a surprise pizza run with a group of friends from church on my 21st birthday. I am thankful that I got to participate in two conferences—both which were beyond amazing. I am thankful for the small groups that I’ve been in as well as the two that I’ve co-led this year. I am thankful for times with friends, books that I’ve read, and the classes that I’ve had the chance to take this year, which brings me to my next point…

My Education – I am finally at the point in my college career where I’m taking classes that actually pertain to my major (a double major in Education and Biblical Studies with a minor in Creative Writing). I have had the chance to take an education class as well as some really cool Bible classes. I am thankful for the opportunity that I have to get a college education, even with the grind of homework and finals.

My Church – I am thankful to be a part of a vibrant church body that is passionate about seeing people grow in Christ and reach out to the lost in our community. I am thankful for all of the pastors, leaders, and people in general who have helped me grow. And, I am thankful for the leadership opportunities that I have been given this year—to lead small groups and speak at my youth group. These things have truly been incredible and major blessings.

Food, Water, and Shelter – These are such basic things for so many of us here in America, but they’re also things that so many people go without. We should never take them for granted.

Books – I guess this one shouldn’t come as a surprise from someone whose Instagram name is “authorcourtney1” but this year I’ve had the chance to read so many amazing books – both fiction and nonfiction. Some of my top favorites are Jesus Is, Life Is, and Love Like Jesus by Judah Smith, Crash The Chatterbox and Greater by Steven Furtick, Two Weeks by Karen Kingsbury, and The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon.

Personal Growth – As probably most of you know, I’ve dealt with OCD and anxiety to varying degrees since around middle school, but this year, those things have lessened tremendously. It’s been a process for sure, and I can’t say I never struggle with this, but I’ve gotten a lot better about handling it (all glory to God!!!) and it is far less severe than it used to be. I have also become more confident, more outgoing, and more genuinely at peace with life.

Freedom – Again, something that many of us take for granted, but that we should all be thankful for.

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How about you guys? What are you thankful for and how have you see God move? I’d love to hear about it in the comments section below!!

Relationship > Religion

Courtney4 Comments

“Our righteousness doesn’t depend on our present performance but on Jesus’ finished performance.” – Judah Smith. 

I’m going to be honest with you guys. I’m sort of a huge fan of lists. I’m not kidding. I have a list for practically everything. I have a bucket list. I have a list of goals for the semester. I have a list of people that I need to buy presents for every Christmas—that I strategically check off as I go. I also have a to-do-list, which usually isn’t a bad thing, but lately, it’s sort of turned into one.

You see, almost every day I make a list of goals that I have for that day—read my Bible, study for tests, write an essay for school, do some chores, prepare for youth group on Wednesday night…it’s sort of my way of keeping my head on straight and reminding myself to do all the things. However, somewhere around halfway through the semester, my list-obsession started to catch up with me

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Somehow, in the midst of it all, God wound up on my to-do-list. 

Somewhere along the way, I began to turn my time with Him into something to ‘check off my list’. Something that I’m ‘supposed’ to do. But if you think about it, this isn’t how we see any other significant relationship in our life. We don’t think of spending time with our parents or our friends as something that we ‘have to do’ to check off of a list. It’s something we get to do. It’s quality time with the people closest to us.

This is the kind of relationship that God wants with us. It’s about more than just reading a chapter in the Bible or trying to pray for a set amount of time (one of my Christian professors literally told me to do this). It’s about encountering Jesus’ love on a daily basis. It’s about nourishing a close intimate relationship with the God who laid down His life to save us. 

A while back, someone asked me a good question prompt for this blog—about how to put God first in our lives. And at the time, I wasn’t sure how to answer outside of the basics of having a daily quiet time with God. But lately, He has been reminding me that it’s about so much more than that.

He’s been reminding me that He knows every detail on my soul and every longing in my heart and every hope buried deep inside of me. He’s been reminding me that even on the days when I feel off or the moments when I struggle to feel Him, He’s still there! That He doesn’t want my works. He doesn’t want my ‘perfection’ (as if that actually exists anyway). He doesn’t want anything from me except my whole heart. He’s the only thing that can truly fill me—He’s the only thing in this world and outside of it that can truly satisfy!

