May we remember that EACH time that we pray, Jesus does hear us. May this year be a year that we find more peace in this thought. Jesus is at work in our lives. He's already active on the prayers that your heart just released in your life. Please, at the onset of this new year, I pray you find more and more of this understanding in your life. Pastor Daniella

As this new year rings end, I pray that there is a blessing granted over 2014. I pray that Peace of Mind becomes the main stable of our thinking this year. I pray that we remember to praise even when it seems there’s nothing to praise about. I pray that when our hearts are tempted to doubt, we press forward and remember that it is Jesus Christ we are doubting and He’s already died to show you the level of commitment He has to you. I pray we remember He is the Lord who seeks to lift our heads, and build us up. I pray that dreams are fulfilled for each of us this year. God’s fullest blessing for all of you. Pastor Daniella. Https://Twitter.com/PastorDaniella

The Lord Jesus works wonders in our lives, but many times they're preparations are done in secret. Jesus loves to surprise us with the break seemingly spontaneous gifts of the Lord Jesus. It takes great faith for us to believe that more than just frustrations await us in the near future, it just does, but trusting Jesus that He knows what blessings will benefit us most, from whom they will come, and when they will be applied in our lives, will provide great peace to our lives. His ways, aren’t our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9) and due this fact, we must trust that blessings are coming, even if we can’t see them on the horizon...for what we would make obvious, the Lord does in secrete. God’s fullest blessings for you this evening. Keep your head up, the Lord loves you more than you’ve yet come to understand and all that love is directed at helping you. Pastor Daniella https://Twitter.com/PastorDaniella

When is the last time you saw the onset of trouble on the horizon and all you wanted to do was run the other way? It is interesting how troubles of life quickly make us feel isolated from the comfort of others. One of the most important areas of life is starting fully believing that you aren’t in the life alone. You may be excluded from the empathy of others at different points of your life, but you are NEVER without the consistency of the Lord Jesus Christ’s love, comfort, and support. Where we falter is by applying restrictions on what this love, from Jesus, should look like. Too often we think that the exclusion from difficulties is a sure sign that Jesus’ love is faithfully available for us. Yet the Bible counteracts this thinking by trying to pre-warn us that troubles are a part of this life, but that this trouble NEVER defines His thinking over you. I know the hollow feeling that can creep into my heart at points of life where I would start to feel as if there was no hope for comfort with the onset of a problem. Yet Jesus, more than anyone else in the history of mankind, has tasted the bitterness of separation, abandonment, betrayal, gossip….. We cannot allow ourselves to apply others failures onto the character of our Lord Jesus Christ. He loves us not out of an obligation more rather because He would settle for nothing less. He placed His body upon the cross and spilled His blood in order that there would never again, in all of history, be a time that we couldn’t reach out to Him. So come to Him, no matter the trouble on the horizon, come to Him. If you are confused how to start coming to Him, start first by realizing that Jesus is big enough to handle all that you need to throw at Him, so if you need to dump a life time of hurt on Him by communicating all that you feel is wrong and painful in your life, then dump it! He’s big enough to take anything you need to say. Stand/sit/walk/run/drive/swim….whatever position you need to be in, just start talking with Him. That ABOVE ALL else is what He is looking for…that daily contact within you. It is out of this constituency that you are offering Him, that you will find the comradery you are seeking and due to this…the next time that troubles face you, you will start to feel more will come out of your praying with Jesus than will your running away from the troubles. Pastor Daniella

Each of us have heard some variation of the idea of placing our burdens upon the Lord, or bringing all we are and placing it at the feet of Jesus, but does this idea mean for our lives? There is a cross roads in life that many of us come to where we are faced head on with a true realistic view of who we are and what we would be without the Lord’s love in our lives. Yet, so many of us ignore truly what that reality is to produce in our lives. Some to these cross roads, turn and run in the other direction-willfully ignoring the need to see the Love of Jesus for the transformation that it is offering you. For other, they come to the cross roads, see the Love of Jesus for what it is and determine that they cannot be worth such love. Then there are the few that come to this cross road between SELF and the Love of Jesus and they are transformed. Humbled by a Love so great, and yet sustained in their desire to know more of this love in their life…they press onward. It is here, in the heart of those who press forward in the Love of Jesus Christ, that true life WITH Jesus births sustenance in your life. Jesus seeks a relationship with you that is VERY PERSONAL. I call it a “Finger Print Relationship”. This finger print relationship refers to those of us that are seeking to walk with the Lord with such vigor in our hearts that we are unwilling to give in to the human nature to run away in shame of past sins, or pride that we don’t need the intricate involvement of the Lord in our lives. The fingerprint relationship that Jesus is seeking with you is so personal that you being to seek it above all other influences in your life. We aren’t just loved, we are wanted! We aren’t just wanted-we are desired above all else. We are desired so much that the Lord Jesus placed His life on a cross and died to bring the reality of our daily relationship into fruition. You see, Jesus has already given His FULL commitment to us. We aren’t waiting on Him to keep His end of the deal and He isn’t waiting on us to keep ours. What He is doing, is loving you, right where you stand, right where you find life right now….just loving you. When you decide to place your burdens on the Lord or bring all you are to the Lord, you are allowing yourself to become in AGREEMENT with Jesus that you TRUST Him to be what you cannot be for yourself. We are in desperate need for the Lord Jesus Christ, but until we are willing to see that statement for all that it is…we will be stuck in our own form of “wilderness wandering”. When you place yourself in agreement with Jesus that you need Him, He doesn’t hold the fact over your head and beat you down about it. Instead, he immediately begins repair on your heart’s pains. He aids your ability to start learning more deeply of what it means to have HIS LOVE as the sustenance of your life. He draws near to you and works to let you know that no matter what you have done in life….you are His and He loves you. Personal note: I know this journey is a very difficult one, but I am trying to aid your walk. We are more loved than we understand, by the Most High Almighty Lord Jesus. This love with transform your life from whatever it HAS BEEN to whatever it is going to be. The Lord Jesus is very patient and more than willing to build a binding/lasting trust between you. He knows it takes time, after all…He’s the One that made you. God’s blessing be with you this evening. In Christ, Pastor Daniella.

Tomorrow is a blessing waiting to unfold.  Place your faith in this hand's of the Lord Jesus, asking that your eyes be gifted in seeing the day as the Lord sees it.

He sees the potential for growth in every event.  We just see discomfort.  It is when we start to understand that everyday's events aren't always go according to plan, that we can truly start to live with the mentality that every day is a blessing.
Pastor Daniella.

Tonight, I feel like sending out a prayer. 

Jesus,

Thank you again for being the light of our lives.  Thank you for being the positive within the negative, for being the drive within us to better ourselves and the world around us.  We want to come to you and ask a blessing on each of us reading this for the coming year.  We ask Lord that you will walk before us as we strive to understand more of your love and how to live within it.  We pray that you are our guide within the trying times, the stamina that we will need to keep pressing forward and allowing past troubles to lose their power over us.  Each one of us is in need of your love to become so very real to us in our lives.  We don’t want to just understand you as a matter of the mind, but more rather experience you as a matter of the heart.  We once again praise you for all that you are and we lay this prayer at your feet knowing that you have heard us and that you are fast at work to aid us where we are in need of you.  You are our best friend, Lord, and Savior. Please grace us with the patients to face each day in its fullest state.  In your Name, Lord Jesus…Amen. https://twitter.com/PastorDaniella

In Christ, we’ve been shown mercy when mercy should have failed.  We’ve been shown grace, when none should have been offered.  We’ve been loved when love……….but that’s just it.  We’ve been shown Love.  Real love, not just the type that we write about in a romance novel, or slap on the side of a product.  I speak of real love, the type that alters lives. 

The more my life becomes healed of the hurts, the more I become so occultly aware of the Love that Jesus is offering us.  My mind’s eye isn’t as focused on all that has failed me, but more rather captivated by the Love the Lord is offering.

