Discernment

  
Define: 

Discernment can be defined as the quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure; an act of perceiving something; a power to see what is not evident to the average mind.” 

 

Affirm: 

Hebrews 5:14 “But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” 

 

Recall: 

A girlfriend and I got into a conversation about portraying a Christ-like attitude. In our conversation, we had varying positions being Christ-like. My belief about Christ is that he prayed for himself and others; but Christ was always an action. Christ helped, healed, gave, rebuked, calmed, delivered, refined, improved, influenced, and taught just to name a few.  

 

My position in our conversation was that when Christ could help someone in need, he would do just that. I made the statement that as Christians we should try to be more Christ-like. I gave the example that often we as Christians will often tell others we will pray for them- when in fact, we have the power to help them (offer an act of service). My friend made a statement, well I always ask GOD for discernment before I help others. She then said even if I could help someone, that doesn’t mean I will.  

 

Her statements confused me. Honestly, I was quiet uncomfortable with her statement because a few months prior- I had asked her for help (and I really needed the help). She didn’t understand that I was in dire need, although I explained to her that I was. I thought to myself, maybe she prayed for discernment. I was confused by the true meaning of discernment so of course I sought GOD. Here’s what I learned.

 

1. Discernment is a gift. Just like other gifts given by GOD, some of us were graced with the gift of discernment. Those with the gift of discernment can recognize authenticity and are good judges of the character of others and can easily differentiate good vs evil.

 

2. Discernment is GOD led. The Holy Spirit will lead us or give us direction in a specific matter if we seek him. In order for us to receive his direction, we must spend time with the spirit and the spirit will guide us.  

 

3. Discernment is not the same as judgment. We often judge people, places, and positions based on what we see, what we have experienced, what we have been told, and what we perceive. Discernment frees us from past and helps us compassionately step into the present.  

 

After researching more about discernment, I learned that I didn’t clearly understand the power of discernment. I am so glad I did the research because I learned so much. I learned that human nature often causes us to judge someone else’s circumstances based on what we think their experiences are, we even sometimes judge others based on our own experiences. I learned that many of us are gifted with discernment from GOD and is a gift that if not used to give GOD the glory- our gifts might be diluted. Lastly I learned that we must rely on the Holy Spirit to help us when we need discernment over a situation or circumstance (discernment is not like a wild card- you actually must spend time seeking GOD’s wisdom).  

Maybe you too have judged someone and confused judging them as discernment. Maybe you too want to develop more of a Christ-like (action) attitude towards others. Maybe you want to gain more wisdom and develop a more discerning spirit.  

 

If this is you, I challenge you to ask GOD to show you how to better understand discernment- so that you can apply it to all areas of your life. Discernment is truth. Discernment is real. Discernment is present. Discernment is good. Discernment is seeing how God sees. May GOD help us to see things how he sees them. Spending time with him will help us learn how to distinguish good from evil. Let’s continue to seek GOD together in the area of discernment. I DARE You.

 
Exercise:

Dear God,

Thank you for helping me better understand discernment. Please help me to be free from judging others and help me to rest in your love when making decisions. I am so grateful your spirit will help me compassionately make Christ-like decisions.  
         ~Lereca Monik 

 

#lerecamonik #restoredministries #itstimeforachange #anewyou #mydearestsister #Idareyou #LiveRestored 

Prodigal

  

Where the shame throws shadows on you

you’ve settled for less

Don’t buy the lie “it’s as good as it gets”

Wherever you are, whatever you did…….

