God's Voice

I went to a few of my friends here recently and asked them, "What's the key to any healthy relationship?"

You want to know what each and every single one of them responded with?

"Communication."

I think generally everyone can agree that active communication is vital in all relationships, whether it be with a romantic interest, a parent, or a college roommate. And quite frankly, I think the same goes for our relationship with The Lord as well.

So often I hear people saying that their relationship with Christ is very one sided. They pray, pray, pray, but never hear back from God.

If you're anything like me, "hearing God's voice" or "Does God still speak to us?" has been in your google search history at some point in time because let's be honest, we get really frustrated and feel incredibly disheartened the very moment when we don't feel God near or when we feel like God is not speaking to us immediately upon our request.

We know that God is our Friend and our Father, so just think about that for a second.

What if your best friend decided to never speak to you again but still wanted to be your friend? Would you really consider that a good friendship? What if you encountered a dad that has never even spoke to his daughter? Would you consider him to be a good father? I think we can safely say that the answer would be no to both of those questions.

So why is it that we think God (our perfect Friend and Father) does not communicate with us?

I also hear people saying that think God can only speak to them through the Bible. It's ironic, because Scripture tells us quite the opposite. I do believe that God primarily uses the Scriptures to speak to us, but I do not think that it is His only way of communicating with His children.

Read the stories in the Bible. Look at Moses, Abraham, Hagar, David, Ananias, and the many others God spoke to in the Bible. The list can go on and on.

I'm sure many of you are thinking, "Well, yeah but that was then. This is now." Yeah, you're right, but why would God give us these beautiful and hope-instilling stories in His Word and then say, "I don't talk to my children that way anymore."

To claim that God does not speak to His children like that anymore is simply unbiblical.

The Bible clearly calls us The Lord's sheep, and it names Jesus Christ as our Shepherd. Numerous times we are told that the only way to follow the Shepherd is to hear His voice.

Listen for His voice today. Ask The Lord to speak to you in new ways and to teach you to listen for His "still small voice" because He DOES speak to us if we choose to hear Him.

For the Lonely Hearts

The pain of loneliness is one that I know all to well, and sadly, I'm well aware that I'm not the only one who is well acquainted with this pain. Loneliness is a battle that all of us face at some point ––– some more than others.

I'm not usually quick to recover from these seasons of loneliness either, so I often beat myself up over it for quite some time.

"If only you were more outgoing..."
"Why can't you keep the interest of your friends?" 
"No one likes you because ______."
"You just need to get over your fears and meet new people."

... and so on and so forth, ultimately leading into a constant state of "I'm just not good enough." (Which I've come to realize are all LIES that the enemy tries to convince me of)

I've opened up to people about my loneliness before and the response is always the same, "But you know so many people???" 

They're right. I know a lot of people, but the truth is, I don't feel known by hardly anyone. I often feel out of place and unwanted in nearly every place I go. In fact, I'm often the loneliest when I'm in a big group of people.

I will spend my days and nights praying for a friend, and God often immediately answers my heartaches by providing me someone to connect with during that season of loneliness. However, as time passes and life goes on, most of these friendships end up dwindling away; then naturally, the feelings of inadequacy would rise again in my life. "Why does everyone always walk away from me? Why am I not good enough?"

Don't get me wrong, I have a few really great friends that have managed to stick around with me for quite some time, and my mom is always super cool. (Hey mom ;) I know you're reading this) I love and value these relationships because I know they are simply a mere reflection of the vast amount of love Christ has for me. But sometimes these seasons of loneliness just creep up in my life and try to get the best of me.

On one hand I am so unworthy of the love of others, but on the other, I am loved and worthy of that love because Christ has declared me His daughter. It's taking time, but I am learning that my identity is not found in those who stay or walk away. My identity is found in Christ alone.

If you are feeling lonely today, I encourage you to express those feelings of loneliness to Jesus right now. He understands because He experienced the ultimate abandonment on the cross in order to express His love for YOU.

Invite His love to permeate every piece of your weary heart because He does understand, and He does want to comfort you. Then ask Him to take your ugly loneliness and turn it into something beautiful, something that is honoring to Him. Offer your loneliness to Him as an act of worship, fully depending on Him to satisfy your heart.

He is a father to the fatherless, a friend to the friendless, and our ultimate source of love and hope.

Take the Time to Rest

As I looked around my dorm room earlier I saw a mountain of assignments that needed to be done, a suitcase that needed to be unpacked, a couple loads of laundry that needed to be washed and put away, a phone lit up with 7 text messages and 2 phone calls that needed to be responded to, a list of people that I needed to meet with later in the afternoon, bible study material that needed to be looked over, and countless other things that were begging for my time and my attention.