We overcome evil with good.  With the love that we are being offered from Jesus Christ, we are living this statement first hand. You can’t alter the past, you can only press forward to make sure that the future is not effected by them.  In Christ, this is possible.  His love can fill in holes that have been left by the pains we’ve suffered.  It doesn’t mean that you forget what’s taken place.  You don’t. What one of us forgets painful abuses, abandonment, betrayals…? More rather, you find that His love starts to mean more to you than holding on to the hurt does.
This healing that I speak of is possible for all of us.  It takes time.  But the Lord Jesus is a patient healer.  He knows the difficulties you face when you trying to allow painful events to pass on. It is He that already extended the offer of healing to you.  He’s willing to take His time with you. Please, trust that there is more to life than having to walk around with the weight of a painful past upon your shoulders.  I pray blessings on your life.  Pastor Daniella https://Twitter.com/PastorDaniella

Each day, we should seek to do right. Not because we think it will cause us placement within the Lord’s heart…but more rather because we’ve been shown love when we didn’t deserve it.  We’ve been shown mercy, when mercy should have failed.  We’ve been shown grace, when none should have been offered.  We are loved just as we are.  We are the light of the Lord’s heart.  He rejoices over us.  Look at yourself, do you find areas to be rejoiced over within you?  The Lord does and honestly…that’s all that matters.  His love is pure and unselfish.  His love gives WELL BEFORE it takes.  His love heals the brokenness within us, but we have to be willing to allow the Lord’s love to become the reality that we stare at in a given day...not listing all that is failing to go the way we planned it.
God loves you.  It has taken me years to more fully understand what this statement means to our lives.  Sure, we’ve all heard it, but it isn’t until you start to place this statement as a foundation within your heart and mind, that you start to see the effects of it.  It is His audience that we should seek first.  It is upon His passion for us that we should rest our head.  It is His Love that your head is Lifted. God’s fullest blessings upon your evening.  

There is no temptation too deep, no failure too large that the Lord Jesus Christ isn’t willing to love you out of.  We are loved by the Lord. That statement seems untrue when you are neck deep in pain, but it is true.  Jesus loves NOT as others love.  He knows where life has taken you, and what you have done and with all that on His mind, He walked to the cross and placed it upon Him.  He placed it upon Him in order that you would be able to live a daily life of connection with Him and the love He has to offer.
Please know, I understand that sometimes it seems a joke that the Lord could love you where you find yourself now.  But, He’s just that good.  Above all, please allow yourself to believe that a love that powerful lives in Jesus, and He wants to share it with you. God bless your evening. Pastor Daniella https://Twitter.com/PastorDaniella 

http://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com/

I sat down tonight to write my Blog and all that was on my heart was a small prayer. If you'd like to join me.

Thank you Lord for this past year.

For mindsets broken, and dreams set a fire.

For troubles diverted, and trials lifted.

For changes set in motion, and hearts mended.

For Peace granted, and Kindnesses shown.

For surprises of your greatness, and moments of quiet meditation.

Jesus, you are our Lord, we ask for your blessings upon this newly coming year.

We ask for strength where the road seems to be crumbling

And support where solutions seem to fail us.

When you see our last hope start to flicker, please help to ignite us again.

Where we struggle for answers, please grant us the Grace to choose Peace over understanding.

You are the Almighty Lord.

You have loved us first, there will never be a way to thank you enough for such an act.

Amen.

I hope you have a blessed evening. Pastor Daniella.

Jesus didn't promise that we were going to understand all that He was going to ask of us, instead...He promised that He would give us a Peace that would pass all understanding.  This Peace many times comes in the form of a renewed Spirit that we take on.  This Spirit helps us to feel that we don't have to understand in order to trust. Instead, we start learning that we are going to trust even though we have an utter lack for the understanding to the plans of the Lord.

Human reasoning wants to understand before we go forward.  Yet with Jesus, He stretches us and MANY times...He asks for faith when it seems there is no reason to apply it.  He asks for trust, when you feel as if you have little to offer.  Jesus stretches us.  But, I want you to take heart in that statement, because what Jesus asks of us, He always has GIVEN us a supply of well in advance. 

He will not ask for something you are not capable of giving.  I know it seems this an impossible statement at points in your life.  I understand, I’ve been there too.  But, Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves and it is from that well of information that He makes His requests. He knows He’s not going to let you fail, but we don’t.  We try to place trust in all that we believe He will do for us, all the while we question…”will this be that time that I fall flat on my face? Will this be the situation that I fall beyond the Lord’s reach on?” 

Jesus is Faithful. He will not ask for your trust if He hasn’t already shown Himself to be trustworthy.  He won’t ask for your faith if He hasn’t already shown His faith……and He has.  Remember, He’s the One that walked to the cross in the ultimate show of Love for you.  Take Heart, Jesus is here to lift your head, sometimes we just have to learn what it means to look up.  Pastor Daniella https://Twitter.com/PastorDaniella    

Most of you reading this remember when you finally reached driving age. The anticipation of this date is one of those more landmark periods along the timeline of your life. For me, this date was going to hit shortly after my return from summer camp.  I was in great anticipation of this event. One because honestly, what teen isn’t, and Two- I am a Petrol Head, I love cars.

The entire time I was at camp, I thought about this momentous event coming to fruition in my life. When I returned home from camp, my father came to pick me up from my friend’s house. Prior to our walking out the door, he told me that he had bought me a car to start driving. My eyes lit up. I rushed out the door.  What await me was a Monte Carlo SS. I was beside myself. (for you fellow car people out there, it had a Corvette engine that had been dropped into it--it was a JET) Okay, back to my story. This Monte Carlo was an utter surprise.  I had been asking my dad what I was going to start driving well before camp and nothing was really coming of the asking, or so it seemed!!

I bring this story to light because I am often reminded of it when I start to wonder if God is hearing my prayers.  You see, for months I had pestered my dad due to the curiosity of what I was going to be driving, but it seemed that the answer was not coming.  Discouragement wanted to set in. Questions began to mull through my mind…”Wasn’t he excited about my starting to drive? He was the one that got me excited about cars at young age, why was he seemingly dragging his feet now? Questions bombarded my teenage mind as to the determination of my dad to find me a car. I started to become  sure that his lack of action meant that he wasn’t planning on doing anything to solve the matter. Don’t we do this to God?  We start assuming that His perceived lack of action means His desire not to assist us, at all ?  We look for tangible things to give validity that God wants to bring something to fruition in our lives, but many times…just like with my dad…He is working behind the scenes.

The car that my dad bought me has been the favorite of my life. Years have gone by since I received that gift, and yet I’ve never forgotten the lesson behind it…just when it seems that God hasn’t heard your prayers, just when it seems giving up is the only reasonable answer in life…God surprises you with a greater gift than you thought imaginable.  Wait upon the Lord, He’s got more planned for you than you were originally thinking. Pastor Daniella https://Twitter.com/PastorDaniella or my website http://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com 

Beauty can be found among the thorns of life. Many times, it is a matter of changing our perspective. What at first may seem a curse can in fact come to be a blessing. 

The stumbling blocks of today, May be the FOUNDATION that you build upon tomorrow.  Please keep your head up. Pastor Daniella.  https://Twitter.com/PastorDaniellahttp://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com

I often think on what damage it is to us that we don’t fully understand that Love that Jesus Lives to give us. The word Love seems almost deplete of its meaning now days. How is it that the same word “Love” that drove Jesus to a cross can be the same word used to describe a candy bar? Life has served me some pretty hard hits. Many of them have been very damaging to my soul…but through them all, Jesus has shown a constant love for me.. The Love that Jesus has shown me has honestly changed my life. NOT in a “great slogan for the next Christian sign” type of way. No, in a REAL LIFE APPLICATION way. You see, the Love of Jesus Christ came FIRST to love me. In other words, He saw all that I wasn’t going to be and loved me with all those frailties attached. He knew the places in life where the damage from pain in my life was going to be a stumbling block, He knew that there would be times where I would war greatly against doubting that all would work out for my good, and none of it changed His mind against me. The SAME holds true for each of you. Jesus knows you, better than you know you, and still He Loved FIRST! He didn’t tell us to change and then come…instead, He just said, “Come…Just as you are…I love you for Who you are, right now.” This love is a One of Kind that only the Lord Jesus can extend. We are so fortunate to be loved by the Lord. Loved-accepted, wanted, forgive (just as you are), cared for, treasured, needed, rejoiced over, cherished…. To each of you that reads this, please I know life has been hard. I’ve been there too. The trials seem to flow quickly into our lives, but there is ONE thing that is never changing and that is the Love of the Lord Jesus Christ for us. Please, no matter how hard life pushes, don’t let it push you away from the Real Love of Jesus Christ. Pastor Daniella https://Twitter.com/PastorDaniella or http://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com/index.html

A book, a spread sheet-seemingly a mile long-lay before me. Written within this book, each time that I had fallen short of where I needed to be, the numerous wrongs I have committed, whether intentional or accidental, they are all written within these pages. My eyes read down this list…so long, so embarrassing, so numerous and at the end of the book, I see written in pen- I don’t keep records of your wrongs. Of course, there is no book like this, but I say these things in order to make a point. We look over our life’s story and our mind drifts to focus on all of the wrongs committed and feel that these wrongs will eternally keep us from being a pleasure to Jesus. Yet this is just not true. But this feeling of inadequacy quickly strips us of a relationship that Jesus is waiting to have with us. We do sin, each of us, and we shouldn’t want to have this in our lives, but it is. I think what saddens the Lord more than the sin is that we allow the sin to keep us from His love because we consider ourselves unlovable. The Lord’s desire is to share in a life with us. Don’t allow a list of wrongs that have already been wiped clean by the Lord’s blood, to keep you from the full relationship that the Lord wants with you. Trust me, Jesus isn’t focused on it, why should you be? Pastor Daniella https://Twitter.com/PastorDaniella