It’s a page in your book, but it isn’t the end

Your Father will meet you with arms open wide 

Come running like a prodigal

  ~XXOO Michelle Bollom 

Prodigal-Sidewalk Prophets

It’s been a log time since you felt peace

In the valley you made where you’re not meant to be

Where the shame throws shadows on you

But don’t you forget
That you’re headed to more

But you’ve settled for less

Don’t buy the lie “it’s as good as it gets”

The same feet that left you lost and alone

Are the very same feet that can bring you back home
Wherever you are, whatever you did

It’s a page in your book, but it isn’t the end

Your Father will meet you with arms open wide

This is where your heart belongs

Come running like a prodigal
There will be nights, when you hear whispers

Of the life you once knew, don’t let it linger

Cause there’s a grace that falls upon you

Don’t you forget

In the places your weak

He is very strong

Don’t ever believe “you don’t deserve love” 

The same God that protects you when you’re lost and alone

Is the very same God that is calling you home
Wherever you are, whatever you did

It’s a page in your book, but it isn’t the end
Your Father will meet you with arms open wide

This is where your heart belongs

Come running like a prodigal
Oh…

Let your life be made new

Oh…

As you come into view

Your Father’s not waiting, no he’s running too

He’s running straight to you
Wherever you are, whatever you did

It’s a page in your book, but it isn’t the end
Your Father will meet you with arms open wide

This is where your heart belongs

Come running like a prodigal 

A Quiet Growth

  
Today’s title could not have summed up what I am feeling any better. This Fasting Experience has been amazing! Today is day 14 and we are 14 for 14 on the downloads. 

I have to say the last two days have had me day dreaming of food. The kind that is not beneficial and the kind definitely not on my fast. I wrestled and wrestled it seemed with temptations on all sides!

Last night I did choose to deviate for one small item and I confessed it to my daughter before I ever did it so it would not be something done in secret. She cheerfully gave me grace to make that decision. I also took it to God and did not feel like He was beating me up or even upset. I felt completely at peace.  

That one bite did nothing, it didn’t take the edge off of feeling deprived, it gave no sudden rush to my brain. Nothing, it was actually quite boring. But the biggest thing I noticed was my heart motive….it was very different. I believe because I confessed prior to my daughter, that was a move of being held accountable. I took it to God and He did not seem to indicate anything wrong, and afterwards there was no quilt or beating myself up over it either. It was a very controlled moment and then I moved on.

So you could say that I am learning a quiet growth in character and grace through this experience. It is not about perfection; it’s about progress. Keep keeping on friends! 

                                 
                  XXOO Michelle Bollom 

 

Being punished isn’t enjoyable while it is happening – it hurts! But afterwards we can see the result, a quiet growth in grace and character.~ Hebrews 12:11 TLB 

It may hurt when God removes our defects, but this in itself is a display of love. God’s correction is always right and for our best good, that we may share His holiness. Our recovery is a time of correction; it is a time of facing problems and character flaws and changing incorrect beliefs. There may be seasons when we do have to pay for our past. God will use this time to redirect our life toward something better. His correction isn’t arbitrary or abusive, but it is still painful. Knowing that God’s discipline demonstrates His love for us can be comforting in the midst of the pain. It helps to remember that His love will allow only that which is for our ultimate good.~ Life Recovery Bible 

Never Forget The Price

  
How can men be wise? The only way to begin is by reverence for God. For growth in wisdom comes from obeying His laws. Praise His name forever. ~ Psalm 111:10 TLB 

We must never forget the ransom price God paid that we might have access to Him. God is willing to make sacrifices so we, unworthy as we are, can be restored to a godly and joyful life. This should encourage us as we seek recovery. God wants it to happen even more than we do! That’s why we can safely entrust our life into His hands. God has proven His desire for our recovery by giving His own son to suffer on our behalf. ~Life Recovery Bible 

Lord, help me never to take the sacrifice You made on my behalf lightly. Thank You that You care so much about me and my recovery. Thank You that I can safely entrust my life into Your hands. I can’t do it without You. Help me to rely on You and not on my own false assumed strengths. Help me to keep releasing control to You when I try to take it back. Help me to gain and grow in wisdom through my obedience to You and Your word. 
                 ~XXOO Michelle Bollom 

Lady Wisdom And Madame Insight

  

One of my favorite all time movies is My Fair Lady.  I love the whole restoration transformation story line. A poor dirty and discarded woman, rescued from the gutters, restored and transformed by a professor into a proper well spoken beautiful fair lady.  