All the while, I felt the Spirit knocking at my heart... "Erin, it's time to rest. I know what you have to do today, but I also know what you need to even accomplish those things."

So that's what I did...

I rested on His promises and on His Word. I rested in His peace, His love, His understanding, and His sovereignty. I rested in the gift of time that He graciously gave me to simply sit in His presence and renew my mind, body, and spirit.

I rested. 

I'll be honest, the first few minutes of my "resting" weren't actually resting. Rather, my mind was entangled with the many thoughts trying to convince me that I was seemingly wasting my time doing something that I didn't necessarily have time for in the first place.

"I've already had my quiet time, God. I don't have time to rest with you right now."

However, I was quickly reminded who the Author of time truly is, and I was able to sit back in peace and accept the beautiful gift of rest that He so graciously was giving to me.

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How often are you like I was today?

Overwhelmed and busy

How often do you feel convinced that you don't even have time to spend with the Author of time Himself?

Let me just encourage you to PRESS PAUSE.

Seriously pause and take a break from the chaos of life and simply spend time with your Heavenly Father.

If you're a wannabe superwoman (or superman) like me, you might think that taking a break from the busyness is a sign of weakness or laziness, but I think that's far from the truth.

Take a look at Jesus: the man who had greater things to do than you and I will ever have on our agendas, yet He still took breaks. Those breaks didn't come when He was at His breaking point, overwhelmed and tired by His relentless to-do list. Rather, those breaks were a part of His daily routine.

At different times of the day (early morning, the middle of day, late at night) He would get alone to spend time with God and renew His spirit....

Even when crowds gathered to listen to Him speak and see His miracles He would withdraw to lonely places to pray (Luke 5:15-16)

Sometimes He would spend the whole night pouring His heart out before God on a mountain (Luke 6:12)

Early in the morning before the sun would rise and the world would wake He got up and went to a solitary place to be with God (Mark 1:35).

He didn't let his todo list, friends, or other things/people get in the way of those breaks either. Even when a crowd of people were begging for his attention, He chose to still follow through with His daily routine of resting in the Father.

Resting is not a sign of weakness or even a display of laziness; it is a sign of strength. 

In order to fulfill God's will for our lives, we have to be empowered by Him. How can we do that without resting and spending time in His presence?

We are told countless times in the Bible to go The Lord, to cast our cares on Him, to lay our burdens at His feet, to be refreshed and strengthened by Him, and to spend time alone with Him.

Stop running on empty. Stop looking at your todo list and convincing yourself you don't have time to get alone with God.

Take a minute (or thirty) and rest in His love.

Be renewed and refreshed, not just today, but everyday.

Believe me, it's worth it. 

“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” -Matthew 6:6

People Pleasing is Idolatry

Hi, my name is Erin Pentecost, and I am a recovering people pleaser. 

I have spent nearly my whole life trying to make other people happy, and let me tell you... it's exhausting.

Well to make a long story short, the other day I was reading in Galatians and there was a part that really stuck out to me; it says, "If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ's servant." (Galatians 1:10)

As I let Paul's words soak in for while, I started to recognize how much of my life is consumed by "people pleasing," and after awhile I really started to be convicted about how much I do to make other people happy with me.

I'm sure you're thinking, "What's the big deal about making others happy?" I can imagine you sitting there thinking that or something along the same line because I too have thought the same things before about myself. Recently, however, God has really been revealing things in my life that I've been doing which have made winning the approval of man really stick out to be an idol in my life.

• Being overly critical of myself
• Continually being fearful of any risks or possibilities of being "wrong" 
• Thriving on praise/appreciation from others
• Over apologizing for unnecessary things 
• Saying "yes" to things that I don't want to do
• Constantly being fearful of what others may think if I don't always seem "perfect" 
• Rarely asking for help with things in my own life 

And to be completely honest, that list is only scratching the surface of things God has been revealing to me about my people pleasing attributes. 

For so long I have tried to convince myself that my motives for pleasing others were pure. I mean, let's be honest, continually trying to please EVERYONE sounds pretty selfless and awesome, right? 

Wrong. 

People pleasing was and always has been a form of idolatry in my life. Why? Because I continually chose to put the wants, needs, opinions, and approval of man before God. I was not being Christ's servant.

I allowed others to seemingly control me rather that allowing God to truly be sovereign over my life. I was more fearful of the opinion of man rather than fearing God in a healthy and proper way. I was not being Christ's servant. 

