Man up!

Man up or Woman up! Whichever your case may be.

Christians have been called a lot of things. They tell us that we're closed-minded, small-minded, timid, coward, weak and more. As a Christian after almost 16 years, I can tell you that Christianity is not for the closed-minded, small-minded, timid, coward or weak.

First of all, believing what we believe takes so much open-mindedness it almost makes no sense. I mean, our  God created earth from nothing, people from dust, sent himself to earth as a baby born of a virgin, died and raised himself, then sent himself as a comforter for all man-kind. Are you kidding me?

See, we have to be the most open-minded and brave people around to believe what we believe. Christianity is not for the weak either; just proclaiming yourself a Christian puts you in an instant war.

So why then when it comes to our life do we become afraid to make the decisions that are necessary to move forward. When we are face with touch choices or situations where we are required to be brave, we shy away and slink into the little boxes the world has created for us.

My challenge to you today is man-up (or woman-up) about taking control of the things that make your life difficult. Attack every situation as if it's life or death. God has your back. Determine that from today, the things that weigh you down have got to go. Kick them out of your life and be serious about it.

Take charge of your day and be blessed!

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Joana James - Author of From Redemption to Maturity, Trusting God with your Future,   Nightmare at Emerald High & Alana and Alyssa's Secret & Finding Romeo 

Test? Or Testimony?

This week has been a rather challenging one for me and staying positive is sapping all my energy. My house was broken into three days ago and thieves cleared me out. They took the one tool I own which is most important to me, my laptop. From it, I learn, create, produce and play. They also took my two back up hard drives, so I'm left with nothing. I've lost complete manuscripts (unpublished) and other works in progress. I've lost so much more, it's hard to even think about it. It's safe to say that I'm a bit depressed.

So what does a Christian do at times like these. It's easy to just want to crawl into the fetal position and yell at God "how could you let this happen to me." It's also easy on day one to stand firm and believe that your all powerful God will help you recover all. It even seemed like He already started working, the police got an incredible lead and they know exactly who violated my home. So you think they'd go get my stuff right away right? Nope, they didn't. So day two rolls around and whilst I still have faith, it's starting to drop to only about 90%. Wait...what? Yup, I am, I'm slowly losing faith.

This is the part where I would usually say you gotta keep focused and trust God but today, on day three, it feels like my faith is now at about 80%. See, I'm learning something about myself, and maybe about people on a whole. It's extremely easy to have faith on day one. God gets our complete trust. His word is all that matters to us. Then, the days wear on and we see no progress and we begin to wonder if God is even bothering with us. It's human nature, but, it's also a weakness in us that the devil exploits. He knows that I'll never believe that my God can't do something, so his lie is this "your God can, but WILL he?! He doesn't care about your stupid laptop!"  That's a lie that's easier believed.

I've noticed something else. God is challenging me with something else. Earlier this year, I posted something about being more militant about the Christian walk, I've stepped up,  but truly not as much as I should have. This situation is forcing me to mean what I say. So, the war is on, for my faith and for my stuff and for my life. I view this attack as personal, when I put out my last book, Trusting God with your Future, I realized that God is pushing me to write more in that direction and less fiction. So the devil wants to take my voice. It's not happening. So now, I'm going to lift my voice and tell him so.

I'm pretty sure there's a situation in your life that you can apply this to.

Be Blessed.

Joana James - Author of From Redemption to Maturity, Trusting God with your Future,   Nightmare at Emerald High & Alana and Alyssa's Secret & Finding Romeo