When the difficult times arise within your life, and you start to understand that you are not going to be delivered out of the problem, but instead made to walk through it...what thoughts float through your mind? Do you still believe Jesus a Mighty Power? Do you still view Him Faithful? The ways of the Lord, in many cases, seem foreign to us. We see trials in our lives, and quickly start to look for the release. Jesus sees trials as a chance to bring us closer to an understanding that He, and He alone, is our life’s strength. Where we see pain, He sees change. Where we see fear, He sees assured security. We panic, He rests. We are being loved by the Lord, but I think we honestly forget just WHO the Lord is sometimes. His Mighty Power: The Lord who is in our lives is the very One who came, walked the Earth and with such immeasurable compassion poured forth a love so powerful, so immeasurable, that it broke the hold of Death Forever. His love so omnipotent that not even the strongest army of Hell could overcome it. This powerful Lord, This compassionate, tenderhearted man is the very same One who comes to minister to us when it is our time of trial. The very same man who walks with you during the dark hours of life and celebrates with you when even the smallest of your dreams starts to come to fruition. His Faithfulness: There is no equal, for when we fail to hold our own against the storms that rage against us, He never loses faith in us nor His love for us. To be loved by the Lord Jesus Christ is like nothing else you will experience in your life. His commitment to you has already been shown, He was nailed to the cross for you. His love for you, continues to unfold. Life’s difficulties don’t always make sense, most of them I am still trying to sort out, but what I do know…I know that Jesus is my Lord and that He and He alone is the source of my life. He loves me broken as I am at points, and His commitment to me far outweighs my troubles of this life. When troubles come your way, please take a minute to remember just WHO the Lord Jesus Christ really is. Pastor Daniella https://Twitter.com/PastorDaniella

Think of the last time that someone blessed your life by believing in you. We all possess the gift of encouragement. We just have to be willing to step out and say something. Please be that blessing for someone tomorrow. Pastor Daniella https://twitter.com/pastordaniella

Worry, Doubt and Fear will war against your dreams the closer you get to seeing them coming to fruition. When these emotions flood your thoughts TRUST that if Jesus placed the dream within you then He means to see it through to the end. Trust that no matter what reality seeks to dictate to your future, it holds no weight upon it. We cannot stare more at the elements of life that seek to break you than the Lord Jesus Christ who seeks to build you. I know just how hard it is to dig deep and allow your Trust in Jesus to lead you more than you do the fears, worries, and doubts, but through this journey of trust, you will find a relationship will develop between you and Jesus that NOBODY can ever take away from you. Pastor Daniella https://Twitter.com/PastorDaniella

We are told not to worry, and yet we do. We are told to pray about everything, and yet many times, it is the last resort effort we take action in. Tell God all that we are in need of….do we? Or do we find ourselves putting on a “BRAVE FACE” for the Lord? Do we stop short of laying it out on the line of what we are in need of? If there is any place in life that we should be showing the entirety of the souls needs, pains, worry, doubts, and brokenness, shouldn’t it be with the Lord Jesus Christ? Why do we fall so far short of allowing Jesus to BE all He can be for us? Honestly….it is because so many of us have not yet truly come to an understanding that we are LOVED AS IT! We are loved right in the middle of the doubt. We are loved directly in the center of the utter failure of efforts that are crashing down upon us. We are loved even while we are not even sure if He will ever want us. We are just loved! Life isn’t like this, is it? We are too often loved for the actions taken or the things we offer to others, not just loved for LOVES SAKE. But that is the sort of love being offered to us from Jesus. Why is it so hard to believe in? Because it is a ONE OF A KIND type of love. It is the authentic, real deal, one of a kind love of the Lord Jesus Christ and only He knows how to use it…and He is seeking to show you just how glorious His love is. The next time doubt wars against you telling you that you aren’t good enough for the Lord Jesus Christ to fuss with, war against that thought and remember…YOU ARE LOVED AS IS! Pastor Daniella https://Twitter.com/PastorDaniella or MyAlabasterBox.org

The Lord Jesus Christ never fails to show up to assist us.  Sometimes the assistance will not look as you were hoping. Most of us hope for deliverance rather than endurance.  Jesus sees where we need to be for future blessings, and due to this He knows where the hardships that we face in the present are ones that will be walked out or ones that we can be quickly delivered from.    
Please feel free to read more at http://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com or follow me on Twitter.com https://Twitter.com/PastorDaniella

Jesus offers His love to you with a FULL understanding that it is HE that is perfect, not you.  Jesus knows that you are going to have days that go better and days that all seems to fail.  He created you so that He could have a relationship with you.  Relationships aren’t perfect all the time, no instead the beauty in a relationship is found in the camaraderie that comes about during the journey of the relationship.  Yet you are not going to enjoy this journey with the Lord Jesus if you continue to think that Jesus is upset with you when your actions fail.  His heart is not the heart of a condemner, His heart is full of tenderness, compassion, patients, and kindness. He cannot deny the very nature of WHO He is. When we fail to be all we can be, His FIRST reaction towards us is to offer us LOVE.  He doesn’t have to talk himself in to showing this compassion, no instead, it is His nature.   Please,  The next time that you find yourself on the flip side of wrong actions, don’t beat yourself up…instead.. come to Jesus, tell Him you are sorry and then spend the next few minutes letting your spirit be filled by remembering just how much you are loved with Jesus.  You are not a surprise.  He knew all that you were going to do in life, and still chose to give His life for you.  Pastor Daniella You can feel free to follow me on Twitter. Https://Twitter.com/PastorDaniella or find me on the web at MyAlabasterBox.org
 

If you are finding yourself in a state of confusion tonight, please take heart. Jesus loves you even while you are doubting Him. Jesus seeks to lift your head, but He will be patient with you as you learn what it means to trust not the world, but Him. If you enjoyed this, please feel free to follow me at Twitter: https://Twitter.com/PastorDaniella or visit my website: MyAlabasterBox.org

" Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6 NLT

Fear is the tool the Devil uses to shackle our dreams. I spent multiple years of my life fighting greatly the calling that the Lord has placed on my life. Why would I fight such a calling? Honestly, it was due to the fact that life had broken my heart to such a degree that I was not sure how someone in so much pain could be used by the Holy Lord God. Then life started to change. The birth of my children came and a healing started in my life. I saw that broken people can love deeply and more than they ever thought possible. I saw that out of damage comes understanding. I was allowed to glimpse that Jesus wasn’t in love with me for what I gave Him, but more rather what He wanted to share with me. You see, all I could offer Him was a box of shattered beliefs and hopes. What He could offer me was a lifetime of patiently putting me back together in order to be stronger than I ever had been before. Jesus was more than aware of my brokenness, but He also could see into my future and knew that with His love at my side, I would share with the world just how much healing is available in a relationship with Jesus. Jesus had more faith in me than I have ever had in myself. I found Peace in this understanding. I saw that Jesus was unlike other love I had in my life. In place of my pain he sought to fill me with a rightful understanding of what it means to be loved by the Lord Jesus Christ. This has and will continue to be a very long process, but each day my brokenness finds a little bit more wholeness. To be loved not based on action but instead just solely on the fact that you belong to Jesus, honestly… I have never had so much PEACE. Praise you Lord. Pastor Daniella. Please feel free to follow me on Twitter https://Twitter.com/PastorDaniella or my website MyAlabasterbox.org God's fullest blessings be with you.