My favorite part of the movie that I can so relate to is the part at the horse races where the Lady is all dressed up elegantly and she screams obscenities at the horse Dover to run faster. The crowd gasps at how this proper woman just showed her flaws, Or arse, you might say. 

Today’s verse and the thoughts of my fair lady had me thinking of the many times I have appeared polished and put together on the outside, but the inside was sometimes still a wrecked foul mouthed pauper. 

I am so thankful I am not where I used to be.

I am still a work in progress.  

You’re blessed when you meet Lady Wisdom,when you make friends with Madame Insight. She’s worth far more than money in the bank;her friendship is better than a big salary. Her value exceeds all the trappings of wealth;nothing you could wish for holds a candle to her. With one hand she gives long life,with the other she confers recognition. Her manner is beautiful,her life wonderfully complete. She’s the very Tree of Life to those who embrace her. Hold her tight—and be blessed! ~ Proverbs 3:13 MSG 

Another translation says:

Happy blessed, considered fortunate, to be admired is the man who finds skillful and godly wisdom,And the man who gains understanding and insight learning from God’s word and life’s experiences. ~Proverbs 3:13 AMP 

The Lady and Madame we should meet and learn from and strive to be like are those of wisdom and knowledge. 
 We can’t learn skillful and godly wisdom from professor Higgins or the world or a course in proper etiquette or phonics. No we learn and gain that only from God’s Word and our life experiences.  

So time to move our bloomin …. (Hmm Hmm) self, from the gutters of our flawed past and into our God ordained purpose and future. No need to play dress up or fake it, 

God’s restoration completely transforms us inside and out. 

                       ~XXOO Michelle Bollom 

A Hard Life With Many Tears

  
By this time Eli was very old. He kept getting reports on how his sons were ripping off the people and sleeping with the women who helped out at the sanctuary. Eli took them to task: “What’s going on here? Why are you doing these things? I hear story after story of your corrupt and evil carrying on. Oh, my sons, this is not right! These are terrible reports I’m getting, stories spreading right and left among God’s people! If you sin against another person, there’s help—God’s help. But if you sin against God, who is around to help?”

But they were far gone in disobedience and refused to listen to a thing their father said. So God, who was fed up with them, decreed their death. But the boy Samuel was very much alive, growing up, blessed by God and popular with the people.~ 1 Samuel 2:22-26 MSG 

Today’s download came a little differently.  
My waking time verse was 1 Samuel 22:23; Stay with me; don’t be afraid. The man who wants to kill you is trying to kill me too. You will be safe with me.  

But I wrote it down as 1 Samuel 2:23.

I had actually wrote the verse down wrong- …or did I? 

When unpacking I found the verse above in the Message translation. The subtitle was “A Hard Life With Many Tears”.  
I could relate to those words.  My life was hard and filled with many tears before God.  Sometimes it can still be very much hard and full of tears but thankfully now I have a Helper and Hope.  
So my verse for today for my 13 of 13 Fasting Experience Downloads, strangely came about by my error but I believe God loves to even use our mistakes for good! 

Here are the notes on this passage:  
Eli exercised “tough-love as he confronted his sons about their blatant sin. He surely hoped they would make significant changes in their lives. Unfortunately, they didn’t listen to their father. The young men refused to set boundaries on their behavior, and they displayed no desire to change. Their choice to go their own way brought dire consequences – ultimately, physical death. Eli, too, made a choice: he opted to ignore his sons continued disobedience. Thus the high priest failed in his responsibility to God and was eventually judged for it. Eli was told that his descendants would bring him tears of grief and would die in the prime of their life. What a bitter harvest we reap when we refuse to turn from temptation and embrace God’s power to change. ~Life Recovery Bible 

Lord, may we always speak the truth in love and give us ears to hear the truth, even when it’s tough. I desire to change Lord. Help me to set boundaries with my behaviors. Help me not to overlook or ignore disobedience, in myself or in my children that You have given me responsibility over. Lead me from temptation Lord, as I embrace You and Your power to change. Amen.  
                       ~XXOO Michelle Bollom 

Catching Tears And Carrying Things That Don’t Belong To Us

Beautiful words by Jennifer Watson

Jennifer Renee Watson

She was still small enough to carry, in first grade, and dealing with something her little mind couldn’t process, or even verbalize. Her stress took on a different shape, one that looked like tears, a tummy ache, and even tired legs.