Here’s the thing guys—God doesn’t just want to be first in our lives. He doesn’t just want to be the first thing we check off when we wake up in the morning, before we go to school or work. He wants to be in every part of our lives! He wants to be the one we go to at our lowest low, and the one that we praise through our highest mountaintop moments. He wants to be with us at our jobs, in our relationships, and in every part of our day. 

When we approach God with a “checkmark” mentality, it can get exhausting really quickly. But when we approach God with everything inside of us, and just show up and say, “God, you already know all of this—but this is where I’m at right now. The good, the bad, and the ugly” It brings us more life than we can ever even imagine!

But somehow, even for those of us who are seasoned Christians, it can be so easy for us to forget this. It can be easy to forget to approach God with a mindset of relationship and exchange it for works. It can be easy for us to forget how present God truly is in every moment is, and how great His love is for us. It can be so easy for us to get so lost in ‘being a Christian’ that we lose track of Christ Himself.

This week, I want to challenge you—if you haven’t reflected much on it lately, to remember how great our Savior’s love is for you!

How His sacrifice on the cross isn’t just the thing that forgives us from our sin and saves us for all eternity but the ultimate act of love and the ultimate bridge between God and humanity!

How He is the only one who can truly bring us life, and purpose, and true fulfillment—and how our relationship with Him is about so much more than a checklist!

Set a fire inside of my soul that I can’t contain and I can’t control, I want more of you God. – Jesus Culture

“But if I say, “I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.” – Jeremiah 20:9 (NIV).

 

Sunshine Blogger Award

Courtney2 Comments

Hey guys! So, I have some sort-of-big-news—I have been nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award by my good friend and fellow blogger Dainty M.! I am truly honored to be nominated and can’t wait to start on this challenge!

Also, I would highly recommend checking out her blog, because it is awesome!

So without further ado, here we go!

What is the Sunshine Blogger Award? 

The Sunshine Blogger Award is a peer recognition award for bloggers who inspire readers by promoting positivity and bringing joy.

Rules:

• Thank the person who nominated you and provide a link back to their blog so others can find them.

• Answer the 11 questions asked by the blogger.

• Nominate 11 other bloggers and ask them 11 new questions.

• Notify the nominees about it by commenting on one of their blog posts.

• List the rules and display a Sunshine Blogger Award logo on your post and/or blog site.

Dainty M.’s Questions

1. If you couldn’t write, what would you do?

Daaang, that’s a hard one. Writing has pretty much been my dream/passion/hobby since I could pick up a pencil. However, if I could not write, I would still continue working towards my education major and stay involved in ministry. As far as hobbies go, I took voice lessons and did some acting in high school and lately I’ve been experimenting with photography. My pics are nowhere near professional, but it makes for a fun hobby!

 2. What’s your favorite season in the year, and why?

Honestly, I love winter! There’s something about the cold weather and warm, comfy sweaters that always manages to put me in a good mood. Plus, Christmas is in the winter, and Christmas is hands down my all-time favorite holiday!

3. What’s your ideal pick me up? (Stuff to get you by when you feel like giving up).

Honestly, I’ve found that the best thing that I can do when I’m going through a rough patch is talk to someone about it. My Mom and my best friend are my go-to people when I’m going through something hard. I’ve also found that ice cream and a good book/movie always has a way of making me feel better.😉

4. Juice or soda?

Juice. The carbonation in soda annoys me for some reason.

5. What’s the meaning of your blog name?

My blog’s name comes from the Bible verse 1 Timothy 4:12, which I guess you can say has sort of been my ‘life verse’ since my teenage years. It says, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” My goal in life has always been to point people back to Jesus and to live a life that’s honoring to God – so this verse felt fitting for the name of my blog.

6. Pancakes or waffles?

Definitely pancakes.😋

7. What’s your favorite movie (or book) of all time?

As a self-proclaimed bookworm that’s a hard one! My favorite (after the Bible) is probably Stand By Me by Neta Jackson. I read it when I was sixteen and I could hardcore relate to the character of Kat Davies. I also really loved the friendships between the different characters in this book. As for my favorite movie, probably October Baby.

8. Can you summarize it in one sentence?

Stand By Me – A young, energetic, college graduate meets an older lady who she eventually befriends and has adventures with her friends at SouledOut Community Church.

October Baby – A girl finds out she’s adopted and goes on a road trip with her friends in a seventies throwback van to find her birth mom.