Jesus promises never bring more on us than we can handle. This statement seems a myth at points of life doesn’t it? When we are at the heart of a troublesome time in life, we often find it very hard to observe with an optimistic eye. Frustrations come to rest upon our shoulders and we clench our teeth, and trudge through them all the while seemingly gasping for deliverance. I know I have found my life in this circumstances more than I can number. Jesus doesn’t want us to merely endure this life. He died in order that we would not only Have life, but that we would enjoy this life and have joy to such a level that it would outpour from us. (liberties taken with John10:10) Yet in our natural state we picture reasons to have joy and while many of those that we would list are not incorrect in their provision of joy, they are not the source of joy. Circumstances are as temporary as a fading sunset. There for moments of utter bliss only to dissipate with the passing of time. Try applying this statement to your own life. Think of the last time you were on a vacation and although it be that your circumstances were nearly perfect, an event of disruption takes place (a missed flight, a wrecked rental car, a lost wallet) and within minutes you relaxed vacation derails. If we depend on our life’s circumstances to be the catalyst to our joy, we will find ourselves not only in a very temporal existence. We’ve been fed a lie by life. This lie… Joy is a feeling and not a choice. The truth is the polar opposite. We are to have joy by choice, not by feeling. Joy that is applied even when all the flights are cancelled. Joy that allow you freedom to apply peace even when faced with one of the most difficult life circumstances you’ve been up against. Joy when all else seems to be failing in your life. The source of this Joy is found in knowing that you don’t have to understand the WHY of all of life’s events. Joy found in the ability to realize that you only live under the illusion that you have control over all that goes on in your life, and instead the One Who is in control is the VERY One Who went to the CROSS to save your life. I understand that struggle it is to apply joy in life. I too have faced many difficult situations. I am facing one right now, but instead of falling down in fear, I am applying JOY out of choice. Jesus knows the needs that I have facing me, as well as the ones that I will require next week/month/year. I would like to share one of my favorite scriptures with you. Please, if it ministers to you as it does to me, allow it to penetrate your heart and seed itself deep within you. From it, you will receive such strength. “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 God fullest blessings for you. Pastor Daniella. Follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/PastorDaniella or my website: MyAlabasterBox.org

The events of life that seem to be blowing us off course, many times are the ones actually sent as “course correctors”. It seems that more than enough events come into our lives without any forewarning. We see this lack of awareness as being caught off guard, Jesus sees an opportunity to work within us without preconceived notions as to what the solutions will be. This sort of ambiguity can be very difficult on the human spirit. We feel we exert faith best when we have a glimmer of where the deliverance will come from. But what about those situations in life that come to haunt us where no glimmer of deliverance seems on the horizon? Jesus Christ is no stranger to the struggles that we face here on Earth as we fluctuate between Faith and Despondency. His prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane are proof to His understanding of this fluctuation. He loved each of us with such profound love and knew that the only way to save us was to die, but His flesh warred greatly within Him to save itself from the agony that awaited. Faith requires belief. This belief burns like an unquenchable fire that is fueled by an acceptance that above all-Jesus is good, good even when current circumstances leave you wanting for more evidence to this fact. When we are reaching out to Jesus in those times when it seems that all you are able to conjure up is meager Faith…We are offering our Utmost to Him. You might envision this act of Faith as weak, but in reality, Jesus knows what you place within His hands is a precious gem. When you are broken by life’s circumstances and standing stripped of control over your life, vulnerability is very heightened. Jesus is fully aware of what you place in His hands when you offer faith to Him even when all reality tells you not to play that card. Jesus is, by nature, GOOD. No matter what your life’s circumstances are right now, it has no weight on the reality that Jesus lives For You at all times. The same Love that Drove Him to the Cross is the Same Love that He lives out Daily for you. Above all else- Jesus is Good and it is out of that Goodness that He offers love. Pastor Daniella. Follow on Twitter https://twitter.com/PastorDaniella or my website:http://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com/

Clarity to life's issues does not come through our unobstructed view, but more rather through our offering TRUST to the Lord Jesus Christ. Many times the deliverance that awaits us will not be provided where you expected, but instead by an avenue that the Lord has anointed to assist you. Our inability to SEE where the deliverance will take place has no effect on the reality of it being there. We serve a Mighty God. Sometimes in life, you need to just learn how to let Him show you just how Mighty He really is. Pastor Daniella Follow me on Twitter at : https://Twitter.com/Pastordaniella or my website MyalabasterBox.org

You are loved-As Is. This statement seems a lie, doesn’t it? After all, so many of us have been loved based on performance, or lack thereof. A battle takes place within-a struggle- to believe that we are loved by Jesus Christ in the state in which we are found…it seems the making of a great let down. We’ve all loved and lost. We’ve all wished only to have that diminished. What one of us hasn’t believed only to have the belief seem to make a fool out of you? These events of life can easily become the building blocks by which a foundation of beliefs about Jesus is formed. Too quickly we place the discouragements brought on by the failures of others in our lives to Jesus. Jesus loves NOT as others do. The love of Jesus Christ is WHOLE upon presentation. Jesus does not offer love only to receive it back. He IS LOVE! He offers the entirety of what Love is and in return only makes one request…. Please believe that my love is ALL YOU NEED. I remember the first time that my daughter got her heart broken over a difficult event in her life. I sat at the table with her, held her hands and asked her to look into my eyes. I told her of my love for her and that NO matter what took place in her life that I would never change the love I had to offer for her. I tried to help her see that the opinions of how others saw her would never be the foundation of how I would see her. My attempt at a comparison does fall quiet short seeing as He is the Almighty Lord Jesus, and I am merely a human, but I hope you can see the reason for the example. We are loved by Jesus by a self-sustained love. He doesn’t wait around for your actions OR the opinions of others to dictate to Him how He is going to see you. Instead, He arms Himself in love and then offers it freely. I have said it before, but it warrants the repetition, one of the GREATEST harms of life is that many people have NEVER experienced the REAL love that Jesus Christ has died to offer you. Tonight, just for practice, say to yourself….I am loved by Jesus Christ. Not for WHAT I do, but for the MERE fact that HE WANTS TO LOVE ME! Broken, addicted, betrayed, heart sick, confused…..there is not a state of emotions that you find yourself in that the Lord Jesus isn’t willing to BE love for you. The largest step forward that you can take is to just believe in the LOVE. Whether you can understand Why the Lord would want to love you makes no difference to the reality of what He offers you. Personal Note: I’ve been there. Broken and in desperate need for repair. The Lord Jesus’ love has saved my life in more than one way. Pastor Daniella Https://Twitter.com/pastordaniella or follow my webpage: http://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com

Jesus Christ does not see our lives here on Earth as the finality that we are naturally inclined to see them. Due to this fact, many of the actions that take place here seem upsetting to our human nature. They will be this until we are granted a further understanding into His thinking. Until that time...the Earth and we created by Him Groan for His coming. Pastor daniella

There is no way to reason loss. My prayers are with the family of Paul Walker. I offer comfort and support also to his friends. There is no way to reason pain of this nature. God bless you all with His comfort.

The Pains of our Past and Present difficulties leave great voids in our lives.  These voids can quickly be replaced by bitterness.  At first, bitterness seems harmless, after all, it is only positioning oneself to be prepared against the next attach, but bitterness is more than this, it is becomes a poison within the heart that creates a cycle of reliving the hurts.  The Lord seeks to Love us out of the pains.  He doesn't want us to have to live with damage of the soul as our main definition to live.   Please join me at the following link as I seek to just be of assistance to you in order that you can start to be healed out of the pains and live more in the present love of Jesus.  It is a journey, but it is worth it.  I speak this from personal experience. http://pastordaniellabitternessseries.weebly.com/

The Lord Jesus Christ keeps no record of the wrongs that we have done.  Seriously, I find this to be amazing.  I remember wrongs done to me as young as a two year old, and here I serve a Lord that sees NOT my sins of the day, but instead looks on me with LOVE.  I am floored at the Love that the Lord Jesus Christ carries for us. 

I don’t think that we can honestly take in all of what it means to be loved by Jesus Christ.  We are so accustomed to having our nose rubbed in every small misstep that when someone mentions that the Lord does not keep record, we figure that such a statement has to be untrue. I Cor 13:5 tells us that Love keeps no record of wrongs.  Love-the absolute essence of Jesus Christ-keeps no record of what you and I did wrong today.  Instead, His steady, life altering Love forgives and forgets.  Amazing!  I bow before Him, and humbly take this statement as the truth that it is over my life.  We will never know another love such as the Love of Jesus Christ for us.  Amen, Lord, Amen.

Pastor Daniella https://Twitter.com/PastorDaniella

The Love that we are given by the Lord Jesus Christ is so stunning to me.  To have love offered to us daily that is Kind, Patient, never in a state of Envy, never boasting or too proud to not make us first in His eyes, not self-seeking, not easily finding anger against me, and keeping no list of my daily wrongs.

He gives without failure ,on His part, knowing that He will be returned a love that falls far short of His, and never once does He hold this against us.  There will never be another love in your life like that of Jesus Christ. 

