The Secret Ingredient to YOUR Resilience

Isn't it true that the best story-lines are filled with regular 'ol citizens who turn into heroes by overcoming "never-saw-that-coming" plot twists, uncertainties, and evil villains? 

WELCOME to the first installment of weekly posts that are intended to rekindle HOPE and ignite FIRE within a woman's soul! 

Everyone has a story. So, where do we find you within your story today? Is this a harvest season of abundance - or a long, winter season of quiet waiting? Some of you are struggling with your purpose and direction. Some with health and financial challenges. Some of you have dared to take hold of a life long dream, only to hit a brick wall. Some are celebrating as the door of abundance has finally been unlocked! The truth is, there are seasons. There are times of lack and there are times of plenty. How do we navigate them and keep our sanity?  

If you pulled back the curtain to my life's show this year, you would have seen a roller coaster of emotions: fear, panic, joy, praise, denial, hope, trust and peace. This summer I was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting Multiple Sclerosis. Also this summer, after thirteen long years of waiting for God's choice of a husband for me, I was engaged to the love of my life! Talk about plot twist! WHEW! You see, life happens. It's how we cope with things that makes us resilient - or not. Resilience is how well we "bounce back" from tough circumstances. My sweet friend, do you want to be resilient? The secret ingredient is to first place all your hope and trust in Jesus Christ - this is the FOUNDATION of resilience. 

How can we pray? Do not pray by looking at the problem - pray looking at Jesus. When you pray towards your problem or challenge you are making it an idol. What we focus on enlarges - it expands. We want to enlarge and expand JESUS and all His might power! Set the problem to the side and set your face toward Jesus. From another perspective, according to James 1:2, we can also consider it "great joy" when we face various trails because these things are maturing us so that we lack nothing.

[This Week's Prayer]
Father God, I pray this week that I would come to experience the vast, incredible power of your majesty. I lay all my life's burdens and plot twists at your feet. I ask that you show me How mighty you are in a tangible, real way. I ask you to show up in my life as the King of the Universe - and the Lover of my soul. I pray for your supernatural resilience as I put my hope in you alone. When I think about the fact that the train of your robe fills the whole temple, I fall on my face to worship your majesty! (I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Isaiah 6:1) You are worthy to be praised because you are a good Father and it's in your nature to provide for me! I anticipate your miraculous ways in my life this week! Let my life be a beacon of light for other's to see that would glorify you! Amen.

Kelly Roberson
Certified Life Coach
Rekindler of Hope & Fire-starter within Women's Souls


Never Forget - His Covenant

It started out as a good day - a day without drama. We were living in the hill country of San Antonio in 2001. I had just dropped off Leigh at her safe, sheltered, Christian school environment and was headed to my first ever "professional faux finishing" class. I was so excited to be trained by a master artisan from Rome, that my mind was swirling with anticipation! However, like most families, we were hiding our on secrets and trying to stay afloat. I was listening to K-love cruising down highway 281 into the city from the Stone Oak area when suddenly the dj stopped the music and said, "We need to pray right now, it looks like a plane just hit one of the twin towers." By the time I arrived at the studio, he announced a second plane had hit.

I sat in my car paralyzed in fear. Like most married women, my first instinct was to call my husband, and then I called my parents reaching out for some sense of reality and assurance. It was surreal... I collected myself and made my way into the studio with the others. We were in shock, but decided to "carry on" in some kind of feeble attempt to cope with the current unknown.  And so we painted samples... I began to trowel Venetian plaster and pray. Layering and troweling with the radio in the distance set to low.

In just a short time later they would announce a third plane crash and things began to literally collapse - NYC was on fire. All airlines were grounded. I was called to come pick up my daughter. As a parent does, I kept calm and assured her of her safety - all the while wondering if we were "next." As I prayed and glued to the TV non stop throughout the evening, I was compelled to share hope with my new friends the next day. I scrambled together a teaching on the different covenant names of God - I had been clinging to these names in my quiet time. I was attending a study called "Prayer Portions" by Gloria Gunter - what most of my close friends have come to now know as my purple binder.  A study that I would eventually bring back to SC and share with others who needed the same hope I did as we were quickly moving towards divorce - a time that seemed to parallel current affairs of shock and betrayal. Even in the midst of my own pain, it was a privilege to share hope with my fellow artisans from different backgrounds and different parts of the country. We gathered around the table with paint on our hands and looked up to God that day. We came together as one. 

Incredibly grateful to all the first responders - saddened by the horrific loss of so many - our country changed forever that day. Who do you turn to in times of grief or anger? God will always be our first responder and we can count on him in these times. "Our covenant with God was established in the once- for-all-sacrifice of the lamb. The New Testament reveals his fulfillment of these in action." So, when your world is rocked upside down, never forget His covenant names with you. If you proclaim Jesus Christ as your God and your savior you are in a beautiful covenant relationship - and that is something never to forget! 

 El Nissi: God is our Banner of Victory
 El Rohi: He is our Shepherd
Jehovah Jireh: Our Priovider
Jehovah Shalom: Our Peace
Jehovah Rophe: Our Healer
Jehovah Tsidkenu: Our Righteosness
Jehovah Shammah: God Who is There
Jehovah M'Kaddesh: Our Sanctification 

...never forget...  

 

-Kelly Roberson

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