Fight! It's Time To Get Your Muhammad Ali On!!!

So I original taught this in a conference call and I decided that I would make it a blog as well. So I've been doing this 60 day Prayer Challenge (each day we are devoting an hour to prayer, if you’d like to join its not too late, I can get you into one of the groupmes so you can have people that will encourage you, pray for you and hold you accountable.  Just leave a comment and I’ll get you connected.) because I really wanted to grow and develop in my prayer life and I’ll be real honest and say the last week and a half, two weeks have been especially hard for me. There have definitely been days where that hour of prayer just did not happen. I don’t know about y’all but I tend to start things off really hype and excited and with a bang! I get in a good groove and then after a while things get hard, the struggle becomes real and things tend to go downhill. There have been many instances where I just didn't finish things.

This is what God showed me through my devotional Abundant Life the other day and in my quiet time today…Mariah you are too quick to drop me, you are too quick to excuse yourself from spending time with me, and you too easily allow stuff to come between us and our time together.

I was sitting there like WHOAAA!!! You know that feeling you get when God steps on your toes, gives you a good punch in the gut or the good ole smack to the face, that’s about how I felt.

God is saying to His people right now that…

WE ARE TOO QUICK TO EXCUSE OURSELVES FROM SPENDING TIME WITH HIM.

So then I sit there and try to reason with God why I didn't pray this day, why I didn't have quiet time that day. And I’m like God I was sick, and He’s like you were sick but it didn't stop you from going to work that day. You were sick, your bones were aching, you were hot, you felt like you were gonna throw up, you could barely stand up but you stayed at work until your shift was over. You stayed even when your supervisor offered to let you go home more than once. You fought through the sickness; you made sure you had Germ X and tissues and took medicine. You didn't use your sickness as an excuse not to go to work, why are you using it as an excuse not to spend time with me?!? Then I proceed to give God my other excuse…I’m like God I was tired, God I just didn't want to. And God’s like you weren't too tired to watch SYTYCD videos on YouTube, you weren't too tired to go on social media for an hour, you weren't too tired to watch TV, you were tired but you went to work…

What’s been your excuse?

Too tired…Here’s my question for you: Did you tell God you were too tired then proceed to do something else?!?

Don’t want to…Here’s my question for you? What are you choosing to do over spending time with God?!?

Too busy…Here’s my question for you: Are trying to fit God into your schedule instead of scheduling everything else around God?!?

Too sick…Here’s my question for you: What were you not too sick to still do, but God got the boot?!?

We say God I want to grow, I want to mature. Then proceed to excuse ourselves from spending time with Him. God can’t do everything! We have to do our part. I read this in my devotional the other day, “Growth in godliness requires your devoted effort and must be fought for!” Does your relationship with God have your devoted effort? We have to come to the realization that we have to fight for our relationship with God! It’s time to get your Muhammad Ali on, time to flex and use those spiritual muscles! Paul instructed Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:11-12 to “…Pursue righteousness and a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to eternal life to which God has called you, which you have confessed so well before many witnesses.” Paul told Timothy to fight the good fight! You have to fight for your relationship with God. You have to fight for your spiritual growth and maturity! It’s not just gonna happen, God’s not just gonna do it. You have to fight for it. You have to fight your flesh! Stop lettin that joker win!

Think about all those things you deem worth fighting for. We will fight for our rights. We will fight for our careers, our jobs, our friendships, our relationships. The Lord knows we will fight to the nail for our relationships, sometimes even when God is saying to let that relationship go. You ever seen someone fight for their marriage. Husbands and wives will fight with everything they have for their marriage. The same way someone fights with everything they have for their marriage that’s how we need to fight for our relationship with God. That’s how we need to fight to grow, how we need to fight to mature. Is not your relationship with God the best thing that ever happened to you? The best thing that ever happened to you is worth fighting for. Fight! It’s time to get your Muhammad Ali on! Stop thinking this thing is gonna be easy. It’s time to take off your earrings, roll up your up your sleeves, get the Vaseline out and go head to head with your flesh and the devil for your growth and maturity in your relationship with God. When you find yourself making up excuses, fight! Through the good, fight! Through the bad, fight! When your situation and circumstances change, fight! Fight your emotions, tell them jokers to shut up!

We fight for things all the time! Fight for your time with God! So I encourage you to stand up with me and start using those spiritual muscles. We ain't no punks! Start using that Word that’s on the inside of you to fight your flesh, to fight the devil. When you go to excuse yourself from spending time with God remember He didn't excuse himself from waking you up this morning. Fight, push, press towards the mark of the high calling. Stop laying down to your excuses, to your emotions, to how you feel, stop laying down to the tactics of the enemy! Put on the full armor of God and fight for your relationship with God! 

God fights for you and pursues you every day, fight and pursue Him. Get on your knees when you don’t feel like it, read and study your bible even when you’re tired, refuse to be too busy for God, refuse to drop God, refuse to give up quiet time, refuse to allow anything to come between you and your Father. Fight! It’s time to get your Muhammad Ali on!!! Be blessed. I love you all so much!

