Dreamin' big with Jesus

Hi blog friends!
I hope that everyone had a good weekend! I am writing this post on Sunday afternoon, and it seriously the most beautiful sunny day outside! I'm so thankful for the sunshine. This weekend I had the opportunity to go visit one of my close friends Maria at her college in a town nearby. It was a blessed time of fellowship and simply just encouraging one another with who we are in Christ! Here is a picture during our time together :)

One thing that Maria and I talked a lot about this weekend was our God-given dreams. I have always heard of the quote "If your dreams don't scare you, there not big enough," but I didn't actually understand it until this weekend. As Maria and I sat down in conversation, she began to share with me the beautiful new dream that God had recently put on her heart. It was in that moment as Maria shared her dream with me that I realized that I had my own God-given dream as well. However for some reason, I was almost scared to share my dream out loud. It was just SO BIG. But I knew that I wanted it. 
I also knew that my dream was from the Holy Spirit, because my heart leaped with joy at the thought of it actually happening. At the same time however, my dream scared the heck out of me. For a second I wasn't even sure it was attainable, but then as I sat there and prayed about it for a moment, I realized that my dream is attainable by the power of Christ! For God says in His word,
"With God, all things are possible." Matthew 19:26
And in case your wondering what my dream is....I'd be happy to share it with you. My dream is to make "Forever Convinced" into a national moment. I hope that one day my blog will reach millions,  and that I will eventually be able turn what I do on here into a full-tim job. I want to reach as many people as I can through my blog, so that way that anyone who doesn't know God who comes to my page could possibly come to know Him and understand that He loves them and wants a relationship with them. Would you join me in prayer for Forever Convinced? Would you pray that by the power of Christ hearts who do not have a relationship with God would be brought to this page? Would you also pray that God would give me the strength, motivation, and determination to turn this blog into something bigger than I could have ever imagined? Would you pray for God's hand of blessing on every part of my page?
Thank you so much.
Now it is YOUR turn. I would love for you to share your God given dream in a comment below, so that way I can be praying for you about your beautiful dream. I believe that with God, all things are possible, and most importantly. God wants us to DREAM BIG.

change your thoughts and change your life: think God thoughts

The way that we each think highly corresponds with the joy that we each desire to play out into our individual lives. Our thoughts are beyond important, and they definitely determine our happiness. Many of you may think that it is your behavior that determines how happy you are, but I would argue against that and say that it is your thoughts that control your joy. If you aren't constantly thinking thoughts that are uplifting, encouraging, and joyful, then your behavior will reflect what you are thinking. God has certainly called me to talk about this topic, because I believe that there are many people out there who suffer from negative thinking patterns. These negative thinking patterns lead to depression and all other kinds of horrible problems. I'm here to tell you today that God is POSITIVE, not negative. If your living for Him, your joy will be so oblivious and apparent that others will not be able to help but notice you. God wants His children to stand out as lights in this world. Remember that.

God has been teaching me a lot lately about my own thoughts, and why many of them still need to be renewed. Once I became a Christian a couple years ago, my mind was in a dark place. I was addicted to wrong thinking about myself, others, and life in general. At that point in my life it was just plain overwhelming as to how dark my mind had become. Once God began to pursue me, He switched on a light in my mind that has grown bigger and bigger ever since that day. I have made tremendous progress, and I can tell you with 100% confidence today that my mind is in SUCH a better place. But my friends, progress takes time. There are still some areas of my mind that are dark and need renewal, as much as I don't want to believe it. God has put me in the perfect position this summer to own up to this wrong way of thinking that is still lingering in my mind, and He wants the problem to be fixed ASAP. He is willing to work with me as long as I am willing to work with Him.

On Wednesday night before my parents came into town for the 4th of July, I found myself out of no-where becoming very upset. I didn't understand where it was coming from, and I wanted it to stop. After laying down on the couch for awhile, I decided to catch up on some summer reading. As I was searching through my stash of books to read, I came across a book by Joyce Meyer that I have been in the process of reading for awhile. Joyce Meyer is one of my favorite Christian authors, mainly because everything that she talks and writes about is so relatable and inspiring. The book that I am reading is called "Battle Field of The Mind." I completely forgot that I had this book on hand, and I was about to find out that God was using this book to speak directly to me.

This book talks about how the enemy uses our minds as one of his main tools to get inside of our heads. There are so many people out there stuck in a rut with depression and are clueless as to why they feel this way about themselves. Well, its likely that their thoughts are controlling their actions, thus resulting in them living a life that feels meaningless and without hope. I realized after reading some of Joyce Meyer's book that the reason I had become so upset Wednesday night was because the thoughts that I was thinking that night were all lies, they were not of God or from God. I was not thinking in the mind of Christ. Our thoughts must match up with Gods word, or else we will never be victorious. 

"Satan will aggressively fight against the renewal of your mind, but it is vital that you press on and continue to pray and study in this area until you gain measurable victory."

-Joyce Meyer, Battlefield of the Mind

The more I fight back, the more it seems that the enemy fights even harder. From this point on, I am committing to owning up to every single negative thought that enters my mind. I am committing to casting away that negative thought as soon as it enters my mind, and replacing it with a positive thought. I am aware that sometimes I may get discouraged, because sometimes I feel that I am not making progress as quickly as I would want to. However it really helps me to think back on the past and how far I have come with thinking positive, and it motivates me to fight against the enemy's lies in my mind even harder. If you are in a dark place with your mind, don't give up. Begin to change today. Admit to God that this is something you need help with and want to change for yourself, and He will help you. Renewing your mind takes time, but I promise you that there is no place where your mind can be that is too much for God to handle. God can turn the darkest of situations into the brightest of joys. Even when we are faithless, He is faithful.

"We take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ."
2 Corinthians 10:5

I love you guys!

Love always, Jess