3 Great Benefits of Fasting

At the end of last year, I had a lot of things going on in my life. My mind, heart, and life were completely cluttered. There was a lot of confusion in just about every area of my life and I didn't know if I should go left or right. I was simply a confused soul. Thankfully God placed it on my heart to go into the new year participating in a partial fast. My fast lasted for three weeks and only consisted of fruits, vegetables, and water. My time during this fast was dedicated to praise & worship, praying, and reading the word of God. The only exception to this schedule was when I had to go to work at my job. Obeying God's word to participate in this fast resulted in 3 great benefits in my life:

1. It helped me learn self control - Galatians 5:22-23 teaches us that to have self control is to have the fruit of the spirit. The word fruit has several different meanings according to Webster's Dictionary: *It's usually a sweet food, *It's part of a plant that has seeds in it to grow, or *It's the result or reward that comes from some action or activity. The common denominator in all three definitions is that the word fruit is linked to goodness. It is good to be able to control your flesh, your evil desires, and your temptation to sin. When you fast you learn to say no to eating foods that bring you great pleasure and  doing things that please your flesh. It doesn't matter how much a person flaunts that nice, savory, warm apple pie in front of your face, you have to say no due to the fact that it is not part of the food items that can be partaken of during the fast. It doesn't matter how many times your friend pressure you to join her for a full day of shopping, you have to say no because this does not fall in the category of praying, praise & worship, and reading the word of God. When you first learn to have self control in the small things, you can later learn to have self control in the large things. For example: First learning to abstain from certain foods can later teach you how to abstain from participating in fornication or adultery. Lack of self control can lead to sin.
2. It delivered me from bring spiritually blind and deaf - Everything in my life was so cluttered and confusing because my eyes were shut and my ears were closed. Jesus speaks of this in Matthew 13:15. He continues saying in Matthew 13:16 "but blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear." During fasting and praying God was able to help me look past what I saw in the natural, which were deceptions from Satan, to be able to see what was in the spirit realm. The things that God revealed to me in the spirit realm were true and would be released from heaven down to the natural realm in God's perfect timing. God also restored my ears so that it could function in the way he designed them to. He designed our ears to not only hear the things that are going on around us, but also to be able to hear his voice. Most people base their truth on whatever it is that they hear, but if they are only hearing Satan's lies, then his lies become their truth. It is important to be able to hear from God so that we can determine which words that are told to us are actually lies and which words are actually true. Romans 3:4 says "let God be true and every man a liar." How can you know God's word to be true if you cannot hear what it is that he's speaking to you? Fasting resulted in God speaking clearly to me the things that were hidden previously and providing clarity were there was confusion.
3. It taught me how to produce a lifestyle that continuously leads me closer to God - When you block out everyone and everything, you have an opportunity to sit before God in silence and commune with him. Setting aside this time for him allows you to form a special bond with him. After all, he's your father and you're his child. When children want to form a stronger bond with their earthly father, what do they do? They set aside time for just them and their father. No one else is invited and all interruptions are not welcomed. We have to learn to do the same thing for our heavenly father. When you fast for extended periods of times, the routines during your fast is integrated into a "new normal" for you. It becomes a newly adopted lifestyle that allows you to go further than just being closer to God, but it allows you to continuously grow closer to God. This journey that we embarked on to be closer to God is not limited to an extended period of time, instead it lasts for a lifetime.

Table for Two Please

    When you hear "table for two please," what do you visualize? Most people automatically visualize a table or booth that seats 2 people and at this request it becomes occupied by 2 people. In most occasions the dinner becomes special when the presence of both people come together to fellowship with one another. Fellowship cannot take place if one of the two people refuse to show up to dinner to occupy the seat that awaits him or her. The absence of one of the two people changes the dynamic of dining and it is not as special as it would be if both seats were occupied. I'm sure there are many restaurant owners that would affirm that there are many occasions when reservations are made for two people, but only one person show up. Just as it is in restaurant dining, the same as it is in faith/works dining. People either sit down in the chair of "I have faith in my heart," but leave the chair of "take a step of obedience in faith" unoccupied or vice versa. In actuality, both work together to help bring God's promise to past in our lives. James 2:17 says "faith without works is dead." In order to fellowship at dinner both seats have to be occupied. It is when both seats are occupied that you can go from feeling like the only fellow in the ship to fellow-shipping with one another. When Jesus instructed Peter to step out of the boat and walk towards him, it took more than just him being obedient to the words of Jesus to walk on water, but he also had to believe in his heart that he could do what appeared to be impossible. In Matthew 14:28-33, Peter didn't start sinking until he allowed doubt to form in his heart by focusing on his surrounding circumstances in the natural. For example: You can take a step of obedience to God by opening your own business, but if you don't believe in your heart that your business will prosper, just like Peter, your business will start sinking. Contrary, if you believe that you will have a prosperous business, but allow fear to hinder you from taking the first step to open that business, you will never see what you believe in your heart. Faith and works go hand in hand. So let's make a declaration today that we are going to ensure that both seats are occupied at the dining table so that we can indulge in a special dinner full of awesome fellowship.  