Mariah

Being Young & Staying Pure

So we often hear purity associated with being a Christian, but what is purity? Purity is the condition or quality of being pure; freedom from anything that debases, contaminates, pollutes, etc. It can also be defined as cleanness, spotlessness, freedom from foreign or inappropriate elements. Purity in the spiritual sense is a commitment to godliness in every area of your life; purity is being free and cleansed from pollutants that aren't pleasing to God. Purity is the absence of any foreign element, anything that as a Christian doesn't belong inside of you. When I talk about purity, I’m talking about purity of heart, mind, and body. I read something somewhere that basically said you can physically be a virgin, but that doesn't mean you’re pure. Y’all should have seen my face lol, but that statement is so true, purity goes far beyond physicality, it goes to your heart and your mind as well. Now if you aren't physically a virgin, that’s fine. You can still practice a life of abstinence and purity. You have not been ruined. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new,” (II Corinthians 5:17).

Now, many of us have prayed and asked God to purify us and clean us up because we knew we were a hot mess. I’m sure most of us have prayed Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.” And God heard us and did it for us because it’s not something we can do ourselves, but now that He’s done it, how do we stay pure especially when we’re young?!? There are so many things in this world pulling for our attention and trying to pull us away from God. Ungodliness and sin are everywhere! It’s in books, magazines, the internet, television, movies, etc. Satan always paints sin in such a beautiful light. He knows how to attract and draw us in. How are we supposed to resist and remain pure?!? I mean is it even possible in this day and age?!? YES, IT IS! God revealed to me nine points on how to be young and stay pure…

The first thing you need to do in order to be young and stay pure is to realize you cannot stay pure alone, you need God. Many times we fail at remaining pure because we try to go at it alone. John 15:5 says, “Yes, I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who remain in me and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” This tells us that if we truly desire to remain pure, we need to remain connected to God, if you don’t you are destined to fail. You need to be praying, talking to God, spending time in the Word, getting into His presence, praising and worshiping Him, just keeping connection going. It’s through that connection that anything can happen, even something deemed impossible by man. Luke 1:37 says, “For nothing is impossible with God.” And Philippians 4:13 tells us, “For I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.” That connection between you and God will give you strength, the strength to do something that you could never do by yourself. Remain connected to God and He will help you to stay pure.

The next thing you need to do in order to be young and stay pure is recognize who you belong to. “…You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body,” (I Corinthians 6:19-20). God bought you back from death, hell and the grave when He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for your sins. God snatched you back from the death grip that Satan and sin had on you. Because of all of this YOU BELONG TO THE MOST HIGH GOD, YOU ARE NOT FOR SALE! You don’t belong to a man, a woman, Satan, yourself, etc! You belong to God! Refuse to sell yourself back to stuff that God already paid and bought you back from! Refuse to allow yourself to be pimped! And make up in your mind to honor God, with your body realizing that you belong to God and pray and ask that he would help you to achieve this.

Another thing you need to do so that you can remain pure while being young is to renew your mind daily. “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect,” (Romans 12:2). Now, I’m just gonna throw this in for free. God showed this to me while I was typing this blog…Stop looking at the world, thinking it will show you how to be pure. It won’t. You better open your bible and look to God. And stop looking up to men and women of this world, celebrities, singers, rappers, actors, and actresses that aren't striving for purity. If they aren't striving to please God why are you striving to emulate them?!? Find yourself some godly men and women of standard that are striving for purity in every area of their life and look up to them. And if you want to emulate someone, there’s no one better to emulate than Christ. Ok tangent over, back to Romans. To remain pure, you need to pray and ask God to renew your mind daily. If we aren't’t careful our thoughts can go a lil cray cray and run away from us. We have to pray and ask God to focus and fix our minds on those things that are pleasing to Him. Pray Philippians 4:8 over yourself. Ask God to fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable.

