Weighted blankets are great because they stimulate serotonin through deep pressure and help people sleep better. However, some people experience side effects from using them and they only provide temporary relief. Weighted blankets are hot, heavy, and can aggravate pain and symptoms of anxiety.

Fear, worry, disease, behaviors, addiction and lack are the weights we experience as we live life. Here is where we turn to the weight of the blanket to bring us relief, but the blanket doesn’t lessen our problems and instead, adds to our heaviness and keeps us trapped and immobile.

To be in God’s glory or “kavod” is to be under His weighty presence. His weighted blanket is freedom. It is to experience the very essence of the Lord. It’s so powerful that it moves you spiritually and physically. You feel his touch from the inside out and as it reaches your physical body you are overcome. When you feel His presence you are aware of every cell and simultaneously feel like you are out of your body. You’re light and heavy at once; free and caught up in Him. You’re at peace and yet, undone; in the unknown, but secure and certain of your fate. His weighty presence is ultimate peace and healing.

His weight cancels out the weight of the world. The world uses weighted blankets for temporary relief, but the Lord uses His presence for everlasting freedom. Exchange the weights of life and temporary solutions of mankind for the unending and wholly satisfying weight of God.

When you live under God’s glory you don’t have to lie down to get relief, you lay your problems down. Go to a place where you don’t live under the weight of your problems, you rise above them and they live under your faith and His power and authority.

I was observing someone who wanted to take pictures to commemorate a special day. She took a multitude of pictures with her cell phone of the same pose and after reviewing them, she took them again. There were lots of retakes! I totally get it as someone who dislikes taking pictures and often comes out looking terrible. A thought struck me as I observed what was going on before me. Isn’t this a reflection of how we are living life? This idea that we can just recreate a moment and make it look just as we want it to, instead of seeing it for what it truly is. As people, we sometimes forget that there are no re-takes or do-overs for the important things in life. We can’t take a moment and live it again until we get it to look just as we want. Oftentimes, what’s done is done and I believe that the ugly moments in our life can’t be deleted or ignored because they are necessary learning tools. These are the moments where we can reflect long and hard on our mistakes and moreover, these moments are part of our story. It’s what we were, how we looked and what we did in those moments. They’re good reminders of what we should change about ourselves. The reality is that our actions have enduring consequence and either you step up and change the course of things, or you don’t.

God is full of grace and understands that we stumble and make mistakes, but God doesn’t want us to stay in the same place repeating the same mistakes over and over again. You can’t keep doing the same thing over and over and expect to get a different outcome. He calls us to recognize the error of our ways, own the mistakes and consequences, and move on. Growing with God is a process, not a stagnant situation. In the important things of life, there are no do-overs.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come; the old has gone, the new is here!-2 Corinthians 5:17

In this world, we often hear about tragic events. It can be a natural disaster, a stranded and lost person, or victims who have been mortally wounded. The world handles it by sending a search party to rescue the distressed. It’s a team of experts that have all the resources to rescue the person from the danger and save their life. They use evacuation harnesses, telescopic cameras, seismic listening devices and GPS to name a few of their tools. They know how to navigate rocky terrain and have the skills to save lives. They provide urgent care to bind up wounds and brokenness. The lost and stranded are not expected to do anything. The stranded sit patiently and hold on until the moment they are found and rescued. I thank God for all of these things and for the people He has equipped to save lives. This is one of God’s many blessings for humanity.

In the spiritual side of our lives, God does search and rescue very differently. He does nothing as we would expect. In our tragedy, we initiate the search and rescue mission and we become the search party. We search for God in the midst of our calamity and we cry out. That is the amazing moment when God sends the rescue. The rescue party is both us and Him working together. You see, He longs to partner with us in our life and even in our tragedy. It’s a reminder that we are not alone in the valley. It is through answered prayers that He shows us His love, His presence in our lives, and His will. He is not detached from your struggle; He does not ignore pain. That was the experience of Peter when he attempted to walk on water. He began to sink like a rock and in that moment he sent out his distress call, “Lord, save me!” And then Jesus provided the rescue. It wasn’t that Jesus was unaware that Peter was in trouble or that He didn’t care. He waited for the call so that He could partner with him to show Peter that his prayer would receive an answer. The rescue comes as Jesus reaches out and catches Peter at just the right moment.

This is the mystery of God. Everyone encounters distressful and tragic situations during the course of life.Those moments when we are powerless, frightened and without answers to the problems we’re facing. It’s when our strength and our will can’t stand against the magnitude of the problem; the monster that is danger, death, betrayal, disease and lack. In that moment, we realize we are small and helpless.God is so good and so wise that He has given His children the blessing of the search and rescue.We have all we need to face the adversities of life. In God’s view the weakest are the strongest. So it is with our tragedies. We have the weapon of prayer, which gives us the power to be the expert with access to knowledge, strategies and resources. That weapon is the guiding light that illuminates the way we should go. It’s the telescopic camera and listening device which allows us to hear from Him and see what He wants to reveal to our hearts. Prayer is the GPS that leads us right into the throne room of God. He blankets us with His love and supernatural peace, binds our wounds with His touch, and quenches our thirst with living water.

“Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee.”-Psalm 50:15

A life well lived is always about moving forward and never looking back. Don’t go back to your mistakes and failures. Use them as stepping stones to get to the next level. Take those things that were meant to bring you down and cast you out and put them under your feet where they belong. Go higher and farther every day. You will stumble, but know that He will catch you. Never doubt He loves you and it is through His definition of you that you define yourself and what your pupose and destiny are. Oh, the journey is scary because it’s unpredictable; sometimes full of joy and peace, other times full of torment and disappointment. Take it all and ask yourself..

Will my faith meet His expectations? Will I walk by faith and not by sight into the valley and let Him take me by the hand? Will I really trust Him with my life and those things and people that mean the most. Do I believe that He always works things in my favor even when pain and defeat are the necessary ingredients so that my life has the flavor and richness of fruitfulness and triumph? Will I accept everything that I walk through and withstand pain and disappointment? Will the unknown paralyze my walk with Him or will I step forward into my destiny, into what He is going to teach me about life and who He is?

“Let your eyes look directly forward and your gaze be straight before you.”-Proverbs 4:25

This next post was written by a person with exceptional values and conviction. He’s a fighter by nature with extreme integrity and a great heart. I read this and asked permission to post it here. It’s a great explanation of the value of discipline told through his experience as a runner.

What is discipline? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines discipline as an “orderly or prescribed conduct or pattern of behavior.” Every runner has heard this word multiple times. It’s one of those things in life that requires hard work and dedication. It is a seed that reaps reward.

In my junior year of high school, I was not the best runner. In fact, at the beginning of the Cross Country season I was ranked as the fifth runner of the boys team based on a time trial that we had run. It was not my coach’s fault that I was in that position, nor was it due to my teammates being better than me. I was the reason that I was ranked fifth. The summer prior to the season, I did not run the amount of miles that I was supposed to. Instead of running an average of thirty miles a week, I would only run between ten to fifteen miles. I would come up with excuses in my head as to why I didn’t run, whether that would be because I was working or I had to deal with a family matter. The truth was that I did not discipline myself to take action and do what needed to be done.

My attitude changed as the course of the season progressed. I was surrounded by teammates who were driven to be the best runners that they could possibly be. With everyone having that attitude, it inspired me to have the desire to improve as well. With that desire, I did what was required of me. If I was told to run seven miles in a day, I would do it. If I needed to have a certain time in a workout, I would push myself to stay within the time limit. On the days when I did not want to run, I would tell myself that even if I didn’t feel like it, I had to push myself because it would only make me a better runner. Fast forward to the end of the season. I became the third best runner in the boys team and later in the spring during the Track and Field season, I was one of the runners to qualify for state championships.

Discipline is a Biblical virtue. It may come in the form of praying, fasting, or living the lifestyle that Christ lived. Christ himself had to display discipline when he was here on the Earth. Before he began his ministry, he fasted in the desert for forty days. He ate no food in all of that time and only communicated with God, the Father. This needed to be done so Jesus could receive the guidance of the Father. During this time of fasting, the devil used different schemes to tempt Jesus. Although Jesus was fully God, he was also fully human. He could have given in to all of the temptation that was in front of him, but instead he resisted the devil’s schemes. Accepting the devil’s temptation was the path of least resistance. If Christ took that path, then there would be no hope for humanity.  

Another example of Christ’s discipline was the crucifixion. The night before the crucifixion, Jesus prayed to his Father since he knew that the time was near. According to Luke 22:42, Jesus says this during his prayer, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” Jesus did not want to go through with the sacrifice, but he knew it had to be done for humanity to receive salvation.

Most of the time, it is not easy to have a disciplined lifestyle. You have to force yourself to do things you don’t want to do. You may have to sacrifice a night of spending time with your friends. However, if you have a goal in life, you should do whatever you can to achieve it. If you want that personal record in the next Cross Country meet, that means you are going to have to dedicate your time to do difficult workouts, hydrate, eat healthy foods, attend practice, and run the required amount of miles. Once the goal is achieved, that is when you realize that all of that dedication and sacrifice was worth it. Former Navy SEAL, Jocko Willink, often says in his podcast, “Discipline equals freedom.” Freedom for the runner comes in the form of a new personal record, ranking on the team, and going beyond what you thought were your physical limitations. Running the race and preserving, is achieved through discipline. Pray incessantly, train tirelessly, discipline the mind and body, and go win that new goal!     

