Embrace the Journey

When I lost 50 lbs, I received a bracelet from a someone that is dear to me. I never realized the depthness of this bracelet until now. The bracelet says Embrace the Journey and what it means is what it means. Those words carry such a powerful meaning to me.

It means embrace the journey when life gets to rough, embrace me Hayley, embrace your Father, your heavenly Father who will provide for you everything that you need to go through this season of purging. It means embrace the pain of each hurt, the joy of each moment shared, the sorrow of deep regret, embrace the happiness, embrace it all. Embrace the Lord and his fullness. So what does that like to embrace the Lord? What I think it means is that I look at all of him, I will see all of me. I will see truth for what it is, and looking at truth can be a hard thing to swallow. But once you see the truth, Truth (the Lord) will set you free. And that is something that I want, to be free. But to be free, I have to look at the truth.

Lord,

Your word says that you are THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. I ask for you to come and bring Truth into me. Lord help me see the truth in my life. Help me look at my sin, help me look to you and to your truth. I want to hold your truth in my heart and in my life. I want to live according to your truth. Expose all the lies for what they are, and turn it into truth. I thank you Lord that you are everlasting and that you are eternal. Father I thank you for YOUR TRUTH!! In your mighty name I ask this, Amen!

I am not who I use to be

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17

I am by no means who I was when I first moved to Florida. I was sure I heard from the Lord, but not exactly sure what was in store or what the future looked like. Looking back now I can see where the Lord has guided me. It's been amazing and I have to give him all the glory. I continue to give him all the glory because it is Him who changes me. The Lord did show me there were changes going to be made and it was all a matter of him bringing them around. I have made physical changes such as relocating from North Carolina to Florida, my weight, eating habits. I have made spiritual changes and emotional changes. The Lord has massively been delivering me from my old ways and bringing his ways. I have been through much counseling in the past year and it's amazing to see how the Lord will make these changes in my life. It's not that I havn't had to do a lot, I have had to allow him to work in my life and for me to release my control over my life. I have had to do my part in listening to him, and not just listening but following through. That's probably been the biggest thing is "following through." When he sets out to do something through you, the Lord will complete his work!! I just keep in my mind that I am a work in progress. I have not yet arrived. The words that have kept me through this enduring season is Philippians 3:12-14 "but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus," and 1 Corinthians 13:11 "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. "