The next thing you need to do in order to be young and stay pure is to be on guard. I can’t tell you how many times just this year I've heard, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life,” (Proverbs 4:23). Now you may ask, Mariah how can I be on guard? I’m so glad you asked lol. First, you need to know what the gates are to your heart. The gates to your heart are your eyes and your ears. Be careful what you allow yourself to watch and listen to. Early on in my walk with God I thought I could listen to any type of music that I wanted to and it wouldn't affect me. I’m gonna be real honest and say I used to jam out to Trey Songz, I loved that man. I wanted my future husband to look like him. Now anybody that’s ever heard and song by Trey Trey knows that his songs are all about sex. And I used to rock out to Nicki Minaj; I loved me some T.I., if my song, Whatever You Like came on, you best believe I was rappin every word. My best friend, Angel can tell you about that lol. But don’t be deceived like I was, what you let in your gates plant seeds, the music you listen to plant seeds, the shows you watch on TV plant seeds. So what’s growing in your heart as a result of what you’ve allowed into your gates?!? #heartcheck #seedcheck I was sitting around wondering why I had lust in my heart and all these impure thoughts roaming in my head and why I’m desperate for a man and then God’s like maybe it’s because you are sitting around listening to this dude Trey Songz talking about how he invented sex and how the neighbors know his name!!! Don’t be so naïve like I was to think that what you allow in doesn’t affect you. God just showed me this while I was typing…if you let any and everything into your ear and eye gates it can and will eventually desensitize you to sin and impurities. If you’re just letting yourself listen to certain music and watch certain shows it will desensitize you to sin. You’ll be wondering why you can’t be faithful in your walk to Christ, perhaps it’s partially due to the fact that all you watch is shows that encourage and glorify unfaithfulness in relationships. I urge you to guard those gates! Stop listening to everything and allowing yourself to watch anything, whether you realize it or not what you allow in is affecting you it’s either helping you to stay pure or causing you to struggle to stay pure, its either further purifying you or its contaminating you.

The next thing you need to do so you can be young and stay pure is get full of the Word and not only that but keep the Word. The one thing you need to be continuously letting inside of you is the Word of God. Hide His Word in your heart that you might not sin against Him (Psalm 119:11). Make God’s Word a part of you. Read the Word, study it, meditate on it, and live by the Word by obeying it (Psalm 119:9, “How can a young person stay pure? By obeying your word”). When the Word is inside of you, when it’s a part of you, it’s hard for you to go against it, you get convicted when you go against it or think about going against it and that’s a good thing. When you're full of the Word you will reject those things that are contrary to the Word.When you get full of the Word, you plant seeds, good seeds that help in keeping you pure. If you desire to remain pure and please the Lord, get full of the Word, let it permeate every part of you and obey His commands.

Another thing you need to do so that you can remain pure while being young is to make sure you’re rockin with iron. I Corinthians 15:33 says, “…bad company corrupts good character.” So who are you rockin with?!? It’s time to do a friend check. I’m not telling you to drop your friends that ain’t rockin with Jesus because you may be the only light in their life, but the closest people to you, your best friends need to have a relationship with God. The individuals you spend the most time with have the greatest influence on you and you take on their characteristics. You need people in your circle that are also striving for purity, people that spur you on in this race and push you to Christ, not people that cause you to backtrack and backslide! You need friends that are iron to your iron, friends that sharpen you (Proverbs 27:17). Friends that encourage you so say no to randoms, not to give away your cookies, but to wait on God’s best. You need friends that hold you accountable and desire to see you grow and mature and continue on in your relationship with God. Realize that if your friends aren’t sharpening you, they are causing you to dull…Make sure you got some iron in your friend circle.

The next thing you need to do in order to be young and stay pure is die to yourself daily. You’ve got to kill your flesh daily. You’ve got to shut it down! Your flesh is inclined to sin, you’ve got to starve it and feed your spirit man. Indulge your flesh and you will find that uncleanness begins to creep in. Die to yourself.

Another thing you need to do so that you can remain pure while being young is wise up. Many of us have wondered why should I wait to have sex?!? We feel like we’re missing out on something, sometimes if we’re honest we’ve felt like God is trying to deny us something good in instructing us to wait until we’re married to have sex. It’s time to wise up and stop being deceived. Satan wants us to believe that God is denying us something good, he wants us to be deceived that’s how he got Eve in the garden (Genesis 3:1-6). Don’t be deceived. God is not denying you something good, He’s protecting you and providing you with something better. God knows what sex outside of marriage brings. He’s trying to protect you from the emotional, spiritual, and physical ramifications of having sex with men/women that aren’t your husband or wife. He’s trying to protect you from the heartache, the rejection, the soul ties, the unwanted pregnancies, the STDs, etc. God knows that sex doesn’t work outside of what He created for, He created it for married couples. Don’t awaken love before its time. God is not denying you, He’s providing you with something better. It will be so much more beautiful, if you wait. If you didn’t wait, that’s ok, you can begin a life of abstinence right now if you haven’t already. Wait on God’s best for you and know that it will be so beautiful.

The last thing you need to do so that you can remain pure while being young is to resist temptation…sometimes you gotta run from it. You can’t live on this earth and not be tempted, even Jesus was tempted. Satan wants to trip you up so you fall. Resist the temptation the devil throws your way. In order to resist you need the Word on the inside of you. Also be smart enough to realize there are some things you can’t resist, you simply have to run from them like Joseph did from Potiphar’s wife. Also realize that the devil ain’t no dummy, he knows exactly what to send your way to tempt you. Don’t you know the devil knows your type, he knows exactly the guy or girl that will catch your attention and tempt you ditch purity. You better believe the devil will send Michael Ealy/Beyonce’s twin to tempt you into sexual impurity. But resist that temptation and run if necessary, God always provides a means of escape.