The greatest harm...so many have never really experienced the REAL love of Jesus.  This love of Jesus can only be experienced when you start to allow Him to SHOW you what He is like.  https://twitter.com/PastorDaniella  

When the Pains of the past start to lose their power over our lives, it is almost a bit disconcerting. You've lived for so long trapped within the emotional pain of the past that freedom seems too foreign to handle. Please take heart, the longer you live without the anxiety, worry, doubt, and fear, the more normal this state of thinking will become. We weren't meant to live broken. Peace of mind was supposed to be the frame of mind and perspective applied to the entirety of life. When you start to feel that quiet nudge to believe, trust it. Jesus is the lifter of our heads, not the torturer of our souls. Pastor Daniella https://twitter.com/PastorDaniella http://myalabasterbox.org/ 

When the Pain of Life Starts Losing its Power

The pains of our past put great effort trying to write the pages of what our future will look like. 

I had tried for years to move on past the pain of my earlier life.  I thought if I just mustered enough will power towards the pain, and shoving it deep within me, that it would never again raise its ugly head.  I was wrong.  What I ended up forming inside myself was a barricade. Determined to allow no one to hurt me again in life, I placed myself in the middle of the barricade walls and attempted to live my life.

At first glance, you would have thought this idea was working for me, but then my barricade started to crumble. No matter how hard I worked to rebuild it, it seemed in a constant state of decay.  I couldn't understand what was taking place in my life.  I had become very good at living within my walls.  Why was it now that things were changing?

The difference, Jesus had made it past my barricade and was showing me the love that He was offering me in my life. This love was one that I couldn't turn away.  His love was different.  Instead of Him coming to list all that was wrong with me, He offered me comfort.  Instead of Him rubbing my nose in all I had failed to move past in my life, He saddled up beside me and allowed me to see I was loved "AS IS".  

The more I accepted that His love was different than what I had been offered in life, the more a difference took place in my heart.  The memories of the pain were still present, but somehow the need to focus on them was lessening.  Slowly I was much more preoccupied with the Love of Jesus for my life than I was of the pains caused.

The Lord Jesus is a healer, but He seeks to heal you to fullness, if for the first time in your life.  He doesn't just carelessly aid His followers with some band-aid fix.  Instead, He comes to the corners of life where you are hiding and starts LOVING you out.  

We serve a loving, mighty Lord. I will eternally be humbled and grateful for all He is doing in my life. https://twitter.com/pastordaniella   http://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com/

What does the the Unconditional Love of the Lord really mean to me when applied to my life?

Many of us have been loved conditionally.  We have been rewarded with love due to our behavior or performance.  Jesus does not love in this manner.  I make that statement, but honestly…do any of us fully know what that means to us?  I don’t think we do.  I think we have a head knowledge of it, but to allow it to penetrate into our heart…that’s when the love of Jesus starts to affect our lives in the manner it was designed to do.
It does not matter what you have done in your past or what you will go on to do in your future...none of it will cause Jesus not to love you.  You are His…nothing will change this.  This statement here is not license to go and do as you wish, but more rather a statement meant to CHANGE YOUR LIFE!!!  I have just told you that you are loved in your entire broken state.  I am too!!!  I too am broken.  Broken by my past.  Heart on the floor, pain ridden, dead inside without my Lord Jesus Christ at my side.  But the love of Jesus transformed my life.
When I started to see what the love of Jesus meant for me, my Faith became more than a statement and instead, it became the blood by which my body survives.  I started to understand that someday, through the love of Jesus Christ in my life in a very personal way, I would look beyond my pain and instead into the eyes of the One who loves me.
The love that Jesus offers will mean something different to each of us.  To me, it is a healing from situations in my life that are honestly insurmountable for me.  I can’t justify or understand the pain I was placed under while growing up, but what I can do is to allow my heart to be loved by my Lord.  https://twitter.com/PastorDaniella http://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com/
Pastor Daniella  

Romans 8:31 If God is for us, who can be against us. I think that this scripture can be read and never really taken in for what it should mean to our thinking. We live in a world where if one person loves you, another hates you. If you’ve found favor in the eyes of the masses, there are always those willing to speak against you. The scripture tells us that “If God is for us, who can be against us?” At a quick glance, we could read this scripture and think? “Well, I am constantly finding myself on the losing end of someone looking on me unfavorably. So why does this scripture have any weight in our lives? Honestly, it is due the content of what the scripture is unveiling to us about where the focus of our approval should be sought from. “If God is for us”…this part of the scripture is your clue as to where all your importance should be placed, on God. In other words- Since the Lord God is FOR ME...WHAT does it matter if anyone is either For me or Against Me. I have all the approval that I need wrapped up in the knowledge that my Lord God is in full approval of me. When we allow the scripture to pierce into the fiber of our daily lives, we find a soundness of mind takes place. Where doubt of self used to reign, an empowerment is birthed from the understanding that God is for us. Where we derive our source of strength from is very important in life. If we are going to allow the opinions of others more validity in our lives than God’s view point, we will live out our days in nothing less than a roller coaster existence. Our emotion will never find stable ground. Stability will come from one understanding in life. You are God’s, He loves you, and “If God is for you, who can be against you?” Romans 8:31 Pastor Daniella

You matter to Jesus. Too often in life we are made to feel as if we don't count enough in someone's life to warrant their attention. This feeling is simply not applicable when it comes to Jesus Christ. Jesus is never distracted away from being fully invested in our lives. Please, when things aren't following well in your life. Don't think it means that Jesus has stopped loving you. This is impossible. Jesus tells us that NOTHING can strip us from His love for US. He loves by choice. Utter pure love just flows from Him. We are loved when life goes well, and when life goes badly. No matter that state that your life is in right now. Please just accept that you are loved. Talk with Jesus, even if it seems that all you are discussing are your difficulties, at first, just open up the avenue to communicate with Him.

Separation from the Lord Jesus Christ causes us to exist in a state of stagnate growth. Instead of progression we slip into regression. This separation births a cycle of doubt, and eventually defeat. We were made to live this life out in a partnership with Jesus.

The pains of my past were written on my heart. The pains were all I could see.  I knew Jesus was there for me, and I was in love with Him, but I didn't’t know how to let that understanding and feeling transform my life, and then I started to see it.  The pains of my life might be written on my heart, but His Love for me could come to mean so much to me that I would, for the first time in my life, allow Him to start writing something new across my heart. “ YOU ARE LOVED”, was what He started writing, and I have not been the same since. 

If you are interested in reading more, please visit my website. http://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com/index.html  https://twitter.com/PastorDaniella

If you have a dream and all that seems to be facing you are doubters, and a reality that seems insurmountable, please do not lose heart.

Our dreams were not written on the hearts of those that surround us.  They were written on our hearts.  Doubters will come to spread their poison many times in along your journey.  A doubter's opinion has no more weight on your dream than what you let it have.  

If Jesus placed it in you, then stay in Faith.  Be determined that you will allow your eyes to stare more at Jesus than your reality.  It is His power that will bring your dreams to fruition.  Allow Him to lead your through the quiet nudgings that you feel in your mind to STAY IN FAITH.

Pastor Daniella https://twitter.com/PastorDaniella  http://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com/

There will be times when you will feel that no firm path has shown to be the right one to take.  I have been at this fork in the road myself.  When you done your part: you placed the decision in the Lord’s hands.  You’ve involved Him to all areas of what path you should take, and still you are getting no firm leading, then you may need to understand that sometimes in life, we will have to start down a path and trust that if we have diverted in a direction that Jesus’ anointing was not upon, He will help us to realize it.  We serve a Mighty God.  If we remain flexible, and willing to change to what His will is, then we aren’t going to find it difficult to course correct if we it starts becoming evident that our decision wasn’t the perfect one.

If you enjoyed this small segment.  Please feel free to find my full articles at my website: http://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com/ or my TWITTER account. https://twitter.com/PastorDaniella

Mind sets

I find it interesting how life starts to unfold.  We start out so full of dreams.  Before long, fear starts to replace dreams and we slowly start to redefine life based on the negative experiences rather than the positive ones.  When we spend too long in this mind frame, we allow strong holds of the mind to form.  These strong holds soon become a concrete barrier that hinder our expression of Faith towards the Lord.

But, overcoming strong holds of the mind is not a one step process.  When working to move past them, choices have to be made daily to refrain from entertaining the fears, and instead pressing to see the Lord’s leading.

Try to start seeing Fear for what it is…a veil over your eyes that blurs reality and prevents dreams from ever taking on life.

If you are interested.  You can follow me at : TWITTER-https://twitter.com/PastorDaniella or my WEBSITE MyAlabasterBox.org 

To Believe that something better awaits us is very trying to the soul.  The reason being, we are at war within ourselves.  Our soul is interested in feeding our own interests and furthering them as quickly as possible.  Our Spirit, knows to wait on the Lord's timing and be willing to apply Peace while we wait.  Waiting is difficult alone, let alone having to apply the waiting to something we are greatly anticipating.  The more we find Peace while we believe in the breaking in the clouds to come, the more we can enjoy the journey that life is.  If you enjoyed this, please follow me at : https://twitter.com/PastorDaniella  or my website: http://myalabasterbox.org/

Helping to spread a Good word

Just sharing the website for a Christian band working to spread that Word of Christ through music. http://thebandjustus.com/ 

Being loved by Jesus means being loved for all that you are and all that you are not. Jesus is the lifter of our heads. For too long we have lived thinking we must feel badly about ourselves. Jesus is seeking to be in a relationship with you that provides you healing love for the first time in your life. If you would like, you can join me at my website.http://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com/..