I had very poor stewardship because I often would spread myself too thin or have intentions of good things without ever being able to completely follow through for various reasons. I was not being Christ's servant. 

My motives were based on fear of rejection, fear of making others mad/upset, fear of disappointment, etc. My motives were not based on love. I was not being Christ's servant. 

And the list could go on... No matter how "good" some of the things I would do were, I was never doing them as a true servant of Christ because of the way I had allowed people pleasing to become such an idol in my life. Continually I would find myself burned out, exhausted, and sometimes even a little bitter because of my people pleasing attributes. I can try to twist things all day long and tell you that everything that I did was out of love, but that wouldn't be true. Love pursues authenticity, not a sense of acceptance from others. 

As I share my heart with you about this and openly share about some of these things that God has been revealing in my life, I can't help but think that maybe some of you reading this are or have been struggling in this area of your life. Maybe you have been struggling with people pleasing for awhile now and your eyes are just now being opened to the way it can become such an idol in your life despite your often "good" intentions. Well, I would like to give you some hope and a sense of direction.

Rip the idol out from its roots and dig into Scripture. Start basing your worth and approval off of the Truths in God's Word rather than on the opinion of man. Understand that God must become MORE in your life while you must become LESS. Stop allowing the acceptance of man be such a priority in your life... Take the time to soak in the fact that God completely and fully accepts you as you are, no strings attached. The prison of constantly pleasing other people is miserable and exhausting, but the joy that comes from making God FIRST in your life and then being able to serve others through His strength and power is indescribable!

There's nothing wrong with doing things for other people (according to Philippians 2, we are to have a Christ like attitude by acknowledging and respecting the interests of others), but there is a big difference in doing things for others as a servant of Christ and as someone who simply wants to seek acceptance by trying to please everyone. You have to allow your acceptance come from God first. Take a minute to sit back in God's presence and just let Him love you and accept you for who you are. Receive His love first so that you can truly and purely love others. 

I started this post by saying I am a RECOVERING people pleaser. There's a good chance that if you invited me to go to lunch for mexican and I wanted pizza, I would be eating chips and salsa. But I have been learning the importance of rest, the importance of saying "no" when I need to, that God's love for me is not based on how much I do for others, and that putting my relationship with The Lord FIRST at all times is the only way I can truly be a servant of Christ which is ultimately the best thing I can do for myself and for others. And let me tell you, it's been a beautiful journey of recovery so far.

So do you want to grab some pizza? ;)

His Will, Not Mine

I like to keep journals. In fact, I love to keep journals... especially the ones where I try my best to document what God is doing in my life at the time.

It's always interesting to pick up an old notebook and read what all I've written in the past. There's pages covered in both tears of joy and pain from the times that I've poured my heart out to The Lord using an ink pen and a couple of tattered pages in old journal.

I actually decided to do that last night. I picked up an old prayer journal, and I chose to flip through the pages and simply just skim over what was going on in my life a little over a year ago.

As I flipped through the pages, I noticed time and time again where I would seemingly beg God to do things my way... not necessarily in a demanding sense, but I recognized the urgency I had for things to align with what I wanted rather than simply praying for God's will to be done through my situations.

I couldn't help but laugh at myself as I read some of the things that I had prayed for. The hopes and dreams that I had at the time weren't necessarily "bad," but I just can't seem to even imagine where I would be in life if I had actually received the things I had wanted. Good thing God is sovereign, and I am not.

I write this because I vividly remember some of the disappointment that I faced when things didn't add up in my life at the time. I remember foolishly thinking that God was never going to bring me out of my situation or show me where to go since I clearly wasn't going where I had anticipated to go with my life.

I wish I could write to my past self and encourage my young heart that things were, in fact, going to be completely okay in the end... it would have saved me a lot of tears and confusion, I'm sure. However, sadly, I can't do that, but hopefully I can encourage you.

I can completely and honestly tell you that my hopes, plans, and dreams were nothing compared to what God has been doing in my life here recently... they are FAR better. (I mean duh.. why wouldn't they be? He has our very best interests in mind)

But since I am being honest, it hasn't all been easy. I mean, let's be real, when is it ever easy to turn your back on your own plans and start heading towards something completely different from what you had always imagined? While there are many specific things that I am thankful for because they haven't gone as I had originally hoped... there are also things that still do not make sense to me, but I know that God has it under control.

If I could give one piece of advice... it would be to trust The Lord. Like seriously... TRUST HIM. His ways, His plans, His love, His Word, His promises, His faithfulness, His goodness...