With God it’s possible to be young and stay pure. There might be times when you slip up, but get back up and keep striving for purity. Nobody is perfect, I’m not perfect. If you mess up don’t be so hard on yourself, don’t beat yourself up, forgive yourself, God forgives you and He just wants you to come back to Him. Striving for purity isn’t just not having sex until you’re married, its ultimately desiring to please God more than yourself, it’s a commitment to godliness in every area in your life your heart, your mind, and your body. Know that I’m praying for you as you strive to stay pure. I love you all so much!!!

Mariah

Perverted Hearts to Pure Hearts: You Need A Heart Transplant

Perverted Hearts ==> Pure Hearts:

You Need A Heart Transplant

Let’s talk about the heart! All this year I've been getting the scripture Proverbs 4:23 thrown at me, like seriously from every direction!!! This scripture says, “Above all else guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Whenever I heard this verse or read it, I always focused on the beginning portion, “…guard your heart…guard your heart…guard your heart” I never really dissected the entire verse, the second part of that verse, “…everything you do flows from it,” is just as important.

Now just a couple weeks ago I was lead to study the heart. I looked up a bunch of scriptures and even did a bit of research on the physical heart (the organ). Here is a bit of what I found…I’m gonna start with some definitions of the heart (If you haven’t figured it out from my other blogs, I love definitions lol):

Definition of the heart (the organ): A muscular viscus, which is the primary organ of the blood’s motion in an animal body, situated in the thorax. From this organ all the arteries arise, and in it all veins terminate. By its alternate dilatation and contraction, the blood is received from the veins and returned through the arteries, by which means the circulation is carried on and life preserved (Webster’s Dictionary).

Other definitions of the heart: (1) the inner part of any thing; the middle part or interior, (2) the chief part; the vital part; the vigorous or efficacious part (Webster’s Dictionary).

Through really studying the entire verse and definitions God illuminated me and showed me that the heart is the root/the source of everything you do, the words that come out of our mouths, our actions, our attitudes, etc. One thing that I’ve learned just in living my life is that if you really want to tackle a problem, get to the root of it. The root of the problem will lead you to the solution. A lot of the problems we have as Christians are simply stated matters of the heart. Our hearts have defects (shortcomings, imperfections, faults)!!! (FYI, Congenital heart defects are conditions that are present at birth and can affect the structure of a baby's heart and the way it works. They are the most common type of birth defect.) Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” This scripture really drove home the point for me that we were born in need of a spiritual heart transplant! Our hearts are inclined toward sin from the time we are born (Psalm 51:5). We are born with heart defects. Our hearts don’t operate the way they should.

Let’s look at someone in the bible that realized they needed a heart transplant…I was reading Psalms 51 in my quiet time one day, and in my bible (I have a NLT  Life Application Study Bible) this psalm is described as a psalm of David, regarding the time Nathan the prophet came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba. So naturally, I had to go back and read about David and Bathsheba. The story of David and Bathsheba is described in II Samuel 11 (I recommend you read it for a fully understanding), I’m just gonna summarize it…

King David is on his palace roof walking, when he sees a beautiful woman bathing aka Bathsheba. David inquires about her and learns that she’s married to Uriah, but he still sends some of his people to bring her to him and he sleeps with her. Bathsheba gets pregnant. So David sends for her husband, Uriah, who was fighting in the war that the Israelite army was involved in. David tells Uriah to go home and be with his wife, but he doesn't  Uriah later explains to David that he couldn't go home and be with his wife when his fellow soldiers were out in the open fields of war. So, David gives instructions that Uriah is to be sent to the front lines so that he will be killed and he is. After the grieving period, David sent for Bathsheba and she became one of his wives.

I’m reading this and I’m like David nooooo!!!! Don’t do it!!!! When he found out she was married, he should have stopped dead in his tracks, but he didn't  The thing that got me was that David was so wrong, but he didn't even realize all that he had done; God had to send the prophet Nathan to rebuke David for him to realize what he’d done (II Samuel 12). But isn't that the same for us sometimes, I know it is for me. Whether it’s through a person or a word at church or even just sitting in your quiet time , all I know is that God finds a way to smack you in the face when you've done wrong, which is much needed, how else are we to ensure we are right with the Father. When David realizes his sin, he is sincerely sorry and repentant and that’s how we get to Psalm 51 specifically verse 10. David asks God to…

David recognized that his heart was defective; that it was dirty, perverted and turned away from what is right. David realized that he needed a heart transplant and he asked God to create in him a clean heart. Mark 7:20-23 says, “It is what is inside that defiles you. For from within out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.” ç This is why you need a heart transplant! It was a matter of the heart! We must be changed in our hearts it’s the root of everything and everything we do flows from it. There are some things that we can do, but ultimately it takes God to take you from having a perverted heart to a pure heart, a heart that isn’t inclined to sin, but is inclined to pleasing the Lord God Almighty! You need God to work on you from the inside out!