9. What three things would you like to do before you die?

A. Publish a book – Becoming an author has always been something I have felt God calling me to do and a personal goal of mine. I have always loved writing and I have always believed that stories have the power to change lives. I would love to someday publish books that would touch lives and impact people for Christ.

B. Attend a Passion Conference – This has been on my bucket list for years! For those of you who have never heard of the Passion Conferences, they are Christian conferences in Atlanta, Georgia geared towards college students/twenty-somethings. Every year they have big name speakers like Tim Tebow, Sadie Robertson, and Judah Smith—and they always have amazing worship nights! It is definitely a goal of mine to attend one of these conferences someday!

C.  See snow – Considering I have lived down south my whole life, and my family doesn’t travel often, I have literally never seen snow. However, it always looks beautiful in the movies and my goal is to someday have the experience of seeing snow. I’ve also low-key always wanted to build a snowman.

9. What’s your favorite song right now?

Currently I really love the song With Everything by Hillsong UNITED. Oldie but goodie.

10. If you were a superhero, what would you do to change the world?

Honestly, if I had unlimited superpowers/abilities I’d love to find a way to meet people’s physical and spiritual needs. There are so many people in this world who have never heard the Gospel and there are also billions who go without food. So if I could put together an organization that feeds people physically and spiritually, I think that would be really amazing!

New Nominees 

Everyone reading this! I haven’t had as much time to read blogs lately so I honestly don’t have eleven people to nominate.😂

Questions 

  1. What is your testimony (of coming to Christ)?
  2. What are three things you would like to do before you die (I really like this question so I’m recycling it!)?
  3. What do you do to relax when you’re tired/worn out?
  4. If you could have dinner with anyone alive or dead, who would it be?
  5. What was your most embarrassing moment?
  6. Where do you want to be in ten years?
  7. Tell me about one person who has impacted your life.
  8. Are you an introvert or an extravert?
  9. What was your favorite vacation?
  10. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be?
  11. What are your favorite hobbies?

Godly Confidence: Embracing Your Identity In Christ

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“Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:37-39 (NLT). 

We live in a culture that consistently feeds us the lie that we’re not enough.

Whether it be from Hollywood, magazines, or toothpaste ads, we are told time and time again that we should be prettier, thinner, smarter, cooler, or otherwise different from the person that we are. Time and time again, we are fed an ideal of ‘perfection’ from our culture—and too often, we have accepted this lie as truth.

Recently, I posted to my Instagram account asking for suggestions for future blogs and video blogs, and one of the suggestions that I got was to write a post on loving yourself. And this got me thinking—what does this look like for us as believers? How do we, while following the Biblical principal of taking up our cross to follow Christ (Matthew 16:24), love ourselves the way that we’re called to as Christians?

I believe this starts with looking to who God says we are in Scripture, and planting our identity firmly in Christ.

From the very beginning, we are shown that we have innate worth simply by existing and being. In Genesis 1:27, we read, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (NIV). Each one of us is created in the image of God—which means that each one of us bears the mark of our Creator.

Furthermore, in Psalm 139:13-14, King David writes, “You formed my innermost being, shaping my delicate inside and my intricate outside, and wove them all together in my mother’s womb.[a] I thank you, God, for making me so mysteriously complex! Everything you do is marvelously breathtaking. It simply amazes me to think about it! How thoroughly you know me, Lord!” (TPT). Each one of us is created wonderfully complex, from our unique personalities and passions to our outward appearance!

I remember times during my teenage years when this truth didn’t always line up with how I felt. There were plenty of times when I felt awkward (who doesn’t as a teenager?), gawky, and like I totally broke the mold of how a teenager ‘should’ be.

I was pretty tomboyish. I was obsessed with all things books and words (still am, as you’ve probably figured out). And a lot of my interests fell more into the old lady category than the teenager category (hot tea…Hallmark movies…cats…the whole nine yards). But the older I got, the more comfortable in my skin I became. Slowly I learned that everyone has things that make them unique—and I learned to own the person that God has created me to be. To embrace my quirks, rather than run from them.

If you can relate to any of this at all, I want to challenge you to fully embrace what God has said about you. Not just on a head level, but on a heart level. To see that God has bestowed you with so many incredible gifts and talents and ways that you paint your own unique colors onto the canvas of this world. To show up fully in your sphere of influence knowing that God looked down when He created you and said ‘It is good’. To drown out the voices of the world that tell you that you have to be different to be accepted, because in Christ you are already enough!

