{"id":405,"date":"2013-01-26T23:13:25","date_gmt":"2013-01-26T23:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/divineimpacts.wordpress.com\/?p=405"},"modified":"2013-01-26T23:13:25","modified_gmt":"2013-01-26T23:13:25","slug":"standing-firm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/s456716475.onlinehome.us\/?p=405","title":{"rendered":"Standing Firm"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Stand<\/a>Do you ever find yourself conforming to those around you? Do you allow your actions, words, thoughts and decisions to be directed by what others might think? Do you \u00a0 get caught up in the concern of winning over the approval of others? I sure know I have; for a good portion of my life. The sad thing is regardless of what we may believe, most people are going to form an opinion of you and there is very little you can do to prevent it! The question is do you believe enough in yourself, your purpose and calling, to stand firm and not be diverted by other?<\/p>\n

I have spent the past year really doing some soul-searching, a personal inventory of my life and clarifying what I really believe in, what I stand for and what am I willing to die for? For one I want to make sure that I am constantly searching and following God’s will in my life. I want to trust totally in Him and rely not on my own emotions or understanding of things; hasn’t worked very well in the past! In the midst of this clarifying and defining of who I am, it seems that I find myself challenged more than ever; in specific by certain people in my life. It is as though evil works through them and tries to make me second guess myself and more so tries to make me feel bad about where I am going and what I believe in. This is done by simple ridicule, judging and plain rudeness!<\/p>\n

I had an incident with a co-worker yesterday that basically left me feeling judged, incorrectly to say the least, and it sent me for a tail spin, momentarily! I was swarmed with negative feelings of myself and began to allow uncontrollable amounts of things to flow through my mind, mostly conversations of how I would defend myself against it. Then a sense of peace came over me.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t matter what he thinks; he is wrong and is trying to steal from me the joy and purpose I am currently experiencing in my life. I also had an understanding of how Christ felt during His ministry. Jesus spent his entire life being ridiculed, condemned and chastised for living a life of example. No matter how many miracles He performed; no matter how many incredible life lessons He preached; no matter what He did there were those looking to take Him out; and they did! On a cross!<\/p>\n

But the most awesome thing is that regardless of all that, Christ stayed the course. He knew his purpose and He was able to Stand Firm knowing His Father was watching over Him. There is no doubt He had His feelings hurt; felt rejected and betrayed; and maybe even alone at times. But through all that He knew His purpose and He followed it to the end!<\/p>\n

That is what brought the peace to me! I know that God is watching over me and will be the strength, support and affirmation that I need. As long as I stay true to His will for me and I trust that He will provide, there is no need to worry about the naysayers. They will always be there; so there is no point in changing who I am and what I believe in to please them. Even if I did, there would be others standing in line to take their place! No, I will stand firm; I will follow my destiny and I will keep my head up and my eye on the prize!\u00a0Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. (Proverbs 3:5-6)<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>You can do it! What do you believe in? What will you die for? Stand Firm!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you ever find yourself conforming to those around you? Do you allow your actions, words, thoughts and decisions to be directed by what others might think? Do you \u00a0 get caught up in the concern of winning over the approval of others? I sure know I have; for a good portion of my life. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/s456716475.onlinehome.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/s456716475.onlinehome.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/s456716475.onlinehome.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/s456716475.onlinehome.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/s456716475.onlinehome.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/s456716475.onlinehome.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/s456716475.onlinehome.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/s456716475.onlinehome.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/s456716475.onlinehome.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}