Do a #heartcheck and look at these 5 things. These 5 things betray the secrets of your heart:

1.      Your Mouth: Now your mouth will tattle tell on you real quick lol! Matthew 12:33-35 says “A tree is identified by its fruit. If a tree is good, its fruit will be good. If a tree is bad, its fruit will be bad. You brood of snakes! How can evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart.” I've heard so many people, myself included say I need to work on my mouth, the bible illustrates that its more so a matter of the heart. Your mouth is merely a device used to convey and communicate what’s in your heart. Basically what comes out of your mouth is a reflection of your heart. So what are you saying?!? Are you speaking life or death, blessings or curses, love or hate, etc? Are you lifting people up and encouraging them with your words or are you tearing them down? Your mouth will speak for your heart!

2.      Your treasure: Luke 12:34 says, “Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” Treasure = anything or person greatly valued or highly prized. Whatever you spend the most time doing, talking about, spend the most money on, etc is your treasure. God will reveal your heart to you through those things that you treasure. Do you treasure God, furthering the kingdom, etc or do you treasure material things, a man/woman, your career, your dream of being married, money, etc?!? It’s time to check that treasure chest #treasurecheck, which is ultimately a #heartcheck and an #idolcheck! This devo was read at my job awhile back and it completely wrecked me!!!

3.      Your motives/reasoning: Motive = something that causes a person to act in a certain way, do a certain thing, etc; incentive. When you really think about your motives and why you are doing something it reflects your heart. God already knows your motives (Proverbs 20:27), He’s omniscient, check your motives and make sure they are good!

4.      Your actions/behavior/attitude: How do you act towards others? Are you spiteful, nasty, vengeful, a gossip, etc? Do you treat others the way you want to be treated? God commands us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:39)! Do you show the love of God through your actions or are people not even aware you are a Christian by your actions?!? Your Christianity shouldn't be something you have to shout from the rooftops, your actions and the way you treat people should betray your Christianity. John 13:34-35 says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” They will know you by the love! Love is an action word!

5.      Your lifestyle: Now if your mouth didn’t already tattle tell on you, your lifestyle sure will! How you choose to live your life reflects your heart. You can be in church on Sundays all you want gettin your praise on, but its how you live your life the rest of the week that reveals your heart! You can’t live like you’ve got this close relationship with God on Sunday, but then the rest of the week you’re BFFs with the devil!!! #cantdothat Don’t disillusion yourself (I know about disillusionment because I’ve done it. I thought I had this great relationship with God, but the only time I opened my bible and talked to Him was Sunday)! Relationship with God is a daily thing! Don’t treat God like a one night stand, He’s a committed relationship type of guy!!! So how are you living your life? Are you living your life disillusioned? Are you living your life to please your flesh or are you dying to your flesh daily?!? Are you living life as a people pleaser or are you all about your Father’s business?!? Are you indulging you body by hoppin in the bed with this one and that one or are you striving for purity?!? Again I ask how are you living your life?

If you’re like me, you may have just gotten completely wrecked!!! (Whenever I write these blogs they smack me in the face!!! The Word really always does hit you first before you go to share it) I know I have some heart defects! Ask God to work on you from the inside out, ask that He give you a heart transplant, ask Him to create in you a clean heart and to renew the right spirit within you. God loves us like crazy despite our imperfect hearts! And he can and will take you from having a perverted heart to a pure heart if you let Him. God can clean you up in ways you NEVER can! Ask Him for a heart that desires and yearns for Him more than anything else, a heart inclined to holiness and pleasing Him as opposed to a heart inclined to sin and self-satisfaction. Know that you are loved, you are so precious to the Father, and that you were created with purpose and calling!!! As I already said, God loves you like crazy and I love you too!!! I pray that God blesses you tremendously!

Mariah 

Here's some music that lately I've been playing over and over again lol

Spiritual Adultery

So, after I wrote my first blog, Fan The Flame: Don't Let Your Fire Be Extinguished (please check it out if you haven't already), it was laid on my heart to read the book of Hosea. I was obedient and read two chapters a day. The book of Hosea is all about God's love (If you haven't read the book of Hosea, it’s really amazing!). The book parallels Hosea's relationship with his wife, Gomer to God's relationship with the nation of Israel. 

In the first chapter of Hosea, God instructs Hosea to do something that most would deem ridiculous and a little crazy. He commands him to go marry a prostitute...

         

Hosea 1:2 "When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said, 'Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshipping other gods.'"

So I'm reading this like Whoa!?! God really just told His prophet to go marry a prostitute!!! I had heard the story, but there's something different about reading it yourself. I continue to read the book and the story unfolds...Hosea is obedient to God and marries Gomer. They have three children, though there is uncertainty as to whether or not they are all his children because Gomer was an adulterous woman. Even though she was adulterous, Hosea loved her and the children just the same.

