That's A Mighty BIG Bite you have there young lady.

I have always been super ambitious. I would think up all kinds of things to do and to create and places to go and I would go overboard and my dad would say, "Sis, don't bite off more than you can chew." and of course I always did and I would end up not finishing projects, forgetting important things that I had taken responsibility for and end up making folks mad at me and disappointing them and myself as well. I would see things that needed to be done whether it was at church or at home and I would take it all on and then fall flat of my face when I became overwhelmed.

Well...here I am at age 55 still doing the same things. We call it multi-tasking these days. You know you are typing something on the computer, talking on the phone, something is in the oven and on the stove, dishes in the dishwasher, clothes in the washer and dryer and someone is knocking on the door and in our society this is considered the "norm" well....I am the world's worst for doing this type of stuff and then taking on even more and more and more just because it is something that "needs" to be done. I have come to the conclusion if I am to keep my sanity, I am going to have to be very selective, and choosy as to what I take on because I have once again overwhelmed my self. I can hear my dad's voice in my ear again, "Sis, don't bite off more than you can chew." and I have done just that. I have chewed and chewed and chewed and it doesn't seem to be getting any smaller, it actually seems to be getting bigger and bigger and I just know that it will get stuck in my throat if I try to swallow so I have decided to spit it all out for a while, pull to the side and have a little talk with my Jesus.

I have recently had to start on anxiety meds because I have overwhelmed myself and I haven't had to take any in almost 12 years. I am still learning that just because something needs to be done, doesn't mean I have to be the one to do it or in other words just because something needs to be chewed doesn't mean that it is my BIG BITE TO CHEW!  Lord have mercy why do I do these things to myself? Why do I take on and take on until I am utterly exhausted, frustrated and feel downright crazy? Is it because I am trying to prove myself? am I insecure in some area and feel the need to impress people with my multiple skill sets and abilities? Well.. whatever it is, I am stopping it today. I will maintain my sanity, do my writing, preaching, teaching as God would have it and lay everything else down. I have to do it or be completely out of the will of the Father and that I refuse to do.

Hopefully...this time I have learned my lesson, Lord knows I hope that I have. This was not my BITE and I took it anyway and I nearly chocked to death on it!

The words to an old, well-loved and familiar song comes to mind today: His eye is on the sparrow, why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come. Why should my heart be lonely and long for Heaven and home? When Jesus is my portion, my constant friend is He, His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me. Why are we discouraged and cast down? When we know that God is on our side. He is for us. He is not against us. Despite what some religious people may try to tell you. HE IS NOT MAD AT YOU! He loves you completely and wants His perfect will to come to pass in your life.

He isn't sitting up in Heaven waiting for you to do something awful, so He can cast you into outer darkness! The word tells us that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father ever making intercession for us. He wants us to make it! He wants us to succeed! He knows the end from the beginning and He realizes who and what we are. He is the one that made us, we didn't make ourselves. The Psalmist David said it like this in Psalm 100:3 Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 

He made us and so therefore He knows every single nuance of our being. He is not shocked or amazed when we err or fall off of the path. He knows all about it. Don't get into condemnation over what other people may say to you or about you. He wants you to succeed. He wants you to make it to that Heavenly city more than you want to make it. We seem to forget sometimes that we have the ability and the grand privilege of being able to call out to the God of the universe, that happens to also be our Heavenly Father and say God!! help me! I need you! rescue me from my own foolishness! Help me God!  He will, the word tells us so. The word says in Jeremiah, call on me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things that you know not. He wants to hear us, He wants to answer us and provide what is needed to help us on this rough and sometimes rugged road that we are traveling on.

The word also tells us that we can come boldly before the throne of grace to obtain mercy in time of need. I don't know about you, but I have to call out a whole lot sometimes. I have those days where I am out-- loud-- in --front --of-- people-- saying Oh God!please help me to keep my mouth shut! Oh God I need you, right now, right here, at this exact moment to help me! and guess what? He always does. He is always right on time. Now, mind you, He has never been known to be early but guess what? He is never late either. He is always right on time. He allows us to wait sometimes because in the waiting we are stretching our faith, perfecting our patience and long suffering and the one I really have a hard time with self- control. The word tells us that a man without self control is like a city with broken down walls and some days that is exactly how I feel. Just like I have no defense, I have no strength left within me to do what needs to be done. But, when I take the time to calm myself, focus on Him and talk with Him, my anxiety, fear, frustration seems to melt away. The problem may not be immediately dissipated but I feel more equipped and able to handle whatever is in my path.