We don't know what tomorrow, next month, or even next year holds for our lives...but Jesus does. To Trust Jesus is to trust the One who CAN help us in our times of trouble. Pastor Daniella If you enjoyed this there are articles posted at my websitehttp://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com/

Fears, anxiety, and doubt, we are not impervious of these troubles. Jesus has assured us that we are take heart and understand that although these very difficult feelings will invade our lives, we don’t have to give into the actions that they produce. When you feel fear, you don’t have to act on it. When anxiety rises within you, you needn’t feed it. When doubts invade your thinking, you are free to see them for the lies that they are. Our Lord Jesus assures us in John 16:33, that although these troubles rise, we are not left alone. The Peace that Christ brings to our lives doesn’t look like the peace that the world expects. The world expects that we would find peace through circumstances all falling in line. Jesus promises a different type of peace. He speaks of a Peace that renders POWER into our lives in the middle of the storm. This does not mean that there will not be times were there is situational peace, there will be. Instead, this is here to help us understand that we needed be blown off course just because of the storms of life. You might have lost your site of vision, but Jesus didn’t. If you would like to read more articles like this. Please go to http://myalabasterbox.org/index.html

If you have had some very difficult events take place in your life today, please....take heart. Jesus does love us. We aren't always going to "feel" this love as you would assume it would be. Humans feel that Jesus' love should be painless. We feel that there should be a constant deliverace from all issues of life. Jesus shares in the Bible that troubles will face us. That's not the easiest thing to hear is it? I know it isn't for me. But, Jesus gives Peace not as the World looks at Peace. Instead, He promises to give Peace that is in you, strengthening you from within. Not at all like the Peace of the World, purely circumstantial Peace. If you are interested in reading it. I wrote an article on Peace, it is in my website. I too have been so very broken in life. I felt as if Peace would never be apart of my life. I was wrong. Christ is bringing me to wholeness for the first time in my life. I share with you because I want others to feel the deliverance that Jesus can be for us. My Website..http://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com/ Or follow me on Twitter. .https://twitter.com/PastorDaniella

If you have held on to the pains of your life, waiting for the perfect time to let them go, you will most likely continue to hold onto them for many years to come. Circumstances rarely become prime in life, and if they do…they are many times fleeting. Jesus asks us to trust Him, even when all the circumstances in our “natural” life tell us otherwise. Please, the pains of your life are hard to handle. I know. The only way to allow yourself to begin to feel whole once more is to learn how to be healed by Jesus in your heart. If you are interested in learning ways to start allowing Jesus’ love to mean more to you than the pains of the past. I invite you to read my website. I offer it to you, because I too have found myself where you are, and I want to share what is healing me. My website. http://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com/ https://twitter.com/PastorDaniella

Jesus seeks to prepare us to be able to handle all that He seeks to fulfill in our lives. The preparation seems long and arduous, but it does serve a purpose. Just as we would never want to place a six year old in charge of a large corporation, so too does Jesus not want to give a gift we are not yet ready to handle with His strengthening at our side. Pastor Daniellahttp://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com/ https://twitter.com/PastorDaniella

Fear and Faith do not speak the same language. Which language will you choose to learn? Matthew 12:25 teaches us that a house divided against itself cannot stand. Neither can a human's soul. We must choose to either live in faith or fear. If we choose Faith, an empowerment from the Holy Spirit will serve to strengthen us. If we choose fear, we must be willing to accept that it is a poison to our thinking, and will continue to devour our hopes, dreams, and trust, until there is nothing left. Pastor Daniella https://twitter.com/PastorDaniella

Bitterness series http://pastordaniellabitternessseries.weebly.com/

There is never a time that you shouldn't reach out to Jesus. Reach out in the middle of the addiction, chaos, and pain. He seeks to love you out of the pains of your life. Pastor Daniella http://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com/

Fear and Faith

Fear and Faith do not speak the same language.  We must choose which one we will learn. Pastor Daniella

Bitterness Series

Bitterness has an insatiable appetite.  It will devour all hope you have.  Bitterness will cycle us into the most painful reliving our past pains.  We have been given the opportunity to be given freedom from these pains.  We can be HEALED into wholeness by Jesus Christ.  It will take time, but there is freedom on the other side of the pain you are currently living in.


The Bitterness Series has been given its own website

http://pastordaniellabitternessseries.weebly.com/

Safe Guard Your Dreams

Safe Guard Your Dreams

Doubt has an insatiable appetite, and it quickly devours our dreams.  Each of us have dreams within our heart.  You might not have spoken them to a single other soul in life, but they are none the less a dream you feel will come to fruition.  I know from personal experience just how hard it is to believe that a dream once placed upon your heart, will in fact come to pass.  Doubt, at times almost seems in step with your every thought.  You exert effort towards believing, and just as quickly, doubt rushes up beside you to tell you how ridiculous your efforts are.  With doubt so quick to war against our dreams, we must learn how to “safe guard” our dreams against it.

The Bible teaches us that we overcome all evils with good.  Since doubt is an evil thinking in our lives, we must apply positive thinking in order to overcome it. 

1.       Invite Christ in.  John 15:5 tells us, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.”  In everything we must include the Lord Jesus Christ.  This is the most vital step you take in setting out to accomplish anything in life.

How do we invite Him in?

First, ask Jesus Christ to help you in being sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s quiet nudging.   The Holy Spirit seeks to lead us to Jesus daily.  By requesting that Jesus help you to be sensitive, you are admitting that the human spirit can very quickly drown out the Holy Spirit, in order to follow our own ambitions.  You might not think of doubt as an ambition, but our soul seeks emotional extremes at points in our lives, and doubt can lead us to a great emotional extreme. 

2.       Trust that Jesus does want to bring the dream to pass in your life.  Isaiah 30:18 shares with us this, “The Lord longs to be gracious to you.” Niv   Christ planted that seed of a dream in you.  But just as everything planted takes time to come to harvest, so too do our dreams.  The waiting period that we go through while we anticipate our dream to come to pass is a blessed and has  anointed time.  Luke 12:48 expresses why the waiting is needed. “When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.”NLT   Too often in life, much is given and an utter failure shortly follows.  Jesus is not a careless giver.  He is preparing you to be ready for all your dream is going to require of you in life. 

3.       Learn to rejoice in the journey towards the dream with each day that you wait, and are willing to be changed and molded by the love of Jesus Christ, you are coming closer to the dream coming to fruition.  When we learn to trust that Christ knows what He is doing by having us wait, we will start to learn that each day’s wait is another day closer.  Remember, we overcome evil with good.  Perspective greatly determines how we can overcome many of life’s difficulties.

4.       Find daily things you can do that cause you to daydream about your dream coming true.

Examples: 

v  Find music that inspires you, and uplifts your spirit. 

v  Place motivational scriptures in places that remind you that God is good and what He starts, He finishes. Philippians 1:6  

v  Make up a poster that announces your accomplishment as if it has already come to pass, place it in a room where you will pass by multiple times a day.

v  Find something motivation to wear.  My husband had a ring made up for me that has “Abide, Pastor” written on it.  Do you have an heirloom that means something to you?  If it is small enough place it on something you can wear, a chain, or a jacket, some place where you will see it daily. 

5.       Guard Your Dream Many dreams are stolen by the devil in the blink of an eye.  Just one bad day can be enough for the faint of heart to give up.  If God placed this dream in your heart, then you have to understand, it is not up for grabs by the devil.  It is your dream that only you and God have together.  Protect your dream as you would the front door of your house.  You don’t just leaving it standing wide open and go to bed.  Why would you leave the door to your dream open to anyone who wants to walk in and steal from you?  You wouldn’t, but we do get lax in guarding our dreams.   Don’t leave your dream up to the interpretation of other people’s opinions.  Many people, whether deliberate or not, snuff out others dreams.  Their criticism is taken to heart, and when our dreams are unguarded, the criticism can be the poison that taints the entire work God has begun in you.

Vitally Important:  This thought has been very empowering for me in my life, JESUS IS THE LIFTER OF OUR HEADS. Psalms 3:3 He loves you with a real love.  One that you will experience nowhere else but in a relationship with Him.  It is out of this love for you that He has planted a seed of His dream for your life, in you.  Believe in Christ first, then together you and He will bring that dream into a beautiful state of reality. 