Let me go into a little more detail and focus on Gomer...The first three chapters depict Gomer as this woman who has this amazing husband that has this unfailing, unconditional love for her, despite the fact that she cheats on him and keeps running away from him to be with other men or lovers and then proceeding to come back to him and then run away again (she only comes back to him out of desparation, when she feels she is better off with him). Gomer's husband, Hosea takes her back repeatedly and loves her as if nothing ever happened. At one point, in chapter 3, Hosea has to buy back Gomer from the prostitution she has gotten caught up in. He buys her back for 15 pieces of silver, 5 bushels of barley, and a measure of wine (Hosea 3:2) And then Hosea and Gomer's relationship is paralleled and compared to the way Israel is treating God. Just like Gomer turned to other lovers, Israel was turning to other gods and giving them attention, gratitude, and worship that solely belonged to God. And just as Gomer kept running away from Hosea and then coming back because she figured she would be better off with him (Hosea 2:7), the Israelites ran from God and then would return out of desperation (Sidenote: Make sure you don't just come to God out of desperation, when you've already gone to everybody else. God should always be you top choice, not your backup plan to your backup plan! And don't just come to Him out of desperation, come to Him because you love Him!).

As I’m reading all of this, I’m sitting there thinking Gomer and the Israelites were trifling!!! Gomer has this amazing husband in Hosea that loves her despite everything she’s done, all of her shortcomings, he loves her through it all. His love for her is unconditional and unfailing, that I Corinthians 13:4-7 type of love, and she treats him terribly. She doesn’t appreciate him, she keeps leaving him, and comes back only out of desperation. And the same is true of Israel. Here the Israelites have God who has always been there and delivered them from countless situations and yet they treat God like dirt. They gave thanks and praise to other gods for what God had done and gave themselves over to other gods completely, and in the process forgetting and ignoring God and only remembering Him when they found themselves in a desperate situation. I’m reading and it’s literally as if they’ve forgotten that God has been their constant, their provider, their protector, their deliverer, their shelter, their healer, their way maker…I could go on and on…God had been everything to them and they seemed to have forgotten. So, I’m looking at the way Gomer and the Israelites acted and just shaking my head. And then a voice whispers to me you’ve been Gomer, you’ve had the mentality that Gomer and the Israelites had. How many times have you ignored me and forgot about me and gave other people and things the attention that belonged to me?!? How many times have you treated things and people as if they were a god?!? #convictedmuch #idolcheck #TheresOnly1God  Its amazing how God can show you yourself through different people in the bible. At first glance I’m like they are so triflin, but then its like Mariah, you’re triflin too because you’ve acted just like them!!! There’s always something you can glean and take away from people in the bible, God will show you yourself in those individuals.  But anyways, just as Gomer had committed adultery and Israel had committed spiritual adultery, I too was guilty of spiritual adultery.

What is adultery? Adultery is voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than his or her lawful spouse. The thing that sticks in my mind about adultery is that the person committing the act belongs to someone else, they made promises and vows to someone else. I’m learning more and more that this walk with God really is like a marriage. As Christians, we are married (in a committed relationship) to God, we belong to Him. When we commit spiritual adultery or idolatry we give ourselves over to someone or something other that God. In other words spiritual adultery is when we have a lover or a mistress. Basically you are being unfaithful to God, having someone or something on the side. We’ve got to learn that we can’t be in a relationship with/married to God and flirt with the world (the world is your boyfriend) #cantdothat!!! That’s spiritual adultery!

When most couples get married they express vows to one another. For example, here are some traditional vows:

         

“I ______, take thee, ______, to be my wedded husband/wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, til death do us part, according to God’s holy ordinance; and thereto I pledge thee my faith/myself to you.”

Most couples promise to remain faithful to each other, forsaking all others for one another until death. It hit me a while back that the bible is filled with God’s vows and promises to us. One of my favorite is Hebrews 13:5, “…Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.” God is so faithful to us. He is always there, but we can be unfaithful to Him sometimes. Its hard sometimes to grasp faithfulness and what it means in your relationship with God when the world bombards us with: (1)how no body stays together anymore. Marriage isn’t seen as sacred anymore, people take it too lightly, (2) how marriage is portrayed in the media, no one is faithful anymore. There are television shows centered around adultery. My favorite show used to be Scandal, and a huge part of the show was the main character, Olivia Pope’s, adulterous relationship with the married president of the United States. And I was so sucked into that show I found myself rooting for this man to be unfaithful to his wife?!? (Now, I’m not judging you if you watch Scandal, that was one of my personal convictions and I don’t watch that show anymore.) Another show I saw a commercial for that’s supposed to be coming on is Mistresses and I’m just like really though, a show centered around mistresses?!? Where are the shows celebrating marriage and how beautiful it is?!? The shows that depict couples, though not perfect, that are in it for the long haul and faithful to each other. It seems as if the world is preaching unfaithfulness, that its ok to have a lover or a sidechick, but that’s not the case! Faithfulness is what God is to us and what he desires and requires from us in return. This relationship, this marriage to God takes two. God will always to His part. We have to do ours as well. When we get saved and begin our relationship with God it shouldn’t have been something that we took likely. Commit to being in this relationship, this walk with God for the duration, put into practice faithfulness to God because you want to hear Him say, “Well done, thy good and faithful servant.” But also remember that nobody is perfect. We will all slip up and fall into spiritual adultery at some point, but recognize it when it happens, repent and turn away from it. Do heart checks and life checks making sure that God is your #1 and that you haven’t given yourself over to anyone or anything, thus creating an idol. Remember who you belong to. You belong to God. And even in those moments when you are unfaithful to Him, when you commit spiritual adultery, He still loves you like crazy and is waiting for you to come back to Him. That was what I ultimately took away from the book of Hosea, how much God loves me. His love for you is so intense, unfailing, unconditional, all-consuming, etc. He loves you through everything. I pray you know how much God loves you!!!