My daughter’s young teacher lovingly scooped her up and carried her to the nurse. This teacher wasn’t a mother yet but she stood in the gap for me to do what most teachers do, they bend their back and met a need because of love, because this is what they’ve always wanted to do even though they were smart enough to be a doctor, or run a small country. They traded a big paycheck for little eyes that light up when they hear the smallest praise and the smell of “sweaty kid” which smells kind of like a dog after a hard hour of play and picking wildflowers in…

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Exhale

  
Just let go 

let His love wrap around you

And hold you close

Get lost in the surrender

Breathe it in until your heart breaks

Then exhale

Exhale

Love this weeks Song Sunday! 

 Enjoy! 

Don’t forget to just exhale.

                              ~XXOO Michelle Bollom

  
Exhale- Plumb 

It’s okay to not be okay

This is a safe place

This is a safe place

Don’t be afraid

Don’t be ashamed

There’s still hope here

There’s still hope here
No matter what you’ve done or who you are

Everyone is welcome His arms
Just let go let His love wrap around you

And hold you close

Get lost in the surrender

Breathe it in until your heart breaks

Then exhale

Exhale
Spirit come tear down the walls

That only You can

That only You can

Reconcile this heart to Yours

Right now God

Right now
Just let go let His love wrap around you

And hold you close

Get lost in the surrender

Breathe it in until your heart breaks

Then exhale

Exhale
Oh God We breathe in your grace

We breathe in your grace

And exhale

Oh God we do not exist for us

But to share Your grace and love

And exhale
Oh God We breathe in your grace

We breathe in your grace

And exhale

Oh God we do not exist for us

But to share Your grace and love

And exhale
Just let go let His love wrap around you

And hold you close

Get lost in the surrender

Breathe it in until your heart breaks

Then exhale

Exhale

Exhale

Exhale

Exhale

God Is Enough

  
Have you ever stopped and wondered if God had a bucket list? Would He have made a list that included watching His only son Jesus be tortured, crucified, dead and buried? I am sure if He did make a list it would include all of the wonderful things that He accomplished. Feeding 5000 with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish from a little boy (John 6:5-13), Parting the Red Sea (Exodus 14:18,31), making the blind able to see and the lame able to walk. All just in a day’s work for God!  

 

There are wonderful places to visit and things to do, and there is nothing wrong with that. But I have decided that a bucket list should actually be a short one for me. I may be able to go places and be blessed enough to do things I might desire to do in this life, but I want my main focus to always be Christ centered and all of the things on my bucket list be only things that would result in His glorification.  

 
Sabrina’s Bucket List:

​1: Live for God, solely for Him and have a relationship with Him that ​

​HE desires

​2: Share His name, His word and His works with others. After all this

​again is something He desires and asks of us

​3: Lead others to Him. This is what we are called to do as children of

​God and yet another of His desires

 
See, I truly want my bucket list to be the things that God desires of me. I want to always be one with a servant’s heart. A willing vessel and spirit that will do whatever it is He calls me to do at any moment. I want….His love to shine from me and for others to know without a doubt that when they see me, they see Jesus. I want…. to share His word with others so that they may come to know Him. I want…. to praise Him all of my days, both the good and the bad for after all any day given to us is from God.  
 

I believe if I am able to do all of these things, all of the places I may want to go, or things I may want to see will all just be blessings granted to me by God for being a good and faithful servant. Nothing in life is free and the price Jesus paid on the cross for our sins certainly is the biggest price of all. How hard should it be for us to attempt to repay such a debt? It shouldn’t be. We should all wish to live for Him just as He was willing to die for us. In my eyes, that is not asking too much at all. In fact, I feel I could NEVER do enough but God is enough!