After 5 LONG years.........I'm Back

It's been a long 5 years and I'm finally back! So much has happened in my life that I don't even know where to start.........I suppose I can start by saying that God is absolutely amazing. Throughout these past 5 years I've experienced many ups and downs, but through it all he's kept me. He has even revealed to me that my purpose in life is directly correlated with writing. Writing is the gift that he's blessed me with and even though I may have gotten away from it for it awhile, he's led me right back to the passion of writing that lives within me. Excitement is an understatement in describing how I feel about what God is currently doing in my life and all the great things that he will do in my future. I honestly don't know exactly how to get from point A to B to C and so forth to get to exactly where God has destined me to be, BUT I believe God wants me to take the initiative to crank the ignition and leave the rest up to him. Metaphorically speaking, this is my way of cranking the ignition. If I start writing, I trust and believe that he will order my steps the remainder of the way. FYI: I will definitely be changing the direction of my blog. No longer will this blog be centered around giving my "real opinion" on what's going on in the entertainment world. My life has evolved so much in the past 5 years and I want the content of my blog to reflect this. As of this very moment, I'm not sure exactly which direction I want to take this blog, but I do know that I want it to inspire/encourage others. I may even change the title of my blog. Right now I hope that you will jump on board in supporting me in this new path that I believe God is taking me on. Thanks in advance for your continued support and may God continue to bless you all.

Computer Virus.......Ugh

If having a stomach virus this week ain't bad enough, as soon as I get rid of my stomach virus I have to deal with a computer virus. This is my first time ever experiencing a computer virus. It's insane that so many fake anti-virus programs exists. I was browsing one of those sites that contains jokes, pranks, etc. and instead of me having the last laugh, I became the laughing stock when this site installed a virus on my computer. What made it so bad was that I briefly browsed the site, left the site on my computer while I went to the restroom, and when I got back to the computer (only a matter of minutes) damage was already done. Mind you, I never experienced having to deal with a computer virus before, so I started thinking optimistically that Office Depot might sale some type of software program to remove the virus, but they informed me that they didn't. I would have to go to a computer repair company to get it removed. I started calling around and the majority of the places charged over $100, go figure. Luckily, I came across a place that only charged $40.00, but he said that this rate only applies if the computer isn't badly infected and he don't have to remove and reinstall all the computer programs. So I have my fingers crossed right now. I don't think it was badly infected because I closed down the computer before things got too bad. I'm not happy that I payed money for the Norton Anti-Virus software program and it didn't do its job of preventing this. I saw that it was blocking some of the attacks that were being made, but it did not block this one. Thank goodness for public places that have computers, such as colleges, libraries, etc. As I type, I am on a computer at one of the colleges I graduated from to give you all the 411. I dropped the computer off this morning, so hopefully I will be up and going again tomorrow. ***Lesson learned: Going on sites I know nothing about all to get a good laugh isn't even worth the money and hassel***.

Job Hunting

Hey all. I know it's been a little while since I have been on, I have been constantly job hunting and traveling back and forth out of town, so I been kinda busy. I'm gonna be home this week, but next week I will be leaving to go out of town again. Although I'm busy from constantly going, I have to say that I'm enjoyin it. Anything is better than staying in one place, confined in a little area and studying away. Anywho, back to the job hunt..........I graduated on May 01 and as of today, May 22, I still don't have a job and it sucks like crazy. I have been sending out so many resumes and things are still looking dull. I even went to a job fair in Orlando, FL and sad to say that it was an unsuccessful trip. I am trying so hard to remain encouraged, but it's kinda hard. My grandmother said that I should stop thinking about it so much and just let go and let God do his job. Once I let go then the perfect job opportunity will present itself. She's right, I just gotta do it. So everyone please keep me in your prayers and if you have any good job leads in Florida (preferably Orlando, FL), please send them my way. Just send me a message. I will keep you guys posted on everything and I will also be posting some new topics this week before I go out of town again. Love you all. Toodles :)

The Biggest Winners

"The Biggest Winner" is what they are in my eyes anywayz. I was so suprised to see such drastic transformations from the above contestants off of "The Biggest Looser" show. They look so good. It must feel so good to flaunt off their amazing bodies in front of the people who use to talk about them because of their weight. They must be speechless now.......................Moving right along to the title of the show. I don't think I could even bring myself to be on a show with such title. "The Biggest Looser," are you serious??? Regardless of how big or unattractive I was, I would not be content with anyone labeling me as such.

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Source: tv.yahoo.com

Finally........Going Our Separate Ways

After a year of having our ups and downs, me and my boyfriend have finally agreed to go our separate ways. To be honest though, it has been a long time coming, just like my graduation. We tried to make it work, but it's no point in trying to force something to work, when it is absolutely not working. For the longest it has felt like me and him were two different puzzle pieces, trying so hard to force ourselves to fit together. How can you force something to fit, if the two don't match together? Continuously forcing two things together is basically just a waste of time and unfortunate for both of us that's exactly what we did, waste each other time. He is a decent guy, but definitely not the one for me. In the end, I realized that we are just too incompatible. You can really tell a relationship is concluding when it's hard to remember one time the two of you had a conversation without arguing. The constant arguing does nothing, but bring on unwanted stress and stress is definitely something I can do without. I wish him much luck in the future. Now I can focus on myself and get this success wagon moving. Jumping into another relationship is the last thing I want to do, as a matter of fact, after going through all the chaos in this past relationship, I don't even have an urge to get back into another one. I will just take the time to learn from this past mistake so I don't repeat the same mistake in the future. Along with this breakup comes a new direction for my future. To all my fellow bloggers who are fortunate to possess a strong union with their significant other (i.e. Nikki Kisses, Mr. Nichols) please cherish every moment spent with him or her. There are so many people who are not fortunate to have such a special gift. I refer to it as a special gift, because although I believe that God created the perfect match for everybody on this earth, only a handful out of a large pool of people find that person. It is for this reason that I refer to it as a special gift. To the remainder of my fellow bloggers, my words of wisdom to all of you is don't give up on love. Although there are certain relationships that really makes you want to give up, don't do it because love is out there somewhere. I speak to myself as I say this to you, "Don't search for love, let love find you." Spend time getting to know God and yourself better, setting goals for yourself and accomplishing those goals, and renewing your mind, heart, and soul. Hugs and Kisses :)