In the words of a quote by George MacDonald, “I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of; for to have been thought about, born in God’s thought, and then made by God, is the dearest, grandest and most precious thing in all thinking.” 

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How about you? What are your thoughts on living out your identity in Christ? I’d love to hear your input in the comments section below!❤️

Praying At The Mall

CourtneyLeave a comment

“I’m just a nobody trying to tell everybody all about a somebody who saved my soul.” – Casting Crowns.

Hey guys!

Recently I had a really incredible experience and I wanted share it with you. It kind of breaks the format of my usual style of blogging, but I want this blog to be a place where I can share everything that God is doing in my life—and sometimes, the best way to do that is through writing about my own life experience. The ways that God is continuing to move and breathe and work in my own life and the lives around me.

So, if you would like to see one of the most recent God-moves in my life, read the post below!

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About four months ago, God placed it on my heart to do a prayer walk at my local mall. I had an assignment for my Youth Ministry class with Liberty University to go to a secular environment (e.g. not church or a small group) and observe the people there. And as I walked around the mall with my mom, God opened my eyes to such a need there—as I witnessed people who seemed, just in casual observation, lost, broken, and alone.

To give some backstory on this, a couple of years ago, I had the chance to do something similar on a mission trip with my old church. We walked around a town in the inner city of Jacksonville Florida and witnessed to people who were in desperate need of Jesus—prostitutes, drug dealers, and hardcore addicts. You name it, we saw it.

It was an incredible experience where I saw the Holy Spirit moving in powerful ways, and I realized that I could do that same thing right here, right in my home town. So, I talked to my youth pastor about the logistics of putting this together and began reaching out and inviting people—in hopes of putting together a prayer team. And this past Sunday, it all finally came together. And I saw God show up in a powerful way!

There were about five of us (all girls—it just sort of happened that way) and we met in the food court, praying together before we started. I was feeling a little jittery (just being totally honest here), but I strongly believed that if we went, God would work in and through each one of us.

We started off as one group, but eventually split up into two groups. We (the girl I was with and myself) walked through one store waiting for God to tell us who to talk to. Finally, she stumbled across a mom and daughter that she felt led to speak to. The mom was experiencing pain in her foot and said that she’d love for us to keep her in our prayers—but my friend offered to pray for her right then. So we prayed for complete healing over this lady’s foot. We didn’t get to see the outcome, but I’m fully believing that she was healed in Jesus’ name!

After that we walked around for a little longer—and suddenly felt led to pray for a lady who was about to leave. We managed to catch her before she did and asked if we could pray for her about anything—explaining that we were doing a prayer walk and that we were part of a local church in the area. She asked us to pray for her niece who was struggling with her identity and after we finished she looked grateful and almost about to cry—as if God brought us to her just at the right time. I take no credit for this but this is the Holy Spirit’s power at work!

After that we finally met back up with our group, and wound up going together in a trendy, well-known clothing store and talked to two more people—one who asked us what church we were from (she let us pray with her once we told her) and one who we talked to for quite a while. The second one asked us to pray for her with school and her relationship with her dad and told us that she used to be plugged in with a church, but hasn’t gone in a while. We had the chance to share our testimonies with her and invite her to our church. We also just had the chance to talk about Jesus and His love.

Lastly, we prayed with an older lady who worked upstairs. When I first started talking to her, I soon realized that she didn’t understand English very well, and admittedly froze. I took one semester of Spanish for college, but didn’t know the language well enough to speak it fluently. Thankfully, at that point one of my Spanish-speaking friends stepped in and came to the rescue, and she was able to carry on a full conversation with the aforementioned person. She seemed thankful for our visit and we had the chance to all pray over her and encourage her.

If there’s one thing that I learned from all of this, it’s this; don’t be afraid to be bold. There was a time when putting together an event like this would have really made me nervous but God has shown me time and time again that when we’re faithful and just show up, He’ll take care of the rest!

“So, what does all this mean? If God has determined to stand with us, tell me, who then could ever stand against us?” – Romans 8:31-33 (TPT).

“The Lord is my revelation-light to guide me along the way;[b] he’s the source of my salvation to defend me every day. I fear no one! I’ll never turn back and run from you, Lord; surround and protect me.” Psalm 27:1 (TPT). 

How about you? How do you feel God is leading you to be bold in your sphere of influence? I’d love to hear about it in the comments section below!👇🏻❤️