 

Philippians 4:13

I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me

 
Why have I waited to really see this now? Because due to my own serious health issues and suffering losses all around me, it made me begin to wonder. God was writing my bucket list this entire time. I learned to trust Him and have faith that He was working all the while for my good. And I learned to be still. Trusting Him and having faith in His plan led me straight to Compassion That Compels. He brought me right into exactly what He wanted me to be doing. This ministry has become so close to my heart and a huge part of my life that I could never thank Him enough for the trials I endured. I am grateful for those valleys He led me out of, only to lead me straight to Kristianne and Compassion That Compels! He knew what He was doing all along. He only needed me to trust.

 

Psalm 46:10

Be still and know that I am God

 

 

I will never doubt Him again! And in return, my bucket list-my priorities have completely changed for the best! I challenge you to do two things. Sit down and write your bucket list and see where God ranks on that list! If He isn’t at the top, put Him there. And also at the end of the week, sit down and write your list of things you’ve done for God that week. It may not be a long list but it’s a start! Remember, every page starts blank. Every day with Jesus is a clean slate. It’s up to you to write it and to live it!

 

Isaiah 41:13

For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you

 

God Bless

Sabrina Mixson Nelson

   

Sabrina is a loving wife who is blessed beyond measure. A servant’s heart is woven into her being and her focus is giving to others and leading them to know God. She is married to her best friend, has an amazing mom, two great step-daughters and one precious granddaughter. Follow Sabrina on Facebook, twitter @sabrinamnelson or Instagram sabrina.mixson.nelson

 

A Day Of Reckoning

  
Day Of Reckoning n. the time when one is called to account for one’s actions, to pay one’s debts, or to fulfill one’s promises or obligations.

Today’s download brought a double dose of the Holy Ghost! 

12 for 12 of My Fasting Experience. God is proving faithful each and every day.  

My first verse seemed strange, until I unpacked the notes in the Life Recovery Bible.

And there was an incredible hailstorm from heaven; Hailstone’s weighing a hundred pounds fell from the sky onto the people below, and they cursed God because of the terrible hail. ~ Revelations 16:21 TLB 

As sure as the coming of dawn, the day of reckoning will arrive. Those in denial tend to live as though things will continue forever just the way they are. But there is always a day of reckoning. We cannot live forever under the control of sin or in bondage to powerful addictions. There will be a day when we have to face the truth about our life. We have the choice to submit our life to God and His good plan before the bottom drops out from under us. ~Life Recovery Bible  

Yes, I agree, it is a day of reckoning for me. Although it seems daunting and I am only 1/3 of the way through my fast. I know I have to be accountable and account for my actions and pay my debt. I did not get this way over night.  

Then my second verse seemed equally as strange-
So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet and peaceful because Queen Athaliah was dead. ~2 Chronicles 23:21 TLB

It felt sort of like the Wizard of Oz here, like rejoicing because the witch is dead??? Ding Dong! 
God you will need to unpack this one some more…. 

The results of conflict are not always negative. After the overthrow of Athaliah, the people rejoiced and there was peace in Jerusalem. We should use conflicts to pinpoint the problems in our life. Then we should take steps to root them out. Hiding from conflict or denying its existence will never lead to personal growth or to victory over our dependencies. ~ Life Recovery Bible 

Now this brought some clarity, and I understood better why this was my download.
I am oh so Happy Happy Happy- especially since no 100 pound hail had to fall on me first! 

Lord, forgive me for thinking that I could just keep going in my current state of destruction and sin without facing a day of reckoning. I must be held accountable for vandalizing my temple. I know that I must pay the debt for this. I am so glad that I don’t have to do it on my own or in my own strength.  Help me to see the conflicts I face as a positive. A blessing in disguise that forces me to take better care of Your home, my heart, and my body, Your temple. Help me during this time of personal growth and give me victory over my dependencies. In Jesus’ Name. Amen 
                 ~XXOO Michelle Bollom