Trust Him through the times where things are clear and then again when things are confusing, and release the outcomes into His hands because He truly does have your best interests in mind, even when you don't have an understanding of the situation. All the while, develop a patient attitude alongside your trust. Patience just seems to go hand in hand with trust, something I quickly learned.

It's okay to have hopes, dreams, and plans for a future, but always be receptive of what The Lord is prompting your heart for, even when it doesn't align with your own plans. If He answers your prayers with a "no" or simply redirects your path, choose to follow Him anyway. Let His will be done and not your own; only then will you be able to live an abundant life.

Moving Forward From Sin

I feel like there's a time in everyone's life when we truly just regret something that we have done in the past. Have you ever been there? Are you there now, just beating yourself up over something that you did or something that you said?

After sitting in regret for a little while, normally the guilt turns into self condemnation, and Satan loves that. But according to Scripture, there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ (Romans 8:1) Sadly, a lot of us don't always remember that when faced with feelings of oppression.

Sure, we mess up. We sin. We fall short. But we also have a Father who loves us and willingly forgives us when we ask. We have to acknowledge our conviction, repent, ask for forgiveness, but then we have to move forward.

Satan so often traps us in guilt and condemnation when we choose to stay focused on our mistakes and our pasts. He thrives when we get caught up in shame and become focused on our pasts because he knows that there's no possible way to truly follow Christ with our heads turned behind us.

Think about it... You can't walk a straight line with your head turned around, can you? So what makes you think that you can keep your eyes on Christ and follow Him wholeheartedly while you're stuck in the past?

You don't have to wallow in self pity or condemnation after you've repented from your sins. When you find yourself with your head hung low in shame, remind yourself that your Father is not giving you those feelings of oppression. You have the power to get rid of those feelings; read scripture, pray, and choose to believe the way God truly views you and your situation. He loves you. He treasures you. And He forgives you.

Praying For Others

A few weeks ago I was having a conversation with a friend, and she ended up telling me a few prayer requests. I absolutely love to pray, especially for other people, so naturally I responded with, "Of course I'll be praying for you!!"

I had every intention of praying for her, believe me, but somewhere along the busyness of my day, I simply forgot. It wasn't until I saw her again that I remembered I had forgotten to do something I had promised to do.

I lied. And of all things, I lied about something sacred and holy. My heart sunk, and from this post, I'm sure you can tell I have been very convicted about my sin.

I feel like this is something we do often as Christians. By no means do I think that any of us intentionally lie about praying for others, but I do think that we toss around the phrase "I'm praying for you." as if it's something we take lightly, which is why I'm writing this post.

Prayer is far from something that we can just take lightly. I read a quote on the National Day of Prayer website that says the following, "Prayer has subdued the strength of fire. It has bridled the rage of lions, hushed anarchy to rest, extinguished wars, appeased the elements, burst the chains of death, expanded the fates of heaven, assuaged diseases, dispelled frauds, rescued cities from destruction, staid the sun in its course, and arrested the progress of the thunderbolt. In this communion with God, there is an all-sufficient panoply, a treasure undiminished, a mine that is never exhausted, a sky unobscured by clouds, a heaven unruffled by the storm. It is the root, the fountain, the mother of a thousand blessings!" And to think, we take something that powerful, that beautiful, and that astounding and simply just forget to do it, even when we promise others that we will. 

Honestly, I don't really have a "solution" for the problem, we are all forgetful beings and sometimes we don't really think about our words and our actions very thoroughly. But I have definitely been taking steps towards staying accountable in my prayer walk, which I wanted to share with you guys!

1. When someone asks you to pray for them (especially in person) just pray for them right then and there. It's so encouraging knowing someone is praying for you, so why not lift them up in the moment by praying over them while they're there? 
2. Be honest with people. Sounds simple, right? But really, only take on the responsibility of praying for someone if you know that you can handle it. Don't promise more than you can or will do.
3. Write prayer requests down! I don't always have pen and paper with me, but I generally always have my phone. (I finally found a use for the Notes app!) Then just simply go to your notes daily and get a quick refresher on those prayer requests of the day! 
4. Focus more on your own personal prayer and quiet time. Take time out of your day to be diligent and focused on The Lord, and start to ask Him to remind you to pray for those that you say you will be praying for. 

Prayer has become something that we offer rather than we do. And today by writing this post, I just wanted to challenge you to take the same steps I have been taking towards being more accountable in your prayer walk. Let's stop with the empty statement "I will pray for you." and start taking the responsibility of following through with what we say we will do.