The Authentic Faith + Living Blog. Joy is the lovestyle. Serenity is the agenda!

Friday 26 June 2015

Roar Faith!

So I guess you can thank my lovely boyfriend for the fact this blog still exists. At this point in my life uncertainty is my best friend  and I am so terrified of the future ( although also excited) and I basically feel like such a hypocrite given the amount of articles I've written on beating fear, that I basically just wanted to quit, delete my blog and run and hide! No seriously, when's the next boat/train/whatever in the opposite direction? I completely get how Jonah must have felt!



Great start eh?

It just goes to show that I am human too. I admit that as I write this, I am fighting the urge to click on that little delete blog tab I have open, I am tempted but I won't do it. This blog has never been about me, it has always been about helping others and honoring God through my writing and I can't do that if I delete the platform I've been blessed enough to use for my work. This is where my flesh gets crucified and I have to follow my heart and share what I believe God want's me to say today.

Just before I get into this, let me remind you this blog is a temple living blog, we talk about issues relating to soul body and spirit on this site. We've done roots now we are on the stems, which is the spiritual stuff and then finally we will get to the body bit and look at environment and taking care of your physical temple. That's the destination, but given my personality, I can't just get there, so right now we are on the stem, spiritual content. I do try to make a point of being respectful to people who may believe differently to me, but at the same time my life is designed to serve God and so I do talk about this where it feels right...today it feels right.

Anyway, moving on.

Back in 2012 I read Lisa Beveres book " Lioness Arising"  I mentioned this to a friend and they commented that they were pretty sure the Hebrew root name of Hayley had something to do with a lioness. 

I did my research and sure enough it was true, the hebrew root name of Hayley ( although it may also have other meanings) Athaleyah which means lioness of God. I was so excited about this that I decided to make Athaleyah my online handle, this extended to the website where I met my now boyfriend. 

He decided that Athaleyah was too long to remember so he deemed me Athy and has been calling me this ever since.  Every time he does, it serves as a tiny reminder of who I am in Christ, which really should be all that matters, but let's be honest it's not easy to not care what people think, especially in the beauty industry.

I used to think that it was okay to care what people think, justifying it as just how the world works and while we are certainly not of this world, we still have to live here, but I was wrong. You see until we can see ourselves as God sees us, our relationship both with God and ourselves will be a little off, and this will have a knock on effect on our relationships with people.  

As I write this, I am thinking about the ladies event I will be attending a little later. I am miles away from home and I really only know one person at this event, and to be honest I am a little ( no allot) nervous. For me attending this event is a massive step of faith. I suffer with anxiety, especially in social situations, but God has not given us a spirit of fear and that's all that anxiety really is and so I am going to feel the fear and do it anyway....with Jesus.

I shouldn't be surprised that yet again God is asking me to walk by faith, everything about being in London and with my boyfriend has been about faith. The whole thing started with 20 seconds of insane courage to get on a coach from my home in  Wales to London to meet someone I had never met in person( my now boyfriend) way back in 2012 ( I don't recommend this, but if you are going to do this, then please tell someone where you are going and make sure you have 100% peace that it is God's leading not just emotion, pray hard I did.) 

This was incredibly unlike me for two reasons. Firstly I am an incredibly cautious person and secondly, I had a good few reasons not to trust that everything would be fine, despite the insane amount of crazy peace that captured my heart and made even my fears think twice, because I have a history of being abused by men, and yet here I was catching a coach to London to meet a guy I didn't know, because I had 100% faith that God was in it.  

Since the every other puzzle piece shaped stepping stone has also been all about faith. The bible says that Jesus's sheep know his voice, but when He actually speaks it's a good idea for a sheep to listen to the shepherd because the shepherd has the sheep's best interest at heart. 

It is true there is a fine line between faith and stupidity, but nothing about faith is ever safe and yet it's the most safe and sane thing we can do to trust in God and walk by faith. The shepherd can see things we can't he's taller than us!
So that's about it for my story. Now let me share some of the lessons I've learned.

Faith Roars!

More often than not, faith requires doing something that is scary, uncertain and in same cases, seams down right crazy!

It's common to feel as-though you must have a screw loose upstairs to be actually doing this thing that you are sure you know that you know God is leading you to do, but having had more than a fair share of these moments myself ( and still being in one right now as I look for more stable work/accommodation in london) I can definitely say that God is always faithful. 

If he is truly in something and he asks you to step out, he will catch you. He will never ever fail you, his word is full of promises  and God is not a liar, so you can be sure His word is true.

When a lion/lioness roars you hear it, it's loud, proud and out there. There is nothing small about a lions rower and there's nothing shy or small about stepping out in faith. Its radical obedience in the rawest form.

I used the example of the meaning of my name to prove my next point. God knows I'm a little absent minded sometimes, so He made sure that I never get to forget why I'm on this earth. To serve him. Being a lioness of God means a life surrendered  to the king of not only the jungle, but the universe too!

God always equips us to get the job done.

He is our provider, he love us unconditionally and a part of that love is provision. Now don't get me wrong, it is a partnership we are supposed to do our bit, but God will always, always meet our needs. I like the way one speaker said it, (although I can't remember their name so if you know who said this please let me know so i can credit them)
Do the possible and God will do the impossible. - Unknown 

Thirdly if you don't know who you are in Christ then you're not going to operate fully in your faith.

You need to know your lion or lioness to Roar  like one. If you think you're a lame little worm, when really you're a lion you are not going to be comfortable in the dirt and you're not going to thrive there.

God want's us to thrive! So it is imperative that we find out who we are in Christ, and let our faith roar!

Now I know some of you reading this will be thinking something along the lines of
"but Hayley I really am a worm!" or"I don't know who I am in Christ!" or maybe even "that's for everyone but me"

Dear friend let me help you,

You are not a worm or a chicken or even a silly little sheep, you are a lion/lioness and you were born to roar, that passion inside of you, that big dream that you think is too big to even get started, that was given to you by God and he has a plan for your life. 

The reason that dream is too big for you is because you were never meant to achieve it alone. God may call individuals, but he uses  communities and teams to make things happen. No one person can be an expert in everything, we all need each other and that is exactly how God intended it.

Believe in yourself because God believes in you and I do too and guess what?

 We need you. 

See this whole knowing who we are in Christ stuff, really isn't all about us, it's about the hurting and lost world that we are born to serve and Jesus wants to save.  We may think that low self-esteem is really humility, but actually it's a lie of satan to think that it's okay to dislike or hate yourself because what is in your heart will spread. If you hate yourself, you will hate your life and if you hate your life but refuse to let that frown be turned upside down by Jesus, then you really are not going to be as effective in bringing positive change as you could have been.
Maybe today like me , you are being asked to take a huge step of faith, remember you are a lion/lioness and rower!

Maybe you need to use your faith to trust God has got a certain situation and it's time for you to be a sleeping lion.

Which ever it is for you right now, remember  God is faithful no matter what, if He promised it, you will see it, and nothing, absolutely nothing can separate you from His love.

Raw faith roars so roar dear friend just like the lion/lioness you are!

Catch you next time guys,

Love Hayley

xXx

I'm not on my home computer and finding adding the reference links a little difficult, so when the owner of this computer gets in from work I will find out how to do it and add them a little later. 

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