Hope is the one thing I hold onto when I start to feel fear creeping into my being. We have to remind ourselves of who God is and why we don’t despair in the face of tragedy, trauma and confusion. It’s so normal to feel like we have no answer and no out to our problems and grief. In those moments remember all of the things that God has done for you and what He has shown you. More importantly, remember who He is and what His love sounds like, looks like and feels like. It is in these moments of complete despair that I pray for hope. Romans 5:3-4 is a verse that I love. “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope and hope does not disappoint.” So the trial is the suffering and the reminders that we give ourselves is the endurance part of this. Suffering produces endurance because without it there would be no need for the reminders; the endurance. Eventually, that builds our character; our faith muscle. The product of all this is hope. Hope does not disappoint because it gives us the strength to rise again, to take just one more step forward. It’s the promise that we will find an answer and an end to the trial. Hope is the bridge between the pain and the promise. We will be blessed because the word says that “blessed is the man whose hope is in the Lord.” Psalm 146:5. God after all is hope. He is who we run to when we need freedom from problems, disease, confusion and He is the one who can give comfort and consolation when things don’t turn out as we anticipate and we have to face the great disappointments and loss of life.

So I pray for hope and the ability to feel it and live it out. I pray that you never lose hope and that you can bless others by sharing hope. Hope is a sweet perfume for the soul. It’s like incense arising into the atmosphere. I pray it settles on everything like dew on the morning grass. Let it saturate you from your head to your toes so that you carry it on your person and so that people around you can inhale the sweet aroma of it filling their lungs and running through their body to the innermost parts until the soul can soak in it. Let hope drown out fear and despair. Soak in the hope of God and His promises.

God was into recycling long before it was en vogue. He has always taken the worn, destroyed and unusable life and restored and renewed it. He is certainly the One that makes all things new. The world chooses to recycle material things to preserve the Earth. So much energy into saving something that is intended to be temporary and transitory. God chooses to recycle lives to preserve the soul. So much energy into saving something that is enduring and eternal.

He can take untapped potential in a person and that person can have purpose and become fruitful. He always sees in us what we can become and not what we are. There is value in everyone no matter what they have done or lived through. Nothing is wasted; nothing is useless with Him. Take a chance and recyle your pain, disappointment and mistakes and see how God will repurpose these things for your blessing and His glory. You will be amazed with what He can do with them, how you view life and who you become.

Isaiah 61:3 says it all…”He gives beauty for ashes, joy for mourning and praise for despair.”

Isaiah 61:7 says “Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours.”

Psalm 103:5- ” Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits-who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

Our very existence depends upon each breath that is inhaled and exhaled. Each breath tells the story of what is going on in our lives at any given time. Our breathing pattern is a direct reflection of how we are feeling as sometimes we breathe calmly and placidly. At times life takes our breath away, like when we laugh, feel exhilarated and joyfully surprised. Sometimes, the shock, pain or suspense of life robs us of our ability to breathe and we feel as though we are suffocating under the weight of it all.

Do you realize that we’re all hooked up to a ventilator that gives us the breath of life? It’s design is unmatched and it’s power source is supernatural. It’s programmed by love and creativity. It will never malfunction or be considered obsolete. My ventilator is not of this world. He has a name; He is the great Yahweh. The word of God says that He breathed into Adam’s nostrils and gave him life and in Ezekiel it says that He will cause breath to enter and then you shall live.

I can count on my ventilator for ever and always. He will allow me to inhale peace and exhale relief when life becomes unbearable. He will allow me to inhale in wonder and amazement and exhale a gasp full of laughter and joy. And it will be like this always and forever. I don’t have to worry because He will never change and can always be counted on. I believe this even unto my last breath-I will inhale my last here and exhale in eternity.

Confidence is the M and M of life; a magnet and a mirror. It is the most attractive thing about a person. Confidence is like a magnet that draws people, opportunity and success to you. It’s like a mirror that reflects assurance, capability and certainty. When you possess confidence it inspires trust in you because consistency and security translate into safety and steadfastness. In today’s world more than ever, it is a treasure to find people who are content with themselves, understand who they are and what they believe in. To have confidence it to visualize what you want to do. More than saying, “I want to…”, see yourself being or doing that which your heart desires and you dream about. Confidence looks past a person’s physical attributes or limitations. To have confidence is not to ignore the realities of who you are, but it binds acceptance with resolve. Love yourself completely for who you are and that self love gives you the resolve to achieve all that God intended you to do in this life. It allows a person to truly see themselves as God sees them. Remember, each person was intentionally made and designed by God and all things can be done through Him because He gives the strength. To know that you are made by God and loved by God and never alone no matter what happens around you is the anchor of your confidence.