Another year of Life...

This past weekend was my 21st birthday and it definitely got me thinking a lot. I have been alive on this earth for 21 years! That is insane...time is going by so fast! As I looked back on my life, I realized how faithful God has been to me and how He has never left my side, through thick and thin. 

When I look back on the past years, I remember times where I struggled and did not understand why God was putting me through those things. But in every season of life, God was working, even when I didn't see a purpose for those struggles at the time. 

As I was sitting in church this Sunday, the pastor said something that hit me hard..."Your struggles today may become the testimony you tell tomorrow." Wow. If I could take on every struggle with that mindset, I believe that would save me from a lot of unnecessary stress and give me a peace, knowing that this whatever I am going through is only going to make me stronger and God is going to use it for His glory. 

My prayer for this 21st year of my life is that God would take me to newer heights in my relationship with Him. That I would be BOLD for Him and not be afraid to be SET APART. I don't want to blend in anymore, but rather stand out. My prayer is that I can point others to Christ and set an example of a young godly woman. 

Thank you Jesus for giving me LIFE! 

<3 Anna 

Take time to reflect

So this semester is coming to an end and as I sit here reflecting on this past year, a lot of things come to mind. First of all, I have had an incredibly blessed year and God has been ever so faithful. There were hard times, happy times, sad times, but overall I am thankful for everyone one of them. Do you ever just sit back and reflect on the past year and think about what you might have done differently or what you would do differently in the next year?
For me, I have learned a lot about priorities. For so long I struggled with balancing my time and I finally had to sit down and really figure out what in my life I was going to make a priority and what I was going to let go of. I was reading in a book the other day and the author was talking about time and how many of us are always complaining about not having enough time in the day. But the real issue is, what are our priorities? Wherever we are putting the majority of our time, reveals what we treasure most in life.
There are so many things in life that we can choose to fill our time with, but what we need to be asking ourself, does this really matter? Is this wise? Is this going to bring me and others closer to Christ? Check your priorities.
The biggest thing God has taught me this year is "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you Oh God, my Rock and my Redeemer." (Psalms 19:14) This has been my prayer each day that everything I say and do would be a reflection of Christ and that he would remove any negative words or thoughts from me. In the past I have fallen into negativity and have hurt others by being impatient and down right selfish. God has given me so much more patience and I have learned to stay calm and find joy in all things. He has given me a love for others and a desire to love on them and lift them up.
The last big thing this year is that God has healed me from a lot of insecurity. I have struggled with my body image for years and have battled Satan as he continually would feed me lies about my self worth and who I am as a woman. I can't say that I don't struggle anymore or that Satan has stopped trying to destroy me but I have been discovering my true beauty through Christ and have replaced those lies that have been fed to me, with God's truth. These are some verses that help remind me of the TRUTH:
"Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." (Proverbs 31:30)
"I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well." (Psalm 139:14)
"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day." (2 Corinthians 4:16)
"Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed." (Psalm 34:5)
"But let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious." (1 Peter 3:4)


I encourage you all to reflect back on your past year...Sometimes it helps to take a step back to see more clearer God working in your life and praise Him for all He has done and is doing in your life. 


Love you all. Go SHINE today. 


<3 Anna Grace 

A Call to Greater Expectations

"Our God is the God of limitless resources---the only limit comes from us. Our requests, our thoughts, and our prayers are too small, and our expectations are too low. God is trying to raise our vision to a higher level, call us to have greater expectations, and thereby bring us to greater appropriation. Shall we continue living in a way that mocks His will and denies His word?"

Have you ever stopped to think that what you are praying and asking of the Lord is too small? That maybe God is thinking, "don't you have more faith than that? Do you know how BIG I am?" His word is FILLED with PROMISES and He can really do anything, we just have to INCREASE our FAITH and ASK him.

I'll be the first to admit it, whenever something huge happens in my life and I feel lost and don't know what to do, I often forget to PRAY. I forget that God is right there and I am not alone. It is rather silly that we can ask God for ANYTHING but we DON'T.

There is no limit to what we may ask and expect of our almighty God. And there is no way for us to measure His blessing, for He is "able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us." (Eph. 3:20)

So I don't know about you, but I want to let the Lord WORK. I want to live in a way that I EXPECT that He is going to do BIG THINGS, because He is a BIG God. I think it's time that we start asking Him for more than just the LITTLE things. Because really? He is so much greater, so much stronger, and so much more AWESOME. Let's give Him the chance to BLOW US AWAY.

Don't be afraid to ask, expect, and then watch Him work.

Go SHINE today.

<3 Anna Grace

Wait on the Lord

"Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for I pray to no one but you. Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly."

-Psalm 5:2-3

Good morning everyone! I love those verses because they are my prayer in this season of my life right now. Since my last post, God has been doing an incredible work in my heart. He has laid so many things on my heart and the biggest one is that HE IS IN CONTROL. I think it is my personality to take control of things when I feel uncertain or just have no idea what to do. My first instinct is to, act. However, the Lord has been revealing to me that He simply wants me to hand over the control that I am trying to take, and give it back to Him. Whenever we try to take over control, God cannot accomplish the work He wants to do in us. This morning I came across some great truth in my devotional..."Perhaps you don't see any purpose yet, but then, He isn't finished making you. And besides, you are arguing with the process."

Wow. If I try to take control of a situation that God clearly wants me to trust him in, then basically I am arguing with God and questioning his work. As I was laying in bed the other night I had this heavy conviction come over me and I kept singing these words in my head...

"Oh, my God, He will not delay

My refuge and strength always

I will not fear, His promise is true

My God will come through always, always"

That is a song by Kristian Stanfill called "Always" And I suddenly realized that God promises that He is going to come through and He has everything under control. So why should I even try to take control? Do you know how exhausting that is? God wants us to give him control in every situation and every season in life, both good and bad.