A personal note.  I do understand just how difficult is it to overcome the appetite of doubt in our lives.  We are never given more than we can handle 1 Corinthian 10:13.  The most empowering thought to my life, is knowing that Jesus loves me. Not just any love, but a love that sees me for who I am and all that I am not.  He knows my strengths, my weaknesses, and STILL wanted to use me.  He is a faithful Christ.  Open your heart to Him.  He does not harm you, He loves you.  Pastor Daniella http://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com/

Bitterness-Part 7

Yesterday, we covered Abiding in Jesus.  Jesus instructs us that if we abide in Him, and He in us, we will receive a constant flow of strength through Him. (Liberties taken with John 15:4-5) Bitterness penetrates deep into our thinking and emotional reactions.  When we are starting to release bitterness, we must first fill ourselves with empowering, healing thoughts.  We can only receive these thoughts from Jesus.  He builds us up, sustains us, and empowers us to make the changes necessary in our minds in order that we can start to see bitterness for the poison it is to us.  We cannot receive from Jesus unless we are correctly abiding with Him.  I spoke yesterday of prayer, and a constant invitation to Jesus to be involve in our lives.

Bitterness catches us in a cycle of reliving our past/present hurts.  This recycling starts a reverberation of the irritation in our lives.  The louder this reverberation becomes, the more difficult it is for us to receive what the Holy Spirit is trying to lead us to.   

BREAK THE CYCLE:

Calm- a beautiful thought, but to many of us, it is so foreign.  Situational calm takes place here or there for us during the week, but to live in a status of calm is almost unimaginable.  Bitterness seeks only to feed on the frustrating, irritating, painful events of our lives.  Without it, it would die off.  This is what CALM does to bitterness, it cuts the feeding tube.  Calm is the antidote to the poison that bitterness is to our lives.  Hebrews 12:15 speaks of the poison that bitterness becomes in our lives as a root that will only serve to trouble us. 

Good overcomes evil.  Romans 12:21.  The pains of our past leave voids.  I spoke of how quickly bitterness seeks to set up residence in your heart.  When we are abiding in Jesus, we are filling the voids left by the pain with something good and empowering.  In other words, we are overcoming the evil pains of life, with the pure, good love of Jesus. 

Seek Daily Bread We have been designed to need food and water daily.  Our Spirit is no different.  We cannot binge on the Lord.  We are to seek Him daily.  Just as food is the fuel that our human body runs on, so is our Lord Jesus Christ to our Spirit.  “Apart from me, you can do nothing”.  (John 15:5) To fight against this thought by trying to accomplish moving past bitterness without the daily involvement of Jesus will result in your failure to truly be healed. 

Acknowledge the HEALER for WHO He alone is in your life. You see, ONLY Jesus can heal the pains of our past.  To be safe, secure, and KNOW who you are, only is accomplished in Jesus Christ.  Pains are going to take place again in life.  Our lives are not impervious to them, but with Jesus as our Lord, we have the HEALER living inside us. 

Article by: Pastor Daniella

Personal Note: My heart “ached” for so many years to be correctly filled.  Bitterness stripped my life of so much.  I would show the joy and happiness on the outside, but on the inside I was so scared by the pains of my life.  Jesus has and is healing me.  I pray this for your life as well.  

Bitterness-Part 6

In Part 5 we talked over what it means to have Jesus be “The Way, The Truth, and The Life” in our lives.  We saw that Jesus is also “Our Shield, Our Glory, and the Lifter of our heads.” All beautiful titles given to Jesus, but words mean little unless we learn where to apply them in our lives.  Yesterday we discussed why each of these titles are helpful in our learning Who Jesus is and How to trust Him to heal us from the bitterness of our lives. 

Today, we will cover one of the most important ways to receive the needed fortification for our relationship with Jesus, abiding with Him. When we abide in Jesus, we are in a constant state of receivership from Jesus.  The importance of this is that our Focus remains on Him, not the pains of our past, or current frustrations.  In other words, we aren't leaving our “emotional” doors open and vulnerable to others.  When we are receiving from Jesus the nutrients we need in life, all other sources of nutrition seem to pale in comparison.

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit [a]of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5) I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. John 15:4-5 NASB

Abide-We are being encouraged by Jesus to stay/live with Him.  The most obvious question that comes to mind here is, how do we, humans, abide with Jesus?   Jesus desires to be the vital part of our daily lives.  Abiding with Jesus can take on many forms, I wish to cover only a few in order to help you understand how to apply such a powerful scripture to our lives. 

Abiding, what can that look like?

·         Prayer:

The more evident application of abiding would be that of prayer.  Most of us are familiar with prayer in some form or the other.  I will not offer an opinion on prayer other than to ask you this, when you pray…..do you let your heart show?  Do you come to Jesus with the barriers of your life down?  There is one person in life that you can take such an approach with and it is Jesus.  He IS that best friend you have needed. He IS the One who has known you since before you were formed in your mother’s womb. Jeremiah 1:5   He IS the One that offers Peace that passes all understanding. Philippians 4:7   He IS the love of your life, in whom you can place all your darkest secrets and pains.  He IS the ONE person you can truly surrender to in life.  James 4:7

There is no need to place a false pretense between you and Jesus.  He knows you, sees it all, and loves you RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE AT.  He has seen you bitter ridden and still loved you. Please, if you are not already doing it, see prayer as time with the one who already gave ALL to be with you. You weren't meant to try to deal with life all by yourself.  You were designed to be in a relationship with Jesus, and denying it will only prolong the pain in your life.  Please, let Him in.

·         Involvement:

Many will tell you, “Jesus is just too busy with the troubles of the world to fuss with the small messes of your life.”  I will allow others their opinions, as I am allowed mine.  I do not personally share in this opinion.  I believe if ANYONE needs to bother with my life, it is Jesus.  If ANYONE deserves to know the daily interests, stresses, joys, and hopes that I have for my day, it is my Jesus.  In turn, I involve Him in all aspects of my life.  Feeling that I could release “control” over my life enough to ask for the involvement has taken time. But, now when I am asking for His help to guide my day, I see it as a state of empowerment, not impotence.  The more you involve Jesus in your life, the greater the detail you present Him, the more He can help you with.  As you learn more what trusting Jesus looks like, this will become easier.

                Tomorrow we are will start learning the idea of quieting our spirits, as being a way to abide with Jesus.  I pray you are finding these articles a blessing in your life.  God’s peace and comfort be with you.  Pastor Daniella

Bitterness-Part 4

Bitterness-Part 4

Yesterday, we covered the need for us to practice patience while Jesus helps us to work through the pains of our past in order to heal of from the poison that bitterness is in our lives.  We discussed that the scars left by the pain we have been caused in life, are very deep.  A quick “band aid” healing is not going to work with this type of damage.  Jesus knows this.  Too often, when we seek a quick fix in our emotions, without ever getting the root of what causes them, it leaves a door open for the pain to reappear in another manifestation of our lives.  Jesus seeks to heal fully.  We spoke of how Jesus knows that damaged people have had their trust broken.  He knows that in order to heal you of your bitterness, He will have to start to teach you WHO He is and just how different His love is from anyone else’s in your life.  We know that Jesus is the Savior of the World, and the Son of God.

Today, we will talk over some of just Who our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is.

Learning WHO Jesus is.

The beautiful understanding here, is that your relationship with Jesus is in a constant state of metamorphosis.  Each stage of your life is going to be met with you understanding more of just WHO Jesus is.  The way to start learning of Jesus is through scripture.

Jesus is gentle and humble of heart.

One of my favorite of these scriptures is: Matthew 11:29 NLT.

“Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

Words like, gentle, and humble of heart.  These are words not readily used in this world, are they?  And if they are used, they many times are used to describe someone that people think of as powerless.  With Jesus, you have the genuine article of all power, and yet, at the same time, someone who will walks with you in the smallest moments of your life.  Humble of Heart is another way Jesus speaks of Himself.  Humble of heart, moved by compassion, mercy, genuine desire to help, never full of oneself, always seeking to give, these are thoughts that come to mind when I read this scripture about Jesus.

Jesus is dependable. 

Bitterness causes a great deal of mistrust within us.  Jesus seeks to heal this by allowing us to understand what stability looks like, for the first time in our lives. Hebrews 13:8 speaks of Jesus of the stability of Christ.

“I am the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.”

To be the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  Heck, I can’t even keep the same hair color for one year, let alone be the same every day of my life.  The stability of Jesus is so appealing.  Having Jesus be the same, always, means that His mood doesn't change when the dramas of life come to envelope us.  His love never fails to remain utterly perfect for us.  He desires a relationship with us, even if we are in the middle of denying it to Him.  HE REMAINS THE SAME.