I hope this blesses you! I love you bunches!

Mariah 

Here's some music for ya'll. These songs bless me and wreck me. 

Fan The Flame

        Don’t Let Your Fire Be Extinguished! 

One channel that I like to watch on TV when I can’t find anything good on is Animal Planet (lol don’t judge me, they have some good shows!). One of the shows on this network that really captivated me is I Shouldn’t Be Alive. The show depicts extraordinary stories of real people that survived extreme circumstances, beating the odds, basically they probably should be dead, but they lived to tell about it. The climax of the show is obviously when the extreme circumstances occur (i.e. the individuals falls of a cliff, is lost at sea, etc). When these “extreme circumstances” occur you see these individuals survival instincts kick in and they are fighting with everything they have to survive and the majority of these individuals are injured in some way. I said all that to say that one of the crucial things needed for survival is warmth, especially at night. One thing people always say is build a fire to stay warm because the temperature in some geographic areas drops significantly at night and you will need a fire to sustain you and keep your body temperature regulated…

The other day I opened my Joyce Meyer’s Battlefield of the Mind devotional (which is amazing by the way!!! I highly recommend it!!!) and began reading . Each devo begins with a scripture. And this one’s scripture was II Timothy 1:6-7: “That is why I would remind you to stir up (rekindle the embers of, fan the flame of, and keep burning) the [gracious] gift of God, [the inner fire] that is in you…For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control." Now I’ve heard verse 7 numerous times, my mom has quoted it to me and my siblings on many occasions, but I had not heard verse 6 before and that caused me to pause and really dissect that verse in order to gain a full and rich understanding. It took me about 15 minutes before I even got to the rest of the devo. This scripture really wrecked me!!! Allow me to share what God showed me…

Verse 6 instructions us to stir up, fan the flame of the gift of God that is within you. Let’s look at stir up first. When you go to make a cake you don’t just dump all the ingredients into a bowl, then pop it in the oven and call it a day without stirring all the ingredients together. You won’t get a very good cake. You have to stir/blend all the ingredients together creating a smooth batter. Now I love to look words up when I’m studying (I have the Dictionary App on my iPhone, so I can quickly look up words while studying the bible) to insure that I fully comprehend the meaning of scriptures, so I looked up the definition of to stir and there were two definitions that stood out to me:

           

The first definition for to stir was: to implement continuous or repetitive movements of one’s            hand in order to cool, mix, agitate, and/or dissolve. I am learning that I have to habitually, continuously and purposefully do things i.e. study the Word, pray, spend time with God in order to grow when it comes to the gifts God has blessed me with and just my spiritual walk in general. You need those continuous movements in order to get the beautiful end result, the delicious cake. You cannot get to where God is calling you to be without consistency and perseverance! You just won’t get there! We have to do our part in stirring up the gift.

The second definition of to stir was: to affect strongly; excite; to incite; instigate or prompt. I          began to question myself…when was the last time you were excited about the things of God and what He’s doing in your life?!? #Selahmoment

And that leads me to the next part that caught my attention…fan the flame. So I read it a couple times…fan the fame…fan the flame…fan the flame…Then I googled Why do you fan the flame and came across this blog by Willis Howell. His blog began by listing the commonalities between literal and spiritual fire.

1)  Both need fuel to continue burning (This is muy importante!!! So much so that I had to say it in         Spanish!!!).

2) You must respect it! You can’t be careless when it comes to fire!

3) If you aren’t careful, fire can be extinguished! If left to itself, the natural tendency of any fire is to go out. This is why we must fan the flames it keeps the fire going.

