Hey Crowned Beauties,
This week is midterm week for us here at CWL, and let me tell you it has felt longer than most, especially with the anticipation of relaxing at the beach next week. Since last weekend, as I prepared for my tests, I have been stressed, anxious, and completely closed off from friends/family/God. That’s something I struggle with, my ability to instantaneously lose all sight of the finish line, my faith, and calm demeanor while my thoughts quickly tailspin. This week I have had trouble breathing, sleeping, eating, all because my mind has been focused on my “troubled waters” ahead as opposed to my surrounding blessings. It wasn’t until Tuesday morning that the swarm of negative emotions controlling my thoughts was calmed, when our beauty specialist Melanie sent me her devotion for the day about following Jesus. In the devotion it compared following Jesus to following behind a friend while they lead you to your unknown destination. The analogy really impacted me that day because I hadn’t been following God, I was trying to rush in front of Him; I wasn’t allowing myself to follow Him, I was ignoring God all together and just focusing on myself, my problems, and my performance on my tests. At the end of the devotion she send me Luke 9:23, which reads:
“And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
What a powerfully convicting thing to hear when you’ve only been focusing on yourself the past week. How humbling to be reminded that we are flawed beings and cannot do anything without God, yet He can do everything without us. And how beautiful is it than that the incomprehensible nature of God says it’s never too late to deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow Him. We all make mistakes; we as sinners will all go through times where it’s harder than others to keep our faith, but we can always go back to Jesus. At the end of the day we pick up that cross, we give our hearts to Jesus, and we are humbled because, no matter what we do, we are unconditionally loved by Jesus. We are graciously forgiven by the King-of-Kings. We are forever being protected by the Prince of Peace.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:37-39
If you are going through anything similar, and are bearing many burdens and stresses from life, just remember that God is there for you. If you have any prayer requests, please submit them to our Prayer Request Section and our CrownedCrew will be praying for them! We want to connect with you guys.
We love you guys ,
– Margaret