I came across this other piece of truth this morning..."Sitting still, doing nothing except trusting in the Lord, causes a feeling of uncertainty and there is often a tremendous temptation to take the battle into our own hands." So in this season of my life I am called to wait and trust in the Lord. I must fight the temptation to take control, and trust that God is working and his ways are PERFECT.

Lets go SHINE today!

<3 Anna

I surrender all...

So it has been a while since my last post and my life is definitely a whirlwind right now. These past couple weeks have been full of emotions, questioning, wondering, and heartbreak. Have you ever had one of those times in your life where you have no idea how you got to this point? Have you ever found yourself questioning everything someone has ever told you and wondering how someone can say all the right things and you believe them and then in a blink of an eye they are walking away?

If you had talked to me a couple months ago I would have told you that this would never happen to me. Because honestly, I never thought this would happen. But what I am realizing is that I am not in control. I some ways I can make certain choices that may seem like I am in control, but overall I have no control over what happens.

That is where faith steps in. God is in control. When things happen in life so unexpectedly, it is so hard not to question God and not understand what he is doing. I'm right there, right now! It is TOUGH!

Last night was a breaking point for me. I realized that he wasn't coming back and I had to let go. I realized that no matter how much I want it, the control is not in my hands. God is in control. I realize that even though I cannot see it right now, God has a plan. He is at work and I need to SURRENDER.

As I layed in my bed last night, completely broken, I called up an amazing older godly woman who listened to everything and prayed with me. Sometimes you need to lean on someone and have them wake you up and proclaim TRUTH.

Through prayer I have surrendered it all. I knew I had to lay it down at the foot of the Cross. Because this is the truth I have discovered, "Even if God doesn't give you the desire of your heart right now, He is going to give you something greater that your heart and mind cannot even begin to comprehend right now."

So here I am right now...trusting the Lord. I am no longer trying to take control but rather resting in the faith that He knows what is best for me and He LOVES me and has something perfect for me.

Thank you Jesus for this truth. Give me the strength to keep trusting you and holding tightly to your promise. I trust you and I surrender all control to you. In the name of Christ Jesus I pray, Amen.

Toxic Thoughts

So this week I have been watching the series called "Toxic" by Pastor Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv. Check it out here.

The first sermon is called "Toxic Thoughts." Basically Craig talks about all the harmful and destructive thoughts that we let enter our mind. The things we think about and the negativity that we feed on can end up taking over our life. Satan wants to destroy us and one way he tries to do that is through our thoughts. He will tell us that we are not worth anything, that we are ugly, fat, worthless, a failure...etc. After a while, we start to believe these lies and our lives become infected by these toxic thoughts.

I find it a daily struggle as I am faced with these "toxic thoughts" and often feel attacked by Satan and his lies. As a woman I believe that Satan especially knows my weaknesses and attacks me in those areas. I have noticed that listening to those lies in my life have kept me from fully letting God transform me.

This message has opened my eyes to what is going on and how I need to take every negative thought captive and destroy it. The enemy is always going to be throwing lies at us, but it is our choice to believe it, or believe God's truth.

In Romans 12:2 it says,

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing, and perfect will."

God doesn't want us to think negatively, to worry, or think any less of ourselves than He thinks of us. But instead he wants us to renew our minds day after day with HIS word and HIS truth. "Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:7)

My prayer is that we all will become more aware of our thoughts and to start each day by connecting with the Lord. Let's start each day off with letting the Lord renew our mind and letting his truth sink into our hearts and minds. We need to start recognizing truth from lies and destroy any lie that comes at us, with God's truth.

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." (Psalm 139:14)

To Him be the Glory,

Anna <3

Lead me to the cross...

"The Cross is God's plan for freeing you from the guilt and punishment of your past sin. At the Cross we see both the depths of our depravity and the heights of God's amazing love for us. We witness both the terrifying intensity of God's wrath for sin and His unspeakable mercy and love for sinners." -Joshua Harris

While reading this morning this passage really stood out to me. It portrays clearly the reason for the Cross and its meaning. Harris talks about ways that man ineffectively tries to deal with past sin. One point he addressed was "living self-righteously." One way this can be seen is when someone sins and then goes in to shock saying "I cannot believe I just did that." Why is he so surprised? "It is because he self-righteously viewed himself as basically good instead of inherently wicked." His grief over his sin isn't because he disobeyed God, rather it is that he failed to live up to his inflated opinion of himself. Can you relate to that? This struck me pretty hard because many times I have sinned and really beat myself up over that sin for weeks, months, and even years after.

He also says that self righteousness is also seen when a person refuses to accept God's forgiveness. They say, "I just can't forgive myself. Maybe God can, but I can't." This is saying that "my standards are higher than God's standards." Instead of acknowledging that their sin turned them away from God and coming humbly to let Him wash it away, they try to become their own Savior and deal with it themselves.

"The cross undermines our self righteousness." If any one of us were righteous, there would be no reason for God to send us a Savior. I think that we all need to be reminded of daily is the meaning of the Cross. John Stott writes, "Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us (leading to faith and worship), we have to see it as something done by us (leading to repentance)...As we face the cross, then, we can say to ourselves both 'I did it; my sins sent Him there,' and 'He did it; His love took Him there.'"

Lord, i pray that I will be humble in bringing my sin to the Cross and instead of dealing with it myself, I will lay it all down and let your grace wash it away. I pray that I will not beat myself up over my sins and my past but rather accept your love and forgiveness and praise you each day for sending your Son and loving me so much to go to the Cross and bear it all. <3