Today I want to encourage you to cry out to Him. To start and end your day with Him. He is the end all, be all, fix all in our lives and He is willing and able to help us in any and every situation that we manage to find ourselves in. Even in those self-created messes that we struggle with . He will save us from our own destruction if we will just call on Him. He loves us enough, to rescue us from our own foolishness and set us back on the right path. He truly is working out all things for our good and for His glory. Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for the good of them that love the Lord and are the called according to His purpose. Let Him get all of the glory today from your story. Let Him turn your mess into a message and lean on Him for strength and help today in time of need.

AWord42Day

Priscilla Hinds

Blogger/Writer

Cultivate Before You Operate

Before we can operate in the gifts of the Spirit, first we must cultivate the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is a learning, growing, disciplinary process. Then and only then can we operate successfully in a God pleasing way with our gifts. When we jump the gun and begin to operate in gifts that we possess without having them seasoned well with the word of God, much prayer and discipline, we will fall on our face. God is not impressed with our gifts, since He is the one that gave them to us.

God is not in awe of us and all that we can do. Who are we kidding? God is pleased with obedience, and a servant mindset that serves God and His people. I have watched so many people over the years do this and in watching them I have learned what not to do. I have been accused of not using my gifts enough. Well... I would rather hold back and make sure that God is really speaking and that God is really telling me to say something, than to jump out and do something and it end up being all me and not God. I do not want to dishonor Him in that way.

Operating in the gifts of the Holy Spirit is a serious thing and should not be taken lightly and used for show, for self-promotion or for personal gain. God is always watching us and He is keeping an account of who is being a good steward. Sometimes people think that being a good steward is just about tithing, giving offerings and giving alms to the poor. No, being a good steward also applies to any and everything that God has given to us whether it be housing, cars, clothing, friends, and yes the gifts of the Spirit. God wants us to honor Him with our gifts. To wait upon His signal to use them and to steward them well.

The word of God tells us that every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of lights up above. So, since they come from Him, we should always be mindful to use them to honor Him. Not to get caught up in the gift and remember who the Giver of the gift is. Honor Him, Respond to Him, Submit to Him and He will exalt you in due time.

Here is a good rule of thumb: 1. Check your root
2. Cultivate your fruit and finally 3. Then operate in your gift
Priscilla Hinds
Blogger/Writer
AWord42Day

Not The Carb Tree!

Not The Carb Tree!

In the book of Genesis we find the story of Adam and Eve, and how God had placed them in this beautiful garden and how He had given them every tree to eat of except for the tree in the middle of the garden, which was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He said if you eat of that tree you will surely die. What did they do? Well of course, they disobeyed God and ate of the very tree, the only one that they were not supposed to eat of.

Well.....today as I was talking with the Lord about this weight loss journey He said very clearly to me that this journey has similarities to this story. You see when I eat carbs it blows me up like a blow fish and I get HUGE. That is my tree, I am not supposed to eat of. I have all of the lovely proteins fish, chicken, turkey, beef, pork, shrimp, etc and all of the lovely vegetables zucchini, celery, bell peppers, onions, mushroom, kale, spinach, etc and all of the lovely fruits, in moderation, mind you ,apples, oranges, cantaloupe, watermelon, peaches, etc but what do I want to do? I want to fill up on the carbs! The very thing that my body does not need to touch!

Does anyone get what I am saying? We have to learn what our bodies need nutritionally. Are we lacking in minerals, vitamins and nutrients? Are we iron deficient? Are we magnesium deficient? We need to know these things and eat accordingly for a more healthy lifestyle, that will be helpful to us and pleasing to God. When He designs us to eat all of the good things and we decide to eat only sugary fake things and starchy bready things and never touching the good things that He has provided, that is like a slap in His face. He designed and created our bodies and He has given us information and wisdom to know how to take care of them.

 I am researching and seeking out health professionals to help me to be the best me that I can be and I will pass on that info to you with gladness. It is time to let the carb tree alone and eat from the fruit and vegetable and protein tree! Can I get an Amen? I know this might sound like a weird analogy but this is exactly how God gave it to me, and now I give it to you. We can do this together. We can learn to train our bodies to eat what is best for it and to shun what is not good for it. We can train our bodies to eat fat and burn fat.

 When we eat carbs our bodies blow up, retain water, cause us to have pain, swelling, cause us to be over emotional and all sorts of things come on us. But when we eat good proteins, fruits and vegetables and drink good clean water and other healthy things our bodies will burn the food that we eat for energy and it will store the nutrients in our cells to make us stronger and healthier day by day. I am so grateful that God has given me helpers and partners to come along with me on this journey. I have lain down any shame or self-consciousness about this weight loss journey to help me and to help you. I love you all and I say let's do this!!! We can do all things through Christ who gives us the strength!

