Kelley's SHUT YO MOUTH Challenge!!

Isn't it just like God to smack you upside your head with truth from the word that you NEVER even knew was there!?!?I spent last week fasting and praying about some different things going on right now in my life. One of the "words" I thought I was getting from the Lord was that I really need to learn to keep my mouth shut. Ouch! Don't you just love it when you are praying with all your heart for someone else and then God shows you how YOU need to change?! So, last week I started trying to put this into practice and I ended up having the best week I have had this entire year!

Last year, I did a 30 day "Worry-free" challenge with a couple of my friends. So today I started thinking if I could do a "Shut My Mouth" challenge or not. Well, as I started thinking about how difficult it would be I really sensed the Holy Spirit telling me that for the challenge, if it is not something that absolutely builds up, encourages, edifies and uplifts the person I am speaking to then it just doesn't need to be said.

You know how it is when you start something...you always say you will start the next day or on Monday, right? So, I decided I will start tomorrow! But seriously, all throughout the day today I started not only thinking about what I say but also what I am "thinking" about saying. Whoa!! I think some not so nice things!! I really felt SO convicted! I started to know without a doubt that this was in fact what God was calling me to do.

As a final confirmation, when I came home and was looking on Facebook, a friend of mine posted as his status the following scripture.

Proverbs 17:28:

Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue.

SO...that was all I needed to go ahead and start the challenge this very day! Will you join me? I KNOW without a doubt that God is going to do a work in me throughout the next 30 days as I do this challenge. But I wonder how much it will effect OTHERS in my life and how much it will change my relationships. I have a feeling that at first, I won't be saying much!! But I expect BIG things from my GOD! I expect that HE will give me the words to edify each person I come into contact with and it will bless them tremendously and myself as well. I think I am going to make this a challenge to my children as well. I can't wait to see how it goes and what God does. ARE YOU UP FOR THE CHALLENGE???? ARE YOU READY TO SHUT YO MOUTH????

Pondering about FAITH

I have been pondering some things this week. I am mostly interested in getting your feedback and hearing what everyone else thinks about this topic. The topic is FAITH. I think there are two schools of thought or I guess you could believe both.

1. In order for your faith to work you must believe and put that faith into action.

2. Someone else can stand in the gap for you and their faith can work in your circumstance.

I myself tend to believe both scenarios are possible. In my experience it seems like the things I have struggled to believe for much of my life for example let's say "finances", that is where God wants me to step out and put my faith in action. But then on some things that come up that just seem totally impossible but someone else sees clearly that things are going to be okay, they can stand in the gap for you, pray and believe and put "their" faith into action on your behalf.

For instance, when I was diagnosed, several women came up to me and said they just had a strong sense in their spirit that this was all going to be okay. That it might be a difficult road but in the end I would be cancer free. I trust the discernment of these women so it was so easy for me to resonate with what they were saying.

So, what about when everything looks impossible? And maybe no one is standing in the gap for you or maybe you just do not fully trust everything is going to be okay because you yourself discern it? I think these questions trip believers up. Especially if you have had a particularly difficult life. Because I think if you have had terrible things happen to you it is so hard not to expect the worst from most situations. If you have had a fairly easy life, then it would be much easier to believe the best in every situation.

However, on the flip side of this, if you have had a difficult life and the worst has happened to you then I am confident that there has also been many times God has come through for you. So we have to do what David did and that is to encourage OURSELVES in the Lord remembering all he has done for us.

But is that enough? What if that isn't working? Then what do you do? What if you are a solid Christian and you love the Lord with ALL of your heart but your faith in a certain situation in wavering? The real question I am pondering is this.....If you do find yourself wavering, does that mean that no matter what you do it will not work out favorably? Simply because you don't believe??

I am really ready for some good comments here so please let me know your thoughts!! If you can't figure out how to comment on my blog, you can e-mail me your thoughts kelley@feelthetatas.com or leave them on FB.