The Key To The Best Version of You

We’re often told growing up to be our best, yet when we reach teenage years the challenge becomes more and more intense. Over the years it had plagued my mind to find out why and I believe that over my journey of praying, asking God for answers he has revealed this answer to me.

As children, we often have great faith, and believe anything anyone tells us due to lack of experiences. If your mother told you “Don’t touch that stove“ you just didn’t touch the stove. You had faith and believed that the stove was hot, didn’t want to get burned, and you stayed away from it. Granted, some of you might have been a little more risky than others, but you soon learned that what your mother said was true. In the classroom, if the teacher told you that a particular color was “yellow” you didn’t seek to find reasoning behind why it was yellow or even doubt the fact that it was yellow..you just went along with what she said. You had faith that what the teacher told you was true. Faith in God works the same exact way. When I was younger, I knew that God was real. The love that I had in my heart for him showed in everything I did. Even as a little 6 year old, I often times stood up in church and told my “testimony“ of how God has saved me and kept me in certain situations that I had been in. As the years passed, I still had faith in God, loved him with all my might, but as experiences got worse, and pain became something that I could actually relate to, I began to question some things. The fact that I was questioning some things was a sign that deep down, maybe I didn’t fully believe that God was capable of everything he said. I’ll give you a perfect example, when my parents divorced, I prayed, and prayed that God would somehow bring them back together, and he never did. My thoughts turned from “God is going to bring my family back together” to “If I prayed about this, maybe God is ignoring me.” It was then that I was introduced to the mindset of ”God’s plans are not our plans. God knows what’s best.”

The reality is that often times, we look at God as a human being like us and he is not like us. His ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts. What the enemy wants is for us to believe that God doesn’t hear us and that he doesn’t care just because something did not go the way we expected. Think about this though...if we went to God and asked for everything and got it when we wanted it, wouldn’t it be God serving us instead of us being his servants? That in itself should humble you and change your viewpoint on a lot of things going on in your life. We can’t let the enemy win. Where there is feelings of doubt, lack, insecurity, worthlessness, confusion, etc...THE DEVIL IS RIGHT THERE...WAITING. He wants to attack our minds because if he can have us doubting God, he knows that there is a possibility of us losing complete faith in

him, and it starts off as day by day decreases in faith. Don’t be so accessible to the devil. Fight!

We have to return back to our minds as children. Why do you think the church rejoices when a child’s gets baptized and professes their love for God and acceptance of him in their life? This is because as children, that’s where we become anchored, and as long as we are anchored in God, as far as we may stray, we will return back home. Adult faith should resemble child faith, without the elements of doubt, without seeking reasoning. We must believe wholeheartedly that God’s word is true, because it is!!! You can’t believe what God says is true if you don’t know what God says at all. That is why studying your bible and familiarizing yourself with scripture is essential! Every feeling that you face, there is a scripture to counteract that. Stand on that scripture and curse every negative thought to the root! Don’t live in defeat, disappointment, confusion, and doubt! You’re letting the enemy win! We are here to worship God, not the devil.

It’s not easy to train your mind, but it is the key. Thats where your peace lies. You have to break free from everything that you think you know and as your faith in your own understanding decreases, God’s power and your faith in him increases. Call out and tell God “Lord give me you!” He is standing there with open arms waiting for you to rest in his promises, for they are yes and amen. God has promised to never leave, nor forsake us. God‘s love is unconditional and the only thing that you can do to have God reject you, is to reject him. But even in that, he is forgiving, and is still waiting on us to profess our love, adoration, respect, and care for him.

I challenge you to be your best self and rewire your thinking. The devil runs in fear when we step boldly and stand on God’s word. He wants us to remain in the dark because he knows that if we do find the light, we become too powerful for him to even grab a hold of. Tell the devil not today, Satan! Read your Bible, learn what God wants you to know, trust in him and him only! Honor him in all things, and he will grant you the desires of your heart.

Below are a few of God’s Promises:

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

“But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.” 1 Peter 5:10

“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:4

“And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you normal forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.” Deuteronomy 31:8.