Priscilla Hinds
Writer/Blogger
AWord42Day
MyStoryForHisGlory

AWord42Day: Deep Cries Unto Deep

AWord42Day: Deep Cries Unto Deep: God is speaking to me lately about the deeper things in Him. Those places that you really can't access except through pain and denia...

Deep Cries Unto Deep

God is speaking to me lately about the deeper things in Him. Those places that you really can't access except through pain and denial of flesh. That place where all you care about is hearing from God. you don't care about food or family or friends, sometimes you don't even care about gathering with other people. You just know that you have to get a hold of God. You have to somehow touch Him in a way that before was impossible for you to access. In Psalm 42 the Psalmist David describes this very thing, he says as the deer pants for the water, Oh God my soul cries out to you! He was desperate for God! This wasn't some weak double-minded prayer. This was a serious, soul baring, gut wrenching prayer that reached the throne of God. He even said my tears are my bread and drink. In other words, fasting and prayer and crying out to God was his portion in that hour.

He describes his experience with God during this rough and depressing time as being taken over by God's waterspout, a waterspout is a furious and wild and power thing that appears in water and is like a hurricane or a tornado and if you get in it's way, you would get hurt for sure. But, David says that God's waterspout is calling unto the deep places in him, in other words God is calling him deeper and it might be a treacherous place, it might be a dangerous place, you might have to lose some things, you might have to lose some people, but come deeper says the Lord, come follow me and I will make you fishers of me. Come follow me into the deep places, into places that no one has ever seen before.

Oh God!!! take me deeper! Take me to a place where you whisper secrets to me. Where you show me things that I need to know. Not just for myself alone but for my brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. For the edification of your church. I listen to a song by Jonathan Helser entitled, Endless Ocean and bottomless sea and in the song he describes how God is endless, no matter how much you see or know of Him, He is like endless ocean and bottomless sea and every time I hear that song, it touches me in such a profound way. Because that is so true! None of us could ever exhaust His goodness. We could never ever see and know and hear all of Him. We could never ever even begin to touch the surface of who He is. His greatness and His majesty.

You know sometimes God has to hurt us to help us. Sometimes when we are going into the deeper things of God we come to realize that we can't be surface people if we are trying to know more of Him. We can't be complacent and lazy about the things of God and expect Him to reveal His secrets to us. The word tells us that the Apostle Paul had more revelation from God than any other person but guess what? he also had a thorn in the flesh, that never left him, even though he prayed to God for it to be removed and God's reply was, my grace is sufficient for thee. Would to God that we would toughen up in the spirit and realize that God allows things to come into our lives to reveal the deeper things that cannot be revealed any other way than through suffering. Ooh wee that isn't a popular subject for sure but it is the truth and the word of God bears that out.

Sometimes we just need to be reminded of who He is! My God! He is the great Creator! The Author and the finisher of our faith! He is The friend that sticks closer than a brother and has promised to never leave us or forsake us. He is calling out to us, calling out and saying come deeper! Come deeper! There are things that I want to show you says the Lord. Things that others have not seen or heard. When the prophet Isaiah saw the Lord, He said I saw the Lord and He was high and lifted up and His train filled temple! Glory to God! He fell as a dead man, the scripture says! Oh glory to God! He calls us into the deeper things in Him today.

It is time to stop playing church and get real. Get real with Him. Seek Him and His greatness. Lay aside fleshly desires and say Lord I come to you, asking for more of you and less of me. I seek your face today. I seek your goodness today and your mercy and your grace. But, today God I really want to go deeper and understand more of you. It is time, it is time. Stepping out on that water, takes faith, and determination to stay focused on Him, no matter what comes or goes. Laying aside any weight that is trying to hold us back. Reaching for that high calling, which is only found in Christ Jesus.


Here is the link to the Helser song I mentioned.
 https://youtu.be/qlBugZ2xEIs

Priscilla Hinds
Writer/Blogger
AWord42Day
You can email us @ AWord42day2017@gmail.com

Improving Blog-Site

Wow! I have been super busy the last couple of days trying, with very little knowledge, to update and expand my blog-site to be more social media friendly. I tell ya right now, this has been an undertaking. But, I can do all thing through Christ who gives me the strength.

I am trying to make sure you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest
Here is the link for Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/aword42day/



Here is the link for Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Writing4Hisglory/?hc_ref=PAGES_TIMELINE&fref=nf

Still working on the Twitter account. For now it is just my regular Twitter account where I share the writings from this Blog site.

Despise not small beginnings says the Lord.

Priscilla Hinds
Blogger/Writer
AWord42Day2017@gmail.com