The biggest lie that people teach is that “you have to have it together before God helps you or that you have to help yourself before God will help you”. I’ve heard it many times growing up and I can say it is probably one of the most damaging lie of the enemy.

2 Corinthians 12:9-11 –

“But He said to me, ‘my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness‘. Therefore I boast all the MORE gladly about my weaknesses, so that CHRIST’S POWER may REST on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. FOR WHEN I AM WEAK, then I am STRONG.” 

I used to study the law of attraction or the Secret. I found some truth in it, but as I continued to “try this method” I found that it was self-defeating. There were times I tried to “think positive” all day, but there were thoughts that just weren’t from me. I knew they were clearly from the enemy, but I “tried really hard” to think positive.

In the end, all my trying wasn’t good enough. I’m imperfect. 

That’s when I realized that there is something better than the law of attraction, it’s called GRACE. 

So instead of trying to be strong, trying to be perfect, I remember I am perfect in Christ. I get to be super weak and I get to rely on God for that is when I allow HIS POWER to REST on me. When I stop trying, He starts working. When I rest, He works. Amen! 

How relieving it is to know I get to rest completely on God; God is not my crutch, God is my breath, His spirit breathes through me…He allows me to breathe each breath, He created me, without GOD’s spirit in me, I wouldn’t be alive. 

As you know, in the last few years I went from “trying” to be this successful career woman to giving it all up to follow Christ. There was a moment when things stopped working and as hard as I tried in every avenue of my entrepreneurship, everything had dried up. It’s as if God’s grace on my career completely stopped flowing.

I heard God say “sell everything and follow me”. It was a moment where I could have said no but all my efforts brought me nowhere. 

All my pretending to be strong was killing my heart.

All my pretending to having my sh*t together was placing an invisible wall in front of my heart and destroying any hopes for realness in my life.

I follow Him and it was hard.

I had people tell me that I should plan, I should figure it out, I should do this and that. 

Everyone had an opinion except my closest friends; they knew because they were connected to God and they were going through similar things in their life.

A split in the path…we all are offered a different route in life….we can choose to keep driving on the familiar path with everyone else, or we can choose to take the route that God has for us….and the thing is….NOT everyone will agree with it, people will mock you, make fun of you, guilt trip you, make you think it’s your fault that you are suffering.

You will read things like “you get what you think about” or “you get what you think you deserve”.

Well, no.

That’s a lie. Persecution is real, and it’s not what you deserve. Jesus got persecuted, but He did nothing wrong.

Then people told me, “you can’t minister to people when your life is not together”. After many times of saying “I am just following Jesus and where He leads me” I realize not everyone will understand why I didn’t have a sim card for 2 years, why I gave up my car, why I lived a life of simplicity.

They thought I was LACKING when in fact, I was RICH in Christ’s Power. 

They thought I didn’t have things, I didn’t have a stable job….therefore I was lacking, therefore I needed help.

They didn’t know that I was gaining and increasing in power; the more I heavily relied on God, the more I started to see my identity. I didn’t need a new laptop or a shiny car to know my worth. I was so shiny on the inside, I could feel peace and abundance radiate everywhere I went. 

I was no longer relying on the external things to prove my worth, I was becoming everything God had intended me to be since I was in my mother’s womb. 

I no longer needed to tell them I was a writer or an entrepreneur, or anything.

When people first get to know you, they often ask you “so what do you do?”

I reply “I’m a child of God” now.

Back then I would have changed my title several times to accommodate their interest. Now I have no interest in small talk. Christ’s power RESTS heavily on me. I am a walking and talking miracle worker. I can set captives free from oppression, depression, self-condemnation, sickness, guilt and shame.

There were many people who had an opinion, but none of them really understood.

They didn’t understand that “for when I am weak, then I am strong”.They didn’t understand that my tears were collected by God and that like the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and perfume, that passion was much more important than being esteemed in peoples’ eyes. 

I was pouring out my whole life to Jesus and in the storm and chaos, this was what it looked like- love, real love. It wasn’t safe, it was secure. But Jesus kept me safe and secure. He became my anchor, my everything. I started to walk on water, I was willing to go because His voice beckoned me.

Here is a story of someone who showed great love to Jesus: Luke 7:36-50

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, so Jesus went into the Pharisee’s house and sat at the table. ³⁷ A sinful woman in the town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house. So she brought an alabaster jar of perfume ³⁸ and stood behind Jesus at his feet, crying. She began to wash his feet with her tears, and she dried them with her hair, kissing them many times and rubbing them with the perfume. ³⁹ When the Pharisee who asked Jesus to come to his house saw this, he thought to himself, “If Jesus were a prophet, he would know that the woman touching him is a sinner!”

⁴⁰ Jesus said to the Pharisee, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”

Simon said, “Teacher, tell me.”

⁴¹ Jesus said, “Two people owed money to the same banker. One owed five hundred coins^[a] and the other owed fifty. ⁴² They had no money to pay what they owed, but the banker told both of them they did not have to pay him. Which person will love the banker more?”

⁴³ Simon, the Pharisee, answered, “I think it would be the one who owed him the most money.”

Jesus said to Simon, “You are right.” ⁴⁴ Then Jesus turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I came into your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. ⁴⁵ You gave me no kiss of greeting, but she has been kissing my feet since I came in. ⁴⁶ You did not put oil on my head, but she poured perfume on my feet. ⁴⁷ I tell you that her many sins are forgiven, so she showed great love. But the person who is forgiven only a little will love only a little.”

⁴⁸ Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

⁴⁹ The people sitting at the table began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

⁵⁰ Jesus said to the woman, “Because you believed, you are saved from your sins. Go in peace.”