Walk with God and Lay Aside Every Weight

Christina Stafford Mims

Description

Being in tune and intentional with God's purpose creates new environments, breaks generational curses, and produces the woman God knows you can be. Stretching in the wilderness produces the wholeness, balance, and purpose God intended for you to have.
During seasons of waiting, this devotional book was birth, while parting ways with the old and embracing the new. The devotional displays how God purged, protected, and guided what was within through fasting, praying, and surrendering to Him fully. It offers daily practical and biblical devotions for women that include teaching and encouragement for our everyday lives. Throughout this devotional book, you can renew your mind and deepen your relationship with Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. By knowing that God wants us to be in tune with His word and intentional with His purpose.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Spiritual Growth
• Christian Living
• Personal Growth
• Philosophie et théologie
• Purpose
• Vision
• Balance

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 11 décembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664281707
• Langue: English

Extrait

WALK WITH GOD AND LAY ASIDE EVERY WEIGHT
 
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us”
Hebrews 12:1 KJV
 
 
 
CHRISTINA STAFFORD MIMS
 
 

 
Copyright © 2022 Christina Stafford Mims.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
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Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version. Public domain.
Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations marked AMPC are taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6642-8171-4 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-8172-1 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-8170-7 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022919720
 
WestBow Press rev. date: 12/07/2022
Contents
Introduction
1Forgive and Forget
2Choose Your Thoughts and Words
3Dealing With Uninvited Change
4Glance At Your Hearts Management
5Divine Power
6Keep Quiet
7Discernment or Suspicious
8Release Prideful Ways
9Sit Down, Be Humble
10My Edges Were Defining My Identity
11Stop Trying to Figure Everything Out
12Called You by Name
13God’s Way to Wholeness
14Willing and Obedient
15His Requirements
16Every day is God’s Day
17Keep Silent and Remain Calm
18Clean It Out and Let God Work
19Trust In Him
20We Need Him In Everything
21Hiding In You
22Check Your Ways
23God Heals Emotional Wounds
24Outgrow The Need for Validation
25But … “Battling-Unworthy-Thoughts”
26Trusting God
27Release the Excuses
28Don’t Be Rebellious!
29Hush and Delight in God, Not Pride!
30God Is Among You
31Give Resentment and Bitterness No Opportunity
32Fight Depression!
33What the Lord Hates, the Holy Spirit Grieves
Introduction
Trust God by saying yes, and be willing to walk with Him. At a point in my life, I asked for wholeness; I was tired of feeling unhappy and unsettled in my soul that I did not know who I was. I was lost internally and externally. When going through menopause, my weight and hormones would fluctuate, causing my desire to counsel others to leave. I no longer wanted the life I thought I wanted, so I surrendered to God. I remember feeling disgusted with myself, my body, my hair, my money, my job, and most of all, I did not like myself. I had to get honest with myself and get real with God. I would sometimes wake up, say a quick prayer, and start my day.
I would get phone calls in the morning to discuss yesterday’s problems and get to work feeling drained before I started. I would go to work with an “I got to survive mentality” and do only enough to keep my job. I would tell myself that I did an “excellent job,” knowing I did not give my all-God-given ability to do so. I knew this was not what God called me to do every day; to have this feeling every day, it was time for a change. God had to show me that everything I did was not bringing Him glory.
At an early age, I knew Jesus died for me in my heart. I learned to go to church on Sundays, and Wednesday was for bible study, but I did not know how to have a personal relationship with Jesus. On the contrary, I thought I did because I learned how to pray and I knew to go to church. I had seen my family do it that way all my life. I decided to attend a different church service outside of what I knew, which changed my life. I started understanding the bible, how to invite God into my life, and how to turn things over quickly. Stepping out on faith, I started my wholeness journey with God.
Wholeness is the state of forming a complete and harmonious whole; unity; or the state of being unbroken or undamaged; good physical or mental health (New Oxford American Dictionary). Wholeness requires tools to battle the mind. To be whole first, you must go through the pruning stages God has for you. Pruning helps you to be the person God is calling you to be. Trust me. You will be so thankful to rid yourself of anything that does not bring Him the glory. Some of the junk that was in me, I did not even know they were in me. What I thought was in order by what the natural eye could see and what I was thinking was what was in my heart the whole time.
In the bible, God gives us instructions on how to live a wholesome life through His Son, Jesus. In my journey, God has shown me and continues to guide me through His Word to rise above things and move on. God wanted me to learn how to walk and talk like Him. Philippians 4:13 (KJV), “I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me,” is a great scripture that tells us we can do all things we put our minds to do through the strength of Christ Jesus. We need all that strength!
I started to change when God called me by laying down every weight. I started learning to walk with God and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide me. How do you walk with the Lord? Psalm 15:2 (AMPC) says, “He who walks and lives uprightly and blamelessly, who works rightness and justice and speaks and thinks the truth in his heart.” Do not walk looking for validation, not looking for how to solve your problems, but walk blamelessly. Deuteronomy 18:13 (AMPC) states, “You shall be blameless [and true] to the Lord your God.” Let us be faithful to the Lord by walking the blameless way He calls us. Now we understand why walking blamelessly on the journey of wholeness is vital. Without it, we cannot succeed in serving God’s purpose.
Notes
1 FORGIVE AND FORGET

Bearing graciously with one another and willingly forgiving each other if one has a cause for complaint against another; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so should you forgive.
—Colossians 3:13 (AMPC)

A customer contacted me and asked if he could place an order. I eagerly took the order and went to pick it up from my office. I sent the customer a text message saying, “I have your order.” No response. A couple of hours passed, so I called. No answer. The next day there was no response, so I sent out a friendly customer text regarding the order; I am still waiting for a response. I immediately started having a battle in my mind realizing I was offended. Why would he order and then turn around and not pick up his order or even pay for it?
Then I heard God say, “Grace and mercy shall follow you all the days.” I immediately repented and asked God for forgiveness for my thoughts. Colossians 3:2 (AMPC) tells us to “Set your mind and keep focused habitually on the things above [the heavenly things], not on things that are on the earth [which have only temporal value].” I chose peace by setting my mind on forgiveness and surrendering it to God. “But now rid yourselves [completely] of all these things: anger, rage, malice, slander, and obscene (abusive, filthy, vulgar) language from your mouth.” Colossians 3:8 (AMPC).
Do not focus on the negative or what you see in front of you. This focus forms strongholds, and the offense takes root in the heart. Trust that God will be your vindicator. For God knows our hearts and our thoughts before we think them. He knows how we will respond to situations and how to handle a problem for us. Allow Him to take you beyond, as Paul wrote in Colossians 3:14 (AMPC): “Beyond all these things, put on and wrap yourselves in [unselfish] love, which is bound together in agreement when each one seeks the best for others.” To forgive and forget is to say, “God, I move on and seek the best for others in the same grace and mercy you have blessed me with.”
Prayer____________________
God, thank You for showing me how to navigate life with Your words. Thank You for being there when I did not have anywhere to go. Help me to stay faithful to the spiritual gifts You have promised me. I ask for forgiveness if I have allowed any offense to take root in my thoughts and heart. Cleanse me, God, and purify my mind. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Notes
2 CHOOSE YOUR THOUGHTS AND WORDS

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
—Second Corinthians 10:5 (KJV)

We are winning the battles of the mind and breaking strongholds in our lives. One of Satan’s devices we must recognize to resist and overcome him is his evil work in the human mind. Second Corinthians 10:4