Howell goes on the talk about Leviticus 6:8-13. In this passage the Lord gives Moses specific instructions to tell Aaron and his sons regarding burnt offerings. There is one piece of information that is reiterated 3 times and that is “the fire on the altar must be kept burning, it must never go out,” (Verse 9, 12 & 13). I read the commentary of my NLT Life Application Study Bible (This is another product that I highly recommend! Life Application Study Bibles are the BOMB.com!!! They are absolutely amazing for studying the Word!) and this is what it had to say about the fire any why it had to keep burning:

The holy fire on the altar had to be kept burning because God had started it. This represented God’s continual presence in the sacrificial system…God’s fire is present in each believer’s life today. He lights the fire when the Holy Spirit comes to live in us…” (I don’t know about you but I don’t want anything that God starts within me to be extinguished!)

When you get saved there is this fire, this zeal, this passion that is on the inside of you. You have a strong desire to please God; you are for all intent and purposes on fire for Jesus!!! But life happens and sometimes priorities get all screwed up and God somehow ends up at the bottom of your list (Its crazy how we do God sometimes!?!) I know I have found myself doing everything else except spending time with God and reading the Word, etc. I had time for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TV and all other manner of things, but no time for God or those days when I did remember Him (And sometimes it wasn’t even that I forgot about God, but I had ignored Him) it was the end of the day and I was too tired to even open my bible. So I would tell myself, “Ohh I’ll do it tomorrow, I’ll spend time with God tomorrow (I’m so thankful that God doesn’t do me the way I sometimes do Him!!! #stillgrowing God just enlightened me while typing this blog…God should not be an option in your life; He is not a multiple choice question! You can’t go to God sporadically…Ohh I acknowledge you today God…Ohh but I’m gonna ignore you tomorrow. God should be a constant in your life, always a part of it, always acknowledged and included. ) I have found myself thinking sometimes Mariah, read your bible, you really need to study your Word and I don’t listen to my own advice (I can really be hard-headed sometimes) And it’s just like where is my desire to spend time with God, where is that fire that I used to have? Why am I not excited about the things of God the way I used to be?!? I used to be sooo hype about God!!!

Let’s go back to Leviticus 6. Another instruction that God gave to Moses to tell Aaron and his sons was to, “…add fresh wood to the fire…” (Leviticus 6:12). They were to fuel the fire with fresh wood to keep it burning because the fire could never go out! And then it dawned on me…Mariah!!! You aint been fueling your fire!!! And you wonder where your passion, your zeal, your fire have gone. You been so caught up in everything else, except God that you have messed around and let your fire go out!!! #prioritycheck #lifecheck

Don’t get so caught up in this world and stuff that you forget about Numero Uno!!! Everything else can wait, God and your relationship with Him is what’s truly important. Don’t let your fire be extinguished, fan those flames, fuel your fire, do everything you can to keep the fire burning, it must never go out! As I mentioned earlier, when it comes to fueling your fire, you cannot do this sporadically. That is a trick of the enemy! Your fire will go out if you continue that way. You have to be consistent. It has to be a daily habitual thing. You can’t open your bible Sunday at church and then not even look at it the rest of the week. You can’t pray on Sunday at church and then the next time you talk to God is next Sunday at church. It will not work that way!!! That is not how you fuel your fire. And the God we serve deserves so much better!!! He should always, always be first. I’m learning in this walk that #lifechecks should be a daily thing. Ask yourself did I put God first today? Did I even acknowledge Him?!? Make sure that you get that quiet time in with you and God, spend time with Him, worship Him for who He is, pray, listen, and study His Word. God has called you to greatness. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” God has called you to do something great. Some have been called to preach, others to teach, some to be missionaries, others to sing, but in order to walk in that calling you must fuel fan your fire by spending time with the one who called you. I was on Instagram the other day and someone posted something that punched me right in the face:

How are you called to preach, but don’t spend time with the one who called you?

How are you called to sing or lead worship, but don’t worship the one that gave you the voice?

How are you called to play an instrument, but don’t spend time with the one you’re playing for?

And then this popped into my head, “How are you called to teach the Word, but you don’t spend time with the master teacher, God, studying and learning the Word so that you can be effective in ministry? A good teacher should always be learning. You will never know it all, there is always something more that God can reveal to you.

So please don’t let your fire be extinguished, but fuel/fan that flame!

If your fire does go out, know that you cannot rekindle it, only God can do that because He’s the one that started the fire. If you’ve allowed your fire to go out because you’ve pushed God to the bottom of your list get on your knees and sincerely repent, and ask God to please rekindle your fire and thank Him in advance for doing so, and then do better. When you know better, you should do better. Learn from your experience and ask God to help you to do all you can to keep the fire burning. On this walk we will make mistakes, stumble, and fall but none of that matters. What matters is that we get back up and continue this journey growing spiritually because ultimately we want to finish this race and hear our Father say, “Well done thy good and faithful servant!” So do not stay stuck, if you discover your fire has gone out, when you do that the devil wins. Get up! We serve a forgiving God! Again I say repent and move forward! Because as I said before God has great things in store for you! Be encouraged! I hope this blog blesses you as much as it blessed me just writing it! God loves you to pieces and I do too!!!

Mariah <3