Join me tomorrow, we will cover the last two points on learning Who Jesus can be for us in our lives.  God bless your day.  Pastor Daniella

  http://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com/

Bitterness-Part 3

Bitterness-Part 3

Yesterday, we learned why, many times, we allow bitterness to enter into our thinking.  We also started to explore the steps that we can take towards Jesus Christ that will invite Him into our pain.  This invitation opens the door for Jesus Christ to HEAL us out of our bitterness.  

Today, we will cover the next two steps in learning how to walk out of the bitterness that is in our lives. 

So….You’ve prayed, now what?

1.       Learn why we need to be patient for the TRUE Healing that comes from Jesus, alone.

Voids are left in our soul by the pains of our lives.  Bitterness quickly comes to fill in those voids.  The Bible speaks of bitterness being a poisonous root.  Bitterness will use all areas that have been painful in order to derive the momentum it needs to continue to grow in your body.  Once you have prayed for healing from Jesus, and His involvement in your desire to remove bitterness from your life, start trusting.  Please remember, Jesus is not a careless healer.  He does not just topically fix you.  He seeks to heal you from the inside out.

2.       Learn how to trust (for the first time) enough to open the vault doors of your painful past to Jesus.

Trusting:  A time stamped process.  Trust is built over time.  For now, just trust that Jesus IS. Start trusting that you will learn to open up to Him.  Understand that Jesus knows how HARD it is for a hurting person to open their lives to Him.  Jesus is patient.  I want to share a scripture that changed my life. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. Isaiah 42:3 niv.  No matter how small the glimmer of hope we have, Christ will not ignore it.

You see, when you have been damaged by life and you feel so broken inside that you are sure that there is no hope to ever be repaired to wholeness again, you feel as if your life is made up of shards of broken dreams, and shattered trust.  But the above scripture assures us that Jesus is willing to stoop down, sweep up the shards, and promise to heal you to wholeness.  HE IS SO FAITHFUL. 

Jesus knows in order for you to trust Him with the shards of your life, you will have to come to a true understand of just Who He is. 

Tomorrow we will begin to talk about Who Jesus really is for us. 

criptures biblegateway.com

Bitterness-Part 1

Bitterness-Part 1

When something is poisonous, we know to avoid it.  The Bible expresses bitterness as a poisonous root. (Hebrews 12:15)  The poison of bitterness penetrates into every spectrum of our life, when left undealt with.  Roots branch out in search of nutrients.  Bitterness is much like this.  When we have bitterness in our hearts, the bitterness will branch out through every life event, looking where to draw its next supportive nutrients. 

Identifying Bitterness in our lives.

So, how do we identify bitterness in our lives?  First, we have to start seeing bitterness for what it is.  I discussed that it is a poisonous root that takes hold in our lives.  Let’s take the definition further.  What really is bitterness?  It is an unwillingness to allow trust into our heart that God is the avenger of the harm done to us in life.  Exodus 14:14 assures us, “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still."   When we are unwilling to wait upon the Lord, we take bitterness into our heart as a way of defending ourselves against being disappointed or harmed again.  We start allowing our bitterness root to be what anchors us in life, rather than allowing love to continue to flow through us, and trusting God. 

Bitterness Can Disguise Itself

Be cautious to not be tricked in life.  Bitterness can easily be defined as being “wise”.  Are we to be wise, yes?  Proverbs talks in great depth about the importance in the application of wisdom, but Wisdom comes from the Lord, Bitterness comes from the devil.  Wisdom knows to trust Christ first in order to form an opinion, Bitterness only forms opinions spawned by poisoned thoughts.  Thoughts like anger, frustration, doubt, disappointment, fear…accompany bitterness.  When we are looking to identify bitterness in our lives, we must make sure that we are willing to separate all wrongful thinking, no matter how logical it might seem, from correct Godly wisdom.

Tomorrow, we will cover why we let bitterness take hold in our lives and begin the steps in learning how to remove it.   God bless you in His Peace and Love.  Pastor Daniella http://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com/

Bitterness Part 2

Bitterness-Part 2

In yesterday’s article we learned that Bitterness is a poisonous root.  Hebrews 12:15   We learned that this poison, when left undealt with, can penetrate into every spectrum of our life.   We saw that bitterness can quickly be dismissed in our lives, when we think of it as being wise.  But, wisdom comes from the Lord, Bitterness comes from the devil.  Wisdom knows to trust Christ first in order to form an opinion, Bitterness only forms opinions spawned by poisoned thoughts.

Today, we will cover the following areas concerning bitterness:  Why do we let bitterness take hold in our lives, and begin seeing the first step we can take in removing it from our lives. 

Why do we let bitterness take hold?

When we are hurt, we want an instant resolution to the matter.  We want someone or something to make the pain of being hurt go away.  The latter part of Exodus 14:14 speaks of our need to wait upon God.  Honestly, when you are hurt, about the last thing you want to do is practice patience or grace.     Trusting in God goes against our fleshly desires.   Trusting God takes faith.  The pain that you feel in life is very apparent, every day, you wake up with it “wrapped” around your heart.  Trusting God is something that we have to clothe ourselves in daily.  You don’t just decide to trust once and that’s all the effort you have to exert towards it.  But, by bitterness, you can be hurt badly once and it take root in your life very deeply.  It is similar to eating something that you is going to cause you to gain weight.  It takes only a few minutes to eat the item, but it is going to take you hours of hard work to get the weight back off your body.  Bitterness shows up in a single event in life and in an instant can transform your viewpoint.  Trusting God takes effort, and a constant application of prayer, communication, faith, and surrender, to keep trust active in our lives.  In order to fight bitterness, you will have to work daily at keeping it out of your life.  I think this very requirement is why many people just allow it to form the foundation of their opinion.  They just get tired of forgiving, practicing patience, grace, or turning the other cheek.  (Matthew 5:39)   

How can we remove bitterness from our lives?

1.       Ask Christ to be the Lord of your desire to overcome the bitterness.  The only way to approach anything in life is to remember a very core thought, apart from Christ we are nothing.  (John 15:5)  I believe that this scripture serves as a reassurance to us.  We are not alone in any struggle in our lives.  Jesus is right at our side, but if we are unwilling to invite Him in, we have cut ourselves off from the source of strength that we needed in order to overcome the weakness. 

• Example of how to apply this to your life:  Susan has lived for years with deep resentment towards her mother.  She had a very difficult childhood.  Her mother pressured her to be perfect.  Each time Susan came home with a good grade in school, her mother would neglect celebrating it with her, and instead critique her for the grade not being perfect.  When Susan came home with perfect grades, her mother would say, “You should have been doing this all along.”  Each step of Susan’s life thus far, had been spent with her mother Lording over her with a dominating, mean spirit.  Susan, in the natural has every right to be bitter.  Remember, I said in the natural, meaning in the human way of looking at things.  God expects that Susan will lean more on His love for her, than the pain that Susan’s mother is causing her.  Susan has not done this yet in her life.  Susan recently became engaged.  She is a very defensive person.  Her fiancé is a very loving, kind man, and yet she keeps finding herself so full of bitterness in her life, that no matter what he says, she is sure it is meant in a critical and mean spirit.  Recently an event took place where Susan was able to see that she was transferring bitterness from her childhood onto her new life with her fiancé.  She knows she does not want to bring the baggage of her life with her mother into her new relationship, but how does she do this?

Idea for a prayer of healing

Susan is told that the first way to start anything in life is to begin by asking the Lord Jesus Christ to be the source of strength that upholds your desire for change.  Susan comes to her knees in prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, my life has been so broken.  I have not wanted to become a bitter person.  I have wanted good in my life, and strived to do the best I could by my mother, but it never seemed enough Lord.  I know that you see the wrongs that were done in my life, and I know that you love me.  I am asking you to help me to remove the bitterness in my heart from my life.  I know it will not be easy.  I have a great deal of fear and defensiveness built up in me due to the damage my mother has caused me, but I am committed to YOU, Jesus.  I know that you are faithful and whatever you begin in me, you will bring to completion.  I know that by removing bitterness from my life, I will draw closer to you, and my relationships will be blessed.  I know that although my mother may never know what pain she has caused me, your HEALING will have more effect on me than her apology ever would.  I love you Jesus.  Please walk me out of this trouble. Amen”

This example of a surrendering prayer exemplifies how we take an identified problem to the Lord Jesus Christ, and involve Him in our first desires for change.  Tomorrow we will move on to the next step in removing bitterness from our lives.  The Lord Jesus Christ is willing to take the journey with us to remove bitterness from your life, are you?  Pastor Daniella